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Preparedness Notes for Monday — April 13, 2026

On April 13, 1012: A ransom of 48,000 pounds was paid to a large band of Vikings, led by Danish warlord Thorkell the Tall, for the liberation of Canterbury, after a raid on the city and the capture of Alphege [Aelfheah] Archbishop of Canterbury

April 13, 1743, was the birthday of Thomas Jefferson.

And on April 13, 1933: First flight over Mount Everest, by Lord Clydesdale.

We’ve just started a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company [1].  There are some deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, April 27th, 2026. Please note that some of these guns have been re-sleeved and re-proofed for modern shotshells!

Today’s feature article is a guest post from a long-time SurvivalBlog reader. Because it is partly self-promotional, it is not part of the writing contest judging.

We need entries for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [2]. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [3] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics [4]. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.