Preparedness Notes for Saturday — June 21, 2025

June 21, 1672: Grand Pensionary of Holland Johan de Witt was seriously wounded by a knife-wielding would-be assassin. — June 21st is the birthday of Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998), author of Kill or Be Killed. He was the friend and mentor of SurvivalBlog’s Field Gear Editor Emeritus, Pat Cascio. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 119 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 …




Directional Antennas Improve COMSEC, by Tunnel Rabbit

Editor’s Introductory Note:   For those who are unfamiliar with the term “YagI”,  I’ll preface this article with a bit of history from the InfoGalactic wiki: “A Yagi–Uda antenna, or simply Yagi antenna, is a directional antenna consisting of two or more parallel resonant antenna elements in an end-fire array; these elements are most often metal rods (or discs) acting as half-wave dipoles. Yagi–Uda antennas consist of a single driven element connected to a radio transmitter or receiver (or both) through a transmission line, and additional passive radiators with no electrical connection, usually including one so-called reflector and any number of …




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 ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I finished the Rawles Ranch Redneck Pool cleaning project on Wedesday. That work took about nine hours, over the course of four days. It is now filled with crystal clear water, and lightly chlorinated.  It should be warmed up to proper swimming temperature by tomorrow afternoon.  That is good timing, since our four grandsons are arriving for a one-week stay, soon.

Today, I’m returning from a long trip to Billings, Montana. On Friday, I attended a gun show there, in the hopes of finding some pre-1899 cartridge guns to replenish our inventory at Elk Creek Company. After searching through the 200-table show, I did find just a couple of cartridge pre-1899ers that were suitable, and affordable. But they are definitely getting more scarce. The law of supply and demand is inescapable.  The two pieces that I came home with were a scarce early Finn-captured M1891 7.62x54r Mosin-Nagant rifle — clearly dated 1897 on the barrel — and an original Remington-made Rolling Block Argentine contract rifle, rechambered in 11mm Mannlicher!

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; …