Got Worms?, by Girl Raised in the South (GRITS)

I felt a sting of envy while admiring a neighbor’s tomato and pepper plants. They were lush and heavy with fruit, bursting out of their containers, while the straggly things in my garden struggled to produce an occasional ping pong ball for our salads. Our neighbor, Bud, mentioned that he had added castings from his aunt’s worm farm, and he figured that must be how come his plants were doing so well. We have our share of earthworms in our home dirt, and knew they were beneficial, but had never seen the value of  concentrated worm poop demonstrated so clearly. …


Letter Re: Vacuum Tube Radios for Preppers

Jim: A lot of us got the radio bug from a Hallicrafters S-38 series or a Zenith Trans-Oceanic. I have both and still enjoy them, but when I need to tease out an obscure signal my old National HRO usually beats about any other radio in the shack (new or old) hands down. The S-38 is a good choice since outside of the band-switching arrangement it has the guts of an All-American Five radio. This makes it a lot more repairable, most of the components are “generic”, i.e. tubes, capacitors, IF transformers, et cetera. The only downside to a [transformerless] …


Letter Re: Charity and Food Storage Rotation

JWR, As I was reading the letter about the Vancouver riots, the part about the homeless man reminded me of one of the ways I rotate the food in my bug out bag (BOB). I know that a lots of people don’t like to give money to beggars, because they don’t want them to just buy booze. I also know that many people don’t use the food in their BOB (I’ve personally seen some rather old, funky smelling granola bars). Yes, I know you can use them when you go camping or hiking for practice, or just have MREs or …


Economics and Investing:

Greece Credit-Default Swaps Surge to Record 2,189 Basis Points, CMA Says. Oh those derivatives, again. P.R.D. suggested this: Is the Fed Insolvent? Scott M. found a facebook page devoted to the logic of saving nickels: Stacking Nickels. IMF Cuts U.S. Growth Forecast to 2.5%. (Thanks to Steven M. for the link.) Adam B. sent this: Greek Bailout Leaves the French Unruffled While German Politicians Seethe Items from The Economatrix: Inflation Slows In May as Gas Prices Fall Eric Sprott:  We’re Headed Over a Cliff, Be Wary of Paper Assets Failure To Raise Debt Ceiling Could Result in Severe Market Disruption. …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Some great advice, over at the Patarus Familia blog: Practical Preparedness – Storage    o o o Fukushima, Nebraska? Airspace Over Flooded Nebraska Nuclear Power Plant Still Closed    o o o Ron in Florida sent: New Apple Technology Stops iPhones From Filming Live Events. Ron’s comment: “The implications of potential misuse are chilling.” JWR Adds: Yes, what if The Powers That Be (TPTB) decide that they don’t want anyone filming the police cracking skulls at a public protest demonstration? Camera “Lock Outs” could presumably be based on GPS coordinates, rather than in infrared emitters.    o o o The …



Note from JWR:

For those that might feel guilty about never getting a voluntary 10 Cent Challenge subscription, here is a new, zero cost option: You can donate your computer’s background processing power to mine Bitcoins for the Ten Cent Challenge. This a Java applet that is NOT installed on your PC or Mac. It simply runs within a web browser session. If everyone that reads SurvivalBlog were to keep that Bitcoin mining web page open while web browsing, or better yet, overnight… It might even add up to some significant digits. The link above incrementally adds Bitcoins to SurvivalBlog’s specific account as …


Pat’s Product Review: Diamondback .380 ACP Pistol

Diamondback Firearms has only been around a very short time. However, they are rapidly gaining a reputation for producing extremely well-made handguns. At present, Diamondback is only producing a couple of models, one in .380 ACP and the newest in 9mm. There are several different variations on the .380 ACP already. The new 9mm just has one model at present. Make no mistake, I’m not an advocate of the .380 ACP round as my one and only handgun. In today’s society, there are just so many bad guys that are hopped-up on drugs that the .380 ACP, doesn’t have the …


Letter Re: Bookshelf Recommendations

Jim, I looked at your Bookshelf recommendations and I have a few suggestions to add: First, the Combat Lifesaver handbook. I received a stapled back copy of this accompanied with hands on training through the military, prior to my recent deployment to Afghanistan, and it is basically an instruction course format, laid out for providing medical treatment during combat pre-first responders. Second, the Combat Medic Field Reference. It is a combat medics waterproof pocket guide designed to fit into side pocket of trousers. It covers virtually everything a specific medic or group of medics who are rendering aid under combat …


Letter Re: Adjustable Rate Mortgage Rate Resets

Dear JWR: Back in 2009, and even as early as 2007, many dire predictions were made about the massive wave of Alt-A and Option ARMs that were to reset in 2010 and 2011. See this widely-cited chart. (First mentioned in SurvivalBlog in January of 2009, in a link to iTulip.) Like many of you, I braced for impact, and then, nothing. What happened? This happened. Alt-As and ARMs have been resetting, but at very low rates, keeping the level of defaults lower than they would otherwise be. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. The Federal Reserve has been keeping …


Letter Re: The Vancouver Hockey Games Riots

Mr Rawles, I first posted this in a Survival forum I frequent often in response to the widespread, violent riots that broke out in Vancouver after the local hockey team lost in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I just was reading up on it this morning and you got to ask yourself: If your “countrymen” would essentially devolve into barbarian hordes over a stupid game – what do you think they’ll do when they have no food, water, heat, electricity and no government to bail them out or keep them in their place? I was speculating this morning that Vancouver is …


Economics and Investing:

Reader Sue C. sent us this: Don’t Look Now, But Stagflation May be Here KAF flagged this: Economy faces weaker growth, higher prices BG sent this from the WSJ: The Economy is Worse than You Think. Items from The Economatrix: Priced In Gold, The Median Home Price Is Down 80% Many Of Us Won’t Be Able To Retire Until Our 80s Worsening Greek Debt Crisis Sinks Stocks, Euro Late Credit Card Payments Hit Pre-Recession Levels


Odds ‘n Sods:

Are we approaching something like the Maunder Minimum? Sun’s Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity. Come on, make up your minds. Al Gore is dying to know, will it be global warming or a Little Ice Age? Either way, be prepared for multigenerational TEOTWAWKI.    o o os Several readers have written me to mention this study: Freedom in the 50 States. It is an interesting yet slightly flawed study. Since when does perverting the definition of “marriage” constitute a freedom? In their criteria for measuring Paternalism, the authors of the study chose to weight “domestic partnerships” nearly …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo , and …