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.

A snippet from Mark B.:

“I’ve mentioned before about Costco selliing Kirkland canned roast beef.  It is pre-cooked, so you could eat it right out of the can, if’n you wanted to.  Has some sodium phosphates.
If you purchased it only for rainy days, (which seem more and more likely lately)  you should relax some of your hesitation on chemicals in your food.  You don’t need to be organic at that point.
There are four 12-ounce cans, or 3 pounds total, for $12.97.  So about $4.33 per pound.  Already canned.  “Best-by” date about 2 years out, but it should last 10 years or so and be good.
I really can’t buy the meat alone for that price, not counting the cost of canning jars and the labor involved in cooking it.
I opened a can tonight for dinner.  Certainly cooked well enough.  I liked more salt than it had.  Tasty enough.  More than plenty for the two of us.  Don’t need a can opener.  A bargain.”

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‘Next Pandemic’ Will Be the ‘Big One,’ Deadliest Known to Humanity, Scientists Warn.

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Elizabeth Warren wants to restrict ammo sales: House and Senate Democrats Are Coming After Your Ammunition Now. (Thanks to Peter for the link.)

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — November 7, 2023

On November 7, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge connecting the Olympic Peninsula with Tacoma, Washington, broke up in a wind of about 42 miles (67 km) per hour.  The footage of the collapse became iconic.

November 7th is the anniversary of the death of actor Steve McQueen (born March 24, 1930, died November 7, 1980)

Mark Dice’s new nonfiction book The War on Conservatives was released today. Look for it at your favorite online bookseller. (Note: Given the leftist politics and the cutthroat business practices of Amazon.com, I prefer shopping through Books-A-Million.)

We are seeking entries for Round 109 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $850,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 109 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.



Transformative Tech: The AR, The Glock, and The Smartphone

In this brief essay, I’ll be discussing three relatively new technologies that have been nearly as transformative to modern society as Gutenberg’s 1448 invention of the movable type printing press.

The AR

The Armalite Rifle (AR) family of selective fire and semi-auto rifles, pistols, and shotguns have become ubiquitous in the early 21st Century. They have been produced for the U.S. civilian market since 1959. There are an estimated two million new ARs produced each year for private use by American families. There are now roughly 20 million in residential closets and gun safes. Many of those ARs have changed hands — often multiple times. So it would be just about impossible to track down even half of them if they were ever banned.  Civilian ownership of ARs keeps Americans roughly on par with contemporary infantrymen. This fulfills the intent of our Founding Fathers when they wrote the Second Amendment.  They wanted us to be on an equal footing with “the king’s army”, and the AR has helped keep us there.

The M16/M4 and its civilian equivalents (such as the AR-15 and M4) come from the factory with a 30-round magazine. That is also the standard issue magazine for all branches of the U.S. military. So “30” is the answer when someone asks what is a standard capacity rifle magazine. That is NOT high capacity. And, in fact, anything less than 30 rounds should properly be termed a reduced-capacity magazine.Continue reading“Transformative Tech: The AR, The Glock, and The Smartphone”



SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements 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. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on a Mountain Lion close call.  (See the Idaho section.)

Region-Wide

How does El Niño affect the Northwest?

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Video Forecast: Current Winter 2023-2024 Prediction For the Inland Northwest: Overall WARMER & DRY!

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U.S. drafts plan to bring grizzly bears back to Washington’s North Cascades.

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Events & Activities: Inland Northwest Winter Guide 2022/2023.

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Verizon customers experiencing service issues across Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

Idaho

A Must-Watch Video: Mountain Lion Stalks Elk Hunter in Idaho — Saved By Warning Shots From a Glock 27JWR’s Comment:  Always carry at least a handgun whenever you step off of your porch!  As most SurvivalBlog readers know, a Glock 27 is chambered in .40 S&W. Lily and I habitually carry .45 ACP Glock Model 30 pistols with 13-round Glock 21 magazines. Yes, a .44 Magnum would be more effective, but that would be heavy enough that we’d likely get out of the habit of daily carry.  A lighter gun that is always on your hip beats a heavy one that gets left at home. Your mileage may vary…

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Mother, son charged with kidnapping after police say they took a teenager to Oregon for an abortion.

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One person found dead after tree falls on car in Coeur d’Alene.

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Judge rules the FBI must turn over DNA records in Bryan Kohberger murder case.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare… The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.” – Alexander Hamilton



Preparedness Notes for Monday — November 6, 2023

On Novermber 6, 1888, Benjamin Harrison of the Republican Party was elected U.S. president by an electoral majority despite losing the popular vote by more than 90,000 to his Democratic opponent, Grover Cleveland.

Today in 1977, the Toccoa Falls Dam in Georgia gave way and 39 people died in the resulting flood. The dam was an earthen dam constructed across a canyon in 1887 and had a 55-acre lake that was 180 feet deep. The dam had recently been inspected and approved, but in the early morning hours, it gave way. Water flooded down the canyon at speeds approaching 120 mph. Below, residents of the Christian and Missionary Alliance College had no time to evacuate as the small community was wiped out.

November 6, is the anniversary of the day that B-24 Liberator co-pilot Al Millspaugh was shot down over Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in 1944. I got to know Al at some John Birch Society chapter meetings back in the late 1970s. Hearing his stories was fascinating. My novel Liberators is in part dedicated to Al Millspaugh. He is still alive and kicking and is quite a guy.

We are still in need of entries for Round 109 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $850,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 109 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

There are several new listings over at SurvivalRealty.com. My eldest son Jonathan is now running that site as a full-time occupation, so look for a lot more listings to be added, in the weeks to come. When browsing the site recently, this listing jumped out at me: Ultimate New Zealand SHTF Property.

Today’s feature article was penned by Field Gear Editor Emeritus, Pat Cascio. He has been in poor health, so he would appreciate your prayers.



Springfield Armory Echelon Pistol, by Pat Cascio

If memory serves me correctly, I purchased my first Glock in 1987. This was an early-production Glock 17 – the only handgun model that Glock had yet produced, back then. It was a 17-shot 9mm pistol and the frame was made out of “plastic” – today we call it “polymer” instead. I felt sure that the gun wouldn’t last, after a lot of shooting. I was wrong!

Since owning that first Glock, I’ve probably owned almost every model they produced over the years, and I still own more Glocks than any one person should…guess I’m a Glock-a-holic.

A long, long time ago, I made a decision, that when the SHTF, if I were limited to owning just one handgun (oh no!) it would be a Glock 19, a compact 9mm handgun that held 15 rounds of ammo – and of course some 33-round extended magazines, for reloads. This was my number one handgun, and needless to say, I’ve carried a Glock 19 for many years – never had any issues with it, either. Coming in a close second would be the SIG Sauer M17 – and there too, my sample has worked without any issues.

Well, considering the above, this all has changed, with the introduction of the 9mm Springfield Armory Echelon. I didn’t believe that any handgun would take the place of my Glock 19 – or the Model 17 or similar models as my End of the World handgun, and I had to think long and hard about this.Continue reading“Springfield Armory Echelon Pistol, by Pat Cascio”



Recipe of the Week:  Huckleberry Oatmeal

The following recipe for Huckleberry Oatmeal is from SurvivalBlog reader L.K.. She says that huckleberries are best, but substituting blueberries will suffice:

Ingredients
  • Huckleberries (fresh or frozen). The second choice is Blueberries.
  • Old Fashioned rolled oats. (Don’t use instant oats or steel-cut oats)
  • Butter
  • Milk
  • Water
  • Brown sugar
  • Cinnamon
  • Allspice
  • Salt
  • Vanilla extract
  • Cream or whole milk.
Directions
  1. Briefly toast the oats in butter until fragrant. This adds to the flavor.
  2. Add water and stir! Keep stirring throughout the cooking time.
  3. Smush the blueberries with the back of a spoon, as you stir. The more berries you smush up, the oats become progressively more purplish-colored.
  4. Optionally, add brown sugar, spices, and vanilla extract, to suit your taste.
SERVING

Serve with cream or whole milk.  No need to add syrup. With the brown sugar, this will be plenty sweet, as is.

Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly 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!



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, we look at lumber prices. (See the Commodities section.)

Precious Metals:

Buy Gold Now Or Wait?

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At Gold-Eagle.com: Gold Stocks Lagging.

Economy & Finance:

From Bloomberg: Fed Signals Yield Rise Reduces Need to Hike, But Door Still Open.

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The fuse on America’s debt bomb just got shorter.

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Reader C.B. flagged this sign of the times: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Announces Move to Miami From Seattle.

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From the globalist IMF: Higher-for-Longer Interest Rate Environment is Squeezing More Borrowers.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I think, then, that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything that ever before existed in the world; our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain for an expression that will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it; the old words despotism and tyranny are inappropriate: the thing itself is new, and since I cannot name, I must attempt to define it.

I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — November 5, 2023

On this day, King James learned about the Gunpowder Plot. Hence we have Guy Fawkes Day, celebrated with fireworks.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”

Also on this day, 300 Santee Sioux were sentenced to hang.

On November 5th, 2009 Army Major Nidal Hassan killed 13 people at Fort Hood. He shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he opened fire. But predictably, the mainstream media cited “no known motive” for the terror attack.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 109 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. 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.
  2. 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),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  3. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC.
  4. Montana Survival Seed is providing a $225 gift code for any items on its website, including organic non-GMO seeds, fossils, 1812-1964 US silver, jewelry, botany books, and Montana beeswax.
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A $300 gift certificate from Good2Goco.com, good for any of their products: Home freeze dryers, pressure canners, Country Living grain mills, Emergency Essentials foods, and much more.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

More than $850,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 109 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.



Worth Reversal, by 3AD Scout

Being a serious preparedness-minded individual, I often look at venues that offer used or previously owned items for sale. These venues could be flea markets, thrift stores, antique stores, yard or garage sales, auctions, or online sites like Craigslist.

It never ceases to amaze me the items that are offered for sale at these venues. When I go to these venues, I have prepping in mind and am looking for items to help make me and my family better prepared. Often, I have to wade through piles of, in my opinion, useless junk. What is useless junk in my book? The general definition is, items that serve no purpose in helping one survive or recover from a disaster. But that is just my take on things. So old VHS tapes, collectible cards, ornate glass, and Star Wars toy figures all fall into useless junk for me.

I was at an Amish estate auction a while back and I realized that there is a big difference between an “Amish” Auction (defined as an auction where the property up for sale is from an Amish person and the vast majority of those in attendance are Amish) and an “English” auction (defined as an auction where the property for sale is from a non-Amish person and those in attendance are overwhelmingly non-Amish). About a month ago I was at a non-Amish estate sale and canning jars were going for about $2 a box, with most boxes having over a dozen jars in them. At the Amish auction I recently went to, one dozen used canning jars were being sold for $9. Granted that is still a good savings but compared to the non-Amish auction they are extremely high. To be fair Amish tend to pay higher prices at auctions since they don’t have the ability to order online or drive around shopping and transportation adds to the cost of buying things. But this diametrically opposite valuation of certain things does have a “survival” connotation.Continue reading“Worth Reversal, by 3AD Scout”



JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

Meme Text:

Sam Bankman Fried Was Found Guilty of All Seven Fraud Charges

His List of Political Contributions Will Be Kept in a Very Safe Place, Right Alongside Jeffrey Epstein’s Client List

 News Links:

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.



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him,

Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:

And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.

And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?

They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.

But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” – Mark 10:32-38 (KJV