“You talk to the farmers, the ranchers, our small community bankers, and boy, one of the Number One issues is the regulations coming out of Washington.” – Senator Steve Daines of Montana
“You talk to the farmers, the ranchers, our small community bankers, and boy, one of the Number One issues is the regulations coming out of Washington.” – Senator Steve Daines of Montana
On October 2, 1957, the British-American war classic The Bridge on the River Kwai had its world premiere, and it later won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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On October 2, 2002, the Beltway sniper attacks began. This was a series of coordinated sniper attacks that occurred in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The attacks lasted three weeks and resulted in the killing of 10 people.
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Today’s feature article is a review penned by Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.
The new MTM Case-Gard ACDC30 Divided Ammo Crate is a sturdy, stackable, moisture-resistant solution for ammo storage and similar tasks. It provides as much ammo storage space as four standard .30 caliber ammo cans.
With a price at the time of this writing of $27.98 from www.mtmcase-gard.com, it was significantly less expensive than the $44.76 that four of MTM’s .30 caliber cans would cost (they currently run $11.19 each.)
Fully loaded, the ACDC30 would be a bit heavy for field use, but it provides an excellent solution for home ammo storage. I highly recommend it for that purpose.
I like MTM products. I have one of their pistol rests, a pistol case, a .50 caliber-sized ammo can, and two shotshell cases.
The shotshell cases are in a pattern that MTM no longer makes. I inherited them from my father, who purchased them almost 50 years ago now. Since MTM Case-Gard was started in 1968, that would make the shotshell cases one of the company’s earlier products. The cases have stood up well to the test of time, and continue to function well to this day.
Based on the good performance that I have experienced with my other MTM products, I was interested when I heard that they were releasing a new ammo crate. I asked MTM if they could provide a sample for testing and evaluation, and they were kind enough to agree. Two days later, the crate arrived from Dayton, Ohio via UPS ground.Continue reading“MTM Case-Gard ACDC30 Divided Ammo Crate, by Thomas Christianson”
The following recipe for Simple Honey-Glazed Chicken Bites is from SurvivalBlog reader N.D..
Serve this hot, over a bed of your choice of rice.
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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!
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, news of BRICS countries dumping U.S. Treasuries. (See the Economy & Finance section.)
Costco says its 1-ounce gold bars are real and have been selling out in hours.
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Spot silver and gold both dipped sharply, over the weekend. This is another buying opportunity, for those of you who stack bullion coins.
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A Kitco.com editorial, from Neils Christensen: Gold’s selloff doesn’t change the long-term bullish outlook – Saxo Bank.
$18,900,000,000 in US Treasuries Dumped by BRICS Members China, Brazil, India and UAE in One Month. JWR’s Comments: If all of the BRICS nations consistently stop rolling over their US Treasury paper in the next three years, then we could witness a veritable sea change in the global currency regime. Jerome Powell must be worried. To be ready for any Dollar chaos, stick with the sage advice: diversify into precious metals.
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House Passes CR Bill Without Ukraine Funding to Potentially Avoid ‘Government Shutdown’.
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Next, over at Zero Hedge: Credit Risk Heightens As Equity Gamma Flips Negative.
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“If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them… ‘Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ’em all in,’ I would have done it.” – The Late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) of California
On October 1, 1936, Francisco Franco became head of the new Nationalist regime of Spain at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His dictatorial reign lasted until his death in 1975.
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On October 1, 1553, with her coronation, Mary I became the first queen to rule England in her own right; she was later nicknamed “Bloody Mary” because of her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in the country.
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Today we present the first entry for Round 109 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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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.
We’ve completed the judging for Round 108 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The judging was particularly difficult for this round, because there were so many great articles. Round 108 began on August 1st and ended on September 30, 2023. (The contest is run in rounds that each last two months.) The prize-winning writers for Round 108 are:
First Prize goes to Reelfisherman, for: Vintage Car Repair Part 1 and Part 2, posted on August 29 and 30, 2023. He will receive the following prizes:
Second Prize goes to J.M. for A Local Disaster Network, posted September 5-9, 2023, (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.) He will receive the following prizes:
Third Prize goes to Lodge Pole, for Homesteading: A Trapper’s Perspective, posted September 19-22, 2023. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3., and Part 4.) He will receive the following prizes:
Each Honorable Mention Prize winner has been awarded a transferable and accruable $100 FRN purchase credit toward the purchase of any antique or percussion replica gun from Elk Creek Company.
Honorable Mention Prizes go to the writers of these 15 articles:
Round 109 ends on November 30, 2023, so get busy writing!
Lack of sanitation has killed more people than wars, so while bullets may be useful, outhouses may be more important! Can you dig a hole and construct a simple structure over it? For more than a decade, we have lived with an outhouse and no indoor bathroom.
In many coastal communities, an outhouse is built over a pier. Peering through the toilet, one sees the incoming or outgoing tide. I don’t want to think too much about that. Throughout India, where we spent 9 months, commercial outhouses and bathrooms in modest hotels have tile floors with a sloping center, flanked by two textured pads for shoes or sandals. One straddles the sloping section and afterward slops water from an adjacent bucket. Bring your own toilet paper.
This week, with the substantial help of a carpenter friend visiting from Wisconsin (thanks, Jim!), we built a new outhouse, near our guest cabin/ham shack/man cave, to supplement the one built in 2009 by our main cabin.
THE PIT:
The pit is dug first, of course, either by hand or with a backhoe. How do you select the location? First, know the depth of your land’s water table! If you live in a swamp, an outhouse with a bucket may be feasible, but not a hole in the ground. Second, choose a spot that will not drain down to a water source. Third, it is advisable to consider the direction of the prevailing wind. If you dig a shallow hole and the outhouse does not fit well over it, you will have downwind odor. Fourth, the digging will be easier in an area that is not riddled with thick roots, so keep your distance from big trees.Continue reading“How to Build an Outhouse, by Mrs. Alaska”
The latest meme created by JWR:
Meme Text:
That Face You Make When You Learn That
Another $18.9 Billion in Treasuries Were Just Dumped by BRICS Countries
News Link: $18,900,000,000 in US Treasuries Dumped by BRICS Members China, Brazil, India and UAE in One Month.
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, provide that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.
“Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” – John 4: 5-26 (KJV)
On September 30, 1949, the Berlin airlift officially ended after the Western Allied powers delivered 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other supplies to West Berlin, which had been cut off from the West during the Soviet blockade of Berlin.
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On this day in 1938, the Treaty of Munich was signed by Hitler, Mussolini, Daladier, and Chamberlain. This treaty forced Czechoslovakia to cede territory to Germany.
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I just learned of the death of Democrat California Senator Dianne Feinstein, at age 90. Please pray that a more conservative and pro-gun senator takes her seat.
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Today’s short feature piece is by JWR.
We are now seeking entries for Round 109 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.
The prize winners for Round 108 will be announced on Sunday.
More than $840,000 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.
Looking at the manifold threats facing the world in late 2023, as an American citizen I cannot help but feel overwhelmed. In a nutshell, these threats include:
And that is just a cursory list!
I must remind my readers that these many problems will not be solved within our lifetimes. If anything, given the nature of modern government and technocracy, these problems will only get worse. Therefore, the only effective risk mitigation for individual American families will be via relocation to lightly populated self-sufficient regions that are more conservative. In short: It is high time to vote with your feet!
Please prayerfully consider relocating your family, as soon as possible. Do so while mortgage interest rates are still affordable. Urban land values will decline, while rural land values will increase. If you wait too long, then you will essentially be trapped by a property and mortgage affordability gap. – JWR
Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance and the factors that affect gold prices.
Gold prices surprised observers by resisting selling pressure until the last part of the month. A breakdown in stocks, bonds, and gold caused by abysmal consumer confidence and plunging new home sales on September 26th pushed gold prices to $1,919. Bond yields hit 4.6% and the dollar index rose to 106.82 on the 27th, forcing December gold $29 lower and into a “death cross” where the 50-day moving average falls beneath the 200-day moving average.
Gold prices saw no relief at the end of the month, dropping another $12.50 to $1,866 an ounce on the 29th to the end September with a loss of $100. $80 of this loss came during the last week of the month, which shows the rapid deterioration of the gold price as the automakers strike continued and the economy recoiled from the threat of a government lockdown.Continue reading“September 2023 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran”
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!
I was fortunate to find a couple of power tools at an estate sale, this week: A drill press and a bandsaw. I had been needing both of these for many years. To get the pair for under $400 was a real blessing. The traditional Rockwell belt-driven drill press dates from 1962. Granted, it will be cumbersome to set different speeds, but I won’t have to do that very often. The bandsaw looks like it was made after 2000, and it appears to have hardly had any use. They are both now safely positioned in our shop. Now I just have to do some online research, to find PDFs of their user manuals to print out for my workshop reference binder. Lily still wants me to find a wood-turning lathe. But finding one of those at a reasonable price might take a while…
I did some more traveling last weekend to attend a gun show. I found a Ludwig Loewe Argentine contract Mauser M1891 sporter, for my Elk Creek Company inventory. I also bought some ammunition, for one of my consulting clients.
I also did some apple picking, but Lily will fill you in on that.