Preparedness Notes for Monday — April 3, 2023

This is the birthday of Washington Irving, an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for short stories like Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but he also wrote several biographies and served as the US Ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. — Today’s feature article is a review written by our Filed Gear Editor, Thomas Christianson. But first, the results of the writing contest judging.




Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced — Round 105

We’ve completed the judging for Round 105 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize-winning writers are: First Prize First Prize goes to Greg X., for Finding, Buying, and Improving My Bugout Location.  (Posted March 14-16, 2023.  See: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) He will receive the following prizes: 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 …




DPx Gear HEST Framelock Urban OD Knife, by Thomas Christianson

With a CPM 154 martensitic stainless steel blade and a titanium alloy frame, the DPx Gear HEST Framelock Urban OD knife is made of some of the highest quality knife making materials known to mankind, and is designed for a lifetime of hard use. It takes an excellent edge and holds it well, but can be difficult to re-hone once it becomes dull. Designed and manufactured in these United States, the knife offers an excellent, albeit somewhat pricey option for everyday carry ($280 at the time of writing from dpxgear.com). The Backstory As a part of my ongoing quest to …




Recipe of the Week: Pasta Va Zul

The following Pasta Va Zul recipe is from reader Nurse Michele. She writes: “This is a simple pasta dish that has been around for centuries. I learned it from my Naples-born grandmother. She never wrote it down, or measured any ingredients. And, for years, neither did I. But at the request of friends some years ago, I paid attention as I made a pot of it and wrote the amounts and specific steps as I went, so that I could pass it along. And, Ecola! (Italian equivalent to Voila!)… a tasty, filling, nutritious and affordable recipe.” Ingredients 2 (15 oz) …




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, more about the developing global banking crisis. Precious Metals: We’ll start off today’s column with a video of excerpts from a presentation by Mike Maloney: “Change is Coming That Hasn’t Happened In 100 Years” – World Dumps US Dollar. o  o  o At Gold-Eagle.com: Gold price sees triple-digit gains in March, but can it set …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“If you are for gun control, then you are not against guns, because the guns will be needed to disarm people. So it’s not that you are anti-gun. You’ll need the police’s guns to take away other people’s guns. So you’re very pro-gun; you just believe that only the Government (which is, of course, so reliable, honest, moral and virtuous…) should be allowed to have guns. There is no such thing as gun control. There is only centralizing gun ownership in the hands of a small political elite and their minions.” – Stefan Molyneux