Preparedness Notes for Sunday — December 21, 2025

Today marks the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the first day of winter. The Winter Solstice is the day of minimum insolation, each year. The painting above, titled Winter, is by Ivan Shishkin, circa 1890.  Because of Seasonal Lag, even though the days will start getting longer tomorrow, the coldest days of the year are typically in January. — On December 21, 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest parody meme created by JWR: Meme Text: Note: The following is a PARODY and not an actual quote. Rep. Jasmine Crockett Chides: Some Fool at The New York Times Wrote That I’m “Pursuing A Seat In The Upper Chamber” But, I Been There, And I Seen It. And I Can Tell You, The Floor Of The Senate Is On The Same Level As The House News Link: Rep. Jasmine Crockett enters Texas Senate race as Allred exits. Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And …


The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — December 20, 2025

On December 20, 1917, the Cheka, the Soviet Union’s first state security force, was formed. The Cheka was initially led by Felix Dzerzhinsky (pictured) after a decree by Vladimir Lenin. The Cheka was successively replaced by the OGPU, NKVD, KGB, SVR, and most recently by the FSB (Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti or Federal Security Service) of the Russian Federation. State security agents were commonly called “Chekists” throughout the Soviet era.  — December 20th, 1669: The first jury trial in Delaware. Marcus Jacobson was condemned for insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding, and slavery. — December 20th, 1606, the Virginia Company loaded …


The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — December 19, 2025

On December 19th,1776, Thomas Paine published his first “American Crisis” essay that famously began: “These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”. — Some sad news: Gil Gerard dead: Buck Rogers star leaves heartfelt posthumous message. — The big 50%-off sale at SurvivalRealty.com …


Prelude to World War – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

If you ask most Americans when World War Two started and you’ll probably get December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, as an answer.  Another response might be September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.  These dates are significant, in that these are when open and sustained military operations commenced, but they definitely were not the start of the war.   It would be ignorant to think that Germany just up and decided to invade Poland, or Japan bomb Pearl Harbor, out of the blue on these dates.  There were prolonged periods of tension that led up to the …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. This week, a chart showing the growth of global silver demand, and its components.  It was published 11 months ago. Demand is now even higher. The annual production deficit also keeps growing. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.           (Graphic courtesy of Visual Capitalist and Vizsla Silver Corp.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest At The Burning Platform:  Samsung Just Dropped A “Silver Bomb” . . . Their New “Solid State” Battery Tech Breaks …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — December 18, 2025

On December 18, 1888 Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discovered the ancient Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde, Colorado. — December 18th is the birthday of Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788). He wrote more than 1,700 hymns. — Today is also the birthday of Jørgen Haagen Schmith (born December 18, 1910, died October 15, 1944). He was better known under the codename “Citron” and was a famous Danish resistance fighter in occupied Denmark. — Today’s feature piece is a review written by SurvivalBlog staffer Tom Christianson. — We need more entries for Round 122 of the …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, a new twist on FPV drone warfare. U.S. Army Practices Building Drones “In-Theater” This was linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: U.S. Army Changes Tools and Tactics …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — December 17, 2025

With the recent spike in spot silver, I’ve had a number of readers contact me about making trades. For any of my current Elk Creek Company inventory, I’m willing to accept in trade: Generic commercial bullion 1-ounce rounds right at the spot price of silver. ($66.29, as I’m writing this on Wednesday morning.) U.S. Mint American Eagle 1-ounce rounds at $1.50 over spot. And, since U.S. Silver dollars contain .7734 oz. of silver, I’m willing to accept: Non-professionally graded AU or Better $1 Morgan or Peace Dollars at $49.50 each PCGS or NGC graded (“slabbed”) AU 50 to MS60 (non-1921, …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — Several readers have written to mention the new Pluribus post-apocalyptic sci-fi television series. It is an odd and somewhat creepy show that depicts a “soft” alien Hive Mind takeover of the world, via a Happiness Virus. In Episode 1, we see that 99.999% of the population has their consciousness subsumed into the …