Preparedness Notes for Sunday — April 11, 2021

April 11th is the birthday of John Milius, who was born in 1944. He both wrote the screenplays and directed the films Dillinger, The Wind and the Lion, Big Wednesday, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn, Farewell to the King, and Flight of the Intruder. He also wrote the screenplays of the first two Dirty Harry movies as well as the first draft of the screenplay for Patton (before Francis Ford Coppola turned it into a vaguely anti-war commentary laced with references to reincarnation). Milius is my favorite Hollywood writer and director, in part because he stands for everything that Hollywood doesn’t.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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 $150 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!

Round 94 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 Sweater and a Knife, by The Novice

This is my gear review of a German Army Wool Commando Sweater Reproduction and Opinel No. 8 Outdoor Sea-Mountain Knife

I love wool sweaters. For roughly nine months out of the year, I wear one pretty much every day. An inventory of my closet reveals a total of 21 wool sweaters: nine “cold-weather-office” sweaters, five “manual-labor” sweaters, and seven “cool-weather-office” sweaters.

Norwegian Sweaters

My love affair with wool sweaters began in Norway, where I lived for ten years. In Norway, wool sweaters are more than just a practical item of clothing. They are an art form.

My first “Norwegian” sweater was technically not a Norwegian Sweater at all. It was a Chinese knock-off of a Norwegian pattern. To be successfully marketed in Norway though, even a Chinese knock-off has to be pretty good. That sweater became my favorite for many years. After I wore holes in the elbows, I took it to a tailor and had leather elbow patches sewed on. When it developed holes elsewhere, it became one of my manual-labor sweaters. I still enjoy wearing it about one-fifth of the time when I am working outside during the winter.Continue reading“A Sweater and a Knife, by The Novice”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” – Matthew 6: 1-8 (KJV)

 

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — April 10, 2021

April 10, 1827 was the birthday of General Lew Wallace. “He wrote books (author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ), sculpted, practiced law, painted, played the violin and made them as well. He also saved our Capitol from capture during the “Battle of Monocacy” where he fought with 8,000 Union troops against 15,000 Confederates, and helped to preserve our Union. He was second in command of the Lincoln conspiracy trial as well as principal in the trial of the Commander of Andersonville prison where Union prisoners were starved to death. Ambassador to Turkey, [Territorial] Governor of New Mexico when “Billy the Kid” surrendered to him.”

April 10th, 1796 The birthday of James Jim Bowie (died March 6th, 1836 at the Battle of the Alamo.)

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Today’s feature article is too short for consideration in the judging of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. Round 94 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.

Spring Update, by Animal House

Hello Survivalblog friends! This is just a brief spring update of what’s going on the farm. Every year I replace 1/3 of our chickens with new chicks ordered from the hatchery. This is usually 25 chicks. I change the breed each year so I can tell how old the chickens are and cull the useless eaters. Last year I added Rhode Island Reds and this year I ordered Barred Rocks. Both breeds are very hardy and lay large brown eggs. I have some older buffs which are ready for harvesting at the end of summer.

I also incubator-hatch ornamental silkie chicks and barnyard chicks. Our incubator is small (12 small to medium size eggs or 6 large eggs); our hatch rate this spring has improved to 70%. I’ve found that keeping the incubator at the correct humidity level results in higher hatch rates. It is important to let the new hatchlings fight their way out of the egg shell, because it strengthens them; resist the urge to help them get out of the egg. As soon as they can stand, I dip their beaks in water to give them a drink, and move them to the hot cage. The chicks stay in the hot cage until feathered (about 2-3 weeks), then go to the transition coop. I’ve included some photos of the incubator hatchlings.

This past week we hatched five chicks, one died because a club foot prohibited normal progression. Two more hatched today and I quickly added them to the hot cage on the porch in hopes they bond with the existing group. I have three eggs from this batch (of 10 eggs) left to hatch, so we’ll see how that goes. The silkies are quite tiny when they hatch but they have big personalities. The barnyard mix chicks are large and almost all survive.

We sell the year-old laying pullets For $25/ea and the feathered chicks for $5/ea. I normally don’t sell fresh eggs as it takes too much time, but I am thinking about it for this year. I already have 12 dozen eggs in the frig. Free-range, organic eggs sell in the local stores for around $3.90/dz so I may sell mine for $2.50/dz, just to get them moving.

Every summer I harvest the hatched barnyard rosters and any useless eaters, which are then processed into chicken broth and the meat for dog food. The harvesting is another story, for a later update.Continue reading“Spring Update, by Animal House”

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:

We had a very productive week, here at the Rawles Ranch. I helped Lily move and spread a ton of cow manure. (Literally, a ton.)  We made the seasonal switch to summer tires on both of our main vehicles. Our youngest daughter collected four boxes of fir cones, to supplement the cedar that I split each year, for kindling and I constructed a new roosting bar in our hen house, using an 8-foot length of S4S 2×2 fir.

This weekend I traveled to a gun show, looking for pre-1899 cartridge guns, for my Elk Creek Company inventory. By American Redoubt standards, this show is “fairly close by” — across a mountain range and only a 4.5-hour drive, each way.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” – Malachi 4  (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — April 9, 2021

On April 9, 1768, John Hancock refused to allow two British customs agents to go below deck of his ship. This was considered by some to be the first act of physical resistance to British authority in the American colonies.

On April 9, 1869, the Hudson Bay Company ceded its territory to the Commonwealth of Canada.

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Inventory is getting low at my Elk Creek Company side business. Federal gun legislation is looming, so get your order in soon. The current sale will end on Friday, April 16th, 2021. – JWR

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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 $150 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!

Round 94 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.

TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options – Part 2, by St. Funogas

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

Proper Two-Year Composting System

There are various types of composting toilets but the remainder of this article refers to the inexpensive types, not the fancier commercial ones that compost in a chamber below the toilet. I’ll let you explore that option on your own.

Proper humanure composting uses a two-pile system and only a small percentage of the material in the pile will be humanure, especially considering that your poop on average is only 25% solids. Once your compost pile has received humanure material for a year, plus kitchen, farm, yard, and garden waste, it then begins its resting/composting year. You’ll typically have it in a bin or “compost corral,” covered by a thick layer of straw, grass clippings, or leaves, and you won’t access it again until the resting year is over, during which you’ll be using pile #2.

By the time the pile is disturbed again at the end of the second year (I use March 21st as an easy-to-remember move date for each compost pile), it will be 100% pure humus, E. coli-free, black gold ready to improve another patch in your garden. I wouldn’t hesitate for a nanosecond to let my grandchildren help me haul it out to the garden and spread it around, or drive their toy trucks through it before I till it in. There is nothing bio-hazardous about it and it’s no longer humanure, but humus.

With the two-pile system you never turn the compost, thus minimizing contact with the humanure before it’s converted to harmless humus. Reaching elevated composting temperatures is also not a concern as long as you are using the two-year rotation method. E. coli, which does not form spores, can only survive outside the human body for “weeks to months,” not years. Salmonella on the other hand, referring to the type which occurs in the majority of bird and chicken digestive tracts as well as on their bum feathers, can survive 400+ days in compost and soil and is a much bigger threat in composting. Yet we think nothing of letting our chickens and our children run free range all over our homestead, putting a bird feeder up on the back deck, or cleaning the chicken coop and tossing it all into the compost pile where it will almost certainly end up in the garden. The vast majority of human sickness from E. coli comes from animal dung, yet we feel no threats when we use their manure in the garden.Continue reading“TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options – 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 farmland buying. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Possible Bottom In Gold And Silver?  JWR’s Comment:  With mass inflation now looking likely, this is a good juncture to buy silver and perhaps some platinum.

o  o  o

Lynette Zang: Why You Must Get Out of the System; The Fed’s Master Plan

Economy & Finance:

Rick Roberts: $3 Trillion?! How Bad Does Biden Want To Wreck The Economy?

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At Zero Hedge: “The Moment America Won The Future” – Biden Unveils Multi-Trillion Dollar Infrastructure-Taxation Plan

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Debt Up $1 Trillion in First 6 Months of Fiscal 2021

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At The Wall Street Journal: Here Come the Biden Taxes. The middle class will pay for the largest tax increase since 1968.

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UBS Predicts 80,000 More Retail Stores Will Close In Five Years

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 8, 2021

April 8th is the birthday of the late Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia. (Born, 1919, died November 20, 2007.)

April 8th is also the anniversary of the death of English experimental gunsmith and author Phillip Luty, in 2011. He was hounded by British authorities for many years. He died of cancer before a scheduled criminal trial.

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We are running low on articles for Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. If you have a partially written article, please finish it and e-mail it to us, for posting.  It will be judged on its merits, and may earn you some valuable prizes!

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If you spot any reasonably-priced ammo that is available by mailorder, then please let us know via e-mail and we wil include that information in either the Snippets column or the Odds ‘n Sods column.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 94 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. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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 $150 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!

Round 94 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.

 

TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options – Part 1, by St. Funogas

This my view of Personal Poop, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Loo.

Did you know you can eat your own poop? Did you know there are poop banks, just like blood banks, where doctors can access pathogen-free poop like yours and feed it to their patients to cure their Clostridium difficile intestinal infection? No? Then read on!

As I begin writing this, I’m reminded of two thoughts. Jonathan Swift said, “You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reason himself into.” And as a way of saving face, “I used to think that way, but now I’m better informed.” I hope you will keep these in mind while reading this article.

A Plea for Reconsideration

If you’ll keep an open mind, I’ll show you by the end of this article that we’ve nothing to fear by using compost in the vegetable garden made from our own personal family humanure. I know I’ve picked a tough row to hoe here but I’ll mention some things you’ve never heard before and probably never considered before so friends, preppers, and countrymen, lend me your ears.

If the most current medical research shows that you can eat your own feces without harm, and even use them to cure your neighbor’s Clostridium difficile (“C. Diff.”) intestinal infection, then why should we worry about the remains of our two-year old pathogen-free composted feces in our gardens?

In a permanent grid-down situation, we’ll face a multitude of challenges including how to handle our raw sewage in a sanitary manner and how to fertilize our gardens for maximum production after grocery stores disappear. This article will cover two options for accomplishing these objectives.

TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options

For most, TEOTWAWKI toilet options will generally fall into one of the following three categories:

• Many families will continue as usual with their own water supply and a way to distribute water to the house via pressure pumps or gravity-fed systems.
• Those hauling water from the creek can flush their toilet from a gravity-fed tank or manually using a bucket. Water can be conserved by flushing feces only and letting liquids “age” before flushing with the next fecal deposit.
• Those on public water systems that will fail when the grid does, and those who need to conserve maximum water, have two reasonable options: an outhouse or a composting toilet. The benefits of composting toilets will be discussed in detail later so let me briefly discuss outhouses.Continue reading“TEOTWAWKI Toilet Options – Part 1, by St. Funogas”