For those of you that have been waiting, I just got another case of 10 copies of the latest edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. This massive three pound, 870 page compendium is a must for every prepared family’s bookshelf. If you look around, you can sometimes find used copies of the latest (Ninth) edition at local used book stores, or through Internet vendors. If you can’t find a copy locally, new copies are available through our Catalog page.
Helo Jim, Just a note to let you know what a great job your doing with the blog. I have a question that as far as I know you have not addressed. Most of my individual retirement account (IRA) money is in a 403b at work. [A 403(b) is a tax deferred retirement plan for the employees of nonprofit organizations.] I had wanted to roll this over into a precious metals IRA. However I am not allowed to do this until I leave my current job. Is there anything you would advise that I can do to protect my 403b …
(The following is re-posted with permission, from IceAgeNow.com) Recently, I said “we’ll be fighting in the streets for food long before we’re buried in ice.” I say the same thing in my book Not by Fire but by Ice. I just received an email from a reader that sums it up better than I did: “I spent about thirty years working in commercial agribusiness. My main job was to purchase ingredients, mainly grain, for flour mills and animal feed mills. As a part of my job, I was forced to understand the US food supply system, its strengths and weaknesses. …
I found Cathy Buckle’s most recent letter from Zimbabwe well worth reading. The ravages of hyperinflation are hard to appreciate except when seen first hand, as related by someone like Cathy. o o o California Fire Battalion Chief – Whoever Did This Knew What They Were Doing o o o Alphie mentioned that the October Backwoods Home Magazine e-newsletter is now available. o o o The Black Swan’s lessons–The value of considering improbable possibilities
“To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
Today we are pleased to welcome our newest advertiser, Turtle Tuff Shelter Systems, in Utah. Be sure to double click on the video link at the top of their Photo Gallery page. What an amazing shelter! If you have a favorite quote, feel free to suggest it, via e-mail. Chances are that I’ll post it as a Quote of the Day. Thanks! The high bid is now at $200 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit digitally-tuned AM/FM/Shortwave radio, and a Baygen Sherpa hand crank flashlight. These were kindly donated by Ready Made Resources, one …
The American newspapers are presently full of stories about declining suburban home values and the galloping foreclosure rates, mainly in the coastal markets. (The erstwhile “hot” real estate markets have turned bitter cold.) As more and more foreclosures get dumped onto an already over-saturated “buyers market”, there is a strong likelihood that prices will spiral downward. Anyone that bought a “spec” house is now trying to get rid of it, even if means taking a loss. The downward pressure on house prices is likely to continue for several years in the coastal areas, and in few inland markets like Phoenix …
Jim: I have the rest of the day off due to the wildfires in the area so I am at home. The firefighting aircraft have been grounded due to wind until a couple of minutes ago. The evacuation zone is currently a 1/4 mile east of me. My northeastern and southeastern escape routes are currently out of the question. I figure that by the time I get told to Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.), the Northern route will be closed off or too crowded to take. Going South into Mexico is currently not an option due to the makeup of …
Writing in The Daily Reckoning, Bill Bonner offers this snippet of investing Gloom and Doom: “Foreclosures in the yankee state [Massachusetts] are running three times last year’s level. And losses are working their way up the socioeconomic ladder. Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) Trust 2006-S3 is a sophisticated investment instrument containing 8,274 mortgages. One out of every six of those mortgages is in default – only 18 months after the thing was put together. When that many people stop paying, it wipes out the entire capital value of the derivative. And since speculators usually take leveraged positions, the losses can go much …
“People only see what they are prepared to see.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
I heard from my publisher that my wholesale cost for copies of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” has increased by more than $2 each. Unfortunately this means that I’m forced to raise my price by $2 each, to $24 per copy, postage paid. (See my updated Catalog page.) I will, however, continue to honor my “six pack sale” price of just $90 (which equates to just $15 per copy, postage paid), but only until the end of October. Note that immediate deliveries are limited to supplies on hand. Once those have been expended, there may be a delay …
Jim, I was reading in the SurvivalBlog Archive and it seems that you used to own a Ferret armored car. It piqued my curiosity and I have researched it all over the Internet. I found out that it had 8-to-16mm of armor but nowhere does it say what projectiles that [armor] will stop. What ordnance are these resistant to? To .50 caliber. To .30 caliber? Bugging out in one of these would be interesting. Ideally you would want two Ferrets to bug out so you could rake the mutant zombies off of each other but will your gun punch holes …
Dear Editor: Greetings, fellow urban dwellers! As an intermittent 10 Cent Challenge subscriber (I put in money when I have it, the Lord has seen fit to test our family lately) and semi-survivalist, I would like to talk about reverse osmosis (RO) filtration systems. Can you afford to depend on the municipal water system to provide clean water? In the event of water supply contamination, you can use portable systems such as the Katadyn or Big Berkey filters, but I want to save my bug-out supplies for bugging out. Also, the first indication that there is a problem is when …
An insider at Cyalume just let me know that because of pressure from the US State Department, infrared chemical light sticks have been reclassified and will no longer be produced for the civilian market in the US. (When activated, these light sticks are barely detectable with the naked eye, but shine with high intensity when seen through “Starlight” light amplification technology night vision goggles or weapons sights. I strongly recommend that you stock up now, while there are still some of these light sticks on the civilian market. You should buy a five year supply for your retreat, and store them …
“No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” – George Mason (1725-1792)