Letter Re: Questions from a Newbie–Where Do I Start?

Mr Rawles- I’ve been a reader of your blog for maybe the last nine months or so and I know I need to stop reading and get to doing something. So I was wondering if you could advise me on where I should start my preparations. I’m a city boy so I don’t have many of the skills that I think would be useful in a TEOTWAWKI situation. I don’t know how to shoot or farm or fix a diesel engine. While I could start buying equipment in order to be prepared, I think that the first thing I should …


Letter Re: Feedback on JWR’s “Pulling Through” Movie Screenplay

Hello Mr. Rawles, First, let me preface by saying I am not anyone in the movie industry nor am I anyone in the publishing field. I am simply a citizen who happened upon your movie script – “Pulling Through” – and wanted to give you some feedback on what I thought of it. That said, I read it the other day and was totally hooked from the first scene onward. You began it with such an urgency, that to me, it was like the old Lay’s potato chip motto of “ya can’t eat just one”. What I mean by that …


Letter Re: Advice on Sealing Your Primers

Hello Jim, I’d like to chime in with my experience on [sealing ammunition primers–a topic raised by Teddy Jacobson.] If you’re looking for a sure fire way to protect your ammo under the worst possible conditions, you can’t do better than George and Roy’s Primer Sealant. The sealant is nitrocellulose based (the same as military and commercial ammo makers use), rather than lacquer based. I was a distributor of the sealant for a number of years and part of our sales pitch was that if you sealed your bullets with George and Roy’s, you could throw the ammo in a …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The U.S. recession is here: Wal-Mart posts worst sales ever as US retail figures slump   o o o Hawaiian K sent us this web link with more on CCD: One beekeeper claims that using smaller comb foundations shows success in fighting Varroa and Tracheal mite infestations.    o o o KT found us this article: Council on Foreign Relations on U.S. Dollar: “An Absurdity… Supported Only by Faith”    o o o Rob at $49 MURS Radios told us that he has created a page detailing how to use an external antenna to increase the range of both MURS …



Notes from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction is still at $575. This auction is for a scarce pre-1899 Mauser that was arsenal converted to 7.62mm NATO. (It was converted by the Chilean national arsenal, using original Mauser tooling.) The auction ends at midnight EST tomorrow (Tuesday, May 15th.) Just e-mail me your bid. Thank We begin today’s posts with the second round of results from our current poll.


Poll Results: Why are You Preparing to Survive?

Here is the second round of responses to this question: Those who are well educated enough to see a societal collapse of some sort or another in the making fall into two groups, the merrymakers and the preparers. The merrymakers don’t see life worth living post-SHTF, so they live it up now. We on SurvivalBlog are the preparers and have chosen to survive, but why? Our children? To rebuild civilization? Because the collapse will only be temporary? Because we can and we’re stubborn with a stronger than normal will to survive? The following is the second batch of responses. A …


Letter Re: Running a Laptop from a Jump Pack in a Short Term Emergency

JWR: Through a minor power disruption event, I made some discoveries that I thought I would share. A laptop computer can be run by an inverter of proper size. A laptop can be powered by a jump pack with a 12 VDC power port. The jump box can be recharged by a hand crank 12 VDC generator. We were able to continue e-mail and business communications, since the wireless towers are generator backup powered. This is good to know in local or short term disasters. – JG JWR Replies: Thanks for mentioning that topic. In my experience, running a laptop …


Letter Re: Positive Feedback on the “Rawles Gets You Ready” Preparedness Course

Mr. Rawles: I just wanted tell let you know how much I have enjoyed your “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course. It was very informative and is going to really help my family get prepared for whatever may be in our future. I recently purchased the “SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog – Volume 1” and the Rawles on Retreats and Relocation book also and those were equally wonderful. The amount of information in your course was outstanding and has really jump started our family’s preparedness program. The covering of “A years supply of everything” angle was a unique approach …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Holly Deyo’s analysis of the 2007 U.S. tornado season. It’s already a bad year! Meanwhile, we read Kansas tornado disaster renews National Guard debate   o o o All states except six: Allstate Insurance to stop insuring California homes. Allstate has also stopped writing new homeowners policies in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida and New Jersey as well as in eight coastal New York counties. Perhaps they should rename the company “MostStates”.    o o o Commentary from Recombinomics: Qinghai H5N1 Evolution Revolution    o o o Terror Close to Home: In oil-rich Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends bad actors from the …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 10 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $2,000.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I might again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article for Round 10, which ends May 30th. Remember …


Gold and Silver: An Ounce in the Hand is Worth 77 Million Ounces “On Account”

The recent seizure of eGold’s gold bullion holdings by the U.S. Government may have some more far-reaching unintended consequences. I predict that it might trigger some panic selling of holdings at the various “virtual” precious metals institutions. And it might even spill over to the fairly new gold and silver ETFs. This situation also illustrates a key point that I often emphasize with my consulting clients: There is no substitute for personally holding your precious metals in tangible form. Don’t trust any individual outside of your immediate family or any institution to hold your precious metals for you–not even in …


A Matter of Will, or a Matter of Inventory?, by George L.

I really enjoy sitting down and watching movies. What the radio once was to us as Americans, I believe the DVD player has become to us now. On any night of the week, people are gathered together watching movies together. That being said, The Usual Suspects is one of the most interesting movies around. I should warn you before I go further that it is not for the squeamish, or the easily offended. The subject matter is coarse, and the movie is unapologetically rough. However, there is one particular exchange that sticks with me to this day, and it’s been …


Letter Re: A Solar-Powered Atmospheric Water Generator

Jim: Good morning. The heightened awareness on SurvivalBlog surrounding sourcing pure drinking water, especially for the survival community, reminded me of information on this topic that I had wanted to send to your attention. There’s a bit of self-interest here, as the company is owned by my father-in-law, but the short story is that his entity is on the cutting edge of fresh water production from air. That’s right… he sells atmospheric water generators. Water Pure International is his company, it trades on the stock market under [the stock symbol] WPUR.OB (about $0.50 per share currently.) The machines are similar …