Comparison of Sunflair and All-American Sun Ovens, by M.J.

I’ve had a Sunflair Deluxe solar oven for a few years now. I recently purchased an All-American Sun Oven. I cooked with both of them recently. The Sunflair Deluxe is made of fabric and flexible plastic (to let the sun in), whereas the Sun Oven is a large box that does not fold, but the panels that reflect the sun into the oven that do fold. I don’t recommend cooking on a windy day with the Sun Oven. The sun-reflecting panels are too fragile. That’s not a problem with the Sunflair Deluxe, but one time the wind came up and …


By Default: Habits, Good and Bad – Part 2, by N.C.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Altering Your Default Behaviors If you are not executing your own positive plan you’re a resource to other agents at best and their servant or slave at worst. As Seneca put it to his protégé discussing how people decry things but do not change themselves “they are lingering of their own free will in a situation which they declare they find it hard and wretched to endure. It is so, my dear Lucilius; there are a few men whom slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.” Or, …


By Default: Habits, Good and Bad – Part 1, by N.C.

Part 1: Design Your Default, or Lose We’ve all had the experience of realizing that you were zoned out while you were driving. Your brain was fried from a long day at work, you got in your car and realized that (without a conscious thought) you were somewhere. Maybe at a drive-through restaurant. Maybe your house. Maybe a bar. Wherever it was, it was not where you told yourself you would go this morning. Your conscious intent was to run an errand, hit the gym, go to Wednesday night service, or go to the park for a walk. But it …


Dark Age 2.0: Melee Weapons – Part 4, by Dr. Joseph

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.) Swords and Machetes Swords are iconic weapons, typically owned by the wealthier in history due to the cost of making them. Swords are one of the few weapons to be personalized and given names, such as Excalibur, the magical sword of King Arthur. Today one can order hand-crafted swords, some with jewels and works of art, that may cost upwards of US $10,000, or much more. Swords are collector’s items, and once one starts, a passion, if not fanaticism, develops to get another, then another. This mania should be resisted by the …


Dark Age 2.0: Melee Weapons – Part 3, by Dr. Joseph

(Continued from Part 2.) I will return to the question of swords below, but to make the discussion more systematic, let us outline some criteria for melee weapon choice. Some points are: (1) Availability and accessibility, one should have access to the weapons, and be able to acquire backups in case of breakage, or extra people in one’s team, even if this means improvisation, or making them first hand. (2) Versatility: the weapon should be able to cover the bases, so that a bladed weapon should be ideally suitable for both stabbing and slashing/chopping, and even a stick should still …


Dark Age 2.0: Melee Weapons – Part 2, by Dr. Joseph

(Continued from Part 1.) The Question of External Shock and Collapse The position may be taken that the decay as described can be reversed with the right political will, and the hope is that President Trump may turn things around, at least enough to prevent the coming collapse that the demonic Left so lusts for. Even so, the very election of Trump, if he can get past the extensive lawfare that has been set up to eliminate him, itself showing the decline of both the rule of law and democracy in America, will plunge America into a war zone far …


Dark Age 2.0: Melee Weapons – Part 1, by Dr. Joseph

“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts And I looked, and behold a pale horse And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him.” – Johnny Cash, from the lyrics to The Man Comes Around (2002), paraphrasing Rev. 6:8 In this article I will discuss the philosophy of melee weapons, defined as hand-held non-projectile firing weapons, in what has been called the “multigenerational scenario” of social or civilizational collapse, spanning a number of generations. [1] The article will first outline why it is highly likely that modern civilization is well …


Rethinking Food Storage – Part 2, by Anita Bailey

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Although these genetic modifications are generally considered safe to consume, there is scant long-term research on the effects on human digestive function or other bodily processes. We just don’t know. People who consume them may be unwitting testers. However, there are indications that some herbicides remain in grains, even those labeled as organic. One of these that is increasingly concerning, is glyphosate which has been linked to non-Hodgkins-lymphoma, and other inflammation-related diseases and disorders such as diabetes, gut disorders, and autism. This chemical is used to kill unwanted grasses and other weeds …


Rethinking Food Storage – Part 1, by Anita Bailey

Most of us who read SurvivalBlog likely have some food – maybe a lot of food – stored up for the proverbial “rainy day” or other possible situations. Storing food has increased in public interest over the last few years. An internet search on “food storage” produces 1.6 billion hits at this writing, averaging about 1 search per minute all day and night. That’s a lot of interest. It’s not slowing down, either. I’ve been storing up for well over five decades. When I started, I lived in a major city. Now I’m rural on a farm. I continue the …


Home Security for the Gun-Deprived, by R.J.

When your temporary or semi-permanent home has to be away from true-home, you want to be secure there as well. This review is based on experiences and plans my family and I had when living and working (and for many years with young children) in not-the-most-salubrious-parts of the planet. These places also didn’t allow foreigners to own firesticks whether long- or hand-guns; a couple of countries grudgingly allowed private possession of shotguns but only for citizens, not transients, even if the transient was going to be there for years at a time. As a consequence, the Lady of the House …


The Smaller Things, by A. Midwester

To give you a little background, for most of my life I lived in an urban environment, everything I needed was just a short walk or drive away. It could have been a few 2x4s and screws for one of my many projects, a new tool when I needed it, or anything else like it. If it wasn’t available locally, I could easily order it online and expect it, almost without failure, within a day or two. It’s truly amazing what society has developed in terms of convenience. But it’s also scary to consider what would happen if that convenience …


Coping With a Spring Snowstorm, by Hollyberry

Here in Maine we had been experiencing a mild winter and heading into spring warmer temperatures than normal. The ground was bare, little plants were poking their heads up and the birds were singing. Most people took the plows off of their truck and dreams of gardening early were running through our heads. Well, there is an old saying: Man plans and God laughs.  That came true. On March 20th into the 21st, we received about 9-10 inches of heavy, wet snow. Then the temperatures plummeted to teens with below-zero wind chills. Okay, this is spring in Maine and these …


Barbering at Home, by SwampFox

Stereotypes are not a good thing. You know the “survivalist” or “mountain man” look that you see on television –long beard, unkempt hair, and generally rough clothing. While outdoor work and lack of supplies can lead to this condition, I believe it is possible to weather the hard times with good hygiene and style. When I was young, haircuts were usually done at home. Occasionally, I would go with my father to a barbershop, but that did not happen very often. Mostly, haircuts were done with a pair of scissors, and my father did a very good job with it. …


What Would Robinson Crusoe Get at WalMart?, by A.B.B.

Let’s suppose that you are Robinson Crusoe at TEOTWAWKI. If you have one last opportunity to go to a store, then what would you get? Where would you get it? Bic Ligters? Vitamin C tablets? Water purifiers? Your answers to these questions will predetermine your actions on TEOTWAWKI. My wife and I have decided to each carry cash, a 1 oz gold Krugerrand coin on our persons and twenty dollars face value of 90% junk silver in our book bags for the foreseeable future. If or when something hits, minimally the credit card systems will go down. Cash will become …


The Deuce and a Half as a BOV, by B.F. 

I am often amused at the articles in both mainstream publications and in the preparedness press that talk about using surplus military vehicles as “bug out vehicles” (BOVs). Sometimes these vehicles are basically stock, other times they are highly customized packages priced at $100,000 or more. In any event, I believe they are off the mark in their suggestions, although they do make for enjoyable reading. Now don’t get me wrong, I like surplus military vehicles. I own (or have owned) several including an M35A2 Deuce and a Half with winch. an M818 semi-tractor, an M1009 CUCV, an M998 HMMWV, …