Odds ‘n Sods:

As my friend “Kevin Lendel” likes to say: “Such a deal!” More than 175 SurvivalBlog readers have bought Foodsaver vacuum packers at the special December sale price. Don’t miss out on this! You can buy a FoodSaver v2830 for $59.99 (originally $169.99) with free Standard Shipping for orders over $100, directly from FoodSaver.com.Use code L8FAV28 at checkout. This offer is valid during the month of December, or while supplies last. BTW, I recommend getting the optional set of Mason Jar suction attachments, as they are particularly useful.    o o o “AZ-V” mentioned this CNBC clip where Hugh Hendry, a …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame…’What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?’ And so they sit there and they… die. Because they didn’t do the one thing that would save their lives…Thinking.” – Anthony Hopkins as Charles Morse in “The Edge” (2007); screenplay by David Mamet



Letter Re: Food Storage Versus Expecting Manna Falling from Heaven

Greetings! In response to Heather M., I think your Old Testament examples are excellent, but there are numerous New Testament examples as well, with the best being St. Paul’s admonition in II Thessalonians 3: 6-15 “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the …


Letter Re: Montana Bound–Recommended Sidearm for Rural Living?

Jim: I concur with your recommendation for a .45 ACP, and the Glock in particular. The Glock 21/30 family is also well-equipped to handle either the .45 Super, or Triton’s .450 SMC, with just the simple addition of a heavier recoil spring and rod. (In the 21-23 lb range.) A Glock set up with this heavier spring is also still able to shoot standard .45ACPs all day long. While not sanctioned by Glock, myself and many, many others have shot a huge number of these rounds downrange in our G21s and G30s without so much as a hiccup. The [discussion …


Odds ‘n Sods:

John B. pointed us to an interesting article in Slate on the effects of inflation in Argentina: Coins more valuable than bills. This ties in with my advice starting in 2007 on buying up rolls of US nickels . This is just one of several tangibles strategies to get prepared for the incipient mass inflation in the United States.    o o o New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm. These RFID scanners can be overcome by an expensive commercially-made wallet, or by something a simple as a few wraps of aluminum foil. Speaking of privacy, nearly a dozen …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 20 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The contest prizes include: First Prize: The writer of the best contributed article will be awarded two transferable Front Sight  “Gray” Four Day Training Course Certificates. This is an up to $4,000 value! Second Prize: A three day course certificate from OnPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing Round 20 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. …


Combat Fitness and Physical Readiness for Survival, by “HardCorpsBear”

Are you really ready to meet the challenges of a TEOTWAWKI situation? I think often about what may happen if I have to move myself and my family over a long distance of rough terrain through a hostile environment and in urban combat conditions. I’ve wondered if I’m physically ready to face the challenge. Maybe you’re wondering the same thing. But have you ever actually put yourself to the test to really know what you can do? Maybe you say, “Of course, I’m ready. I have a basement full of food-stuffs, ammo and weapons, and survival gear. I have a …


Some SurvivalBlog Advertising Changes

I’m very pleased to report that SurvivalBlog is now indisputably the most popular preparedness blog on the Internet, with an average 117,200 unique visits per week. The phenomenal growth of SurvivalBlog’s circulation (which has more than tripled in the past 16 months), has brought with it some growing pains. As I’m sure you recall, since November of 2005 we used a scrolling script to make all but one of the ads slowly scroll by. This worked fine back when we had just a dozen advertisers. But unfortunately we’ve found that it was a very inefficient solution: We’ve received several complaints …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader “Photo Man” sent us this: Mob runs riot as Zimbabwe runs out of water.    o o o Courtesy of Eric comes this link: The American Crisis and the Case for an Inflationary Depression    o o o Rich Fleetwood at SurvivalRing mentioned that he has just finished creating a brand new DVD book library. It has 4 DVDs containing over 4,000 Third World appropriate technology books and articles, and a multi disk package of Alex Weir’s 44 CD library (which he asks as many folks as possible to both mirror, and offer, to readers all over the world). …



Letter Re: Essential Oils for Survival

Knowing that a survival situation will be most likely without medical help – one of my first thoughts is – make sure I have some essential oils. What are essential oils? Think herbs, with the important oils all “juiced” out of them. I first became interested in oils after learning that oils are mentioned in the Bible quite frequently – both in the Old and New Testament. God had/has a keen interest in them. Maybe I should too, I mused. Lately, I’ve tried to stock up on my favorites, as they may become difficult to buy in the future, as …


Letter Re: Food Items in Non-Food Grade Buckets?

Hi Jim, I’m an avid reader of your blog but I have a question: Can I store vacuum sealed wheat in regular buckets (not food grade)? I like the idea of having 10 lb bags of vacuum sealed wheat for simplicity in retrieving when needed and for distributing as charity if needed. I realize it wastes space in each bucket (being in a vacuum sealed block) – but my question is whether it’s safe to use the less expensive buckets or will potential out-gassing eat the vacuum sealed bags? Your books (I have all of them) are very helpful to …


Letter Re: Some Disaster Preparedness Information for Asthmatics

Hi Mr. Rawles, My son has asthma and I have had the unfortunate experience of not having power when he needed a nebulizer treatment. Please inform you readers of the absolute necessity of having power inverters and testing your needed appliances before an emergency. Not knowing how sensitive a medical nebulizer is and knowing that some equipment is sensitive to modified sine wave power from the cheaper inverters was terrifying. Having the power out and an asthma attack at the same time was bad enough.The prayer that I said when turning on our only nebulizer plugged into a gizmo (my …