Letter Re: Wandering Roofing Nails

Dear Hugh, Glad to see the roofers are done. The problem with those nasty critters–those old galvanized roofing nails popping up like mushrooms on the ground–is easily solved. If your surrounding land is fairly flat, try this: 30 In. Magnetic Sweeper with Wheels. If the land around your home is rough-n-tumble (like mine) just get one of these on the end of a rope and drag it over, under, and around the home. I like this one, since it does “double duty” in my pond as well: 250 lb. Pull Retrieving Magnet. (Note: prices seem to change rapidly for these …




The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of the Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods– a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper. Electronic Security An “accidental hero” noticed that the ransomware hack on Friday was making DNS calls to a nonsensical domain. When he registered the domain name, suddenly the ransomware was stopped cold in its tracks. Apparently, the author of the hack had a built in kill-switch, which checked for the existence of that domain. The researcher has stated that the original author is still unknown, and it would be trivial to rewrite the code …




Editors’ Quote of the Day:

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief …




Notes for Saturday – May 13, 2017

May 13th is the birthday of firearms engineer Theodor Koch (born 1905, died 1976). Koch, along with Edmund Heckler and Alex Seidel, salvaged tooling from the bombed-out Mauser factory at Oberndorf, and with it founded Heckler und Koch. o o o Ready Made Resources is offering a Baofeng BF-F8HP tri-power ham radio at no extra charge with the purchase of any PVS-14 3rd Gen+ autogated night vision. View animals at night, Search and rescue at night, Hike at night, allowing you to bug out or head home at night. Night vision makes the difference between living and dying. You can clearly …




Editors’ Prepping Progress

As preppers work to make progress to achieve prepping goals, we took some actions this week too. The SurvivalBlog editors made some plans earlier in the week and now reflect upon these. Below, the editors share what we each accomplished. Please write to us in the comments and tell us what you did this week to get your preps in place and to be ready. JWR: Here in the American Redoubt, trees grow literally like weeds and if you don’t stay on top of it, you soon have a fire hazard. The chainsaw was wielded effectively, and we continue to …




Journey To Self Prepping, The Long Hard Way, by B.H.

Our journey towards prepping began approximately five years ago when my husband handed me a book called Patriots. Needless to say, he had been collecting all kinds of of things prior to my reading the book. Husband a Firearms Instructor, Competitive Shooter, and Woodworker My husband participated in many shooting competitions over the years and was a primary firearms instructor while in the military. He developed his skills and won many competitions. Then, he began reloading even to the point of making his own lead bullets from old wheel weights. He also had a full woodworking shop in our basement. …




The First World War: A Turning Point in Global History

100th Anniversary 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of when the United States became directly involved in the First World War. The Great War. By then the war had already been raging for three years. (The events leading up to the outbreak of war are fascinating. For further reading I suggest historian Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August.) By 1917 the Western Front of the conflict had stalled into protracted trench warfare–war at its most gruesome. This war consisted of massed artillery, machineguns, elaborate trenches, gas attacks, massive barbed wire entanglements, sapping, flamethrowers, and primitive tanks. This war was a veritable …




The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of the Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods– a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper. Venezuela Crisis Baby deaths soar in Venezuela crisis – This is what always happens when Socialism rules a nation! It may take longer or shorter, but HISTORY tells the truth! America is becoming a socialist nation, though still a very wealthy one. It will just take longer unless we change course, which to MY mind does NOT appear to be happening. This is primarily because Americans are no longer educated in the proper function …




The Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the …




Notes for Friday – May 12, 2017

On May 12th, 1949, one of the first crises of the Cold War came to end when the Soviet Union lifted its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. A massive U.S.-British airlift had broken it. At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four sectors administered by the four major Allied powers: the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France. Berlin, the capital, was also divided into four parts, though it was located well within the USSR sector. The future of Germany was hotly contested among the allies. The United States, Britain, and France eventually united their sectors …




Prepping on a Budget- Part 3, by The Newbie

This article series is written to help people prep on a budget because an economic collapse is coming. Many people new to prepping struggle with where to begin. This article offer many ideas. We’ve covered a lot already, but there is more in this final part. Oil and Fats I haven’t done this yet, but I read you may can shortening. Oil has such a short shelf life before it goes rancid. If things really fall apart and you can’t eat without being totally self sufficient, you will use it all. I might try to use a food saver and …




Letter Re: Reliability of Stock Market Predictions?

HJL: I think prediction of a stock market crash are wrong.  The market is certainly inflated unreasonably and harmfully. They are right in that it is inflated unreasonably and harmfully. I believe the harm will manifest itself in the form of a general price level and not a crash. In other words, the DOW represents the new normal. Everything will rise to meet it and achieve equilibrium. It will be the inflation that the bankers want. The worst thing you can do is stay out. The second worst thing you could do if you are out is jump all the …




Economics & Investing for Preppers

Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the quirky “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor): Precious Metals: First of all, let’s look at some metals market analysis over at Gold-Eagle: Gold: Summer Doldrum Tactics Commodities Economics: Next, over at FX Empire comes this: Commodities Daily Forecast







Notes for Thursday – May 11, 2017

On May 11, 1949, Israel was finally admitted into the United Nations. In the fall of 1948, Israel had applied for membership in the United Nations but failed to win the necessary majority in the Security Council. In the spring of 1949, the application was renewed. This time, armistice agreements having been signed between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, Israel was admitted by 37 votes in favor, 12 against, with 9 abstentions.