Preparedness Notes for Saturday — April 3, 2021

This is the birthday of Washington Irving, an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for short stories like Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but he also wrote several biographies and served as the US Ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

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Congratulations to our readers in Iowa!  As a result of your grassroots lobbying efforts, Iowa just became the 19th State to re-assert Constitutional Carry. (Permitless concealed carry.)  That law will take effect on July 1st, 2021.

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.

My Perspective on Bug-Out Field Gear, by H.H.

You can throw a couple of items in a backpack and say “I’m prepared”, but are you really? For everything you do to prepare, think through all the things that can go wrong. My wife says I’m too pessimistic, but being an engineer, I’ve been trained to think about what can go wrong. You don’t want the plane to fall out of the sky or the bridge to collapse.

The first rule is always have more than one way of doing something. I had heard (maybe attributed to Army Rangers or SEALs) “Two is one and one is none.” If you have one of something, let’s say a knife, and it breaks, now you have none. If you have two cans of food and one of them is bulging because the food spoiled, now you have none. Always have two of something or two ways of accomplishing the same thing.

So what do we need to survive? There are lots of lists on the Internet, but the basic four have been shelter, fire, water, and food. Some authors have five things and the order will vary. I used to say water, fire, shelter, and food. Since 2020, with COVID-19 and the forest fires in California, I now have five things, with the first being air.

For air, you need a mask of some kind. Get at least one N-95 mask per person. As a backup, you can get a bandana or a shemagh. They won’t eliminate all the pollutants but will give you some relief. Some have polyester in them, but 100% cotton is better because you can make char cloth and use it for starting fires. Bandanas can be cut into strips and used as cordage or to mark a trail. Liberty Mountain has a nice survival bandana with lots of survival tips printed on it. Depending on the region you are going to, you can get map bandanas, especially the National Parks.

Water

After air, the most important thing you need is water. If you shelter at home, the Cadillac water filter is the Berkey Water Filter System. It’s expensive to start, but the filters last for 6,000 gallons, making the cost about five cents per gallon. If you are just starting off, you can get a Britta pitcher for less than $20, but the cost per gallon is over twelve cents per gallon. For your backpack or Bug Out Bag (BOB), there are a variety of filter straws. A name-brand straw, such as Life Straw, will be about $15 and filter about 800 gallons. They say it removes bacteria such as e-coli and salmonella as well as protozoa such as giardia (“beaver fever”). There are cheaper straws on Amazon that can filter about 150 gallons for $5. So again, the low-cost solutions can get you going, but the larger, more expensive solutions are actually cheaper per use. Iodine tablets are also used for purifying water and take up very little space. Besides filtering, you can also boil water if you have a metal cup and a fire.Continue reading“My Perspective on Bug-Out Field Gear, by H.H.”

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:

It is great to be back at the ranch! I was surprised to see that the snow coverage is now down just to patches in some shady spots.  It looks like we are having an early spring this year.

Sales at Elk Creek Company have been very brisk. With the help of Miss Eloise, we got nine boxes packed, labeled, and shipped on Friday.  Another four boxes will be ready to mail out on Monday morning.  Take note that a U.S. Senate vote on the Federal “Universal Background Checks” bill — actually criminalizing private party transfers — is looming.  It already passed in the House. So everyone seems anxious to buy a couple of guns that will be Federally exempt under that pending legislation. This means either pre-1899 manufactured cartridge guns or shootable percussion revolvers. I sell carefully selected examples of both. These guns truly will be the last bastion of gun sales privacy in America. Please note that my inventory replacement costs are going up sharply, so this may be your last chance to grab a pre-1899 gun at a reasonable price.

If you have any questions about any of our listed items, the fairly memorable phone number for Elk Creek Company is:  (308) 270-2535. (We chose that as a sort of inside joke, for shooters.)

On Monday afternoon, I’ll be very busy working my way through Lily’s “Honey Do” list. A couple of projects in the hen house are at the top of her list. I’ll have more to report on that, next week. Now, over to  Lily…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.

Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.

We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.

Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” – Psalm 48

(KJV)

 

Preparedness Notes for Friday — April 2, 2021

Today is the birthday of Sergei Ivanovich Mosin (Apr 2, 1849 – February 8, 1902) was a Russian military officer, engineer, and a designer of the Mosin–Nagant rifle.

This is the birthday of Émile François Zola, a novelist and essayist. He is most often remembered as the author of “J’accuse” (I Accuse!), his lengthy open letter to president Félix Faure, which accused the French government of anti-semitism.

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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.

U.S. Military Field Phones, by Ken in Michigan

If you are looking for a secure communication system for your farm, ranch, or retreat, then look into a military phone system. You can create an ideal communication system, any size, from two positions overnight to multiple positions in a large permanent retreat.

Military Field Phones (“MFPs”) do not require external power. They are designed to operate in adverse conditions and most importantly, do not emit any electronic signal. MFPs cannot be overheard by radio scanners or radio direction finders. MFPs keep your location undetected by electronic surveillance, unlike today’s radio communications that can be overheard and DF-located using today’s technology. Radios are also subject to interference, intentional or unintentional, friendly enemy or atmospheric. The only disadvantage in using a MFP is the requirement of the use of hard wire. A two-wire cable is used to connect the phones. This is “old-school,” otherwise known as POTS (plain old telephone system).

A little history is needed to fully understand the MFP: The first US MFP system was developed in 1910. In WW1, the EE3 phone was used with good success. In 1932, the MFP was improved and was standardized with the EE8 phone and the BD71 and BD72 switchboards connected using WD-1 wire, which aided in better communication. In the beginning of WW2, the EE8 phones had leather cases. The leather cases were replaced with a hard canvas case in 1944 (the leather did not hold up as well in the South Pacific during the Vietnam War; the canvas just rotted away). In 1967, the hard canvas case was replaced with a nylon case.

During the Vietnam War, the equipment improved with the TA-1 PT, TA-43 PT and TA-312 PT phones. The phones were connected with the SB-22 switchboard and had improved wire (WD-1A).

All of the MFP equipment is interchangeable and compatible. The 1930’s equipment can be used with all of the 1960 and 1970’s equipment. The plus is the MFP can be used with foreign nations phone equipment as well. I currently have four German phones in my inventory. I cannot personally guarantee that the Russia and Warsaw Pact’s will work with our simplex analog phone system.

Here are some of the basics of how the phone system works:

– Each phone contains a hand crank generator that produces 90-100 volts AC at approximately 20 Hz (which signals the receiving phone to answer the call). This generator is strictly for signaling and has nothing to do with voice communications.
– Communication is a “push to talk” button, just like any 2-way radio system. The system has a carbon microphone and uses 2 D-Cell batteries (referred to as BA-30 in the manual). The 2 D-Cell batteries give, in series, three volts of DC to amplify the voice communication.

The most basic system would be to connect two phones together. No switchboard necessary and polarity is not a problem. Several phones can be connected this way, but all phones would ring at the same time. It would be possible to work out a code: 1 crank to answer phone #1 and 2 cranks to answer phone #2, etc. There would be a limited number of phones to be connected this way. For most users, we would use a simple wiring system called the Platoon Hot Loop. This puts all the phones in a series, with no switchboard. Simply connect the first phone with the wire, pair one wire on each terminal on both terminals at the 2nd and any other intermediate phone (simply split the cable and only cut one wire). Terminate the two cut ends on the next phone leaving one wire uncut. The last phone is where you connect the two wires to the two terminals for connection, just like the first phone. This places all the phones in a loop in series. Polarity of the connection does not matter using this system. I found this in an article regarding TA-1 phones, but I do not see why it would not work on other field phones.Continue reading“U.S. Military Field Phones, by Ken in Michigan”

Economics & Investing For Preppers: The Biden-Harris Years

Introductory Notes: Today’s column is a special edition. In lieu of our usual economics and investing news items and commentary, today I’m posting my analysis of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies and plans. In particular, I’ll be covering their planned economic, domestic surveillance, Second Amendment, and environmental policies, and their impact on commerce, interest rates, currencies, and economic liberty in the United States. The following analysis reflects my personal views. Your views may differ. If you dislike rants, then skip reading this.

To begin, I should clarify that I’ll be referring to the Biden-Harris administration with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as full partners in crime. Don’t mistake Kamala Harris as a mere protégé, sidekick, Race Token, or a pretty stage prop. In fact, it might be Joe Biden who is the stage prop. Harris is already making key policy decisions and is sharing the reins of power. There is considerable evidence that Barack Obama is exerting a lot of influence, with Susan Rice acting as his conduit. Currently, the White House has more palace intrigue than a whole season of Game of Thrones. Perhaps we should be calling it the Obama-Harris administration.

The scope of power and influence of Kamala Harris will only grow, over time. And I suspect that Biden will be shuffled off stage within his first year in office, on some medical pretext. Given his rapid physical decline and mental decline, that seems almost inevitable.

Joe Biden has rightfully been labeled a socialist. But Kamala Harris is a much more rabid collectivist than Biden. Her politics and approach to governance are more accurately described as Maoist. I jokingly refer to her as Commie-La-La or as The Camel’s Nose. Despite my jests, I don’t trivialize the looming threat that she poses to our freedom. Kamala Harris is far more cunning and ruthless than Creepy Joe ever was. So… Beware!

Also, please don’t underestimate the speed at which the Biden-Harris administration is moving.  They started off with a bang, unleashing more than 80 executive orders in their first couple of weeks. Most of these reversed the Trump administration’s core policies. I don’t expect them to slow down. They will push their socialist agenda as hard and fast as they can. Alarmingly, the left wing of the Democrat Party now controls the House, the Senate, and the White House. This is roughly the same situation as 1992-to-1994. And we all remember that as the time period when the 1994 Assault Weapons and Magazine Ban bill was enacted.

The only thing that could slow down a legislated socialist revolution is the U.S. Senate’s current Filibuster rule. The left wing of the Democrat Party is doing their utmost to do away with Filibustering.  But more moderate Democrats realize that this change could be used against them, the next time the political winds shift, and they lose control of congress.

Here are my assessments:

Government Spending, Debt & Defecit:

Though Federal spending was already out of control during the Trump Administration, it is safe to predict that it will be astronomical under Biden-Harris. Look at this chart released by the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve:  M1 Money Stock. That doesn’t include the recently-aproved $1.9 Trillion spending bill. And what will it look like if the Biden-Harris administration ramrods through their planned $2 Trillion in infrastructure spending, and $3 Trillion in “Green Energy” spending.  It might also be safe to assume that there will be additional Trillions in bailouts and “COVID-19 stimulus.”

The U.S. National Debt was around $28 Trillion, when I last checked. And the budget deficit for 2021 surpassed $1 trillion in just first few months of this year. (To put that in perspective, it took the first 200 years of U.S. government to gradually accumulate the first $1 trillion of National Debt.) But ask your average man on the street about this, and he will be either bewildered or oblivious. In fact, most American citizens don’t even understand the difference between the debt and the deficit.  All that they seem to care about is the size of their income tax return check and the size and frequency of their stimulus checks.

My prediction is that with the connivance of congress, the Biden-Harris administration will increase the National Debt to at least $34 Trillion by 2022.

As you watch the new administration roll out its agenda, I suggest that you apply the test of asking:  Is what they are doing increasing or decreasing individual liberty, and by extension, are they building up or tearing down free markets, private property, and sound money? If we find that they are tearing them down, then we need to withdraw our consent to be governed by them.  And we can only do so if we continue to be armed, because ultimately that factor defines whether a state holds a monopoly of force. It should come as no surprise that one of the key policy objectives of the Biden-Harris administration is civilian disarmament (“gun control”), which would give the state a monopoly of force.

Precious Metals:

The Biden-Harris team is strongly in the fiat money camp. Having a currency pegged to precious metals would limit their spending, so they’d be dead set against it. Ditto for an audit of the gold holdings at Fort Knox.

The new administration’s environmental policies have not yet directly addressed mining. But I suspect that they will be quite similar to their stated oil drilling and oil transport policies, namely: Anti-business, anti-extraction, deleterious to efficient transport, and ultra-environmentalist. If Kamala Harris ever took an aerial tour of the Carlin Trend mining region in Nevada, she’d have a heart attack.

My prediction is that the Biden-Harris administration will be strongly anti-precious metals, in all aspects, namely: Mining, ore hauling, heap-leaching/concentrating, refining, private ownership, border crossing, and tax reporting.

National Economy:

The Biden-Harris team is already busy wrecking the economy. By continuing mask mandates, social distancing, “phased re-openings”, mandatory vaccination, and other COVID-19 policies, they are destroying small businesses and degrading the deployability of our military. Meanwhile, the tech giants are gaining market share. For them, COVID-19 has been a “win-win”, and Biden will be contributing to their success.

Interest Rates:

My prediction is that the Biden-Harris administration’s policies and will lead to higher interest rates. This will clamp down the economy.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers: The Biden-Harris Years”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking…

People need to be blinded by knowledge—we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.” – Nassim “Nick” Taleb, The Black Swan

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 1, 2021

I was saddened to hear of the death of G. Gordon Liddy. (Pictured, circa 1964 sans his trademark moustache, of his later years.) He passed away on March 30th, at age 90.  When he interviewed me on his radio show, it was obvious that he’d read my novel Patriots. He had a sharp mind and a keen wit. He will be missed.

Yesterday, I happened to catch a National Pravda Radio (NPR) news item about his death. It was written in a critical and trivializing tone.  For example, the commentator mentioned Liddy’s syndicated radio show (but not its tremendous popularity), his acting, and said that Liddy “…tried to write a few books…” Well, they also failed to mention that most of those were New York Times bestsellers, and that his most popular book Will, sold more than a million copies, and was made into a movie!

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April 1st, 1886 was the birthday of Arthur W. Pink (pictured), who died 15 July 1952 and was an English Christian evangelist and excellent Reformed Biblical scholar. It was his meticulously referenced arguments in his book, The Sovereignty of God, that first convinced me of the truth of the doctrine of Election.

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April 1st is also both April Fool’s Day and (unofficially) Molly Ivins Day. The latter refers to this key verse: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1 KJV)

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present the first entry for Round 94 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

But first, we are announcing the prize winners for Round 93. (No foolin’!) The same set of prizes will be awarded for Round 94.

Writing Contest Winners Announced: Round 93

We’ve completed the judging for Round 93 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize winners are:

First Prize:

First prize is awarded to J.T. for Volume Vegetable Gardening. (Links: Part 1 and Part 2.) It was posted on March 16th and 17th.  He will receive:

  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:

Second prize is awarded to R.W. for RF Scanning for Preppers. (Links: Part 1 and Part 2). It was posted on March 12th and 13th, 2021.  He will receive:

  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:

Third prize is awarded to S.F. in Oregon for Constructing a DIY Composting Toilet. It was posted on March 10, 2021.  He will receive:

  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!

Honorable Mentions:

We’ve also selected 17 Honorable Mention prize winners. They will each receive a transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. The Honorable Mention prize-winning articles are:

Round 94 begins today and 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.

Shaving Options, by Anonymous

After seeing bare grocery store shelves last year, have you thought about different ways to perform everyday tasks? Sure, we have stored food, paper towels, paper plates, paper gold (toilet paper), and countless other necessary items. However, have you considered the everyday task of shaving? A multi-bladed shaving cartridge is considered the norm, but what happens when that shelf is bare too? Whether it is every day, once a week, or once a month, eventually it is a necessary task that nearly all men perform. Having a few alternate shaving supplies stashed away when your first choice is unavailable, will help you round out your preps. This article will describe the use of a double edge safety razor, and use of a shaving soap (also known as mug shaving).

The modern straight edge razors (also fittingly called “cutthroat razors” –because there were some ghastly accidents), have been used for hundreds of years. However, they require a great deal of skill to shave, and must be constantly sharpened to hold their edge. Whether the occasional honing, or the daily stropping, even sharpening of the blade itself requires a great deal of skill. Safety razors have been used since the mid-1800s, but still used an expensive forged blade. Enter King C. Gillette (yes that’s his real name), the inventor of disposable double-edged (DE for short) safety razor blades. With the use of a DE razor blade, a fresh blade can be installed and remove the need for sharpening altogether.

Various brands of DE razor blades are Derby, Bic, Feather, and Gillette, to name a few. I haven’t tried many brands, but I have enough Derby blades to last quite a few years. Some people recommend changing out blades weekly, but I don’t have any issues running a blade for several weeks. At 10 cents a blade or so, it is easily far less expensive than your typical cartridge razors. At that price you can try out different brands until you find one that suits you.

There are three main types of DE safety razors: Two-piece, three-piece, and butterfly. Two-piece, and three-piece razors have a threaded handle that unscrews from the head to completely disassemble and give access to the razor blade. The only difference between the two, is whether or not the lower portion of the head is fixed to the handle. As far as function is concerned, they both require the most care when removing or installing razor blades. With the use of a towel, washcloth, or leather head cover, removing the head can be safely and easily done. A butterfly DE razor has a knob located at the bottom of the handle, that swings open the head of the razor. This allows the user to tighten or loosen the head without your fingers being anywhere near the razor. Either way, a delicate touch is needed when handling razor blades.Continue reading“Shaving Options, by Anonymous”

Springing Into More Prepping — An Update, by 3AD Scout

The snow has melted and temperatures are more often than not above freezing. Spring is right around the corner. We have been preparing for or have started several projects here at the homestead. It was great to see our contractor show up this past week to start to finish our screened-in porch that was started last Fall. This space can be used as a summer kitchen if need be. But more importantly we have started putting fence posts into the ground for our pasture. We designed a stainless steel “box” that will be used for our outdoor pizza/bread oven. The project was given to a local fabricator who just finished the bending and welding of the box.

I went to the hardware store and picked up lumber, or should I say gold, to use to build the platform the stainless-steel box will sit on.   The basement is hosting our seedlings and we have lots of tomatoes that are doing very well.  The peppers didn’t come up but once I added a warming mat they popped up and are now doing well. Very impressed that our heirloom seeds that were stored back in 2014 had a very high germination rate. It is good to know.

We put 41 eggs into the incubator however only 2 hatched which is 2 more than the last time we tried so we are headed in the right direction.  I think we really need to watch the humidity for one and I believe many of the eggs were too cold out in the coop and the embryo didn’t survive.  The good news is that we have started to collect more eggs to try again.  This truly shows why we need to actually do what we think we will need to survive now, because my survival isn’t hinged to the result right now as we learn.  I did manage to purchase 6 chicks at Tractor Supply at were 50% off.  We are praying that our Amish contractor can rehabilitate our old barn that will be used to house our livestock within our budget.  That barn rehab was another 2020 project that did not get done, let alone even started.

We have a piglet on order from the neighbor.  His sow is due May 1st.  I don’t think we are going to have the barn ready by then.  That is one of our main hurdles to progress right now, not having a barn for cows and pigs.  I spent some time trimming some Pine trees back and splitting wood that didn’t get done last year.  I am planning on setting up two beehives under the pines where I was trimming.  I can face the hive openings to the Southeast and right into our orchard.  Knowing that “nice” days were soon to be the norm, I got out and pruned the apple trees.

My ban on attending auctions is up however I think I’m now on some kind of double-secret probation.  I took a Friday off and traveled about an hour to attend an auction at an Amish farm.  My goal was to bring home a very nice anvil for the blacksmith shop that is on the agenda for building this year.  I stopped bidding at $250 and it finally went for $325.  But it wasn’t a complete loss, since they had two blacksmith’s vises (aka leg vise or post vise).  In all my years of attending auctions, I don’t ever recall seeing a blacksmith’s vise up for bid.  I did a quick search on the iPhone to see was they were being offered for sale for on the Internet so I had a general idea how high to bid.  They offered a choice with option for both to the highest bidder.  I was stunned to win the bid a mere $25 and of course took both.  The added surprise was the hand-cracked blacksmiths drill press (aka post drill) that they uncovered that also went home for a mere $50.  Not an ounce of rust on it and everything moves freely.  It was obvious the Amish gentlemen still used it as it was well greased and cared for.  The drill press will also go into the blacksmithing shed when finished.

When I got home and reported to my auction probation officer (aka wife) she immediately wanted to know how much I spent and on what.  After dramatic eye-rolling and stand-up lecture on “wasting money,” I showed her what the items were being offered for on eBay and I was given a reluctant pardon.  This year we plan on setting up an irrigation system that is hooked up to the large rainwater catchment tank.  We used the water from the tank last year to water the garden with a hose hooked up to the tank and it worked but the gravity feed just made the process a little longer than I enjoyed.  I bought a 12-volt DC on-demand pump that will help speed the process up and I can use timer as well.

I would really like to hear from other SurvivalBlog readers as to what they are doing this Spring.  Send JWR your “Snippets”, via e-mail.

Happy Prepping,

3AD Scout

March in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance, and the factors that affected gold prices

What Did Gold Do in March?

While gold ended March with a third monthly loss in a row, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the beating it received in February. Once again, it was Treasury yields that dominated market sentiment for gold in March, at least for the first three weeks. After bond yields settled down, it was the dollar’s turn to depress precious metals (except palladium).

Part of the weakness of gold and silver in late March is attributable to traders closing exposed positions after a large hedge fund imploded near the end of the month. Gold is usually sold for quick money when margin calls must suddenly be covered, explaining the selloff.

Rebalancing of assets by funds to account for the lower gold price sent spot gold up as much as $24 the last day of the month. When you keep X dollars of gold in your portfolio and the price falls, you have to buy more to retain that $X level.

Factors Affecting Gold This Month

BONDS
Bond yields continued to be the #1 factor driving gold prices in March, having their worst quarter since 2016. It wasn’t as much that they were moving higher, but how quickly they moved higher. Higher nominal interest rates, represented by the 10-year Treasury yield, have quickly outpaced inflation forecasts. This raises real interest rates. Higher real interest rates are a significant headwind for gold prices.

The only people NOT worried about higher yields on long bonds are the Fed. Powell says higher long-term yields mean that people expect the economy to be stronger by then. It’s the short-term yields the Fed is keeping an eye on.

DOLLAR
Higher bond yields in March helped the US dollar advance. The DXY dollar index rose from 91.5 on March 10th to break over 93.3 to close the month. An interesting statistic this month shows the effect a stronger dollar has on gold prices: The dollar was up 2.7% for March, and gold was down 2.7%. (It usually doesn’t match up exactly.)

A larger reason for the dollar’s strength was the success of the American fight against COVID, compared to the rest of the world.

A TALE OF TWO COVIDS
As the US ramped up vaccinations and began to reopen, Europe was caught in the grip of another surge of infections, forcing more mass lockdowns. As a result, the US economy is roaring back, while the EU struggles. In fact, the strength of the US recovery is expected to lift world GDP by 1% in the second quarter.

A big part of the recovery is world-leading vaccination efforts by the US. 148 million shots have been administered since the start of Operation Warp Speed, with 53.4 million people receiving both shots. This is 16.3% of the US population haven been fully immunized.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell told Congress this month that the success of the vaccination program and fiscal stimulus is allowing the US economy to reopen faster than expected.
In contrast, the European vaccination program has been a shambles. Most of Europe only has the AstraZeneca vaccine available, instead of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines used in the US.

More than a dozen EU countries banned the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine after several elderly people died of blood clots. This brought vaccinations (and the economies) to a standstill in Europe while new COVID strains ravaged the population.

ASIA pretty much has the virus under control. As nations recover and ease lockdowns, and gold hits 9-month lows, buyers are flocking to buy gold for economic protection.

CRYPTO
Bitcoin continued to attract speculative inflows in March, to the detriment of gold. Bank of America analysts said that they saw no reason to own Bitcoin, except for price speculation.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio goes further, saying that Bitcoin will probably be outlawed by at least some nations, as it poses a risk to their monopoly on money. (India’s already doing this).

But on the other hand, governments can see everything everyone is spending it on by watching the blockchain. The more people use Bitcoin, the easier the IRS can track their purchases and income.

 

Central Banks

FED: Jerome Powell acknowledged that inflation may pick up “temporarily” as the economy starts moving again after COVID is licked.

ECB: The European Central Bank ramped up its bond purchases by 48% this month.ECB spokesman told reporters that “a steeper yield curve must be resisted”, reinforcing the central bank’s commitment to yield curve control.

CHINA’S top banking regulator accused the US and EU of “exporting inflation” to China due to the stock market bubbles in both markets. No mention was made of the massive stimulus spending Beijing has been doing to support the Chinese economy.

Central Bank Gold Purchases

As a group, central banks were once again net sellers of gold in January (central bank statistics are reported two months in arrears.) Uzbekistan (8.1t) and Kazakhstan (2.8t) were in the buyers lane again, while Turkey dumped 17.2t of gold on the market as it fought to support a lira cripped by a 15% inflation rate.
Russia was the only other central bank of note that sold gold in January. Moscow released 3.1t into the market.

Gold ETFs

Falling gold prices and higher Treasuries yields led to the global gold ETF market to shed 2% of assets under management in February. 84.7 metric tons of gold outflows left total AUM at 3,681t, the lowest level since last June.

The big losses were naturally in the biggest market for gold ETFs, North America. gold ETFs there saw a big 71.2t of outflows, valued at $4.1bn. European gold ETF holdings fell by 23.8t, a $1.1bn loss.

Asia was the one bright spot, as investors bought a net 10.6 tonnes worth of gold ETF shares, totally $596mn
STANDARD CHARTERED warned in March that further redemptions of gold ETF holdings could push a fragile gold market under $1,700 (and it did, temporarily).

Dollar and Forex

Rising bond yields and upbeat economic news supported the dollar’s rally in March. This was to the detriment of the euro and pound, as the economies of Europe are mostly still closed due to COVID.

The DXY dollar index started March just over 91, but quickly broke the 92 barrier on the fifth. It stayed near there for most of the month. The dollar showed greater strength later, rising as high as 93.35 to end out the month.

On The Retail Front

The only thing keeping the US MINT from breaking all-time records for bullion sales is that they can’t make enough. With the new designs coming out this summer for both the American Silver Eagle and American Gold Eagle, the US Mint has had to split its production between the old and new designs. This means that both ASEs and AGEs remain under allocation (rationed) by the Mint.

The latest sales numbers show that 3.3 million Silver Eagles were purchased in March. Over 11 million ASEs were sold the first three months of 2021, making this the best first quarter since 2016.

Gold Eagle total sales of all sizes reached 55,500 troy ounces. Year to date, that’s 401,500 oz worth of AGE sold so far in 2021. On the 24K side, 32,500 American Gold Buffalo 1oz coins were sold in March, for a year to date total of 110,000 oz. That makes 511,500 oz of gold bullion sold by the US Mint for the first quarter.
————
February bullion sales for Australia’s PERTH MINT were at or near all-time monthly highs.124,104 oz of gold bars and coins were sold last month, making it the best month for retail gold bullion sales on record. This was 63% higher than in January. Perth Mint silver sales in February totaled 1,830,707 oz, the second-best month on record. That was 57% more than January.
————
The gold market in INDIA is growing even hotter, as prices in US dollars fall under $1,700. Gold prices in India fell more than 20% in February, from the all-time highs hit last August. This boosted February gold imports by 41% yoy, to the highest level since November 2019.

The spring wedding season starts next month, and there are a year and a half of weddings set to take place. Weddings had to be postponed through all of 2020 due to virus lockdowns.

Market Buzz

Representative ALEX MOONEY (R-WV) has re-introduced his bill in the House to remove all Federal taxes from the sale of gold and silver coins and bullion. This would eliminate capital gains taxes on the sale of physical gold and silver investments. It is HR 2284, if you are inclined to ask your Congressman to support the measure.

SCHWAB warns of high bond volatility going forward, as the 10-year yield oscillates around 1.7%.

GOLDMAN SACHS sees the yield on the 10-year Treasury note hitting 1.9% in the short term.

GUGGENHEIM analyst Scott Minerd thinks the spike in yields of over 1.6% is temporary, and expects nominal Treasury yields to hit near zero or even negative in the next 18 months.

CPM GROUP says that gold investment demand will be slightly lower in 2021, compared to the buying frenzy when the COVID pandemic hit last year. They note that global investor demand for gold was 44.5 million oz in 2020. They expect that to fall to 42.8 million oz this year.

WELLS FARGO hires ex-Scotiabank precious metals traders, to expand into the gap left by SB exiting the business. The expanded Wells Fargo precious metals desk will focus on manufacturing, chemicals, etc. and not hedge funds.

CITI says BITCOIN is at a tipping point of whether it gains mainstream acceptance or suffers a speculative implosion

BANK OF AMERICA warned of signs pointing toward a bear market in stocks, but that was before Congress passed the stimulus bill.

Russian miner NORNICKEL announced this month that its two major palladium mines in Siberia will return to operation earlier than expected – one in early May, the other in early June. Apparently, miners hit an underground river or something, which flooded portions of both mines. Turns out that it wasn’t anything that 32,000 metric tons of cement couldn’t fix.

The Chinese province of INNER MONGOLIA has banned all cryptocurrency mining as of next month, after officials there were admonished by the central government for wasting so much energy. Inner Mongolia was home to 8% of global Bitcoin mining, compared to 7.2% by miners in the US.

Looking Ahead To Next Month

The US continues to kick everyone’s butt in recovering from the COVID epidemic, but there are worries on both sides of the aisle in Congress that the danger of Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan increasing inflation is greater than the benefit of the jobs it would create. Are we going to see the yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit 2% in April?

If the present vaccines can stop the new strains of COVID, the US should open up its economy even faster than it is now. Pfizer and Moderna are already hard at work on new versions of the vaccine that stop every strain known. There shouldn’t be a problem opening theme parks and movie theaters. (Disclosure: I own a very small stake in AMC Theaters.)

Our treasure story this month may not be the largest gold hoard discovered recently, but this gold ring with white enamel skull found by a metal detectorist in Wales is probably the most interesting!

This column is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended as investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

– Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins

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 a recent appeals court decision on open carry.

9th Circuit Court Says: No Right To Open Carry

Several readers mentioned this news: 9th Circuit Court Rules Second Amendment Doesn’t Guarantee Right To Open Carry. JWR’s Comments:  The convoluted logic of the notoriously liberal 9th Circuit jurists would have us believe that “bearing” arms only applies to “hearth and home.”  That is absolutely absurd.  Our founding fathers made a point of mentioning both “keep” — which implies: keeping at home, and “bear” — which implies: bearing both at home and away from home. If governments can ban both concealed carry and open carry, then obviously they have infringed our Constitutional right to “bear arms.”  I fully expect this to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Hopefully, that appeal will be heard soon, so that the Supremes can give the 9th Circuit a good spanking and explain to them the meaning of the phrase: “shall not be infringed”!

A Yardstick Yagi

A very useful piece on amateur radio antenna construction, over at American Partisan: Yardstick Yagi. (Thanks to Peter for the link.)

Plenty of Lyme Disease Tick Habitat in Western U.S.

SurvivalBlog reader C.B. sent us this, from Medical XPress: New study predicts changing Lyme disease habitat across the West Coast.

Will We Be Ready if GPS Goes Down?

Reader C.B. also sent this, over at The Wall Street Journal: Will We Be Ready if GPS Goes Down? Here is a quote:

“GPS is vital to Americans, but hacking it has never been easier. Protecting the civilian Global Positioning System, an invisible utility the federal government pays for, falls to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He would do well to use the results of the Transportation Department’s January report on technologies that can back up GPS and keep the country moving in a pinch.

Three separate laws, most recently the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, assign the Transportation Department the task of providing a backup to GPS. The LoBiondo Act required the secretary to put in place a backup system by the end of 2020, but no funds were appropriated, so the department couldn’t proceed.”

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The mainstream of Western civilization is thus apparent, the desire to control and change others as the essence of true power. This lust for power, the pathology of all fallen men, is common to cultures all over the world. It is an expression of man’s original sin, his desire to be as God, knowing or determining for himself what constitutes good and evil.” – Rousas John “R.J.” Rushdoony, in The Death of Meaning, p. 92