Recipe of the Week: Waldorf Salad, by L.H.

This “old-fashioned” salad (my recipe card for it is circa 1979) has seemingly fallen out of favor, and I don’t know why. It’s yummy and unique, and fairly simple to throw together. It will be perfect alongside your next grilled chicken dinner. Ingredients: 3 apples (your favorite variety), peeled, trimmed, and cubed into bite-sizes 3 stalks celery, diced 1/2 c. pecans, coarsely chopped 2 tsp. lemon juice 1/2 c. mayonnaise 2 tsp. sugar dash of salt




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 private mints.   Precious Metals (Private Mints): One aspect of the thin precious metals market is often overlooked: The small number of private mints in the U.S. and Canada. There are only a handful of mints, and the volume of coins and bars that they …







Preparedness Notes for Sunday – April 22, 2018

Today is also the birthday of the late Charles Rankin Bond, Jr, who was born in Dallas on April 22, 1915. He was one of the last of the AVG Flying Tiger pilots. o o o SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today features another entry for Round 76 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be …




Creating Your Own Secure Messages – Part 2, by DaytonPrepper1

Yesterday we talked about how to create and use a One Time Pad. Today we will talk about another way of encoding messages. I am sure I am not creating anything new with this method, but I have not seen it before nor do I have a name for it. My working name is Word Grid Substitution. Description of the Method The heart of this method is a 25,000 word grid. The current word grid is 10×2500. I take the message to be encoded and search for the first word from a random spot in the list. When the word …




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”. Sent in by JMC: Putin Warns Russian Students Living In Britain: “Come Home Immediately” Following in London’s footsteps: Knife Control Movement Crosses Atlantic – DSV CDC, in Surveys It Never Bothered Making Public, Provides More Evidence that Plenty of Americans Innocently Defend Themselves with Guns – G.G. o o o An interesting take on Newsweek’s article on South Africa: Newsweek Says White South Africans Should Just “Stop Panicking”. Thanks to S.M. for …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” – Romans 10:8-11 (KJV)




Preparedness Notes for Saturday – April 21, 2018

April 21st is Aggie Muster Day, for all Texas A&M Corps of Cadets graduates. Aggie Muster celebrations/meetings are held as far away as Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan. I should mention that Jim’s grandfather (a U.S. Army Cavalry LTC) was an Aggie– something mentioned so often that everyone in his family felt like de facto Aggies, too. Other than the officers that matriculate though West Point, the four institutions that seem to have the greatest ongoing esprit de corps for graduates are Texas A&M, The Citadel, Norwich University, NMMI, and VMI. Jim felt almost obliged to include an Aggie character in …




Creating Your Own Secure Messages– Part 1, by DaytonPrepper1

I am an experienced programmer with a lot of time spent in Excel everyday for my paying job. East Sierra Sage’s article on Cipher Security got me thinking again about One Time Pads and other secure message techniques. I really enjoy automating things with Excel’s powerful formulas and macros. So I set off to create a tool for a One Time Pad spreadsheet that would create the One Time Pads and also encode and decode the messages being sent. How to Use a One Time Pad (OTP) You will need a Shift Chart and an OTP Chart as the basic …




Editors’ Prepping Progress

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 often 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! …




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”. Not a joke: Fortune names David Hogg and cohorts the world’s greatest leaders of 2018 – Reader H.L. notes: “This is surreal – had I a subscription to Fortune, I would be canceling it with a letter to the editor!” The City of Vancouver just moved to let permanent residents vote in civic elections – No need to be a citizen. Thanks to AnotherGal. o o o From G.P.: Will the World …







Preparedness Notes for Friday – April 20, 2018

On April 20th, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months, creating the worst known offshore oil spill. April 20th is also the day that we remember the victims of the Columbine High School tragedy, where two students stormed into a suburban high school in Littleton, Colorado in 1999, at lunch time with guns and explosives, killing 13 and wounding dozens more in what was, at the time, the nation’s deadliest school shooting. o …




The Four Things I Missed Most In Urban Survival Mode, by J.C.

Did you ever picture putting all your survival know-how to the test in an urban environment, in a giant city? Did you think about all the piles of rubble you’d have to work around to “put rubber to the road”? Mexico City Earthquake, September 19th, 2017 I know I didn’t, until I found myself in Mexico City on September 19th of last year, that is. This was the day a 7.2 earthquake shook Central Mexico, toppled buildings, and killed nearly 400 people. This also happened to be the anniversary, to the day, of the hugely destructive 1985 Guerrero Earthquake that …




Letter: A Good Word About One of SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Sponsors

Mr. Rawles, Recently I was pleased to hear that I had won second place in round 75 of your writing contest for my Inevitable American Gun Ban article. As part of that prize, Emergency Essentials promised to provide a 3 day deluxe emergency kit. Thought grateful for the prize, I didn’t really want the kit because I have multiples of every item in that kit already. What to do? Hesitantly, I contacted them and asked if I might order something else from the website and pay the cost difference between the items I chose and the 3 day kit. I …