Today is the birthday of Congressman Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794)
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January 20th, 1993 is a Red Letter Day for me. That was the day that Bill Clinton was first sworn in as President. That is also the same day that I resigned my commission as a U.S. Army Captain. I did so because I detested the idea of Clinton as my Commander in Chief. My commissioning document has Ronald Reagan’s signature.
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You may recall reading that my mother passed away, in October. Her house in Livermore, California just went up for sale, yesterday. That was where I lived, in my teenage and college years. It is one of just a handful of 4-bedroom/2-bathroom houses currently on the market in Livermore. I was stunned to see that it has already had 925 views at Zillow, and that 40 home searchers clicked “Save”. It seems that people are eager to move to a town like Livermore. Oh, by the way, an 800-pound gun vault is included, but that is in a bedroom closet and not visible in the virtual tour. It also has a nice producing apple tree and a tangelo tree, but otherwise, this tract house is nothing special. So, in the East Bay Area, $1.2 million will get you just a 2,128 square foot house built in 1969 on a 1/4 acre lot. But in North Idaho, just under $1 million will get you a 4,234 square foot house built in 1986 on 100 acres. – JWR
SurvivalBlog Writing Contest
Today we present another entry for Round 98 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
- The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
- A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
- A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
- Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
- A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
- American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
- Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
Second Prize:
- A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
- A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
- Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
- A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!
Third Prize:
- Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
- A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
- Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
- A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.
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More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 98 ends on January 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 in the judging.