Letter Re: Healthy Eating and Food Storage Rotation

Dear Mr. Rawles, I started my weight-loss/lifestyle change journey four months ago.  I found myself unable to sprint a flight of stairs without feeling lightheaded at the top.  My older, but thinner lunchtime walking partners didn’t appear to have this issue.  I have been reading about the need to get into shape should a SHTF scenario happen in the near future.  This convinced me that I need to make a healthy lifestyle change including weight-loss and more physical activity. As I started this endeavor, I wondered if the food preparations I stored would work with my new eating habits.  You’ve …


Letter Re: Re: Studying Guerilla Warfare Tactics

Hi Jim, To follow up on this discussion, another good publication to study guerilla and counter-guerilla warfare is the book Total Resistance by Major H. Von Dach. Although the publication was written in the 1960s and concerns Swiss plans for dealing with a Soviet invasion, I believe it has quite a bit of information that is directly useful, or which could be easily updated, for use in today’s world. I’m not sure that the English-language version is still in print, but used copies can be found. – J.B. and Co.



Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader J.B.G. sent this for our Theater of The Absurd Department: Cost of shotgun and firearm licenses must rise say police chiefs. Oh, so they tell us that there’s a funding gap in their scheme to to keep their citizenry disarmed. Their solution: Charge the few who still have some sporting guns even more to license them. This somehow reminds me of when Germany’s Nazi regime had the temerity to sell full fare train tickets to some Jews, to cover the costs of their forced relocation to the designated ghettos before their planned extermination. (This is documented in the book …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 47 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 …


Medical Notes from Nicaraguan Villages, by COEMT

Here are some insights that I gained from a recent week-long medical mission trip to Nicaragua. We treated hundreds of men, women, and children living in remote villages for general medical complaints.  I envision these conditions as being similar to what many of us would see in TEOTWAWKI. Living conditions: Mostly, the men in these villages are subsistence farmers, picking coffee beans, or something similar.  The women stay at home and take care of the children, grandparents, and animals – chickens and pigs.  Their average income is very low, in the 10’s of dollars per month. Their houses are really shacks …


Letter Re: Survival Tips from the May 20, 2013 Oklahoma Tornado

Hello JWR,  I have a possible solution to TornadoDoc’s generator noise problem! Go to the auto parts store and buy a generic car muffler. The cheapest one you can find. Then purchase a length of flexible muffler pipe and clamps, as well as two couplers. One is for the muffler to pipe, the other for muffler to generator. Depending on how mechanically adept you are, you may be able to do this yourself. Remove the muffler/spark arrestor from your genset. Weld the coupler over the hole, then put it back on. When you use the auto muffler it will make …


Economics and Investing:

Analyst: We Are Seeing A Farm Bubble In The Corn Belt. (Thanks to Jim W. for the link.) G.G. flagged this: California on the Brink: Pension Crisis About to Get Worse H.L. sent: Venezuela Launches Electronic Rationing Card Items from The Economatrix: Jobs Disaster Continues, But Congress Debates Increasing Immigration? Three Reasons The Jobs Numbers Were Bleh Unemployment Problem Is Bigger Than NYC & LA Combined


Odds ‘n Sods:

Geoff S. sent this article on large-scale greenhouse farming: Farm flourishes on Alaska tundra. (Of course to be able to afford all of those greenhouses, it helps to live where strawberries sell for $6 to $9 per pound.)    o o o I noticed that Ready Made Resources has added some very effective smoke grenades to their product line. Don’t confuse these with the small, commonly-available pyrotechnic toys. In contrast, these ones really crank out voluminous smoke!    o o o This was interesting: Know Where to Run to: The Five Best Countries With No Extradition    o o o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“You either get out of the system or you make a major contribution of your wealth to the d*mn OTC derivative manufacturers and distributors. This broken banking system is still hiding their huge losses thanks to the political sell out by the gatekeepers of international accounting, the FASB. They have lost their souls to evil.” – Jim Sinclair


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 47 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 …


Letter Re: Some Experience With Potatoes

Good Morning Captain Rawles, How would you like your potatoes this morning? We have finished digging our potatoes and stored them. We usually plant a Lasota Red type of potato. We purchase them in 50 pound sacks at the local feed store. “Planting potatoes” are different from the potatoes you buy in the store to eat. Potatoes from the store are treated with some kind of food grade additive to prevent them from sprouting for a while. If you plant these, there will usually be very few that come up. However, if you have had them for a while and …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Hazardous Chemical Spills

Dear Sir, I work as an firefighter/EMT and Hazardous Materials Tech in the Greater Louisville, Kentucky region. I would like to provide your readership with two examples of ‘stabilized’ emergencies going wrong in the last year in the Louisville area alone. Both could have been catastrophic had it not been for quick thinking and pure dumb luck. The first incident began in late October of last year when 11 cars of a 57-car Paducah and Louisville line (a CSX owned company) derailed in the southwest corner of Jefferson County, very near Fort Knox. The cars that derailed were carrying Butadiene …


Letter Re: Mad Max Modifications: Improvised Armor for Vehicular Platforms

James, Just a note on the penetrating power of the 5.56 NATO M855 ball round on various materials.  Much ink has been wasted noting the presence of a steel or tungsten “penetrator” being manufactured inside the M855 round. It weighs about 3 grains.  It is insignificant so far as getting the bullet inside a car unless you open the door first.  True, any load in the 5.56 will make impressive wounds or even penetrate 1/4” or even 3/8” mild steel plate…as long as there absolutely nothing in the way before it arrives on target.  Put a 1/8th inch tick sheet …