Year: 2025

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — December 27, 2025

A special update on the silver market, from JWR: Spot silver jumped 10.35% in just ONE DAY, on Friday. (December 26, 2025.) So, today set new all-time highs for silver, platinum, and gold. Amazingly, the melt value of one U.S. pre-1965 silver dime is now $5.76.  Today’s silver rally dropped the silver-to-gold price ratio to near 57-to-1. Seeing this happen on a Friday was particularly surprising, since Fridays are the usual “Mischief Days” for the Comex short-selling co-conspirators. Clearly, the Shorts have lost control. You may be asking: What will happen next week?  Look for insanely high new margin requirements, …


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to TEOTWAWKI – Part 4, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 3.) WEAPON It’s important to always maintain situational awareness wherever we are, and even more so when hitchhiking. There was only one time in all my hitchhiking travels where I had a negative experience during a ride. It got to the point where I thought it might be necessary to calmly let the driver know I was armed. A well-dressed guy in a Lincoln Continental gave me a ride. He looked like he was on his way to an important business meeting. We chitchatted for a while and then he made a homosexual proposition. It was out …


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:

“O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — December 26, 2025

On December 26th, 1776, after crossing the Delaware River, Washington led his men against Hessian soldiers garrisoned at Trenton. After a brief battle, nearly the entire Hessian force was captured, with negligible losses to the Americans, significantly boosting their flagging morale. — December 26, 2004: The Indian Ocean region Tsunami took more than 250,000 lives. — And on December 26, 1848, the first gold seekers arrived in Panama en route to San Francisco. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A …


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to TEOTWAWKI – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.) TRAVEL LIGHT The more belongings you have, the less the chances are that you’ll catch a ride in a timely manner. A single backpack will be more appealing than a bunch of gear. One important thing to keep in mind when you get picked up is to never put your gear in the trunk of a car, if at all possible. The chance of anyone driving off with your gear is minimal but as with all things, probabilities have to be weighed against consequences. Bugging out after losing all your gear would be a huge challenge, …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. Economics & Investing Links of Interest Spot silver closed at $72.12 per Troy ounce on Wednesday. Gold, platinum, and palladium were also up, similarly. And also on Wednesday, we saw $77.12 in Shanghai trading! (A huge opportunity for the arb traders.)  Silver in Hong Kong briefly touched $75.62 this morning. For anyone who established their silver stack at below $35 per ounce, this is a logical time to liquidate 5% of your silver holdings, and put the proceeds …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — December 25, 2025

To those who are celebrating the Advent of our Lord and Savior, the team at SurvivalBlog wishes you a peaceful and meaningful Christmas. For those who choose to celebrate our Lord through the Biblical feasts, stay safe and warm. Our prayer is that each and every one of you enjoy the family time and stay safe on the roads. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, …


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to TEOTWAWKI – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) THE BASICS OF TRAVELING BY THUMB To be successful, a hitchhiker must consider several things: 1. Appearance 2. Destination sign 3. Traveling light 4. Gender and group size 5. Having a map 6. Weapon 7. Food and water 8. Money 9. Just can’t get a ride 10. Shelter APPEARANCE Appearance is the single-most important qualification if you want to catch a ride in a timely manner.


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, satellite ‘dogfighting’. U.S. and Chinese Satellites are ‘Dogfighting’ in Orbit Blog staff member Tom Christianson suggested this Washington Post article: Why U.S. and Chinese satellites are ‘dogfighting’ in …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — December 24, 2025

On December 24, 1651, Jan van Riebeeck departed for the Cape of Good Hope to˜found the first permanent European settlement in southern Africa. — And on December 24, 1818, the Christmas carol “Silent Night” composed by Franz Xaver Gruber was first sung at St. Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value), A Peak …


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to TEOTWAWKI – Part 1, by St. Funogas

In case the Powers That Be ask our opinions about how the world as we know it should end, I’m going to recommend the slow-motion kind that takes a few weeks, rather than an instantaneous welcome-to-Teotwawkiville atomic explosion or EMP. That will give die-hard preppers time to top off their supplies and buy that extra pallet of Thin Mints, but more importantly, give those with a bug-out retreat time to get there before the final SHTF events usher us into TEOTWAWKI. For those who find themselves up Schumer Creek with no reliable means of travel to their bug-out location; for …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our 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 F.J. suggested this food for thought, over at Big Think: America’s post-apocalyptic maps reveal eerily familiar fault lines.  (Image Credit: ThaDrummer at DeviantArt.) o  o  o Reader J.L.S. wrote: “Good evening Mr. Rawles I want to make a recommendation for you to add to your list of books on your Bookshelf …