Year: 2026

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 16, 2026

The Battle of Culloden was fought on April 16, 1746. Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeated the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart in the final battle of the Jacobite Rising on British soil. — April 16, 1866: Nitroglycerine exploded at a Wells Fargo & Company office in San Francisco. This reportedly shattered glass in a half a mile radius. — April 16th is the birthday of libertarian novelist J. Neil Schulman. He was best known as author of the novel Alongside Night. — I just heard that famed mountaineer Jim Whittaker passed away, at age 97. — Today’s …


Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part Five, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 4.) Preparations for Sons After spiritual preparation, the number one thing a parent can do is to prepare their son for life is to teach him how to make and control money. Money and resources create options. Lack of money limits opportunities. I have a collateral or lineal relative in every conflict from the Revolutionary War to the present. If you go back far enough in history, you will find multiple great-grandfathers at a distant generational level. For instance in the time period of the American Civil War, I have multiple grandfathers and collateral relatives who served …


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, some more troubling implications of AI and digital ID. Pictured above is the Dallas, Texas Fusion Center. The Digital Gulag of America: AI and Digital ID Despite its …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 15, 2026

On April 15th, 1621, Hugo Grotius arrived in France after escaping prison in a book chest. Grotius is renowned primarily for his work in philosophy, political theory, and law. This work laid the groundwork for an international law rooted in Grotius’ understanding of natural law, stemming from his Protestantism. His books with the most significant impact were De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) and Mare Liberum (The Free Seas). — April 15th, 1912, is the anniversary of the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic. 1,517 people lost their lives on the ship’s maiden voyage. — …


Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part Four, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 3.) Health considerations There is a saying which encapsulates a large percentage of the preparation: “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” Health is much more critical for a young woman versus a young man. I have known of individuals whose fathers died before they were born as the female’s time contribution to pregnancy is on average 65,000 times greater than the man’s contribution. In nature, male bees (drones) do not live that long after successfully mating with the queen as the insemination act if successful is the male’s swan song. Even if they …


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. — At Clark Howard’s site: Food Expiration Dates: What You Need To Know.  The included charts are quite useful. Here is an excerpt: “Here are the most common terms you’ll see: Best If Used By/Before: Peak flavor or quality, not a safety deadline Use By: Last date for best quality (safety only applies …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — April 14, 2026

On April 14, 1849, Hungary declared itself independent of Austria, with Lajos (Louis) Kossuth as its leader. — On this day in 1865, just after the effective end of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a production at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and died the next morning. — April 14, 1881: The famed Four Dead in Five Seconds gunfight in El Paso, Texas. — 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 …


Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part 3, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 2.) Give Up the Fantasy A daughter may need to move, bend, compromise, and pivot. Those are all signs of maturity and embracing reality. A successful farmer looks at changing conditions across soil health, larger economic forces, and continues to refine their decisions onwhat crops are planted, and when. Young women and their families need to give up on fantasies and embrace reality. Fantasies are very dangerous delusions that often leading to negative long term consequences. When preppers think their food supply is adequate, but it would not feed a 19th Century waif for a fortnight, it …


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’s feature photo: The Blitzen River Wilderness Study Area (WSA) is located 60 miles south of Burns (less than 1 mile south of Frenchglen), in Harney County, Oregon. Frenchglen is named after Pete French, with whom my Shirk family cousins had a well-publicized range war. The northwestern edge of the WSA is adjacent to Oregon State Highway 205. (A public domain photo, courtesy of the BLM.)  The thumbnail …



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.  There are some deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, April 27th, 2026. …


Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part 2, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 1.) Preparations for Daughters The number one thing that a parent can do for their daughter who wants her to have a great life is to prepare her for marriage. The preparations necessary for a young woman for success in life are extremely different than the preparations for a son or grandson. The easiest way for a young woman to be successful in life is to enter into an excellent marriage. The number one problem is that most parents and grandparents are doing a poor job at preparing daughters and granddaughters for this role because they think …


Recipe of the Week: 

The following recipe for Sweet Moroccan Lamb Stew is from SurvivalBlog reader Cartol in Delaware. It makes 4 to 6 servings. Ingredients 3 pounds lamb shoulder on the bone, trimmed of excess fat 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 large onions (about 2 pounds), grated or finely chopped 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (divided use) 1/2 cup sugar (divided use) 2 pinches of saffron threads, lightly toasted and finely crumbled or powdered in a mortar with a little salt Salt (to taste) Freshly ground black pepper (to taste) 1 cup water …