Hi Jim; I stumbled onto the fascinating Low-Tech Magazine web site. With sections titled, “Ecotech myths,” “Obsolete technology,” and “Low-tech solutions,” there’s something for everyone! Really interesting stuff for anyone who wonders how a civilization can be built and run without electricity. Cheers! – Jason R.
I’ve had several readers ask me about the status of my upcoming novels. Here is the news, in brief: I submitted the manuscript for the first sequel to “Patriots” in July. Atria Books (a division of Simon & Schuster) plans to release it around October of 2011. It is currently being edited. OBTW, I had the chance to meet my editor, Emily Bestler, in person for the first time last month. She is a very skillful editor. After seeing how wonderfully she edited Glenn Beck’s new novel “The Overton Window“, I am convinced that she will do a great job …
It’s always a good idea to have a camera along. They serve many purposes, from documenting accidents and incidents, insurance documenation, recording activities, tracking disassembly and reassembly of things like cars, guns or even tents, research photos of things to study later, and even recreational shots. While modern phones can take images, the quality is certainly lacking due to iris size, and I prefer to leave the phone to its task of communicating. The Canon PowerShot A580 is another device that served me well in the World’s Largest Sandbox. The camera I had with me was old and inadequate, and …
Backyard Food Production Systems For a Backyard or Small Farm is a great video and useful resource. Not only is it based on a lot of research, but on more than a decade of home farming in central Texas, which is certainly one of the tougher environments in America to farm in. Very clearly narrated and demonstrated. It’s a little handheld and shaky at the beginning, which emphasized the small scale involved, but professionally filmed and edited after the intro. This is a farm for a family of four, run very efficiently and productively. It starts with a chapter on …
Jim, The lady who whose submission is in today’s blog referenced the book Joy of Cooking and you provided an Amazon link to the book. The praise for this book – and her quotes from the book – are without a doubt regarding earlier editions. Up until the 1980s or early 1990s The Joy of Cooking contained sections on food preservation, butchering rabbits and other game and a host of other “pioneer” kitchen skills. The current editions (and the last couple, for all I know) are severely dumbed-down with far less emphasis on these topics and more on things like …
No one will deny that self-empowerment comes from the additional accumulation of knowledge. Studying, research, and even just plain reading can be devastatingly powerful, if one possesses the willpower as well as knowing how to focus their information gathering. However, other forms of media do retain the potential as knowledgeable gold mines, provided they are constructed in such a manner as to instruct their audiences at least as effectively, if not more, than reading materials. As a blogger, podcaster, and YouTuber (among other things), I am, at least, moderately versed in written, audio, and video forms of media. I understand …
Dear Mr. Rawles, My mom gave me a copy of your novel “Patriots” a couple years ago for Christmas. I am married but because college debt and being unemployed for seven months before finding my next job my wife and I do not have much money, (BTW, after reading your book my wife and I saved every penny we could and are now debt free) I have been trying to stash away survival gear, beans, bullets and band-aids, and I have been looking for affordable survival books. In my search for inexpensive books I found out that I could download …
Hi Jim; I’d like to recommend a book to your readers. It’s a graphic novel titled “Safe Area Gorazde” by artist/journalist Joe Sacco. It’s about his experiences with the people of the city of Gorazde during the Bosnian War in the early 1990s. It’s blunt, the language at times is raw, and the artwork is extremely graphic at times as he catalogs the brutality of that time and what the people suffered when the front lines were often at their doorsteps. Though the graphic novel format makes it look like a comic book, it’s definitely not for kids. While much …
James Wesley: The movie Tomorrow When The War Began–a Red Dawn-style movie produced and set in Australia–is currently #1 in their box office reports. The story is based on a series of books that has been recommended reading in many middle schools. Currently no one is lined up for distribution rights in America, but after the last few days I’m sure there is a new interest by the money hungry studios. And the series of books is available on Amazon. Regards, – Justin M.
The Don’t Die Out There! Card Deck is one of the card decks that doubles as an information source, in this case, on disaster response. It’s printed on very sturdy plastic coated stock, about twice as heavy as typical decks, but the same overall thickness. It’s well organized, with each suit covering different areas–Diamonds: survival essentials, signals, navigation and shelters. Spades: situational assessment, evac techniques, water, fire and food. Hearts: First aid, environmental and medical concerns. Clubs: CPR, severe trauma and evacuation of the injured. The Aces serve as indexes, and Jokers as forewords. It’s a handy pocket survival book …
The manuscript for the first sequel to my novel “Patriots” is now at Simon & Schuster, and should be published in around 13 months. (Deo Volente.) My sincere thanks to the SurvivalBlog readers that shared their expertise. I’m now working on the second sequel. To give this upcoming novel the same authenticity as my first two, I would like to correspond via e-mail with: Anyone that has been stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky in the past five years. Anyone that has lived in or near Bradfordsville, Kentucky. Anyone that has lived in or near Muddy Pond, Tennessee. Anyone that has …
James, Thank you for your excellent blog. It is one of my daily read sites, no matter where in the world I am. The Hesperian Foundation just published their updated 2010 version of Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook by David Werner. It is 450 pages and has lots of excellent updated information. The download version is free, but I highly reccomend purchasing the paper copy for $22 USD The last I heard paper books are still EMP proof. It will be nice to have a useable reference, if and when the computer is fried! Best …
Hi, I just recently found your blog, and it’s really useful. I’ve recently become interested in self-sufficiency, and it’s a great resource. I wanted to share a book recommendation that I think might be interesting to your readers, a book series called The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It is a trilogy of young adult novels about a little girl who lives under a completely authoritarian state. The state requires ‘tributes’ from all 12 districts, children from age 12-18, one boy one girl. All are put in an arena to fight to the death, to show how much power the …
Mr. Rawles, I have been reading your blog, particularly the Economics and Investing section, daily for about a year. (I had been turned on to your blog site after reading your novel “Patriots“.) I believe that this free video would be interesting to your readers: The Secret of Oz. It is quite long but I have never seen the monetary system explained like this. For me, a lot of things make more sense taken in this light. I don’t think this information will change the fact that our current system is speeding toward a complete collapse but at least I …
This may sound like a children’s book that the tells the story a young native American girl, but don’t be fooled. TEOTWAWKI is very scary for mature adults, but is terrifying to children. When we TEOTWAWKI discuss related issues at our house, my wife and I always make sure that we have a private conversation between just the two of us. After we have sorted things out we will discuss it with our children in an appropriate tone and with as little alarmism as possible. Last week one of our conversations started out with my wife asking “What will the …