Year: 2025

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 the global debt crisis in general and the U.S. National Debt, in particular. Precious Metals: With both world war tensions and a global debt crisis brewing, the precious metals bull market is picking up speed. I took note that spot gold stood at $3,393.60 USD per Troy ounce on Thursday morning. It …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — June 5, 2025

On June 5, 1284, Charles of Salerno was captured by Roger of Lauria during a naval battle in the Gulf of Naples. This was part of the Sicilian Vespers uprising, a.k.a. the War of the Vespers. (The outbreak of that war is depicted above.) — June 5, 1827: Turks captured the Acropolis and took Athens during the Greek War of Independence. — June 5, 1851: Harriet Beecher Stowe published the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in The National Era. She was the sister of firebrand abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher. — I noticed a couple of interesting Idaho listings now …


For Want of a Nail: A Preps Inventory System – Part 3, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 2.) For security reasons, the Obsidian folks are pretty strict about letting you install Community plugins. You first have to go into the ‘Community Plugins’ section in ‘Options’ and turn off ‘Restricted Mode’ before you can install any plugins. Then after you install a plugin you have to verify you want to install it, and after it’s installed you have to click the ‘Enable’ slide switch to enable it. When a core or community plugin is installed a new button will usually appear for it at the bottom of the left pane of the Options dialog. If …


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, we look at the recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian bomber bases. Details on Ukrainian Attack on Russian Bomber Bases Operation Spider’s Web: How Russians Were Tricked Into …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — June 4, 2025

Today is the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in 1989. — Today is the anniversary of the June 4, 2004, Granby, Colorado armored bulldozer incident, where Marvin Heemeyer knocked down several buildings in the town. A documentary titled Tread details what happened that day, and the events leading to the rampage. Though often called the “Killdozer” incident, the only one who died that day was Marvin Heemeyer, from a self-inflicted gunshot. — A Reminder: We are running a two-week-long sale on all of the pre-1899 Mauser rifles in our inventory at Elk Creek Company.  There is no paperwork required …


For Want of a Nail: A Preps Inventory System – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1,) The Obsidian UI The User Interface (UI) for Obsidian can appear somewhat complicated, but it’s actually laid out pretty well. Here’s a picture of the basic interface:         Starting on the left is the Ribbon, which contains a series of icon buttons that you can press to perform different actions. There are a couple of different core functions, and many of the additional capabilities you can add via Plugins (more on that later) will add additional action buttons here. Next is the Left Sidebar, which can display a number of different views, but …


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. — Reader Tim J. sent this news: Army To Retire All Of Its Turboprop Surveillance Planes By The End Of The Year. JWR’s Comments: I predict that the Army will be forced to extend the life of its existing Guardrail turboprop (Beechcraft Super King Air) platforms, until a significant number of the new …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — June 3, 2025

On June 3, 1781, Jack Jouett (pictured, in a later imagining) rode to warn Thomas Jefferson of an impending British attack. — June 3rd can also be considered the “birthday” of the U.S. Army. (It was established by Congress on June 3rd, 1784.) — A fan of SurvivalBlog is one of the organizers of a real estate raffle for a 32-acre parcel of waterfront land in northwest Montana that looks quite retreat-worthy.  I generally shy away from raffles and any sort of games of chance.  But because this raffle will benefit a good cause (an animal shelter in that part …


For Want of a Nail: A Preps Inventory System – Part 1, by J.M.

If you’re a regular reader of SurvivalBlog.com you’ve probably collected at least a few things as part of your preps – canned food, radios, firearms, ammunition, medical supplies, etc. When you first start prepping, knowing what you have and where it’s located isn’t that difficult – you can probably remember the contents of your bug-out bag, the canned food in the basement, a medical kit, etc. But as your preps continue to expand it becomes harder and harder to keep track of what you have, where it is and what you need to do to take care of it. Not …


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 round-up of fence, corral, cattle guard, and gate installation companies in the American Redoubt. Idaho In North Idaho: American Fence Company. o  o  o In Boise: Anvil Fence Company. o  o  o In Bonners Ferry:  T&L Fencing. o  o  o In Lewiston: Clearwater Fence …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — June 2, 2025

Please keep the pressure on your state’s two U.S. Senators, starting today (the Senate recess just ended) with at least two phone calls and an e-mail each week, insisting that they vote in favor of both the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) and the SHORT Act, as part of the Continuing Resolution budget bill.  Please phone the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Also, remind both your Senator and Elizabeth MacDonough (the unelected Senate Parliamentarian) that The Byrd Rule (limiting Continuing Resolution amendments to only budget-related and tax-related bills) DOES NOT apply. This is because the previously expected $1.7 Billion in suppressor registrations …