Text Comms in a Post-Disaster World – Part 1, by J.M.

Unless you’re a completely isolated loner, communications are going to play a critical role in both short-term and long-term disaster scenarios. Being able to effectively exchange information with family, friends and community members in both short-term as well as long-term disaster scenarios can literally mean the difference between surviving or going the way of The Dodo. There have been dozens of articles on SurvivalBlog about the use of radios for voice communications, and having appropriate radios and communications plans should definitely be considered a critical part of any preparedness plan. However, there’s another form of communications that should be considered …


Firearms Ownership Privacy: The Pre-1899 Solution

America is a wonderful place to live. We enjoy great prosperity and far more freedom than the citizens of most other nations. Our right to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution. But, as a union of 50 sovereign States, we also live with a patchwork of laws. Something that is perfectly legal in one State can be a misdemeanor or even a felony in another.  I feel fortunate to live in a very gun-friendly state in the Northern Rockies with permitless open carry, permitless concealed carry, and permitless vehicular carry. Here, nobody blinks an eye when they …


Improvised Shower Fixtures and Pumps, by A.F.

My first iteration of an improvised shower came about while stationed in Texas. Our unit was participating in a field training exercise and were allocated one trip to the shower point per week. As this exercise was more of a practice of our daily grind in field conditions rather than a battle simulation, our platoon of mechanics set up a minimal motor pool and for the most part spent time catching up on service work. One of the few actual repairs I was given over those days was replacing the power steering pump on a M1009 CUCV better known as …


Secure Local Comms With POTS Equipment, by Tractorguy

Land-line analog telephone service was ubiquitous in most of the 20th Century. This hardware is now commonly Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS).  This was our primary means of communication. It was simple, robust, and reliable. A few users still have landline service, although most landline service has migrated to digital means over a public Internet connection, with a modem at the user’s residence converting the digital data back to analog and providing ringer voltage to operate the bell. A lot of these telephones and associated equipment still exist, and are sitting in basements and attics. They could be easily pressed …


JIT Training for Trusted Friends, Family, and Neighbors, by Dr. Bob

This article will provide some thoughts on how to address a few common problems seen in the preparedness community. The first problem involves the difficulty finding like-minded people to form a community before the Stuff Hits The Fan (SHTF). The second problem is how to engage friends, family, and neighbors so that they take actions to prepare their families prior to SHTF. These problems are related and center on the realization that many people are bound by their current life circumstances and are unwilling or unable to consider that the current paradigm is in danger and, secondly, many of those …


Letter: Writing Articles For SurvivalBlog, by Richard T.

Editor’s Introductory Note:   This kind unsolicited letter was written by a blog reader who has written nine SurvivalBlog feature articles since 2019. – JWR — I frequently read in the SurvivalBlog the need, too often an urgent need, for new entries to the writing contest. Why aren’t more articles submitted? Obviously, it is not because readers of the blog do not have any ideas. Is it fear of rejection? lack of confidence? Whatever it is, if it keeps you from ever making an entry it is not just your loss, but the reader’s loss as well. (I have no affiliation …


Men Of The West: We Are At War, by Brandon Smith

Editor’s Introductory Note: This essay was first posted at Brandon Smith’s Alt-Market.us. It is reposted with permission. — It’s a strange thing. I was writing today about the tests of brutality we endure in the Western world in modern times, trying to explain why things cannot continue the way they have been for much longer, when the news hit the feeds on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I forced myself to watch the video footage, just as I forced myself to watch the recent murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a black man on a train who then bragged …


Prayer as Medicine, by Jennifer Rader

Some of the best things in life are free. The same holds true in medicine. A caring heart, a listening ear, a good laugh—these don’t cost a dime, and most everyone agrees that they work. Prayer, on the other hand, gets a bit controversial. While a significant number of studies with prayer and healing have been conducted, the results have been somewhat mixed. This can be attributed to the way the study was designed, how prayer is defined and practiced, and to the placebo effect.


Tracking The Silver Bull Market, by Hubert Moolman

The recent silver breakout means that silver is likely on an almost clear path to this target area (previously presented):       (Click the thumbnail above, to expand.) The current bottoming pattern from around 2014 to now is very similar to the early-2000s’ bottoming pattern. I have highlighted two similar patterns (marked 1 to 5). The bottoming period of the early 2000s started when silver broke down at the black support line (bottom of the channel) in late 2000 and made a low at point 5. This is similar to the period since the breakdown at the blue support …


Timex Expedition Field Post Solar Watch, by Thomas Christianson

Certain observers would say that I have an unhealthy obsession with punctuality. The fact that those observers are my children does not necessarily mean that they are correct. Children have been known to misunderstand their parents. They may even rebel against their upbringing by arriving at events exactly on time rather than 30 minutes early. Thus, the world spirals into decay. In any case, accurate time keeping is as a balm to my soul. If civilization collapses and chaos ensues, I want to know exactly what time it is when everything goes down. In June of 2023, SurvivalBlog published my …


Bring Back Asylums: Transgender Fatigue In America, by Brandon Smith

Editor’s Introductory Note: This essay was first posted at Brandon Smith’s Alt-Market.us. It is reposted with permission. — Transgenderism is not a civil rights movement; it’s a social engineering experiment. The LGBT movement is not a struggle for equal rights; it’s a covert war for political control. The agenda of the people involved in the spheres of trans-activism are radical zealots hellbent on the destruction of their enemies by any means necessary – And if you believe in logic, objective reality, biological science, and moral imperative, then you are one of their enemies. A prime strategy of the trans movement …


The Art and Science of Tool Making, by Grandpappy

Introduction The rule of “Two is one, one is none” applies to almost all preparations. But what happens if once we’re safely in our shelter, we discover we’re missing a tool? In a WTSHTF situation, with no way to go out to a hardware store or have an online store deliver it to your doorstep, this situation would be catastrophic unless you had basic tools and knew how to build your own. With makeshift materials (as some military manuals call them) when there isn’t anything else suitable available, you can build a tool for yourself that will do the job.


Review: Ramen Bae Topping Mix, by Mike in Alaska

DISCLAIMER: I paid out of my own pocket for this food and Ramen Bae did not sponsor this review article in any way. Some folks love Ramen, but others say if you eat it you’ll die a horrible, painful death. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch; bottom line is that as food it’s not the same as say a prime rib dinner. But then it doesn’t need you to take out a second mortgage to buy, either. After all the years I’ve eaten food that some might call questionable, ramen isn’t anywhere near the top of the list …


Data Collection in Our Lives, by Anonymous in Ohio

With all of the recent discussion of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) threats in SurvivalBlog, I want to share a recent experience with what I assume was an A.I.-intervened technology. We were recently moving some of our supplies across state in a small cargo trailer to our cabin. We had unloaded the trailer and were returning home when I saw flashing lights in my mirror. I thinking to myself, I can’t be trailer lights, everything is rewired new, new tires, bearings, doors were locked. The State Trooper came up to the window and tells me that my plates on the trailer registration …


Goldilocks Fire-Starting Kits, by C.S.

The Problem In the spring of 2009, a group of adventuresome whitewater kayakers dipped their boats into the meager headwaters of the North Fork of the Virgin River above Zion National Park. The weather was cold, but spirits were high. The paddlers had read about kayaking through the Zion Narrows in the preeminent whitewater guidebook for the southern Rockies. Confident their paddling abilities were more than up to the task, the group shrugged off having to frequently drag their boats through early shallow stretches. They knew the North Fork of the Virgin River picked up most of its flow from …