Year 3: An Honest Look at the Farm – Part 3, by SaraSue

(Continued form Part 2. This concludes the article.)

Preparing for WTSHTF

When I wrote the 7-year food plan, it wasn’t just an idea.  I actually did it.  I took a guest room in the farmhouse, and half-filled it with food-grade buckets of dried goods and supplies that were calculated to last seven years.  It has been nice to be able to pull out anything I needed.  In addition to that, I bought several freezers over the past 3 years.  They are mostly full as I write this.  The last freezer I purchased from Costco was the biggest chest freezer they make, and it was on sale!  It is full of pork and beef that I raised here on the farm, and venison that was a gift from a neighbor.  The other freezers are full of chicken, and miscellaneous produce and berries that I froze for later processing, and butter and cheeses made from the dairy cows’ milk and cream.

I do worry about extended power outages, but I also purchased a large gasoline-fueled portable generator and stored gas.  I have not spent a great deal of time canning, in order to make the freezer foods “shelf stable”, but I have all the canning supplies that I need for putting up a year’s worth of canned food. I have purchased additional supplies over the years, to replenish what I used, but the nice thing is that I rarely go to a grocery store.  My “grocery budget” goes into animal feed, but it’s a fraction of the cost of “people feed.”Continue reading“Year 3: An Honest Look at the Farm – Part 3, by SaraSue”

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, we look at our northern border.

Illegal Border Crossings at Northern Border Breaking Records

At The Center Square: Illegal border crossings at northern border continue to break records. The article’s opening lines:

“Illegal border crossings at the northern border continue to break records, according to the latest data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

A record-breaking 18,644, were apprehended illegally entering the U.S. at the northern border in May, the highest total for the month of May in recorded history.

The northern border has seen the highest number of illegal entries in U.S. history under the Biden administration, The Center Square has reported.

In the first eight months of fiscal 2024, more than 99,000 were apprehended after illegally entering through the northern border, according to CBP data. If the current trajectory continues, the numbers are on track to surpass fiscal 2023 apprehensions of 147,666.

Those numbers are up from 92,737 apprehensions in fiscal 2022 and 24,895 in fiscal 2021.”

AI is Exhausting the Power Grid

Our own Tom Christianson suggested this article: AI is exhausting the power grid. Tech firms are seeking a miracle solution.

Steve Bannon Interviewed by NBC

An NBC interview at full length, shortly before his Contempt of Congress prison sentence: Steve Bannon says ‘Donald Trump is a moderate in the MAGA movement’: Full interview.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should. Happy Fourth of July.” – Ronald Reagan

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 3, 2024

On July 3, 1861, the Pony Express arrived in San Francisco with the first delivery of overland letters from New York.

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On July 3, 1778, British forces massacred 360 men, women, and children in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

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On July 3, 1890, the Idaho Territory became the 43rd state in the Union.

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July 3rd is also the birthday of both musician Aaron Tippin and of actor Tom Cruise.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 113 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 $2,000.
  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. A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried breakfasts and dinners in individual meal pouches — a whopping 21,970 calories, all made and packaged in the USA — courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $359 value),
  4. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  5. 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. 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 Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  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 $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  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 $900,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 113 ends on July 31st, 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.

Year 3: An Honest Look at the Farm – Part 2, by SaraSue

(Continued from Part 1.)

Gardens and Jungles

In my Year 2 update that was posted in SurvivalBlog last summer, I shared that I had nothing but garden failures.  There are several problems I had to solve with gardening where I live.  First, I had to turn a lawn into a garden.  Second, plowing only brought up dormant seeds that I jokingly say are from all the surrounding counties.  Third, there is no water piped out to the garden and I didn’t have enough water due to the previous well situation.  Fourth, we had a semi-drought in year 2.  Fifth, the wildlife here was absolutely delighted with the garden buffet set before them: birds, rabbits, voles, squirrels, deer, etc.  Sixth, I chose a wonderful spot for the garden with excellent sun exposure, only to find out it was in a “wind tunnel” every Spring!  The wind ripped up the ground cover and tossed it over the fence three times.  I would staple it back down, and boom, another storm, and more work.  Very discouraging.  And seventh, my homestead sits atop a rocky hill.  There are more rocks of all sizes in my soil than you can imagine.

Remember that if you purchase “emergency seeds” or a “seed vault”, there is zero guarantee that you are going to be able to create a garden from scratch and eat from it the first season.  This is year 3 for me!  Did I get some produce the last couple of years?  Yes, but it would never have fed a family.  It was more like Show and Tell: “Oh, look there, a potato, a zucchini, is that a little watermelon under the weeds, what in the world ate all the sweet potato slips?”  I ended up purchasing produce from a neighboring farm, and from the Amish.Continue reading“Year 3: An Honest Look at the Farm – Part 2, by SaraSue”

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.

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An NIH medical paper:  An alternative hemostatic dressing: comparison of CELOX, HemCon, and QuikClot.

o  o  o

At Instructables: Firepit and Tree Stump Removal All in One!

o  o  o

Vernon R. had this feedback:

“I do appreciate the article you published today on the “New Neighbors”, the Amish.  Very interesting article and heartwarming to see people able to survive without “Big Brother’s ‘help.’ “

o  o  o

Some historical curiosa from Ian at Forgotten Weapons: Belton Repeating Flintlock: A Semiautomatic Rifle in 1785.  JWR’s Comment:  This lays to rest the anti-second Amendment argument that the Constitution’s authors “…could not have foreseen advances in rapid-fire weapons” at the time of the enactment of the Constitution in 1789. That is an absurd leftist canard.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Last night I heard this politician
Talking ’bout his brand new mission
Liked his plans, but they came undone
When he got around to God and guns

I don’t know how he grew up
But it sure wasn’t down at the hunting club
‘Cause if it was he’d understand
Just a little bit more about the working man

God and guns keep us strong
That’s what this country was founded on
Well we might as well give up and run
If we let them take our God and guns

I’m here in my neck of the woods
Where God is great and guns are good
You really can’t know that much about ’em
If you think we’re better off without ’em

Well there was a time we ain’t forgot
You could rest all night with your doors unlocked
But there ain’t nobody safe no more
So you say your prayers and you thank the Lord

For that peace maker in the dresser drawer

God and guns, God and guns keep us strong
That’s what this country, Lord, was founded on
Well we might as well give up and run
If we let ’em take our God and guns
Yea we might as well give up and run
If we let ’em take our God and guns!” –

From the lyrics to “God and Guns”, by Lynyrd Skynyrd. (Written by Mark Stephen Jones, Travis Meadows, and Bud Tower.)

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 2, 2024

July 2nd, 1881, US President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker. Garfield died 79 agonizing days later.

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July 2nd, 1937 aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator. In January of 2024, there came this report: Explorers say they think they’ve found Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane.

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July 2nd, 1679. Europeans first visited Minnesota and saw headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.

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On July 2nd, 1808, Simon Fraser completed his trip down Fraser River, British Columbia, and landed at Musqueam.

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And on July 2, 1901. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbed a train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 113 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 $2,000.
  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. A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried breakfasts and dinners in individual meal pouches — a whopping 21,970 calories, all made and packaged in the USA — courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $359 value),
  4. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  5. 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. 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 Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  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 $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $900,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 113 ends on July 31st, 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.

Year 3: An Honest Look at the Farm – Part 1, by SaraSue

Just when you think you’ve “arrived”, you realize you’re lost, or something like that.  One step forward, three steps back.  There are other ways that one might want to characterize homesteading.  None of it is easy.  Spring is particularly busy and I always think of selling the farm and “retiring” to a genteel life filled with laying poolside, chatting about absolutely nothing important, drinking mimosas, and dining on food that someone else raised and prepared.  But, I digress…

I have written about my experiences in SurvivalBlog in 2022 and in SurvivalBlog in 2023.  Now I write about where the farm is at in year 3.

Let’s see… in three years I have cycled through a lot of farm animals: chickens, guinea fowl, goats, rabbits, cows, pigs, sheep, cats, dogs, and more cows.  A neighboring farmer asked me if I was going to get a Giraffe just to round things out.  Ha!  I’ve spent three years trying to grow a large garden… the bane of my existence.  I started a side hustle of selling excess raw milk (in accordance with my State’s laws).

The good news is that the infrastructure is humming along although it was a significant amount of work and money.  I no longer worry about not having enough water for the cows (new well), or the roof leaking (new roof), tornadoes ripping the old siding off the house (new siding), mice eating the animal feed (barn cats and critter proof containers), etc.Continue reading“Year 3: An Honest Look at the Farm – Part 1, by SaraSue”

June 2024 in Precious Metals, by Everett Millman

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 silver’s performance and examine the factors that affected the metal prices.

WHAT DID GOLD AND SILVER DO IN JUNE?

The precious metals began the month near the bottom of the price range they have been trading in since late April. The first week of June saw some significant gains, particularly for silver, which surged 4.1% on June 6th to $31.15 per troy ounce.

Silver’s 11-year high around $32/oz appeared within reach. This came on the heels of a blistering 16% rally for the argent metal over the course of May, its best month since November 2022.Continue reading“June 2024 in Precious Metals, by Everett Millman”

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 located in the American Redoubt region that are of interest to preppers and survivalists. Today’s column has an emphasis on some news coverage of the recent ARRL ham radio Field Day gatherings in the American Redoubt.

Idaho

Field Day: What are you bringing to the table?

o  o  o

Snake River Amateur Radio Club.

o  o  o

Buck Knives Reopens Company Store. Here is a quote:

“Buck Knives, a family-owned American knife and tool manufacturer for more than 120 years, recently celebrated the grand re-opening of its factory store. The 1,600-sq.-ft. outlet is located at the company’s manufacturing facility and headquarters in Post Falls, Idaho.”

Full disclosure: Buck Knives is an affiliate advertiser on SurvivalBlog.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The American people are not naifs who yearn for isolationism, but they are starting to ask some hard questions about the way we have been doing business for 50 years, and it may well be time to grant the French, Canadians, Germans, Turks, South Koreans, and a host of others their wishes for independence from us: polite friendship – but no alliances, no bases, no money, no trade concessions, and no more begging for the privilege of protecting them.” – Victor Davis Hanson

Preparedness Notes for Monday — July 1, 2024

On July 1st, AD 70,  Roman General Titus (Titus Flavius Vespasianus) and his forces set up battering rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem.

July 1st, 1535, Sir Thomas More went on trial for treason for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.

On July 1, 1798 Napoleon‘s fleet reached Alexandria, Egypt.

July 1st is the anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, in 1863.

Today is Canada Day. On July 1, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was formed, comprising the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec, with John A. Macdonald serving as the first Prime Minister.

And on July 1, 1898, Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill during the successful assault on the city of Santiago.

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Because of a change in direction at Trident Media Group (my partner publisher) my novel Land Of Promise, will only be published a short while longer in trade paperback by Amazon.com, at just $11.99 per copy. The last day of the sale (and of Amazon Print on Demand ordering capability) will be July 12, 2024. Thereafter, it may only be available as an e-book. I will try to get it back in print within a few months, but I can’t make any promises.  So order your copy (or copies) soon!

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

Case Marilla Folding Knife, by Thomas Christianson

With a razor-sharp, 3.5-inch, drop-point blade made of satin-stonewash-finished S35VN steel; a carbon-fiber and aluminum handle with a frame-lock; a one-handed, ambidextrous flipper for deployment; and a reversible, deep-carry, steel pocket clip, the Case Marilla Folding Knife represents an outstanding example of a modern everyday carry (EDC) knife that is made by an iconic American company.

With a price at the time of this writing of $207.99 a the caseknives.com website, the Marilla is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive EDC knife on the market. But as a well-crafted, American-made knife built of high-quality materials, the Marilla represents a good value for the money. It has earned a place as a “keeper” with a small number of other EDC knives in my life.Continue reading“Case Marilla Folding Knife, by Thomas Christianson”

Recipe of the Week:  Melon-Mint Smoothie

The following simple recipe for a Melon-Mint Smoothie is from SurvivalBlog reader I.J..

Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice, from a lime
  • 2 cups cubed ripe cantaloupe, from about half a medium-size melon
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 10 mint leaves, plus more for garnish if desired
  • 1/2 to 1 tablespoon honey (adjust to taste)
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 ice cubes
Directions
  1. Add lime juice, cantaloupe cubes, yogurt, mint, honey, salt, and ice cubes to blender.
  2. Blend until completely smooth, about 30 seconds.
SERVING

Serve immediately, garnished with mint if desired.

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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!