Year: 2023

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 possibility of another gold confiscation. (See the Precious Metals section.) Precious Metals: Reader H.L. mentioned this, over at Doug Casey’s International Man: Don’t Dismiss the Possibility of Gold Confiscation. JWR’s Comment:  This is just one more reason to have a precious metals portfolio that is heavy on silver. Confiscating all of the …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — September 7, 2023

On September 7, 1876, the Younger Brothers, a group of American outlaws who were often allied with Jesse James, were captured following an unsuccessful bank robbery. Today is the birthday of novelist Taylor Caldwell (born 1900 – August 30, 1985). Today is the birthday of Dr. Ludwig Vorgrimler (born 1912 in Freiburg, Germany; died 1983). Vorgrimler was the designer of the Spanish CETME rifle, from which sprang a plethora of roller-lock descendants from HK, including the G3, HK21, and MP5. His bolt design was also copied by the Swiss for their excellent PE57 and SIG 510 rifles. (Although the Swiss …



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, war drums and police chases. 10-Year Anniversary Prepper Camp 2023 The 10-year anniversary gathering for Prepper Camp 2023 will be held September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2023, in …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 6, 2023

On September 6th 1901,  Republican William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States (1897–1901), was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and died eight days later. — September 6th, 1757 is the birthday of Marquis de Lafayette (often known simply as Lafayette), a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. (Sept. 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834) came to America at age 19 and served meritoriously in the American Revolution at his own expense. He was also instrumental in convincing the French king and his ministers …


A Local Disaster Network – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.) There are two additional items required to run a Raspberry Pi – a microSD card for storage and a power supply. I’ve set up, configured and run dozens of Raspberry Pis since they came out in 2012, and 90% of all of the problems I’ve ever encountered with them are the result of either a bad microSD card or inadequate power supply, so you don’t want to cheap out on either. For the microSD card I strongly recommend using a SanDisk MAX ENDURANCE model of at least 64GB, but bigger is always better, so get a …


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. — I heard from SurvivalBlog reader T.D.H. about a nifty and inexpensive way to efficiently store 30-round AR-15 rifle magazines. By coincidence, the dimensions of small, stackable Sterlite plastic storage crates are perfect to fit 12 of the 30-round PMAGs. These fit tightly in these crates if the magazines are left in their …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — September 5, 2023

On September 5th, 1836, Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas. — Ready Made Resources is running a Labor Day Sale on a L3 Commercial Grade with PVS-14 Night Vision Monocular/Weapon sight package with a 10-Year Warranty for $4,299.  In this package, you will get: One L3 Unfilmed White Phosphor Commercial Grade (Unit and Spec Sheet Only), One Wilcox G24 Lite with Dovetail J-Arm, One Bump Helmet, and On Pelican case. You’ll save $310 by buying this package.  Take note that USSOCOM and JSOC have chosen white phosphor tubes as their new standard and are now taking …


Opportunity for Retreat Group Membership in a Secure Bug Out Location

I currently have a consulting client who lives full-time with his family on a highly productive farm in Kansas. He has asked me to use SurvivalBlog to add a family to his retreat group. Unlike the caretaker position (which was a salaried position) posted earlier this year, this is not a paying job, but if you have the qualifications think of your response as the first step toward a potential space for you and your family in a lifeboat which in a collapse scenario could be very important. Imagine if the collapse has occurred and instead of being stuck in …


A Local Disaster Network – Part 1, by J.M.

There have been a number of articles on SurvivalBlog on the use of mobile devices like cell phones and tablets in survival/disaster scenarios (including one I wrote – ‘Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI’ parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). In that article, I briefly introduced the idea of setting up and using a home server/network infrastructure for a disaster scenario, which can provide you with a lot of options for planning, organizing, coordinating, sharing, and communicating information among your team, family, group, or community. In this article, I’ll discuss one possible approach for configuring such an infrastructure for disaster situations. …


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 a charging bear incident.  (See the Montana section.) Region-Wide CBS video: The movement to shrink Oregon and expand Idaho. o  o  o ‘Unusually snowy’: Farmers’ Almanac predicts snowy, wet winter for region. o  o  o An un-narrated three-minute CBS video: Nature: The …