The Science: Reusing Canning Jar Lids – Part 1, by St. Funogas

I’ve been on an incredible journey since submitting my last article Reusing Canning Jar Lids to SurvivalBlog. That article was based on my personal experience reusing 1,000+ canning jar lids. Many other home canners bear similar testimony about successfully reusing lids. My article specifically mentioned ignoring all the blogs, the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, and even my own experience mentioned in the article. Since the best teacher is personal experience, I then challenged the reader to do a simple test themselves by canning some water with used canning jar lids. In this follow-up article, I have researched and …


Gear Review: Two Twig Stoves, by The Novice

I often enjoy using my Norwegian “Storm Kitchen” alcohol stove. It is reliable, quiet, compact, clean, and convenient. It has just two weaknesses: it heats slowly, and in a long-term disaster scenario, I might run out of fuel for it. So I started looking into “twig stoves”. These stoves are fueled by sticks, pine cones, and other small, dry bio-mass. They have a reputation for heating quickly, and I have a virtually unlimited supply of fuel around my property. I looked at quite a number of stoves. There are dozens to choose from. Most of them are made in China. …


Chainsaw Fuels for Long Term Storage, by Tunnel Rabbit

Even if I do not have time to lay out all that I know about long-term storage of various fuels and the various types of engines that might consume that fuel, perhaps I can pass along some helpful information. As a rule of thumb, I figure I’ll need one gallon of chainsaw gas for every one cord of wood that I cut, and I’ll need half that volume in bar oil. If we can keep a chainsaw running, then that fuel could be of adequate quality to run anything else. Gasoline is much more difficult to store than diesel, and …


You Can Shoot — But Can You Fight?, by B.D.C.

Many of you, like myself, have stored firearms and ammunition for events likely to come. Many of you train to become proficient in the use of firearms. But do you know how to fight? Knowing how to effectively deliver an accurate shot to a target from a static position is not knowing how to fight. It is knowing how to shoot. This article is not going to be a how-to. Its purpose is to educate you in the skills you need to effectively fight with a firearm under adverse conditions. Do you train under adverse conditions? To illustrate what I …


My Quest for Waterproof Tinder, by The Novice

In the past, I have generally used a cotton ball with a dab of petroleum jelly as my preferred tinder. During some recent testing, I accidentally got the cotton ball damp. I found out that damp cotton performs very poorly as tinder. This was grounds for some serious thought, since wet conditions are often experienced in the field. I decided it would be wise to try to make a waterproof tinder that could be easily ignited with a ferrocerium rod. The First Attempt: Cotton in Paraffin I first tried waterproofing the cotton ball with paraffin. I took a coffee can …


An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 2, by S.B.

(Continued from Part 1.) Using the AC/Heater in the Car Matters (a lot) The weather is not only going to have more of an affect on your electric car (compared to a gasoline vehicle), but it is going to have more of an effect on you because using climate control draws a lot of juice from your battery. In a gas vehicle, running the heater has little to no effect on the vehicle’s performance because you are just pulling heat from the engine compartment that is a byproduct of the engine running. Although running the air conditioner (AC) in a …


An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 1, by S.B.

I’ve been working on an article for SurvivalBlog on electric cars for quite some time…writing a little bit here and there then prioritizing other activities and halting work. With the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware fiasco and associated fuel shortages on the east coast Report: U.S. Capital Nearly Out of Gas While NC, VA Also Endure Outages (breitbart.com), I thought this an opportune time to buckle down and finish up the article. Regardless of how you interpret U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s recent statement regarding the Colonial Pipeline shutdown where she said “if you drive an electric car, this would not …


Frog & Co. Tough Tesla Lighter 2.0, by The Novice

Recently, the Senior Pastor of my church gave me a gift. It is a Frog & Co. Tough Tesla Lighter 2.0. It is a great blessing to have a Senior Pastor who faithfully teaches the word of God. It is a bonus that he also recognizes that we live in a dangerous world, and tries to help his flock to be prepared. This lighter was my first experience with a product from Survivalfrog.com. I visited their website, and noticed that they have many interesting items for sale. My first impression was that some of the items seemed to be priced …


Survival Retreats & Relocation: A Book Review by John Brew

My #1 Son recived permission to republish the following review of a book that we co-authored: Survival Retreats & Relocation. John Brew (brewbooks) is a SurvivalBlog reader, and left this review on Amazon: “Survival Retreats & Relocation” [by Jonathan E. Rawles and James Wesley, Rawles] uses a systems engineering approach to provide the reader a process and framework for acquiring and thriving a survival retreat. Let me start this review by stating the authors view survival through a politically and religiously conservative American lens. If that causes you offense, no need to read further, this book isn’t for you. That …


Equipping Your Vehicle For Emergencies, by C.J.

A recent mechanical problem had me stranded beside the road for several hours and made me think about possible bad scenarios and what I would want to have in my car in order to survive these situations. My vehicle was stranded on the off-ramp of a major interstate, but the remoteness became apparent when I realized I only saw four cars get on or off this exit in three hours. One of those cars was a sheriff and he didn’t stop to see if I needed help. I was able to use my cell phone, but in many places, especially …


Realistic Team Training Events, by Joe Dolio

When talking about survival in a Without Rule of Law (WROL) situation, you are going to need a team. This can be a dedicated preparedness group, your family, a collection of friends, or whomever. But you absolutely need a team to survive in the coming chaos. This team needs to train together in order to be effective. The problem is that most training events go something like this: On Friday night, everyone meets at the location, has a big BBQ dinner and hangs out around the campfire. Tents and shelters are placed in a wide-open area, spread out over a …


Training Yourself For Preparedness, by Joe Dolio

So many of the people in the preparedness community build massive stockpiles of supplies, including food, camping gear, backpacks, weapons & ammo, and all that ultra tacti-cool stuff. The problem is, they rarely get off the couch and train, and they rarely get out and use their gear. It does you no good to have a cool backpacking tent, but have no idea how to set it up. Having an ultra-light backpacking stove is great, unless you have no idea how to use it. Your 70 pound “bug out bag” may very well be well-stocked, but unless you’ve trained on …


Strategic Lumber Storage, by 3AD Scout

To paraphrase an old saying: How much wood should a Prepper prep, if a prepper should prep wood? Author’s Note: This article was started in early December 2020 when from today’s standpoint lumber prices were reasonable. I think 2020 and 2021 will be the years that many of us might realize that wood, primarily as in lumber, should be added to our preps. I suppose for those who live in areas prone to Hurricanes having some wood on hand might be normal to board up the home when a storm approaches but wood has many forms and hence many uses. …


Your Best Invisible Prep, by T.C.

First of all, lets take a moment to praise our Lord God for this wonderful world – and for all of bountiful blessings that we have. We need to look no further than what is happening in India to be reminded to get down on our knees and pray. I have personally heard from medical doctors on the ground that talk about how those in the COVID wards – and field hospitals are pulling their O2 masks off to be able to die so that their families will not go bankrupt from the hospital bill. We are awash in blessings …


On Irish Democracy – Part 2, by Born Free

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) As I stated in Part I, I favor massive non-compliance at every level possible without landing myself in jail.  This approach calls for the “Gray Man”, “Going Galt”, and true to my heritage, “Irish democracy”.  The important characteristics of such intent is to not organize, to not be heard or seen, and to not seek to massively disrupt the status quo. It’s all underground, under the surface, like small tremors that can’t be attributed to a particular earthquake fault line or dormant volcano.  Think of it, if you will, as undiscovered termites …