Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader B.C. wrote to mention: “It has occurred to me that preparedness should also include how to cook for the crowd that shows up at TEOTWAWKI. I just came across a page with links to recipes for cooking for 20 or more people.”    o o o JRH Enterprises is having a sale on new third generation Pinnacle auto-gated PVS-14 night vision units. All of these have a adjustable gain and a five year warranty.  The standard Gen 3 unit is now on sale for $2,895. And for the first time JRH is putting on sale their upgraded (Gen 3+) version …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 33 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 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP …


Dairy Goats 101, by Country Lady

For those of you on your retreat property and wanting to add sustainability to your food supply, I present this article to give you an overview of goat-keeping.  Why choose goats?  The advantages of goats are manifold: • Goats are smaller, therefore require less feed, space and fencing than a cow. • Goat milk is less allergenic and more closely resembles human milk than cow milk. • Dairy goats typically produce two quarts to a gallon of milk per day – a usable amount for a family, especially if no refrigeration is available. • Goats kid (give birth) five months …


Letter Re: You are Only as Good as Your Equipment

I am a two-year every day reader of the SurvivalBlog, and going through most of the entries that people write I have noticed that the majority of people believe that in a post SHTF scenario we will be faced with daily battles with marauders trying to take or food and goods. This brings people to the assumption that they must only stock up on only ammunition and firearms. As we all know as readers of this blog that when SHTF we will not have grocery stores or any of the facilities that we take for granted as of today. We …


Letter Re: When Alaskan Salmon is Chinese

Hi, Jim: Every few weeks I buy a couple cases (of 24 cans) of canned wild Alaskan salmon canned by Bumble Bee selling for $1.99 per can (a 14.5oz can), and a quality gold tinted tapered can. Recently it has had a 2015 expiration date. In my estimation, wild salmon is an excellent unadulterated protein source with a lengthy expiration date, especially when compared to canned tuna (with traces of mercury) and canned chicken.    Well, yesterday I went in to the same discount supermarket (the kind of no-frills market where you bag yourself and pay extra for the bag) …


Letter Re: Antibiotics for Serious Wounds

A reader wrote to ask: “Dr. Koelker, you explained what each of the antibiotics is good for, but one major concern was unaddressed. In a TEOTWAWKI situation we may be faced with having to treat gunshot wounds. And just as likely, if not more so, we may need to treat serious lacerations, such as accidents with sharp, dirty tools. I think, as am I, the readers of this blog might be interested to know which antibiotics are the most effective in preventing infections if/when we sustain such wounds.”   Doctor Koelker Replies:  As usual, such answers come in a short …


Economics and Investing:

Thor sent this bit of news on the global food supply: Planet could be ‘unrecognizable’ by 2050, experts say Luis (At Sea) sent us this link to Seeking Alpha: Case-Shiller: Home Price Declines Continue. Luis notes: “Notice that Washington D.C. had the only positive number, and even that was marginal.”   Several Items from Kevin S.: A Tipping Point Is Nearing   Food/Financial Crisis of 2011   The Collapse of America’s Labor Force   Items from The Economatrix: How Much More Demand Can Silver Handle?   Despite Oversupply, US Gasoline Prices Leap   Oil Surges 6% as Libya Tension Intensifies …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Pierre M. sent: CDC: Deadly Superbug “C-Diff” Spreading    o o o Avalanche Lily spotted this: Since D.C.’s handgun ban ended, well-heeled residents have become well armed.    o o o Patricia F. flagged this: Why Does Texas Have Its Own Power Grid?    o o o A reader suggested HP LaserJet Tough Paper for printing key references that might be used in the field. It is not paper. Rather, it is a plastic material that can be laser printed. It is waterproof, so it would be ideal for printing specialized maps and pages for field notebooks.    o o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another." – Milton Friedman


Notes from JWR:

A Kindle-version of the SurvivalBlog.com Archives 2005-2010 is now available for $9.99, via the Amazon.com store. It is more than 7,000 pages long and text-to-speech enabled. It also has more than 20,000 links to external web pages from your Kindle reader. (Available only if you are connected to the Internet while reading.) Anyone with a Kindle can download a free 700 page (10%) sample of the archive, for a “test drive”. Meanwhile, for folks with laptops, we are nearing release of the 2005-2010 archive of SurvivalBlog on CD-ROM (in both HTML and PDF). Both file formats will have links to …


Affordable Preparedness, by Phil in East Tennessee

I enjoy reading SurvivalBlog each morning as I prepare for my day. I have only been a reader of the blog for six months, and enjoy all the varied insights. So I feel compelled to share some of my experiences. Let me start off by saying I was raised in a Christian preparedness household.  Both my parents suffered through the Great Depression as children and my mother was deeply impacted by the possibility of being hungry and cold again. As a teenager in the mid-1970s I remember we had a basement full of Neo-Life brand long term storage food, thousands …


Letter Re: Funding Your Preparations with the Underground Economy

For many people funding your survival cache/ preparedness stockpile has to come out of your budget. Whether you work for someone every day, draw a pension check or work for yourself you have to find a way to fit your projects into the limits of your paycheck. And with Uncle Sam taking a larger share at every turn it seems to be getting harder to find those extra nickels to put to use. Once most of us pay a house and car payment and then monthly utilities and food there is hardly enough left to worry about buying ammo, additional …


Letter Re: List of Countries by Real Population Density

James, I have been playing with the numbers based on the population figures and wanted to give you this update. I did a study of the total land under cultivation in 2002 (rather than just the potentially arable land, and not including grazing land).  42 of the 50 states exceed the figure of 245 people per square kilometer. [JWR Adds: States with less than 600 people per square kilometer of active-worked farm land might pull through a societal collapse, with plenty of sweat and by God’s grace. But anyone who is planning to survive whilst living in a state with …


Letter Re: Investing in Nickels, in Quantity

Dear Mr. Rawles, Regarding people eventually mailing U.S. nickel [5 cent coins] in bulk, you had asked: “Is there a box manufacturer that makes a sturdy corrugated cardboard box that fits tightly into a Medium size Priority Mail Flat Rate corrugated cardboard box?” At ULINE you can get a box to fit nicely inside the corrugated Medium Flat Rate Box (“FRB1″, with dimensions 11″ x 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2”). It is item #S-4517. It measures 10″x8″x5″. These boxes cost 54 cents each in lots of 25. (OBTW, leave it to the government to make two “medium” flat rate boxes. The longer, …