Become Your Own Herbal Doctor, By Elizabeth Y.

Common ailments can really keep you down in the best of times, but when the SHTF you won’t have the luxury of staying in bed and taking a sick day when a bad cold or diarrhea strikes.  In a TEOTWAWKI scenario, there will be no doctor to call and no over-the-counter medicines to treat your symptoms.  If that sounds at all scary to you…it should. But fear not! Luckily, we all have the ability to become our own doctor, as plant medicine is all around us.  But it takes more than a reference book or cursory knowledge of herbal medicine …


Letter Re: Warning on Canola Oil

Mr. Rawles; Yesterday I was in my local Costco store doing some shopping for my prepper pantry, and I noticed something new that Costco is selling, a vegetable oil blend. It’s labeled as “Mediterranean Blend” and is a mixture of canola, olive, and grapeseed oil. It may be attractive to value-conscious preppers, because the cost per liter is low; $2.97 a liter vs. Kirkland (Costco’s house brand) olive oil for $5.97 a liter.  Beware of this oil. According to Mary Enig, Ph.D., who is the current world authority on trans–fatty acids, Canola Oil is actually derived from the rapeseed, a …


Letter Re: Unloading Mossberg 500/590 Shotguns

Captain Rawles, People may already know this one, but if not, then here is a trick for anyone with a Mossberg 500/590 shotgun who wants to know how to remove shells from the tube magazine without cycling the action” Inside the loading port located on the left is a small piece of metal [called a shell stop] which holds the shells in the magazine (it’s easy to see with a shell in the magazine).  Pushing this in allows shells to be removed from the magazine one-by-one swiftly and silently.  Push the piece in until a shell pops out of the magazine, release the metal piece, …


Letter Re: The Usefulness of MSDS Info for Chemicals

Mr. Rawles:  First off A Big Thank You for all the information you make available.    I have been putting together a notebook for my office with Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)  for all the chemicals that we use.  Old timers (like me) called these books HazMat Books/sheets.  This  got me to thinking about the chemicals that I use in my house; and started to put one together when the SHTF.   MSDS sheets will tell you: 1.       The Product and Company identification, 2       Ingredients ,  3.     Hazards identification,  4.     First Aid Measures ;    5.     Fire Fighting Measures  6. …


Economics and Investing:

A new record: 13 Million Silver American Eagles Sold in First Three Months of 2013. (Thanks to Doug C. for the link.) Reader Mark in Rochester wrote this reminder to Americans: “With all this talk of Cyprus and the sovereign debt levels in Europe’s southern tier, we shouldn’t got forget that our debt-versus-GNP rate is higher. (See this article from last November.) And remember that Bernanke is still creating $85,000,000,000 per month ($272 per person, per month) via Quantitative Easing monetization to bail out his buddies in the banking industry.” G.G. flagged this from Bill Freeza in Forbes: How To …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Tom R. mentioned that Armageddon Online is offering 297 free online reference books.    o o o Growing Number Of States Eye Bills To Defy Federal Gun Laws    o o o Another couple of signs of the times: 1.) Here at the Rawles Ranch, we just received the latest Cabela’s mini catalog. This one is for “Self Defense & Tactical.” It included NO magazines of any capacity! Apparently their magazine supplies are so thin (or so deeply backordered) that they didn’t dare list any. And, 2.) The following was in the latest DoD Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) e-newsletter: …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Big government likes big providers. That’s why ObamaCare is gradually making the local doctor-owned medical practice a relic. In the not too distant future, most physicians will be hourly wage earners, likely employed by a hospital chain. Why? Because when doctors practice in small offices, it is hard for Washington to regulate what they do.” – Scott Gottlieb in a Wall Street Journal editorial, March 14, 2013


Notes from JWR:

March 20th is the birthday of Mel Tappan. (Born 1933, died 1980.) His perennially popular survivalist books Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival have a well-deserved following. — Today we present another entry for Round 45 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 …


How to Prepare for a Home Birth in a Post Collapse Situation, by C.C., CPM

This article isn’t designed to cover all aspects of childbirth, of course, but it is meant to reassure people who are unsure of their abilities to do prenatal care and their own or a neighbor’s birth, if the stuff hits the fan. I am a Certified Professional Midwife, and have assisted people in birth as a childbirth educator, doula, and now midwife since 1984. (My North American Registry of Midwives certification, however, is fairly recent, since I have concurrently raised three children alone, and earned a BS in Computer Information Systems.) One of the first things to remember when the …


Three Letters Re: The Commerce Model of Prepping

James, In reference to “The Commerce Model of Prepping”, that was one of the best written and thought provoking pieces I have read on your web site in quite some time. If one can afford the Rawlesian Approach to having a high quality retreat in a highly rural location I believe that is a great decision, because it will allow that retreat to help kick start the local economy after a SHTF event, while continuing to be a blessing to those around them (acting as Christ to one another). I thought the authors point, to those who are not in …


Letter Re: Inexpensive Solar Cookers From Projection Television Lenses

Mr. Rawles, [Since they have been superceded by flat screen HDTV technology, many] old projection-type big screen televisions are being hauled away daily to landfills or “e-waste” collection points. I believe that many preppers who find themselves without sufficient fuel post-Collapse, could benefit from a devices such as the one shown in this video and this video. This easily assembled solar cooker could really stretch the use of precious fuel supplies, and it would cost “peanuts” to construct. Just about all of it could come from salvaged materials. Waiting until after a Collapse to begin searching for the components, however, might be …


Letter Re: Market Prices and the Availability of Goods

Jim, Unfortunately, it has become common for preppers to express outrage at the exorbitant post-Newtown pricing of ammo and certain magazines and firearms. Frequently, the complaints are accompanied by vows and pleas for others not to patronize certain offending retailers after things return to “normal.” Apart from the implicit assumption that things will return to “normal,” I think that this sentiment is way off base. Although I like paying “reasonable” prices as much (and probably more) than the next guy, I find the notion that retailers should not raise prices to meet increased demand both fundamentally flawed, and ultimately dangerous for preppers.    First, we have …


Economics and Investing:

The Cyprus Depositor Legalized Ripoff saga unfolds: Only for the “Rich Ones” with €20,000 in Savings National planning Cyprus-style solution for New Zealand After Cyprus Vote, ECB Says Ready to Offer Liquidity Within Rules Items from The Economatrix: The Young Are Going To Get Screwed-Part 1 Cyprus “Bail-In” Is Rattling Markets Everywhere; Coffee Bean Jitters Why The Cyprus Bail-In Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think


Odds ‘n Sods:

Scientists warn Oregon legislators of cataclysm when earthquake, tsunami strike    o o o Radio Free Redoubt reports: Voice of America tests transmitting on digital mode.    o o o Kerry Voices U.S. Support for NRA-opposed U.N. Arms Treaty. [JWR’s Comment: Can we really trust his sincerity when he states: “We will not support any treaty that would be inconsistent with U.S. law and the rights of American citizens under our Constitution, including the Second Amendment.” Yeah, right. Kerry gives new meaning to the term lip service. Since this treaty would undoubtedly diminish our constitutional right, then why would even …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“If you are taught bitterness and anger, then you will believe you are a victim. You will feel aggrieved and the twin brother of aggrievment is entitlement. So now you think you are owed something and you don’t have to work for it and now you’re on a really bad road to nowhere because there are people who will play to that sense of victimhood, aggreivement and entitlement, and you still won’t have a job.” – Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice