Fire-Fast Trekker Fire Starter, by Thomas Christianson

“As the twilight drew on, [the dog’s] eager yearning for the fire mastered it, and with a great lifting and shifting of forefeet, it whined softly, then flattened its ears down in anticipation of being chidden by the man. But the man remained silent. . . . [The dog] caught the scent of death.” (Jack London, “To Build a Fire”).

Fire is important. It is so important that I recommend carrying at least three different tools for starting a fire while in the field. I recommend that one of these tools be a ferrocerium (ferro) rod.

The Fire-Fast Trekker Fire Starter elevates the basic ferro rod concept to a new level. The Austrian-made ferro rod provides a heavier shower of sparks than the typical Chinese-made rod. The ferro rod component of the Trekker is three inches long and 0.38 inches thick. The ferro rod is integrated with a magnesium rod in order to provide tinder if necessary. The magnesium rod component is three inches long and 0.5 inches thick.

The padauk wood handle provides still another potential source of tinder. It will ignite even after being immersed in water. The handle component is 3.38 inches long and between 1 and 1.25 inches thick.

I found the Trekker to be an extremely effective fire starter in my testing. I highly recommend it.Continue reading“Fire-Fast Trekker Fire Starter, by Thomas Christianson”

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map that shows U.S. counties by the number of weeks experiencing extreme drought, as of mid-July, 2026. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.

July 2026 Drought Map

 

 

 

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If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name — or pen name —  if you’d like. Many Thanks! –  JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation, under your copyright or uncopyrighted in the public domain. Thanks! – JWR

Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

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, Data Center Power Demand.

Normalizing Martial Law in America

Reader Mark in Florida recommended this article: The Great Normalization (Nobody Declared Martial Law… Yet America Began Looking Like It Anyway)

Data Centers’ Demand is Raising Power Prices

In The NYT: Data Centers to Add Billions in Power Costs in 13 States. “A power auction conducted by a giant grid operator is expected to add $6.3 billion in additional charges to consumers and businesses because of electricity needs of data centers.” JWR’s Comment: What most people don’t realize is that most energy auctions are Reverse Auctions.

China’s Newest AI Model Triggers “Code Red” for American AI

A report at Liberty Daily: China’s Newest AI Model Triggers “Code Red” for American AI. JWR’s Comment: The clamor for “competitiveness” may make an AI takeover much more likely.Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our 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.

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First up, over at The Washington Post: The death of the stick shift is almost here. “Driving a manual vehicle is a lost art. Hopes of a revival have fallen flat. With the rise of EVs and autonomous vehicles, only a few die-hards are holding on.”

o  o  o

House passes Trump’s plan to make daylight saving time permanent. JWR’s Comment: Probably not so sure and speedy in the Senate

o  o  o

Tom Christianson spotted this: What’s the oldest weapon in the world?

o  o  o

Simon in England sent this: A Cold War bunker gets a luxury makeover as ‘doomsday’ condos.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

REDOUBT NEWS LINKS

This weekly column features media from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho,   Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest.

 

Send Your Media Links

Please send your links to media from the American Redoubt region to JWR. Any photos that are posted or re-posted must be uncopyrighted. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.

Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I made a gun show trip last weekend to Butte, Montana. I rented five tables there, where I squeezed in about 80% of my Elk Creek Company inventory. I sent a lot of buyers home happy with their newly-acquired pre-1899 treasures. Not surprisingly, most of my sales at the show were handguns, because all of our pistol and revolver inventory is presently on sale. (That sale ends tonight.)

Just across the aisle from me at the gun show were the tables of Mike Keck, the proprietor of Wilderness Survival Systems. He assembles some top-quality yet reasonably priced field medical kits. I was so impressed with their design that I bought two of them.  Mike also stocks Mora knives from Sweden, firestarters, backpacks, compasses, and a variety of other field gear.  Take a look at his site, and you’ll see the quality.

Our family had great fun picking huckleberries and serviceberries (saskatoons) in the past week. Because I was traveling,  Lily did more picking than I did. Lily will fill you in on the details, in her part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week: 

The latest meme created by JWR:

Huckleberries Meme

Meme Text:

I Voted…  But It Was For Huckleberries

Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks!

Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.

Preparedness Notes — July 14, 2026

Pictured above is the homestead of a SurvivalBlog reader in northern Indiana. This anonymous reader has been developing his homestead since 1984.  The pictured well pump is a reliable Bison Pump that is popular with preppers and homesteaders..

This Week in History

On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission was launched, carrying the first men to land on Earth’s moon.

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July 14th is the birthday of Colonel Einar A. Malmstrom. He was born in 1907 and died August 21, 1954 near Great Falls, Montana, in the crash of a T-33 jet. He was a decorated Air Force pilot, a Luft Stalag POW survivor, and test pilot. Malmstrom AFB was one of the settings for my novel Founders. (The base was named in his memory.)

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July 19th was coincidentally the birthday of handgun designers Samuel Colt (born 1814) and Gaston Glock. (Glock was born in 1929 and passed away in December, 2023.)

Events & Miscellany

In honor of the birthdays of both Samuel Colt and Gaston Glock, I am running a special sale at Elk Creek Company. All of our pistol and revolver prices have been reduced, and I’ll include the bonus of an autographed paperback of an early printing my novel Patriots with the first 5 orders. The sale begins today (Tuesday, July 14th, 2026) and will end at 9 PM Pacific Time, on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026.

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I’ll have at least three tables at the Butte, Montana Gun Show on July 17-18-19, 2026, at the Silver Bow County Civic Center Annex.  I’ll have more than 80% of the Elk Creek Company inventory  with me. If you have any of my books that you’d like me to autograph, then feel free to bring them along.  The show opens at 1 PM on Friday, and 9 AM on Saturday.

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A reminder:  All writing contest prize Elk Creek Company purchase credits will expire on December 31st, 2026.  They are good for the purchase of any pre-1899 gun or any blackpowder gun.

Precision Workshop Practices, by Grandpappy

We all have should have a place where we can repair, build, or maintain our equipment and appliances. This is a workshop space for our projects, from the simplest like building a simple tool, to the most complex like rebuilding the engine of a classic car. The space needed can range from a small corner of your garage to a complete workshop facility for a fabrication or repair hobby or even a small business.

After forty-five years around engines and tools, I have come to the conclusion that every man needs his own workspace where he can develop his hobbies and train his sons and daughters in basic home and car maintenance.Continue reading“Precision Workshop Practices, by Grandpappy”

Recipe of the Week:

The following recipe for Basic Mexican Rice is from SurvivalBlog reader Joanna E. She mentioned:  “It is important to have several ways to prepare stored rice, to prevent Food Fatigue.”

Ingredients
  • 2 cups white rice
  • 3 T. olive oil
  • 3 c. water or chicken broth
  • 2 T. tomato paste (or more to suit your taste)
  • 2 cloves of garlic, pressed (or less, to suit your taste)
  • 1/2 t. salt (or more, to suit your taste)

Optional Ingredients (For a more elaborate and nutritionally-complete rice dish):

1/2 – 1 tsp. cumin  (Add during simmering.)

One cup of fully-rehdrated or canned beans, drained.  (Typically, pinto beans or black beans.)

1 T. chillie powder

Canned green chillies

1/2 cup of corn off the cob

1/2 cup of salsa

1 can of Ro-Tel tomatoes

Chopped onion (quantity to suit your taste.)

A bit of chopped cilantro (fresh or dried)

Sliced black olives

Directions

In a 10″ skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the rice and mix until slightly browned. Be careful to not burn the rice.

Add the water (or chicken broth), tomato paste, salt, and garlic. Stir until the tomato paste is dissolved, then add any or all of the additional ingredients. Bring mixture to a simmer and cover with a well-fitting lid.

Continue cooking for 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked but not mushy.

SERVING

Optionally, garnish your Mexican rice dish with a dollop of sour cream and/or with some grated cheddar cheese just before serving. Serve this dish hot.

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Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven recipes, slow cooker recipes, and any recipes that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map that shows the population density of Africa and Madagascar. Take note of the dark areas (mostly deserts) and the trace of the Nile river valley and delta. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.

Population Density of Africa

 

 

 

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If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name — or pen name —  if you’d like. Many Thanks! –  JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation, under your copyright or uncopyrighted in the public domain. Thanks! – JWR

Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

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, more hacking vulnerabilities.

What Happens if China Hacks the US Water Supply?

SurvivalBlog staffer Tom Christianson suggested this article, at Wired: What Happens if China Hacks the US Water Supply? I Went to a Secret War Game to Find Out.  (The public domain photo above of a fountain near the Los Angeles City Hall was taken by  Fresno photographer “prayitno”.)

2026 Data Breaches: Cybersecurity Incidents

Over at the PKWare site: 2026 Data Breaches: Cybersecurity Incidents Explained.

Municipal Utilities at High Risk of Cyber Attacks

This article by Jason Miller was published by Bitlyft, late last year: Cyber Attacks on Utilities: Why Municipal Utilities Are at High Risk.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”