Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — October 10, 2023

On October 10th, 1846, English astronomer William Lassell discovered Triton, the largest satellite of the planet Neptune.

Today is the birthday of composer Giuseppe Verdi. (Born 1813, died 1901.)

And on October 10th, 1913, the Panama Canal officially linked the Atlantic to the Pacific when the Gamboa dike was demolished with dynamite charges.

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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.

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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.

Retreat Logistics: Establishing Burn Rates, by 3AD Scout

What is a “burn rate”?  It is simply the period of time it takes to go through a given commodity or resource.  Establishing burn rates are important since it is those burn rates that will help determine how much of an commodity or resource you store before an incident and burn rates will also help you manage your resources in a post-incident environment.  

In the Prepping world we already have a few burn rates established.  The amount of calories and water we need per day are for the most part for bare minimums.  That is we know we need about 2,000 calories of food and about a gallon of water per day.  Many preppers use these figures to store their food and water preps but have we taken into account other variables that may increase our “burn rates” in a post-end-of-the-world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) environment?Continue reading“Retreat Logistics: Establishing Burn Rates, by 3AD Scout”

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, news of bad bear behavior.   (See the Montana section.)

Idaho

Video: Idaho’s Most Beautiful Overland Road.

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Couple charged with injury to a child after police show video of gun-toting toddler.

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Judge denies U of I murder suspect’s request to put pause on case.

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Boise chiropractor sentenced to prison for video voyeurism.

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday — October 9, 2023

October 9, 1936, the Boulder Dam (later called Hoover Dam), on the Arizona-Nevada border, began generating electricity for such areas as Los Angeles, which celebrated with a parade.

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On October 9, 1000, Leif Ericson discovers “Vinland” (possibly at what was later named L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada) reputedly becoming first European to reach North America.

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A fairly detailed update: Israel at War: Day 2 // The FAI Wire.

And here is a word of caution about the circumstances of the Hamas invasion: This was allowed to happen.  Note: Avalanche Lily, who has studied both Biblical and modern Hebrew confirmed that that this was an accurate translation of what this IDF veteran NCO was saying.

Here is some commentary and confirmation.

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I just noticed that we’ve now surpassed the milestone of 38,000 archived SurvivalBlog articles, columns, and quotes. Please spread the word about SurvivalBlog with your friends and co-workers, and mention that the archives are free and fully searchable. Even though we’ve been posting daily since 2005, there are still a lot of folks who haven’t yet seen SurvivalBlog. Also, please mention SurvivalBlog to any businesses that deal in preparedness-related merchandise or services.  We need a few more advertisers and writing contest prize sponsors. Thanks! – JWR

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Today’s feature article is a review written by Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.

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We are 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.

L.L. Bean Wool Cresta Hiking Socks, by Thomas Christianson

Transportation is a wonderful thing. Whether flying a jet aircraft or bumping along in an oxcart on a dirt trail, it is great when someone or something else is expending the energy to carry us and our stuff where we want to go.

There are some times and some places where transportation is just not available. At those times and in those places, we are dependent upon our own two feet. In those types of situations, good boots and good socks may be the difference between getting where we need to go and not getting anywhere at all. Foot problems like blisters or frostbite can immobilize the hiker, leaving them vulnerable to hypothermia, sun stroke, dehydration, starvation, and other external threats.

I recently tested a couple of pairs of L.L. Bean wool Cresta hiking socks. I found them to be pretty good socks, although even better socks are available for a similar price. At the time of this writing, the Cresta socks cost $24.95 a pair at www.llbean.com. Darn Tough or Smartwool offer slightly better socks at a similar price. If you can get the L.L. Bean socks on sale or second-hand, they are good enough to be worth the investment. If you need to pay full price, the buy Darn Tough or Smartwool socks instead.Continue reading“L.L. Bean Wool Cresta Hiking Socks, by Thomas Christianson”

Recipe of the Week: Honey Mustard Chicken

The following recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken is from SurvivalBlog reader J.P.V..

Ingredients

  • 6 bone-in chicken thighs

    Sauce:

  • 4 Tbsp butter or ghee, melted

  • 1/2 cup honey

  • 1/4 cup yellow mustard

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1 tsp curry powder

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400.

  2. Place chicken in baking dish. 

  3. Stir all sauce ingredients together until well-mixed.

  4. Pour sauce over top of chicken.

  5. Bake 30-40 minutes until chicken is done.

SERVING

Great served with rice and steamed veggies and sauce drizzled over all.

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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!

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, a recap of last week’s market rout in precious metals. (See the Precious Metals section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold and silver both bounced back on Friday, following a rout for most of last week. On Friday afternoon, spot gold had recovered to $1,846.10 per Troy ounce (up .81%).  Meanwhile, spot silver had jumed back up to $21.88 (up 3.5%.) Kitco reported: Gold price ends nine-day losing streak but still negative for the week.  For the record, I don’t expect silver and gold to resume a substantial bull market until the Federal Reserve capitulates and starts lowering interest rates again. I expect that to happen before the  November 2024 presidential election. – JWR

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Adam Hamilton posted this analysis, over at Gold-Eagle.com: Gold’s Violent Breakdown. Here is an excerpt:

“Gold just suffered a violent technical breakdown, plunging even deeper out of favor.  Heavy gold-futures selling has cascaded following the FOMC’s latest hawkish surprise.  That pummeled gold sharply lower, shattering key support zones.  But big gold-futures selling quickly exhausts speculators’ capital firepower.  Then they rush to buy and normalize their excessively-bearish bets, catapulting gold proportionally higher.

Only two weeks ago, gold was looking solid heading into late September’s FOMC meeting.  After closing at $1,931 the day before, the yellow metal just drifted flatlined following Fed officials’ latest decision.  That proved a hawkish surprise, despite no rate hike.  Top Fed officials’ projections for their federal-funds rate at year-end 2024 were boosted 50 basis points, implying two rate cuts next year instead of the previous four.

That should’ve been a nothingburger for markets.  Traders had expected this latest dot plot to moderate to three rate cuts forecast in 2024.  And Fed officials’ FFR projections have proven notoriously inaccurate, as the Fed chair himself warns.  Divining the FFR 15.4 months into the future may as well be an eternity away, as the actual coming FFR trajectory will likely vary radically depending on how the US economy fares.”

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Bond yields can’t keep gold down forever as ING sees higher prices in 2024.

Economy & Finance:

Federal Debt Increased By $2.2 Trillion In Fiscal Year 2023.

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Mortgage rate races toward 8% after hitting a high not seen since late 2000.

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Another from CNBC: Why borrowing costs for nearly everything are surging, and what it means for you.

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A Peter St. Onge video on X that I found linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: BoA: When Fed starts cuttings things will break. 276 rate hikes are finally crushing the global economy. But history says the real storm comes when they start cutting rates. Because cuts means they broke it.

o  o  o

Treasury’s Yellen says US overdependent on China for critical supply chains.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 8, 2023

On October 8, 1918, Corporal Alvin York single-handedly captured 132 Germans and killed another 25 during the Meuse-Argonne offensive of World War I.

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October 8th is the birthday of economist and libertarian commentator J. Orlin Grabbe. (Born, 1947, died March 15, 2008.)

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As I’m sure you’ve already read, starting with a massive barrage of 5,000 Katyusha 122mm rockets coming from the Gaza Strip on the morning of Saturday, October 7th, war has broken out on both the southwestern and northern borders of Israel. This was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. More than 200 people were killed the first day, and more than 1,000 wounded. Please pray for peace, freedom, and good government, for everyone living there. And please add special prayers for those who have been taken hostage, and their families.

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Today’s feature article is a review written by Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.

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We are 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.

KA-BAR Dozier Folding Hunter KA4062-BRK, by Thomas Christianson

Every once in a while I run across a product that looks like an exceptionally good value. The KA4062-BRK fell into this category. It is manufactured by an iconic American company of good materials at an excellent price. I decided to purchase a sample to review.

Overview

Like many American firms, KA-BAR offers some foreign-made items in their product line. The Taiwanese-made Dozier Folding Hunter model KA4062-BRK is one of them.

The knife has a razor-sharp, 3-inch blade made of AUS 8A stainless steel, that folds into an easily-gripped Zytex handle. With a manufacturer-suggested retail price of $34.16 and widely available online for under $25 , the KA4062-BRK would seem to offer excellent value for the money.Continue reading“KA-BAR Dozier Folding Hunter KA4062-BRK, by Thomas Christianson”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

Meme Text:

The FBI Has Created A New “MAGA Terrorist Group” Category
It Is So Good To Know That The FBI Is Still Unbiased and Apolitical

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, provide that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.

 

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” – Romans 7:1-12 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 7, 2023

On this day in 1949, a constitution went into effect in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany that formed the country of East Germany, which existed alongside West Germany until 1990, when the two Germanys reunited.

On Octrober 7, 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City to frame resolutions of “rights and grievances” of the American colonies.

The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement taking place on 7 October, 1571 in which a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of European Catholic maritime states arranged by Pope Pius V and led by Spanish admiral Don Juan of Austria, decisively defeated the fleet of the Ottoman Empire on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece.

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We are in need of articles 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.

 

Caged Retail Stores: A Sign of Deeper Societal Degeneracy

In this essay, I will be quite brief and to-the-point:

The recent waves of large-scale shoplifting, flash mobs, store lootings, and “street takeovers” in America’s cities illustrate a profound change in American society. I can see that it will only be in retrospect that historians will recognize this turning point for America. This is the stage where the basic Social Contract — characterized by civility and trust in retail commerce — has been severed.

I found these two articles indicative:

Continue reading“Caged Retail Stores: A Sign of Deeper Societal Degeneracy”