Obsoleting Sodium Hypochlorite – The MSR SE200, by Hugh Latimer

…brine solution through another run, which raised the temperature to 130°F and did indeed double the strength of the solution. There is, however, no need to produce double (or more) concentration levels as it only takes six minutes to produce enough to treat 200 liters of water to the 1ppm level. Also, when you use the test strips, make sure you are testing your treated water, not the chlorine solution from the SE200. This is a common error and you will not get a good reading on the strips (The included strips appear orange when tested this way). The point of the test is to test for residual chlorine in your drinking water to determine if you are disinfecting it enough. There is no point in testing the produced solution because you already know it contains chlorine. A Few Warnings Warning one: The fact that you can smell chlorine (and…




Seven Ways to Save Money Under Obamacare, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

…the test strips can be costly.  You can also obtain a test kit for hemoglobin A1C for under $10/test on Amazon and elsewhere.  Simple urine strips (see above) aid in testing your urine for protein, ketones, and sugar.  There is more information available free online to anyone than I had access to as a medical student.  Check out aafp.org for dozens of free articles.  Ideally you should work with your own doctor now (while you can) to establish a treatment regimen you can follow and monitor on your own when no doctor’s help is available. When I teach my Survival Medicine classes, I tell my students that we’re aiming at the 90%, i.e. those with typical problems – not the 10% with severe or unusual conditions.  The foregoing information does not cover every situation, but it does apply to most, and I think 90% is a good place to start. …




Letter Re: A Definitive Corrosive Ammo Test

Dear Mr. Rawles, Here is the definitive test to determine whether ammunition is corrosive or not.  The procedure is credited to Small Arms Review publisher Dan Shea. This test is simple, quick, cheap and conclusive. THE BRITE NAIL TEST 1. Take a suspect round, pull the bullet and dump out the powder. I like to also take a known corrosive round as well for a benchmark. 2. Take a few brand new “brite” (i.e. non-galvanized) steel nails with a head size just large enough to fit into the case mouth. Degrease the nails in acetone or other and roughen them slightly with sandpaper. Drive the nails into a block of wood. 3. Slip the empty cartridge cases over the nail heads, and taking appropriate safely precautions (shielding, eye protection, gloves, etc) pop the primers with a punch and hammer. [Dan Shea recommends the following additional safety precaution: Take a piece…




Prepping for Fishing in TEOTWAWKI, by W. in Atlanta

…non-rolling – pin of steel or coated material, or are integral to the rotating head and have a serrated edge, not unlike like a bread knife, with a predictable impact on line wear. With these reels the line quickly twists and frays, as any dad with a fishing kid can attest. As a result, line life is very short compared to reels that have ball bearing line rollers such as spinning reels or reels where there is very little contact with the line as it is retrieved, such as bait casting reels. Another factor: the design of these reels is utterly incompatible with saltwater because of its closed face which traps salt water, and quickly rusts the reel out unless you have the time and means to meticulously clean and air, re-lubricate and reassemble the reel after each use. So unless you have plenty of extra line and spare time…




Combat Fitness and Physical Readiness for Survival, by “HardCorpsBear”

…crunches test. But I’ve seen some pretty “tough” guys fall-out vomiting from our new test. The new test consists of a combat simulation based on our recent actions in Haiti, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The first element is a Movement to Contact; running to the fight. It’s an 800 meter “sprint” in full utilities and boots. The second element is an Ammo Re-supply. You lift a 30 lb. ammo can from your chest to an overhead, arms-extended position as many times as you can in two minutes. The third element is a 300 meter Movement Under Fire. Start in a prone position, as though firing a rifle from a covered position. Sprint 25 meters to another covered position and hit the deck, back into a prone position. Low-crawl on your belly for 10 meters. High-crawl on your hands and knees for another 15 meters. Stand and sprint through a 25-meter…




The Big Picture on Gold, Silver, Real Estate, and the U.S. Dollar

I have come to the conclusion that the nascent implosion of the U.S. residential real estate bubble is going to have some far-reaching macroeconomic consequences. We are just starting to see the beginning of the real estate collapse. The adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) reset clock is ticking, and the home foreclosure rate is just starting to spike. I predict that in just three or four months, the housing market collapse will be just as big a news story as the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. There will be plenty of hand wringing and finger pointing. The lenders that foolishly loaned billions of dollars to home buyers that weren’t actually credit worthy will get most of the blame. There will be congressional investigations. There will also probably be some Enron-esque collapses of banking and derivatives trading giants. Followed, of course, by some sort of bailout at taxpayer expense. (Some…




Letter From Lawyer Describing Real Estate During the Great Depression

…not reach any great peak, but in the years 1931 and 1932 the tidal wave was upon us. Insurance companies and large investors had not as yet realized (and in some instances do not yet realize) that, with the low price of farm commodities and the gradual exhaustion of savings and reserves, the formerly safe and sane investments in farm mortgages could not be worked out, taxes and interest could not be paid, and liquidation could not be made. With an utter disregard of the possibilities of payment or refinancing, the large loan companies plunged ahead to make the Iowa farmer pay his loans in full or turn over the real estate to the mortgage holder. Deficiency judgments and the resultant receivership were the clubs they used to make the honest but indigent farm owners yield immediate possession of the farms.” “Men who had sunk every dollar they possessed in…




Getting Real About Unarmed Combat, by R.G.

Before I get to my take on unarmed combat, I want to make a few points: First, if you are totally unarmed at any time before it hits the fan, and especially after, you are not taking survival, or life seriously; and you are probably already screwed because your enemies will not be unarmed. Second, the last I checked this isn’t “the middle weight champion of the world blog”, it is “SurvivalBlog” which should be a real clue as to what you look for in an unarmed combat skill set. Third, I readily admit I have never killed a person in unarmed combat and welcome input from anyone who has concerning flaws in my reasoning or conclusions; preferably someone who has killed more than one person so his comments are drawn from actual experiences.  Anyone can get lucky once. Fourth, I am using terminology to accurately describe what I am…




Airsoft for Survival Training Adventure, by John Durfee

…or sleeping area using local materials and tarp. You’ll have to bring your own food and water. Since these games are full immersion, even when you’re ready for bed you have to stay alert for surprises coming at a moment’s notice. If there are local sources of water around, like a stream, you can put your portable water filtration devices to the test so you know its reliable when needed. On a recent excursion, we arranged night watch shifts–nothing feels greater than being the only one awake in your unit, keeping an eye out for moving shadows. In the day you’ll work with your group or squad and practice maneuvers such as stalking, advancing, assault, and defense. Make sure to ask the event planner if you can practice first aid on “injured” soldiers with faux sprained ankles, cuts, and broken bones using a real First Aid Kit. You’re allowed to…




Letter Re: Should You Invest in Real Estate?

To quote Robert Prechter, “Short Answer is: no. Long Answer: The worst thing about real estate is its lack of liquidity during a bear market. At least in the stock market, when your stock is down 60 percent and you realize you’ve made a horrendous mistake, you can call your broker and get out (unless you’re a mutual fund, insurance company or other institution with millions of shares, in which case, you’re stuck). With real estate, you can’t pick up the phone and sell. You need to find a buyer for your house in order to sell it. In a depression, buyers just go away. Mom and Pop move in with the kids, or the kids move in with Mom and Pop. People start living in their offices or moving their offices into their living quarters. Businesses close down. In time, there is a massive glut of real estate.” This…




Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

…several hundred thousand dollars from last years listing prices with some more room to maneuver. I’m working on several plans for groups in survival real estate. My preliminary thoughts are that it would require folks who have been humbled enough to be thankful just to have ‘something’ to go to in a time of peril and folks that have a sum of cash they need or want to invest in such a venture, but not enough to buy or build their retreat. I’m looking for ten investors that can put in $100,000 to $150,000 each to pool together $1 million to $1.5 million USD. This would be enough to purchase an amount of acreage and build one large building with ten separate living quarters with a large common area(s), something like a survival condo(s) complex, but complete with a communal basement bio-bunker, food storage, indoor range, indoor greenhouse, individual walk…




Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

…valley at the confluence of the St. Joe and St. Maries rivers, with the St. Joe river being the highest elevation navigable river in the world and some of the best blue ribbon trout fishing around. Benewah County, unlike Latah County (Potlatch, Deary, Moscow) has land development rules that are very appealing to anyone wishing to purchase a larger parcel then split it up to walk away with their portion free and clear. Although the regular real estate market is not doing well at all one may be surprised how easily a covenant community of preparedness folks would sell in the hard times to come. I’m currently working to review and approve several modestly priced retreats for SurvivalRealty.com in the St. Maries region priced from the low $300,000’s to one at about $420,000 on 20-to-40 acres, respectively. One of these is totally off the grid with a timber/cedar framed home…




Useful Transceivers for Most Preppers, by Tunnel Rabbit

…a base station. Also I tell the students to use their radio and get on the air and learn how to communicate with other Hams. JAK Thank-you Tunnel Rabbit for this information. It was understandable for a not even newbie like myself. I have not prepped in the Comms. category because I thought it was too technical. Now I will get a SSB CB and begin my education! Lee Thank you TR. Being a ham with my extra ticket I was surprised when my mentor (Elmer) purchased a Baofeng radio. Several years ago he showed me a new inexpensive radio that he was excited about. It was an early version of the Baofeng handheld. He noted it was clumsy to program and in some cases difficult to operate as he happily played with his new radio. Hams generally like a challenge and enjoy figuring new stuff out. I personally do…




Staying Hidden Online, by Z.M.

…extension that allows you to see all of the sites that are tracking you, and it allows you to control which sites actually do. If it’s a site that you really like and want to support (ads are how a lot of sites make money), you can keep the analytics and trackers on still. I permit tracking for a few sites I really appreciate. ScriptBlock ScriptBlock is another Chrome extension. This one cuts down on the number of third party sites that track your web searches/activity. Let’s say you’re in the market for a new computer. If you do a lot of research online for best models and then go to a shopping site (Amazon, eBay, et cetera), those sites may literally be able to see the last sites that you visited and then use that information to create appropriate advertisements for you (computers, keyboards, cases, et cetera). This usually…




Low-Tech Off-Grid Living, by Ani

…still lost all food that required refrigeration and ended up using it to run my well and a few small conveniences. I still keep the generator and plenty of fuel on hand for that purpose but once noise security became an issue that too would end. BWL Great thought LC. BWL There is a wonderful community here in the comments section. ShepherdFarmerGeek Ani, Not only filled with thoughtful content but nicely written as well. Thank you! BWL Great article Ani! I agree that “green” energy is not really green. I would like to go completely off grid so I could cut the cord to the power company. I can see the use also as a transition when the grid goes down. Bravo Delta Good, realistic comments indeed. Thank you! St. Funogas Hi Ani, great article, well thought out, organized, and thought provoking. This is what I call a “coffee” article:…