Letter: Grain Milling Muscles

JWR and HJL: We bought a grain mill—the Wonder Mill Junior to be specific–from one of your advertisers and we are pleased with the purchase. However, I must warn my fellow readers that if you have bought one of these and just threw it on the shelf alongside your the stack of #10 cans and food storage buckets, then you made a mistake. Unless you regularly start your Ford Model T with a hand crank, then you are in for a morning-after surprise. This is another example of the importance of “practicing your preps.” A seven year old cannot turn …



Economics and Investing:

B.B. sent this Reuters article: Big U.S. firms hold $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid taxes: study o o o An interesting price comparison chart: Gasoline prices, worldwide. (Venezuela has the lowest price, at just $0.06 per gallon!) Items from The Economics Team: It’s Time to Start Talking about RECESSION Fed Seems Ready to Deploy Negative Interest Rates in the Next Crisis The Worst Slump in Commodities Prices Isn’t Over


Odds ‘n Sods:

I was really pleased to see that the late, great, “discontinued” Woodpile Report (edited by Ol’ Remus) is getting some new posts! o o o DSV sent this item at Kim Komando’s site: Creepy website shows how much Facebook knows about you o o o Homeschooling Gun Owners Sue NJ for $60 Million for Unconstitutional ‘Home Intrusion’. (Thanks to T.P for the link.) o o o NBC News (text & video): Illinois Assault Weapons Ban Before U.S. Supreme Court



Notes for Tuesday – October 13, 2015

Editorial Updates: The posting queue for the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest is now quite short, so we encourage you write an article and send it in, soon. You can share your knowledge with others, and you will be eligible to win lots of valuable prepping prizes. Given the unusually short queue of entries we’ve already received, any articles that we get this week will likely be posted within 10 days! o o o Hugh J. Latimer will soon be returning from his vacation, and resuming his duties as Managing Editor. Thanks for putting up with my sometimes fumbling HTML editing …


Letter Re: The Harsh Truth About Bugging Out of Cities

Mr. Editor: Regarding the recent discussion of the “Golden Horde” concept (in Patrice Lewis’s guest article The Harsh Truth About Bugging Out of Cities) — it seems that a review of the history of Germany’s 30 Years’ War (from 1618 to 1648) would be in order. You may recall how Wallenstein rejected the idea of a 40,000-man army, demanding 100,000. Austria protested that such a large army would be too expensive. The reply was, that the larger army would finance itself [through what was euphemistically called “foraging”, on a tactical scale, and “plunder” on a strategic scale], while the smaller …


News From The American Redoubt:

Viral disease killing hundreds of deer in the Palouse region o o o Who knew? It has now been documented that the perennial favorite rockabilly song Hot Rod Lincoln was originally written as a reminiscence of a race between the author’s Lincoln and a Cadillac up the Lewiston Grade, in north-central Idaho. (Thanks to R.B.S. for the link.) o o o Idaho: World Relief confirms that they will NOT be resettling refugees in Northern Idaho. (A hat tip to Michael H. for the link.) o o o I heard from a consulting client up in north Idaho that The Woodsman’s …


Economics and Investing:

The drop in the labor force is coming from prime-age Americans, not aging retirees: Examining the 94.6 million Americans not in the labor force o o o RBS sent this: The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared o o o Anthony Wile: Let’s Get This Show on the Road (The Daily Bell) Items from The Economics Team: FOMC Minutes Confirm Economy Not Ready For Rate-Hike This Year, Worried About Inflation, “Global Risk” It’s Time For Negative Rates, Fed’s Kocherlakota Hints


Odds ‘n Sods:

At the WRSA site: Claire Wolfe: Come And Take Them. Start Here o o o Documenting Katrina o o o G.G. flagged this: EPA spends millions on military-style weapons, watchdog group reports o o o Over at Lew Rockwell’s site: The Collective Failure of Gun-Free Zones o o o KAF sent us this: Woman uses medieval combat training, sword to stop intruder




Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Cold Steel’s Survival Edge

For many years, I’ve looked that the Cold Steel web site as well as their printed catalogs, and saw among their fixed blade knifes a survival-type knife, with a hollow handle – called the “Survival Edge” and I just didn’t understand why it was in the line-up. To my mind, it just looked like a “cheap” hollow handle survival knife – one that doesn’t really belong in the Cold Steel line of fantastic knives. Lynn Thompson (Cold Steel’s owner) and I have been friends since the early 1900s and if there is one thing we have learned about each is …


Letter Re: Choosing a Partner for a Lifetime of Preparedness

Dear Editor: I have a response to Choosing a Partner for a Lifetime of Preparedness (A Cautionary Tale), by Bob C. from Oct. 9, 2015. H is article brings out the idea that beauty is way more than skin deep, an idea that I totally agree with and often share with young people. My husband and I are in the ministry and we often deal with teens who have not been taught the value of selecting a mate based on other qualities besides physical attraction. So, I think I understand the author’s point. I would just like to comment that …


Recipe of the Week: Cajun-Style Pork Stew, by Jackie W.

Here is a fairly simple-to-prepare Cajun-style pork stew: Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds fresh cubed pork 4 carrots 2 onions 2 ribs celery 3 to 4 potatoes (optional) Red pepper flakes, to taste Boil meat about 20 minutes in a pot on stove. Put chopped celery, carrots, onions and potatoes in a 5-quart Dutch oven. Put meat on top of vegetables. Pour in 1 cup of liquid from boiling meat. Put covered Dutch oven in oven and cook at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Check to see if the vegetables are done. Put 2 tablespoons of oil …