Preparedness Notes for Friday — January 6, 2023

On January 6th 2021, protesting supporters of then-President Donald Trump entered the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. They were protesting the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. At last report, several of the protestors were still being held without bail in the D.C. jail, two years after the event. This is an apparent violation of the U.S. Constitution’s “speedy trial” provision.

—

To celebrate 15 years in business, Seed for Security is running an exceptional sale. They are offering their Colossal Security Pack, at 25% off. This combination pack is a total of over 5 pounds of seeds — all are open-pollinated (non-hybrid) and non-GMO. Included in this combination pack are their three most popular collections: the Super Survival Pack, 4 Grain Collection, and Heirloom Herb Collection. This offer is for a limited time, so order soon.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 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 course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. 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).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  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. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 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.

A Special Appeal: The Ten Cent Challenge

I hope that you get at least 10 cents worth of knowledge, entertainment, and motivation each day from SurvivalBlog. It has been posted with fresh content daily, since 2005. In all these years I’ve only missed posting on a few days — most notably in the week after my first wife passed away.

I do my best to mention the Ten Cent Challenge editorially only once each year. Unlike PBS, we don’t run agonizingly endless pledge drives. But we do depend on voluntary subscriptions to pay the blog’s bills. These expenses include: paying our staff writers, the local ISP monthly bill, our web hosting server, domain registrations, news service subscriptions, payments for stock photos, phone bills, liability insurance, maintaining our remote backup server, post office box rental, and providing a small portion of the writing contest prizes. With inflation, nearly all of our costs are escalating. But we still ask for only 10 cents per day.  ($36.50, per year.)

The PayPal Exodus

Back in October, there was an understandable mass exodus from PayPal. That cost us, because of subscription cancellations. About 30% of our subscriptions vanished, soon after PayPal’s censorious intentions were revealed publicly. I do not blame anyone for quitting PayPal. Severing ties with PayPal was fully justifiable. But losing those subscriptions hurt our cash flow quite badly. And, as I’m sure you recall, two years ago, we quit the Amazon.com Associates program. Previously, the Amazon commissions had covered most of our expenses.

I greatly appreciate the 2% of readers who do choose to subscribe. Subscriptions are entirely voluntary. If you’ve never subscribed before, then please become a subscriber. And if you are one of the many folks that quit PayPal and thus had your SurvivalBlog subscription lapse, then please “re-up”, through the following methods:

  • Sending us a check, money order, cash, postage stamps, or silver, by mail.
  • Via GabPay. That is now our preferred payment method.  My GabPay “@” address is: JamesWesleyRawles

If paying for your subscription via mail, then please use this address:

SurvivalBlog
P.O. Box 303
Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845

And if you still have a PayPal account, our PayPal address is unchanged. It is: james@rawles.to

You can also support the blog indirectly, by patronizing our loyal banner advertisers and our affiliate advertisers. By the way, if you operate a business that sells goods or services that would appeal to SurvivalBlog readers, then please consider becoming a SurvivalBlog advertiser, or donating prizes for our ongoing writing contest.

Note: If you are on a tight budget, then please support our publication only with prayer.

And I have one request that might seem a bit odd: Please remember SurvivalBlog in your will. The next time that you update your will, please consider designating a modest dollar figure or a small percentage of your estate for your will’s executor to send to SurvivalBlog. I’m confident that those small bequests will keep the blog going, multi-generationally. You won’t live forever, and I won’t live forever. But I’m confident that one of my sons or a trusted friend will step up and continue to post SurvivalBlog uninterruptedly, with the same style, substance, and unswerving editorial focus.

May God grant that SurvivalBlog continues to be a beacon of truth!

With Many Thanks, and Wishing You God’s Blessings,

– Jim Rawles

P.S.:  I’m in the process of setting up a merchant account so that folks will be able to pay for blog subscriptions and USB archive sticks via credit card, through the Elk Creek Company website. I‘ll post an announcement in the blog, once we get all of the kinks worked out.  (Presently, credit card billings are not being completed — we just getting error messages.)

 

Hiding and Tracking – Part 4, by J.M.D.

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.)

Tracking

As I alluded to earlier, becoming an expert tracker requires a lifetime of practice and experience, but there are a number of things that you can do to begin developing and improving your ability to track people:

  • Improved Endurance – The further away your target gets, the harder it will become to track them, and if they’re in better shape than you they’ll be able to quickly increase the gap between you. You need to be able to move long distances at a reasonable pace if you want to be able to successfully track people.
  • Observation Skills – Since tracking is all about observing the environment around you to identify signs left by your target, enhancing your ability to spot signs can significantly improve your tracking ability. There are many good exercises that you can perform that will help you improve your powers of observation, but you need to get in the habit of practicing observation on a daily basis. The ability to quickly detect, identify and understand what’s going on around you is not only critical to tracking, it’s also the foundation of good situational awareness. One note on observations in tracking – it’s important that you not only pay attention to individual signs, but be able to recognize patterns made of up signs. You may not be able to determine if that slight depression in the bed of pine needles was made by a person, but if you stand back and see a series of those depressions 2’-3’ apart in an offset pattern you can more likely conclude that someone walked that way.
  • Training – There are a lot of folks that have spent a lifetime learning how to track, and many of them offer some excellent training courses to pass that knowledge on. OnPoint Tactical (a SurvivalBlog sponsor) provides some excellent Scout training courses, and smaller local organizations may also provide useful training.
  • Study – There are a number of good books and videos on tracking to help you develop your skills. I particularly like the book ‘Tracking Humans’ by David Diaz, but there are a lot of other good ones available. I also recommend the 2-part video series ‘Pro’s Guide to Tactical Tracking’ by UF PRO, and there are dozens of others available on the various video web sites.
  • Practice – No matter how much you study, read or train, the only way to become a good tracker is to practice. Have a companion walk normally in front of you, stopping every 50’ or so to wait for you to follow along behind and identify signs of their passage. Try this in all different types of terrain, weather and lighting conditions to expand your knowledge of different types of sign. You can eventually turn it into a game where one person gets a head start and the others need to track that person before they reach an agreed upon destination. You can also practice by yourself by marking a starting point, walking for some distance, then looping back around to your starting point and identifying the types of sign you left behind.
  • Recording – Unless you have an eidetic memory, keeping track of dozens or hundreds of different signs when tracking someone can be difficult, especially if you’re just learning. Is that the same shoe tread pattern that you saw an hour ago, or is it something else? Being able to answer that can make the difference between successfully tracking and losing someone. When tracking or even just practicing you should record information about each sign or pattern you identify, along with metadata such as date, time, conditions, etc. This can be done with a simple paper notebook or a note taking app on your cell phone like Microsoft OneNote or Joplin, but my favorite way of recording tracking info is using the ability to add location-specific notes, voice recordings and photos in the OSMAnd+ Android mapping application.

Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 4, by J.M.D.”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

In place of my usual news items and commentary on economics and the markets, I have some annual housekeeping to do:

My Annual Financial/Investing/Foreign Interests Disclosures:

By Federal law, I am obliged to make the following annual public disclosures.

For the record: I am presently the sole author of SurvivalBlog’s Economics & Investing For Preppers column. I am not a paid investment counselor or adviser. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.

My paid consulting is primarily on preparedness, relocation, retreat property development, and related topics–not on investing, per se.

SurvivalBlog is a private information service and not a public accommodation.

Personal and Family Interests

My highest loyalty is to Christ Jesus (Yeshua.)

I am not a board member of any corporation. I hold no stocks, mutual funds, bonds, options, hedge investments/instruments, registered securities, or ETFs whatsoever. I am not paid or otherwise compensated by any individual, company, or country to promote any investment vehicle or currency.

I do not recommend or endorse any financial particular investment advisor, firm, blog, vlog, or website, although I do quote various advisors and make links to their websites. Such mentions, quotes, and links are my own choices, and are never compensated.

While I personally hold precious metals, firearms, ammunition, and other tangibles as a large portion of my family portfolio, I have no connection or financial arrangement with any firm, other than that some such firms do buy advertising space in SurvivalBlog, and that we have affiliate advertising contracts in place with others. I do on occasion personally make purchases from these companies. However, I receive no  discounts nor other special considerations from them. Such advertising relationships have no bearing on the investing news that I report and the recommendations that I make.  I have never held any Forex or Comex options.

I own and operate Elk Creek Company, a small home-based mailorder business that sells antique guns, replica percussion guns, percussion cartridge conversion cylinders, knives, bayonets, and multitools. I have no contractual relationship with the makers of any of those products. My ownership of Elk Creek Company has no bearing on the investing news that I report and the recommendations that I make. From time to time, I mention sales and particular Elk Creek Company products in this column. Throughout my adult life, I have recommended investing in antique guns. Operating Elk Creek Company has not changed that. I held a Class 01 Federal Firearms license from 1981 to 1992. The merchandise that I now sell has no license required.

Along with one of my sons, I operate CFAPA.org, to distribute press credentials free of charge to adult citizens of the 50 States, as Citizen Journalists. We accept donations, but in most years those donations barely cover the web-hosting and domain registration expenses of CFAPA.org.

My revenue streams are small and diverse. These include: Book publishing royalties, advertising, consulting, Elk Creek Company mailorder sales, archive USB stick sales, and Ten Cent Challenge voluntary subscriptions.

Walls of Separation

We maintain walls of separation between the advertising, consulting, and editorial realms. No editorial space or content in this column is ever promised to any advertiser or consulting client. Stephen Cochran of Gainseville Coins voluntarily writes a monthly precious metals column for SurvivalBlog, but he and Gainseville Coins are not compensated by me nor vice versa, in any way. I am afforded no discounts by the company, and I have received no free or discounted merchandise or other favors from them.

A few article links have been suggested by our advertisers, but we have never been compensated or felt obliged to post them.

I quit the Amazon Associates program in January 2021. Because of their censorship and unfair business practices, I publicly distanced myself from Amazon, and recommend that my readers and consulting clients buy from other vendors.

I have never accepted any payment, discounts, merchandise, or other consideration in exchange for any editorial mentions, reviews, or endorsements. We universally reject the dozens of paid editorial, infographic, product review, and link placement requests that we receive every week via e-mail from spammers, scammers, SEO wonks, and content manipulators.

No Foreign Interests

I am not now, nor have I ever been an agent of any foreign nation. I do hold some foreign currency. I own no foreign real estate. Only a few of my consulting clients live abroad, and most of those are U.S. citizens.

Clearances and Taskings

Up until 1991, I held a Top Secret security clearance and had access to SCI. I did some tasked intelligence work overseas. (See the photo above, from the Guardrail IGR-V program.) That ended before 1991. After being de-briefed from Special Access Programs (SAPs), I resigned my commission as a U.S. Army Intelligence Corps officer. My formal resignation letter was submitted on January 20, 1993 — the day that Bill Clinton first took office.  Since then, I have had no intelligence taskings or any relationship whatsoever with the U.S. government, the U.S. Army, or any government agencies. Since January 20, 1993, I have been just a normal taxpaying citizen.

I have had no contact with the FBI or any other Federal law enforcement agency since the conclusion of a foreign intelligence penetration case in 1990, where I provided a signed statement as a witness.

I did work in technical writing and proposal writing capacities for various defense contracting companies up until July, 2006. I no longer hold an active security clearance. Both my military and industrial clearances have lapsed. I am a past member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), but I have had no contact with that organization since the mid-1990s.

Summary and Conclusion

In sum, we do our very best to operate SurvivalBlog.com as ethically and independently as possible. Our editorial integrity and independence is very important to us. We will never betray the trust of our readers. In an age where journalistic prostitution has become the norm in the blogging and vlogging world, we stand apart. – JWR

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and the hills beyond.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 5, 2023

On January 5th, 2005 The solar system’s largest known dwarf planet was discovered. The discovery of Eris ultimately led to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgrading Pluto, which has roughly the same size, to a dwarf planet.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 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 course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. 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).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  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. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 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.

Hiding and Tracking – Part 3, by J.M.D.

(Continued from Part 2.)

Weather

The weather can have a significant impact on both the trackers as well as the trackees. A clear sunny day can make it easier to follow someone visually and detect signs of their passage, while rain, snow, fog or mist can reduce visibility and require trackers to close the distance or move slower to locate sign. At the same time, snow on the ground will leave obvious footprints and is one of the easiest conditions in which to track someone, unless it’s snowing hard enough or blowing snow that fills in or covers tracks. Rain will soften the ground and increase the chances of leaving footprints, but heavy rain can also wash away signs. Wind can carry sounds and scents, increasing their detection distance, and odors can be more easily detected in cold weather.

As a trackee you may have the advantage of choosing what kind of conditions you travel in, depending on the weather and your schedule.

Distance/Schedule

From a tracker’s perspective, distance is an enemy – in most scenarios, the further you have to track someone the more likely you are to lose them, assuming the tracker can’t outpace the trackees and catch up to them. The trackers also need to decide if they have enough resources to continue a long pursuit, and if the end goals are worth the investment in time and resources.

As a trackee you may have the option of taking a longer and more convoluted route to your destination, giving you more of a chance to detect and evade any trackers or break your track. If you have the right gear you may also be able to continue traveling at night, which may make it harder to track you.Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 3, by J.M.D.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— 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. Today, we look at expected lower grain crop yields, because of the jump in fertilizer prices.

Soaring Fertilizer Prices: Millions More Undernourished

Reader C.B. sent us this disturbing news: Soaring fertilizer prices could see millions more undernourished. The article begins:

“High fertilizer prices could put an additional 100 million people at risk of undernourishment, a study suggests.

The war in Ukraine has led to the blockade of millions of tons of wheat, barley and corn, but reduced food exports from the region are less of a driver of food price rises than feared, researchers say.

Instead, a modeling study led by University of Edinburgh researchers suggests surging energy and fertilizer prices will have by far the greatest impact on in coming decades.

Until now, how energy and fertilizer price rises and restrictions affects future global food prices was poorly understood. There has also been little analysis to quantify the scale of harm that hikes in the price of food could have on human nutritional health and the environment.

The team used a global land-use computer model to simulate the effects of export restrictions and spikes in on food prices, health and land use until 2040.”

“Sudden, Unexpected Deaths Exploded” in Germany Since 2021

Reader V.L. sent us this: Data of 72 Million Insured Shows “Sudden, Unexpected Deaths Exploded” in Germany Since 2021.

The 10 Safest and Unsafest Cities In America

Forbes reports: The 10 Safest (And Unsafest) Cities In America.  This article links to the more detailed WalletHub report.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“There is a difference between resistance to specific commands and resistance by means of revolution to dethrone and replace an existing ruler. A tyrant is one whose habit of tyrannical actions strikes at a fundamental good of human society; his actions are akin to an unprovoked war against the people. Thus, he is a man warring against the nation, and since any nation can defend itself against national threats, the nation can conduct war against him. A just, violent revolution is a type of defensive war.” – Stephen Wolfe, The Case For Christian Nationalism

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 4, 2023

On January 4th, 1896 Utah became the 45th state of the Union. One condition for statehood was that a ban on polygamy had to be written into the state constitution.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 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 course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. 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).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  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. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 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.

 

Hiding and Tracking – Part 2, by J.M.D.

(Continued from Part 1.)

A somewhat more obscure but still possible method of tracking is by following an electronic signal. If you’re using any type of transmitting device such as a radio or cell phone, a tracker could potentially locate you by detecting that signal. There have been a number of good articles on SurvivalBlog.com on radio frequency direction finding and locating, so I’m not going to go into detail here. Someone could also plant a dedicated tracking device on you or your vehicle and use that to track your location, but the tracker would obviously need the right equipment to locate and track signals.

Factors that Impact Tracking

How you leverage the various methods of tracking and how well they work will depend on a lot of different factors, and it’s critical to understand how these factors can impact both the tracker and the target. These factors include:

  • Goals
  • Personnel
  • Terrain
  • Weather
  • Distance/Schedule
  • Schedule
  • Repetition
  • Transport
  • Support animals
  • Kit

I’m going to cover these in more detail in the following paragraphs.Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 2, by J.M.D.”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: 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.

—

L.R. (a close friend of mine) recommended this thought-provoking essay: Lovers of Truth and Lovers of Lies: Seeing new lessons for today in Mel Gibson’s iconic portrayal of ‘The Patriot’.

o  o  o

The ultimate “down the memory hole” irony? Amazon Secretly Removes “1984” From the Kindle.

o  o  o

Reader C.B. sent this: Watch: Bald eagle flies with Canadian goose clutched in talons.

o  o  o

JMG sent this disturbing news: BARR: Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Bill Contains Backdoor ‘Kill Switch’ For Cars

“Buried deep within the massive infrastructure legislation recently signed by President Joe Biden is a little-noticed “safety” measure that will take effect in five years. Marketed to Congress as a benign tool to help prevent drunk driving, the measure will mandate that automobile manufacturers build into every car what amounts to a ‘vehicle kill switch.’”

o  o  o

Biden Opens Door to China Sabotage in North Dakota.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 3, 2023

On January 3, 1924 the Pharaoh Tutankhamun mummy was located near Luxor, Egypt, where King Tut’s tomb was discovered two years prior. This stone sarcophagus, which inside contained a mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun of Egypt.

—

For those who have asked about ordering the 2005-2022 edition of the SurvivalBlog Archives USB stick: The new edition is being “built” now, and should be orderable by January 22nd, 2023. Please mark your calendar to look for the Archive USB stick ad that week. Shipments will begin in February.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 104 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 course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. 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).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  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. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $775,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 104 ends on January 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.

 

Hiding and Tracking – Part 1, by J.M.D.

I enjoy learning new things and picking up new skills, and the many activities I engage in such as shooting, paintball, backpacking and, of course, prepping give me ample motivation and opportunity to do so. A year or so ago while on a backpacking trip with some friends I met a guy who was a pretty decent tracker, and after he kindly spent some time on that hike showing me some of the basics I decided that tracking (and evading trackers) were some skills that might be useful in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. Since then I’ve taken training classes, read books, researched a lot of online material and invested a good amount of field time in learning how to track both people and animals. The goal of this article is to provide a starting point for understanding the basics of tracking and hopefully give the reader an incentive for adding this skill to your survival arsenal. I want to state that I’m by no means an expert tracker – I’ve only been practicing and learning for about a year, and I have a long way to go before I’d even consider myself a novice, but I thought that sharing my experiences and what I learned might be useful for others.

To begin with, tracking and evading are two sides of the same coin – knowledge of how to track someone can be just as useful for helping you evade pursuers, and developing habits to minimize your ‘footprint’ on the world while instinctively paying attention to the signs left by others can help you in a lot of different scenarios. In a post-disaster environment you may need to track down someone who’s been poaching your livestock or locate a lost family member, or you may need to avoid leading some bad guys back to your homestead. Even in today’s ‘normal’ environment you may be followed or tracked by people that mean you harm.

There are also people that debate the meaning of ‘tracking’ versus ‘following’ someone – ‘tracking’ typically means using signs someone leaves behind in the environment to figure out where they’re going, how many people are involved, etc., whereas ‘following’ typically means maintaining visual contact with the person you want to keep track of. For the purposes of this article I’m just going to use the word ‘tracking’ for both, since the goals are essentially the same.Continue reading“Hiding and Tracking – Part 1, by J.M.D.”