Year: 2017


Preparedness Notes for Monday – September 11, 2017

September 11th is of course the anniversary of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. , but it is also the anniversary of the Benghazi Embassy attacks, in 2012. (Those events were recounted in the recent Hollywood film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.) Please remember the sacrifice of J. Christopher Stevenson, Sean Smith, and CIA (former Navy SEAL) agents Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Between them, Woods and Dohery reportedly dropped at least 60 of the attackers. Please also remember the spineless worms in Washington, D.C. who decided to not back up the embassy staff when they …


Valley Food Storage, by Pat Cascio

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While there are many different types of “survival foods” on the market, ranging from military MREs to freeze-dried and dehydrated plus any number of types of off-the-shelf foods that last a long time, today we are looking at dehydrated foods from Valley Food Storage. Survival Foods Having been a Prepper since I was a little tyke, I’ve tasted all manner of “survival foods” over the years. Some were better than others and some much, much better that others. Then we have some that aren’t very tasty, but they will keep you alive. My family and I are always on the …


Recipe of the Week: Hamburger Soup, by R.T.

Ingredients: 1 lb lean ground beef 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp oregano 1/4 tsp basil 1/4 tsp seasoned salt 1 envelope onion soup mix 3 cups boiling water 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce 1 Tbsp soy sauce 1 cup sliced celery 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup macaroni, cooked and drained 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese Directions: Crumble beef into a crockpot. Add pepper, oregano, basil, seasoned salt, and dry soup mix. Stir in water, tomato sauce, and soy sauce; then add celery and carrots. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Turn the control to …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 recent massive Equifax Hack attack. (See the Troubling Trends section, near the end of this column.) Precious Metals The first 26:20 of this 33-minute mini-documentary is well worth watching:  Silver vs. The World (Why I Went ALL IN On Silver) His reasoning is sound.  If you …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday – September 10, 2017

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Please pray for everyone in the path of Hurricane Irma, and continue to pray for those already devastated by Hurricane Harvey. On September 10, 1776, George Washington asked for a spy volunteer. Nathan Hale stepped up to the challenge of an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City. Unfortunately, the British captured and executed him. He is probably best known for his last words before being hanged: “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” He has long been considered an American hero, and in 1985, was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut. It …


What We See And Believe Is Not Always Reality, by Old Bobbert

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Let’s talk about reality and what we see and believe, but just for a moment imagine this scenario. Visualize the following presumably safe evening event at your home one day soon. A Grateful Situation…Somewhere You are reflecting on the terrible situation in (name any major city, state, or area) and you are very grateful that your home area is not severely affected by that power grid outage somewhere else in the country, specifically about 1,000 miles away from your home. Your area power system is functioning just fine. You’re feeling really bad for that area as you watch the video …


Letter: Well Water Pump Options And Alternatives

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Hello JWR, HJL, and fellow readers, I truly appreciate the info my family and I have gleaned over the years from SB. It has become one of our most trusted sources of info as we have been embarking on our self-sufficiency. Now, on to my question that I believe could be beneficial to other readers. (I have searched the site, but no recent info came up.) I have been researching water well hand-pumps. Bison Pumps has great customer service and so far I am leaning towards them as my grid-down water retrieval solution from my well. Their product appears to …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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”. While Florida is getting socked today, Irma has finished with many islands and, as expected, the looting has begun. Golden Horde SurvivalBlog Reader R.V. suggested that the mass of humanity coming out of Florida on I-75 and I-95 illustrated what JWR had talked about when he referenced the “Golden Horde” in his novels. The only difference is that these people are not starving and looting on their path. Some reports suggest that …


Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” – Luke 21:1-4 (KJV)


Preparedness Notes for Saturday – September 09, 2017

On September 9, 1492, Columbus’ fleet set sail west. The rest, you know as history, or is that revisionist history. o o o On a sad note, SurvivalBlog received word today that one of our favorite Science Fiction authors passed away. Jerry Pournelle had many novels published under his own name and with the collaboration of others like Larry Niven, John F. Carr, Steven Barnes and Michael Flynn and more. He is also credited with having the first and longest-running blog on the Internet–long before it got the name “blogging.” One item that will probably be overlooked in the obituaries …


Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 5, by JMD

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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

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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:

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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 …