Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — December 31, 2025

On December 31, 406, “The Great Invasion” sent a vast mixed horde of barbarians that included Vandals, Alans, and Suebians across the Rhine River, at Mainz (pictured). Thus began the invasion of Gallia. — December 31st 1564: William I of Orange demands freedom of religious conscience for his subjects in dramatic speech to the Council of State. — December 31st is the birthday of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008). — December 31st, 1851 was the birthday of Frederick Selous. (He died on January 4th, 1917.) — The 20th Anniversary SurvivalBlog 2005-2025 Waterproof/EMP-Resistant Archive USB sticks are available for Pre-Ordering.  This year, we …




Regional and Seasonal Camouflage Clothing and Gear

As 2025 draws to a close, I’d like to revisit a topic that often comes up in SurvivalBlog: camouflage clothing and equipment. Note: To see examples and variants of the camouflage patterns that I’ll mention in this article, see the comprehensive Camopedia.org website. They are to be commended for maintaining a great reference site. I will begin with some history: Camouflage uniforms were not standard issue for all but a handful of the world’s armies until the mid-1960s.  Experimentation with modern printed camouflage fabric as we now know it began with the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, circa 1942-1945.  They …




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. — Where Are People Moving Most in the U.S. in 2026? o  o  o CPRC’s Lott Calls Out Wall Street Journal’s Fear Mongering Over Concealed Carry. o  o  o 31 Indoor Woodworking Projects to Do This Winter. o  o  o SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson spotted this: Burundi: Farmer finds new technique for …