Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.” – Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), U. S. Supreme Court Justice, West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette, 1943


Letter Re: Purchasing Modern Firearms Without a Paper Trail

My Rawles, I am recently new to your SurvivalBlog web site. I have thoroughly enjoyed trying to catch up and read the thousands of posts. While I have always felt the need to be prepared for any eventuality, I have recently began more intensive preparations up on food, ammo, water and learning every thing (like making soap) that I can. I have grown up around guns and hunting my entire life. Of the four guns that I have, 12 gauge, 16 gauge, .22 [rimfire] rifle and 9 mm pistol, I have only purchased one myself: the 9mm pistol. The other …


Letter Re: Garage and Yard Sales as a Retreat Logistics Source

Dear Mr. Rawles I have read your novel [“Patriots”] (several times) although I do need to get the [latest] expanded edition. And I finally talked my wife into reading it. I loved it–by far my favorite book of all time. Okay onto my two cents. I just thought it might be a good idea to mention to everyone the value of going to your local garage sales. I work third shift and have been able to find quite a few good deals over the past years. This year I really focused on survival needs and I think I did okay. …


Letter Re: Advice on Construction a Hiding Place for Precious Metals

Jim- I’ve got a plain, white, lidded bucket of coins (that’s the way the dealer packed them for me) on the floor of my guest bedroom closet. Above it is an old daypack with vital papers and bugout money. The closet, like most folks’, is full of shoes, coats, caps. I’m counting on [Edgar Allan Poe’s] The Purloined Letter idea. My thinking is that the Bad Guys will go first for the master bedroom–and that’s where I’m well prepared to meet them. On the other hand, if I have to bug out quickly, I will have these things ready to …


Letter Re: Resources for Researching Retreat Locales

Hi Jim, My wife and I will be moving to Montana in the near future. While researching a location for our future home, we found the following links to be especially helpful for state tax and cost-of-living comparisons. Overall Tax Burden by State State Income Tax Rates State Sales Tax Rates Cost of Living Comparison Sincerely, – Jeff H. JWR Replies: Thanks for sending those very useful links. I just added them to my Retreat Areas web page.


Odds ‘n Sods:

DAV mentioned this story that might portend a market change: Russian government takes over gold mining sector   o o o Some analysis from Steve Schifferes of BBC News: Financial crises: Lessons from history. I disagree that government intervention is the best solution. Inevitably “market intervention” ends up being a wealth transfer from one group of citizens to another, to the detriment of the former, and to the benefit of the latter. In the context of the current liquidity crisis, “intervention” will probably be in the form of loan guarantees which will put taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of …



Note from JWR:

As promised, I have again put “six packs” of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” on sale. The price of a box of six is now just $90, postage paid. (You’ll get six autographed copies for $90, delivered, via Priority Mail Flat Rate box, mailed to anywhere in the Unites States, including APO/FPO addresses.) This sale ends on October 31st. This is your chance to buy some extra copies for Christmas presents.


Two Letters Re: Advice on Construction a Hiding Place for Precious Metals in a Home

James Before building a house with a walk-in vault, for years I stored firearms and ammo in an old soft drink vending machine. Bought the non-working machine for next to nothing, removed the guts, and had a cheap gun safe (if necessary, a locksmith could re-key an old machine for a few bucks). It held a lot, had an excellent locking system, would be hard to break into, but best of all was invisible. Placed in my garage and later a barn, with a few tools and old boxes stacked on top, no one ever gave it a second look. …


Letter Re: Alcohol Stoves

Jim, I found this very cool German-made alcohol stove called the Turm Touring. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Took it home put some alcohol in the brass tank and lit the burner. It really works well. I got a nice blue flame; lots of heat from this little single burner stove. Very interesting design; no pressure! You don’t have to pump up a tank with air like the Coleman stoves. Then reading some more I found this web site: SpiritBurner.com Very interesting and seems like something a survival type person would be interested in. – Fred The Valmet-meister


Letter Re: Useful LifeHacker Articles

Mr. Rawles: There are so many great and not-so-great ideas on the LifeHacker site including this one I found showing you how to use C cell batteries in place of a D cell compartment in an emergency situation: There are some other interesting things on this site like creating make-shift air conditioning systems using cold well water (others have made emergency air conditioners using beverage coolers, fans and copper coils): DIY Heat Exchanger and Make Your Own Air Conditioner. There is this one showing you how someone made hand washing more efficient while filling the tank of his toilet. [JWR …


Letter Re: Honey Prices Escalating, Just as Predicted

Jim: Saw the post regarding imported honey. Heard the same thing from my small time honey supplier. For west coast Costco’s, Silverbow honey is pure and made from US and Canadian honey. Verified this with the folks at Silverbow, based in Moses Lake, Washington state. For the record, I do my best to support local businesses and suppliers in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest, followed (naturally!) by SurvivalBlog [paid advertisers and affiliate] advertisers. Regards, – MP near Seattle


Odds ‘n Sods:

“Dancing Barefoot” sent us this: H5N1 Asian Avian Flu Now in Germany: “Tests have found that birds at a poultry farm in southern Germany died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and some 160,000 birds were being slaughtered as a precaution, authorities said.”   o o o I heard from Vic at Safecastle that Mountain House freeze dried storage food prices are going up substantially on September 1st. OBTW, they still have some 7 Day Just in Case Kits of Mountain House foods (in handy pouches) on sale for just $100 postage paid. Get your Mountain House orders in …



Note from JWR:

When reviewing our blog statistics, I just noticed that more than 33% of SurvivalBlog readers now use the Firefox browser. It is a much more secure browser than Microsoft Explorer. I highly recommend that all of our readers make the switch. And speaking of security and privacy, I also recommend using Scroogle.org’s scraper as an anonymous interface to Google searches.