Year: 2025

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — September 25, 2025

September 25, 1066: The Battle of Stamford Bridge: The English army under King Harold II defeated invading Norwegians led by King Harald Hardrada and Harold’s brother Tostig, who were both killed. (Above is an undated painting of the event as imagined by Norwegian artist Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1831–1892.) — On September 25th, 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. — This is also the birthday of Will Smith (born 1968), who in my opinion should be best known for his roles in I Am …


Text Comms in a Post-Disaster World – Part 4, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 3.) Flashing I’ve covered a lot of details regarding how Meshtastic works, so let’s walk through an example of configuring an actual device to see how it all applies. Note that one of the results of Meshtastic currently being primarily a hobbyist activity is that there are multiple ways of doing things. For example, you can connect a Meshtastic device to a PC via serial (over USB) or Bluetooth, you can manage the device from a PC using an Internet-based web interface, a locally hosted web interface or a Command Line Interface (CLI), you can update the …


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, More war rumblings in Eastern Europe. Russia’s ‘Greyzone’ Invasion Plan Russia’s ‘greyzone’ invasion plan to start WW3 before Christmas revealed by defector.  Here is a quote: “Moscow is …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 24, 2025

To raise some cash for a major purchase here at the Rawles Ranch, I have put almost our entire Elk Creek Company inventory on sale. This is your chance to do some early Christmas or Hanukkah gift shopping, at great prices! No FFL paperwork is required.  Our pre-1899 cartridge guns and blackpowder guns can be mailed right to your door, in most states. We also have a nice selection of knives and bayonets. I also just cataloged a lot of scarce FN FAL and HK91 magazines.  We have a merchant account, so we accept payments by credit card. — On …


Text Comms in a Post-Disaster World – Part 3, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 2.) Charging In regards to charging, most Meshtastic devices have a built-in USB-C port for charging the internal battery (except for the T1000-E mentioned above). The USB-C port can also be used to connect to the device to a computer for upgrading the firmware or managing the device via a web browser. Compact Comms Above is a picture of several Meshtastic devices to give you an idea of their sizes:


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. — Dan sent us this: Daily Wolf Attacks Are Pushing A Northern California Community to the Breaking Point. o  o  o Pete in California wrote, regarding the recent article on POTS telephones: “Remember too, that early telephones used much lower voltages than later equipment; 3VDC, to be exact.  Those big, wooden wall phones had …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — September 23, 2025

On September 23, 1897, the first Frontier Days rodeo celebration was held in Cheyenne, Wyoming. — On this day in 1969, the American film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had its world premiere, and it became a western classic. It was especially noted for the pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the titular outlaws. — On September 23, 1779, During the American Revolution, in the midst of a naval engagement between the warships Bonhomme Richard and Serapis off the east coast of England, American commander John Paul Jones answered a call to surrender from his English counterpart …


Text Comms in a Post-Disaster World – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.) Meshtastic provides native integration with GPS satellite data for location information. Many Meshtastic devices come with a hardware GPS receiver built in, and the Meshtastic app has the ability to share GPS data from a paired cell phone if it’s not built into the device. There is usually a shortcut in many Meshtastic devices for immediately sending your location information to other users in the event of an emergency. The Meshtastic phone app has the ability to download local copies of some maps so you can pinpoint other people’s locations. I realize that many people don’t …


SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies located in the American Redoubt region that are of interest to preppers and survivalists. Today, a bit of branding iron history.  (See the Montana section.) Idaho Idaho construction jobs grow while Washington faces decline. o  o  o Moscow school district uses taxpayer money – to sue taxpayers. o  o  o Flying the NEW Turbo Carbon Cub “UL” In Idaho. o  …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — September 22, 2025

On September 22, 1784, Russian trappers established a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska. — Today is the birthday of Kijirō Nambu (南部 麒次郎), September 22, 1869 – May 1, 1949.) He was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and the founder of Nambu Arms Manufacturing Company, manufacturer of many of the firearms the Japanese military would use in World War II. A prolific small arms designer, he was sometimes called the “John Browning of Japan”. — September 22nd is the birthday of survivalist writer and consultant Joel Skousen. (Born, 1946.) Skousen authored the excellent books Strategic Relocation and …


Text Comms in a Post-Disaster World – Part 1, by J.M.

Unless you’re a completely isolated loner, communications are going to play a critical role in both short-term and long-term disaster scenarios. Being able to effectively exchange information with family, friends and community members in both short-term as well as long-term disaster scenarios can literally mean the difference between surviving or going the way of The Dodo. There have been dozens of articles on SurvivalBlog about the use of radios for voice communications, and having appropriate radios and communications plans should definitely be considered a critical part of any preparedness plan. However, there’s another form of communications that should be considered …


Recipe of the Week:

The following recipe for Carrot Top Pesto is from SurvivalBlog reader S.N..  She writes: “I had a wonderful carrot harvest this year. I freeze dried half of the green tops and use them like you would parsley. I also grind the dried tops into a powder and add it to my green drinks. My favorite is carrot top pesto. The best part of this recipe is that its measurements are all to your liking. Absolutely delicious!” Ingredients Carrot top greens. (Leaves and stems, or take the time to de-stem. Nah.) Olive oil Pecans (or most any other nuts will work) …