Year: 2025

Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced for Round 116

We’ve announced the winners of Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The top three prize winners will each receive some great prize packages. — But before we announce those winners, we’d like to introduce the most recent writing contest prize sponsor, starting this month with Round 117: 3Vgear.com.  Take a look at their website for details on their top-quality outdoor and preparedness gear. This Utah-based company makes backpacks and bags, rifle cases, MOLLE pouches, pack covers, hydration systems, and more. For their prize, they will be generously providing an ultimate bug-out bag bundle that includes their 3-day Paratus …


Modernizing an Old Coleman Stove, by Lodge Pole

A few months ago, my father gave me some camping gear he bought in the 1970s when he and my oldest brother started camping.  He gave me a red Coleman lantern, and a large, green Coleman, dual burner stove.   I remember using both pieces on occasion when he took me camping as a young boy.  On the last camping trip we did together, when I was in college, neither the stove nor lantern would work.   It was a dark night, and our food was cold. Both pieces were put on the shelf for many years. I have rebuilt many stoves …


January, 2025 in Precious Metals, by Everett Millman

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance and silver’s performance and examine the factors that affected the metal prices. WHAT DID GOLD AND SILVER DO IN JANUARY? The new year brought new all-time highs for gold while silver marched higher, rebounding from a nearly three-month downtrend. Gold rallied an impressive 1.3% on Thursday, Jan. 2nd only to give back most of those gains over the next two trading sessions. Silver prices rose during each of the first seven days 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 …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations. …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — January 31, 2025

On January 31, 1616, Cape Horn was rounded for the first time by a Dutch expedition led by Jacques Le Maire and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten. They named Cape Hoorn after Schouten’s hometown. — The Last Day! In honor of the birthday of John Moses Browning (January 23rd, 1855), we are running a 10-day sale at Elk Creek Company.  This January sale is always our biggest sale of the year. These discounts range from 10% to 40%. All of our gun and knife inventory has been deeply reduced until midnight, Pacific Time today  (Friday, January 31st, 2025.)  Don’t miss out on …


Circuit Breaker Panel Labeling, by Free Loader

Most people’s circuit breaker panels that I’ve seen (including my own) are poorly labeled regarding where each circuit breaker’s current actually goes. Many panel descriptions are either very vague about what circuits are on each breaker or they aren’t labeled at all. Usually, this happens because the person who installed the panel was in a hurry to finish the wiring and never returned to label them properly. When they did label them, it was often with something vague like “east half house” or “basement.” These descriptions aren’t very helpful when you’re trying to locate the specific breaker for a particular …


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 Government Spending and Deficit Reduction. Precious Metals: Spot gold just posted another record high, yesterday. It was up $51.20 to $2,844.70 per Troy ounce at mid-day. That was a 1.8% gain for the morning.   Meanwhile, spot silver jumped $1.02 to $31.77. That was a 3.3% gain for the morning. Platinum was up …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day: 

“One thing I hate about the New Deal is that it is killing what, to me, is the American pioneering spirit. I simply do not know what to tell my own boys, leaving school and confronting this new world whose ideal is Security and whose practice is dependence upon government instead of upon one’s self. All the old character-values seem simply insane from a practical point of view; the self-reliant, the independent, the courageous man is penalized from every direction.” – Rose Wilder Lane


Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 30, 2025

On January 30, 1835 two single-shot muzzleloading pistols carried by Richard Lawrence both misfired when aimed at President Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C.. This was the first recorded attempt at an assassination of a US President. — “The Lone Ranger” debuted on WXYZ radio in Detroit on January 30, 1933. The masked vigilante lawman and his Native sidekick, Tonto, became a dynamic duo of multimedia fame. — January 30th is the birthday of historian Barbara Tuchman (born 1912, died February 6, 1989). She wrote some very engaging history books. — January 30th is also the anniversary of the 1945 Great …


A Red State Manifesto: Two Americas in 2025 – Part 3, by Jonathan Rawles

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) Red State Prospects It seems almost redundant to try to list the benefits and advantages of “red state living.” Red America is vast and offers opportunities for every climate, lifestyle, regional culture, and personal preference or situation. Red State America includes something of everything of America: – Mountain West logging and mining towns. Lakeside resort towns. Ranching country. Vast empty spaces. Arizona sunshine. – Midwest and Plains Americana, from small farming towns to prospering cities. The Great Lakes. America’s historic manufacturing and agricultural heartland. – Texas, a nation to itself. The economic …


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, reports on a couple of Chinese cyber advances. A Major Kansas TB Outbreak Recently reported by USA Today: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is now America’s largest in recorded history. …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 29, 2025

On January 29, 1879 the Custer Battlefield National Monument was established in Montana. — Today is the birthday of actor Tom Selleck (born 1945), best known for playing the title role of Magnum, P.I. He is an avid shooter and quite pro-gun. — Today is also the birthday of journalist and inventor Thomas Paine (1737–1809.) — Just a few days left! In honor of the birthday of John Moses Browning (January 23rd, 1855), we are running a 10-day sale at Elk Creek Company.  This January sale is always our biggest sale of the year. These discounts range from 10% to …


A Red State Manifesto: Two Americas in 2025 – Part 2, by Jonathan Rawles

(Continued from Part 1.) Political Migration: Origins of the Big Sort In 2008, demographers Bill Bishop and Robert G. Cushing put a name to a trend that had been going on in America since the 1960s with their book The Big Sort. The authors’ contention is that Americans are sorting themselves geographically and that as a consequence, all areas are becoming more politically polarized. In their model, people do not necessarily move for explicitly political reasons, but based on lifestyle and cultural choices, which tend to correlate with political outlooks. As they describe it: “People who move to Portland want …