Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 6, 2021

Today is the birthday of British comic actor Rowan Atkinson (born 1955). And this is also the birthday of musician Earl Scruggs, (1924-2012) — Our big rifle sale at Elk Creek Company ends at 5 PM Pacific Time today (Wednesday, January 6th, 2021.) Get your order in before 5 PM! — 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 chosen, this could be worth …




Surviving the Disaster Golden Hour – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part. 1) When you’re planning and evaluating your current environment for possible emergency events, don’t just focus on the immediate location and impacts – consider scenarios with a larger scope and secondary and tertiary impacts. You also should make sure you have some balance in how you approach this type of planning – I’m not suggesting that you stop and spend an hour doing disaster planning before you enter any building. If you devote some time to learning about different types of events and can develop the automatic habit of gathering some basic information on things like emergency …




JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, tools, books, and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how-to” self-sufficiency videos. There is also an emphasis on links to sources for storage food and a variety of storage and caching containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This week we’re highlighting a SentrySafe fireproof document safe. (See the Gear section.) Books: …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Though dark are our sorrows, today we’ll forget them, And smile through our tears, like a sunbeam in showers: There never were hearts, if our rulers would let them, More form’d to be grateful and blest than ours. But just when the chain, Has ceased to pain, And hope has enwreathed it round with flowers, There comes a new link, Our spirits to sink Oh! the joy that we taste, like the light of the poles, Is a flash amid darkness, too brilliant to stay; But, though ’twere the last little spark in our souls, We must light it up …




Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 5, 2021

This is the birthday of General Courtney Hodges (born 1887 – January 16, 1966). Kicked out of West Point for low math scores, he enlisted as a private but soon became a maverick officer and went on to a distinguished career. — Today is also the birthday of actor Robert Duvall (born 1931.) His roles in Open Range and Apocalypse Now are unforgettable. — And January 5th is the birthday of the late John Pugsley (born 1934, died April 8, 2011), libertarian and economics author. Pugsley was well known in preparedness circles as the author of The Alpha Strategy. (The …




Surviving the Disaster Golden Hour – Part 1, by J.M.

Editor’s Introductory Note:  This lengthy article will be posted in five parts. Please reserve most of your comments until after Part 5 is posted, on Saturday. — If you’ve ever had any involvement with trauma medical care (especially in the military) you’ve probably heard the term ‘The Golden Hour’. This is generally considered to be the hour immediately following a traumatic injury in which medical treatment to prevent irreversible internal damage and optimize the chance of survival is most effective. For this article, I’m going to re-purpose the term ‘Golden Hour’ and use it to frame a discussion about surviving …




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 small companies located in the American Redoubt, including some that have recent relocated to the Redoubt, from other states. Idaho Ecommerce, clothing, RVs and more: Dozens of Idaho businesses hit ‘fastest-growing’ list o  o  o Small manufacturing firms continue to drive Idaho …







Preparedness Notes for Monday — January 4, 2021

January 4th is the birthday of George Hyde, who was born “Heide” in 1888, in Arpfingen, Germany. He was the chief gun designer for the Inland Division of General Motors (GM) in Dayton, Ohio during World War II. Hyde was best-known as the co-designer of the M3 “Grease gun” SMG and the Liberator pistol, but he also designed the Bendix-Hyde Carbine and the M2 Hyde submachinegun. He immigrated to the United States in 1927. A gent at the Nitro Express Forums mentioned some details on his life before World War II: Before 1935 Hyde was the shop foreman and metal …




Annual Reminder: The Ten Cent Challenge

Each year, I only post one reminder, encouraging voluntary Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions, and this is it. Back In August, we celebrated our 15th blogiversary. Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a success! There are now more that 33,700 archived articles and columns. And after just a couple of years of adopting a comments section, there have been more than 72,000 comments posted. Hopefully, some readers appreciate the fact I only post an appeal once a year. And I’m confident that most  readers appreciate that SurvivalBlog is one of the last of the daily “Old School” blogs. We are one of …




Bushnell Powerview 2 Binoculars, by Pat Cascio

I don’t pretend to be an “expert” in anything – just a serious student, or many things. Having spent 35 years in the martial arts, and I have Black Belt rank in five different styles of martial arts disciplines, I don’t consider myself an expert – just a serious student. I’m just like most folks, just a hard-working stiff, who demands the most for my hard-earned dollars, so that means I shop around – most of the time – for things I need or want. At times, it is difficult to walk away from a particular firearm, but if the …




Recipe of the Week: Globalist Political Casserole (2021)

To celebrate the new year, we are presenting the following parody recipe sent to us by SurvivalBlog reader M.S.U. for his Globalist Political Casserole (2021). Note that this is not a typical recipe for SurvivalBlog. Again, it is a parody. Ingredients 1 President-Elect, Brain-Fried, Thoroughly Senile 1 Vice President-Elect, Marxist, Over-Ambitious, Fully Co-opted, and Clarified 2 Houses of Congress, Braised until their two party ingredients are indistinguishable. 3 Low-Interest Rate Economic Recoveries, julienned into very long strips. (Can be substituted with fake economic recoveries.) 7 Major Religious Denominations, De-Backboned, Homogenized, and Whipped A Half-Dozen Social Media Outlets, with Socialist Agendas …




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 some new taxes and California’s proposed extra-territorial tax. (See the Taxation section.) Economy & Finance: Dire Straits For European Banks? Banks Paying Near Zero On Deposits, Now Charging Fees o  o  o Top 10 Economic Predictions for 2021 o  o  o Allan Stone of the leftist Washington Post: The craziest, …







Preparedness Notes for Sunday — January 3, 2021

On this day, in 1521, Martin Luther– the father of the reformation and founder of Protestantism– was officially excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church. — 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 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 …