Month: January 2021

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’ll start with an article about the oxygen shortages at hospitals. Oxygen Scarcity Swells Covid-19’s Death Toll To file under “I told you so”: Oxygen Scarcity Swells Covid-19’s Death Toll. JWR’s Comments: I …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 27, 2021

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Today is the birthday of singer-songwriter Kate Wolf. (Born 1942, died December 10, 1986.)  Her untimely death at age 44 cut short an amazing career and robbed America of a great songwriting talent. This is also the birthday of the late Helen Chenoweth (born, 1938, died October 2, 2006). She was a controversial Republican congresswoman from Orofino, Idaho. — Note that since we’ve very recently quit the Amazon Associates program, the Recommendations of the Week column may only be appearing on occasional Wednesdays, henceforth. That will all depend on how many books, tools, and other products are suggested to us …


Garden Lessons – Part 1, by Greenthumb in the West

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There is an old saying: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” We had this proverb in mind when we bought our retreat property five years ago, and started work on the garden and orchard immediately, even before we started on the house. The past five years have been a steep learning curve of lessons in taking raw land to (semi!)-productive land. We have had the blessing of not needing to rely on our garden for sustenance during this time. I wanted to pass on what we’ve learned and purchased …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 26, 2021

January 26th, 1945 is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army. Established in 1941 Auschwitz was a complex of three large camps and 40 smaller camps used for slave labor, unethical medical experiments, and monstrous killing grounds where prisoners were gassed and cremated. As the Soviets headed for Auschwitz, the German Gestapo began a murder spree and began destroying the facility in an attempt to hide the evidence of their crimes. When the Soviets arrived, they encountered 648 corpses and more than 7000 starving camp survivors along with storehouses filled with hundreds of thousands of dresses, …


Why I Left Amazon — And How You Can Help Starve The Beast

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(Updated, July, 2023.) I feel clean, leaving the brown-tinged waters of the Amazon behind. Let me begin by explaining that I joined the Amazon Associates program in 2007. At that time, Amazon’s corporate management was already liberal, but their politics didn’t influence the way that Amazon.com was operated to any great extent. And Amazon was not yet a provider of web/cloud computing services. I found Amazon to be a handy place to shop for books, DVDs, and various merchandise. They offered commission-earning links that never expired. By becoming an Amazon Associate, I earned an average of about 7% on any …


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, we focus on an ancient grizzly bear.   (See the Wyoming section.) Idaho Taking a Stand: Sheriffs, Local Officials, and Rule of Law VS. Covid Dictators.  And here is a report on the same sheriff from the left-wing propagandists at Spokane’s major newspaper: New Kootenai County …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — January 25, 2021

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Today is the birthday of celebrated Scottish poet Robert “Bobby” Burns. He was born on January 25, 1759. — An USB stick update: There has been a technical glitch, because we have so much bonus material and almost 40,000 posts and columns lined up for our waterproof 2005-2015 Special 15th Anniversary Archive USB stick. It looks like it might have to be a 32 GB stick! We should have a pre-order announcement by about February 5th. Thanks for your patience. — Fellow blogger Commander Zero of the great Notes From The Bunker blog posted news that his namesake, Edén Pastora — …


Only One Gun?, by Pat Cascio

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I get a lot of questions asked of me, all the time, but many of them are really one in the same question, just phrased a little differently. Over my lifetime, I’ve been asked, literally hundreds of times: “What is your favorite gun…?” or, “If you could only own one gun, what would it be…?” and other similar questions from those seeking a truth or “the” truth about firearms. And, I can’t give a pat answer to these questions and no one else can, either. I can only reply based on my own experiences, the facts and my finding over …


Recipe of the Week: Chicken Hash

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The following recipe for chicken hash is from The New Butterick Cook Book, by Flora Rose, co-head of the School of Home Economics at Cornell University. It was published in 1924. A professional scan of that 724-page out-of-copyright book will be one of the many bonus items included in the next edition of the waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. This special 15th Anniversary Edition USB stick should be available for pre-order on or about February 5, 2021. The 14th Edition sold out quickly, so place a reminder in your calendar, if you want one. Ingredients 1-1/2 cup chopped chicken 1 …


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 the ups and downs of the classic car market. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: First up is this, over at Zero Hedge: Massive Silver Bets as Treasury Wants More Trillions o  o  o Erik Lytikainen: The Gold Bull Market Is Just Getting Started Economy & Finance: National …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — January 24, 2021

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January 24th is the birthday of René Barjavel (born 1911, died November 24, 1985). This prescient French science fiction author wrote several books with survivalist themes, including Ravage, which was titled Ashes, Ashes in its English translation. It is also the birthday of Tamara K., the editor of the long-running View From The Porch blog. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 92 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model …