State By State – Arizona

Arizona: Population: 5.1 million. Population Density: 44.7 per square mile (Rank 7 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 114,000 square miles (rank 6 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $438/yr. (rank 30 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 48 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 91%. Per capita income: $24,988 (rank 37 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 25 of 50. Plusses: Mild winters at lower elevations. Has the nation’s top rating in “education freedom” (the state is at the forefront of the charter school movement.) Open carry of handguns is legal and perhaps the most commonplace …


#1 Son’s Product Review: “Rite in the Rain” All Weather Writing Paper

Rite in the Rain is truly waterproof paper. You can even write on it underwater! I tested their Field Binder. They also make binders and paper for many other uses. The paper comes in several templates: Universal Grid paper, CAS Briefing Form (9 Line), Standard Range Card, Call for Fire, Warning Order, Soldier’s Personal Data, MEDEVAC (9 Line), and UXO/IED Report (9 Line). The grid paper is useful for writing and graphing/mapping. Field Binder Design: The green plastic binder measures 7 3/4″ x5 3/4″x 1″ with six snap rings. It has an inch ruler and a standard/metric conversion table inside …


Letter Re: Staying Put Or Bugging Out?

Jim, Reading through the reams of articles and blogs concerning New Orleans, this AP piece stood out.  Notice that the person profiled is apparently a Vietnam veteran who had stockpiled food, fuel and firearms, lived in the war zone, and seemed to be just fine without bugging out.  And it made me think…   Yeah, we all want a ‘retreat’ – but this may be possible for less than 1 percent of Americans.  Are we as survivalists ignoring the efforts of the folks that are prepared to sit in place in an urban setting?  What training or informational resources would …


Letter Re: Lessons from Katrina

Jim, You might want to have a section dedicated to the lessons we can learn from this. If you do, my two cents worth would be: 1-The authorities may cut off the water and phones-even if you are a politician. The Feds want you to go to an approved shelter-and they want control of all information. Your life is not really that important to them. 2-The shelter may lock you up for five days or so with no water, food, or medicine. And you can’t get out-and charities won’t be allowed to come to you. 3-The shelter may have druggies …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Along the debris-choked Mississippi River, pharmacist Jason Dove watches as people scramble in the parking lot of the downtown convention center for cases of airlifted water and shakes his head. ‘We created this Frankenstein,’ he says. ‘It’s showing how fragile this society is.’” -as quoted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, USA Today, Sept. 2, 2005.


Hurricane Katrina Update:

Law and order are still scarce commodities on the Gulf Coast. It was reported yesterday (Sunday, September 4th) that police shot eight armed people, killing at least five of them, after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors that were traveling across a bridge near New Orleans on their way to make repairs. Meanwhile, 200 of the formerly 1,500-strong New Orleans Police department have either formally resigned or have deserted, and two have committed suicide. WorldNetDaily and other sources have reported that looting and assorted acts of lawlessness are continuing in inland areas of Louisiana and Mississippi that were …


JWR’s Advice on Food Storage

If and when it comes, TEOTWAWKI will certainly mean a disruption in food production and distribution. You should have enough food stored for your family to last a year, and much longer if you can afford it. Keep in mind that: you will need extra to dispense as charity, to your “head-in-the sand” relatives, to neighbors, friends, fellow church members, and refugees. So store lots of extra wheat, rice, beans, and honey. They are cheap now, but may be very expensive later. You can “do it yourself” for nearly everything required for home food storage except canned powdered dry milk. …


MRE Storage Life

I do recommend MREs as a supplement to a well-rounded food storage program. Because they are fairly compact, lightweight, and require no cooking , they are ideal to pack in your “Get Out of Dodge” (G.O.O.D.) backpack (or “BOB“). My old friend who has profile under the pseudonym Mr. Tango had a round of correspondence with the U.S. Army’s Natick Laboratories in Maryland, on the potential storage life of MREs. Like all other storage foods, MREs must be stored at low temperature to maximize their shelf life. The data that they sent him was surprising. Here is the gist of …


Letter RE: The Myth of Copper Toxicity for Sheep and Goats

Jim, I wanted to let you know that a correction needs to be made in your statement that copper is toxic to sheep and goats. I own dairy goats on our homestead. Copper is indeed toxic to sheep, BUT COPPER IS CRITICAL FOR THE GOOD HEALTH OF GOATS.  In fact copper sulfate is given as a supplement at times, especially with the darker goats to keep them from turning chocolate brown instead of the black coat color they should have. The belief that copper is toxic to goats is a common misconception and I have had nearly knock down drag-down …


Letter from “F1” Re: Trapping and Snaring

Hi Jim and Memsahib: An overlooked area for putting meat on the table is trapping and snaring. Perhaps the reason is it is an almost lost skill because most people live in cities or the suburbs today. However, WTSHTF it may mean the difference between having meat on the table or none at all when, if the supply runs out. Those who live in cities and suburban areas normally have squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks, deer, raccoons and other edible animals available if they have the knowledge and equipment to obtain them. Many in rural areas who are preparing plan on using …





Hurricane Katrina Update:

The floodwaters have not yet subsided, but the Monday Morning Quarterbacking, finger pointing, and general recriminations about the FedGov’s handling of Hurricane Katrina relief effort have already begun. For example, see the quotes posted Chrenkoff’s blog. Meanwhile, the MSM is frantically backpedalling, apologizing for having been so insensitive. They’ve realized that in their haste to report the news that they actually televised images of black people breaking into stores and taking other people’s property and referring to it as looting. I have news for them: It was looting. It is both a crime and it is a Biblical sin. And …


Stocking Your Retreat

Stocking a retreat is a complex series of tasks that should be done dispassionately. It will be expensive and may take several years, so make your purchases systematically and in strict order of priority. At present, the only items that I would recommend bumping up in priority would be the private acquisition of your core firearms battery. (One rifle, pistol, and shotgun for each adult family member, and a .22 rimfire rifle for each child.) With talk these days about “closing the gun show loophole” (requiring a paper trail on all gun purchases), this should be one of your top …