Month: June 2026

Preparedness Notes — June 30, 2026 

This Week in History: As we prepare for the semiquincentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence, Americans reflect on the meaning of our liberty and independence. — Happy birthday to actor/director Mel Brooks, who turned 100, on Sunday! — In June, 1786, Bishop Alexander Macdonell and more than 500 other Roman Catholic highlanders left Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario. — June 30th is the anniversary of the tragic death of 19 hotshots in the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013. — June 30, 1908: A giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteor, flattened …


A Review of AGI’s Professional Gunsmithing Course Level I, by Gunsmith

Full Disclosure: After a conversation I had with Gene Kelly of American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI), he offered me this course at no charge in exchange for an honest review in a written article for SurvivalBlog. There were no other strings attached, and I was not pressured in any way about the outcome of this review. He did not ask for a preview of the article, nor was he offered one before publication. This review is my own opinion of the course after having spent time taking it and passing the tests involved. My Background I have been interested in firearms …


Recipe of the Week:

The following recipe for a Simple Apple & Cheese Salad is from SurvivalBlog reader D.G.. Ingredients 4 Apples (select crisp and firm ones) 1 teaspoon Juice of ½ lemon 4 oz Mozzarella cheese 1 tablespoon Spring onions, chopped Scallions, Green Onions, or Chives 1 tablespoon Olive Oil or Coconut Oil ⅛ teaspoon Salt (to taste) Directions Wash the apples, and cut them into slices vertically. Lay down each piece of apple and cut them into long rectangular sticks French Fries shapes. Add the chopped apple sticks to a bowl and toss them with lemon juice. Cut the block of cheese …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map that shows the most often misspelled word in each state.  No offense, but I had to chuckle when I saw that “School” was the tough one, for Floridians. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.         — Please send your graphic ideas to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.


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. Economics & Investing Links of Interest Investor Who Scored 900% Win in 2008 Crisis Has New Big Short Bet. (Pictured above is Lee Robinson of Altana.) In The WSJ: California’s Billionaire Tax Kicks Off a Democratic Civil War. “Unlike Anything I’ve Seen In 40 Years”: Explosion In Data-Centers And Memory Costs Fueling Third Inflation Wave. EIA: Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update. At the leftist Politico: Inflation hits 3-year high, pressuring Fed to raise rates as election nears. …


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, more about Wikipedia’s blatant bias. Wikipedia Bans One of Its Founders First up, there is this piece by Larry Sanger at The Free Press: I Co-Founded Wikipedia. Now …


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 Mary L. sent this: Virginia ‘Assault Firearm’ Sponsors Say Governor Wants Amendments to New Law.  JWR’s Comments: Governor Spanberger is a Big Government Democrat stalwart who is strongly anti-Second Amendment. This draconian law is scheduled to take effect on July 1st.  I hope that Virginians have already heavily stocked up on …


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. REDOUBT NEWS LINKS Another hydrothermal explosion has occurred at Yellowstone National Park.  (Pictured above is Yellowstone’s Electric Peak, at sunset, in a NPS photo.) Migrant Lyft Driver Convicted of Raping Passenger in Idaho. From Cafés To Clinics, Wyoming’s Labor Crunch Is Holding The Economy Back Invasive mussel found near Prineville Reservoir is a first for any Oregon water body. Send Your Media Links Please send your links to …


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 …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: Our Thoughts and Prayers for the Health of Joy Reid… She Has Developed a Chronic Blabber Infection 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.



Preparedness Notes — June 23, 2026

This Week in History: On June 23, 1810, John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor) organized the Pacific Fur Company in Astoria, Oregon. — 1931: American pilot Wiley Post and Australian navigator Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field, New York, to attempt to set a new record circumnavigating the Earth. They successfully complete their series of flights in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes. — And on June 25, 1798, US President John Adams signed into law the Alien Friends Act, authorizing the president to deport any foreigner deemed “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United …


Health, Fitness, and The End Of The World, by D.F.

In this article, I’ll describe how medicine and society will change, and why you should become a fitness nut and not just a prepper. There’s a stereotype of preppers, and it’s not kind: A middle aged or older man with a BMI that passed 30 before he was 30 and grew by 1% every year, a ton of guns, canned food, and a half-hearted vegetable garden. I know because I resemble that. As I’ve been struggling to recover my health, I’ve had a few realizations that have kept me on the path to fitness. Health is something money can’t buy. …


Dark Mountain Arms StowAway Rifle in 5.7x28mm, by Thomas Christianson

Chambered in 5.7x28mm or in 9mm, the Dark Arms StowAway Rifle packs more punch than similar survival rifles chambered in .22LR or .22WMR. The StowAway is a single-shot, bolt-action rifle. It has a detachable, 16-inch, threaded barrel. It is 31.78 inches long when fully assembled. I found the rifle to be simple, reliable, and reasonably accurate during my testing. The rifle is light at only 2.8 pounds, easily breaks down into less than 17 inches in length, but is ruggedly built in spite of its feathery weight. A hollow pistol grip provides enough space to store many rounds of 5.7X28mm …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

This week’s graphic is a map that shows the population density of U.S. counties, as of 2026.  Every  prepper knows that in a crisis, fewer people generally means fewer problems. Note the low population density in the American Redoubt. There is only one county in the entire American Redoubt region that is shaded dark green. That is Ada County, Idaho, with 519,000 people. For perspective, that is just a bit more than Raleigh, North Carolina. Ada County’s population includes the roughly 236,000 residents inside the city limits of Boise. – JWR The thumbnail image below is click-expandable. (Graphic courtesy of …