Preparedness Notes for Friday — November 1, 2019

Today is the 100th birthday of Canadian test pilot Russell Bannock. (Pictured, on the left.) These details on Bannock are courtesy of the Infogalactic wiki: After entering the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Bannock received his pilot’s wings in 1940 and was appointed as an instructor at Trenton, Ontario. Later he was posted to Royal Air Force Ferry Command from June to August 1942. In September 1942, Bannock became chief instructor with the Flying Instructor School at Arnprior in Ontario. Bannock’s request for overseas service was granted in 1944 and he joined 60 OTU based in RAF High Ercall, England. …




A Lament for California

With all of the recent news about squalid homeless encampments, mismanaged utilities, gun-grabbing Democrat politicians, a potentially bankrupt public employee pension fund, and wildfires in California, I thought that it would be apropos to post a personal lament. This is a largely autobiographical commentary on the sad fall of the state of my birth, since the 1960s. But first, let me look back a bit further in time: Our Pioneer Roots The Rawles family came to California in 1856, via covered wagon. My great-great grandfather, Joseph Rawles, was a fifth generation American of English extraction who was born in Ohio. …




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. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at investing in Federally antique Finn M39 Mosin Nagant rifles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: It is noteworthy that the ratio of silver to gold spot prices peaked at around 92.5-to-1 in mid-July, 2019, and is now down to around 82.5-to-1.  But I believe that this slide will …