Month: July 2021

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — July 31, 2021

July 31st is the birthday of free-market economist Milton Friedman (born 1912, died November 16, 2006.) — A reminder: I sell antique guns, through Elk Creek Company — my home-based mail order business. Per Federal law, these guns do not require an FFL, and are also exempt from paperwork under most state laws. But occasionally, I upgrade my personal gun collection, and consequently sell a few excess modern (post-1898) guns through a trusted friend who has a FFL. He is running auctions on three particularly nice guns from my collection, on GunBroker.com. Take a look. I hope that you’ll consider …


Live Not by Lies – Part 1, by Born Free

In the past few years, we have all witnessed Internet censorship, up to and including the censorship of the President of the United States. My initial reaction was, “Who cares? We don’t need the media in order to live our lives! Turn it all off. Ignore them!” Then, the stories started trickling out, mostly on alternative media platforms and via individual blogger websites. It wasn’t just the popular media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, Reddit, etc.), the mainstream media organizations (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.), major payment processors (PayPal, for one), e-mail providers (Mailchimp, for one), web hosting …


July 2021 in Precious Metals, by Steven 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. What Did Gold Do in July? Gold started July at $1,770 an ounce, which would be the low for the month. Gold’s price action would be determined by two things in July: the strength of the 10-year Treasury note, and the strength of the dollar. Gold grinded higher the first week of July, closing at $1,802 on the 7th. This was gold’s first close above $1,800 …


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:

“Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, he prosperously effected. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — July 30, 2021

Today we remember the birthday of author Reginald Bretnor. He was born Alfred Reginald Kahn on July 30, 1911, in Vladivostok. He died on July 22, 1992 in Medford, Oregon. In addition to penning many witty science fiction novels and short stories in his characteristic style, he also wrote nonfiction articles for Mel Tappan’s P.S. Letter  — As I’m sure most of you readers know, I sell antique guns, through Elk Creek Company — my home-based mailorder business. Per Federal law, these guns do not require an FFL, and are also exempt from paperwork under most state laws. But occasionally, …


Hands-On Healing – Part 4, by Dr. Derek King, DC

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.) For those of you who have made it this far, I would love to give you two more Bonuses: the first is considered the “bible” of energy medicine. I first read it back in 1989 and it was way ahead of its time, the book is called Vibrational Medicine by Dr. Richard Gerber, MD. It covers the science of everything…crystals, meridians, homeopathy, lasers, holograms, prayer, and quantum physics (in a non New-Agey way). It was updated in 2000 and I’m sure that a lot more could be added considering today’s technology, but …


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 further examine the global derivatives market. Precious Metals: Time To Buy Gold As A Hedge Against “Extreme Financial Deleveraging” Credit Suisse Says o  o  o Gold gains on weaker dollar, stocks ahead of Fed meeting. Economy & Finance: Morgan Stanley Warns a Major Stock Market Correction Imminent. o  o  o Stock …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 29, 2021

July 29, 1805 was the birthday of Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville. He died 16 April 1859. He is best known for his lengthy treatise: Democracy In America. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 95 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 Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course …


Hands-On Healing – Part 3, by Dr. Derek King, DC

(Continued from Part 2.) So, back to memories…if something happened a second ago, it’s a memory. Gone, over. And it can be good, bad or neutral; yet it was recorded into the mind and it will be stored permanently on your brain’s hard drive tonight when you sleep (healing takes place mostly at night while you are sleeping). So if it was a bad experience, you will want to “neutralize it” and make peace with what happened and how you reacted before you sleep that night. Have someone cup your head while you go through the following “Forgiveness Steps” quietly …


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, we look at the latest on the drought that is affecting most of the western states. A Serious Utah Dust Storm Dust storm in Utah causes series of crashes on I-15, at least …


Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 28, 2021

On July 28, 1932, U.S. Army troops, using tanks, cavalry, and tear gas demolished and burned the shanty town set up near the U.S. Capitol by unemployed Bonus Army protestors. July 28th is also the anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, in 1914. This war irreparably changed geopolitics. Officially, the war lasted until November 11, 1918, as did our involvement. But American troops were still running around shooting Russians until 1920. — Update: The Elk Creek Company shopping cart system is now back in operation. We are again ready to take orders, with payments either in pre-1965 silver …


Hands-On Healing – Part 2, by Dr. Derek King, DC

(Continued from Part 1.) Alright, you’ve made it this far so I am going to give you your first simple gold nugget to help facilitate healing in another human being: Right hand on Top, Left hand Underneath. “What does that mean, Doc?” I am so glad you asked. The human hands have polarity. They are not neutral. They can be used as magnets to influence the energy field of others. The energetic aura surrounds our being and extends beyond our physical bodies. Trust me, there have been lots of scientific research studies to document, film, and prove this (it’s not …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. Reader John L offered this: “Thanks for running the interesting article on cordage. A few additions: Knots.  Hard to use cordage effectively without them.  Bowline, sheet bend, clove hitch, and prusik will cover 98% of needs.  Learn these. Consider traditional laid (“twisted”) ropes instead of braided.  Laid cordage can be spliced with appproximately 95% retention of strength, not only to …