JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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 that have any tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food as and food storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on Milwaukee brand cordless chainsaws. (See the Gear & Grub section.) Books: Alone at Dawn: Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Vices are simply overworked virtues, anyway. Economy and frugality are to be commended but follow them on in an increasing ratio and what do we find at the other end? A miser! If we overdo the using of spare moments we may find an invalid at the end, while perhaps if we allowed ourselves more idle time we would conserve our nervous strength and health to more than the value the work we could accomplish by emulating at all times the little busy bee. I once knew a woman, not very strong, who to the wonder of her friends went …




Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 16, 2019

July 16th is the anniversary of the first successful atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945. This portentous event heralded the advent of the age of nuclear weapons. Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939. In 1940 the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research, but in early 1942, with the United States at war, the limits on spending were removed. The total cost was in excess of $2 billion. Germany was also feared to be working on a bomb as was Japan, though neither of …




SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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 Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Cougar Gold canned cheese from the Washington State University Creamery. (See the Washington section.) Region-Wide Top 10 Drives in the Northern Rockies o o o 2019’s Most Patriotic States in America. Predictable results for the Redoubt states.  Oregon and Washington surely would have …




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 take another look at Civil War 2. Volcanic Activity May Cause Crop Failures I recommend reading this piece at Cold Climate Change, which perhaps has some alarmist predictions: Hiding Volcanic Eruptions. But …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“As a writer, politician, scientist, and businessman, [Ben] Franklin had few equals among the educated of his day-though he left school at ten. (…) Boys like Andrew Carnegie who begged his mother not to send him to school and was well on his way to immortality and fortune at the age of thirteen, would be referred today for psychological counseling; Thomas Edison would find himself in Special Ed until his peculiar genius had been sufficiently tamed.” – John Taylor Gatto




Preparedness Notes for Monday — July 15, 2019

Please pray for the millions of our fellow Americans who face flooding from Tropical Storm Barry. — I’d like to make special mention of two new retreat properties listed on SurvivalRealty.com: First, the Rural Revolution homestead, near Plummer, Idaho. This farm was developed by Don and Patrice Lewis of the great Rural Revolution blog. It is an amazing well-developed place with great neighbors and it sits on a very defendable plateau amidst farming country in north Idaho!   I’ve personally visited this property several times and can vouch that it is retreat worthy. And second, a “Fortified house of character …




Recipe of the Week: Eloise’s Grayling á la Redwall

The following is a Grayling á la Redwall recipe suggested by our #1 Daughter, Eloise. She is a great fan of the Redwall fantasy book series by the late Brian Jacques.  She notes that this recipe can be used for several other type of freshwater fish, and that many other berry wines can be substituted. This serves six adults. Ingredients 4 whole 1-pound graylings–or other freshwater fish–filleted 2 c. butter 4 tbsp. minced garlic 2 lg. white onions 2 bunches fresh rosemary 4 tbsp. thyme 2 c. chopped beechnuts 2 c. honey 4 c. fresh cream 1 bunch mint leaves …




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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we are traversing from our normal column items to focus on investing in Colt 6920 variants. The Elusive Colt 6920 “M4” There is one tangible investment that I haven’t seen discussed much elsewhere on Zee Interwebz: Colt 6920 variants. These didn’t formally hit the civilian until around …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The preacher man says it’s the end of time And the Mississippi River, she’s a-goin’ dry The interest is up and the stock market’s down And you only get mugged if you go downtown I live back in the woods you see My woman and the kids and the dogs and me I got a shotgun a rifle and a four-wheel drive And a country boy can survive Country folks can survive I can plow a field all day long I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn (Yeah) We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too Ain’t …




Preparedness Notes for Sunday — July 14, 2019

July 14th is the birthday of Colonel Einar A. Malmstrom. He was born in 1907 and died August 21, 1954 near Great Falls, Montana, in the crash of a T-33 jet. He was a decorated Air Force pilot, a Luft Stalag POW survivor, and test pilot. Malmstrom AFB was one of the settings for JWR’s novel Founders. (The base was named in his honor.)




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 negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we focus on a DIY Radio Data Terminal. A DIY Radio Data Terminal NC Scout’s latest, over at the great American Partisan site: A DIY Radio Data Terminal On The Cheap. Take the time …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For …




Preparedness Notes for Saturday — July 13, 2019

On this day in 1787, Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance structuring settlement of the Northwest Territory and creating a policy for the addition of new states to the nation. The members of Congress knew that if their new confederation were to survive intact, it had to resolve the states’ competing claims to western territory. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. …




A Primitive Tool For Modern Preppers, Part 2, by Rusty M.

(Continued from Part 2.  This concludes the article.) Around the 1630s, somebody in Europe (I’ve seen it credited to Germans, Austrians, French,…) invented the most widely used ignition system prior to the development of cartridges as we view them now. The flintlock dominated the world of guns from the mid 1600s through the Texas Revolution. This mechanism was what fought in the Seven Years’ War (commonly known as the French and Indian War), won our independence in the Revolution, fought the British again during the War of 1812, was used innumerable times in skirmishes and for feeding families, and stood …