Month: March 2026

Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

We have all seen the post-apocalyptic movies where improvise armored vehicles with machine guns roam the landscape.  These Hollywood creations make for great entertainment but are such cobbled together machines just fantasy?  The civil war in Somalia introduced the world to “Technicals”, or utilizing civilian vehicles, like decades old Datsun and Totota Hilux pickup trucks, as a platform to mount heavy machine guns, like the Soviet era DShK 12.7mm.  Thirty years later and such vehicles are now being used on the battlefields of Ukraine.  Not only has Ukraine made improvised war wagons out of civilian pickup trucks but they have …


SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

This weekly column features media 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.  Today, a public domain photo of the Palouse Hills at sunset in late summer, by Alejandro Rodriguez.  The thumbnail photo below is click-expandable. Redoubt News Links Another news item to file under “Perps from outside the Redoubt”: Man arrested after backpack explosion at gold mining event at Kootenai County Fairgrounds. Sen. Tim Sheehy Helps Tackle Protester Brian McGinnis – Whose Arm Appears to Snap in Wild Scene. Feds: …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 9, 2026

On March 9, 1776, Adam Smith published the influential economics book “The Wealth of Nations”. — March 9, 1916: Pancho Villa‘s men killed more than a dozen in a raid on Columbus, New Mexico. — March 9, 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces bombed Tokyo with napalm, causing fires that destroyed a quarter of the city and killed some 80,000 civilians. — Today’s feature is by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson. — We still need entries for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this …


Ontario M3 Fighting Knife, by Thomas Christianson

The M3 Fighting Knife was designed with a single purpose: to kill the enemy. It was designed to penetrate deeply into an opponent during hand-to-hand combat, severing arteries and veins along the way, so that the opponent would quickly lose enough blood to cease to be a threat. The M3 and the KA-BAR were evaluated together for the US military in 1942 by civilians on the Smaller War Plants Corporation Board. It was adopted by that board based on civilian rather than military criteria. The chairman of that board was eager to select designs that could be quickly and economically …


Recipe of the Week:

The following recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Garlic is from SurvivalBlog reader Callie B. Ingredients 1 large bunch of fresh asparagus, washed and with woody butt ends cut off 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced 3 Tablespoons olive oil Sea salt (to taste) Black pepper, preferably freshly ground. (To taste) Directions Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place the asparagus spears in a large bowl then add the olive oil and garlic and toss to coat them. Season with salt and pepper (to taste). Transfer the asparagus spears onto a thick metal baking sheet and arrange in one even layer …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic: U-Haul 2025 Growth Index. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)  It is obvious that the Inland Northwest, the Southeast, and Texas are the winners, while the increasingly socialist California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York are the losers. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.       — Please send your graphics or graphics links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.


The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“Who’s going to trust the British media when we know now for a fact that the Trusted News Initiative is an organization of media partners that recognize that their real enemy is independent media? Their enemy, they’re not competing with one another anymore. They’re competing against independent media. It became very clear in COVID. It wasn’t a revolutionary moment. It was a revelationary moment where a lot of people saw for the first time [that] you can’t trust your government. You can’t trust your media. You can’t trust corporations. They’re there to control you. They require that you are ignorant …


Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 8, 2026

Richard “Dick” Hyman turns 99 today! (He was born March 8, 1927.) Dick Hyman is a jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, pioneering electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellow in 2017. — March 8th is also the birthday of famed revolver shooter, big game hunter, and gun writer Elmer Keith, who co-designed the S&W .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum cartridges. He authored the book Sixguns, which is still considered a standard reference. His fascinating life story is told …


The Fighting Cane, by “Kim Kipling”

The need to be prepared to defend one’s self in an increasingly uncivil, hostile world is apparent. I strongly recommend the daily carriage of a defensive sidearm, backed up by a reliable edged weapon whenever possible, and I strongly encourage regular practice with these essential tools. More important than simply having hardware is cultivating the mindset of awareness and preparedness. But all too often, our increasingly intrusive nanny state governments, both national and local, enact laws and encourage policies designed to disarm us in public places. Some jurisdictions will go out of their way to prosecute any use of armed …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: The Amazingly Popular New Game: Ayatollah Whackamollah News Link: Who Will Be Iran’s Next Supreme Leader? Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks! Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.


The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — March 7, 2026

On March 7, 1644 Massachusetts established the first two-chamber legislature in the American colonies. — March 7, 1707: The birthday of Stephen Hopkins, a Governor of Rhode Island. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. — And March 7, 1944 was the birthday of Townes Van Zandt, a gifted Texan singer/songwriter. (He died in 1997.) — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, …


What I’m Growing This Year – Part 2, by SaraSue

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Meat, Dairy, and Eggs My first cow to calve this year is due in a couple of weeks, and being that she is a first time heifer, she could calve any time now.  So, I’m trying to finish up house projects, cleaning the farmhouse top to bottom. and get the garden going before I need to ensure a healthy calf, and train its mother to the milking machine.  I’ll be honest.  I’m apprehensive about training this particular heifer.  She’s a big Guernsey, taller than me, and has long “kickers”/legs, and she’s a little skittish.  Some heifers settle …


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 …