Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of …


Special Note from JWR:

My much awaited non-fiction book, Rawles on Retreats and Relocation has just been released, in time to order for Christmas! It is available as a wire-o bound “print-on demand” book from CafePress – Click here for details Topics in the book include: Retreat Locales, Detailed State and Local Statistics, Weapons Laws, Climate Zones, Property Selection Criteria, Zoning and CC&Rs, Self-Sufficiency, Emerging Threats, Terrorist and WWIII Targets, Offshore Retreats, Privacy, Stocking Your Retreat, and Much More! 225 pages, fully indexed, with detailed maps and retreat locale analysis. Covers 19 western states. A considerable portion of the content in this book has …


Letter Re: Mapping Tools For Selecting Retreat Locales

Mr. Rawles, I’ve been researching retreat areas and found a couple web site useful. National Geographic has a “MapMachine” program which allows for generating satellite, road, physical characteristics maps and, best of all, theme maps. The theme maps include weather, farming, vegetation, and population density. The MapMachine can be combined with [gardening] hardiness zone maps. These may help others in their planning. Thanks, – John H.  


Letter Re: Non-Nuclear Electro Magnetic Pulse Weapons

James: One tidbit I recently learned less than a week ago: non-nuclear EMP bombs are actually easy and cheap to make Its a permanent magnet, a coil, an antenna, and a bomb to push the magnet past the coil. The enormous electrical energy is released through the antenna causes a powerful EMP to be released, depending on the size of the device used. These tend to be heavy so I doubt you’ll see big ones flying around but a truck or railcar sized bomb would be really potent, possibly covering a dozen mile radius. Shipping containers probably won’t work that …


A Preliminary Analysis of the USDA’s NAIS User Guide of November 2006 by Mary Zanoni, Ph.D., J.D.

The following are preliminary points meant to contribute to the early and continuing discussion of this newly released (as of November 22, 2006) USDA document concerning the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). I plan to write further on some of the key issues related to the User Guide in the near future. At the close of the discussion is a list of suggestions for further action. The only real “difference” from this year’s prior Implementation Plan documents is the absence of stated dates for certain target levels of participation. The document still envisions making everyone comply with NAIS eventually. (See, …


Two Letters Re: Build Your Fallout Shelter From Barter Goods, by Mr. Yankee

Jim: Regarding Mr. Yankee’s article: Salt in some water softeners is potassium chloride, not sodium chloride. Both are ‘salts’ but they behave differently. Be sure you are storing the sodium chloride variety.- SF in Hawaii   Mr Rawles, Hope this finds you and your family doing well. I’m not sure if this link has been disclosed in the past, and I am certainly no expert in this field, but this seems like a well thought out presentation for a fallout shelter. Keep up the good work, – R.C.


Odds ‘n Sods:

There is a very lively thread of conversation over at The Claire Files Forums, titled “Preparing for Abrupt Climate Change”    o o o From WorldNetDaily: Debunking the debunkers–Snopes snookered by 10 Commandments hoax.    o o o Don’t miss out on the Free Shipping special, this month only at Ready Made Resources. They are SurvivalBlog’s oldest and most generous sponsor. Please visit their web site and check out their wide range of products and place your order soon to take advantage of the free shipping special. (Shipping charges can otherwise be considerable, especially on storage food!)



Note From JWR:

The winner of Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest is SF in Hawaii, for his article “Wheat Sprouts and Wheatgrass as Survival Foods” which was posted on November 6, 2006. The second prize goes to “Warhawke”, for his article “Selecting Barter Goods” which was posted on October 30, 2006. Congratulations to both of you. Because there were so many great entries in this round, I decided to award some free books as “Runners Up” prizes. These go to: Making Traditional Cordage in North America, by Ron (posted November 16, 2006) Bullet Casting: A (Relatively) Simple Introduction, by AVL …


Letter Re: Solar Charged Walkway Lights –An Option for Battery Charging

Jim: The discussion about cannibalizing tiny solar walkway lights prompted me to once again remind everyone about one of my favorite tools. Northern Tool & Equipment sells a 5-watt folding solar panel that folds down to the size of a paperback book for only $35. They come with a nice wiring kit that also allows multiple panels to be piggybacked for more power. They’re tough and well-made, with the small panels fit into a ballistic nylon type of carrier to make it fold. One of these lives in each of our Bug Out Bags (BOBs), along with a small battery …


Two Letters Re: EMP Shielding for Electronics

Jim: Maybe I missed something during the acquisition of several undergrad degrees, including one in physics (actually, I probably missed several things)… but how exactly does a Faraday cage have any effect on uncharged particle emissions (neutrons) as suggested by the author of the article that you recently provided a link to? And since when did Einstein claim discovery of an element (Uranium) that was discovered in the 1700’s? His cages might work (hard to actually test anything vs. EMP without doing rather large scale experiments), but that sort of nonsense kinda damages his overall credibility. – Simple Country Doc …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The modern blunderbuss. Is this the ultimate in intimidating a burglar?    o o o Details about the about planned microchipped “E-Passports”. A hat tip to Redmist for sending this link, (Via Claire Wolfe’s site.) And BTW, here is how folks have already cracked the new system.    o o o Gokuryu sent this, from CNN.com: We Were Warned: Tomorrow’s Oil Crisis Gokuryu says “This segment explains how the former CIA director and other experts say we are on the brink of an energy crisis.”



Note From JWR:

The recent early snow cover and unseasonably cold weather at the Rawles Ranch has changed the habits of the local deer. Now they are visiting our feeder to browse on some grass/alfalfa mix hay, even at mid-day. It looks like this may be a hard winter. Hopefully we won’t lose too many young deer, elk, and moose. The eating habits of the Rawles clan have changed too. There is definitely more interest in Chili con Bambi, Clam Chowder, and Hot Cocoa.


Letter Re: Some Useful Ham Radio, DXing, and CB Radio Web Sites

Hi Jim. While reviewing accessories for the MURS radios, I perused my way onto this Ham radio site that is loaded with links to other sites and/or articles on antenna building for literally all of the radio spectrum.Of particular interest is this site for converting an old outdoor television antenna into a 2 meter (144-148 MHz) Yagi (beam) antenna for very little money: Since many of the readers of SurvivalBlog are interested in communications I feel these other sites would be helpful as well, here are some other useful sites regarding ham and CB radio repairs Radiomods.co.nz Roger Bird Antennas …