Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on the Tamara K.’s View From The Porch blog. (See the Web Pages & Blogs section.)
Books:
Revolver, by Jim Rasebenrger. A fascinating biography of Samuel Colt. It was just published this year. My thanks to Conor, for sending me a copy.
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Reader Jim L. suggested this: Wilding: Returning Nature to our Farm by Isabella Tree
and also this:
Grocery Story by Jon Steinman
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Instructional Videos & Vlogs:
Warrior Poet Society: Get Home Bag — Major Update
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Video: Hidden Rooms and Secret Furniture
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Trent Palmer: Wife wanted chickens… So I built a chicken palace. JWR’s Comment: Trent did this a bit “gold-plated”, but there are some good design ideas.
Web Pages & Blogs:
A lot of this advice will already be familiar to SurvivalBlog readers: Nolte: Your Handy-Dandy Survival Guide to Life Under Social Justice Mob Rule.
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Billed as: “Books, Bike, and Boomstocks”, Indianapolis-based Tamara K.’s long-running blog View From The Porch also offers lots about both film and digital photography. And there are plenty of of critiques of firearms trainers, assorted witticisms, occasional house cat stories, comments on cars of all vintages, and some quite pointed observations on American society. She is also a contributor to Shooting Illustrated and the USCCA’s Concealed Carry magazine. Tam has been blogging since August of 2005, which coincidentally is when I started SurvivalBlog. She correctly observes: “Blog Years are like Dog Years”, so Tam is considered an American blogging Old Timer. The photo of Tamara at the top of this column is re-posted with permission. Tam notes: “Photo by Pat Rogers, RIP, [of me] shooting ‘Filthy 14’ in a class of his on the Boone County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department range.”
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This duo-written blog–which I found with a link from Tamara–is posted a bit sporadically, but it is quite good: Counter Jockey Chronicles. One of the blog’s two authors, “Pudge”, recently contributed an article to SurvivalBlog that you may recall. Here is a snippet from his review of the movie The Highwaymen:
“Frank Hamer was partial to a Colt Single Action that he called “Old Lucky” and was also a fan of the Colt Government Model in Super .38 Automatic. Now, the .38 Super is what John Browning said the 1911 Government Model ought to have been chambered in.
Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed in said movie was the fact that it shows the FBI to be, well, incompetent.
If you deep dive into the guys that really brought down the infamous gangsters, they were old timey lawmen. Even if they wore a Justice Department badge. Hoover was an idiot. And well, that seems to still be the case for the Federal Bureau of Idiots.”
Gear & Grub:
I’ve heard that the new fashion statement is wearing Hawaiian shirts, when toting an AR. (This is actually a quick “friend-from-foe” identifier.)
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GunMag Warehouse (one of our affiliate advertisers) is now running an exclusive offer for ETS red magazines. (Just type “ETS Red” in their search box.) A quick way to distinguish mags that are loaded with specialty ammo — such as tracers, or “less lethal.”
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A real bargain: eHome A2Z Wire Wheel Steel Brushes (40 Pieces!) — But note that these are imported from China.
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Snapware Airtight Plastic Food Storage Container (40-Cup, BPA Free, Meal Prep, Leak-Proof, Microwave, Freezer and Dishwasher Safe. These are made in USA.
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Glad Zipper Food Storage Plastic Bags – Quart – 50 Count
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After a couple of months of shortages, these are back in stock: Mountain House Classic Bucket
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Ready Reserve Foods Buttermilk Pancake Mix Iin a #10 Sized Can
Make a Suggestion
Want to suggest Recommendations of your own? Then please send them to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
Loved the “Handy Dandy Survival Guide…….” you linked to! Maybe the best way to figure out if the town you are considering moving to might be a good spot for you is to find out if they have hosted a “Drag Queen Story Hour” for the kids at the library? 😉
I have been wearing the Hawaii style shirts in the summer for well over a decade. I didn’t know it was a National trend. I also wear long sleeve flannel in the winter, is that also a trend? The funniest part? My wife found the shirt advertised on the link at a Goodwill for $5, tag still on it! Gotta love a thrifty shopper.
The Hawaiian shirt thing has been around for awhile. But it’s rumored to be co-opted by the C_A to try to do a false flag, incite violence.
The shirt illustrated on Amazon looks very trim-cut. I want shirts that are long and wide enough for CC. Suggestions?
When out in the community (rural or suburban- I don’t do city anymore- too many run-ins with knuckleheads) I like rugby shirts a little large in cool weather with cargo pants (LAPD gear, etc). In hot weather try baseball/football/hockey jerseys/sweaters (usually on sale at Sam’s/WalMart or even resale shops, especially when a player gets traded) with cargo shorts (Wrangler, etc). They’re very non-threatening, casual, usually worn out and loose fitting, and they conceal a lot of stuff. I buy the shorts/pants a size bigger = 1-2″ at waist, which allows room for a holster and the duty belt to cinch it up snug. You can even buy jerseys of your local High School team which will bend into the community well. Winter is easy – Ranch coats etc. On the farm we all have matching ACU’s for just in case.
Hmm, my wife and I were in hawaii some yrs ago and I wanted to buy a Magnum P. I. shirt and cap and my wife said ” absolutely not ” no reason given. Oh well, I still have a shirt from panama, does that count ?
I’ve read that the colorful Hawaiian shirts are the uniform of a fairly new right wing wannabe
militia group who call themselves “The Boogaloo Boys”.
The group apparently uses the word Boogaloo to mean civil war.
Yup.
Bulletins have been sent to PD’s to be on the lookout for it. Them… us?
I’m taking it serious enough to not wear any of mine for a bit. (I have quite the collection. Including an original magnum p i one).
I’d rather not get targeted.
I have always liked Hawaiian shirts but don’t yet have any. My Dad had one that I believe he picked up in Hawaii on his way back home after the war in the Pacific ended. I DO have a Detroit Tigers hat which I bought at a shop down the street from Tiger Stadium when I went to see a game there. It happened to be Alan Trammell’s last game.
So I looked up the “Boogaloo Boys (or Bois, both seem to apply). Found an article on Bellingcat (never trust these folks they are of very questionable credibility)
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-what-you-think/
The article is somewhat schizophrenic in it’s portrayal of the “Boogaloo movement”. They are either rightwing racists, leftwing racists, or not really racist at all, attracting people of all sizes shapes and colors. They are either pro government or anti government. They are aligned with BLM or anti BLM. AntiFA was never mentioned.
My take: The Boogaloo movement reads like a DHS, FBI, or BATFE front group. They are attempting to bring out all the crazies to get the non thinking to call for blanket gun confiscation. They, the Govt, are hoping for a spark, a large public incident, featuring some Hawaiian shirt wearing nutbag opening fire on a relatively peaceful crowd. What is being missed is that it is a very specific Hawaiian shirt, with a very specific design. Anyone wearing a different designed Hawaiian shirt is basically just a clinger, a wanna-be.
As always stay away from large crowds, especially at a pro gun rally, and don’t wear an Hawaiian shirt while carrying. This situation just stinks of a setup. There are folks within our government who would relish the thought of starting Civil War 2.0, while making it look as though it’s the citizens who started it.
Stay safe, think critically my friends.
As an aside: Look up Boogaloo Boys and Boogaloo Bois (DuckDuckGo). The Urban Dictionary has directly opposing definitions for the two terms. Talk about schizophrenic!
Alfie, maybe you should have appealed to your wife with the Magnum short-shorts and worked up to the shirt and hat. Just saying…
Here’s a quote, and a good reading recommendation… Many among us are very familiar with this title, but there may be those who are not!
An especially relevant quote in these times: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell in the Title “1984”
Also… The US Special Forces Unconventional Warfare Manual from 2010
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/playbook-step/
From Daisy Luther’s article: “While it might seem like everything that is happening is just chaotically bouncing from one shocking event to the next, that assessment couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a playbook – a literal playbook – and we’re being manipulated toward the endgame that does not benefit the American people.”
Trent Palmer is much younger than most of SB readers. His toys are beyond my means at his age. His blog on E-bikes has me thinking. If you read his blog he has one thing that has taken me a lifetime to acquire and he comes out on top with his barter/trading. I enjoy his blog
Jim ,,,your opening remarks ,,,,you are not alone in your thinking , thank you ,,,,
Shalom,,,
Ditto, right on point JWR!
Suggestion:
Everyone wear Hawaiian shirts, everywhere in public.
Seeing 10 or 20 in a crowd would be very comforting to me.
I used to live in Hawaii. Have a bunch of Hawaiian shirts. Never would have thought that they were a sign of a political affiliation. Includes a couple of designs that were featured on Magnum P.I. I guess I need to only wear them at home and not where I want to be The Grey Man. For that I will stick to my 5.11 polo shirts that work used to issue.
When I was still on the PD and in the Detective Bureau, the Det/Sgt started wearing a Hawaiian shirt every Friday in the summer, since we didn’t have to wear ties from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Eventually the rest of us started doing it, and it caught on with the records staff and eventually even the Town Supervisor (NY’s version of a mayor for towns)! When a new Chief was made, who was a good friend of mine and hated the shirts, he traded us never having to wear ties year round (unless going to court, meetings, etc.) for not wearing the Hawaiian shirts in the summer.
The shirts actually helped get a bank robber to confess. This rocket scientist wore the same clothes (loud “street” clothes) to rob a bank in town for the second time in 2 weeks. They bank clerks saw him coming and locked the doors. He got caught in the next town over after a chase and as he had robbed numerous banks, multiple agencies showed up to interview him, State Police, FBI, and every small town job in the area. He wasn’t talking to anyone until my partner and the Det/Sgt show up. It being a Friday they were appropriately adorned in their Hawaiian shirts. All the other cops were laughing at them. They walked into the interview room and the perp laughs and says, “who are you guys, Hawaii 5-0?!” And after a few minutes of banter he proceeds to give up our bank robberies as well as the others. Naturally, I was on vacation and missed all the fun…
Re: Frank Hamer, I belive he was not toting a Dept of Justice badge when he killed Bonnie and Clyde but was technically a Texas Highway Patrolman and Texas Prison Investigator at that time.
Off topic recommendation alert. Maybe I should put on a Hawaiian shirt while I write this.
I know a fella who makes wine and his black currant ferment is great. He gave a couple black currant bushes. I am researching big time, eagerly lapping up information. I have tries and failed with blueberries and elderberries. Let’s see if these babies survive my clumsiness. Here is on site: https://www.quickcrop.ie/learning/plant/blackcurrant
There are many more I can recommend.
Carry on in grace
Well, if the Hawaiian shirt look has been co-opted, you guys could all switch to Mexican wedding shirts. Same fit, different look.
Your opening remarks, not only are so true, I wish I had that level of communication skills.
I’m just a bit concerned with guys becoming fashion critics. I have a whole closet full of these shirts, been wearing them for 30 years (and carrying) and will continue to wear them and don’t care who doesn’t like it. They have busy patterns that break up an outline, are nice in hot weather, and if you buy two sizes larger than you need, can hide two bazookas and a basket of ammo.