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 …


Odds ‘n Sods:

One of our neighbors–and where we live, the term “neighbor” means anyone in a 10 mile radius–mentioned that she recently obtained 20 dozen Mason-type canning jars offered gratis on Freecycle. The boxes of canning jars almost entirely filled up the back of her SUV. In my experience, Freecycle and Craig’s List should be watched diligently by preparedness-minded families. The tighter your budget, the more crucial these resources are! And, BTW, if you benefit from Freecycle, be sure to return the favor, by offering the things that you no longer need.    o o o Bob G. mentioned an informative piece …



Note from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $1,050. The auction is for a large mixed lot that includes: A.) 15 brand new 30 round M16/M4/AR-15 magazines from JWR‘s personal collection. These include four scarce and desirable brand new HK steel “Maritime Finish” magazines, and 11 new USGI alloy magazines made by Center Industries. (Note that most of these were made during the 1994-2004 Federal ban, so most of them have restriction markings, but those became null and void after the ban sunsetted.) Even if you don’t own an AR-15, these magazines are great to keep on …


Getting Your Loved Ones on Board with Preparedness

Roughly 10% of the e-mails that I receive from SurvivalBlog readers come from people that mention they have a relative that refuses to get prepared. This is usually because they refuse to believe that anything could ever go wrong beyond a localized and short-term natural disaster. (“Order and commerce will certainly be restored within a week!”) This is what I call the Pollyanna syndrome. How someone could have witnessed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina so well-documented on television, yet still maintain a “Polly” attitude astounds me. Convincing Pollys to to get prepared can be frustrating, especially when they stop listening …


Letter Re: Some Disaster Preparedness Information for Asthmatics

Dear JWR I am fairly new to prepping but as a lifelong asthma patient I quickly realized that I cannot depend solely on my current nebulizer WTSHTF. This is because it plugs into a wall and does not have any other alternative way to work when the grid goes down. When I did some research, however, I found a beautiful thing. There are now handheld nebulizers that have both AC and and DC car adapter abilities as well as a rechargeable [gel cell] battery. They cost around $200 or slightly more but I can tell you that this is a …


Letter Re: Combat Conditioning Fitness Training

Mr. Rawles, Papa Papa made mention of getting in shape before the need to bug out: Here is a link to a good workout that I found online. I have been using it and it is an intense workout that requires very little of my time. The information is available for free. The workout also goes by the name Combat Conditioning. Sounds appropriate. Matt Furey sells a comparable course for over $100. I hope your readers find this useful. Thank you for your help. I am praying for the Memsahib and you. – Konrad M.


Odds ‘n Sods:

Derek C. sent us the link to the full text of the recently mentioned nuclear and biological terrorism threat report, in PDF.    o o o Mike Williamson mentioned Survival Straps. Mike’s comment: “I came across these in another forum. Someone skilled at braiding could make their own, or can support an American small business by buying one of these. We each have a bracelet made in this fashion, that are stylish and useful. Parachute cord is always a useful thing to have on hand.” JWR Adds: Paracord can also be unbraided into individual nylon threads, with even more uses …



Notes from JWR:

My sincere thanks to a “Secret Squirrel” reader that has very charitably sent cash every week for the past couple of months, with notes indicating that the money was for The Memsahib’s medical bills. You are too kind! My plan is to “pay it forward”, once my wife is well, and we have recovered financially. God Bless you! 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 …


The Practice Load-Up, by Papa Papa

For most of us who don’t live at a retreat [year-round] our plan is to G.O.O.D. When the time comes we plan to load up our bug-out vehicles and head to our own “Shibes Meadow” as the family in the movie Panic in Year Zero did. At least that’s the plan. But how well have you considered this plan? In other words, have you done a practice “load-up”? Some of the characters in Mr. Rawles’ novel, “Patriots“, had to implement their bug-out plans and pack their vehicles for the trip to the Gray’s retreat. In that packing process they discovered …