Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 1, 2020

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July 1st, is the anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, in 1863. — I’m on my way home to the Rawles Ranch, so I’ve reactivated the shopping cart system for Elk Creek Company. I’ve just started my Independence Day Sale. You will note some sale prices. I’ll be posting 10 new pieces of inventory, in the next few days. As usual, I am holding the line on my prices, and have even reduced a few. All items are first-come-first-served. We regularly ship to California and to Illinois (except Chicago.) I can accept credit card payments. …


Large-Batch Canning & Jam Making, by St. Funogas

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One of my favorite garden bounties every year is the blackberry jam I get from my beautiful 100’ row of thornless blackberry vines. I love my blackberries for many reasons: they’re one of my few pest-free crops, they’re perennials, and they’re linked to my Swedish grandfather who was a master horticulturist and berry grower for over half a century. I also get a feeling of not only craftsmanship, but companionship with my grandpa when I’m out working with the vines: tying up this year’s growth, propagating new plants from tip runners, harvesting the berries, and cutting out the two-year stems …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books, and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how-to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This week, the focus is on books about Idaho. (See the Books section.) Books: I’ve mentioned this great book, before. It is …




The Illogical “In Common Use” Legal Standard

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The Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller decision in 2008 was a landmark case. While it did confirm our right to keep and bear arms, it stopped short of overturning the plethora of bad laws that it should have. In this essay, I will demonstrate that the logic that the court applied in Heller was significantly flawed. In Heller, while addressing the 1939 Miller v. United States decision, the Supreme Court applied the standard of “the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time.’” Some background: Jack Miller and Frank Layton were small-time crooks that had been …


SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Smithsonian’s Aerial America television series, parts of which recently became available on YouTube. (See the Idaho and Montana sections.) Idaho Aerial America: Idaho (Full Episode) o  o  o 10 Cheapest Idaho Town to Buy a Home. JWR’s Comment: Apparently this video was …



Preparedness Notes for Monday — June 29, 2020

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On June 29th, 1941, the Germans invaded and occupied Lvov, in eastern Galicia, in Ukraine, slaughtering thousands of people. Russia followed a scorched earth policy as Germany invaded just as they had during Napoleon’s invasion. The burned, destroyed, flooded, dismantled and removed anything and everything in territory that they were forced to give up. As the Germans moved in, the Soviets proceeded to murder 3,000 Ukrainian political prisoners. It was so bad that the Germans were actually seen as liberators by the local population. Sadly, within days, they were forced to endure the horrors of the Nazi regime as some …


Recipe of the Week: Indian Style Baked Tomatoes

The following recipe is from The New Butterick Cook Book, by Flora Rose, co-head of the School of Home Economics at Cornell University. It was published in 1924. A professional scan of that 724-page out-of-copyright book will be one of the bonus items in the next edition of the waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. This 15th Anniversary Edition USB stick should be available for sale in the third week of January, 2021. Since tomatoes are starting to ripen for SurvivalBlog readers in most North American climate zones, I thought  that this recipe would be apropos: Indian Style Baked Tomatoes Ingredients …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 the prospects for both a Dollar collapse and a global economic collapse. (See the Economy & Finance section and the Forex & Cryptos section.) Precious Metals: Commerzbank: Gold-price declines still used as ‘buying opportunities’ o  o  o Craig Hemke: Waiting on COMEX Silver Economy & Finance: IMF says global …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — June 28, 2020

June 28th, 1703 was the birthday of John Wesley, who died 2 March 1791. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value), A course certificate from …


Review: Coast FX350, HX5, and FX228 – Part 2, by The Novice

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the review) Opening the Second Box The second product box was the Coast 100 Year Anniversary Gift Box. This box was less substantial than one containing the FX350, but it was still nothing to sneeze at. A flashlight and a knife were nested in a multi-layered cardboard cutout along with a brochure outlining the 100 year history of the Coast company, along with a couple of packs of rust preventative silica gel. The flashlight is a special 100-year anniversary version of the HX5 flashlight. It is rated at 130 lumens and 3.75 hours of …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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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 High Honeybee Summer Losses DHS: How to Decon N95 Masks with an Instant Pot Reader N.S. sent the link to a video with some useful decontamination info for your PPE: …