Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — February 11, 2020

February 11th is the birthday of the late Burt Blumert (born February 11, 1929 in New York City, died March 30, 2009). He is pictured at the left in this group photo. Blumert once owned Camino Coin Company. Dr. Ron Paul also once owned the same company. — We are now down to less than 300 of the waterproof EMP-resistant SurvivalBlog 2005-2019 archive USB sticks.  This will probably be our last batch available in 2020. If you want to order a few, then don’t hesitate! — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 87 of the SurvivalBlog …




Fighting My Flinch: The Mantis X10, by The Novice

I tend to flinch while firing handguns. I recently tested the Mantis X10 Elite Shooting Performance System to see if it would help. My shooting improved significantly. Here is my story. The Offer On October 22 and 23, 2019, SurvivalBlog was kind enough to publish my article My Continued Handgun Search. In that article I wrote about my search for the ideal handgun for me, and mentioned my struggles with trigger flinch while firing handguns in self-defense calibers. The next day, Mr. Rawles forwarded an e-mail he’d just received from Mantis to test and evaluate their X10 Elite Shooting Performance …




SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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 the burgeoning growth of Idaho’s population. Thankfully, there is still plenty of elbow room! (See the Idaho section.) Region-Wide I was humbled to see that this got considerable international press coverage: Homesteaders, catastrophists run for the hills to flee US uncertainty o …







Preparedness Notes for Monday — February 10, 2020

February 10th is the birthday of Zvi Zvika Greengold (pictured at left, born 1952), a Centurion tank commander who was one of Israel’s most notable heroes of the Yom Kippur War. He was awarded the country’s highest military honor, the Medal of Valor. — 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 …




SIG Sauer P320 Compact 9mm – A Fresh Look, by Pat Cascio

A couple years ago, I reviewed the then new SIG Sauer P320 9mm handgun, that had been recently adopted by the US military – all military forces. And, to be sure, it was and still is an outstanding choice for our military handgun. The military wanted a modular handgun, that could be easily changed from one configuration to another – and in reality, I believe SIG Sauer was the only competitor to submit a truly modular handgun. Save the hate mail, please. I believe the Glock submission would have been an outstanding choice as well. As with many new firearms …




Letter on the Wuhan Virus, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

The following are my comments to the SurvivalBlog article Post-Exposure Prevention (PEP) Protocol, by JJ in MI. This is great to be considering post-exposure treatment. Our protective gear is likely to be *less than perfect*, and if we know we’ve been exposed we need a Plan B! This study supports the use of PVP-I as an antiviral, although I do wonder about swabbing my nose with it! Thinking in terms of what we can do *on the scene* when we realize we’ve been exposed, I’m wondering if it would be more convenient to use a Betadine spray, into our mouths (don’t …




Recipe of the Week: Dried Apricot Pie

This week’s recipe is for a Dried Apricot Pie. It is a recipe excerpted from the scarce book Nine Hundred Successful Recipes, by Lulu Thompson Silvernail. This book, from my own book collection, was published in 1923. A recent change in U.S. copyright law now puts most pre-1925 books in the public domain. Lulu Thompson Silvernail’s emphasis in this book was recipes that included hard red winter wheat flour. This entire recipe book is just part of the extensive bonus content that is included in this year’s SurvivalBlog archive waterproof USB stick. Ingredients 2 cups stewed (reconstituted) dried apricots 3 …




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 again look at 80% receivers. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: For those of you of the Chartist persuasion: Gold Price Exclusive Update Shows Sector Cycle Is Down o  o  o Palladium: This Is What a Run on the Bank for Precious Metals Looks Like… Economy & Finance: CNBC reports: …







Preparedness Notes for Sunday — February 9, 2020

February 9th is the birthday of Major George Charles Nonte Jr. (Born 1926, died June 30, 1978.) — 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 Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day …




Infectious Disease Protection, by S.A.D.

In this article I will describe how to protect yourself and your family from corona virus and other infectious diseases. The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus is causing widespread concern and response by public and health authorities. In this article we will cover the following: What is coronavirus? How does it spread? Official response and recommendations for protection Practical, common sense recommendations for individual protection. What is coronavirus? The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a member of Coronoviridae family. There are currently 16 full genome sequences of the virus published[1]. It is an enveloped RNA virus, one of the largest …




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, I’m only featuring four article links. All four of them are important reading. Wuhan Aerosol Transmission? Reader M.M. spotted this, over at China Daily, that seems to indicate aerosol transmission. Shanghai officials reveal …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are …