Odds ‘n Sods:

“The Werewolf”, (our correspondent in Brazil) recommended a 49 cent downloadable Amazon short by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is titled :”Imagining Abrupt Climate Change: Terraforming Earth.”    o o o Michael Z. Williamson reminded us that the Oak Ridge Laboratory treatise on what nuclear weapons actually do, and how to defend your family against their effects is available for free download from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.    o o o “Simple Country Doctor” recommended this “moderately technical discussion of non-nuke EMP device” from Australia.



Notes From JWR:

Sorry about the long delay, but I am now ready to start filling orders for autographed copies of the new expanded edition of my novel Patriots, through my mail order catalog. I would prefer payment via AlertPay or PayPal, since our “snail mail” gets forwarded to the ranch just once every two weeks. That could cause an up to three week delay in mailing your book order if you send payment via snail mail. I shipped ten cases of already autographed books to our fulfillment partner in Montana. (The folks that will be handling the actual book mailings.) Because of …


Horse Power, The Real McCoy, by S.N.

While I have only been a reader for a year or so, I have not noticed a lot of references to the advantages to livestock. Depending upon your retreat location, the extra logistics of livestock ownership will outweigh the costs. As fossil fuel availability becomes more limited, the conversion of non-protein nitrogen into energy will begin looking more attractive. Today I want to focus on the horse. Let’s look at the four major benefits of the equine: Transportation –A horse can move you from your residence to your retreat. You can (i) ride, (ii) drive a wagon or buggy, (iii) …


Letter Re: Bosun’s Whistle for Communications

While portable radios are great for communications, I’ve had times in noisy environments where I couldn’t understand the message. Other weaknesses include the fact that they require batteries, their size, that as electronics they are susceptible to EMP, falls, and weather. Finally, they do not allow for directional finding of the other party. As such, I suggest also equipping every member of your team with a small Bosun’s whistle. These small multi-note whistles create a high pitch which can be heard above the din of a crowd. Being multi-note in capability, information can be sent (e.g. high-low for where are …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Bush Targets Iran in Speech, Implies Military Action    o o o I’ve just been notified by Survival Enterprises that the big blow-out ‘truckload sale” that I had mentioned previously is now definitely a “go.” They bought a container load of nitrogen packed long term storage foods from a U.S. cannery that is going out of business. Survival Enterprises has well over 11,000 cans of storage food coming, (a full to the gunnels 40 foot shipping container load) and it’ll be arriving sometime next week. These will be everything from beef, ham, chicken, and bacon TVP to green beans to …




Notes From JWR:

We got a rare wildlife viewing treat today, as we were driving back to the Rawles Ranch from town. Just a quarter mile from our south property line, there was a herd of at least 18 Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep standing in the county road. We counted three rams among them. They were so intent with licking salt off of the road that we had to slowly drive within 20 feet before the last of of the ewes moved off of the road. This is the closest that our kids had ever been to Bighorns. The following is another article …


Ten Things That Will Get You Killed While Bugging In, by Paul C.

“Bugging in” is the term used for staying at home while waiting for an event to pass you by. [As opposed to “bugging out”–fleeing to a lightly populated region.] Even the largest civil events of the last one hundred years haven’t set society off here in the United States of its normal course for more than two weeks. Double that for a month and you’ll survive, or out survive, any event likely to hit. After whatever event that has set society on its end has struck the 99 out of one hundred people that haven’t prepared for survival are going …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Thomas Horn, writing in WorldNetDaily: The good news about imminent disaster    o o o Four different SurvivalBlog readers sent us the link to this news story: Proposal to send drones over Idaho raises hackles    o o o The Daily Mail reports: Dead birds rain down on towns half a world apart


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“So what’s the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, ‘You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.’ Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights.” – Dr. Walter Williams


Note From JWR:

The high bid is still at $260 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction, This one is for a big batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products. BTW, they have additional copies of each of the titles listed below, as well as more than a hundred other titles.) The auction ends on January 15th, so get your bid in soon.


Letter Re: Tritium Night Sights for Rifles

Mr Rawles: Given that it is illegal anywhere that I know to hunt at night, and extremely inadvisable to hunt in low-light conditions – what in the heck are they making night sights for that fit hunting guns? It does seem okay to make them to fit on a rail – as backup, but for a typical battle-outfitted rifle with an ACOG or EOTech you can’t use those sights, they would be obstructed by the base. And if you’re going to put backup iron/night sights on a hunting rifle – would the money be better spent on a scope with …


Letter Re: Advice on Retreat Locales–Former Microwave Sites?

Jim: I finally got a gallery for pictures to the microwave relay bunker that I mentioned near Whitehall, Montana. . Most of them are self-explanatory but there may be some captioning later. Note that even the outhouse was galvanized and grounded. Mil-Spec! I culled through the photos and left mostly the ones that I thought showed the most interesting features – the high ceilings, thick walls, armored shutters,grounding wires, blueprints, commanding view, and of course the tower itself. I also checked my notes and saw that the internal area was approximately 1600’…or about 40’x40′. For those wondering how such a …