Month: January 2022

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 6, 2022

January 6th, 1745 was the birthday of Jacques and James Montgolfier, the twin brothers who pioneered hot air ballooning. Today is also the birthday of musician Earl Scruggs, (1924-2012) — A special prayer request:  Mike, a good friend up in the great white north, wrote to tell me that he has just been diagnosed with advanced cancer in both lungs, and several other organs. Please say a special prayer for Mike, for miraculous healing. SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 98 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The …


Actionable Information on COVID 19 – Part 1, by J.B.H.

Like many, I have spent arguably too much time over the last few years researching COVID 19 and many things related. I have listened to Presidents (Okay I don’t listen to Biden), health officials, pundits in the news and friends. I have read more medical studies than ever before in my life. I have read numerous articles from all sources and read thousands of comments regarding those articles, many of which have sent me to yet more articles and studies. The country, and world for that matter, is clearly divided on many of the issues surrounding COVID 19. How severe …


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 collapse of empires Inside The Rock: Operation Tracer Over at Notes From The Bunker, my friend Commander Zero offered this amazing bit of WW2 history, inside the Rock of …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 5, 2022

My sincere thanks to the 83 readers who responded to my post yesterday, requesting Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions. Several folks sent $100, one sent $200, and one sent $365–presumably as a “catch-up’  payment for a decade of reading the blog without previously subscribing. Your generous support is greatly appreciated! — January 5th, 1855 was the birthday of King Camp Gillette (pictured), who invented the safety razor. — Today is also the birthday of actor Robert Duvall (born 1931.) His roles in Open Range and Apocalypse Now are unforgettable. — This is also the birthday of General Courtney Hodges (born 1887 …


Review: A Light, A Battery, A Book, and A Radio, by Thomas Christianson

Editor’s Introductory Note:  This review was written by a long-time content contributor to SurvivalBlog who wrote his articles under the pen name “The Novice.”  Thomas Christianson just had his name added to our masthead. Since he will be a paid member of the SurvivalBlog editorial staff, he will no longer be eligible for our writing contest. — From time to time in my daily life, I run across items that may be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This article is a collection of short reviews about some of those items. These items include a heat-powered lantern, a battery bank, a …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: responses to posted articles, 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 Jim. L. sent this: How tech’s richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse. o  o  o An interesting study that I heard about by way of the American Partisan site: The effects of QuikClot Combat Gauze and Celox Rapid on hemorrhage control. JWR’s Comment: It appears that QuikClot provides superior clotting. But note that …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Speculative stock #bubbles ultimately see the gamblers take on too much debt. #MarginDebt popularity accelerates at peaks. At this point the market is dancing on a knife’s edge. Passive investing’s IQ drain, and #stonksgoup hype, add to the danger… …The first step is to recognize that 5:1 is not a natural ratio. It is a product of a paradigm. So what will continue this paradigm? What may reverse it? This is the knife’s edge, because we are at 5:1. It may go to 100:1. Or become -5:-1. But parabolas don’t resolve sideways.” – Dr. Michael Burry, from March 2020 tweets …


Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 4, 2022

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 …


Supporting SurvivalBlog, Post-Amazon

We make just one appeal for Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions each year, and for 2022, this is it: As most SurvivalBlog readers know, we severed all ties with Amazon, in January of 2021. With their blatant censorship and unconscionable business practices, we simply couldn’t continue any partnership with them. Quitting the Amazon Associates program has cost us more than $30,000 per year in commissions. We had hoped that the number of Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions would greatly increase, but unfortunately, they only went up by about 10% — not nearly enough to make up for what we lost in leaving Amazon. …


Reflections of an Aging Prepper, by Wayne Bosak

I was a city boy, but my wife was a country girl. In our early years while raising young children we learned how to garden and my wife used the skills she had learned from her mother preserving the food we raised. Raising our own food had become a way of life. After ten years of married life living in the city life we moved to rural Tennessee. For me, it was a huge change, but one that I embraced fully. Sometime during that first year in the rural life, I realized that I had found my home and lifestyle. …


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 JK Armament solvent traps. (See the Idaho section.) Region-Wide Jeremy LaGoo’s 2021-2022 winter forecast: What La Niña could bring to Spokane, North Idaho. o  o  o After a brief price spike, forestry experts now say that log prices are back down to …




Zero Tolerance 0357BW, by Pat Cascio

Before Zero Tolerance (ZT) knives came out, I was touring the Kershaw Knives factory, and I was sworn to secrecy, about the new ZT line of knives that they were coming out with. Needless to say, it was hard to keep it all secret, but I did. Many months later, the ZT line of knives became a reality. I had several samples of the first ZT knives given to me during the tour, and several more were sent to me, for testing some time after my tour. I was really impressed with the products I saw and tested – and …