Preparedness Notes for Thursday — March 9, 2023

On this day in 1862 during the American Civil War, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia (formerly Merrimack) battled in the harbor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, marking the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. Today is the birthday of writer John McPhee (b. 1931), a master of creative nonfiction. One of McPhee’s most widely read books is Coming into the Country, which eloquently describes the Alaskan wilderness. March 9th is the birthday of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin – the first man to ever travel in space. He was born in 1934 and died in the crash of a MiG-15-UTI fighter …




‘Aging Out’ of Prepping: I Think Not!, by The Wild Hare

There was recently a request for a SurvivalBlog article on “aging out” of being an active prepper. The article request mentioned: “Things that sounded so doable 20 years ago are no longer possible for us. Looking at TEOTWAWKI from closer to 80 than 50 is a whole different kettle of fish.” (SurvivalBlog, February 23, 2023.) I’d never heard the term ‘aging out’ until JWR thoughtfully lit me up like a Christmas Tree in suggesting this as a writing contest topic. I’ll take the bait, because what this 78-year-old prepper has heard is the relentlessly ticking clock getting louder each year …




The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is 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. In today’s column, some further details on the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment. Ohio Train Derailment: Separating Fact From Fiction H.L. sent this, from The New York Times: Ohio Train Derailment: …