An Illustrative Family Reunion Camping Trip, by MacHam

Editor’s Introductory Note: The following article illustrates the difficulties of what I often label “group dynamics.” Anyone who plans to operate a post-Schumer retreat with more than just two families should pay close attention! – JWR

I have just returned from a four-day family reunion and here are my observations. To set the stage I arranged for a four-day family reunion with several families of men, women and children. The time was end of July and into August 2022. The place was a much coveted remote Forest Service Group Site that could hold up to 200 people. The site was at about the 5,000 foot elevation and right next to a lovely salmon-bearing stream. The campground still had patches of snow that had yet to melt. It was about 250 feet wide and 500 feet long, and was level with over a dozen picnic tables and fire pits with three large vault toilets. The ability to book this site was over 15 months in the making because of the competition and was booked and paid for by myself for only $220 for all four days. To me, that is an incredible bargain.

I was excited to nail down this site with the days that I had wanted and to gather the families in a post-Covid world to see how everyone was. I had never been camping with most of my extended family so I had no idea of the skill level or lack thereof. We hear the constant drumbeat in the survival community of building community is more important than the air we breathe, so build community with family. Right? Well, here is my story.

I invited several families to join us in the mountains on this date. I sent via Facebook and Email the particulars of this site with the dates and times and travel directions. I had said that the Forest Service does allow pets but please leave your pets at home so there would not be any conflicts. I had warned in the messaging that this is a remote site with no cell service, no water, and no flush toilets and the temperatures could range from 90 degrees midday to 40 degrees at night. I explained, as camp host. I would provide three breakfast meals, on three mornings and the remaining meals were up to them. Also, hot water would be available for tea or ramen-type meals the entire day.
Continue reading“An Illustrative Family Reunion Camping Trip, by MacHam”

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:

This week was all about firewood. It is exhausting but rewarding work. When I first bought the ranch, half of it was a great big tangle of trees, with lots of deadfall, dead-standing trees of all descriptions, and lots of “cripples” and “leaners.” The property is now much less of a fire hazard, and it certainly looks better, overall. It is not fully “parked out” as some folks like to do, but it is thinned a bit and I’ve gradually eliminated most of the ground clutter. Most importantly, I’ve removed the dreaded “ladder fuels”. And now, after nearly 16 years of yearly firewood cutting here at the ranch, I’ve finally caught up with felling all of the dead-standing trees.  I can now walk through our timber groves, and give them a nod. I thank God for his wonderful providence.

As I was driving home from a shopping trip on Friday, I received some potentially very bad news on the radio, later confirmed with this news link:  FBI seized top secret documents at Trump’s home; Espionage Act cited. Since, by law, the President — as Commander in Chief of the armed forces – -is the final arbiter of classification status — and can downgrade or declassify any document at will — the key question is: Did he do so for those documents while he was still in office as President? Here is a key quote from that article:

“Agents were revealed to have collected a set of documents labeled “classified/TS/SCI documents,” a reference to top secret and sensitive compartmented material.”

Please pray for a just resolution to this situation!

Now, over to Lily…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it:

And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on him his ornaments.

For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.

Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.

For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” – Exodus 33:1-19 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — August 12, 2022

On August 12, 1908, Henry Ford’s company built the first Model T car.

On August 12, 1867 US President Andrew Johnson defied Congress, suspending Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 102 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. 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,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime low-cost training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  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 LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx, both made in USA.
  4. A transferable $100 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 102 ends on September 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.

Additive Manufacturing – Part 2, by M.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

As these CAD software options are 3D drafting programs, I strongly suggest purchasing a 3Dconnexion 3D mouse. It essentially provides a dedicated joystick used in conjunction with your normal mouse which you move as if you were holding onto the 3D object in real life and allows you to rotate and zoom in easily as doing so with a mouse can be frustrating without extensive practice. It is pricy at $150 (approximately the cost of a printer!), but well worth the expense.

With the step file produced, it is then converted to a stl file using the CAD program. A stl file converts the 3D design into that made up of many small triangles (stereolithography). It’s an old standard dating back to the 1980s but is used because it simplifies the object for the computer by only detailing the coordinates of the object’s “shell”. The computer then knows that anything under the stl shell is a solid object, and anything outside is empty, and this makes it simpler to write a g-code from this, even though we as humans would be able to look at a step file and immediately understand what is solid and what is not. Converting a step file to a stl file in a CAD program is simple as “save as” and changing the file format in the save window to an stl.Continue reading“Additive Manufacturing – Part 2, by M.”

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, a special look at the best guns and magazines to buy, in the era of The Bidenistas.

I have my own biases, so your mileage may vary…

Bidenista Schemes

I anticipate that Biden & Company will feel frustrated by their inability to enact their proposed ban on semi-automatic rifles and magazines. At that juncture, they will very likely implement an import ban, via one or more Executive Orders. This will outlaw the importation of most semi-auto rifles and pistols as well as any shotgun with a detachable magazine, or with a tubular magazine that can hold more than three shells.  At the same time, they may very well also ban the import of any magazines that hold more than 10 cartridges.

With that in mind, here are my recommendations on the best guns and magazines to invest in, in 2022 and 2023:

Modern Handguns:

Imported semi-auto handguns from Europe top my list.

Glocks of all descriptions. But you may say:  “But now they’re made by Glock USA!” To explain: The Glock USA pistols have American-made frames, barrels, and slides, produced on Glock-supplied tooling. The rest of the components come from Austria.  So, if there is an import ban, it might include these parts, bringing Glock USA production to a standstill for many months.

Walther pistols are all still made In Germany. Consider:

Walther PPQ. (These have amazing triggers.)

Walther PDP

Walther P99

Walther CCP

Most HK pistols sold in the US are now made in Columbus, Georgia, USA. These include the HK45 and Compact. But you can look for ones marked “DE” or “Made in Germany”, including:

HK VP9

HK SP5 and SP5K

Springfield Armory XD series pistols. (All are made in Croatia.)

European-produced SIG pistols. Note that The SIG factory in Eckernförde, Germany shut down in 2021. Most SIG pistol models are now 100% made in USA. But you can look for:

SIG Sauer P220 marked Made In Germany

SIG Sauer P226 marked Made In Germany. Try to find the pistols with stock numbers  E26R-9-BSS-GER or  E26R-9-B-GER.

SIG Sauer P210 (never produced in the U.S.)

CZ75 (all made in the Czech Republic). Collectors look for early production (“Pre-B”) pistols. But from a practical standpoint, the current-production guns are just as well made, and they have Picatinny rails, making them more versatile.

Most FN pistols on the American market are now made in Columbia, South Carolina.

FN Five Seven pistols. Look for ones marked “Made in Belgium”

FN 509 series pistols. Look for ones marked “Made in Belgium”

FN Hi-Power. Look for ones marked “Made in Belgium”

Note:  Regardless of the type of European pistol(s) that you invest in, be sure to buy plenty of extra original factory-made magazines.  Getting anything less than 8 spares would be a mistake.

Modern Rifles:

Search for AR-15 and AR-10 family rifles, preferably that are made by “top-tier” manufacturers.  These include;

  • Daniel Defense
  • Bravo Company (BCM)
  • Faxon Firearms
  • Diamondback
  • Noveske
  • Geissele
  • Lewis Machine & Tool (LMT)
  • Yankee Hill Machine (YHM)
  • Knights Armament Company (KAC)
  • Colt
  • H&K (416/417/516 series, but also consider the older HK91/93 series)
  • FN
  • Wilson Combat
  • LaRue
  • Midwest Industries (MI)
  • JP Enterprises
  • LWRCI
  • Barrett

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.” – Ronald Reagen

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — August 11, 2022

On August 11, 1857, N. H. Wolfe and Company, the oldest flour and grain company in New York City, failed. This failure shook investor confidence and began a slow selloff in the market which continued into late August. Several other failures followed, and this cascaded into what was later called the Panic of 1857.

—

I was asked by a consulting client about the 30+ agent FBI “fishing expedition” raid on DJT’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. What does it mean?  To me, it means that the rule of law is now essentially meaningless to the leftist plutocrats. The FBI needs to stop targeting patriots. The FBI, the DOJ, the IRS, the ATF, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and even the EPA have been turned into bullies, tasked with oppressing the political opponents of the Biden regime. The leadership of the Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been fully co-opted, so the region inside The Beltway has become rotten to the core. Pundits use terms like “politicized” and “weaponized” to describe this shift in Federal law enforcement. But regardless of the terminology or semantics, it is clearly evil.

Our Bill of Rights has now been reduced, as the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia warned, to mere “parchment guarantees.” The ongoing concentration of Federal power accelerated during the Obama years, and is now fully solidified in the White House, the Department of Justice, the offices of career bureaucrats in various agencies, and in Barack Obama’s 251,000-square-foot “post-presidential workspace” office building at 1250 24th Street NW, Washington, D.C..

Let’s face it, folks: There is a leftist cabal that has set up a junta, in the District of Criminals (D.C.). Along with their bankster buddies, they are orchestrating a coup en traître. And don’t expect the leftist mainstream media to report on their wrongdoings — since they are willing participants in the grand scheme. Anyone who vocally opposes them is a potential target of a tax audit (at the hands of 87,000 new IRS agents), an asset seizure, a lien, or a search warrant signed by one of the Bidenistas’ pet magistrates and judges, and executed by one of the aforementioned agencies.

In essence, they’ve declared war on patriots. They want to muzzle any opposition to the Biden-Harris regime. So, henceforth we must give ZERO cooperation to ALL of the enforcement arms of the Executive Branch. Do not answer ANY of their questions! Cite the Fifth Amendment, and politely send them packing. Do not consent to any searches without the physical presence of a hard copy of a signed court-issued warrant. Do not give up vault combinations, encryption keys, computer or crypto passphrases, the location of hidden items or hidden physical keys, or phone passwords (except in Florida), even if they do have a warrant. Make them work like the thieves they are, to complete their punitive assignments. Make them sweat for it. They cannot force you to say a word or lift a finger, to help them conduct any search. That would be tantamount to self-incrimination. (Cite the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Also, mention the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree doctrine. Repeat those, as necessary. Say nothing else.) Don’t fall for any of their coercion or intimidation. Sit down, shut up, fix your gaze on your clasped hands (or your feet if they’ve handcuffed you), and wait for them to hire a locksmith. And they can only do that only if the contents of a locked vault are specifically mentioned in a search warrant.

I must also remind you, dear readers, that it is high time to hedge your bets. Place most of your assets including your motor vehicles in one or more trusts. Keep some of your guns, ammo, and precious metals very safe hiding places where even metal detectors and thermal imagers won’t find them. Read: Buried deeply or in a wall cache adjacent to something made of steel, and preferably not at your address.

Oh, and make sure that your passport is up to date. Just in case.

If you need to report a crime — even an interstate crime — then don’t call the FBI. Instead, report it to your county sheriff’s office or your city police department. Again, ZERO cooperation with Federal authorities.

Come the next election, we’ll know how to vote. We need representatives that will disband the ATF, disband the EPA, eliminate all Federal gun laws — except perhaps a few import and export laws — break up the FBI into a few much smaller agencies with very restrictive charters, and eliminate income taxes. That would of course mean drastically downsizing the IRS. All in all, we need LESS government!

Continue to pray daily, for the restoration of our constitutional republic! – JWR

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 102 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. 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,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime low-cost training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  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 LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx, both made in USA.
  4. A transferable $100 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 102 ends on September 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.

Additive Manufacturing – Part 1, by M.

The community of emergency preparedness has devolved into something of a hoarder arms race. It’s not surprising why. Our threat assessment has changed from just being concerned about natural disasters that may last a few weeks, to being worried about our own government relentlessly sabotaging our way of life just for the kicks and giggles. Those with their eyes and ears open take nothing in our luxurious modern society for granted. But just because one can identify a problem doesn’t mean they have figured out an efficient solution to it. I have seen countless comments and videos by survivalists who do things like buy tons of dollar store or clearance “deals” because: it is “cheap” and “it might be useful”. The result is they get an ever-growing pile of junk that just makes it harder to keep track of your own possessions, and upsets the wife. If you can’t find what you need when you need it because you have too much clutter… do you actually have it?

There is a solution to this logistical nightmare, and it doesn’t involve renting storage, it’s additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing. When one thinks of a survival situation, most of us imagine a rural grid down situation, and not cutting-edge technology. The reality however is that most widespread emergencies even in the case of anarchy do not result in a true societal collapse. Those who have preparations to sustain electronics will be well ahead of the curve than those do not. Grid failure is no longer as big of a roadblock as it was before, with many more decentralized power generation options that are available at the consumer level. Nearly all of us at this point have some kind of power generation and battery bank setup at home. While 3D printing is a slow process that takes hours or even days to produce something, it is a very energy-efficient process with a peak of ~240W which is very similar to the power required to run a desktop computer, which isn’t exactly an electricity hog.Continue reading“Additive Manufacturing – Part 1, by M.”

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 Weather Forecasts for the Winter of 2022 /23.

Farmers’ Almanac: Extreme Winter Forecast for 2022-23

Steven Cochran — the kind contributor of our regular Month in Precious Metals column — sent the link to this summary: Farmers’ Almanac Releases an Extreme Winter Forecast for 2022-23.  Steven says:  “It looks like you’ll be in the hibernation zone. Folks up there better stock up on the canned food and firewood.”

NOAA Climate Prediction Center Forecast 2022-2033

Experimental Unofficial Long-Lead Forecasts: Two-Class Probabilities.

Extinct Pathogens Ushered The Fall of Ancient Civilizations

Andre spotted this, from Science Alert: Extinct Pathogens Ushered The Fall of Ancient Civilizations, Scientists Say.  Thsi articles’s opning:

“Thousands of years ago, across the Eastern Mediterranean, multiple Bronze Age civilizations took a distinct turn for the worse at around the same time.

The Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Akkadian Empire both collapsed, and there was a widespread societal crisis across the Ancient Near East and the Aegean, manifesting as declining populations, destruction, reduced trade, and significant cultural changes.

As usual, fingers have been pointed at climate change and shifting allegiances. But scientists have just found a new culprit in some old bones.

In remains excavated from an ancient burial site on Crete, in a cave called Hagios Charalambos, a team led by archaeogeneticist Gunnar Neumann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany found genetic evidence of bacteria responsible for two of history’s most significant diseases – typhoid fever and plague.”

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.” – Henry Ward Beecher

Rainwater Harvesting – Part 2, by K.R.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

Our Primary Rainwater Capture System

When the time came for us to put in a new garage, we had the opportunity to install a larger rainwater system that could also capture snow melt, as well as store water during the winter.

The collection system is an in-ground French drain running the 60-foot length of the building, between the eaves of the building and the hillside. The drain empties into a 1,000-gallon concrete underground cistern. We put in a septic tank for the toilet in the garage, so we just dropped a second septic tank to use as a cistern for this system. We use a small Eco-Worthy 12 volt DC submersible pump, powered by a 100-watt PV solar panel, to retrieve the water. An alternative retrieval method we use is an inexpensive Milescraft 1314 transfer pump, powered by an electric drill, to suck the water the 8 feet from the bottom of the cistern.

(When choosing a solar panel and a pump, make sure that the panel is rated at the voltage and power that matches the requirements of the pump. This way, the panel may be wired directly to the pump without any charge controller.)

The interior of the cistern is coated with a waterproof sealant, as the concrete is porous and would otherwise only hold water for a limited time. We used BASF MasterSeal 583, which also fills cracks in addition to providing a durable seal. The cistern is next to outdoor raised beds, a greenhouse, and the cow pen. Our well-fed hydrant is also nearby, so we can use either the well water or the cistern water on the garden, greenhouse, and animals.Continue reading“Rainwater Harvesting – Part 2, by K.R.”

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.

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A useful 22-minute instructional video: Basic Radio Comms Setup for SHTF — Featuring UV5R.

o  o  o

Reader Tim J. recommended this video from Grunt Proof: Why do all YouTube Preppers get Political?

“Bury your head in the sand all you want, but politics do have an affect on your life. Just ask the survivors of the holocaust, or literally every other catastrophe that has ever happened. If you want to prepare for survival, you can start by paying attention to what your elected officials are doing…”

o  o  o

Death from above, printed at home: Ukrainians deploy DIY weapons against Russian troops. (A hat tip to Reader S.B., for the link.)

o  o  o

Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen: What Is Wealth? The Answer Might Surprise You.

o  o  o

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne