Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 1, 2020

April 1st, 1886 was the birthday of Arthur W. Pink, who died 15 July 1952 and was an English Christian evangelist and excellent Reformed Biblical scholar. It was his meticulously referenced arguments in his book, The Sovereignty of God, that first convinced JWR of the truth of the doctrine of Election. April 1st is also both April Fool’s Day and (unofficially) Molly Ivins Day. The latter refers to this key verse: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1 KJV) — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Update: We are in the midst of judging. The prize winners …




Making Light, by M.E.

Artificial light is useful for extending working time beyond sunset, for providing comfort in the long dark hours of winter, and for finding one’s way in the night. Without electricity or batteries, solar cells or wind up flashlights, lamps and candles can be made just as they have been for thousands of years. The cave paintings of the Upper Paleolithic were done by the light of lamps that used a lump of animal fat as fuel and lichen, moss, or juniper twigs as wicks. The light of these crude lamps was sufficient to produce some of the earliest known works …




March 2020 in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran

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. I’d like to start this month’s column by just saying “Wow.” What Did Gold Do in March? Spot gold ended February on a down note, falling $58 to end at $1,585 an ounce. This wiped out most of gold’s gains for the month. The second week of March saw gold prices get crushed, as investors sold anything and everything possible to meet margin calls on their …




JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on Jim Quinn’s The Burning Platform blog. (See the Blogs section.) Books: I recently heard about …