Year: 2021

The Science: Reusing Canning Jar Lids – Part 1, by St. Funogas

I’ve been on an incredible journey since submitting my last article Reusing Canning Jar Lids to SurvivalBlog. That article was based on my personal experience reusing 1,000+ canning jar lids. Many other home canners bear similar testimony about successfully reusing lids. My article specifically mentioned ignoring all the blogs, the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, and even my own experience mentioned in the article. Since the best teacher is personal experience, I then challenged the reader to do a simple test themselves by canning some water with used canning jar lids. In this follow-up article, I have researched and …


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 came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — June 11, 2021

John Wayne, the iconic American film actor, died on June 11th, 1979. While John Wayne is probably best known for his westerns like True Grit, The Shootist, and Fort Apache, we remember him best for his roles in The Alamo and The Green Berets, both of which reflected his patriotic, conservative leanings. — 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 …


Gear Review: Two Twig Stoves, by The Novice

I often enjoy using my Norwegian “Storm Kitchen” alcohol stove. It is reliable, quiet, compact, clean, and convenient. It has just two weaknesses: it heats slowly, and in a long-term disaster scenario, I might run out of fuel for it. So I started looking into “twig stoves”. These stoves are fueled by sticks, pine cones, and other small, dry bio-mass. They have a reputation for heating quickly, and I have a virtually unlimited supply of fuel around my property. I looked at quite a number of stoves. There are dozens to choose from. Most of them are made in China. …


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 likelihood of high inflation ahead. Precious Metals: Arkadiusz Sieroń: US Government Stimulus Went Wrong. How Will Gold React? o  o  o 70s-style inflation: Biggest risk is ‘invisible wealth destruction,’ gold price going to $20K this decade. o  o  o This piece has an interesting observation on the prospects …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — June 10, 2021

On June 10, 1967, the Six-Day War ended as Israel and Syria agreed to observe a United Nations-mediated cease-fire. — 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 (a $1,095 value), A course certificate from onPoint …


The Citroen 2CV as a Prepper Vehicle, by Steve W.

Many would consider the Citroen 2CV an unlikely vehicle for preparedness plans. But based on 40 years of personal experience with the car, I am suggesting that you consider the Citroen 2CV as a backup vehicle for your preparedness plans. While not a fancy car, my many kilometers and miles driving a 2CV in across Europe and North America have been easily the least costly road miles that I have logged, and they were a lot of fun. 25 years ago, I wrote: “A 2CV is the past, days spent going vineyard to vineyard, New Year’s Eve in Guernica Spain …


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 some new revelations about the origin of the Wuhan Flu virus. MSM, Governments Suffer Fastly CDN Internet Outage H.L. mentioned this news, summarized over at Kit Knightly’s Off-Guardian: MSM experiences …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — June 9, 2021

Today is the birthday of Jean Alexandre Francois LeMat (1824–1883), best known for the percussion cap-fired LeMat revolver. It was a clever design, with a nine-shot .42 caliber cylinder revolving around a 20-gauge shotgun barrel.  The LeMat was considered a fairly obscure footnote in firearms history up until some nice replicas (in .44) were manufactured by Pietta, and then it got a lot of screen time in Holywood movies, most notably in Twelve Monkeys and Cold Mountain. On June 9, 1940 Norway surrendered to the invading German army, during World War II. The citizenry was then quickly disarmed by the …


Chainsaw Fuels for Long Term Storage, by Tunnel Rabbit

Even if I do not have time to lay out all that I know about long-term storage of various fuels and the various types of engines that might consume that fuel, perhaps I can pass along some helpful information. As a rule of thumb, I figure I’ll need one gallon of chainsaw gas for every one cord of wood that I cut, and I’ll need half that volume in bar oil. If we can keep a chainsaw running, then that fuel could be of adequate quality to run anything else. Gasoline is much more difficult to store than diesel, and …


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. Firstly, and most importantly, there is this encouraging news: Federal Judge Overturns California’s Assault Weapons Ban.  The full text of the decision can be seen here. JWR’s Comments: Be advised that the automatic stay leaves the door open for a very likely appeal, anytime in the next 25 days. So we can expect this to advance to a Ninth Circuit three-judge …