Preparedness Notes for Sunday — August 18, 2024

On August 18, 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward issued the first “catalog” for his mail-order business, it was one sheet listing 163 available items. — August 18th is the birthday of Meriwether Lewis, an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator who was best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 114 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 …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: These Are The People Who Characterize J.D. Vance as “Weird” News Link:  JD Vance Blames His ‘Weird’ Label On ’24-Year-Old Social Media Interns’. Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks! Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.  


The Editors’ Quote of the Day: 

“I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — August 17, 2024

On August 17, 1969, Hurricane Camille struck the US coastline and killed 259 people (mainly in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.) — On August 17, 1859, the first air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette, Indiana. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 114 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 Course Certificate. This can be …


Growing and Preparing Dried Beans – Part 2, by A.F.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) When the time to cook arrives, the first step is to sort through the beans and remove any detritus or shriveled beans. In commercial products, it isn’t uncommon to find small rocks that were collected by the combine at harvest mixed in with the beans. Your next step is deciding if you are going to pre-soak or not. I tend to pre-soak dried peas but skip the pre-soak for beans. In both cases, I prefer cooking in a crock pot over using a pot on the stovetop. The common belief is that …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — August 16, 2024

On August 16, 1777, American militiamen led by General Stark defeated British forces at the Battle of Bennington, during the American War of Independence. The battle was fought at Walloomsac, New York, ten miles northwest of Bennington, Vermont. — On August 16th, 1841, President John Tyler vetoed a second attempt by Congress to re-establish the Bank of the United States. In response, angry supporters of the bank gathered outside the White House and burned an effigy of Tyler. — We are pleased to announce that the kind folks at MobileSecSolutions.com are donating two new prizes that will be part of …


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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, a recap of the tumultuous early August stock crash. Precious Metals: Spot gold hit another all-time high this morning in Asian trading.  When I last checked, it was at $2,511.20 per Troy ounce. (Up $42.80.) The more heavily-manipulated silver market has some catching up to do. The silver shorts may soon be in a panic. …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The desire to confirm the legitimacy of the facially valid firearms permit that Soukaneh presented did not—with nothing more—provide Andrzejewski with probable cause for the half-hour or longer handcuffed detention that occurred. It is uncontested that Soukaneh presented Andrzejewski with a gun license, the legitimacy of which Andrzejewski himself admits he had no reason to question. Moreover, Andrzejewski concedes that he was informed of the facially valid license before Soukaneh told him that he had a gun and specified its location. Andrzejewski does not allege that the permit appeared abnormal in any fashion or that Soukaneh engaged in any suspicious …


Preparedness Notes for Thursday — August 15, 2024

On August 15, 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims. — On August 15, 1901, Arch Rock, a hazard to San Francisco Bay shipping, was blasted with 30 tons of dynamite. — I recently took delivery of a batch of 10 antique Swiss Schmidt-Rubin Model 1896/11 rifles. An importer kindly hand-picked all antique (1898 or earlier) ones for me. (There were just 10 antique ones out of about 200 that they had on hand.) The 1896/11 model can shoot the modern high-pressure 7.5 x 55 ammunition.  Four of these rifles sold immediately, so as of this …


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, news of another huge data hack. 3 Billion Hit in Huge Data Breach on Dark Web Reader C.B. sent us this disturbing news: 3 billion hit in catastrophic …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“There is no means by which anyone can evade his personal responsibility. Whoever neglects to examine to the best of his abilities all the problems involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a self appointed elite of supermen. In such vital matters blind reliance upon ‘experts’ and uncritical acceptance of popular catchwords and prejudices is tantamount to the abandonment of self-determination and to yielding to other people’s domination. As conditions are today, nothing can be more important to every intelligent man than economics. His own fate and that of his progeny are at stake.” – Ludwig von Mises


Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 14, 2024

On August 14, 1040 at the Battle of Bothnagowan, King Duncan I of Scotland (pictured) was killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. He was not murdered in his sleep as described in Shakespeare’s play. Macbeth did not succeed Duncan, as King. — August 14th, 1945 was Victory In Japan (“V-J”) Day. — American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is one of the long-time prize sponsors of our writing contest. They’ve just announced a new course on DVD (or online) that should be of great interest to SurvivalBlog readers: Survival Gunsmithing. This course has more than 10 hours of …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This 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. — This video echoes my long-standing advice to my consulting clients on camouflagling aboveground LP/OPs built from repurposed prefabricated concrete cisterns or septic tanks: How To Build The Best Place To Hide! o  o  o Radio Apocalypse: HFGCS, The Backup Plan For Doomsday. o  o  o A WND column by fellow blogger Patrice …