CRKT HZ6, by Pat Cascio

It’s always fun when I get to test a knife design by a real martial artist. Having spent 35 years in the martial arts myself, I’ve run across more than a few wannabe Black Belts who aren’t really a Black Belt at all. It’s easy enough to purchase a piece of paper that states you are an expert in some form of martial arts. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “martial art” know that it means a person specializes in a “military art” of some sort. You can always find some martial arts school that teaches you how to win a trophy – and I don’t have a problem with that, if you want to walk down the street with your trophy. but ehen it comes to real fighting, you’ll have to go quite some distance to find a real fighting arts dojo with a truly competent teacher. My long-time friend, Master Tom Saviano, is the real deal – he trained under our mutual friend, Master John McSweeney – who has long since gone to the martial art dojo in the sky.

I knew McSweeney for quite a few years before his passing, and there wasn’t anything phony about him or his skills. We even co-hosted several firearms and hand-to-hand classes, and I can honestly say, John was the real deal, in every respect – he knew what he was talking about and teaching. Having said that, my own OC3 double edge fighting knife, produced by Columbia River Knife & Tool, came out too late for McSweeney to get one. However, Saviano has one of these knives hanging on the wall of his dojo and is always showing it to curious students. My OC3 was meant to be a fighting knife. But a lot of purchasers have written to me, and said it was a great all-around survival knife.

I’ve reviewed several knives by James Williams, and can honestly say that the man is a genius when it comes to designing fighting knives – fixed-blade and folders as well. He teaches armed and unarmed fighting skills all over the world – he’s the real deal. So, I was more than a little pleased with CRKT sent me his latest fighting knife to test. Many knife designs can function in a different category, however, the HZ6 is a pure fighting knife design, in my humble estimation.Continue reading“CRKT HZ6, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: JWR’s Cran-Bran Cold Cereal

The following super-simple dry recipe is for my current favorite home-mixed breakfast cereal. Yes, I know that Cranberry Bran cereal is also commercially made. But since I have some Scottish blood, I tend toward frugality. Hence, I buy the inexpensive generic store brand bran flakes from the “nearby” supermarket. That is a little over 50 miles away. We buy our cranberries and almonds in bulk from Azure Standard. Thus, they cost us only half as much as buying name-brand froed cranberries — such as Ocean Spray. I make this “Cran-Bran” cereal up in quantity, and keep it in our pantry in one-gallon glass jars.

Ingredients
  • 16 cups plain bran flakes
  • 1+ cup of high-moisture dried cranberries. (Use a larger proportion, if that suits your taste and your digestion)
  • 1/2 cup slivered or finely-chopped raw almonds (optional)

This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled, to stock up.

Depending on your preferences, raisins can of course be substituted, or used in equal amounts with cranberries.

Directions
  1. Mix together in wide-mouth one-gallon jars, pouring in the ingredients with a large canning funnel.  I prefer to lay down alternating layers of the ingredients until the jar is two-thirds full, and then shake the jar for 10 to 15 seconds.
  2. Then add more bran and a few cranberries to completely fill the jar, and cap it. Voila!
SERVING

Serve with cream or milk. The milk can be warmed first (or come straight from your dairy cow or dairy goat), if it is a chilly morning. There is no need to add a sweetener — although I have found that a dash of maple syrup doesn’t clash with the bran, cranberry, and almond flavors. And, of course, eat the cereal right away, before it gets soggy.

STORAGE

Even with high-moisture cranberries, this seems to store well for two months. But for any longer duration, I presume that it is best to store the ingredients separately.

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Do you have a favorite home-mixed cereal (hot or cold) recipe that would appeal 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 and slow cooker recipes, and any 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. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the sagging fortunes of Credit Suisse. (See the Derivatives section.)

Precious Metals:

It appears that the currently atypical gold-to-platinum ratio is starting to revert. When I last checked, gold was down to around $1,675.50 per Troy ounce and platinum was up to $919.20 per Troy ounce. So we can say goodbye to the aberrant ratio, which recently got close to 2:1. It might be safe to predict that the more historically average 1:2 ratio will return. That is where the ratio settled, during the last major economic recession. Do you care to do some ratio trading out of gold and into platinum, at your local coin shop?  If so, then do that fairly soon. – JWR

o  o  o

The spot and futures price of silver was pushed down again, late last week. It was at $18.63 per Troy ounce, the last time I checked. This is another good juncture to buy, if you’ve been a dawdler.

o  o  o

Arkadiusz Sieroń, over at Gold-Eagle: FOMC Minutes Don’t Offer Any Hope For Gold.

Economy & Finance:

Fed officials expect higher rates to stay in place, meeting minutes show.

o  o  o

IMF Blog: Interest Rate Increases, Volatile Markets Signal Rising Financial Stability Risks.

o  o  o

Germany heading towards stagflation in 2023.

o  o  o

It is rumored that Intel corporation is planning to layoff up to 20 percent of some divisions on October 27th.

o  o  o

Inflation Front and Center This Week as Markets Remain on Edge.

o  o  o

At The Guardian (UK): Market Turmoil.

o  o  o

A consulting client asked me to summarize my approach to investing. I told him that I emphasize tangibles over conceptuals. I believe that if you learn to discern the real value of things, then you’ll have a basic grasp of how to make money.  But if you learn to discern the true intentions of businessmen and politicians, then you will become a master of making a lot of money. – JWR

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 16, 2022

October 16th, 1859 was the second day of abolitionist John Brown’s raid against the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Although the raid failed, it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election. Brown’s raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly impossible and thus became an important impetus of the Civil War.

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An update for those readers who are quitting PayPal: My GabPay account is now set up and working! The address for that is “JamesWesleyRawles“, to send me funds via GabPay. Please note that GabPay is now our preferred payment method.

I’m now also working to get an AlignPay merchant account so that I can take credit card payments — for SurvivalBlog Ten Cent Challenge donations, consulting payments, and merchandise payments for Elk Creek Company.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 103 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 $750,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 103 ends on November 30th, 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.

 

 

My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 4, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article)

SOLAR PANELS

In this section I’ll cover something I haven’t seen discussed in any of the books and articles I’ve read on solar panels so don’t skip over this next part. I hope by the end of this that some will be convinced they’re a very good idea for now as well as a post-SHTF lifestyle. They’re relatively inexpensive and easy to install with a DIY approach.

With solar panels our life can proceed as usual in so many different areas which will make our transition to TEOTWAWKI simpler. Not only will our life be much easier, but we’ll also be able to provide services for our neighbors who didn’t have the foresight to install them. Just as a few examples, we can fill their water barrels from our functioning well and also charge the 12 Volt batteries salvaged from their vehicles. These can run many of the 12v repurposed items from our vehicles such as lights, windshield-wiper and door-window motors, and the pumps used by the washer fluid apparatus among others.

My recent article Using Grid-Tied PV Panels as a Starter System (Part 1, Part 2) on using grid-tied solar panels was a good start, but little did I realize until I did this full-blown 10-day test just exactly what my system can do as an off-grid setup. This was the single best discovery of my off-grid experience. The bottom line is, with a few tweaks to my routines, my particular grid-tied system can be used as an off-grid setup using just a single 12v deep cycle battery ($100) instead of a large battery pack.Continue reading“My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 4, by St. Funogas”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;” – Hebrews 3:1-14 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 15, 2022

Herbert W. McBride, the author of A Rifleman Went To War, was born in Waterloo, Indiana October 15, 1873.
He died in Indianapolis of a heart attack on March 17, 1933, shortly after finishing writing A Rifleman Went To War.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 103 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 $750,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 103 ends on November 30th, 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.

My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.)

Day Four

It was completely overcast by 06:30. Yes! I can fully test my solar panel output.

Freezer temps before the morning solar-panel electricity came on: 24°F. I can deal with that if it never gets any warmer during the test, and it didn’t. This on/off freezer method could potentially work year-round so let the SHTF when it wants. As the days get shorter and less solar power is available, seasonal temperatures also get cooler making it easier for the freezer to keep up in my unheated shop. This will be an interesting comparison test for the winter grid-down trial. I added a third column to my freezer temperature-recording sheet: ambient temperature.Continue reading“My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 3, by St. Funogas”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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!

Jim Reports:

Our shop insulating/partitioning/pegboarding/shelving project is still in progress. After I get all of the rivet shelves in place, the next steps will be to better organize our tools and supplies. That surely will keep me busy for several weeks, this winter. But, hey: “What’s time, to a hog?”

Speaking of our shop, we will soon be in the “decorating” stage. As long-time SurvivalBlog readers may recall, I’m a collector of license plates. With the new shop partitions, I will have room to add a lot more plates to my collection. So I’m making a special request:  If you have any spare old plates, then please box them up in a USPS Flat Rate Box and mail them to me. I would really appreciate getting them!

I might want to now branch out into collecting foreign plates and really old plates, but presently my license plate collection has four major themes:

  • Bible verse custom plates.
  • Permanent plates or plates with “Perm” stickers.
  • Custom plates with references to hunting, guns, cartridges, or calibers.
  • Wildlife theme plates — especially deer or elk

The inspiration for starting my license plate collection dates back to around 1974, when I saw one of the first “vanity” plates on a Jeep in my hometown of Livermore, California. It read:  “7MM4ELK“.  (California introduced custom plates in 1970, in a law signed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan.)

Our mailing address:

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

Many thanks!

Now, over to Lily…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.

The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.

The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.

He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.

He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall.

The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.

Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.” – Proverbs 10:1-12 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 14, 2022

The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 14, 1962, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs were taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane and offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles were in Cuba. These missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads and were stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 103 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 $750,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 103 ends on November 30th, 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.

My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.)

I started a to-do list for when the test is over. It started with:

  • Can 12 quarts or more of water.
  • Figure out how much water the plumbing pressure tank holds from 50 psi down to 0 psi
  • Many others, mentioned below.

I went to bed that night at 21:30. In the fifteen seconds it took for me to fall asleep, a quick thought passed through my head: How nice it was to have complete darkness, able to see all the stars out of my loft window with no little lights from the television and DVD player, the computer’s power strip, the night light downstairs.

And so ended Day One.

The Manual

One of the immediate realizations on Day One was that a Manual of some sort was needed, especially for Day One when most of my mistakes were made. You don’t want to be sitting around brainstorming on Day One about things so critical. This is important when the SHTF and helpful when Katrina comes roaring into town as well.

Keep in mind the Manual is for an actual real-life SHTF situation, not just for a preps test.

My Manual sections will include:

DO THESE FIRST! – Short and sweet Page One with the utmost important things like taking care of the freezers and turning sink-faucet valves to half open. When the SHTF, read page one as a group before doing anything else.
Large-font, clear headers on each page.
Prioritize the must-dos in order.
Refrigerators and freezers taped shut and freezers quickly consolidated if necessary, then get them running on the generator if it’s during the warmer months until the solar panels can take over in the morning. This will vary with the time of year depending on the ambient temperature. The time of year will also cause variation on what’s in the freezer so the generator is a very temporary fox while a plan is formulated on how to preserve the contents. This will be a very important high-priority item for my Week One.Continue reading“My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 2, by St. Funogas”

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. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at stocking up on fasteners, for construction. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Trading the Gold-Silver Ratio.

o  o  o

Credit Suisse & USD Policy: Signposts of Systemic Implosion to Gold Explosion.

Economy & Finance:

At Zero Hedge: “It’s A Global Margin Call. I Hope We Survive”.

o  o  o

Reader D.S.V spotted this: “Gone Woke”: PayPal Stock Fined 6% after Flood of Users Cancel over $2,500 ‘Misinformation’ Debacle.  JWR’s Comments: In addition to account closures, they also lost untold millions, with the cautious withdrawals from positive PayPal balances. Nearly all non-Muslim banking organizations make a considerable profit on the lending of the float of uncleared payments and of positive balances. As deposits decline, the float drops correspondingly. Unless the $2,500 bad boy fine policy “mistake” was signed off by the CEO, CFO, and the Board of Directors, methinks that there will be quite a few PayPal employees who get escorted out the door, this week.

o  o  o

Ed Yardeni: Fed’s Only Got Room for One More Hike.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”