Month: October 2024

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 …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 18, 2024

On October 18, 1009, the 500-year-old Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who ordered the church’s foundations to be hacked down to the bedrock. According to the InfoGalactic Wiki: “Al-Hakim’s son allowed Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos to reconstruct the church, which was completed in 1048. After it was captured by the Crusaders in 1099, it continued to undergo modifications, resulting in a significant departure from the original structure.” — October 18th, 1662 was the birthday of Matthew Henry. (He died 22 June 1714.) He was a Presbyterian minister who lived …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 3, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 2.) Operating the M1941 In Extreme Weather I’ve found that the M1941 at -30F will provide adequate heat for a cabin that is not insulated and that is no more than 300 square feet in size. It will keep you comfortable and the water in the plumbing flowing if those pipes are exposed to the cabin’s interior. It will burn 6 to 8 loads of wood every 24 hours at that temperature depending on the type of wood used and how it was processed or split. One load of wood will fill a 6-gallon plastic bucket. Larger …


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 Biden Administration’s LNG Export Ban. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: Spot gold jumped to $2,708.70 per Troy ounce on Thursday morning, in Asian trading. That was another all-time high. And on Wednesday, spot silver briefly touched $32.40. Although there may be some short-term profit-taking, I expect to see gold in …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — October 17, 2024

On October 17, 1777, British General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga. — 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 sparsely populated Texas frontier. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 115 of the SurvivalBlog …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued From Part 1.) The Simple Wood Stove In a small, well-insulated home, or not so well-insulated home, even if it is only a tent, heating a smaller area requires less fuel and effort to make a comfortable space in which to live. In some cases this might be just a temporary shelter during the winter months. In the 1800s, living in a small one-room wood cabin that housed an entire family meant less wood had to be cut by hand. My grandpa raised a family of 10 in a dirt-floor cabin built from logs on his Missouri farm during …


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, more war drums… 80% of Americans Fear WWIII is Imminent Reader H.L. spotted this: 80% of Americans fear World War III is imminent. An excerpt: “The survey, which …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — October 16, 2024

On October 16, 1950, the first edition of C.S. Lewis‘ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was released in London. — October 16, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis began as President Kennedy was shown photos confirming the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. — We are running a 2-week-long sale at Elk Creek Company.  Until October 28th, 2024, all of our pre-1899 shotguns have their prices deeply discounted. Most of these can fire modern 12 gauge 2-1/2″ or 2-3/4″ shotgun shells. Take a look! — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 115 of the SurvivalBlog …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

In my most recent article titled Practical Wood Stoves, I discussed affordable and durable conventional wood stoves for the home in a general way. An early 1980s Forester wood stove was the focus for that class of stove. There are a plethora of wood stoves on the market. When selecting an appliance that we may very well depend upon day in and day out for the next decade to provide life-sustaining heat, we must be careful not to settle on what is on hand or what looks good in the home, and certainly not what is the most affordable. I …


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. — Reader B.G. in Oregon sent us a news item: Washington Woman’s Home Mobbed by 100 Raccoons. o  o  o A video review of interest to Van Lifers, as well as off-grid preppers: Starlink Mini In-Depth Setup and Review.  JWR’s Comment: He mentioned that a shorter 12 VDC power cable will soon be …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — October 15, 2024

October 15, 1522: King of Spain Charles V named Hernán Cortés governor of Mexico. — On October 15, 1529, the Ottoman armies under Suleiman ended their siege of Vienna and turned back to Belgrade. — On October 15, 1764, Edward Gibbon observed a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspired him to begin work on writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. — Herbert W. McBride, the author of A Rifleman Went To War, was born in Waterloo, Indiana October 15, 1873. He died in Indianapolis of a …