Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 13, 2025

On August 13, 1642, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered that Mars had a southern polar cap. — This is the birthday of screenwriter, director, and producer, Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980). His many films spanned five decades. — Today is also the birthday of sharpshooter, entertainer, and folk heroine Annie Oakley (1860–1926.) — Please pray for everyone at risk of the floods in Wisconsin. — As part of the 20th Anniversary celebration for SurvivalBlog, we are running our biggest sale ever on all of our percussion gun inventory at Elk Creek Company.  (Elk Creek Company is a spin-off venture that helps pay …




Sanitation for Preppers, by A.C.

Okay, folks. This is it: The unavoidable conversation that every prepper just pretends isn’t important; we’re going to talk about your poo. In the world of survivalism and prepping, the conversation almost always revolves around a predictable list of essentials: food, water, shelter, warmth, and weapons. These are the “sexy” parts of the apocalypse, the elements we see glamorized in movies and books. But in a real, long term grid-down situation, a far more mundane and devastating threat looms large, one that is almost never discussed and rarely planned for; sanitation. The truth is, without a proper plan for managing …




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. — SurvivalBlog reader Tim J. suggested this video: The Insane Number of Humvees in US Inventory. JWR’s Comments:  Once all those thousands of HMMWVs (“Humvees”) are inexpensively released as surplus over the next decade, for preppers, it will seem like manna falling from heaven. The key question is: Will any of the up-armored …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Reason, in a strict sense, as meaning the judgment of truth and falsehood, can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition. And matters of fact, where they are neither good nor evil, where they neither excite desire nor aversion, are totally indifferent, and whether known or unknown, whether mistaken or rightly apprehended, cannot be regarded as any motive to action.” – David Hume