How to Harvest, Process, and Store Vegetable Seeds, by Grandpappy

A Quick Comparison of Vegetable Seeds to Silver Dollars The small seed envelopes available for sale at hardware stores and supermarkets are generally priced between $0.97 to $1.69 per package. Each individual package usually contains somewhere between 100 mg to 3.5 g of seed, with an average of 900 mg of seeds per package. 1000 mg equals 1 gram and 1 gram equals 0.035 standard ounces. Therefore 900 mg equals approximately 0.0315 standard ounces or 0.0287 troy ounces. If the average seed package contains 900 mg of seeds and cost $0.97 then that is equivalent to $33.80 per troy ounce, …


Letter Re: Advice on Diesel Vehicles–Motorcycles and ATVs?

Dear Mr. Rawles: I already had a diesel Ford tractor, so I took your advice and got a diesel pickup, and I’m shopping for a used [diesel] Mercedes. Those things run forever. And as my budget allows, I’ll also plan to buy a diesel generator to replace my gasoline backup generator. So now I have logistics problem: I have two types of fuel to store, since my motorcycle, Polaris ATV, and my Husqvarna chainsaw all use gasoline. Diesel stores way longer than gas. But I guess that there is no way to avoid having some gas vehicles and tools. JWR …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Two readers mentioned this article: National Guard May Be Needed to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic. This is more evidence that every family needs to have a three month supply of food and essentials on hand in case they have to “hunker down” in self-quarantine. A good start on this can be found in the family provisioning details included in my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course.   o o o Reader Jason in North Idaho sent us this story Supreme Global Warming Derangement: Having Large Families ‘Is an Eco-crime’ Jason’s comment: “This is the same rubbish I have heard …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism—government. …


Notes from JWR:

This morning we counted 17 elk at our livestock salt lick blocks just 50 feet from our house, and another eight from the herd farther down the pasture, toward The Unnamed River. Oddly, they seemed less skittish than the deer that we see nearly every evening. (Since elk are generally more wary.) It is amazing how thick the wild game is at the Rawles Ranch. We certainly will never starve here! We begin today’s posts with the first round of results from our current poll that was recommended by SF in Hawaii.


Poll Results: Why are You Preparing to Survive?

Here is the first 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 just the first batch of responses. …


Letter Re: The Importance of Proper Hearing Protection

Jim: Regarding the [recently mentioned] Peltor tactical 6S (sound trap) [electronic earmuffs]: While the battery power for these is somewhat of a concern, they are well worth what you might spend keeping a few extra sets of AAA rechargeables (two for each ear) around. I, too, have been running these muffs for a number of years and really like them, especially under a helmet. The radio part works well too. On the qualification range with all the M4s going off, you can hear a hammer fall. So here is my quandary and request for advice. I’ve tried NiCd and NiMH …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The Secret Squirrel mentioned this great gardening and woodworking tool supplier: Lee Valley Tools.He particularly recommended their U-bars for gardening. (These were also recommended by the late Carla Emery.)   o o o Floods and drought: Insurance giant Lloyd’s of London assesses climate change. Meanwhile a study examining the national security consequences of climate change has been released by a senior U.S. military advisory board.    o o o RBS mentioned a fascinating book available for free download, The Upside of Down:Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, by Thomas Homer-Dixon


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Clearly, there remains to this day a horrible, condescending attitude toward armed American citizens. Haven’t the British yet gotten over the fact that a ragtag, often disorganized force of American colonials, wielding their own arms, was able to defeat what at the time was the most powerful armed force in the world? Our forefathers, armed with their own flintlock rifles and pistols, and an assortment of muskets—the ‘assault weapons’ of their era—threw off the yoke of oppression under which they were forced to live. When British broadcasters today demand to know just what it is about gun ownership that Americans …


Notes from JWR:

SurvivalBlog is updated daily. We haven’t missed a day yet, since the blog was launched in August of 2005. So that you don’t miss each day’s new posts and letters, please make SurvivalBlog.com your web browser’s “home” page. Thanks. Today we welcome out newest advertiser, Amaris Dobermans. Be sure to visit their web site!


Letter Re: Keeping Preparedness in Perspective

JWR I often have discussions with my friends and business associates concerning world events and how they will affect our future and I have also read countless statements from others with similar opinions. I have noticed that many people seem to be narrowly focused on only one aspect of possible future events and are not putting the whole picture into perspective. Many are unable to take the actions that are necessary to deal with the probable coming changes. I would like to offer some of my observations and hopefully contribute something that would help others to move in the right …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Six Islamic ethnic Albanians have been arrested in a plot to attack Fort Dix, New Jersey.   o o o Michael Z. Williamson sent us this link to a site for a company that supplies parts for 6×6 and 8×8 amphibious all-terrain vehicles (ATVs)–the ones that you’ve seen advertised for 30+ years in the back of outdoors magazines. . (Such as ATTEX, ARGO, HUSTLER, MAX, AMPHICAT, SIERRA TRAIL BOSS, SCRAMBLER, COOT, CAMEL, JIGER, STARCRAFT, TERRA JET, TERRA TIGER, CUSHMAN TRACKSTER, CHAPPARAL, RIM, and SWAMP FOX. They have lots of parts for discontinued ATV models    o o o 150,000 U.S. …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“In its proper constitutional sense, the term [militia] means all the able-bodied people who can be trained and disciplined to act in the community’s defense when it’s attacked. Since it encompasses every able-bodied person, it does not refer to those—such as the police, the military, or even the National Guard—who formally compose the official defense forces of the nation. Every citizen able and willing to act in an emergency becomes a potential defender against attacks aimed at the general population. Unfortunately, because of the anti-gun folly of the leftist media and politicians, we have lost sight of this vital element …


Note from JWR:

The latest update to our ClusrtrMap shows that there are now SurvivalBlog readers in at least 84 countries. Please keep spreading the word, especially to your friends or relatives that live in inimical and/or economically unstable countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Columbia, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, The Philippines, The Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, or any of the “Stans.” Also, consider mentioning this blog to anyone that lives in a severe climate, such as Greenland, Iceland, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, or Tibet. We are actively …


Reader Poll: Why are You Preparing to Survive?

SF in Hawaii recommended the following topic for a SurvivalBlog reader poll: 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? Please send your responses (one paragraph or …