Glock 19X, by Pat Cascio

I can just hear it now from our readers:  “Another Glock! Don’t they make enough different models?” Well, quiet honestly, this Glock – that they are calling the 19X is quite a bit different in many ways, so hang in there, and read this article to the end. This isn’t your everyday Glock 19. Several years back, the US military decided it was time for a new handgun for our troops, as the Beretta M9 is reaching the end of its service life. The Beretta M9, and its civilian version, the M92, are very good guns – Yes, I know, …




Recipe of the Week: Karen D.’s Carrot Bread

Reader Karen D. kindly sent us her recipe for a Carrot Bread that is a great use for your stored hard red winter wheat, if you have a grinder available to make whole wheat flour. This recipe can be baked three different ways: In loaves, in a Bundt pan, or as muffins. Ingredients 2 C. Packed Brown Sugar 1 C. Cooking Oil 3 Eggs (or substitute 3 T. powdered eggs and 1/3 C. Water) 2 C. Carrots, Finely Grated (or substitute 1 C. dehydrated carrots. Chop them in a blender before re-hydrating to reduce their size.) 1 C. Crushed Pineapple, …




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 look at investing in pre-1899 cartridge guns. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Silver To Push To $22 An Ounce, Drive Gold Higher – Bloomberg Intelligence JWR’s Comments: When the silver market starts to catch up to gold (normalizing the silver-to-gold ratio), I can see …







Preparedness Notes for Sunday — August 25, 2019

August 25th is a birthday shared by humorist Bret Harte (born 1836), novelist Frederick Forsyth (born 1938), and the late American humorist Patrick F. McManus (born 1933 – April 11, 2018). Forsyth was the author of The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil’s Alternative, and many others. McManus was born and raised in Sandpoint, Idaho, so his books could be classified as American Redoubt humor. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes …




Solutions to Post-Event Problems, by Old Bobbert

Post-event situations can be surprisingly difficult to discuss. Let’s first cover more positive and productive word usage. We can all readily agree that there is nothing positive, enabling, or uplifting about the acronym WTSHTF. The Editor of this blog euphemistically uses “When the Schumer Hits The Fan”, in defining it.  But we all know what these letters really stand for, and that is often felt to be negative or low class language. Moving up in the world of solution communications, we can instead choose to say or write “Event.” Our newly adopted word (much more expressive) can convey a disaster …




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 “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, we look at tractor tire gardening. Practical Wisdom: Building a Tractor Tire Garden Over at the great Rural Revolution blog, Patrice Lewis relates some hard-earned wisdom: How our tire garden evolved. Inside a …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones …




Preparedness Notes for Saturday — August 24, 2019

On August 24th, 410, Rome was overrun by the Visigoths in an event that symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This is a moment in history that we would do well to remember. An empire that ruled the known world was corrupted from the inside to the point that they could not defend themselves from a much weaker enemy. This could conceivably be the beginning of the dark middle ages. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round …




Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 5, by T.R.

(Continued from Part 4. This part concludes the article series.) Moving on to drinks as a subject, I prepared a similar smaller “cube” container for drinks and soups. More coffee filter packs, zip lock bags of tea taken out of their cardboard retail packaging, hot cocoa, more honey, powdered lemonade tubs, powdered ice tea, Tang for astronauts or space aliens we might meet (just kidding) that I found in the pantry, instant coffee, another jar of coffee mate, a red plastic Folger’s coffee tub of ground coffee, a few boxes of flavored Emergen-C powders that give you 1000mg of Vitamin …




Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, 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! Jim Reports: I’m getting close to my September …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together …




Preparedness Notes for Friday — August 23, 2019

August 23rd is the anniversary of the declaration of the independent state of “Franklin” in Eastern Tennessee by the settlers there in 1784. Unfortunately, the Continental Congress rejected it, so the state of Franklin never became a reality.  Pictured is John Sevier, who served as “Governor.” — Seed for Security, LLC has announced a sale: Their Super Survival Pack is now 20% off. This pack includes 4 lbs. of survival seeds and 2 pints of healthful grains. All of their seed is heirloom, non GMO, and none is hybrid. Their 5 page detailed Seed Saving Guide is included. This offer …




Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 4, by T.R.

(Continued from Part 3.) Later that morning/early afternoon, we sat down at the kitchen table (having brewed a pot of coffee on the spare camp stove from the basement according to our “A” plan) and talked through this. We needed a balance of water, fuel, gear/shelter, food and safety/security. Optimizing the mix of these five items (plus cash and valuables) and optimizing how to pack them efficiently with some degree of access to the right items in what order took significantly longer than either of us expected when a filter criteria of “not coming back” was inserted vs “we are …




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 look at investing in AR Lowers and Pre-1899 guns. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Jim Cramer: Here’s Why You Should Own Gold. o  o  o Estate stores dealing with rash of fake gold scams Economy & Finance: At Wolf Street: In Hilarious IPO Filing, …