A Local Disaster Network – Part 5, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 4. This concludes the article.)

Cloud Dancing

Next, we’ll set up the Nextcloud application. Assuming your laptop and Raspberry Pi are still connected to your GL.iNet router and it has Internet access, open up a web browser on your laptop and enter the following address: ‘http://nextcloud.local’ – depending on your operating system and browser you may get a warning that says the connection isn’t private – just click to proceed anyway (or click on ‘Advanced’ and then ‘Proceed’). The first screen that will pop up is the following:

Figure 16: Nextcloud Activation

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll notice that there are two very very very long passwords displayed – the first one is for accessing the Nextcloud maintenance functions (http://nextcloud.local:4443) and the second one is for the default Nextcloud general user account ‘ncp’ (http://nextcloud.local). We’ll change these later on, but it’s absolutely critical that you save them somewhere like in a text file on your laptop for now. If you don’t and can’t remember them you’ll need to go back and re-image the microSD card from scratch.Continue reading“A Local Disaster Network – Part 5, by J.M.”



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 had three on-site consulting days, on behalf of two different clients this week. I also went to visit an old friend.  And on Friday,  I attended a gun show. With so much time on the road, I was barely able to keep up with my writing, editing, and ranch work.

Now, Lily’s report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day: 

And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them.

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying,

Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lord; gold, and silver, and brass,

And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,

And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,

And oil for the light, and spices for anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,

And onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate.

And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make all that the Lord hath commanded.” – Exodus 35:1-10 (KJV)



Preparedness Notes for Friday — September 8, 2023

On September 8, 1565, the first permanent settlement in what would become the United States of America was formed, in St. Augustine, Florida.

Also, in 1943, on this day, Italy surrendered to the Allies in World War II.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 108 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 $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 108 ends on September 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.

 



A Local Disaster Network – Part 4, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 3.)

Cloud Server

Next, we’re going to set up the operating system and Nextcloud cloud application that runs on the Raspberry Pi server. You’ll need to download two or three pieces of software to accomplish this – a utility for loading the Raspberry Pi’s operating system image onto the microSD card, the actual Raspberry Pi operating system/application image file, and a tool for uncompressing the compressed operating system/application image file after downloading it (if you don’t already have something like WinZip or 7-Zip installed). For the Pi’s operating system/application we’re going to use an image called NextCloudPi from GitHub, which is the Raspberry Pi operating system and Nextcloud cloud server application all pre-configured and bundled in one image file. Go to the GitHub download page and click on the link called ‘NextCloudPi_RaspberryPi_vN.N.N.zip’, (or ‘NextCloudPi_[whatever computer you bought]’ for a different kind of computer) where ‘N.N.N’ is the latest version number and save it to your local disk.Continue reading“A Local Disaster Network – Part 4, by J.M.”



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 the possibility of another gold confiscation. (See the Precious Metals section.)

Precious Metals:

Reader H.L. mentioned this, over at Doug Casey’s International Man: Don’t Dismiss the Possibility of Gold Confiscation. JWR’s Comment:  This is just one more reason to have a precious metals portfolio that is heavy on silver. Confiscating all of the citizenry’s gold again would be very difficult, but the logistics of confiscating silver (with 15 times more bulk and weight) would be nigh-on impossible.)

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At Gold-Eagle.com: Yields Set To Fall & Gold Set To Soar.

Economy & Finance:

UPS Offers Severance Package to 167 Pilots as Air Cargo Slumps. JWR’s Comments: The “official” announcement of the recession won’t come for several months. But in essence, it is already here, folks!

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Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: US credit card debt has reached a record high of $1 trillion dollars, with an average interest rate of 20.63 percent, indicating a potential debt crisis.

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At Zero Hedge: Peter Schiff: Government Spending Has Bankrupted The US.

o  o  o

Dollar General Plunges On Missed Earnings, Outlook Slashed; A Warning Sign Consumer Cracks.

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Consumers Win: Apple to Embrace USB-C with iPhone 15. (Our thanks to reader C.B. for the link.)

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I don’t know why liberals want to disarm the law-abiding population, but I do know that not a single argument proffered stands the light of facts. Armed citizens deter far more crimes than the police, and far more lives are saved by the intended victim being armed than are lost in firearm accidents.” – Paul Craig Roberts



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — September 7, 2023

On September 7, 1876, the Younger Brothers, a group of American outlaws who were often allied with Jesse James, were captured following an unsuccessful bank robbery.

Today is the birthday of novelist Taylor Caldwell (born 1900 – August 30, 1985).

Today is the birthday of Dr. Ludwig Vorgrimler (born 1912 in Freiburg, Germany; died 1983). Vorgrimler was the designer of the Spanish CETME rifle, from which sprang a plethora of roller-lock descendants from HK, including the G3, HK21, and MP5. His bolt design was also copied by the Swiss for their excellent PE57 and SIG 510 rifles. (Although the Swiss felt obliged to mount a “beer keg” charging handle on the right side of the receiver, for the sake of familiarity to Schmidt-Rubin shooters.)

And September 7th is also the birthday of Richard Cole, born in 1915. He passed away on April 8, 2019, at age 103. Cole was the last living Doolittle Raider. He was General Doolittle’s co-pilot.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 108 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 $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 108 ends on September 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.





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, war drums and police chases.

10-Year Anniversary Prepper Camp 2023

The 10-year anniversary gathering for Prepper Camp 2023 will be held September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2023, in Saluda, North Carolina.

Chaos: An Aerial View of the Huge Burning Man Mud Mess

A recent Trent Palmer flying video: It got WAY WORSE – Burning Man 2023 Rain Update Part 2. From Trent’s description: “70,000 people stuck at Burning Man, so Jerry and I decided to take a second quick flight up to Black Rock to check on how Burning Man was holding up after all the newest recent rain storms and see how the exodus was going.

JWR’s Comment: So-called “Dry Lake Beds” don’t always remain dry. As of Monday, the “Shelter In Place” order was lifted, and some of the revelers were able to slip and slide their way off of the playa.

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





Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 6, 2023

On September 6th 1901,  Republican William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States (1897–1901), was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and died eight days later.

September 6th, 1757 is the birthday of Marquis de Lafayette (often known simply as Lafayette), a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. (Sept. 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834) came to America at age 19 and served meritoriously in the American Revolution at his own expense. He was also instrumental in convincing the French king and his ministers to support George Washington and his embattled Continental Army with loans, troops and the powerful presence of the French fleet. The alliance with France was crucial for American victory in our War of Independence. He was a close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. George Washington met him through his connections in the Free Masons and was impressed with him. After he offered to serve without pay, Congress commissioned him as a Major General and he was an integral part of the battle at Brandywine.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 108 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 $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 108 ends on September 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.



A Local Disaster Network – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.)

There are two additional items required to run a Raspberry Pi – a microSD card for storage and a power supply. I’ve set up, configured and run dozens of Raspberry Pis since they came out in 2012, and 90% of all of the problems I’ve ever encountered with them are the result of either a bad microSD card or inadequate power supply, so you don’t want to cheap out on either.

For the microSD card I strongly recommend using a SanDisk MAX ENDURANCE model of at least 64GB, but bigger is always better, so get a 128GB or even a 256GB one if you can afford it. For a power supply you’re going to need something that can supply a clean 5V/2.4A via microUSB for either of the Pi 3 models, or 5V/3A via USB-C for the Pi 4 model. Note that the AC power supply is just for initially configuring the Raspberry Pi – I’ll be talking about how to power your entire setup using a battery power supply later on.

One of the limitations of microSD cards is that they were never designed to handle the types of read and write loads that operating systems generate, so they can be slow and they’ll ‘wear out’ after a couple of years of hard use. One alternative is to configure your Raspberry Pi to boot from an external SSD storage device, which is a lot faster and can provide a lot more storage. I have mine configured to boot from a 240GB JOIOT Mini Portable SSD and use a 2TB Western Digital Elements SE SSD for extra storage, which provides a ton of store for reference content, videos, pictures, etc.

If you want to use an external SSD (Solid State Disk), here are some instructions on how to set that up – ‘How to Boot Raspberry Pi 4 From a USB SSD or Flash Drive’. For this article, I’ll just assume that you’re starting with a microSD card. Note that it’s also possible to use an inexpensive high-capacity USB thumb drive for either the boot/store device (in place of the microSD card), or as supplementary external storage, but as with microSD cards, USB thumb drives tend be be slower and less reliable, whereas SSDs are designed to behave just like spinning disks but a lot faster.Continue reading“A Local Disaster Network – Part 2, by J.M.”



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.

I heard from SurvivalBlog reader T.D.H. about a nifty and inexpensive way to efficiently store 30-round AR-15 rifle magazines. By coincidence, the dimensions of small, stackable Sterlite plastic storage crates are perfect to fit 12 of the 30-round PMAGs. These fit tightly in these crates if the magazines are left in their factory wrappers, or loosely, if they are out of their wrappers. They also loosely fit 14 unwrapped alloy or steel AR magazines. These plastic mini crates are made in U.S.A.. You can find these on eBay or at the Walmart website by searching on this phrase: Sterilite Plastic Desktop Storage Mini Crate, Black, 9″ x 7 3/4″ x 6 1/8″. They make these in black, white, and clear plastic. I was able to buy 10 of these via eBay, for $25.30, postage paid! (Just $2.53 each. Since they arrived via FedEx, I don’t think that they made much of a profit on that transaction.) They arrived in a Walmart shipping box.  I suppose that they are also sold in Walmart stores. This is a great way to keep a quantity of extra magazines handy — in your gun vault, in a vehicle, on trips to your shooting range, or in a cache. – JWR

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SurvivalBlog’s Editor-at-Large Mike Williamson sent this, over at X about some recent monkeywreching, in London, England: An anti-ULEZ vigilante group known as the “Blade Runners” has committed itself to removing or disabling every last ULEZ camera in London. 90% of the cameras in South East London have already been “retired”.  

Mike’s Comment: The Revolution will not be televised. At least not if these guys have anything to say about it.

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Reader A.K. recommended this video by Eva Zu Beck: Giving Up Modern Life to Become a Goat Herder in Montana.

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Tim J. suggested this Victor Davis Hanson video: The De-Civilization of America.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”