Year: 2024

Making Wine At Home – Part 1, by H.F.K.

People have been making wine for almost as long as there have been people. In the Bible, we’re told that Noah, after disembarking from the ark, “was the first to plant a vineyard.” (Genesis 9:21) This article will give you some how-tos, whats, and whsy on making wine at home, as well as a brief description of how I got into it. How I got started on making wine at home The first time a friend of mine, Pastor B., visited our home, he gave us a bottle of homemade apricot wine. It was incredible. I picked his brain on …


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 record-high gold futures prices, in Dollar terms. (See the Precious Metals section.) Precious Metals:   Published on Tuesday: ‘We Have Liftoff!’ – Spot Gold Takes Out Record High.  JWR’s Comments: The fundamentals of gold haven’t changed, as a hedge. It is the U.S. Dollar that is showing its inherent weakness.  Oh, and …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — March 7, 2024

On March 7, 1778, Captain James Cook first sighted the Oregon coast at Yaquina Bay. March 7, 1707 was the birthday of Stephen Hopkins, (Governor of Rhode Island) one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. And March 7, 1944 was the birthday of Townes Van Zandt, a gifted Texan singer/songwriter. (He died in 1997.) — Update: We are running out of 2005-2023 SurvivalBlog archive USB sticks. There are only about 200 left. Many readers are ordering 2, 3, or 4 sticks. There will not be another batch of sticks produced this year, so get your order in soon. …


Separett Waterless Composting Toilet, by OhioGalt

Not the most comfortable topic to discuss but closing up the cabin last week I realized that our toilet has been problem-free for many years and worthy of a brief review to share with the readers of SurvivalBlog. I did not receive any compensation for this review, and we purchased this unit four years ago and have been using it regularly. We installed a composting toilet in our cabin several years ago for those times we didn’t want to trudge 300′ through the snow to the outhouse. My wife and I watched numerous video reviews of different composting toilets in …


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, a further examination of emigration from northeastern “blue” states. Five Million People Have Fled ‘Blue States’ in the Last Decade A Moneywise report: ‘One of the biggest mass …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The churches represent the great area of freedom from statist controls in many countries. This is a condition which the modern state finds intolerable and is determined to alter. The state’s great ally in this struggle is all too often the church itself. The humanism of so many churchmen makes them dedicated allies of statist objectives.” – R.J. Rushdoony, Christianity and the State


Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — March 6, 2024

On March 6, 1475 Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti—who exerted an unparalleled influence on Western sculpture, painting, and architecture and whose works rank among the most famous in existence—was born in the Republic of Florence. Today is the birthday of Georg Johann Luger (March 6, 1849 – December 22, 1923). He was the Austrian designer of the famous Luger pistol and the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. March 6th was the birthday of Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr., born in 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. This U.S. Air Force pilot and astronaut was aboard Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. Cooper had his exploits …


Taurus TH9 Pistol, by Thomas Christianson

The Taurus TH9 is a full-sized, hammer-fired, SA/DA, semi-automatic, polymer-framed, 9mm handgun with a 17 round magazine capacity. It is reliable, accurate, and reasonably priced, with a manufacturer-suggested retail price of $389.99 Background I am a big fan of single action/double action handguns with decockers. I have been ever since my son first let me fire his Beretta 92FS. I like the extra measure of deliberation that the double action mode requires in a first shot, and the greater accuracy that the single action mode makes possible in followup shots. I really appreciated this feature in one of my all-time …


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. — A blog reader in Tasmania sent a snail mail letter, warning of a “regulatory change” that will soon go into effect, canceling the long-standing “Exemption 4” for antique guns. The law redefinition requires registration, making an application for a “limited individual exemption”, upgrades to existing firearms licenses, and “gun cupboard” storage of …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 5, 2024

On March 5, 1963, American country and western singer Patsy Cline—who was one of the classic performers of the genre, known for such ballads as I Fall to Pieces and Crazy—died in an airplane crash near Camden, Tennessee, at age 30. Also killed in the crash were Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Randy  Hughes. This is the birthday of Howard Pyle (1853-1911) an influential American book illustrator, painter, and author. He was the mentor of many great American artists including Thornton Oakley, Frank E. Schoonover, Allen Tupper True, and of course his most famous student: N.C. Wyeth. March 5th is …


An Illegal Alien Military Invasion, by Mike in Alaska

The united States of America has been invaded by an illegal alien military force almost equal to what is termed a Field Army. I am going to focus on one report of illegal aliens crossing the border from Mexico, and in particular the breakdown of data of who those illegals are, and where they came from. The data in the list below is courtesy of Newsmax.com I had two concerns; the sheer number of aliens caught and processed and released at a checkpoint in Texas, and the demographic breakdown of this group.(1) Using their numbers, I am going to break …


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 the Snake River dams.   (See the Region-Wide section.) Region-Wide Reader A.K. spotted this slanted opinion piece from the hard-left Idaho Capital [sic] Sun newspaper-lookalike website): Rewilding the Lower Snake : How cultural values of a free flowing river exceed those of a …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“All of anarchism, libertarianism, and anti-Statism can be traced back to the rise of Protestantism. The USA – founded by Protestants (often extremist Protestants expelled from their own countries) is where the love of the individual and hatred of the collective is practically written into its Constitution, which is extremely Protestant in its character.” – Steve Madison, The Quality Agenda: The Search for Excellence