Month: March 2021

A Prepping Change: My Move to New Mexico, by M.J.

I recently moved from Southern California to New Mexico because I requested a transfer to my employer’s office out there. I lived most of my life in Southern California; please feel free to read my 2019 SurvivalBlog article about prepping there. The road trip was long, but interesting. I drove through the beautiful desolation of the Mojave Desert on I-40. I saw vistas worthy of any Louis L’Amour novel. There weren’t many passenger vehicles like mine; most of the vehicles were trucks. After the Mojave, night fell and I was rolling through the Kaibab National Forest. I caught a glimpse …


Some SurvivalBlog Archive USB Stick Glitches (Mea Culpa)

The 2005-2020 SurvivalBlog archive stick has a couple of issues that have been noticed by customers. Primarily, the issues are with the bonus material included. 1) The “Food” Category has been mistakenly directed to the Firearms category and since this archive is pulled directly from the website, the resulting bonus books that would normally be found in that category are just missing. Because of the way the archive is built, there is no way to reliably send out a fix for that issue so they just are not there. If you have an earlier year archive, you can access those …


Movie Review: Mr. Jones, by Large Marge

I visit elderly shut-ins.  Yesterday, instead of us puttering in her garden, one old gal that I visit insisted we spectate at television programming. She wanted to watch a 2019 movie from Poland called Mr. Jones. Although filmed in Poland and crewed by Poles, this award-winning movie is in English. Sub-titles are available for hard-of-hearing folks. The script, acting, costumes, sets, and production values are equal or better than anything from ‘major Hollywood* studios’. Based on historical events, I strongly recommend it, and yet… I hesitate to recommend it. Although well-made, several minutes of this were very difficult for me …



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — March 20, 2021

March 20th is the birthday of Mel Tappan. (Born 1933, died 1980.) His perennially popular survivalist books Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival have a well-deserved following. In his honor, I designated March 20th National Survivalism Day, in his honor. This year marks the 41st anniversary of his untimely death. It is also apropos that National Survivalism Day falls in March–one of the months that both Northern Europeans and Native Americans refer to as The Starving Season–when stored food runs low, but before spring bounty appears. Plan ahead. Stock up. Don’t starve. I’m sure that Mel Tappan would approve. — …


Lessons Learned from the Texas Deep Freeze, by B.B.

Texans had two weeks warning about the artic cold set to hit the state last month. Yet most Texans were not prepared. It is estimated that 80 people died from the cold and lack of power. Some froze to death from lack of heat while others died from carbon monoxide poisoning trying to stay warm in foolish ways. It started Sunday night with rolling blackouts in my area, but complete power outages in some areas. For my family, rolling blackouts continued through Wednesday night, ending in the early hours of Thursday morning. During this time, many lost water service, either …


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 your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — March 19, 2021

On March 19, 1982, 50 Argentines landed on South Georgia in the Falkland Islands to plant the Argentine flag. They renamed the islands The Malvinas. This precipitated the Argentine army invasion on April 2nd. Despite some significant naval losses and dreadful weather, British Marines re-took the island on April 25th in a well-coordinated ground campaign. Coincidentally, in this brief war, the British Army and the Argentine Army were both equipped with FN-FAL variant rifles. The Brits carried L1A1 “SLR” inch pattern FAL rifles. The Argentines carried metric FALs. Perhaps the Falklands should be called The FALklands. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest …


Leatherman Wave and Skeletool, by The Novice

It was a beautiful late-July evening in southeastern Alaska. I was on a work team helping a missionary supported by our church. The missionary’s organization was updating an old fishing lodge to serve as a halfway house. The goal was to provide a place to mentor native Alaskans who had recently been released from prison. I was tired in a good way. We had been busy all day clearing land at the lodge for a sawmill site. Now we were enjoying a quiet evening. A friend from church was fishing on the river nearby. I was just watching, because I …


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 look at the global demand for cobalt. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: Gold/Silver: An opportunistic approach for accumulation. JWR’s Comment:  This is a good juncture to sell half of your crypto holdings, and buy silver. o  o  o Can gold price break free of Treasury markets? Analysts zero in on …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — March 18, 2021

March 18th is the birthday of novelist John Updike. (He was born in 1932 and died in 2009.) It is also the birthday of Luc Besson, director and producer of films such as Nikita and The Fifth Element. He was born in 1959. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 93 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 chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three …


Basic Computer Privacy and Security, by Liber T. Y.

First of all, a few disclaimers: 1. I am not a computer geek and I am not good at coding. I am merely a layman who has found some useful tools for computer privacy and security and knows a thing or two about computers (I’m also not a lawyer so any legal ramifications should be talked about with a legal professional). 2. This article is about what a layman can do to secure their computer and browse privately in the Windows operating system (OS). As such, not all of the products listed herein may work in an Apple or Linux …