Month: August 2019

Dehydration and Rehydration, by Dr. Marc

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One of the great killers in the third world is dehydration from diarrhea and dysentery, due to contaminated water. This is particularly dangerous with respect to the elderly and children. As your readers are likely aware, having the ability to filter or purify drinking water is critical. Having a high volume and high-capacity water filter can go a long way toward preventing diarrhea and dysentery, with its associated dehydration. I very much recommend, based upon personal experience, water filters including the Katadyn endurance series and the Sawyer inline series.  Both of these vendors have extremely long lived, large volume and quality …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies that have any tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food as and food storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on ambulance conversions to campers . (See the Instructional Videos section.) Books: Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times o  …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — August 6, 2019

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On August 6th, 1945 at 8:16 a.m. (Japanese time), an American B-29 bomber– the Enola Gay– dropped the world’s first war-time atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a result of the blast, with another 35,000 injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. History is always written by the victors, so the reasoning and justification for this will be argued for years to come. But one thing is for sure: this action officially ushered in the nuclear age in war and …


My Toolbox, by Richard T.

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I’m now 71 years old, and I have had a toolbox ever since my dad helped me build my first one when I was about 12. He cut all the parts on a homemade tablesaw that he had built out of an old washing machine motor and plywood. He showed me how to nail the parts together and paint it. It was a simple tray-style toolbox; one side had room for pliers, a hammer, screwdriver and the other side had partitions for hardware. My mother’s diary records that I liked to build things at an early age, I still do. …


SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on a widely-wandering grizzly bear.  (See the Idaho section.) Region-Wide Reader Tim J.  sent us this: Some great aerial photography, showing life on the Palouse: Ag Pilot/Crop Duster “Day in the life of”.  He operates primarily in eastern Washington and adjoining Idaho.  As …


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 “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, I’m starting off with news about a City-Killer Asteroid. Approach of ‘City-Killer Asteroid’ was Missed By way of Whatfinger.com (my favorite news aggregation site): Scientists almost didn’t detect approach of ‘city-killer asteroid’. An …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and of course in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course there are many courageous individuals but they have no determining influence on public life […] Should one point out that from …


Preparedness Notes for Monday — August 5, 2019

August 5th is the sad anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana that took the lives of 13 firefighters (including 12 smokejumpers and one former smokejumper), in 1949. The intense, fast-moving forest fire took place in what later became the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The events of that fire were chronicled in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and immortalized in the haunting lyrics of the ballad Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelaghan. (Warning: Grab a box of tissue, before listening.) — Today, we present a product review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio. …


The Latest Writing Contest Winners (Round 83)

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After a brief delay due to some gun show travel, we’ve completed the judging for Round 83 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. That round ended on Just 31st, 2019. The winners are: First Prize Winner: First Prize goes to Doctor Dan for Family Medical Preps Part 1 & Part 2 (posted July 17 &18, 2019).  He will receive the following prizes: A $3,000 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 used for …


Lifelite TCP Pepper Ball Launcher, by Pat Cascio

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Lethal force, less-lethal force, less-than-lethal force, non-lethal force…it can all be very confusing, and when it comes down to it, a jury will be the ones deciding your fate, in a court room, whenever you use any type of “force” to defend yourself or your loved ones. And, no matter what you might think of the amount of force you use, you could still be wrong. Not too many years ago, a Texas judge ruled that a man who was involved in a fight, used lethal force to kill another man. The “lethal” force used – it was his cowboy …


Recipe of the Week: Angie’s Beef and White Bean Soup

Angie kindly sent us her recipe for a hearty beef and white bean soup. This makes good use of your stored dry white beans, or canned beans. Ingredients 2 pounds beef stew meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubed pieces 2 cups chopped onion 2 cups sliced or chopped carrot 4 garlic cloves, minced or grated 2 tablespoons Canola oil, divided 2 cups water 1 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon dried sage 3 or 4 whole bay leaves 32 ounces beef broth 5 cups of dried white beans, soaked overnight. These should …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news 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 SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we traverse from our normal “E&I” column items to look at tangibly investing in “Pre-Remington” Marlin firearms. Tangibles Focus: Pre-Remington Marlins My friend Commander Zero, the editor of the Notes From The Bunker preparedness blog has several times mentioned the significance of “Pre-Remington” Marlin firearms. This term …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — August 4, 2019

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On August 4th, 1944, 15 year old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family were captured by the Nazi Gestapo. The Franks had taken shelter is a small space in a sealed off area of an Amsterdam warehouse along with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man. They were aided by Christian friends who brought them food and supplies. Her diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing …