Letter Re: Investing in Tangibles Through an IRA

Hello James, Given the abundant information about the state of the economy, what would you recommend we, (the consumer and fellow American) do when making a decision about Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) come April 15th? I am concerned about putting money away and into “paper currency” when maybe it would be better to just pay down debt. What would you advise to someone in my situation? I am not necessarily looking for information about the tax benefits, simply your view about what would be a wise move. -The Wanderer JWR Replies: This is a bit repetitious to my previous recommendation, …


Letter Re: Artesian Well Property in Wisconsin

Dear Jim: I spotted this very usual property – http://www.wislakesguide.com/ click on feature of the month. 25 acres with ponds, but the real value is the five six inch artesian wells are licensed for 100,000 gallons a day. This could be a profitable survival business, that I am already somewhat familiar with from a prior job. The asking price is $2.2 million. Certainly with that water production potential (bottled water), not to mention fish farm and the acreage, that price seems within reason actually with that kind of capacity. If you know someone interested have then email me. – Rourke …


Letter Re: Reader Recommendation for Mountain House Freeze Dried, Via Safecastle

Jim, As I know it’s important for you to have and increase your advertisers ads in order to support survivalblog and as a Survivalblog reader it’s also important to be able to trust your advertisers. I just wanted to drop you a message about Vic and SafeCastle LLC. I placed a large order with Vic a couple of weeks back for some Mountain House cases and I should add that I’m always leery about spending what I consider a substantial investment with someone I’ve never done business with before. Vic responded to my original questions about the order nearly real …


Odds ‘n Sods:

What the anti-gun mass media has wrought: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/8188403/detail.html   As recently as the early 1950s, it was not unusual for residents of the large cities in the eastern U.S. to carry uncased rifles to or from shooting matches on public transportation. But now, the sight of a man with an air rifle causes a panicked evacuation? Ay, ay, ay…    o o o Walter J. Williams (of www.shadowstats.com) warns of the possibility of a “hyperinflationary depression.” Gee, this sounds like the storyline from a novel I read once.For an interview with Williams, see: http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf    o o o Schools Told …



Note from JWR:

You’ve all probably heard about the Category 5 cyclone that recently struck Australia: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/19/world/main1419446.shtml Perhaps one of our readers in Australia could let us know where to send donations. The folks in the affected region are in our prayers. We are still in need of more advertisers so that we will be able to make ends meet when SurvivalBlog becomes my primary source of income, starting in April. If you know of any potential advertisers, please call or send them an e-mail, and encourage them to get a banner ad. These ads start at just $55 per month. That is …


Letter from Michael Williamson Re: Accumulating Silver and Gold Bullion

Jim, I’ve been lucky on bullion recently and found some good info and a source. I found local coin dealers at a gun show, who were selling “junk silver” coins at barely over spot price. The price was about the same as from the best mass dealer I could find, but in per coin price, not in $1,000 face bags with 715 troy ounces. I’ll be hitting them as funds and silver price permit. NWTBullion does offer the best price I’ve seen, and will deal in bags as small as $100 face value–72 troy ounces, and in small coin quantities. …


Letter Re: Suburban Emergency Management Project Website

Mr. Rawles, Please let me commend to your attention the website of the Suburban Emergency Management Project: http://www.semp.us/ This is an excellent website with material written by professionals but useful to laymen. There’s more info on this site than I can assimilate in a week. Their “Biots” are short papers on a whole panoply of emergency preparedness topics. There are 340 of them, as of today. Some of my favorites are: #334: “Please Remain in Your Seat”: The Federal Government’s Role in Quarantine (26 February, 2006) #332: What Is “Earthquake Baroque” Architecture? (21 February 2006) #259: Revisiting Looting Behavior during …


Letter Re: Source for Shelf Stable Bread or Crackers?

Hello, Jim! I was reviewing my storage of food supplies when a thought came to me: I don’t have anything to put all that peanut butter on! I looked through all of the food suppliers you advertise looking for crackers, no results. Have any ideas of something that would store well?  – Gerry C. JWR Replies: The individually-wrapped “shelf stable” bread mini-loafs intended to supplement MRE and Tray-Pack (“T-Pack“) squad rations have been available off and on for about ten years. This bread is quite bulky to store. I personally don’t like the taste of it (too salty for me), …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Navy SEALs to Get Modified M14 Rifles: http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdw/jdw060317_1_n.shtml    o o o Asian Avian Flu Raises Hackles in Israel:  LINK    o o o The folks at The Claire Files are organizing a postal rifle match. See: http://www.tcftalk.com/clairefiles/index.php?topic=9031.0    o o o A bill before the Tennessee legislature would reject NAIS: http://nonais.org/index.php/2006/03/21/tn-bill-refuses-nais/  Let’s hope this is the beginning of a groundswell.  



Note from JWR:

There are just 10 days left to submit your entries for Round 3 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best contest entry will win a four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. The deadline for entries for Round 3 is March 31, 2006. The first piece posted today is another fine contest entry:


Seasons of the Sun, by Tim P.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” When people read this, or read about seasons in general, I would imagine that most immediately think of the changes of seasons associated with our climate. Most do not think of the sun, except in that it seems to be much more visible here during the warm months! However, the sun has seasons, or cycles, just like we do here on earth and these can have a large effect on us. One cycle that is most readily observed is that of …


Letter Re: Threading a Rifle Muzzle for Flash Hider and Muzzle Brake

Mr. Rawles, My compliments on your informative blog site, and best wishes for continued success. I read your thought-provoking and informative novel, Patriots, and enjoyed it very much. A few days ago you wrote, “IMHO, ‘tacticalizing’ your bolt action rifles (by threading their muzzles) is a must.” You mentioned sending a Browning A-bolt [to Holland’s of Oregon] to have the muzzle threaded. In the Survival Guns section of your website, you write, “It is important to note that scopes are more prone to failure than any other part of a rifle. Therefore, it is wise to select a rifle with …