Category: Note

I recently spent an afternoon with The Memsahib at a COSTCO store. For our overseas readers: COSTCO is an American membership “warehouse” type grocery store chain that sells everything from canned hams to home computers. By the way, COSTCO is not to be confused with the Chinese shipping company, COSCO, although surely some COSCO goods end up in COSTCO stores. Just not to the same extent that they do at Wal-Mart. (Or, as my brother calls it: “Great Wal-of-China-Mart.”) We were at COSTCO primarily to stock up the Rawles Ranch on paper products, soap and cleaning supplies, and some staple …

Today we present the first article submitted for Round 9 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 9 will end on March …

The February “support our troops:” sale on copies of my novel “Patriots” has started off with a bang, with e-mailed reservations and PayPaled orders for more than a dozen copies on the very first day of the sale. I should mention that I’ve also received e-mails from two veterans who recently returned from The Big Sandbox. Both asked if they’d also be eligible for the special pricing. My reply: Yes, indeed! Just send a photocopy of your DD-214 showing that you served in OIF or OEF, or in Bosnia–along with the payment for your book ($12 + $3 postage) to: …

Congratulations to JLM, the winner of Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog writing contest. He has won a four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. JLM wrote the article “Gardens of the Future”, which was posted on January 26th. Additionally, honorable mention awards go to S.N. for his article “Horse Power, the Real McCoy” (posted January 12th) and to John in Central New York State for his article “Which Vehicle Will Work? Choices For Post -TEOTWAWKI Transport” (posted December 25th.) These two gents will each receive a complimentary autographed copy of the new expanded edition of my novel “Patriots”: Surviving …

For the entire month of February, I’m having a special “support our troops” sale on copies of the new expanded 33 chapter edition my novel “Patriots”. If you place an order directly with me, and you have us mail it to an APO or FPO address, then the price is just $12 per copy, plus $3 postage. (That is $10.99 off of the cover price–right near my wholesale cost.) OBTW, speaking of supporting our troops, be sure to visit the AnySoldier.com web site, and “do your bit.” Some young enlisted troops that are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan get no …

I’m planning on assembling a “Best of the Blog” hardcopy book in the next few weeks. The prospect of doing this manually is not appealing. Do any of you folks know of an existing “slurp” or “blog to book” software tool that is compatible with Movable Type that will allow me to automagically build RTF or MS-Word files from my blog posts? (My searches thusfar have been unsuccessful.) Thanks!

Living here in the hinterboonies, our daytime radio reception is pitiful, but our nighttime reception is fantastic. (The Rawles Ranch is in an isolated “electromagnetic quiet zone.”) To make up for the lack of daytime reception (since we get less than a half dozen daytime AM stations and no FM stations), I have turned to Internet radio for entertainment during the day, and shortwave radio listening at night. I am particularly fond of a listener-sponsored Internet streaming audio service called Folk Alley. Great stuff, albeit with a perceptible liberal slant. At least they don’t shy away from playing gospel bluegrass …

The first piece presented today is another article submitted for Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 8 will end …

Since SurvivalBlog is updated daily, please consider making it your web browser’s “home” (start-up) page. Thanks! The first article today is another articles submitted for Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I will again be sending out a few complimentary first edition copies (Huntington House edition) of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. …

I recently made some minor edits to my non-fiction book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation, and formally released it as the First Edition, through CafePress. I suppose that this change will make the first 100 copies that were sold (the ones marked “Limited Pre-Publication Edition”) a bit of a collector’s item. The cover price of the new edition is just $28. This book is a “print on demand” item, being sold only through Cafe Press.

Wow! We’ve surpassed 42 million hits and one million unique visits since SurvivalBlog was launched in August of 2005! We now have readers in more than 75 countries. Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a huge success. Please keep spreading the word. One of the best ways that you can do this is to paste a SurvivalBlog link logo or link text in your e-mail footer. Many thanks! Congratulations to our 1,000,000th visitor! (He e-mailed us a screen capture of the visit counter, to prove it.) His prize is two books: an autographed copy of my novel “Patriots” and an autographed …

Today we welcome our newest advertiser, Get Ready Industries. Please visit their web site and check out their very broad line of survival gear, which includes: three day kits, food storage packages, first aid/minor surgery kits, hand crank and solar radios/flashlights, first responder kits, wheat grinders, cast iron cookware, stoves, books and DVDs, NBC protection gear, night vision gear, and much more. You name it, they’ve got it! Please also visit our other paid advertisers in the scrolling right hand bar, and check out their products and services. One of the best ways that you can support SurvivalBlog is to …

There are now just nine days left for you to enter an article in Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I will again be sending out a few complimentary first edition copies (Huntington House edition) of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing …

I just noticed that SurvivalBlog is rapidly approaching the milestone of one million unique visits! To highlight this event, I’m offering a special prize to the one-millionth visitor. If you are fortunate enough to be the visitor that witnesses the SurvivalBlog unique visits counter (at the top of the right hand bar) roll over to exactly 1,000,000 visits then take a screen capture of the page and e-mail it to me. Your prize will be two books: an autographed copy of my novel “Patriots” and an autogrpahed copy of my non-fiction book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation. It warmed up …

We now offer a couple of additional payment options for book orders and for 10 Cent Challenge subscriptions: both AlertPay and GearPay. (We prefer AlertPay or GearPay because they don’t share PayPal’s anti-gun political agenda.) In my experience, AlertPay has a frustratingly labyrinthine account set-up procedure, but GearPay seems much quicker and easier to set up. Our AlertPay address is: rawles@usa.net Our GearPay address is: rawles@usa.net Our PayPal address is: rawles@earthlink.net