Retreat Owner Profile: Mr. and Mrs. Oscar

Home/property: Located in eastern Wisconsin. 160 acres of mixed pine and oak forest. 32,000 trees planted in the last two years. Entered in tree management program. House 2,800 square feet. Principally heated by a soapstone stove with propane hot water backup. Built in 1981. Outbuilding shed/library/reloading room. A 40×30 pole barn. Shed has cast iron “cooking/heating” stove, wood fired…propane backup. 1,000 gallon propane tank. Inverter in place for addition of 6,500 watt diesel generator to be installed spring ’07. 200 gallons gasoline stabilized and in place. 70 gallons kerosene. 500 gallon diesel tank to be in place at addition of …


Odds ‘n Sods:

President Bush says that the U.S. needs to expand the Army and Marine Corps to fight extended campaigns overseas.    o o o Our correspondent in Brazil (“The Werewolf”) spotted an article from the Yukon Territory with advice on bears in your backyard. as well as this one: What to Do When You Encounter a Bear The Werewolf said that he found the bits at the end, about “Predatory Attacks” downright funny.    o o o In a recent conversation with my friend Dr. S. Hans Paine, he mentioned both the WebMD.com web site as a general medical reference, and …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors; they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." …


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.)


Letter Re: Minimum Safe Distance From The Big City for Retreat Locales?

Dear Jim: Re your recommendation that a retreat for TEOTWAWKI needs to be “at least one tank of gas away from the big cities–preferably at least 300 miles, if possible” to escape at least the worst of roving looter gangs. I agree 100% — I see getting out of the [path of the] flow of looters as the # 1 problem. Just like real estate – LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. You can store food, and learn how to grow food in time (or barter stored wealth) but no matter how good you are, sooner or later you’ll take casualties if you …


Letter Re: Is Radio Direction Finding a Potential Threat for Survivalists?

Mr. Rawles: Hey, I was just wondering what everyone with radios is planning in order to conceal the location of their transmissions from people who could potentially use the signal as a beacon to guide them right to your antenna. It might be fairly difficult to build a tracker, but I suspect there are pre-made devices to direction-find a fairly strong signal (e.g. ham radio). Thanks, – James D. JWR Replies: The only people that have effective radio direction finding (“DF“) equipment and the requisite expertise to operate it are A.) The NSA and a few other government agencies such …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Dr. Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute mentioned that she still has a good inventory of her book "Surviving A Bioterrorist Attack: Prevention, Treatment and Management." I highly recommend that you get a copy. It could be a life-saving resource!    o o o Denver digs out from an early winter storm. Governor Bill Owens is advising motorists to stay off of the state highways. Meanwhile, Christmas travelers are stranded at the Denver airport.    o o o Reader B.H. sent this one: Report Reveals 2.2 Million Borrowers Face Foreclosure on Subprime Home Loans. It looks like and ugly end …



Notes From JWR:

To borrow the modern parlance: “Woo Hoo!” We just topped 900,000 unique visits and 42.1 million page hits! Many thanks, folks. Our readership is still growing steadily. Please continue to spread the word about SurvivalBlog. I would greatly appreciate it if you’d consider adding a SurvivalBlog link to your web page and/or to the bottom of your mail “sig” block. Thanks! Today we present another article for Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize …


Pre-Crisis Survival Skills, by D.A.L.

Pre-crisis survival skills: The only tool more valuable than knowledge is an attitude of self sufficiency. The mere willingness to provide for your own needs can pay off everyday, even absent any “end of the world as we know it” event. In fact, simply being willing to provide for your own needs can pave the way for not only learning valuable skills, but saving money to boot! By way of example let me tell you about a recent experience with the steam heating system at my lady friend’s house. It is a Victorian house and the main boiler furnace was …


Odds ‘n Sods:

S.H. Suggested this site: Mattracks–Rubber Track Conversion Systems For 4X4 Vehicles    o o o I recently had a great phone conversation with Dr. Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute. She mentioned that there are lots of people that prepared for Y2K who are now in possession of 8 , 9, or even 10-year-old stocks of gardening seed that by now have pitiful germination potential. These folks might mistakenly believe that they are still prepared to plant a sustenance garden. It is high time to replace that seed, preferably with heirloom (non-hybrid) varieties, such as those sold by The Ark …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another article for Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. If there are a lot of great entries this round of the contest, I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing …


City Versus Country Mindsets and Expectations, by Inyokern

As we all know, City people and Country people have a very different outlook on life. Some of that is opportunity, some is envy, some is ignorance. For the last 120+ years, the US economy (and much of the world economy) has been one of capitalism and materialism. Making stuff and selling it, making the economy grow until the physical limits are reached. Well, they’ve been reached. Peak Oil has led to the beginning of what is probably a pretty long collapse, but I can only judge based on the Roman Empire and the 1929 crash, history, rather than compare …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Hardly an unexpected news flash: Iran has announced it would replace the dollar with the euro in foreign transactions and state-held foreign assets, in an apparent response to mounting US pressure on its banking system.    o o o Aaron Krowne of AutoDogmatic.com notes: “If base metal values continue to increase by 5% per year on average, and the dollar continues to depreciate by about the same, then in about 26-1?2 years, a nickel will be worth a dollar in inherent value. If the rates are 10% per year, then in a bit over 13 years, this milestone will be …