For Love of a Troy Bilt Horse, by MZee

During my life, I have had plenty of experience with horses of the four-legged variety, acquired mostly while raising horse-loving daughters. Generally speaking, I found them to be expensive, messy, occasionally dangerous, and by the way did I mention expensive? My daughters have grown up so we no longer have horses on the property but the experience gained from this time may prove valuable should society or our infrastructure deteriorate.

I have chosen to write today about a horse of a different color namely red Troy Bilt Horse rototillers which have become an interesting part of my life in recent years. Food production and distribution issues have developed in ways that I had never expected to see here in the US. Having lived overseas in places where these problems are commonplace, I have learned of the value of local and personal food production in the form of a garden. A decade ago, I started developing a 1/10th acre garden next to our newly built rural home. The land was originally a productive field but after the construction process the soil was more compacted construction debris than fertile. So began my quest to build it into a decent garden. As a kid, my father had a small backyard garden that we turned and prepared using a shovel and rake. Back then I remember seeing ads for Troy Bilt Horse rototillers with pictures of beautiful turned soft soil that begged to be planted in.Continue reading“For Love of a Troy Bilt Horse, by MZee”

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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Our Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson was the first of several folks to mention this: Bear and bulletproof travel trailer is ready for the roughest stuff.

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Canada’s Gun Confiscation Program in First Phase.

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NASA: We’d Have a 30-Minute Warning Before a Killer Solar Storm Hits Earth.

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End of a love affair: AM radio is being removed from many cars. (A hat tip to D.S.V., for the link.)

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Tam, at the long-running and never boring View From The Porch blog pointed me to this thought-provoking essay: To the Graduating Class of 2023…  The essay begins:

“I can’t help but feel like a chapter in the evolution of social media is drawing to a close.

Now, surely some of this feeling is a product of my changing perspective. I got my first social media account when I was 19 years old and signed up for MySpace in college; I turn 41 later this month, and it’d be foolish to pretend that more than two decades of maturation hasn’t altered my relationship with social media.

Still, there’s no denying that something has shifted.

Between the haphazard-yet-thorough disassembly of Twitter at the hands of Elon Musk, the driftless and flailing “metaverse” obsessions of Facebook, and the can’t-put-my-finger-on-it-but-something’s-not-right-here vibe of Instagram these days, it’s hard not to feel like we’re at the end of an era. Social media will evolve and persist, but the monoculture days of everyone hanging out in the same few places are winding down.

Like many, I feel a pang of loss for these spaces, spaces from which I’ve taken a lot in the past two decades.

But I’m not here to throw a funeral.

Instead, I view this as a sort of graduation.

Some of us are leaving, headed for new and hopefully exciting places. Others will hang around town for a while, clinging to a moment we’re not quite ready to admit has passed. Things may be better or worse; all we can be sure of is that they’ll be different.”

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” –  Thomas Paine

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — May 16, 2023

Today is the birthday of clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader Woody Herman.  (Born 1913, died Oct. 29, 1987.)

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On May 16, 1997, Zaire’s president, Mobutu Sese Seko, ended 32 years of dictatorial rule, giving control of the country to rebel forces.

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Black Ovis (one of our affiliate advertisers) is running a 25% off Memorial Day sale on Mystery Ranch packs!  This sale ends on the 18th, so order soon.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 106 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. A $300 gift certificate from Good2Goco.com, good for any of their products: Home freeze dryers, pressure canners, Country Living grain mills, Emergency Essentials foods, and much more.
  4. 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).
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. 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. EBL is providing an EBL Voyager 500-Watt Power Station with deep cycle lithium batteries, providing reliable 120 Volt AC and DC (12 Volt and USB) power for emergencies or outdoor use. (A $399 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 Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Montana Survival Seed is providing a $225 gift code for any items on its website, including organic non-GMO seeds, fossils, 1812-1964 US silver, jewelry, botany books, and Montana beeswax.
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $800,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 106 ends on May 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 Retreat for Aging Preppers, by Barbara H.

Addressing the problems facing aging preppers.

Start early!

Our initial problem was two-fold: Finding sustainable land while still trapped until I was retirement-eligible. Two years before retirement, we began our search for viable land approximately 100 miles from any major city. Our initial search was for about 20 acres, a nearby small town, and off of well-traveled roads. The land had to have a water source with a full-year-running creek.

Remember moving to an unknown rural community places you at a disadvantage of finding appropriate skilled help and unscrupulous persons who will overcharge you based on your lack of knowledge.

After locating a property, we purchased the acreage. About two-thirds of the property was clear-cut for pine lumber some 4 to 5 years earlier, which left an overgrown mess of brambles, briars, and debris The costs of clearing the land was substantial and we had not really budgeted for the costs. Not having any farming background was a disadvantage.

If you are in the market for land, do not assume that the low cost of the acreage is better than a more expensive acreage that is already cleared and usable.Continue reading“A Retreat for Aging Preppers, by Barbara H.”

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 of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Idaho’s population growth.   (See the Idaho section.)

Idaho

Idaho leads the U.S. in child population growth. The kid demographic has shrunk in most states. An excerpt:

“The number of adults in Idaho grew by 16 percent since 2017.

Boise is getting a lot of new residents from California, and northern Idaho is seeing more movers from Northern California, Washington and Utah. “It might be for ideological reasons, people looking for a more conservative lifestyle,” Vos said. He added that some people have left Boise as it has grown more crowded.

Throughout Idaho, housing prices have risen rapidly.”

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U of I begins construction on the nation’s largest research dairy.

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Lori Vallow convicted on all counts including first degree murder.

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University of Idaho is awarding posthumous degrees to four slain students.

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday — May 15, 2023

On May 15,1859, Physical chemist Pierre Curie, co-winner of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, (along with his wife, Marie Curie), was born in Paris.

Today is also the birthday of Evelyn Ernest Owen (15 May 1915 – 1 April 1949) He was an Australian who developed the Owen submachine gun which was used by the Australian Army in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

On May 15th, 1942, gasoline rationing began in 17 Eastern states as an attempt to help the American war effort during World War II.

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

EdgePro Apex 4 Knife Sharpening Kit, by Thomas Christianson

Many people know the theory of how to sharpen a knife. One needs only to sweep each side of the edge of a blade over a whetstone at a consistent angle until the edge is honed to perfection.

The problem is that it is extremely difficult to put that theory into practice. Few people can hold a knife at a consistent angle as they run it over a whetstone. I am not one of the skillful few who can hand sharpen a knife well.

I recently tested a tool that makes me feel like a knife-sharpening pro. It is the EdgePro Apex 4 Knife Sharpening Kit. I was able to get excellent results on three “problem” knives that had frustrated my attempts to sharpen them using other sharpening methods. With a price at the time of this writing of $285 at www.edgeproinc.com, the Apex 4 Kit is worth every penny. I highly recommend this excellent tool to anyone who sometimes struggles to get a good edge on a knife.Continue reading“EdgePro Apex 4 Knife Sharpening Kit, by Thomas Christianson”

Recipe of the Week: Spanikopita

The following recipe for Spanikopita is from SurvivalBlog reader Mrs. Alaska.

She writes:  This recipe is adapted from one in the wonderful book, The Boreal Forest, by Beverly Gray.

While traditional spanakopita is made with spinach, feta cheese, and phyllo pastry, the fact is that the filling can be made with ANY cookable leafy green (wild or domesticated) and any cheese. The phyllo, too, can be replaced with pie crust (so it would then be a quiche) or topped with biscuits, or spread over puff pastry.

For the spanakopita:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together 2 cups of feta (or other cheese), 2 cups of cottage (or other) cheese, 5 eggs, 2 TBS of flour or corn starch, herbs and seasonings of choice —  such as salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. I also add the juice and zest of one lemon.

In a wide pan, on low heat, wilt 5 cups of chopped greens with NO WATER. Traditionally, this is spinach, but I have also used dandelion, cabbage, and mixed leaves of beets, turnips, mustard, radish, lamb’s quarter, broccoli, and cauliflower. Obviously, the flavor will vary but the texture will not.

Add the wilted greens to the cheese mixture.

To make with phyllo:

Melt a stick of butter.

Butter a 9 x 12 baking pan.

Unroll a package of phyllo and cover the sheets so they will not dry out as you work.

One at a time, layer about 8 leaves of pastry, buttering each one. Then spread half or all of the greens/cheese mixture. Top with another 8 leaves of pastry, each one buttered, or insert an intermediate layer of phyllo if you wish.

Bake, uncovered for 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.

STORAGE

This freezes well and reheats well. I love it for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

Alternatives include pre-baking a pie shell or puff pastry and then topping them with the cheese/greens mixture and cooking for another 20 minutes for the thinly topped puff pastry or 40 minutes for the quiche.

Mrs. Alaska writes a blog about her off-grid life in remote Alaska.

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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!

 

Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. Most of these items are from JWR’s “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective. Today, a closer look at the natural gas and propane markets. (See the Commodities section.)

Precious Metals:

Silver prices surprise with a 5% selloff, but its structural bull market remains in place – analysts.

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At Gold-Eagle.com: Gold Forecast – Fiscal Crisis and the Next Great Depression by 2030.

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Drainage: China’s New Gold Wallet Will Suck the West Dry. (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.)

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And speaking of China, see this video: Massive FAKE Silver Scam Operation – BUYER BEWARE.

Economy & Finance:

Tracking regulatory changes in the Biden era.

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Why Does the Federal Reserve Target 2% Inflation?

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Buyer of Failed Silicon Valley Bank Reports $9.5 Billion Profit Following Acquisition.

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Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Warren Buffett Warns: The “Incredible Period” For The US Economy Is Ending.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“It appears that the murder rate inside prisons is ten times higher than that outside prisons. It must be due to all those Kalashnikov rifles that are issued to prisoners upon their incarceration.”- Col. Jeff Cooper

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — May 14, 2023

May 14th, 1686 was the birthday of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who invented the thermometer.

On May 14th, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, reestablishing the Jewish state after 2000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel,” prompting applause and tears from the crowd gathered at the museum. Ben-Gurion became Israel’s first Prime Minister.

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Today’s feature article is too short for consideration as an entry for Round 106 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. It was authored by “Mr. Alaska.”  You may recall that Mr. & Mrs. Alaska live off-grid in the Alaska bush, and that Mrs. Alaska blogs at: Alaska Bush Life, Off-Road, Off-Grid.

More than $800,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 106 ends on May 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.

Barter Networks as an Alternative to CBDCs, by Mr. Alaska

My wife and I have bartered our business talents for products and services over many years. Some have been bilateral exchanges with a single party. Others were through a barter network of many people. A sample of products we received in trade include an old 4-wheel drive truck, a new .338 Weatherby rifle, a kayak, 6 solar panels (and the associated expensive mounting frame), and $1,500 worth of meals at a favorite Mexican restaurant. We have also traded services for stock in a number of small companies. On informal bases, we trade goods with friends and neighbors, such as our honey for horseradish plants or our raspberry canes for flowering bushes.

A final example is that we have invited people to our remote home in Alaska who want a “workcation” in which they provide several hours a day of labor. Instead of paying them in cash, we teach skills of their interest (such as beekeeping and foraging), host them in our guest cabin, and provide round-trip transportation from a nearby city in our float plane.

Because so many post-apocalyptic books extol the virtues of barter, and because many people are currently concerned about the implications of the planned introduction of digital currency, I thought I would outline some advantages and disadvantages of bartering between companies or individuals, whether through larger barter networks or simple bilateral trades, based on our actual experience.Continue reading“Barter Networks as an Alternative to CBDCs, by Mr. Alaska”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

Meme Text:

There are an Estimated 30 Trillion Cells in a Human Body
And Every Somatic Cell is Encoded Either XX or XY. So Don’t Try to Tell Me That Gender Can Be “Fluid”, or You’ll Quack Me Up