Month: January 2024

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 24, 2024

On January 24, 1984, Apple Computer unveiled its original Macintosh personal computer. January 24th is the birthday of René Barjavel (born 1911, died November 24, 1985). This prescient French science fiction author wrote several books with survivalist themes, including Ravage, which was titled Ashes, Ashes in its English translation. Today is also the birthday of Tamara K., the editor of the long-running View From The Porch blog. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 110 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) Now, let’s dive in. My Day One TEOTWAWKI Manual Table of Contents 1. Do This First! 2. Don’t Do This! 3. Round Up the Group 4. Freezer and Refrigerator Contents 5. Meals and Menus 6. Fuel 7. Electricity: Generator 8. Lighting 9. Electricity: Using Car Batteries 10. Electricity: Whole-house Solar Panels 11. Inventory 12. Water 13. Sanitation 14. Garbage Management 15. DOM Copies for Neighbors 16. Defense 17. Nuclear war preps Points 1-4 are ultra critical for any prepper’s manual and must have the highest priority in order to prevent wasting important and/or irreplaceable resources as …


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’m pleased to report that the waterproof 2005-2023 Archive USB sticks are now being mailed, a full week ahead of schedule. We expect to mail out about 150 sticks each weekday.  We’ve already received more than 750 orders for more than 1,400 sticks, and dozens of new orders are coming in daily, …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day: 

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.” – Justice Louis Brandeis


Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 23, 2024

Birthday of Larry Dean Olsen (January 23, 1939 — December 26, 2018.) He died December 26, 2018 at Miracle Hot Springs in Buhl, Idaho. He was born in Wendell, Idaho, on January 23, 1939, to parents Dean and Lola Olsen and grew up in Jerome, Idaho. Larry was widely recognized as the father of modern primitive survival education. He was the author of the international bestseller Outdoor Survival Skills, which was first printed in 1967 and widely considered the classic definitive book on the subject. On January 23, 1556, an earthquake in Shaanxi, China, killing an estimated 830,000 people. Counting …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 1, by St. Funogas

Last year I did a 10-day test of my preps. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) It was the most important prepping activity I’ve every done and a real eye-opener to say the least. I found it an enjoyable experience that required a lot of problem-solving. For 2024, I highly recommend such a test of our preps, even if only for a few days. How about during a week’s vacation? I promise it’ll be one of your most memorable and educational. As the test began, I quickly I discovered I only had a very fuzzy idea of what …


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 winter weather and weather-related car crashes. Region-Wide Feds begin process of considering restoration of grizzlies in Bitterroot ecosystem. o  o  o Air Force to host ‘Sentinel’ public meetings in Lewistown and Great Falls. A pericope: “The U.S. Air Force will host town …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — January 22, 2024

January 22, 1879: In the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, a British garrison of 139 soldiers held off an estimated 4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses and a number of other decorations were awarded to the defenders. The image above is a still from the well-known 1964 movie Zulu, that fairly accurately showed the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. On January 22, 1944, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy. — The 2005-2023 SurvivalBlog Archive USB sticks are selling very quickly. Many folks are ordering 2, 3, or more. One reader ordered ten sticks. Last week, I posted a list of the …


ALPS Mountaineering Felis 4 Tent, by Thomas Christianson

Last Spring, my wife “Kari”, my daughter “Rivka”, and I were doing some initial planning for our summer camping excursions. In the course of that planning, we begin to discuss my tent. Rivka said that she wanted to borrow the old tent for a solo excursion that she had planned. I was not 100% comfortable with that idea. The tent had frankly seen better days. I was well acquainted with its quirks, foibles, flaws, and tricks. With that knowledge, I felt like I could safely use the tent for another season. But I just did not feel that I could …


Recipe of the Week:  Raisin-Walnut Cheese Spread

The following simple recipe for Raisin-Walnut Cheese Spread is from Good HouseKeeping’s Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries (253 pages, copyright 1926, now in public domain). That is one of the 11 new bonus books included in the new 2005-2023 edition of the SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. Ingredients 5 small packages of cream cheese 1 cupful raisins 1 cupful walnut-meats, chopped 1 cupful coconut (shredded) 2 tablespoonfuls lemon- juice Directions Mix the listed ingredients all together with the hand, working it into a little, round, flat mold, saving out enough coconut to roll it in. SERVING This recipe makes …


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 electric car woes, in cold weather. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: At Zero Hedge: First Costco, Now Walmart? Major Retailers Now Offer Gold Bars. o  o  o Keith Weiner: The Anti-Concepts of Money: Stagflation. Economy & Finance: Federal Reserve Payments to Banks Trigger Largest Ever Operating Loss. JWR’s Comments: It is a …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — January 21, 2024

On January 21, 1506, Swiss Guards first arrived at the Vatican as watchmen for the pope. On January 21, 1525, the Swiss Anabaptist Movement began when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz’s mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. This movement led to great consternation in the Catholic church, persecution, and the eventual dislocation of many Anabaptist dissidents, including the followers of Jakob Ammann – The “Amish.” Confederate General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was born on January 21, 1824 in Clarksburg, West Virginia. His statue …


An Appeal for Unity, by SaraSue

I had a really strange experience recently that I will relay in a bit.  The net-net of it was that it got me to thinking about how Christians and homesteaders need to put their squabbles aside and join forces, as do most Americans.  JWR talks a lot about finding “like-minded” people, and there’s a good reason for that.  People who think alike and do things similarly, tend to get along better, and are therefore more productive.  In our modern day, that is often referred to as “tribalism”, and some folks are for that idea and some are not.  “Diversity is …