Preparedness Notes for Monday — October 7, 2024

October 7, 1571: The Battle of Lepanto. The Holy League of southern European nations formed by Pope Pius V destroyed an Ottoman fleet, off the coast of Western Greece. — And on October 7, 1765, the Stamp Act Congress (First Congress of the American Colonies) convened in New York City to devise a unified protest against new British taxation. — We are running a 3-week-long sale at Elk Creek Company.  Until October 11th, 2024, all of our blackpowder revolvers, all of our M1891 Argentine Mauser rifles, and all of our sporters have their prices deeply discounted.  Take a look! — …


Recipe of the Week: Greek-Style Lentil Soup

The following recipe for Greek-Style Lentil Soup is from SurvivalBlog reader H.N.. She says:  “This is a good recipe for using your stored lentils. Because of the beef broth, this isn’t a veggie recipe, but you can just use water, instead.” Ingredients 2 Cups lentils, dried 4 Cups cold water 1 Cup onion, chopped (or freeze-dried onion bits) 1 clove garlic, crushed 4 Cups beef broth 1/4 tsp black pepper 1/2 Cup celery, chopped (or freeze-dried celery chunks) 2 Cups tomatoes, stewed 1 whole bay leaf 1 Cup carrots, chopped (or dried carrot slices) 3 Tblsp parsley, Chopped (or freeze-dried …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic: 4.5% of U.S. counties contain more than 50% of the population. As shown, the 142 most populous counties contain 165,858,193 people. The remaining 3,001 counties contain 165,591,088 people. (Source: 2020 U.S. Census) Note that the mapmaker’s methodology appears to have been simply based on the ranking of county populations versus the national average.  It was not based on “population per square mile” but rather the population per county. Hence some geographically large counties such as in Arizona and southeastern California appear more heavily populated. – JWR (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) The thumbnail below is click-expandable.       — …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 6, 2024

On October 6, 1866: The first reported train robbery on a moving train in the United States. Brothers John and Simeon Reno took $13,000. The train was traveling on the Ohio and Mississippi railroad. The train was robbed in Jackson County, Indiana. — October 6th, 1960: The American adventure film Spartacus, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas, had its world premiere; it won several Academy Awards, including best supporting actor for Peter Ustinov. — On this day in 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, which suffered heavy casualties, but Israeli …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR, based on a suggestion by SurvivalBlog reader R.M.: Meme Text: A Movie Redux: Dazed and Confused Meets Idiocracy Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks! Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.


The Editors’ Quote of the Day: 

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 5, 2024

On October 5, 1877 Chief Joseph and his people surrendered to the US Army, ending the Nez Perce War in the Western United States. — On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang was finished in a shoot-out with the residents of Coffeyville, Kansas following a bank holdup. Four members of the gang were killed, and a fifth member was captured. — October 5, 1703 was the birthday of Jonathan Edwards. He was a prolific Calvinist theological writer. Many of his writings were later collected in the multi-volume book The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Gerstner. Edwards …


Mentoring: Steps Toward Changing The World – Part 1, by A Grateful Mechanic

“Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.” – George Mueller I am grateful for SurvivalBlog and this community. There is a great wealth of knowledge and inspiration that comes from this project. In the last ten years I have experienced and pursued the development of a survival-focused lifestyle. I do not “do it right.” I have weakness at many points and I do not live in an ideal situation. Regardless I take active steps to improve my survival ability and to improve the resilience of my …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 4, 2024

Important Solar Flare Alert: A CME Double Whammy: An X7 on Wednesday and now a X9.1. Keep your electronics Faraday-protected for at least a few more days. And watch for auroras on Friday night and Saturday night. SpaceWeather.com posted this on Thursday: THE STRONGEST FLARE YET: Sunspot AR3842 exploded again today, producing the strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25 so far. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the X9.1-category blast: Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere and caused a deep shortwave blackout over Africa and the South Atlantic. Ham radio operators in the area may have …


Tools For The Next Generation

In this article, I’d like to emphasize the importance of tools that will be needed by our descendants. To begin, I’d like to stress the importance of buying quality tools. Don’t buy junk tools from Mainland China, often sold at places like Wal-Mart and Harbor Freight. I prefer tools made by companies like Snap-On, MAC, Matco, Irwin, Stahlwille (of Germany), Proto (called Plomb in the company’s early days), SK, Klein, Husky (pre-Taiwan), Cornwell, Kobalt (pre-China), Facom (of France), Worx, Fiskars (of Finland), Knipex, Ridgid, and Craftsman (pre-China). Sadly, many tool companies like Craftsman, Husky, Kobalt, and Stanley have moved part …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, a report on possible lower crude oil prices. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: Silver and gold prices have continued to be quite strong. When I checked on Thursday evening (Friday morning in Asia), Spot Gold was at $2,677.70 per Troy ounce, and Spot Silver was at $32.43. Wow!  The COMEX short sellers must be …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — October 3, 2024

On October 3, 1712, the Duke of Montrose issued a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor. — Today is the 31st anniversary of the Mogadishu, Somalia raid. 18 Americans were killed. The Somalis killed were unnamed and un-numbered, but estimates range from 315 to 2,000 KIAs. The events of October 3, 1993 were memorialized in the movie Black Hawk Down. — We are running a 3-week-long sale at Elk Creek Company.  Until October 11th, 2024, all of our blackpowder revolvers, all of our M1891 Argentine Mauser rifles, and all of our sporter rifles are deeply discounted.  Take a …