The latest meme created by JWR:
Meme Text:
Alabama Just Enacted Permitless Concealed Carry
News Links:
Alabama to Allow Concealed Guns Without Permit in 2023.
“And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.
And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.
And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.
And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.
And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.” – Mark 9:1-9 (KJV)
On January 7, 1785 a manned balloon crossed the English Channel for the first time. French inventor Jean-Pierre Blanchard took about 2.5 hours to fly from Dover to Guînes, France. Blanchard was a pioneer in hydrogen balloon design.
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Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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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.
Anyone who leaves home should bring a Get Home bag with them. We regularly hear of incidents in which people leave home expecting a 30-minute jaunt in their climate-controlled vehicle only to find themselves in a grim, hours-long ordeal without even a bottle of water to tide them over. In some instances the individuals could simply pull over to the side of the road and walk home, but they are wearing high-heeled shoes and have no coat: after all, they had no intention of doing any walking nor did they expect to be out of their warm vehicle any longer than it takes to walk into a warm building.
Precisely what “getting home” entails depends on each person. I am blessed to work approximately 3 miles from where I live when I am not working at home. In the event that I had to walk home suitable outerwear, comfortable shoes, and a bottle of water would usually be adequate for the task. However, like most people, I am sometimes much farther from home. It may take several days to get home if I am required to walk and I will need some basic supplies to make that feasible.
The typical solution is some sort of rucksack. This may take the form of a military-style bag or it may simply be a book bag. In most cases it involves a bag that is suspended from the shoulders (or, worse still, a sling pack that is suspended from one shoulder). Anyone who has done any significant amount of backpacking knows how painful that can be if the bag is more than a few pounds. The only people who plan to carry a 40-pound “get home” bag on their shoulders for 10 miles (and then do it again the next day and the day after) are soldiers and people who have never actually done it.
In this article, I’m suggesting an alternative: the lumbar pack. The photo below shows my Get Home Bag: it is a Mountainsmith Day model lumbar pack, featuring a wide, heavily padded hip belt together with the optional shoulder straps. The shoulder straps only stabilize the load; the weight of the pack rests on the hips.Continue reading“A Get Home Bag Alternative, by Rick S.”
To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make 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 this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
I had to handle some bothersome tax paperwork this week, and I did my annual desk clearing. There was at least a small sense of accomplishment there. By the way, I have found an accountant to handle my taxes. Hopefully, that will be a smooth transition.
Out in the shop, I’ve been making progress on the second-story flooring and partitions. It is gratifying to see that project coming along.
There has been very little snow in the past 10 days, so I haven’t had to plow. The piles of snow that I’ve pushed back has formed very stout walls. They obviously are now there for the rest of the winter. I’m glad that I allowed lots of room for that snow, since we are experiencing a more snowy winter, than usual. Even with temperatures in the mid-30s on most days, the snow in our parking area and on the lane out to the county road has been frustratingly slow, in melting. This has left a thin layer of ice that makes it treacherous to walk. As is our habit, this time of year we all wear YakTrax on our boots (pictured), and we move around with deliberate caution.
The 2005-2022 USB archive stick project is progressing well. This year, the archive will be on a 32 GB stick. With all of the new bonus books, there was no way to fit everything on a 16 GB stick. The waterproof archive sticks should be orderable by January 22nd. Thanks for your patience.
The only change to the livestock feeding and stock tank routine this week was hauling out a couple of new salt blocks. The sight of a fresh, crisp-cornered salt block always causes a brief burst of attention and the usual dominance assertion games among the cows and horses.
Now, over to Lily’s part of the report.Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”
“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” – Psalm 90 (KJV)
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.
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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.
Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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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.
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.)
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:
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.)
(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.)
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:
In place of my usual news items and commentary on economics and the markets, I have some annual housekeeping to do:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
“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
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.
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Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
—
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.
(Continued from Part 2.)
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.
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.”
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.
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 food security in coming decades.
Until now, how energy and fertilizer price rises and export 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 production costs on food prices, health and land use until 2040.”
Reader V.L. sent us this: Data of 72 Million Insured Shows “Sudden, Unexpected Deaths Exploded” in Germany Since 2021.
Forbes reports: The 10 Safest (And Unsafest) Cities In America. This article links to the more detailed WalletHub report.
“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
