Creating Hiding Places Without Handyman Skills, by Tamara W.

Creating hiding places for items can be a challenge without handyman skills, a large budget and the need to hide stores in sight. Fortunately, there are some options that are easy to implement without a lot of cost without looking odd to anyone passing through your home. Many Uses for Chest Freezers Chest freezers have the benefits of being common, heavy, cheap to get used and not a big deal to own. How does this help when you want to store things or hide them? Chest freezers are commonly locked to keep young children from climbing in and becoming trapped. …


Letter Re: Lead: The Other Precious Metal

Dear Sir, First, before I get started, my thanks to you for this blog and your books. I’ve invested in metals: Gold, silver, check; “Real” copper pennies, nickels, check; Lead…what? lead? Yes, lead. To me, as a reloader and bullet caster for more than four decades cheap lead in the form of Linotype and wheel weights was taken for granted. But now, with the new regulatory push from the EPA, lead will soon no longer be used as the balance weights on our wheels. This will dry up the last major source of inexpensive used lead [that is in chunks …


Economics and Investing:

T.E.M. suggested: 10 ways to save money: How the old-fashioned barter system is making a comeback “Benny Flag” liked this piece by Dr. Gary North: Sovereign Debt, Sovereign Bank Runs Reader Grace H. wrote to mention: “In 1999 in preparation for Y2K, I purchased a number of DAK brand canned hams for $1.00 a piece.  These 16 oz. cans were readily available everywhere.  The other day my dimpled darling suggested that we needed some of those “little canned hams” in our prepping supplies.  I obediently went on the search thinking that it would be easy.  Nope!  Few stores around me …


Odds ‘n Sods:

For those that like CraigsList, Matt M. mentioned a tool called Search Tempest that automagically searches all of the Craigslist sites at once, using definable radius of your location. I use it to quickly find unusual items that are within a four hour drive.    o o o England’s descent into national suicidal oblivion begins in its courtrooms: ‘Squatters aren’t criminals and can be GOOD for society’: Judge orders council to publish list of empty homes in its area.    o o o USAPrepares.com is sponsoring a Preparedness Expo this coming this Friday and Saturday (September 9th and 10th) in …



Notes from JWR:

Today is the “Book Bomb” day for the new sci-fi novel Rogue, written by SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large, Michael Z. Williamson. “Rogue”is the sequel to Mike’s novel The Weapon. While it is a sequel, it does stand alone.  Readers do not have to have read “The Weapon” for it to be enjoyed as a complete story by itself. Be forewarned that it has: “Some violence, some harsh language, and very few sexual references.” You can read some advance chapters here. When I last checked, the book was ranked around #8,000 on Amazon, overall (out of their four million titles.) Let’s …


An Early Baby Boomer’s Bug Out Bag, by Jen L.

I’d like to address the requirements for a Early Baby Boomer’s bug out bag.  The word “emergency” has a completely different meaning for those of us who are over 60 and can’t move fast, can’t climb stairs and can’t get up once we get down on the ground!  Needless to say, we can’t pack 100 pounds on our back, nor can we lift 50 pounds from the rear of the car.  But survival is still important.   My three sisters and I were born during the Korean War era, were raised on what I call a post-WWII and Great Depression farm …


Maxine’s Myopic Economic Solution: Buy More Gum Balls!

A recent news headline caught my attention: Representative Maxine Waters Calls For A Trillion-Dollar Jobs Program. After reading that I feel obliged to make a few sarcastic comments. (A privilege that I don’t abuse through over-use, as the editor of SurvivalBlog.com): Well, gosh, Maxine, if your “spending money that we don’t have creating wonderful economic prosperity” concept is so iron-clad, then why not go whole hog by pouring even bigger buckets of slop into the public trough? Why not spend $20 trillion to create zero unemployment? There would be jobs for everyone. We could develop whole new categories of jobs! …


Letter Re: CONEX Shipping Containers as Faraday Enclosures?

Captain Rawles,  As most of your readers would say, we thank you for your ministry.  My question is weather a 40′ Continental Express (CONEX) shipping containers would work as a huge Faraday cage, and thus we would be able to store most of our sensitive electronics, such as communications gear, battery chargers, e cetera.   Thank you again, – R.L.S. JWR Replies: There are a few problems with that concept: 1.) The vast majority of CONEXes have wooden floors. Wood is fairly transparent to radio frequency (RF) waves, including electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A metal Faraday enclosure needs to be an integral box. …


Economics and Investing:

B.B. sent this: Economist Calls Entitlements A Massive Ponzi Scheme And Says US Is Actually $211 Trillion In Debt Dan H. suggested this NPR piece: Switzerland: Too Strong For Its Own Good Euro’s Future—When Will Rioting Start? (Thanks to Ben S. for the link.) European Stocks Fall Sharply as Debt Fears Hit Banks Items from The Economatrix: Government Doubles Layoffs Illusion of Stable Currency Vortex Why Gold is Going to $2,000/oz. By The End of September Self-Employed Struggle as U.S. Recovery Offers Few Opportunities Even Goldman Sachs Secretly Believes that an Economic Collapse is Coming


Odds ‘n Sods:

For those in the vicinity of Boulder, Colorado, Jonathan E. wrote to mention that he noticed some tanks, totes, and barrels advertised on Craigslist. (Similar drums and barrels are available on other Craigslist pages for other cities.)    o o o For those who might dismissively reject community building projects (like my American Redoubt concept), I recommend this piece by Brandon Smith: The Strategic Advantages Of Community Building.    o o o M.B. spotted this Makezine piece: DIY Bookbinding.    o o o There have been some great posts recently over at the Paratus Familia blog. For example, scroll down …



Note from JWR:

My apologies if my SurvivalBlog posts are fairly sparse or terse for the next six days. This is “crunch week” to complete the second sequel novel manuscript that I’ve contracted with Simon & Schuster. My wife (“Avalanche Lily“) has been helping me fine tune the last few passages. That book should be released in October or November of 2012. In the meantime, the “Book Bomb” day for for the first sequel to “Patriots” (“Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse) is October 4th, 2011. Thank you for waiting until that day to order your copy! By waiting, we hope to …


Some Useful Influenza Facts, by Dr. Bob

In my head it sounds like the start to a Schoolhouse Rock song….”innnn flu enza!  It’s contagious, it’s outrageous…influenza a virus that …”  Anyway, enough reminiscing about my childhood and on to the topic.  First things first:  “flu” is one of the most overused and improperly used terms in all of medicine–arguable the king of misused medical words.  Influenza is a respiratory virus.  It is not what most people call “flu” or “stomach flu”.  It is not a little cold that you have that people call into work for because they just feel sniffly.  Influenza is an enveloped RNA virus classified …


Pat’s Product Review: The Para P14 Returns

Para Ordnance started the trend with hi-capacity 1911-style handguns back in the 1980s. People said it couldn’t be done – putting more than 7 or 8 big ol’ .45ACP rounds in a 1911 frame, and still have a gun you could wrap your fingers around. Para Ord proved everyone wrong! Para didn’t start out with a complete 1911, instead, they manufactured a frame only. And, people could simply fit the slide, barrel and other upper parts onto the Para frame. I still remember the first Para frame I saw – it wasn’t nicely finished, and it was a little bit …