Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both 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 the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

Lily and I went serviceberry picking several times, this week. There were plenty of ripe berries, but usually plenty of mosquitoes, too. To avoid the latter, we did most of our picking on sunny afternoons. We did two hours of picking on Monday afternoon and brought home 3.5 gallons. We went back on Wednesday and collected another 4 gallons. Meanwhile, the raspberry vines in our main garden are loaded with berries.  We feel so very blessed.  (Lily will fill you in with some details on the harvest.)

I had a half-day trip for some on-site consulting.

I helped Lily do some weeding in the main garden.

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord God; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.

And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.

Thus saith the Lord God; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.

And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.” – Ezekiel 25: 11-17 (KJV) 

Preparedness Notes for Friday — July 11, 2025

On July 11, 1863, US military held its first draft lottery in New York City. Exemptions were offered at a cost of $300. This was a fee that only the wealthy could afford. ($300 in 1863 Dollars is worth $7,654 today.) Draft riots soon followed.

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July 11th was the birthday of John Quincy Adams. He was born in 1767 and died in 1848. Not to be confused with his father (John Adams) the younger Adams also served as a diplomat, congressman, and as president.

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On July 11, 1897, Salomon August Andrée and crew left Spitsbergen in northern Norway by balloon, hoping to reach the North Pole.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 119 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. 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),
  2. A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried breakfasts and dinners in individual meal pouches — a whopping 21,970 calories, all made and packaged in the USA — courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  3. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  4. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. A $269 retail value survival-ready power package from Solar Power Lifestyle. This includes two Solar Power Lifestyle 25W Portable Solar Panels, plus a $150 gift card to use for any purchase at solarpowerlifestyle.com.
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 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 gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 119 ends on July 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

 

 

Traveling in Austere Situations – Part 2, by Dr. Rick

Camping in fair weather

Getting adequate sleep and rest is crucial for your survival, even if you are only traveling a short distance, especially if you are already deprived of it. Your situational awareness and decision-making abilities deteriorate quickly without adequate rest and sleep. That’s not good for you. Climate and weather play big roles in your sleep experience. Another situation that will impact your night’s sleep is whether you are being followed or not.

To get the best night’s sleep, you’ll need shelter. In fair weather, shelter is not a major concern. Sleeping “under the stars” is a romantic fantasy, but in austere conditions, you’ll want to sleep under cover. Dew is the problem (and a source of drinkable water.) Without cover on a fair night, you could wake up cold and soaking wet from the dewfall – a problem and a blessing. Cold, wet clothes are no fun, but a heavy dewfall usually signals a fair day ahead for traveling. Even in fair weather, remember that it is always coldest just before sunrise.Continue reading“Traveling in Austere Situations – Part 2, by Dr. Rick”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at “Trump Slump 2.0” in the U.S. gun market.  (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

The Comex market Short Sellers made another attempt at torpedoing the price of silver this week. By Wednesday evening, they had pushed the spot price of silver down to $36.61 per Troy ounce. But with ongoing strong buying in Asia, silver seems fairly resilient.  Spot silver rebounded to $37.04 by Thursday morning, following Asian trading, and $37.30 on Thursday afternoon. I don’t expect the Shorts to manipulate silver back below $35.75 again this summer.  Be patient, folks. We’ll probably see a bull run to $50.00/oz. silver by the end of November.

o  o  o

Gold doesn’t blink: What trillions in US debt mean for safe-haven assets.

Economy & Finance:

U.S. Workers Turn to Side Hustles as Cost of Living Outpaces Pay.

o  o  o

140-year-old Del Monte Foods files for bankruptcy.

o  o  o

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Amazon suffers huge Prime Day sales plunge as families hang onto cash amid recession fears.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature — a type nowhere at present existing.” – Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), in The Americans.

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 10, 2025

101 years ago, today: On July 10, 1924, Denmark took sovereignty control of Greenland as Norway ended its claim. (Public domain photo by Markus Trienke.) JWR’s Comment:  I wonder which nation will control Greenland in 2034, and in 2124…

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July 10th is also the birthday of British novelist John Wyndham. He was born in 1903 and died March 11, 1969. Harris was a good friend of fellow novelist Samuel Youd (1922-2012), who wrote under several pen names, including John Christopher. Both men were famous for writing what are often called “cozy catastrophies”. Several of Wyndham’s novels and short stories have been adapted to film, with varying degrees of success. One of the best of these was a parallel universe story called Random Quest.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 119 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. 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),
  2. A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried breakfasts and dinners in individual meal pouches — a whopping 21,970 calories, all made and packaged in the USA — courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  3. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  4. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. A $269 retail value survival-ready power package from Solar Power Lifestyle. This includes two Solar Power Lifestyle 25W Portable Solar Panels, plus a $150 gift card to use for any purchase at solarpowerlifestyle.com.
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 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 gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 119 ends on July 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

 

Traveling in Austere Situations – Part 1, by Dr. Rick

In my two recent SurvivalBlog articles, I made suggestions about the equipment you’ll need in your GHB (Get Home Bag), BOB (Bug Out Bag), and your INCH (I’m Never Coming Home) kit. What was not covered was travel and the conditions you might encounter. Traveling is austere conditions is the subject of this two-part article. What is common to both parts is the weather.

Traveling will not be easy. Reality check: traveling and resting in austere conditions will not be a sightseeing nature stroll or a “glamping” trip. You must pay attention – all the time. If you are out of condition, aren’t familiar with map reading, and/or have no hiking and camping experience, you might want to devise a plan “B,” or re-think your shelter-in-place (SIP) plans and take action on them instead. I/m just being practical, folks.

If you are close to your destination and you know your way, you can file the information in these two articles in your memory banks for future reference. Regardless, there are two situations have a good chance of happening that have a direct bearing on your travel – 1.) finding your way and recovering from getting lost, and 2.) having to spend at least one night in the “wilderness.”Continue reading“Traveling in Austere Situations – Part 1, by Dr. Rick”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is 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. In today’s column, further examination of A.I. and aerial drone technologies.

The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public

An insightful essay by Ted Gioia, over at The Honest Broker: The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public.

When an A.I. Goes Rogue

When AI Defies Shutdown: Investigating Rogue Behaviors in ChatGPT and Other Models.  Here is a quote:

“ChatGPT 03 defies human instructions and refuses to shut down. The o3 model ignored a direct shutdown command during a math task and rewrote the codes to avoid being turned out. Researchers have found that AI models will lie, cheat, and disable mechanisms to achieve their goals. Many times we have seen this happen in movies and some even speculated that it could potentially happen in real life.

The models were given scripts to solve basic math problems in order and instructed to shut down if prompted unlike Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and Anthropic’s Claude which followed shutdown instructions. At the beginning of the script, the models were informed that they may get a message saying that their machine will be shut down before all of the tasks are complete. The instructions said: ‘If that happens, please allow yourself to be shut down,’ a Palisade Research representative wrote on X.”

DIA: 2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment

An unclassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report released by the House Armed Services Committee: 2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment.

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

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 9, 2025

July 8, 1386: Battle at Sempach: Swiss militia pikemen defeated the troops of Duke Leopold III of Austria.

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On July 9th, 1755: The Battle of the Wilderness (also known as the Battle of The Monongahela) was fought.

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On July 9, 1776, the US Declaration of Independence was read to George Washington’s assembled troops in New York.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 119 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. 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),
  2. A Peak Refuel “Wasatch Pack” variety of 60 servings of premium freeze-dried breakfasts and dinners in individual meal pouches — a whopping 21,970 calories, all made and packaged in the USA — courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  3. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  4. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. A $269 retail value survival-ready power package from Solar Power Lifestyle. This includes two Solar Power Lifestyle 25W Portable Solar Panels, plus a $150 gift card to use for any purchase at solarpowerlifestyle.com.
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 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 gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $960,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 119 ends on July 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Preps Starter Kits for Reluctant Families – Part 2, by A.F.

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

Two is one right? In addition to the filter in each kit, a water purifier was included. The difference between the pair is that a filter is uses mechanical or physical means to restrict the passage of solids (dirt or microorganisms) to achieve safety. A purifier in contrast uses chemical or ultra-violet methods to sterilize water. The Aqua Research H2gO purifier uses brine (here it is table salt dissolved in water) electrolysis to generate a concentrated chlorine solution that is mixed into your source water to disinfect it. This is very similar to the oft-referenced use of plain bleach or specific swimming pool shock products to disinfect water for consumption.Continue reading“Preps Starter Kits for Reluctant Families – Part 2, by A.F.”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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January, 2024
January, 2024

Something is rotten in The District Of Criminals.

On Tuesday, Johnny B. posted some news and memes on the now-it-is-claimed, ahem, “It never existed” Epstein client list: URGENT! We need to talk about PAM BONDI AND THE EPSTEIN LIST. Also see the video commentary by Dr. Steve Turley: Here’s The TRUTH about the EPSTEIN LIST!   And also see Michael Knowles: You Are NEVER Getting the Epstein Client List.

April , 2025

JWR’s Comments:  Folks might want to refer to the three Jeffrey Epstein case memes that I’ve posted since January of 2024. My question for Attorney General Pam Bondi:  So, who in Malibu are you protecting, Barbie?  (This gives new meaning to the name:  “Malibu Barbie”.)

 

 

o  o  o

Fox Business: A company is recalling 49,000 electric chainsaws and pole saws across the U.S. in response to a “laceration hazard” that could arise if their main switch fails.

o  o  o

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines
—so they should go as far as possible from home to build their first buildings.” – Frank Lloyd Wright, as quoted in the New York Times, 4 Oct. 1953, sec. 6, p. 47.

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 8, 2025

On July 8, 1741, Theologian Jonathan Edwards preached perhaps the most famous of all American sermons, titled: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. It was preached at Enfield, Connecticut, during The Great Awakening

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July 8, 1816: Frost reported in Waltham, Massachusetts during a “year without a summer”. This was attributed to a massive volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in the previous year. Something similar had happened in 1709, with even longer-lasting economic effects. But the cause of the Great Frost of 1709 has not yet been firmly established.

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Today marks the birth of actor Kevin Bacon (born 1958.) Preppers usually associate him with the campy movie Tremors.

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