Letter Re: Advanced Medical Care and Transport After TEOTWAWKI

Mr. Rawles, I have been a reader of SurvivalBlog for at least a year now, and I feel it’s time to get involved. During this time I have been adding to my preps, building a library, and re-certifying my medical credentials. I have also done a lot of reading, getting many opinions concerning the future. I found one thing that I am at a loss for, and that is the subject of this letter. In all my medical re-certification courses and also in the medical library that I have put together, I have these questions: If society does go down …


Odds ‘n Sods:

RBS recommended this article from Fortune: The great inflation cover-up    o o o SurvivalBlog reader “CC” in Centennial, Colorado, asked for my recommendations for local preparedness gear dealers, since he doesn’t like the “paper trail” created by mail orders. (This, I have noticed, is a common concern among SurvivalBlog readers, and I don’t blame them.) One store that I can recommend for anyone in the greater Denver metropolitan area is The Ready Room, in Littleton, Colorado. Phone: is (303) 298-9911. Another “cash and carry” buying opportunity is the Tanner Gun Show, in Denver.    o o o I’ve been …



Note from JWR:

My sincere thanks to Mike in Michigan, who sent an unprecedented $150 contribution for our 10 Cent Challenge subscription program. That was very generous of you! My thanks to all of our subscribers. I greatly appreciate your support, folks. Subscriptions are entirely voluntary, and gratefully accepted.


Economic Climate Change: The Long Winter May Begin This Summer

I’ve had several consulting clients contact me in recent weeks, all with notes of fear in their voices. They realize that something is horribly wrong with the economy, but they cannot properly isolate and articulate the problem. I haven’t been able to calm them, however, because to an extent I share their anxiety. In my estimation, the “something wrong” that we sense is nothing short of a monumental shift in the economic climate. America is clearly headed for a recession. Most economic recessions are simply a product of the business cycle. These recessions are relatively mild and they often last …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

We are presently heading into the spring selling market that should yield some of the best prices seen in years in rural America, especially in the Pacific Northwest region, in particular. At this point, especially in small towns in the region most folks have realized that their golden egg is about to hatch a goose and that they should have sold their property two years ago while there was still a chance to sell at reasonable prices. A lot of folks waited and kept their property prices too high and listened to others who spoke of the market “coming back …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Food Stamp Users to Reach All Time High    o o o Some commentary from Peter Schiff posted over at Gold-Eagle: Let the Housing Chips Fall    o o o Given the source, this is not to be taken too seriously: Ted Turner predicts ‘mass cannibalism’ by 2040    o o o Some old news from NASA Possible asteroid impact in 2029? For some background, here is a primer on the Torino Scale.




The Hedges Get Trimmed

Just as I warned the readers of SurvivalBlog many months ago, hedge funds are vulnerable to rapid swings in interest rates. (My first warning was even before the pair of Bear Stearns hedge funds collapsed in the summer of 2007.) As the global liquidity crisis has expanded, other hedge funds have started to collapse en masse. Here is an article is from England that is indicative of what is happening globally. (This is a global collapse, because again, as I warned, the current liquidity crisis is global in scale.) Hedge fund legends hit by financial crisis. And here is an …


Front Sight’s New “Get a Gun” Training and Gear Offer

Front Sight has been a SurvivalBlog advertiser for nearly as long as I have been writing the blog. The Memsahib and I have both attended four-day courses at Front Sight, and we can attest that the training there is absolutely top notch. We were both very impressed with the world class quality of the instruction and the quiet professionalism of the instructors. The Front Sight experience is hard to put into words. You really need to experience it for yourself. To be prepared for the potentially dark days ahead, I highly recommend that at least one member of your family …


Two Letters Re: Homemade Alcohol Stoves

Mr. Rawles, The recent article on alcohol stoves made me think of these ultra-lightweight, portable alcohol stoves made out of soda cans, See this Wikipedia article. I have successfully built the original Pepsi-can version using epoxy glue, as well as the Heineken-can “penny” version. I have not tested them “in the field” but both work very well indoors, and they have impressive performance, boiling 2 cups of water in 5 minutes using only 2 tablespoons of alcohol. Those who have actually used them outdoors say they outperform other small stoves even in the most extreme of conditions. Even for indoor …


Letter Re: Reloading for 7.5 Swiss

Dear Jim, Regarding East Tennessee Hillbilly’s otherwise excellent summary of reloading: In the back of the Arsenal of Democracy I keep a case of each caliber I shoot. The 7.5 Swiss cartridge has a wider case, thicker base and thicker rim than .308. I don’t believe it’s possible to fabricate 7.5 Swiss cartridges from .308. – Michael Z. Williamson JWR Replies: I have read that .284 Winchester brass can be re-formed to 7.5 Swiss without much difficultly. The same thread mentions that Graf & Sons sells virgin Boxer-primed 7.5 Swiss brass that they had made up with their own head …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Hawaiian K mentioned a Gizmodo blog piece that has some interesting metrics on oil versus biofuel production.    o o o Bill S. flagged this: A Grim Tradition, and a Long Struggle to End It. Bills’ comment: “Another excellent reason to avoid border areas when selecting retreat locations.”    o o o Reader KAF found this piece that shows that the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) will undoubtedly grow, and grow, and grow: Senate Leaders Unveil Bipartisan Plan to Slow Home Foreclosures    o o o Perennial Odds ‘n Sods contributor RBS forwarded this: Some homes worth less than their …