Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"A very few–very few–isolated locations around the world, where it was possible to impose a rigid quarantine and where authorities did so ruthlessly, escaped the disease entirely. American Samoa was one such place. There not single person died of influenza. Across a few miles of ocean lay western Samoa, seized from Germany by New Zealand at the start of the war. On September 30, 1918, its population was 38,302, before the steamer Talune brought the disease to the island. A few months later, the population was 29,802. Twenty-two percent of of the population died." – John M. Barry, The Great …


Notes from JWR:

Today, I’m introducing a new SurvivalBlog feature column: “Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update. This will include general market news, details on recommended retreat locales, and much more. I plan to post it each Friday. It will either be written by Todd Savage (“TS”), or by me (“JWR”.) SurvivalBlog reader Thad L. recently asked me: “How would you describe your novel? I don’t like most books but I like Tom Clancy novels. Is it that sort of novel?” My novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” is a fast-paced novel, and it does have some “techno-thriller” elements. I did my best …


Book Excerpt–Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse

Geographically distinct units were formed from the Northwest Militia, as planned, late in the April of the fifth year. To avoid confusion amongst the local citizenry that they protected, they designated those at the original retreat as “Todd Gray’s Company” and those at Kevin Lendel’s house as “Michael Nelson’s Company.” The responsibility for patrolling was divided along a line east-west between the retreats. Todd Gray’s Company was to patrol the northern half of the sector, while Michael Nelson’s Company patrolled the southern half. Separate CB channels were assigned to each Company for locals to use to contact either Company. On …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Summary

Welcome to the Weekly Survival Real Estate Update. This new column will feature news, statistics, market analysis and opinions. We plan to feature one or two retreat locales each week. Typically, we will report on one locale in the Continental United States and one internationally. Our first full length update will appear next Friday and feature Northwestern Montana and New Zealand, both locales have excellent characteristics and qualities for the retreat shopper. One quick note this week: The Northern Idaho market seems to now be feeling the combined effects of the real estate market crunch and liquidity crunch. Over the …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I heard that the makers of Polar Pure water purifier had a visit from the DEA this week. They have plans to so highly regulate the distribution of iodine crystals that they will soon run the family owned and operated company out of business. (They make just one product.) The DEA said that they will expect retailers to get a photocopy of each buyer’s driver’s license, keep track of the quantities purchased, report “suspicious” purchases (with an as yet-to-be determined threshold) maintain the records for at least two years, and on and on. ll this because iodine has been deemed …



Note from JWR:

The high bid is now at $210 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction for a for a new-in-the-box Hydro Photon UV Light SteriPen Water Sterilization System with solar charger and pre-filter, kindly donated by Safecastle, one of our most loyal advertisers. This very popular water sterilizer product package normally sells for $225, plus postage. See the details on the SteriPen and solar charger here. The auction ends on September 15th. Just e-mail us your bid.


Projecting Some Possible Outcomes for The Panic of 2007-2008

I’m sure that you’ve been reading about the current liquidity crisis. But I’m not sure that the average citizen realizes the full implications. Twenty years ago, borrowed money was a lubricant for the American economy. Now it is the economy. Without credit at all levels–consumer, corporate, and government–America as we know it would cease to exist. We live in what economist Bill Bonner calls The Empire of Debt. Because of the lending crisis, the U.S., economy is teetering on precipice. Writing in his Reality Check e-newsletter this week, Dr. Gary North pointed out: “On August 15, the 90-day T-bill rate …


Letter Re: How to Make Old Fashioned Homemade Soap

Mr Rawles, I’m looking forward to trying Grandpappy’s wood ash soap making technique. I’ve tried it before, but unfortunately only was only successful once. I might add, although unavailable as Red Devil brand in the grocery stores, lye is easily available from online soap making and chemical supplies. [JWR Adds: It is also available via mail order from Lehman’s–one of our Affiliate advertisers.] Another source, if you live in oilfield country, is to find a friend who works on a[n oil] rig. They get it in 50 pound bags and it’s pure and fine for soap making, hominy making or …


Letter Re: Honey Prices Escalating, Just as Predicted

Jim: Several months ago, I e-mailed you and the others on the blog about bulk honey prices going up. They stabilized at $7.99 for a 96 liquid ounce jug of Silverbow brand honey at Costco for many months. Two weeks ago, a jug of honey was $7.99. As of today, the same jug is $8.79, a 90 cent price increase. I put out some questions as to why the price increase and all I am hearing is minor costs due to dwindling honey supplies (as was discussed in SurvivalBlog) but [also] a greater [wholesale] cost due to transportation costs as …


Odds ‘n Sods:

By way of SHTF Daily: Bernanke fears economy will hit a brick wall   o o o I just heard that Gun Parts Guy (one of our loyal advertisers) now offers metric FN-FAL parts kits (sans receivers) complete with US Section 922(r) compliance parts, in a wide variety of configurations. FAL parts kits are getting scarce in the U.S., so stock up. When you order, please mention that you saw the kits mentioned in SurvivalBlog.    o o o More from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Top Swiss banker attacks US lending standards as ‘unbelievable’ Jim’s Quote of the Day: “The most important …


Note from JWR:

If you value what you read in SurvivalBlog, then please consider becoming a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber. These subscriptions are entirely voluntary, but greatly appreciated. They help pay the bills here, including our bandwidth costs, which increase increase steadily as the readership grows. (In August of ’05–the month that we launched–we had 9,377 unique visits and used 6.9 used gigabytes of bandwidth. In August of ’06 we had 87,117 unique visits and used 24 gigabytes of bandwidth. In August of ’07 we expect about 158,500 unique visits, and we’ll use about 82 gigabytes of bandwidth.)


How to Make Old Fashioned Homemade Soap (Part 3 of 3), by Grandpappy

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: How to Render (Melt) Animal Fat: Beef fat is called tallow and pig fat is called lard. Poultry fat is too soft to be used by itself, but it may be used in a ratio of about 10% with tallow or a tallow-lard combination. Bear fat may also be used but it must be melted (rendered) quickly after the bear has been killed because bear fat will quickly become rancid. You may also use the fat from farm animals such as sheep or goats, and a variety of wild animals, such as beaver, opossum, raccoon, and groundhog. If …


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

Jim, After being scared Schumerless by the potential US economy meltdown and reading various related posts on SurvivalBlog, I finally took the plunge and purchased some junk silver coins. Since I plan to store these at home rather than a bank safe deposit box (because of potential accessibility problems), would you please recommend a strategy for storage. I’m assuming a small, somewhat hidden, safe bolted to the floor/wall would be reasonable. Any recommendations? Thanks, – Russ S. JWR Replies: Unless you already own a large home vault–such as a gun vault–I recommend that you construct one or more secret caches …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The next WRSA shoot is in Douglas,Wyoming, this weekend (August 25-26.). Don’t miss this opportunity for some great rifle training at a very reasonable price!   o o o Frequent content contributor DAV mentioned this article: Panic in U.S. money markets! by Marty Weiss and Mike Larson.    o o o We read that Counrtywide Home Loans is having “difficulties.” I predict that lots of other home mortgage lenders will face similar “difficulties” in the near future. In a year, many of them will be history. As I’ve said before, the only folks in the real estate industry that hat …