Month: March 2020

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 3, 2020

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Today is the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell. Today is also the birthday of bluegrass musician Doc Watson. (He was born in 1923 and passed away in 2012.) His guitar work was phenomenal. And it is also the birthday of actor James Doohan, in 1920. He played Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek television series and films. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He passed away on July 20, 2005. — A Special Note: We are running quite low on articles for Round 87 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. So this is your chance to make sure that …


Stockpiling Medications Inexpensively, by J.B.

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As news of the coronavirus spreads, it shocked me to learn that sixty percent of our finished medication, eighty percent of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture medication and almost one hundred percent of our antibiotics are manufactured in China. One only has to look at the news to see where we will be headed if the quarantine in China and the resulting factory closures and furloughs continue for even a few more months. Consider this quote from scmp.com: “The United States’ ability to respond to an epidemic within its borders is critically hampered by its reliance on China for …


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, more about the Greater Idaho movement. (See the Region-Wide section.) Region-Wide Move Oregon’s Border plans March rally in Roseburg on Douglas County joining Idaho. Here is how the article begins: “Supporters of an effort to move the Oregon border with Idaho plan a rally March …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 2, 2020

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Today is the birthday of Moe Berg, American baseball player and clandestine agent. (He died in 1972). His biography The Catcher Was a Spy is fascinating reading. On March 2nd, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. Today is coincidentally also the birthday of Sam Houston. And this is the birthday of libertarian economist Murray Rothbard (born 1926, died 1995) His book For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto is highly recommended. — Several readers have e-mailed in the past three days, to ask me about protective gear handling techniques. By coincidence that was one of the topics that I …


Blackstone Griddle, by Pat Cascio

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I learned to cook at an early age. I was raised by my grandparents – mostly my grandmother, since gramps passed away from a stroke when I was 12-years old. I had a good childhood – we were dirt poor, but so was everyone else in our neighborhood – but most of my friends and I didn’t know we were poor. I don’t want to bore our readers with much of this, but as an example of being poor, my grandmother would send me to the corner grocery store – there weren’t any big supermarkets like we have today, and …


Recipe of the Week: S.A.’s Lima Beans with Ham

Reader S.A. kindly sent us her Lima Beans With Ham crockpot recipe. She says:  “It’s all things good, and is a very hearty, filling dish.” Ingredients 1/2 large, left over heirloom tomato 1/2 c ham fat, rind, and meat 16 oz fresh, re-hydrated, or frozen baby lima beans 1/4  pound stick of butter 1/2 c Water Salt, to suit your taste Directions Dice into 1/2” square pieces the tomato and ham. Place in a crockpot. Add the frozen lima beans, stick of butter, and lightly add salt. Add 1/2 cup of water. Cook on your crockpot’s high setting, for 3.5 …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 some panic buying. (See both the Economy & Finance section and the the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: I’m pleased to report that Steve Cochran has resumed writing a monthly column for SurvivalBlog. Be sure to check it out. o  o  o Jim Wyckoff: Why gold, silver prices seeing …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“A Federal Reserve created digital coin could be one of the most dangerous steps ever taken by a government agency. It would put in the hands of the government the potential to create a digital currency with the ability to track all transactions in an economy—and prohibit transactions for any reason. In terms of future individual freedom, this would be a nightmare.” – Robert Wenzel, editor and publisher of the Economic Policy Journal


Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 1, 2020

Today is the birthday of the late singer, songwriter, and cowboy poet Allen Wayne Damron. Damron was quite the Texan, through and through. (Born 1939, died August 13, 2005, in Terlingua, Texas.) — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 87 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $10,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models. A Gunsite Academy …


Feeding Your Family When There Is No Meat, by S.E.

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Imagine that you are nine months into a long-term crisis. You have a garden, you’ve stored food and you have a healthy flock of chickens for meat and eggs. Then the unthinkable happens. You lose your flock to disease, thieves, or predators, or maybe your animal feed has run out. What do you do now?! How will you feed your family with no meat?   Sure, you can try your hand at hunting, but so is everyone else, and maybe it’s not safe enough for you to venture off your property due to violence or disease. This article is designed 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 “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 some disturbing coronavirus news. Desperate to Stop Virus’ Spread, Countries Limit Travel The AP reports:  Desperate to stop virus’ spread, countries limit travel. A pericope: “Officials scrambled Tuesday to halt …


February 2020 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran

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Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance, and the factors that affected gold prices. – Steven Cochran, of Gainesville Coins Gold In 2019: A Review Before we get into gold’s wild ride in February, let’s take a look at it’s performance last year. (Data for this review was supplied by the World Gold Council.) Overall global gold demand was down 1% in 2019, to 4,355.7 metric tonnes (4,801.3 US tons). Higher prices slowed physical gold demand, but this was more …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the …