Year: 2024

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, another look at the roaring precious metals markets. (See the Precious Metals section.) Precious Metals: The precious metals bull market is continuing.  The week started with a bang, as spot gold jumped to $2,742.20 (up .47%) and spot silver to $34.28 per Troy ounce (up 3.02%) in Monday morning Asian trading. (That is Sunday evening, …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — October 24, 2024

October 24, 1836: The earliest American patent for a phosphorus friction match by Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts. Originally, these matches were made quite large — essentially a small torch. In England phosphorus matches were called “Congreves” after Sir William Congreve. But they went by the name loco foco in the United States. The Loco Focos became the name of a radical Democrat faction in the U.S. Congress. They earned that name because they brought some of the newly-invented loco foco matches with them to one of their meetings after hearing that their adversaries had plotted to disrupt the …


Hurricane Milton After Action Review – Part 2, by Soyez Ferme

(Continued from Part 1.) Five days prior to landfall Sunday it was time to check the gas in all vehicles and 5-gallon jugs. I had 15 gallons of ethanol free gas for equipment, and I needed to fill up three empty jugs of regular gas for vehicle and farm truck use. I also filled up my truck and my wife’s SUV. This was Sunday before the storm and before panic fuel buying began. My tractor and generator run on diesel. On Sunday I assessed that there was 70 gallons of diesel on hand and that would be enough for getting …


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, we look at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA an Even Bigger Disaster Than the Storms Themselves At American Thinker: FEMA an Even Bigger Disaster Than the …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“It tells me it’s a high priority. And the reason they have the First Amendment is because, you know, the countries people came from, if you spoke your mind, you’d be imprisoned or killed. That’s why you have it. That’s really important. And then the right to bear arms is also really important. That’s there to protect, you know… The Second Amendment is there to protect the First Amendment. As soon as the government can disarm the people, they can do anything they want. And we’ve seen this in one country after another. They take the guns away from the …


Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — October 23, 2024

On October 23, 1819, the first ship sailed through the Erie Canal from Rome, New York to Utica, New York. — October 23, 1944 General Enver Hoxha became “interim” Prime Minister of Albania. He dictatorially retained leadership for 41 years, until his death in 1985. — Today, we also remember the 220 Marines, 18 U.S. Navy Sailors, and three U.S. Army Soldiers who died on this day in 1983 when terrorists attacked the Beruit Barracks. — Seed for Security, LLC has announced its Retirement Sale. Electronic orders will be accepted until November 30, 2024. Mail-in orders will accepted until November …


Hurricane Milton After Action Review – Part 1, by Soyez Ferme

Date and Location: October 9, 2024 — West Coast of Florida, under the eye of Hurricane Milton, inland from landfall. Hurricane winds howled outside, and the rain pelted the windows when the lights flickered for the final time and died. On the darkest of nights as Hurricane Milton unleashed its fury on our rural Florida bunker, my mom confidently stated, “I feel safe here.” After a long, and mostly sleepless night, we rose before dawn to walk the property. What follows is a breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly of our preparedness strategy for weathering a vicious …


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. — SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson sent this: How Israel’s bulky pager fooled Hezbollah. Mike notes: “They even set up fake sources, fake reviews, and YouTube videos with fake Chinglish descriptions. Brilliant.” o  o  o Reader Lodge Pole wrote: “Mr. Rawles, Thank you for your article “Please Pray for Our Nation” published Tuesday, …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — October 22, 2024

On October 22, 1575, the Mexican State of Aguascalientes (one of 32 Federal Entities of Mexico) was founded. The full name of the state is Estado Libre y Soberano de Aguascalientes. Literally, Aguascalientes means: “Hot waters”. JWR Adds:  My maternal grandfather Dewitt Creveling was born December 3, 1903, in Aguascalientes, Mexico. He was the son of an ex-pat American mining engineer.  He liked to say:  “I was born in hot water, and I’ve been in hot water all my life.” On October 22, 1934, infamous criminal Charles (“Pretty Boy”) Floyd was fatally shot in a field near East Liverpool, Ohio, …


Our Hurricane Experience in South Carolina, by K.U.

We live in a rural county about 60 miles from Augusta, Georgia. The night of September 26th, 2024 was one we never thought we’d experience so far inland. A full-blown hurricane was upon us (winds were recorded at 80-100mph in our county). We awoke early on the 27th to no power and 1 bar of very spotty cell service. We built our house on a hill and made sure that no trees were nearby, so our house had minimal damage. We had some water come in and down a wall from the chimney, but plan to fix that with a …


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 located in the American Redoubt region that are of interest to preppers and survivalists. Today, a look at fall colors, throughout the American Redoubt region. Idaho Clip – Idaho Falls fall foliage! (Scroll forward to 1:40.) o  o  o An injured hunter rescued by helicopter. o  o  o Video: Driving a Beautiful, Unknown Road into the Idaho Mountains. o  o  o …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — October 21, 2024

October 21st, 1805: In one of the most decisive naval battles in history, a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the coast of Spain. At sea, Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy consistently thwarted Napoleon Bonaparte, who led France to preeminence on the European mainland. Nelson’s last and greatest victory against the French was the Battle of Trafalgar, which began after Nelson caught sight of a Franco-Spanish force of 33 ships. Preparing to engage the enemy force on October 21, Nelson divided his 27 ships into …