Preparedness Notes for Saturday — December 4, 2021

December 4th is the birthday of Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, (born 1912) an AVG “Flying Tiger” volunteer pilot for the Chinese Nationalist government, WWII Marine Corps aviator, and Medal of Honor recipient. (He died January 11, 1988.) A proto-Redoubter, Pappy Boyington was born in Couer d’Alene, Idaho and was raised in Spokane, Washington. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 98 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — December 3, 2021

Today is the birthday of actor Brendan Fraser (born, 1968.) He often plays “fish out of water” roles. Preppers of course remember him from Blast From The Past. — A Legislative Action Alert!  Please contact your state’s U.S Senators, immediately, re: Anti-Gunners Attempt Stunt to Pass UBCs Without a Vote. Note that “Universal Background Checks” is just a tricky way of saying: Private Party Intrastate Transfer Ban. Remind your Senators that would be an unconstitutional overreach of the Interstate Commerce Clause.  They can regulate interstate commerce, but not intrastate commerce. Someone selling a used gun to their neighbor is intrastate commerce. …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at used vehicle prices. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Barclay’s Bank’s Moser is looking for more upside in gold. o  o  o Gold prices holding gains as U.S. ADP shows 534K jobs gains in November. Economy & Finance: Even the left-leaning NY Post admits: Socialists & Joe-cialists twist …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — December 2, 2021

On December 2nd, 1823, what became known as the Monroe Doctrine was declared by President James Monroe to Congress outlining a foreign policy initiative that forbade European interference in the American hemisphere but also asserted U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 98 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three …


Hoping For TEOTWAWKI – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) TEOTWAWKI would get rid of both the 24-hour news cycle and the time-wasting crime that television is. By the time after The Day when the new normal has been established, kids (and most parents) will be thin and active and unafraid again, knowing how to ride bikes, developing ingenuity and problem-solving skills by building go-carts and tree forts, and seeing what neat critters there are under rocks and logs when you roll them over. After their many newly-acquired post-SHTF chores are finished, boys and girls will go down to the swimming hole …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— 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. Today, we look at storing eggs. States Adopting Digital Drivers Licenses First and foremost, over at the GraniteGrok blog: State’s Are Adopting Digital Drivers Licenses – A Digital Identity That Could go Well Beyond Driving. …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — December 1, 2021

This is the birthday of novelist Rex Stout (1886–1975). Rex Stout was the brother of Ruth Stout, the gardener who wrote about no-till, year-round mulching, organic gardening in her book Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present the first entry for Round 98 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day …


Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced: Round 97

We’ve completed the judging for Round 97 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize winners are: First Prize: Anthony B., for Progressive Reloading for Beginners, posted on November 24, 2021. His prizes will include: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value), A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, …


November 2021 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance and the factors that affected gold prices. What Did Gold Do in November? November ended up being a battle to keep gold prices above $1,850. Bulls managed to run a rally above $1,850 for seven straight sessions in mid-November, but gold bears started selling into every rally for the rest of the month. The bears, assisted by Fed boss Jerome Powell, succeeded in dragging prices lower to end the month at $1,776 an …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: 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. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — JWR Observes: The recent panic over the Omicron Wu Flu variant now has world leaders threatening to lock down the citizenries of many nations. It will start with travel bans. Then back to masking and public gathering restrictions.The CDC’s own published figures: A 99.997% survival rate for people ages 0 to 19, 99.98% for people …