The Micro-Farm Tractor, by “Fanderal”

My goal, like so many of us, is to be able to pre-bugout, to a retreat I can live on full time. I dream of having a few acres out in the country where I can mostly support myself on what can be produced on my own land. When I first started to think about it, and plan for it, the first question of course is “How much land?” After getting past the obvious answer, “As much as possible”, came the more reasonable answer of: “enough to do accomplish my primary goal of optimal self-sufficiency.” After more study I came …


Letter From “Dr. Buckaroo Banzai” Re: Pneumonia Risk–Time for Your Pneumovax?

Dear Mr. Rawles, I think the pneumovax is a good idea. However, there are simply no data to support your statement that “pneumonia co-infections are the biggest killer associated with the Asian Avian flu.” Whether even a single victim of the current H5N1 avian flu in Asia has even developed pneumococcal pneumonia has not been reported. I doubt it. These people appear to be dying too quickly for that to be the problem. I think they are simply dying from viral pneumonia. In 1918-1919 many flu victims died within 24-48 hours of becoming febrile. Those deaths certainly had nothing to …


Letter Re: Rokon Off-Road Motorcycles

Dear Mr. Rawles: Look forward to your blog everyday – keep up the great work! A question and suggestion for an article, from the point of view of those who must have a good bug-out plan….1. Got a source for a mechanical (as opposed to electronic) power out alarm? Under many scenarios the first warning of a Schumer / fan interface will be the power out (or confirmation that TS is REALLY HTF). Electronics are vulnerable to EMP, but a mechanical alarm could give you hours head start of TSHTF….2. Bug out vehicle. The first thing I thought after seeing …


Letter Re: Asian Avian Flu

Hi Jim, Thanks for your excellent site. I read it every day but Sunday and enjoy most every article. However, while I believe it is important to be as prepared as possible for pandemics and every other kind of emergency, I’m convinced that the Avian “Bird” flu is contrived and a needless scare. Bill Sardi, on his excellent website, has numerous excellent articles, all well researched and documented, showing that this crisis is hysteria being fanned by government authorities (http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/report.asp?story=Bird%20Flu%20Hysteria%20Fanned%20By%20Inaccurate%20News%20Reports.). I heartily recommend this site to all your readers. – G.M. in North Carolina JWR Replies: There may be some …



Pneumonia Risk–Time for Your Pneumovax?

With all of the recent conjecture about the possibility of an Asian Avian flu pandemic, the subject of pneumonia inoculations has come up. (Because pneumonia co-infections are the biggest killer associated with the Asian Avian flu. Most of those cases are viral, but some could be pneumococcal.)  Merck makes a widely used pneumonia vaccination called Pneumovax 23.  It is administered intramuscularly before exposure to pneumococci (streptococcus pneumoniae), and reportedly only rarely has adverse reactions. It will not prevent viral pneumonia, but at least it is effective at preventing 23 strains of pneumococcal pneumonias. The threat of Asian Avian flu mutating …


The Dreaded Pin Prick–Approaching a Housing Bubble Near You

There are starting to be some clear indicators that the U.S. housing market bubble has reached its apex, though there are some that disagree. The signs of irrational exuberance are all to apparent. Witness, for example, the mad bidding wars for Miami condominiums that are being pre-sold, long before the ground has been broken at the construction sites.  The housing markets have already headed south in much of the rest of the English speaking world.(Prices are already dropping in Australia and England.) But not yet in the United States. Today’s housing market is the embodiment of “The Greater Fool Theory“, …


Letter Re: On Gold, Silver, and Barter

James: First of all, I want to say thank you for putting so much effort in to an active blog on this subject. I try to read daily, and I always play catch-up once a week. I know it takes a TON of work to keep something like this alive and post as much each day as you do, so again, thanks. I was moderately concerned for the first time reading your blog this past week in regards to the post on Gold and Silver Barter. In there you referred to the American public as having “been robbed”. My concern …



On MREs and Their Shelf Life

I’m often asked how long the U.S. Military “Meal Ready to Eat” (MRE) rations can be stored. SurvivalBlog reader “Mr. Tango” (BTW, don’t miss reading his fascinating profile) had a round of correspondence with the U.S. Army’s Natick Laboratories in Massachusetts, on the potential storage life of MREs. The data that they sent him was surprising! Here is the gist of it: Degrees, Fahrenheit Months of Storage (Years) 120 1 month 110 5 months 100 22 months (1.8 years) 90 55 months  (4.6 years) 80 76 months  (6.3 years) 70 100 months  (8.3 years) 60 130 months  (10.8 years) — …


MSG, By Any Other Name

The food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG) is now used in an alarmingly wide variety of processed foods. MSG has a bad reputation for more than just inducing “Chinese food headache.”  IMHO, it is nasty stuff and should be avoided.  But that is difficult these days because food processors hide it by applying umpteen clever nom de guerres.  These can include: Autolyzed yeast, Barley malt, Broth, Bouillon, Calcium caseinate, Carrageen or carrageenan, Enzyme modified, Fermented, Flavoring, Natural flavoring, Gelatin, Glutamates, Hydrolyzed oat flour, Hydrolyzed protein, Hydrolyzed vegetable, Malt extract, Maltodextrin, Natural flavors, Pectin, Plant protein extract or extracts, Potassium glutamate, Protein fortified, …


Reader Product Review: Wiggy’s Hunter Sleeping Bag

Jim, This past Thursday thru Saturday was spent by me and a like minded, survival oriented friend in the mountains doing a cold weather shakedown. We headed up to the mountains, and did some primitive camping out in the middle of Bigfoot country at about 3,500 feet. This was a well scouted area, and I had found that nobody in at least the last year had been in the area but me. One of the items that we “shook-down” was my Wiggy’s Hunter. When I opened the box that it came in, I could see right off that it appeared …


Odds ‘n Sods:

A reader alerted me that the manufacturer of Gamma Seal Lids (those nifty screw top lids that fit on standard 3 to 7 gallon food storage buckets) are now available directly from the manufacturer at very reasonable prices if bought in quantity.  See: http://www.gammaseals.com. ___ In a recent phone conversation, the gent who was the basis for the “Roger Dunlap” character in my novel Patriots mentioned: “In inflation-adjusted dollars, gold’s $850+ per ounce peak back in 1979 would be the equivalent of about $1,550 per ounce today.”  Despite the price increases since 2001, gold is still dirt cheap. He recommends …



Note from JWR:

I encourage you to continue to spread the news about SurvivalBlog. Our readership is growing fast, but there are still millions out there with web access who have never heard of it. A brief e-mail to your like-minded friends or mention of SurvivalBlog when calling in to talk radio shows would be greatly appreciated! Every friend that you help motivate to get prepared represents one less person that you’ll find sheepishly begging on your doorstep, come TEOTWAWKI+1. Instead of being part of the problem, they’ll be part of the solution.