Year: 2026

Water in Disasters: A Rain Catchment and Treatment System, by Suburban Prepper

Water is essential to all life. The human body can go three weeks without food but only three days without water before completely shutting down. Yet most of us find it much easier to store a year’s worth of food than a month’s worth of water. I live in the suburbs and while I have my beans, bullets and band aids pretty squared away, water has always been an area of concern for me. There is no way to store enough water for a long term outage, and I haven’t found many good options. Recently I have spent more time …


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. Here is a world map with national surface areas relatively distorted by their total number of annual births. As you can see, Muslim-dominated Indonesia is growing rapidly, while Australia and New Zealand have pitiful birth rates. (Refer to my novel Expatriates for my predictions on Indonesia’s eventual territorial ambitions.) The thumbnail below is click-expandable. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest JP Morgan: The market’s inflation fears are running ahead of reality. USDA: Food …



Preparedness Notes — Thursday, May 28, 2026

On May 28, 1588 King Philip II dispatched the Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina-Sidonia from Lisbon, Portugal to invade England. When it left Lisbon, the fleet was composed of 141 ships, with 10,138 sailors and 19,315 soldiers. The fleet carried 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns. The armada was hampered by bad weather, and then was outmaneuvered by the 200-ship British navy in several decisive engagements. The remainder of the Armada was devastated by storms, disease, and starvation.  An analysis of the human cost of the campaign reveals that 25,696 men departed and just 13,399 returned. — …


A Letter To My Younger Self – Part 2, by N.C.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) The World As We Now Know It Succeed here first. A good man succeeds regardless of where he is. Marcus Aurelius would be a good man here or in ancient Rome. Same for Sejong the Great. Same if an Adeptus Astartes was put in your place. A good man succeeds where he finds himself. “I would succeed if only…” is loser talk. It’s taken many a man who might have succeeded and turned him into one who did not. You’ve probably heard “if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re …


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, Wrench Attacks on Bitcoin Whales. ‘Wrench Attacks’ Have Crypto Whales Living in Fear The UK Telegraph reports ‘Wrench attacks’ leave crypto billionaires living in fear. A quote: “Billions …



Preparedness Notes — Wednesday, May 27, 2026

On May 27, 1930 Richard G. Drew (pictured) invented cellophane tape. Five years earlier, he had also invented painter’s masking tape. — On May 27, 1941, the British Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck. — Also on this date, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of Maryland issued Ex parte Merryman, challenging the authority of President Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. military to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. This is the final round of the contest. There will not be …


A Letter To My Younger Self – Part 1, by N.C.

This is an article hypothetically written to my younger self, as if I were just going to start on my path of preparation. These are lessons I spent a couple decades learning. So, this is for you, young man. Things I’ve learned, what I’d do if I were in your shoes: Social Skills Are the Primary Prepping Skills Not guns. Not gardening. Not bushcraft. Social skills. Social Skills are the single most important skill you need. It will affect your career and therefore your resources and your preps. It will affect your mate options. It will affect your children. It …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

The 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. — Our Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson mentioned that Karl Bushby (pictured) was last reported in Nuremberg, 500 miles from Calais, on his way back to Hull, England. He has now walked or swam nearly all the way around the world. He might be done by July 1st, 2026. JWR Asks: Will the French and …


The Editors’ Quote

“Pace yourself in your reading. A little bit every day really adds up. If you read during sporadic reading jags, the fits and starts will not get you anywhere close to the amount of reading you will need to do. It is far better to walk a mile a day than to run five miles every other month. Make time for reading, and make a daily habit of it, even if it is a relatively small daily habit.” – Douglas Wilson


Preparedness Notes — Tuesday, May 26, 2026

On May 26, 1908, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Murdock and their children became the first family to travel across the United States by car, driving from Los Angeles to New York City in a Packard Thirty in 32 days, 5 hours, and 25 minutes. — Randall Hank Williams (Hank Williams, Jr.) was born May 26, 1949. When not touring, he lives Somewhere in Montana, so he qualifies as a Redoubter. He has a large gun collection that is heavy on Sharps rifles and rifles that have factory letters showing that they were originally shipped to Montana. He also has many …


Prepping on a Dime, by Michael X.

When we started prepping, we did not have the money to buy an old missile silo…or an old mine…or a ready-to-use retreat. We were “stuck” in the city where our jobs were. Then we retired. We could sell our house and move to the middle of nowhere… From a city near the Twin Cities in Minnesota of over 100,000, my loving wife and I have relocated to a lakeside cottage in northern Wisconsin, a few miles outside a village of about 400 people. Wisconsin has its own problems. Mostly Madison and Milwaukee. And to a lesser extent, Eau Claire. Those …


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. Pictured above is Idaho’s Bogus Basin.  (Photo courtesy of the talented photographer Charles Knowles.) Redoubt News Links Boise County search crews find lost hiker, 2 dogs near Bogus Basin after 911 text. Local Cowboys Win Big at the Bannock County PRCA Rodeo Motor Vu Drive-In is back: America’s largest outdoor drive-in screen reopens. In Montana: Proposed AI data center near Broadview could use natural gas as a power …