Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 31, 2021

As Christians, our family does not celebrate the pagan Halloween. Since October 31st is also Reformation Day, that is what we celebrate. — Sorry, but I didn’t have time to prepare a feature article for today, as I’m out of state to attend a memorial service for my late mother, Barbara Marie Rawles. I’m also assisting my siblings in clearing out her house, to prepare it for sale. Our regular posting schedule should resume by Wednesday.










Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 30, 2021

October 30th, 1735 was the birthday of President John Adams. (Other sources cite his birthdate as October 19, 1735.) He died on July 4, 1826–just a few hours after the death of Thomas Jefferson. — First up is the monthly precious metals column by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins. Sorry, but I didn’t have time to prepare a feature article for today, as I’m out of state to attend a memorial service for my late mother, Barbara Marie Rawles. I’m also assisting my siblings in clearing out her home, to prepare it for sale. Our regular posting schedule should resume …




October 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 October? All the headlines that moved gold prices in October boiled down to two things: inflation, and how the Fed planned to deal with it. Gold spent the first week of October treading water around the $1,750 mark. This ended on the 13th, when gold saw big losses, then big gains, all in one day.  Inflation fears rocked the markets that …




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 …







Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 29, 2021

October 29th is the birthday of fighter pilot Vermont Garrison, an American who fought in three wars – WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. He was born in 1915 and died on February 14th, 1994, in Mountain Home, Idaho. — Please contact your congrescriiiters are voice your opposition to HR 2377, a Federal “Red Flag” law — that would allow guns to be seized without due process! — We are still seeking entries for Round 97 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 97 ends on November …




Potemkin Village on the Potomac

I’ll begin this essay with a bit of history, and then take a look at what I foresee in the near future of America. The “Potemkin Village” (Potyomkinskiye derevni) was an invention of Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski to impress Empress Catherine The Second (“Catherine the Great”), while she was traveling through Crimea, in 1787. As the story goes, along the banks of the Dnieper River, Potemkin had workmen erect a fake village, peopled with paid actors. This village was designed to give Catherine with the illusion of economic vibrancy in the region under the prince’s rule, as she floated by. After her …




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 renewed strength of the Swiss Franc. (See the Forex & Cryptos section.) Precious Metals: Turkey Buys All Remaining Wholesale Silver For The Year. o  o  o Commerzbank see gold rising on higher inflation expectations. o  o  o Gold price up as it appears inflation genie out of the …







Preparedness Notes for Thursday — October 28, 2021

Today is coincidentally the birthday of several gun designers: Wilhelm Bubits (born October 28, 1954) in Lutzmannsburg, is an Austrian handgun designer and creator of the Caracal Pistols (pictured) and Steyr Mannlicher M and S model pistols. As a hobby shooter and former police officer, Wilhelm Bubits used his experience and ideas about handguns to advance modern pistol design. Bubits worked for the Glock firearms company and in 1997 joined another Austrian weapons maker, Steyr Mannlicher. At Steyr, Bubits created the Steyr M and S pistols which were released to market beginning in 1999. In late 2002 Bubits worked with …




Shake Light 40B, by The Novice

The EcoCentricNow Shake Light 40B is a human-powered flashlight. It is fairly reasonably priced, reasonably water resistant, reasonably shock resistant, and reasonably heat resistant. It is charged by a powerful magnet that presents a danger to sensitive equipment, so I do not recommend it for field use or as a children’s toy. I think it could be useful for applications like tornado preparedness kits or as a nightstand flashlight. The Back Story I recently submitted an article to SurvivalBlog that included a review of the IKEA Ljusa hand crank flashlight. The beauty of the Ljusa is that the hand crank …




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 adverse events following Wu Flu jabs. COVID-19 VAERS: 800,000+ Adverse Events Reported I spotted this linked at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: COVID-19 VAERS Update: Over 800,000 Adverse Events Now Reported!  …