Month: March 2025

Vala Alta Irish Linen Handkerchiefs, by Thomas Christianson

Other than using cotton balls for starting fires, it is generally best to avoid cotton for field use. Cotton fabric tends to attract and retain moisture, at which point it becomes uncomfortable and loses its insulating value. As a result, “cotton kills” has become a common saying regarding wearing cotton in the field. Although there are not too many situations in which one’s life might depend on the insulating value of their handkerchief, there are many times when one’s comfort is dependent upon that article being dry. Linen handkerchiefs provide a stronger and faster drying alternative to cotton handkerchiefs. As …


Recipe of the Week:

The following recipe for Potato-SPAM patties is from SurvivalBlog reader Richard T.. He writes: “This is a variation of the Bean-Potato patty recipe that I submitted in the May 9, 2022 SurvivalBlog. The variation is more in the equipment to make it than in the recipe itself. The result is a more dense patty with more surface on the cast iron pan surface to get toasty. The ingredients listed in this version are for a one-person serving.” Ingredients One small russet potato Half a yellow onion 1 slice of SPAM 1 tablespoon of quick oats Salt Red pepper flakes, Cooking …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

SurvivalBlog reader D.S.V. pointed us to today’s graphic:  Map of America’s Abandoned Railroad Tracks. (Graphic courtesy of the fascinating  Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit website.) The thumbnail below is click-expandable.     Or, better yet, open the map directly in Google Maps, for a nice detailed and zoomable view. — Please send your graphics or graphics links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 23, 2025

Today is the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” speech. It was delivered to the Second Virginia Revolutionary Convention meeting at St. John’s Church, Richmond, on March 23, 1775. — March 23, 1839: The first recorded use of “OK” [for an editor’s “oll korrect” notation] at the Boston’s Morning Post. — Today is the birthday of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. He directed 30 films. His samurai films (many starring Toshiro Mifune) such as Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Hidden Fortress, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, and Ran are considered legendary in the cinema world. — …


Food Prepping With Freezer Bags – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) The Final Answer: How Reliable Are Freezer Bags For Storing Food? The most important questions these experiments were trying to answer is how reliable freezer bags are as a food-storage method? Do they work for the short term? And how well will they work for the long term? Thinner sandwich bags are definitely a bad way to go. Pests had chewed through the plastic in just a few months. Pantry moths in my cupboard also had no trouble chewing through the foil packets of hot chocolate or getting under the lid of …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: Kinda Funny, How Just Three Years Ago, Woke Liberal Virtue Signalling Was Buying A Tesla But Now, It Is Burning Them With Molotov Cocktails News Links: Tesla Impact Report 2020 Details How its EVs Are More Environmentally Friendly than ICE Vehicles. Violent attacks on Tesla dealerships spike as Musk takes prominent role in Trump White House. Doxing website that shows personal details of Tesla owners has Molotov cocktail as cursor: report. Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed, and went …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — March 22, 2025

On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act passed. This imposed the first direct British tax on American colonists. It was organized by Prime Minister George Grenville. — March 22nd is the birthday of Benjamin Tyler Henry (March 22, 1821–December 29, 1898). He was an American gunsmith and manufacturer. On October 16, 1860, he received a patent on the Henry .44 caliber repeating rifle. The first Henry rifles were not produced for Union Army use until mid-1862. — This is also the birthday of novelist Louis L’Amour. (Born 1908, died 1988.) Some of his novels have survival themes. One of particular …


Food Prepping With Freezer Bags – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) Results of Cornmeal in Sandwich Bags As a side tangent, I wanted to know if weevils and their eggs in feed corn could survive being coarse ground into corn meal. Cornmeal is not ground as finely as wheat flour so I thought perhaps there was a small chance some eggs would survive. I put some weevily corn into the hopper of the grinder, added a bunch more weevils sifted out from some other corn, and ground it into meal. After grinding, half of the meal was put into a mason jar with a sealed lid, the …


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:

“For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — March 21, 2025

Alfonso “Al” Williamson (March 21, 1931– June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, science fiction and fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in Bogotá, Colombia before moving back to the United States at the age of 12. In his youth, Williamson developed an interest in comic strips, particularly Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. He took art classes at Burne Hogarth’s Cartoonists and Illustrators School, there befriending future cartoonists Wally Wood and Roy Krenkel, who introduced him to the work of illustrators who had influenced adventure …


Food Prepping With Freezer Bags – Part 1, by St. Funogas

As a followup to my article, “Just-in-Time Food Storage” (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5) this article is to share with the reader the results of my freezer-bag food-storage experiments. The first article was for those who don’t currently have any food stored but plan on doing so at the last minute if it looks like the Schumer may be soon hitting the fan. While this wait-and-see method is highly discouraged and defeats the whole purpose of prepping, two methods were presented for those who’ll still be procrastinating anyway. Method 1: No special preps, just get some food! …


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 Canadian trade and currency exchange issues. Precious Metals: Mike Gleason: Gold Breaks $3,000, But Here’s Why Silver Could Steal the Show… o  o  o At Gold-Eagle.com: $3000/Ounce: Why The Oldest Money Just Hit Its Newest High. o  o  o Take heed:  The silver-to-gold ratio just hit 90.7-to-1.  And the platinum-to-gold ratio is …