Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 5, by JMD

We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate when we do not have wireless electronic communications available to us. We’ve been exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about the different types of communications and types of interference to communication. I wrapped up yesterday’s part of the article by introducing what you should do to prepare. The first part, of course, was plan. Let’s take a look at the second part and conclude the article with the subsequent steps to prepare. Document Once you’ve got a good handle on your requirements and solutions, you should create a couple …




The Editors’ Preps for the Week

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready! JWR …




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 from “HJL”. Have you ever wandered exactly what data Facebook was collecting from you? Now you can know. Election Politics Here we are, 10 months after last years presidential election and the topic is still as hot as it ever was. On one hand, we have Hillary releasing her book “What Happened” which is probably more aptly titled “It wasn’t my fault”. I’ve yet to see a blurb from it where she takes any …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.  Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice.” – Deuteronomy 26:16-17 (KJV)







Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 4, by JMD

We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate when we do not have wireless electronic communications available to us. We’ve been exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about various channels of communications. Today, we’ll move into various forms of communications to consider. Electronic In the beginning of this article, I mentioned that it was about alternatives to wireless electronic communications. However, that doesn’t rule out wired forms of electronic communication. Wired communications tend to be point-to-point, are very hard for anyone to intercept, and can send large amounts of information. The biggest disadvantages are that they require …




Freeze Dried Friday

Filtering Oil This was a slow week for the freeze driers again. We just fired one of them up on Wednesday to run a batch of basil. Today we are finishing up a batch of tomato sauce. However, I’d like to ask SurvivalBlog readers a question. We currently filter our oil after every run through a simple oil filtering setup made out of plastic jars and an automotive oil filter. The issue with the current design is water in the oil. If you allow water to enter the oil filter, it will not exit until the filter is full of …




Letter: Thoughts on Prepping, Harvey & Irma

HJL, Thanks in part to my experience learned from living through Hurricane Dolly years ago and also thanks to this Blog my family and I were mainly prepared by the time Harvey hit. ( We live in the Houston Metro Area). We shared our knowledge with neighbors and like everything else, some listened, some asked for help and info and some…well…they already knew everything. We came through everything very well. However a few things stand out:




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 “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on numismatics. (See the Tangibles Investing section, near the end of this column.) Precious Metals First up, at Sharps-Pixley: Silver, the Bargain of the Century, sure to Explode after Gold Breakout o  o  o The futures contracts for gold are still reflecting a lot of uncertainty, …







Preparedness Notes for Thursday – September 07, 2017

Today is the birthday of Dr. Ludwig Vorgrimler (born 1912 in Freiburg, Germany; died 1983). Vorgrimler was the designer of the Spanish CETME rifle, from which sprang a plethora of roller-lock descendants from HK, including the G3, HK21, and MP5. His bolt design was also copied by the Swiss for their excellent PE57 and SIG 510 rifles. (Although the Swiss felt obliged to mount a “beer keg” charging handle on the right side of the receiver, for the sake of familiarity to Schmidt-Rubin shooters.) o o o Solar Flare Sunspot AR2673 unleashed a major X9.3-class solar flare (the strongest solar …




Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 3, by JMD

We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate in the event that our normal, electronic communications equipment are not available to us. We are exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about common content items and encoding. Let’s continue. Medium The medium defines what carries the communication through the channel. For written communication, the medium will usually be paper. For most signal-based communications, the medium will be inseparable from the channel. In the case where communications is sent by a flashing light, light is the medium. Channel The channel is critical to all communications. It determines how the …




Letter: Second Redoubt Area?

HJL, I have been reading your page for years. The wife and I have decided that it is way past time to get out of Kalifornia (we live way out in the desert). We originally looked at the Redoubt areas. I quickly learned that my body simply could not handle the cold weather. I wish I could but it is too painful. We are now looking at East Texas. (Not Austin) I was hoping you may know somebody that could write an article or provide more information regarding warmer climates for places to retreat / homestead/ ranch. Your Redoubt would …




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 from “HJL”. Leading the news today is the U.S Virgin Islands governor’s violation of the U.S. Constitution. Violation of the U.S. Constitution Governor Kenneth E. Mapp, of the U.S. Virgin Islands, has issued an unconstitutional order to activate the National Guard and given them the authority to confiscate the personal firearms and ammunition of U.S. citizens living within this territory. U.S. Territories do not get to have all of the Constitution applied to them …