Book Review: Ankara Fever: Homecomings

Author: Brian S. Vinson Copyright Date: 2014 Publisher: Left Brain / Right Brain Publishing ISBN: 978-1500242114 Amazon Link: Ankara Fever: Homecomings Suitable for children? Late teens and older This is the second installment in the Ankara Fever series, which appears to be scheduled as a trilogy. After reading book two, I’m really looking forward to book three! The first book– Ankara Fever: Journeys– was about Roger Westover trying to get himself, his new girlfriend, and his son to safety at a bug-out location. In book two– Ankara Fever: Homecomings– we get to see what is happening at the bug-out location. …


Scot’s Product Review: SimGar The Simple Garden

I have wanted to review a self-watering/fertilizing container gardening system ever since I started writing for SurvivalBlog. I was thrilled when SimGar contacted me and offered to let me borrow one of their SimGar Plus kits. It goes for about $150.00. SimGar stands for The Simple Garden, and it has only been on the market for about a month. I’ve gardened off and on for thirty plus years and have had both great and rotten results. While I’m lucky enough to have some decent space for a garden where we live now, my soil isn’t very good for vegetables without …


Recipe of the Week: Easy Meatloaf, by M.J.

Ingredients: 2 lbs 80% ground beef 2 cups Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs 2 cans Campbells tomato soup 2 lbs onions (3 lbs, if you love onions) butter flavored spray Directions: Combine beef, bread crumbs, and soup, thoroughly. Spray baking pan. (This is for the dish washer so the pan is easier to clean.) Put mixed ingredients in approximately 10 X 10 X 8 Pyrex or Corelle baking pan. (I don’t like metal baking pans, so this is a personal preference.) Cut larger onions in quarters and small onions in half. Place the onions in the outermost part of the …


Two Letters Re: So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI

Onions are a winter crop, which speaks to planting for three seasons or even four. I am working on soil quality, as that would be hard for a looter to carry off, and I am working on it in more than one place with double digging and nitrogen-fixing cover crops like clover, black-eyed peas, buckwheat, and vetch. He mentioned 100 jars of food. I figured out that I need 400 jars (pint) for my family of six (grandma, husband, wife, and three children). I am using pints, because you can always open two; keeping half of a larger jar is …


Economics and Investing:

11 Disturbing Charts About The Chinese Economy o o o “Waiting For Armageddon” – Say It Isn’t So? – B.C. o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: Europe Tumbles As Banks Lose All 2014 Gains The Wall Street “Escape Velocity” Scam: GDP Forecasts Fizzling For Fourth Straight Year Time For Regime Change At The Eccles Building: Interest Rate Pegging Is Destroying Capitalism


Odds ‘n Sods:

The Office Of Refugee Resettlement – Facilitators For A ‘Manufactured Human Crisis’. – B.B. o o o An example of just how “out of touch” with reality the average person is. Steven Spielberg Slammed Online For ‘Killing’ Triceratops. – T.P. o o o Man Finds FBI Tracking Device on Car, Posts Photos Online, Gets Visit From FBI . – G.L. o o o Poor ATF. Too many guns… not enough “capacity” to track them all… Report: Government Agency Doesn’t Have Capacity to Track Illegal Gun Sales o o o Downloading Tor could have landed you on an NSA watch-list. – …



Notes for Sunday – July 13, 2014

Today we present another entry for Round 53 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value), A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 $300 gift …


Arming Your Neighborhood in a World Gone Feral, by E.M.

I occasionally prowl prepper forums to read the opinions being expressed on various survival-related matters. Some people offer opinions that provide excellent insight into a particular problem or concern. Other people offer opinions that reveal profoundly weird or nonsensical views about issues. Of course, that situation certainly isn’t limited to the field of preparedness. I recently saw a posting on a forum by someone who asked whether, in making his preparations for a possible societal collapse, he should acquire “pass out” guns to hand out to his neighbors who, though mildly interested in survival matters when he discussed it with …


Letter Re: Tuberculosis

I read the TB article linked to at SurvivalBlog. The comment section in it explains why we have a problem– all NYT liberals wanting to save the world… Charity, while noble, should be private and personal. (I am not an organized church believer, so even that meets with my disdain, as example the harboring of the illegals being advanced by so called church “Christians” now, all Marxists in sheeps clothing….) The influx of illegals now will cause a health crisis so that should be the number one concern; close the borders. Thank you for all the work you do. I …



Odds ‘n Sods:

Another article on Nagin: Gun-Confiscating Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison – D.C. o o o Man Who Shot at Cops During No-Knock Raid Acquitted on All Charges . – T.P. o o o Another victim/target rich environment for criminal activity: Store Ignores Obvious Signs, Goes Overboard With Its Anti-Gun Policy – JBG o o o I am not one for these kind of shows. However, this one is worth watching. It shows just how screwed up the justice system is. Despite the fact that a strong body of evidence and human evidence …



Notes for Saturday – July 12, 2014

Ready Made Resources has just increased the discount on Mountain House’s favorite entrees from 32 to 40%. o o o Scot Frank Erie, SurvivalBlog’s Field Gear Editor also weighed in on the discussion about Basementless Storage with this comment: “Since I have the issue of lack of storage in air conditioned space and in a hot and humid climate, I have followed this closely on the Blog. I wanted to suggest a couple of comments. The Zeer type pot requires dry air to function. It probably won’t work in the Southeast. I remember being excited to read about them and …


Why You Need a Net in Your BOB, by JRV

Much of today’s survival discussion focuses on storing freeze-dried and canned foods and hunting game with guns. For the long term we can grow gardens, resume agricultural food production, and keep domesticated animals, just like our ancestors did in the 1800’s. However, what can we do for short-term food, without the stores, garden harvest, and chicken coops? One positive scenario is we can learn how to be good foragers and hunter-gatherers. An advantage of hunter-gatherer hunting techniques for today’s survivalist is that they are quiet. Trapping a rabbit in a snare or a net trap doesn’t give away your position …