Month: April 2026

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — April 10, 2026

On April 10, 1633, the first imported bananas went on sale in London in the shop window of Thomas Johnson’s apothecary.  Pictured are some banana vendors and their wares in Chennai, India. — And April 10, 1827 was the birthday of General Lew Wallace. He wrote books (author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ), sculpted, practiced law, painted, played the violin and made them as well.  He was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. And he served as the Territorial Governor of New Mexico. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing …


Livestock or “Deadstock”?, by SaraSue

I’m still reeling over what happened on the recent Easter Sunday.  It was early in the day when I trekked down to the barn to check on one of my heifers that was due to calve.  I had been watching her carefully as we got closer to her due date.  She wasn’t over-due.  In fact, she was right on time.  I had purposefully not made any Easter plans so I could be home if there was trouble.  And indeed, there was trouble. Her water broke at about 7:30 a.m. and I waited and waited for those two little hooves to …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.       Economics & Investing Links of Interest France just pulled all its remaining gold out of the New York Federal Reserve. Forbes: Gold And Silver Hit 3-Week Highs After U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Agreement. US government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt—equal to spending on defense and education combined. US employers added a surprisingly strong 178,000 jobs last month, rebounding from a weak February. Economics & Investing …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 9, 2026

On April 9, 1388, the Battle of Näfels was a major victory for the Swiss Confederation in the first century of its struggle for self-determination against the Habsburg overlordship of the Duchy of Austria. (The public domain photo of Näfels, Canton Glarus, Switzerland, was taken by Marco Zanoli.) Note that in January 2011, Näfels became part of the municipality of Glarus Nord. — April 9, 1869: Hudson’s Bay Company ceded its territory to Canada. — And on April 9, 1959 NASA named the first seven astronauts for Project Mercury. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round …


Subterfuge: Why I Smile When I’m Told Some Lies, by R.E.D.

In this article, I’ll explain why some subterfuge can be a good thing and some implications for present-day news reporting. Many of my friends and acquaintances are terrible liars. I don’t mean to imply that my friends tell a lot of lies. However, they often tell the same lie consistently, and quite frankly it is not a very good lie. So, they are just not very good at telling that one lie. A couple of reasons why I am lied to so often is because I live in a community with many military retirees and I worked for nearly 30 …


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, another new AI threat. The Escape of Claude Mythos Hacking Tool I found this linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Do you understand what Anthropic just admitted?  …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 8, 2026

On April 8, 1796, the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss proved the quadratic reciprocity law (the ability to determine the solvability of any quadratic equation in modular arithmetic.) — Today’s feature piece is a guest post that was too short to qualify as an entry for the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running the contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail 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 …


The First Nine Survival Items You Should Buy, by Big John

I’ll make my list of the first nine survival items that you should buy really simple for you. The first two big-dollar items that you should buy are the Self Reliance Outfitters Canteen set and heavy duty space blanker/tarp. These two items are really must-have items. Dave Canterbury of Self Reliance Outfitters had these items custom-made. They are industrial strength and designed just like I would have done so myself. The canteen. It is similar to the old metal army canteen setup. But it is bigger and has a bigger mouth. It is nested in a canteen cup with a …


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. — Some wisdom from Temple Grandin: Recommended Basic Livestock Handling. o  o  o A video from SecDef Pete Hegseth: Our Military bases became gun-free zones—leaving troops EXPOSED. That ends today. o  o  o GOP Senator Opposes More Than 60 Days Of War On Iran Without War Declaration. An excerpt: “Curtis didn’t say whether …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — April 7, 2026

On April 7, 1902 the Texas Oil Company (Texaco) was formed. — On April 7, 1994, Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, a moderate Hutu, was assassinated by Hutu soldiers—a day after the deaths of Juvénal Habyarimana, president of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of Burundi—as Rwanda entered a period of anarchy and genocidal killings. — April 7th is the birthday of Colonel Bob Denard (born 1929, died October 13, 2007). He had an amazing life as a mercenary, including four attempted coups in the Comoros.  The 2011 film Mister Bob is a slightly fictionalized account of his earliest mercenary adventures …


Making Repairs, by Big John

So you are living in a societal collapse and something breaks. Let’s say that your generator dies. You’ve gotta fix it. The following describes what have I learned about fixing things: I used to go through the repair process in my mind a few hundred times. I would pull the cover by loosening two screws, then unbolt the coil with a socket wrench. Then pull the coil and inspect for a broken winding. But first of all, I must borrow my friend’s socket set. I have learned over the years that the most efficient route is often to just tear …