Month: February 2023

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“But let it not be said that we did nothing. Let not those who love the power of the welfare/warfare state label the dissenters of authoritarianism as unpatriotic or uncaring. Patriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security. Understanding the magnificent rewards of a free society makes us unbashful in its promotion, fully realizing that maximum wealth is created and the greatest chance for peace comes from a society respectful of individual liberty.” – Ron Paul


Preparedness Notes for Monday — February 6, 2023

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6th, 1911. I miss Reagan. Those were simpler times, with much less partisan divisiveness.  This video of a performance by comedic juggler Michael Davis attended by both Reagan and Tip O’Neil demonstrates the tenor of those times. — We are still gathering resumes for the ranch caretaker position, in northwestern Montana.  Please let any of your friends or relatives know about this opening, if they meet the qualifications and be interested in relocating. — A special request from JWR: To finish building some antique rifles, I’m in need of a few complete Chilean …


Howell Arms Conversion Cylinder, by Thomas Christianson

I recently received a Howell Arms .45 Colt Conversion Cylinder for my Pietta M1858 cap and ball revolver. The conversion cylinder allows me to fire .45 Colt cartridges (also commonly but erroneously known as .45 Long Colt) through the revolver. After some fitting, it works extremely well, and is a lot of fun to shoot. The Backstory I have previously written a review in SurvivalBlog about the Pietta M1858 cap and ball revolver that I acquired from Elk Creek Company. Shooting a cap and ball revolver is a lot of fun, but loading one is somewhat time-consuming and cumbersome. A …


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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. Most of these items are from JWR’s “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. (See the Economy & Finance section.) Precious Metals: You may have heard that silver tumbled 5.19% on Friday, to $22.57 USD per Troy ounce.  That was attributed to a briefly-strengthening Dollar.  But the Dollar’s prospects look dim for 2023, while the prospects for silver look bright. Buy …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The greater the bureaucratization of public life, the greater will be the attraction of violence. In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one can argue, to whom one can present grievances, on whom the pressures of power can be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless, we have a tyranny without a tyrant.” – Hannah Arendt, On Violence


Preparedness Notes for Sunday — February 5, 2023

Today is the birthday of Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (5 February 1840 – 24 November 1916). He was an American-British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun. Maxim held patents on numerous mechanical devices such as hair-curling irons, a mousetrap, and steam pumps. Maxim claimed to invented the lightbulb. Coincidentally born the same day of the same year was John Boyd Dunlop, the Scottish inventor who invented pneumatic rubber tires. — An Update:  We are now down to just 120 of the SurvivalBlog 2005-2022 Archive waterproof USB sticks. We are not planning …


Spy Balloon? What a Maroon

The mass media has been all abuzz about the transit of what was reportedly a “Chinese Spy Balloon”, over the continental United States (CONUS). There were plenty of conflicting reports. And the Biden Administration did a pathetic job of showing any resolve in defending our airspace. This media circus began on Wednesday evening (February 1, 2023) with some fuzzy pictures taken by residents of Billings, Montana. This news story was released the following morning: Chinese surveillance balloon left Montana, drifting across middle of U.S., Pentagon confirms. And then we learned: Flight data: 3 military aircraft from Spokane went to Montana …



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not a novice, lest …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — February 4, 2023

On February 4, 1945, the Yalta Conference opened with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin meeting to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany. Roosevelt was reportedly weak and ill at the conference. There, they conspired to carve up Europe by marking new boundaries on a National Geographic map. This set the stage for the Cold War, and the statist globalism of the early 21st Century. — We are in need of some entries for Round 105 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running …


The Fed’s Crossroads – Hawkish or Dovish?, by Arkadiusz Sieroń

Editor’s Introductory Note: This guest article was selected by JWR. It was first published by Sunshine Profits, and is reposted with permission. — While Flash US Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) declined further in January, the input inflation accelerated. It’s not clear whether the Fed should become more dovish or hawkish – and that impacts gold. The flash US PMI Composite Output Index registered 46.6 in January, up from 45.0 in December. It implies that the decline in business activity softened to the slowest in three months. But it was a further fall, as each number below 50 means a decrease …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both 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 the Odds ‘n …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The earth is the Lord‘s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — February 3, 2023

On February 3rd, 1959, a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa tragically took the lives of three rising stars in American music: Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley – pictured), J.P. Richardson (aka “The Big Bopper”), and Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela). The day is remembered as “The Day the Music Died.”  Holly had chartered the plane, to avoid the discomfort of the chilly band tour bus. As the story of the Winter Dance Party Tour goes: “Following that night’s show at the Surf Ballroom, guitarist Tommy Allsup lost a coin toss with 17-year-old Ritchie Valens for one of the three …


Butchering Chickens: Slow and Effortful, by Mrs. Alaska

For a decade, we have raised laying hens and enjoyed them immensely, for their eggs, foraging for bugs, and alerting us to predators, as well as for their entertaining antics. We have kept 4-10 at a time, and named them. I have never been able to kill any hens (cockerels yes) or eat those that died. However, I do like to eat chicken, so I thought it time to explore raising and butchering meat chickens. A friend had the same idea. So she bought 25 Cornish cross chicks, which are the ones most commonly raised for meat in the U.S. …