Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 5, 2024

On October 5, 1877 Chief Joseph and his people surrendered to the US Army, ending the Nez Perce War in the Western United States. — On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang was finished in a shoot-out with the residents of Coffeyville, Kansas following a bank holdup. Four members of the gang were killed, and a fifth member was captured. — October 5, 1703 was the birthday of Jonathan Edwards. He was a prolific Calvinist theological writer. Many of his writings were later collected in the multi-volume book The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Gerstner. Edwards …


Mentoring: Steps Toward Changing The World – Part 1, by A Grateful Mechanic

“Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.” – George Mueller I am grateful for SurvivalBlog and this community. There is a great wealth of knowledge and inspiration that comes from this project. In the last ten years I have experienced and pursued the development of a survival-focused lifestyle. I do not “do it right.” I have weakness at many points and I do not live in an ideal situation. Regardless I take active steps to improve my survival ability and to improve the resilience of my …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 4, 2024

Important Solar Flare Alert: A CME Double Whammy: An X7 on Wednesday and now a X9.1. Keep your electronics Faraday-protected for at least a few more days. And watch for auroras on Friday night and Saturday night. SpaceWeather.com posted this on Thursday: THE STRONGEST FLARE YET: Sunspot AR3842 exploded again today, producing the strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25 so far. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the X9.1-category blast: Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere and caused a deep shortwave blackout over Africa and the South Atlantic. Ham radio operators in the area may have …


Tools For The Next Generation

In this article, I’d like to emphasize the importance of tools that will be needed by our descendants. To begin, I’d like to stress the importance of buying quality tools. Don’t buy junk tools from Mainland China, often sold at places like Wal-Mart and Harbor Freight. I prefer tools made by companies like Snap-On, MAC, Matco, Irwin, Stahlwille (of Germany), Proto (called Plomb in the company’s early days), SK, Klein, Husky (pre-Taiwan), Cornwell, Kobalt (pre-China), Facom (of France), Worx, Fiskars (of Finland), Knipex, Ridgid, and Craftsman (pre-China). Sadly, many tool companies like Craftsman, Husky, Kobalt, and Stanley have moved part …


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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, a report on possible lower crude oil prices. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: Silver and gold prices have continued to be quite strong. When I checked on Thursday evening (Friday morning in Asia), Spot Gold was at $2,677.70 per Troy ounce, and Spot Silver was at $32.43. Wow!  The COMEX short sellers must be …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — October 3, 2024

On October 3, 1712, the Duke of Montrose issued a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor. — Today is the 31st anniversary of the Mogadishu, Somalia raid. 18 Americans were killed. The Somalis killed were unnamed and un-numbered, but estimates range from 315 to 2,000 KIAs. The events of October 3, 1993 were memorialized in the movie Black Hawk Down. — We are running a 3-week-long sale at Elk Creek Company.  Until October 11th, 2024, all of our blackpowder revolvers, all of our M1891 Argentine Mauser rifles, and all of our sporter rifles are deeply discounted.  Take a …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is 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. In today’s column, we look at the current dock workers strike. East and Gulf Coast Ports Strike, Stranding Billions in Trade Over at left-leaning CNBC: East and Gulf coast ports strike, …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — October 2, 2024

Solar Flare Update: An X7.1 category solar flare was detected on Tuesday.  It is unknown whether the flare’s CME will be a direct strike or a glancing blow to Earth.  The main effects are expected between Friday and Saturday, October 4th-5th. I recommend disconnecting antennas and putting all of your spare radios and other sensitive electronics into Faraday containers for at least a few days. — On October 2, 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier first visited the Iroquois settlement of Hochelaga. (Later named Montreal.) — October 2, 1835: The story of the “Come and Take It” flag began at the …


Writing Contest Judging Results (Round 114)

We’ve completed the judging for Round 114 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. First Prize goes to N.C., for Basic Sewing: Cloning Clothes. (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, posted August 9-11, 2024.) His prizes will include: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value), A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — Officials warn that EVs could catch fire if inundated with saltwater from Hurricane Helene. o  o  o A Patrick Feeney video interview with Tucker Carlson: Do This With Your Family and the Apocalypse Might Not Be So Bad. o  o  o News from Nanny State California: Newsom Signs Bill Banning Single-use Propane …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — October 1, 2024

On October 1, 1880, John Philip Sousa (pictured) became the new director of the U.S. Marine Corps Band. — On October  1, 331 BC, the army of Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. — Please keep the folks inside of Tropical Storm Helene’s devastation in your prayers.  We’d appreciate reading “After Action” reports from SurvivalBlog readers in the area. There are certainly some lessons to be learned. – JWR — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present the first entry for Round 115 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round …