Day: July 15, 2024

Preparedness Notes for Monday — July 15, 2024

July 15, 1410:  The Battle of Grunwald (First Battle of Tannenburg, Battle of Žalgiris), one of Medieval Europe’s largest battles during the Poland-Lithuanian Teutonic War. Polish King Władysław Jagiełło and Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas defeated the Teutonic Ulrich von Jungingen. The painting of the battle (above) was rendered by Jan Matejko. — On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon‘s Egyptian Campaign. — Today’s feature article is a review written by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.


Valley GTDB-48 Ditch Bank Blade, by Thomas Christianson

Prologue: The Dacian Wars: 101-102 and 105-106 AD During all of their far-flung campaigns, the Roman Legions had never faced a weapon as fearsome as the Dacian falx (“sickle”). The large falx was a two-handed weapon with a roughly 3-foot blade mounted on a roughly 3 foot handle. The long handle provided a tremendous amount of leverage, giving the weapon enough power to split a legionnaire’s helmet or shield with a single blow. After seeing a large number of Roman corpses with gruesome head wounds, the armorers accompanying the legions adopted a field expedient: they riveted two transverse reinforcing iron …


Recipe of the Week: Chocolate Zucchini or Carrot Cake

The following recipe for Chocolate Zucchini or Carrot Cake is from SurvivalBlog reader Mrs. Alaska. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl: 2.5 c flour ¼ c cocoa powder 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp baking powder 1.5 c sugar or 1 ¼ c honey   Mix the following: Mix ½ c milk with 1 tsp white vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes to sour OR ½ c plain yogurt or sour cream plus water at the end to saturate the batter, if needed.  (I routinely need to add ¼ – 1/3 cup additional water to saturate the batter …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic, suggested by reader P.B., shows US Counties by Population Density. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)       (Note: The graphic above is click-expandable.) It is noteworthy that only 1.52% of Americans live in the dark blue shaded areas. — Please send your graphic ideas to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.