Month: October 2023

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 king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 20, 2023

On October 20, 1977, a plane carrying the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, known for such songs as Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama, crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi, killing singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, among others. On October 20, 2011, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi was killed by rebel forces following a revolt that received international military assistance. Today is the birthday of the late Tom Petty. (Born October 20, 1950, died October 2, 2017). He was a great singer-songwriter and a passable actor. He had a cameo role as the leader of Bridge City in the movie …


Farming and Prepping As a Lifestyle, by Bulldog

I have lived a prepping/survivalist lifestyle for a lifetime. I was born and raised in the Midwest to parents, who even by mid-20th century standards grew a huge garden every summer. A garden large enough to feed 6-8 large families, either selling or giving the excess to others. They canned and otherwise preserved more produce than anyone I knew at that time. In addition, we milked about 150 head of Holsteins. We were the largest dairy farm in about seven counties. Of course, all of the milk used in the household came out of the bulk milk tank. Prepping was …


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. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the developing shortage of 5.56mm NATO ammunition. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Off the record: silver looks better than gold in 2024 according to LBMA survey. o  o  o Gold SWOT: Could This Be the Start of a New Bull Market in Bullion? o  o  o Higher silver prices needed …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — October 19, 2023

On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted nearly 23 percent, the largest one-day percentage drop in the stock market’s history. — October 19th is also the birthday of three notables– the late Alexander Zeisal “Zus” Bielski (born 1912), investor Jim Rogers (born 1942), and James Howard Kunstler (born 1948). Kunstler is well known to SurvivalBlog readers as the author of the novel World Made by Hand and the nonfiction book The Long Emergency. A fictionalized portrayal of Zus Bielski is seen in the movie Defiance. This movie was loosely based on the excellent book Defiance: The Bielski …


Post-TEOTWAWKI Community and Employment – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Much like society today, those who have “the means of production” control industry, finance, and banking are like the nobles. Those who run the factories and institutions are like the vassals and blue collar and farm workers are like the peasants. So, thinking that in times of great social upheaval when a hundred-plus years of technology disappears, we could see feudal-“like” societies form out of the ashes. This is not far-fetched. Unlike hundreds of years ago, most communities are not self-sufficient. The closest thing to a self-sufficient community today would be Amish …


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, we look at contemporary global military posturing and saber-rattling. Western Allies are Running Out of Ammo for Ukraine In the Left-of-Center Guardian: Western allies say they are running …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“As I will explain, the crash of 1987 was largely a trading event, not a fundamental or economic one. I don’t mean to sound overly boastful, and I certainly do not pretend to be the foremost expert on the crash of 1987, but I do think my vantage point was quite unique for this momentous event in history. Some might say you could blame the whole crash on Dan Rostenkowski. Okay, before you get all worked up, I don’t really blame the crash on Rostenkowski, who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee at the time and had spent many …


Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — October 18, 2023

After much opposition, a deal negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State William Seward for the U.S. purchase of the Russian colony of Alaska was approved, and on this day in 1867 the U.S. flag was flown over the capital, Sitka. — October 18th, 1662 was the birthday of Matthew Henry (died 22 June 1714). He was a Presbyterian minister who lived primarily in Chester, England. Matthew Henry’s six-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (commonly called Matthew Henry’s Commentary) is a must for the bookshelf of any serious Bible scholar. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry …


Post-TEOTWAWKI Community and Employment – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

Humans are no strangers to catastrophe. Through the centuries, civilizations across the earth have succumbed to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, plagues, and crop failures. Regardless of where this took place, or the people it affected, there was a rebuilding of society and life went on. For many of us, we focus on surviving the immediate effects of disaster or catastrophe, but few focus on what comes next, the recovery or rebuilding phase. Just like being prepared to survive the immediate impacts of an incident starts in the years long before the disaster ever strikes, so does preparing for rebuilding our …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: 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. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — A Second Carrier Group Steaming Toward the Med. JWR’s Comments: If you look at U.S. military history, you can see that we’ve primarily been a naval power.  And many of the key turning points in our major wars have been on naval/maritime incidents, namely: Spanish-American War: The sinking of the Maine. World …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — October 17, 2023

On October 17, 1968, the action film Bullitt was released; it features Steve McQueen in what many consider his definitive role and is also known for its iconic car-chase sequence. — On this day in 1835, Texans approved a resolution to create the Texas Rangers– a corps of armed and mounted lawmen designed to “range and guard the frontier between the Brazos and Trinity Rivers”. After winning their revolutionary war with Mexico the following year, Texans decided to keep the Rangers, both to defend against Indian and Mexican raiders and to serve as the principal law enforcement authority along the …