How to Make Homemade Dog Food, by D.M.D.

How do we feed our pets when there is no dog food at the grocery or pet stores? Do we give up our pets or panic? Neither, we go back in the days before Iams or Purina and do what our grandparents did to feed their dogs. Now we can fed our pets in a balanced and considered way from what is now known about pet nutrition. So what did people fed their dogs? People fed mostly table scraps or their developed their own recipes. There weren’t the hundreds of dog food varieties as there are now. After World War …


Three Letters Re: Barter, Post-TEOTWAWKI: The Micro Store

Hello James: I thought that the post on barter micro stores was superb. I think additional consideration should be given to “dispense-from-bulk” strategies.  1 pound of petroleum jelly in single use (0.5g) pouches costs $48 from Sam’s Club.  35 pounds (5 gallon bucket) of petroleum jelly costs $90 from an on-line candle supply company.  Similar cost spreads run between single serving bottles of vodka and one gallon bottles and salt in bulk and single serving packets. It is pretty obvious that you will need a secondary container to carry the bulk materials if you are going to put the micro-store …


Economics and Investing:

Mark Faber: “I Am Convinced the Whole Derivatives Market Will Cease to Exist And Will Go to Zero” Alan D. sent this: Fitch Again Warns US Debt Burden Threatens AAA Rating. K.A.F. flagged this: To Survive, Some Biofuels Companies Give Up on Biofuels Items from The Economatrix: MF Global Customer Money Traced To JPMorgan The Shocking Truth About The Pending EU Collapse Ann Barnhardt: Call for General Market Strike Comex:  The March to Irrelevance


Odds ‘n Sods:

Doug Casey on Getting Out of Dodge. This echoes what I wrote in my piece last week about “Taking The Gap.” (Thanks to John R. for the link.)    o o o Kevin S. suggested a thought-provoking piece at the My Adventures in Self Reliance blog for anyone that is planning to “double up” with another family (or multiple families) for mutual security in the event of a disaster: Using #OWS as a learning tool of what happens in a collapse. Time-proven military sanitation standards should be your baseline.    o o o Reader M.J. sent a link to a …



Notes from JWR:

Avalanche Lily and I wish all SurvivalBlog readers a Merry Christmas! May the love of Christ our Savior surround you and yours, in the year to come! Trust in the Lord. — Today we present another entry for Round 38 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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, …


Childbirth at Home, by Kelli S.

The Department of Health is creating local groups to design an emergency disaster preparedness plan for pandemic flu and other emergencies that would impact pregnant women and newborns, since they are a vulnerable group and need to be treated differently.  In our county, it has been decided that healthy pregnant women will deliver outside the hospital in some emergency situations, pandemic flu being one of them. Are we prepared to assist these women and their newborns? Childbirth is a natural, physiological event. It is not, by definition, a medical emergency that needs to be “managed”, nor is it an illness …


Economics and Investing:

Some End-of-Year Advice from JWR: The wise old saying is: “Buy low, and sell high.” I recommend that any SurvivalBlog readers that are still invested too heavily in equities take advantage of the current market rally, and sell most of your stocks and any remaining municipal bonds. Take the proceeds and buy into current dip in silver. Take physical delivery, and keep your investment silver well-hidden, at home. (Preferably in a concealed vault.) Later, as the bull market in precious metals reaches its peak, and as the real estate market bottoms, take your profits from silver and parlay them into …


Odds ‘n Sods:

10 Days and Two Candy Bars: Stranded student survives 10 days in her Toyota Corolla. This underscores the profound need to carry survival gear and water when traveling. (Thanks to Ian in Virginia for the link.)    o o o Congratulations to Mac Slavo of the SHTF Plan blog, now listed as #1 in popularity by the Survival Top 50 survey site! Congratulations are also due to The Survival Podcast, the top-ranked site in Survival Top 50’s ongoing Reader’s Choice Awards. (Note: You have to scroll way down to the bottom of the Reader’s Choice web page to see The …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 38 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 …


Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, by Rick H.

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. “When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come …


Letter Re: Greenhouse Heating

Dear Jim, I was very interested to read about the heated greenhouse in this article. I wondered if people have also tried insulating a greenhouse and designing it to maximize solar gain? I’ve seen a design used in the Himalayas which allows them to grow vegetables throughout the year despite -25C conditions, designed by the charity GERES. I uses a UV-resistant polythene sloping roof facing south, high-mass insulated walls to store the sun’s heat and keep it in, some internal walls painted black and others white to help the solar gain, and finally a manually controller ventilation hatch – though …


Two Letters Re: Barter, Post-TEOTWAWKI: The Micro Store

James, Thank you so much for your blog site. I’ve been a reader for nearly five years and have learned so much.   Regarding the post of items to have to implement a micro store when and if there is a TEOTWAWKI event, he was well thought out and quite thorough.   It will be wise for us all to not only be as prepared as we can be for ourselves, but to think about being prepared for those around us.   If we all prepare this way, there will be a lot of duplication. However, as you have said …


Economics and Investing:

Larry W. recommended a piece by Ryan Jordan, titled Silver And Survivalism. Eric Sprott: I Think That This Next Decade Will Be The Decade For Silver Prices. A report from California’s Central Valley by Victor Davis Hanson: A Vandalized Valley Items from The Economatrix: Euro Collapse Crisis Sledgehammer Pounds Into Stock Market Santa Rally We Are Witnessing An Historic Bottom In Gold Most Americans Still Have No Idea How Bad The US Economy Is US Asks Banks to Keep More Cash at Hand