Preparedness Notes for Thursday – October 19, 2017

October 19th is the birthday of three notables– the late Alexander Zeisal “Zus” Bielski (born 1912), investor Jim Rogers (born 1942), and James Howard Kunstler (born 1948). Kunstler is well known to SurvivalBlog readers as the author of the novel World Made by Hand and the nonfiction book The Long Emergency. A fictionalized portrayal of Zus Bielski is seen in the movie Defiance. This movie was loosely based on the excellent book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec. o o o October 19th also marks the anniversary of Operation Gatling; the “Green Leader” raid in which Rhodesia attacked ZIPRA …




Do We Have Your Full Attention Yet?- Part 1, by Old Bobbert

Let me get your attention by sharing this fact: “Life expectancy is going up everywhere except in the U.S.” This opening statement is supposed to be the “grabber” and should make the reader want to read the entire article. Okay! Here we go with your bad news of the day in two parts. The first part is short, simple, and terrifying. It’s the one liner in quotes above. And the second part is worse yet. This part says that the life expectancy news today will be worse tomorrow, and every American is subject to the same bad news. However, there …




Letter: E-85 and Generators

Hugh, I didn’t have any luck searching for this on your website. May be something you consider for a future article. How well/poorly do portable generators function using “ethanol gas” (E-10 ‘the normal mix”, and E-15 [or higher] which various lobbies seem to want to foist on us)? How about going all the way to E-85 if you can’t obtain/forage/swap for “the good stuff”? Even with stabilizers, the ethanol is very hygroscopic so goes bad fast, but what about a post-hurricane/tornado/etc. scenario where it hasn’t had to sit long in the tank? I got to thinking in the post-Maria coverage …




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”. Kids smart watches are something that you may want to be careful of this Christmas shopping season. Owned by Debt Understanding debt and economic slavery is probably one of the most important preps that you can make. It’s not that all debt is bad, but you have to understand that the debtor is slave to the lender. That works whether the debt is for the latest iPhone, a new car, or even …