Preparedness Notes for Thursday – December 28, 2017

December 28, 1793 is the day that Thomas Paine was arrested in France for treason. The charges against him were never fully detailed, but he was tried in absentia on December 26 and convicted. Best known as the author of Common Sense, he moved to Paris to be part of the French revolution. Initially welcomed, the tide soon turned against him, because he was opposed to the death penalty and the French revolutionaries were sending hundreds to the guillotine.




A Collection of Thoughts on Survival, by Sven

There is a number of thoughts and observations I’ve had that seemed worth passing on to SurvivalBlog readers, but most of them weren’t long enough to merit full articles. Hopefully, everyone can find at least one thing here that they hadn’t considered yet. Wool Blankets Wool blankets are heavier than down or synthetic sleeping bags but are lifetimes more durable and fire resistant. You should have both wool blankets for when weight is not a concern and regular sleeping bags for fast, light trips. Knives– Serrated or Not Knives with serrations require special tools to sharpen. Consider using only knives …




Letter Re: Armed Teachers from a Christian Perspective

Dear Mr. Latimer, I became a prepper last year and a Christian the year before. I am currently working through various issues of my faith, and your website has worked very well for helping both preparedness planning and my faith. I’m in my junior year of college, pursuing a teaching license. I’d prefer to teach private school, but if God calls me to teach in a public school I’ll do it and hopefully do some good there. To be brief, my question is whether or not a Christian should, in good conscience, violate laws banning weapons for self defense in …




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”. Interesting that fears of a nuclear war is bringing to light the sad state of current fallout shelters. Fallout Shelters New York has begun removing the 1960s era fallout shelter signs strewn around the city. During the 1960s, at the height of the cold war, the signs were erected in places that had locations suitable for sheltering from nuclear fallout and had been stocked, at least somewhat, for a shortish stay as …







Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – December 27, 2017

On this day in 1979, in an attempt to stabilize the turbulent political situation in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union sent 75,000 troops to enforce the installation of Babrak Karmal as the new leader of the nation. The new government and the imposing Soviet presence, however, had little success in putting down anti-government rebels. Thus began nearly 10 years of an agonizing, destructive, and ultimately fruitless Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. Death by a thousand cuts.




Never Waste An Opportunity To Buy Good Stuff Inexpensively!, by Old Bobbert

When there is an opportunity, we don’t waste it. We preppers are very good at nearly everything we do, once we finally start down the road to project completion and timely success. The few things we do poorly are generally the foundation for our poor public image. Some of these are our poor selections, among the millions of printed pages concerning “being prepared” to live through a disaster. Our most glaring and dramatic procedural mistake is also the main reason non-preppers also fail at an alarmingly high percent of starts. Yes, we still have much in common with our non-prepper …




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 the Exodus Cryptocurrency Wallet Tool. (See the Cryptocurrencies section, near the end of this column.) Precious Metals: Gold rises on dollar weakness, palladium hits 17-year peak JWR’s Comment: With platinum now at around $922 per Troy ounce and gold at around $1,283, it makes more …




JWR’s Recommendations of the Week

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on the movie The Ultimate Gift movie series.   Books: The True Story of Fake News: How Mainstream Media Manipulates Millions (Mark Dice) o o o 100 Hikes In The Inland Northwest o o o The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook, by Claire Wolfe. (This is an update to her classic book: 101 Things To Do ‘Til The Revolution.  Now with 179 subjects.)   Movies: Here is a movie that I can strongly recommend for your whole family:  The Ultimate …







Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – December 26, 2017

On December 26th, 1777, after crossing the Delaware River, Washington led his men against Hessian soldiers garrisoned at Trenton. After a brief battle, nearly the entire Hessian force was captured, with negligible losses to the Americans, significantly boosting their flagging morale. o o o Don’t forget that the holidays are an excellent time to finish up that article you’ve been wanting to write but procrastinating. The prizes are awesome!




Time, Effort, and Attitude (TEA) and Keeping Focus, by E in the North Woods

I think a lot of us who are doing our best to prepare for a SHTF scenario usually had some moment when we popped our heads out of the sand and were pushed to that point. I look back on it, like I have heard others explain, as the red pill versus blue pill moment from The Matrix movie. Once you have your eyes opened and decide to take action in living a prepared lifestyle, it feels like you just got ripped from your comfy cocoon and are now standing at the base of a mountain looking up at all …




SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on the new Boar’s Head Highland Butchery. Region-Wide First off, here is the latest from The Sandpoint Reader‘s lengthy series of articles: The American Redoubt Series: Ruby Ridge to Redoubt–A brief history of anti-government sentiments in North Idaho. JWR’s Comments:  The earlier installments of their series were relatively free of bias. But here we see much more blatant …




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”. In an update on Puerto Rico, we can see that this is fertile ground for church missions. Easy Vegetables Reader T.J. sent in this video from GrowingYourGreens on what he believes are the top three easiest vegetables to grow. This is actually a pretty interesting vlog because most of this gardening is done in an urban area on very small plots of land. If you are stuck in the city or suburbs, …