An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 4, by J.M.

(Continued From Part 3.)

Information/References

I firmly believe that one of the keys to surviving almost any situation is having the right information, so I tried to include enough of the right information sources to get her through her journey. Fortunately, she has a decent cell phone in a rugged case, so she can use that in most scenarios. Here’s what I recommended:

  • Rand McNally maps (2.5 oz./ea., 5.0 oz. per trip) – These are hardcopy state-level plastic coated maps. They’re not as detailed as topo or Delorme Atlas and Gazetter maps, but they’re a lot lighter and more compact and adequate for generally finding her way home. Connecticut and Rhode Island are on one map, Vermont and New Hampshire are on one, so with Massachusetts and Maine she only needs to buy four maps in all, and she only needs to carry the ones for where she’s travelling. Typically she’ll only need 2 maps to cover her route home, so that’s 5 oz. total.
  • Clip-On Wrist Compass (1 oz.) – It’s not a full blown military compass, but it works well and it’s a lot lighter and more compact. Another good alternative is the Brunton Classic Tag-A-Long Plus Compass.
  • Open Street Maps (0 oz.) – I had her install this on her phone and download all of the detailed New England state maps. Even if GPS is out it can still provide her access to some pretty detailed topographic and landmark maps.
  • Trip plan (1.0 oz.) – I created an example of a trip plan and had her create one for each of her customer locations. It’s an 11”x14” color map printout with one side centered around the customer site that shows locations for the closest grocery stores, convenience stores, bike shops, gun shops, camping supply stores, etc., and the other side showing potential supply sources and locations of interest along her possible routes home. The paper is pre-folded and then coated with Aquaseal If electronics aren’t available this can provide her with possible locations to stock up on additional food supplies or purchase a bicycle, snowshoes, etc. to reduce her trip time.
  • Scanner Radio Pro (0 oz.) – This is an app for her cell phone that provides access to some local LE and other emergency radio traffic. I desperately wanted to justify including a handheld scanner radio that handles trunked comms in her backpack, since many New England LE and emergency services have switched to trunked, but the only options available are the Uniden Bearcat BCD325P2/BCD436HP or Whistler TRX-1 which are pretty bulky and heavy (> 8 oz. w/batteries). I ended up having her buy a Uniden BCD325P2 to carry in her suitcase on overnight trips, and I pre-programmed it using FreeScan with the frequencies for all potentially relevant groups, agencies, departments, etc. between her home and the various areas she visits. I had her install some rechargeable AA batteries and included a USB-C to Mini USB adapter so the batteries could be recharged right in the radio. I also had her include a mono earphone so she could listen to the radio without attracting attention, and I created a little half-page cheat sheet that shows her how to run the pre-programmed scans, select and run band scans, tune into specific frequencies, etc.
  • Survival/First Aid guides (1.1 oz.) – These are actually pretty useful and should help fill in any gaps in her knowledge/training.

Continue reading“An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 4, by J.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, we look at investing in surplus military vehicles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Asian Metals Market Update: China Cuts Interest Rate.

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Bubba Horwitz: Gold and silver continue to torture traders.

Economy & Finance:

China’s Property Sector Is Crashing Again And This Time It Has Reached The Country’s Biggest Developer. JWR’s Comments: This is still just the early phase of the Chinese debt crisis. By the time these huge malinvestments are worked out, I can foresee that they will have profound global effects on credit markets, the construction industry, construction-related commodities, the housing markets in many nations, and perhaps even national currencies.  I will post some further comments about this debt crisis, on Monday.

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CNN Business reports: Another big Chinese real estate developer might need to sell off property.

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Top 20 hedge funds earned USD65.4bn for investors in 2021, says LCH.

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: The Fed’s Huge Income Statement for 2021 Is Out: Where its Revenues Came from and Where They Went.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.” – Sun Tzu

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 20, 2022

Today is the birthday of Congressman Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794)

—

January 20th, 1993 is a Red Letter Day for me. That was the day that Bill Clinton was first sworn in as President. That is also the same day that I resigned my commission as a U.S. Army Captain. I did so because I detested the idea of Clinton as my Commander in Chief. My commissioning document has Ronald Reagan’s signature.

—

You may recall reading that my mother passed away, in October. Her house in Livermore, California just went up for sale, yesterday. That was where I lived, in my teenage and college years. It is one of just a handful of 4-bedroom/2-bathroom houses currently on the market in Livermore. I was stunned to see that it has already had 925 views at Zillow, and that 40 home searchers clicked “Save”. It seems that people are eager to move to a town like Livermore. Oh, by the way, an 800-pound gun vault is included, but that is in a bedroom closet and not visible in the virtual tour. It also has a nice producing apple tree and a tangelo tree, but otherwise, this tract house is nothing special. So, in the East Bay Area, $1.2 million will get you just a 2,128 square foot house built in 1969 on a 1/4 acre lot. But in North Idaho, just under $1 million will get you a 4,234 square foot house built in 1986 on 100 acres. – JWR

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 98 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 free 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 Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  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. 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. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 98 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 3, by J.M.

(Continued From Part 2.)

Food

This was one of the toughest areas to address – I didn’t want her to have to do things like hunt, fish, trap, or forage on the way, since those take a lot of time and can be very dependent upon the season, but 7 days’ worth of food is heavy and bulky so I proposed an alternate approach for her. Since she takes a suitcase and stays overnight for any trip that’s not immediately local, I recommended that she only keep 3 days’ worth of food in the backpack and bring another 4 days’ worth in her suitcase. That way she’ll have enough in her backpack to get home from any shorter trips without the extra weight and bulk of always carrying a full seven-day supply. If she’s on an overnight trip and has to ‘bug home’ she can ditch her laptop and work tools at the customer site or hotel and replace them with the extra food from her suitcase before heading out.

She has a pretty wide range of tastes in food, and in her own words likes pretty much everything, which simplifies what she should carry. In order to cut down on prep time, I wanted to include non-prep options for breakfast and lunch so the only time she needs to do any cooking or prep is once she’s stopped for the evening. She also mentioned that she frequently gets to her hotel really late when nothing’s open, so she’d like the option of bringing extra meals she can easily prepare in a hotel room.Continue reading“An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 3, by J.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 the threat of solar storms with coronal mass ejections.

Are We Ready for the Next Big Solar Storm?

Astronomy magazine asks: Are we ready for the next big solar storm? Here is a quote:

“Flares occur when electromagnetic radiation erupts from the Sun. These bursts often last a few minutes, though they are sometimes longer. They are sometimes associated with coronal mass ejections, which blow out gas material and magnetic fields. But not every solar flare or coronal mass ejection will have an impact on Earth; it depends on both the size of the burst and the direction it’s heading. If a solar flare occurs on the far side of the Sun, for example, it’s unlikely to affect us.

Even if it does happen on the near side, the direction of the burst often misses us — as we’re quite far away and a relatively small target compared to the Sun. This occurred in 2001, for example, when one of the largest solar flares in recorded history exploded into a coronal mass ejection at a speed of about 4.5 million miles per hour. Luckily, it swept by us on its way into space.”

(A hat tip to A.D. for the link.)

New Canadian Border Vaccine Mandate for Truckers

Trucking companies lose drivers as new border vaccine mandate comes into force. JWR’s Comment: This will only exacerbate supply chain problems. Plan on shortages!

A Multi-Mode ICOM IC-705 in a Hot Tent

Tim J. suggested this instructional video from Dave Canterbury: Hot Tent Radio Work.

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

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 19, 2022

Today is the birthday of the late Carla Emery (born 1939, died October 11, 2005). She is well known in self-sufficiency circles as the author of The Encyclopedia of Country Living.

January 19th is also the birthday of General Robert E. Lee.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 98 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 free 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 Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  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. 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. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 98 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued From Part 1.)

Shelter/Warmth

The next area involves protecting her core body temperature, especially while sleeping at night. One important thing to keep in mind is that in New England it gets down into the lower 60s or upper 50s at night, even in the summertime, and since you can get hypothermia at temperatures as high as 60 degrees you need to make sure you can stay warm and dry year-round. While there are various commercial and public buildings along most of her get-home routes that she could seek shelter in, I didn’t want to assume that would

I’ll be discussing specific seasonal considerations later on, but there are some items that should be included for all seasons.

  • Poncho/Tarp (7.7 oz.) – Used to stay dry when wearing or when set up as a shelter. I selected the OneWind one due to its light weight and decent size (89” x 56”). One modification I made for her was to add some ultralight tensioners in the center of the two short sides to allow it to be strung up lengthwise as an a-frame. Other tarp/poncho options I considered were ones from Terrapin and Sea-to-Summit, both of which were slightly larger, but heavier and a lot more expensive.
  • Merino wool hat (2 oz.) – This is good for keeping her head warm when it gets cooler at night.
  • Silk long underwear (5.1 oz. for both) – A lightweight top and bottom that increases comfort on chilly late spring/summer/early fall nights.
  • SOL Escape Bivvy (8.9 oz.) – This is the outer layer of the sleep system. It’s relatively lightweight, waterproof, breathable and reflects 70% of your body heat back. It’s also a lot more durable than those cheap mylar ones, so it can handle quite a few nights. I’ve used one myself on numerous camping trips and it easily adds 10-20 degrees of warmth. One other advantage over the cheap mylar ones is that it makes a lot less noise when moving around inside it.
  • 100′ of microcord (1.4 oz.) – This can be used to rig a shelter and lot of other things. I pre-cut two 15’ lengths and attached a small aluminum carabiner (.1 oz./ea.) to one end of each so she can quickly wrap it around a tree and run the free end through the tensioner on the poncho/tarp to rig it up. This stuff is rated at 100 lbs. tensile strength, which should be more than strong enough for any task she needs.
  • 4 x titanium shepherd hook stakes (.8 oz) – These are for staking down the corners of the shelter. Yes, she could find some sticks and carve some stakes, but that’s extra work that’s easily avoided with a minimal weight penalty.

Continue reading“An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 2, by J.M.”

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. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

—

Doug C. wrote:

“Take a look at this short two minute video.

A summary (in case the link is taken down):
in just 24 hours the people of Kazakhstan overthrew the entire government. The President, Prime Minister, and military are fleeing the country, and remainders, if caught being taken into arrest including doctors and vax center operators. Banks are being robbed.
The government increased the vax mandate to include requiring a proof of VAX QR code to withdraw money and that was the tipping point.
BBC News is claiming the revolt is regarding gasoline prices, but boots on the ground say that is a lie, and it is due to the vax mandate. Please spread the word far and wide.“

o  o  o

Georgia quietly becomes a top gun-making state. (Thanks to Todd M. for the link.)

o  o  o

Animal House wrote:

“I have two old pressure canners, one is 23 years old and the other 40 years old; thus the gaskets are shot. I have been searching for replacement gaskets for years. I found a silicon replacement for the younger canner about 5 years ago, but needed a rubber gasket for the senior canner. After much research, I found a small company in Montana that has rubber gaskets for pressure canners. Recommend you get your replacement parts from this family-owned business: Cooking & Canning Company, www.cookingandcanning.net. Phone: 623-327-1443″

o  o  o

Reader H.L. sent this news from Connecticut, but I suspect it is common nationwide: Anger, Aggression on the Rise, as Patients Face Long Waits, Limited Hospital Visits.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 18, 2022

January 18th, 1813 was the birthday Joseph Glidden, who invented barbed wire.

And speaking of barbed wire — and the lack thereof — Kevin Costner, who starred in Open Range, was born on this day in 1955.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 98 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 free 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 Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  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. 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. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  4. A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 98 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 1, by J.M.

A few months ago I was approached by a friend of a friend who asked me for some help. She’s a medical device service technician and her job takes her around most of New England visiting hospitals and other healthcare facilities to do service work on medical equipment. She lives in New Hampshire, and she and her husband have a nice spread with chickens, goats and a large vegetable garden and greenhouse. We’ve had talked several times about preparedness in general and how she would home after a disaster if she were on the road, and she finally decided it was an area she needed to address and asked me for some help putting together a lightweight Get Home Bag (GHB). I actually learned a lot myself while researching and helping her put the kit together, so I thought I’d share my experiences with SurvivalBlog readers.

I first spent some time talking to her and collecting information, and here are some critical points I came away with:

  • She and her husband both do a good amount of hiking and biking, so she’s in good physical condition.
  • Her company facility is located just outside of Boston, and she frequently goes into the office.
  • She covers customers all over New England, usually located in or around major metro areas (Boston, Portland, Concord, Warwick, Hartford, Burlington, etc.).
  • She hates to drive, so she takes public transportation pretty much all the time for anything more than a half hour away. She also doesn’t like to fly, so she takes trains, commuter rails, subways, busses, Uber, etc.
  • Her customers tend to schedule maintenance for the graveyard shift when the equipment isn’t in use, so she frequently stays overnight at a local hotel for any trip that’s not local. For overnight trips she brings a roller suitcase in addition to her carry bag.
  • She has a company-issued laptop and toolkit for working on the equipment.
  • She gets paid pretty well, and recently she received a nice bonus that she’s willing to spend part of on a decent kit. However, she’s also Yankee born and raised, so she’ll want to save money where she can.
  • She’s around 5’8” and 145 lbs. (And wasn’t that an awkward question…)
  • We figured it would take her around 7 days to walk home from her furthest customer site (Burlington, Vermont), assuming only moderate obstacles (e.g. no major blizzard, city not locked down, etc.) She spends more than half her time in the greater Boston area, where she figures it would be a 2-3 day walk.
  • She wears disposable contacts most of the time, but has a set of glasses for backup.
  • She’d like to be prepared for a wide range of emergencies, not just walking home after a disaster.

Continue reading“An Ultralight Get Home Bag – Part 1, by J.M.”

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 embattled Wyoming Congressional Representative Liz Cheney. (See the Wyoming section.)

Idaho

Report: Boise PD chief under investigation by Idaho State Police.

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Shari Dovale, at Redoubt News: Will the Idaho Republican Party Throw the Voters Under the Bus?

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Over at INW Report: BRAD LITTLE’S BUDGET BOASTS 17.1% SPENDING INCREASE, NOT 8.1%.

o  o  o

A new snowbiking video from Wranglerstar:  Time For Idaho.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people’s motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans – anything except reason.” – Thomas Sowell