Letter Re: A Practical PV-Powered Well Pump and Cistern System

James: I appreciate your web site, lots of good thoughtful info and no armchair commando nonsense. I rarely post on this or related blogs, but I’ve just installed two complete solar water systems and can perhaps add a bit to the backup-powered water discussion. A solar system is tailor-made for supplying water, IMHO, because instead of storing electricity in batteries for nighttime use, it stores water in a tank for use on demand, no inverters, no batteries, no fuel. Simple and effective. Both systems use Grundfos submersible pumps and two solar panels of about 170 watts each. One system pumps …


Letter Re: Brass Recycling

Jim, Just a note regarding Bill K.’s fired cartridge brass recycling idea to raise extra cash – it is a good money making idea with the continuing rise in the price of copper and other metals – our gun club here in North Carolina paid all its property taxes last year on the recycling of fired brass left after shooting events. The club insists that if the shooters don’t wish to take their fired brass home, they spend a few minutes between relays when the line is clear to police up brass and put them into specially marked/painted ‘brass buckets’. …



Two Letters Re: Do It Yourself Bulk Food Storage

Jim: Excellent information on storing dry goods for long-term. I have just a bit of advice to all out there: use foods from you stores in your every-day life. I’m not advocating depleting your stores; rather consuming and replacing them as part of your daily life, thus rotating your stock as well. (This is recommended, however, ONLY after you have acquired your long-term goal (i.e.one year supply, two, etc.). You will benefit in at least four distinct ways from this:1.) your stores will always have a maximum useful shelf-life, as they will constantly be rotated; 2.) you will probably experience …


Two Letters Re: Railroads Tracks and Right of Ways as Bug-Out Routes

JWR: Please pass on to Larry in Kansas and anyone else interested that they need to look well ahead of time at any railroad beds as a bug out route. Here in Michigan the railroads have closed off all the service roads beside the tracks. Some are simply chained and easily defeated with bolt cutters, but other are blocked with ties and high mounds of gravel. My primary escape route has an emergency “go around” for a choke point that is active railroad bed. It will be hairy, but my Ford Ranger pickup will be able to make the trip. …


Odds ‘n Sods:

A professor hired by the Federal Reserve says that by some measures the U.S. is technically bankrupt.    o o o Wars and Rumors of Wars: Hezbollah guerrillas fire more Katyusha rockets at two northern Israeli towns, 220,000 Israelis are now staying in bomb shelters. Meanwhile, Israeli Warplanes Strike in Beirut, and Israel Blockades Lebanon.    o o o A 50 mile long fire line: crews are battling two California Mojave Desert wild fires–60,000+ acres charred.  



Note from JWR:

I’ve updated my “Writings” Page to include descriptions and sample covers for my three upcoming book releases. Please be patient about the release dates. At this juncture I am at the mercy of my publisher’s production schedule. I will let you know as soon as the books are orderable. Today we present another article for Round 5 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 $2,000) Second prize is a copy of my “big box” preparedness course, (worth $149) generously …


Suburban Survival, by “Jim in Texas”

We all know that to be fully prepared we need a great survival retreat we can bug-out to. We all dream of the perfect retreat, were we will go post-SHTF. If you are like me however, this is simply not reality. I have no remote, armored, fully stocked retreat to go to in a disaster. Like millions of Americans I live not in the country, nor the city, but the area in between, commonly called the suburbs. Though all suburbs are different most of them share similar qualities, small, less than acre lots, single family houses with well maintained front …


David in Israel Re: On Gun Laws in Israel and War Worries Update

In answer to your queries about gun laws in Israel: The gun control laws in Israel are draconian. You must have a “valid reason” to keep a gun at home. Sadly in the West Bank our cousins (the Arabs) give that reason. All of Israel law is a combination of Ottoman Empire, British occupation, and Israeli passed laws, also the radical leftist Supreme Court which has empowered itself to strike down laws it does not agree with and to generate law by judicial declaration. We do not have a constitution for the state of Israel. These rules may change as …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Multiple mutations reported in Indonesia’s Asian Avian Flu Strain.    o o o The Citizens’ Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) alerted us to the following: During U.S. Senate consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 5441), Senator David Vitter will offer an amendment (# 4551) to “prohibit the use of funds appropriated under this bill for the confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms during an emergency or major disaster.” Hopefully this will prevent a repeat of the gun seizures that followed Hurricane Katrina. Our U.S. readers are urged to support this amendment. Please call your …



Note From JWR:

Please continue to spread the word about SurvivalBlog. Please mention the blog whenever you call in to talk radio shows or when you are on podcasts. Thanks! Today we present another article for Round 5 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 $2,000) Second prize is a copy of my “big box” preparedness course, (worth $149) generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. If you want a chance to win, start writing and e-mail us your article soon. …


What is Considered of Value in the Poorest Nations, by SF in Hawaii

I have a book called Material World by Peter Menzel in which average families from around the world put everything they own on their lawn and you get to see what they own and how they live. While I purchased the book as a way to demonstrate to my kids ‘just how good they have it’ there are also some lessons for us survivalists. I went through the poorest nations where per capita income was usually far less than $1,000 USD per year (and in the case of Mali, Africa, $251 per year). What I noticed was a pattern in …


Letter Re: Surplus Wireless and Hard Wire Seismic Intrusion Detection

Hi Jim, I like your site! (And enjoyed “Patriots” quite a bit, too!) It was referred to your site by a customer in Louisiana. My customer mentioned that I could probably mention my remaining TRS-2 PEWS seismic intrusion detectors on your site. We have about 30 detector/transmitters (DT-577 V(6) /TRS-2) left. @ $60/ea. (these run on a 9VDC ‘transistor radio’ battery for about two weeks, and are on 150.6 MHz) Also have about a dozen of the R-1808 V(6) /TRS-2 Receivers (same frequency) @ $500 each. (These run on two each 9VDC batteries for a couple of days.) All of …