Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 6, by The Chemical Engineer

(Continued from Part 5.) 3.4 – Seeds From Stores Stores have seeds in the dry goods aisle, produce section, and on garden seed displays. If it is safe to do so, honestly acquire additional seeds and/or encourage local leaders to protect them for the community’s future use early in a T2E. I don’t believe that evil means can ever produce good ends. The teachings of Jesus Christ clearly don’t give me that option if I honestly want to be His disciple. A crisis is not a time to find exceptions but to find courage, creativity and faith to see who …


Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 5, by The Chemical Engineer

(Continued from Part 4.) 3 – Growing Food When Lives Depend On It In addition to industrial-scale emergency forging, growing food should be started ASAP by the local community after most T2Es.This is the 2nd Tactic. 2nd Tactic: As early as possible in an emergency start a neighborhood/community-wide food growing effort that aims to swiftly create a calorie surplus. The calorie density and volume of garden/farm crops is much higher than most foraged food sources. As mentioned earlier, if we do not have sufficient local water resources don’t try this. We will fail. Crops need lots of water to grow …


Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 4, by The Chemical Engineer

(Continued from Part 3.) 2.5 – Options For Using Local Cambium Resources If we have prepared beforehand to harvest tree cambium and a Type 2 Emergency (T2E) happens, we will have three main choices to consider in my view. I encourage you to make this decision prayerfully and with your group’s best judgment. Every choice in a disaster is a set of trade-offs with no perfect solutions. If we actively try and help our neighbors early there is no doubt that this will reduce early suffering for some and could lead to ongoing beneficial cooperation. If more people are pulling …


Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 3, by The Chemical Engineer

(Continued from Part 2.) 2.3 – Finding Edible Cambium Locally And Harvesting It If we live in an area with a sufficient number of trees, the next step would be to find out which ones have edible cambium. To accomplish this I recommend two sources. First, you would need to buy the National Audubon Society’s book titled Trees of North America or something equivalent. Here are two free sources that just have tree maps: Tree Map Link 1 and Tree Map Link 2. I am referring to the 2021 edition of Trees of North America in my following statements. This …


Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 2, by The Chemical Engineer

(Continued from Part 1,) Fifth, I believe that people are the most valuable creation on the planet for religious and practical reasons. The more people we have, the more knowledge they generate and can apply. I believe the growth of knowledge, personal freedom, and rule of law are the significant causes of mankind rising out of historical poverty. Great books like The Ultimate Resource 2, by Julian Simon, and Superabundance, by Gale Pooley and Marian L. Tupy, hammer home the fact that increased populations have increased prosperity. This is very counter to conventional wisdom because Malthusian thinking has warped much …


Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 1, by The Chemical Engineer

JWR’s Introductory Note:  At just over 20,000 words, this is perhaps the longest single-topic contributed article ever serialized in SurvivalBlog. I consider it an important piece to ponder.  Please read all eight parts before sending your comments. I will post most of them in the Snippets column on October 29th. — I want to start with a brief but sincere thank you to all the article writers I have learned from here at SurvivalBlog.com. Your efforts have made a difference for me and many others. I hope my contribution can have a similar benefit to others. Thank you. Let me …


Gold: The US Dollar Bank Run Is Speeding Up, by Hubert Moolman

Previously, I have shown how the US dollar banking system is in the midst of a bank run. We have entered the critical part of this bank run. The US dollar banking system has become too debased, and nations are running to an asset like gold as a reserve asset instead. It can be described as very similar to the events since Nixon ended the direct convertibility to gold in 1971. In the Gold/Monetary Base chart (below) you can see currently how a similar pattern has developed to the 1971 end of convertibility.


The Social and Psychological Cost of Preparedness, by A.C.

This is one topic that rarely gets any attention in the preparedness community, and I want to break it down all the way from the “prepper stigma” to the arguments and counterpoints we can make when confronted with the “tinfoil hat” comments by non-preppers in our lives. The act of preparing for an emergency is almost universally portrayed in popular culture as a solitary, dramatic, and often paranoid pursuit. Hollywood tends to show only the aftermath, illustrating the lone survivor who only needs their preps, but the reality of the emotional and social journey toward self-sufficiency is frequently ignored. While …


Rebuilding an Old Vehicle as a Daily Driver – Part 3, by Lodge Pole

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Electrical I keep a variety of spare fuses on hand in the glovebox. Fuses are cheap and do not go bad if kept dry. I also keep a voltmeter in the glove box. Ensure the cigarette lighter works. Replacing a cigarette lighter plug is simple. Having an operable lighter plug can mean the difference of not only being able to pump up a flat tire, but also preventing hypothermia. If you are stuck in the backcountry, a cigarette lighter can be used to start a fire. The factory battery cables mounted to …


Rebuilding an Old Vehicle as a Daily Driver – Part 2, by Lodge Pole

(Continued from Part 1.) Transmission The truck has a three-speed automatic transmission with a manual 4×4 transfer case. As much as I love driving a standard, manual transmission, the ease and comfort of an automatic is preferred for the places we go, and how we use the truck. Standard vs. automatic transmission is completely personal preference. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Use what works best for you and your lifestyle. I keep a quart of Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) in the truck box at all times. Dump bed and Greaseable Fittings All of the hydraulic lines are original from when …


Rebuilding an Old Vehicle as a Daily Driver – Part 1, by Lodge Pole

In 1975, for the first time in his life, my grandfather, who was a Great Depression era child, splurged and ordered a brand-new vehicle from the factory. It was a 1976 Chevrolet Silverado K20 4×4. (Aside from the color, it looks a lot like the one pictured above.) This piece of machinery was his pride and joy until the day he passed away. Shortly after he picked it up from the dealership, he had a dump bed installed. He wanted it to look stock, and still have the usefulness and functionality of a standard bed, so he hired a fabricator …


Parkerizing at Home – Part 2, by S.A.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Most of the time the barreled receiver is treated as one part. Normally, a rifle barrel is not removed from the receiver during parkerizing since it is difficult to remove and reinstall without damaging the new finish. In these cases it is not uncommon for issues caused by trapped solution to show up sometime in the future where the barrel shoulder meets the receiver face. One way to mitigate issues caused by trapped solution is to use compressed air after the part comes out of the parkerizing solution but before the final …


Parkerizing at Home – Part 1, by S.A.

Parkerizing is the trade name of a chemical reaction process that uses a mild acid solution to deliver manganese or zinc to a steel part and thereby coat that part with either manganese or zinc. The generic name for this process is “Phosphate Coating”, but most folks use the familiar name, Parkerizing, and often use a lower-case “p” when writing about it. The purpose of parkerizing is to provide a protective finish on steel parts. The resultant phosphate coating will hold lubricants and rust preventatives. One common use is to coat and protect steel firearms. Compared to bluing, it has …


Involving Children in Emergency Preparedness, by A.C.

The following is a summary of a Stakeholder Prepping Podcast. — Something that a lot of us overlook is the idea that preparedness is fundamentally a whole-family-unit endeavor. The effectiveness of any emergency plan hinges not on the dedication of a single individual, but on the cooperation and understanding of the entire family. When emergencies or disruptive events occur, a family unit operates at its most resilient when every member, including children, is an active participant rather than a passive bystander. The core challenge for parents is shifting the family’s mindset away from visualizing doomsday scenarios and toward fostering confidence, …


The Three Stages of TEOTWAWKI – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.  This concludes the article.) STAGE 2: SURVIVAL MODE The survival phase is the intermediate period between the very short-term emergency phase and the time when things finally settle down to the New Normal phase. Once everyone is finally gathered together at the homestead, defenses set up, the freezer contents are canned, freeze dried, smoked, or those blueberries made into cobbler as a comfort food during those first few stressful days, and once we’ve got meals back to some sort of a schedule, chores divvied out, watch times established, and water and propane conservation rules tacked to …