Year: 2024

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 25, 2024

On January 25, 1971, Idi Amin Dada seized power in Uganda. His rule from 1971 to 1979 was characterized by human rights abuse, political repression, and corruption. On January 25, 1915: In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service. Today is the birthday of celebrated Scottish poet Robert “Bobby” Burns. He was born on January 25, 1759. — 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 …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.) 5. Meals and Menus for Day One and First Week This may seem like a silly priority item but read on. There term “menu” is being used very loosely. My DOM Action List 1. Keep freeze-dried foods in plain sight on the table. 2. Check cabinets for other easily-prepared foods and put on the table. First and foremost: Do NOT open the fridge/freezer to get food for meals! During my 10-day preps test I lost 6 lbs (and I’m not overweight to begin with) mostly because I was so busy and didn’t want to have to …


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 further examine homesteading self-sufficiency. Millennials are Giving Up City Life to Start Homesteading This piece was published by the editors of Business Insider: Why millennials are giving …



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 …