Year: 2023

Moving to the Country: If Not Now, When? – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued From Part 1.) Design Features and Customizations Every place I’ve ever lived had a large living room and a smaller kitchen. I made the kitchen the largest room in the house since we spend a lot of time cooking, baking, and playing board games. There’s a loft on both sides of the kitchen leaving an 18’ ceiling with a large skylights above, giving the room a much larger feeling as well as making it bright and cheery, even on cloudy days. There’s a large 4’ x 6’ picture window to enjoy the view. The cat wanted 8” wide window …


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. — Our Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson suggested this 2011-dated CDC report: Noise and Lead Exposures at an Outdoor Firing Range. Here is a key quote from the report:  “The only potentially effective noise control method to reduce students’ or instructors’ noise exposure from gunfire is through the use of noise suppressors that can …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — April 4, 2023

On the 4th of April, 1291 the siege of Acre began. A 220,000-man strong Mamluk Muslim army besieged 15,000 knights of different orders — including the Teutonic, Templar, and Hospitalier. This was one of the most important battles of the Crusades. Despite being outnumbered, the knights fiercely-defended the city, meanwhile evacuating women and children. The city fell on April 18. And 10 days later the last seaside Templar tower was conquered. The surviving Christians were enslaved. This was the end of the Jerusalem crusades. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 106 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction …


Moving to the Country: If Not Now, When? – Part 1, by St. Funogas

With winter ebbing and spring headed our way, some folks are probably thinking a little more frequently about getting out of the city once and for all. Having “been there done that,” it saddens me to read comments on SurvivalBlog from people wanting to start living a simpler more self-reliant lifestyle in the country but they just can’t seem to make it happen. For some of those, I’m confident they could turn their hopes into reality if they could learn to think out of the box, rethink normalcy, toss some of their fears aside, and make some sacrifices to make …


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 cover the rollout of high-speed Internet to American Redoubt locales. Region-Wide The national broadband map still looks patchy, in the Redoubt. o  o  o Starlink internet coverage, cost, speeds and the latest news — what you need to know. o  o  o Eastern Oregonians …



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


Preparedness Notes for Sunday — April 2, 2023

Today is the birthday of Sergei Ivanovich Mosin (Apr 2, 1849 – February 8, 1902.)  He was a Russian military officer, engineer, and co-designer of the Mosin-Nagant rifle. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 106 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: 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 …


When War Comes – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) The People’s Land Army During the Second World War, young women were enlisted to leave the cities to go work in the countryside on English farms. Given that our modern Argibusiness will fall due to the lack of replacement/repair parts, Bio-robots will need be used, that is humans. There is a long history of the draft for war for conscripting soldiers and sailors but what about a draft for factory and farm workers? We may have a clue that “conscription” for non-military functions may be planned for our post-apocalypse life. In the …