SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies located in the American Redoubt region that are of interest to preppers and survivalists. Today, news about the Laken Riley Act.  (See the Montana section.)

Idaho

In the U.S. Senate: New bill aims to restrict transgender athletes from competing in female sports. A pericope:

“On Wednesday, U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho, along with Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, introduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which aims to regulate the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

The bill responds to ongoing debates regarding how transgender participation is handled in athletic programs, particularly following recent changes by the Biden administration. Supporters argue that allowing “biological males” to compete in women’s categories undermines fairness for female athletes.”

o  o  o

Idaho House starts 2025 session with proposal to challenge same-sex marriage.

o  o  o

A video from a real estate agent: The Realities of Off-Grid Living in North Idaho: What You Need to Know.

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Idaho Fish and Game to deploy GPS collars on elk and moose calves for habitat and survival study.

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Randy Larkin sentenced to life in prison.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Unceasingly, the government and its corporate partners are pushing for a national digital ID system. Local police agencies have already been given access to facial recognition software and databases containing billions of images, the precursor to a digital ID. Eventually, a digital ID will be required to gain access to all aspects of life: government, work, travel, healthcare, financial services, shopping, etc. Before long, biometrics (iris scans, face print, voice, DNA, etc.), will become the de facto digital ID.” – John Whitehead

Preparedness Notes for Monday — January 13, 2025

January 13, 1742:  During the Anglo-Spanish War, the HMS Tyger ran aground on a coral reef near Garden Key, Florida. The wreck was rediscovered 1993, and was firmly identified in 2024.

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On January 13, 1842, Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, became famous for (reputedly) being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 men when he reached the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.

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On this day in 1912, a state record low temperature of  -40°F (also -40°C), was observed in Oakland, Maryland.

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This is also the birthday of actor and competitive shooter Robert Stack (1919-2003.)

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Our feature article today was written by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.  But first, an announcement on the annual SurvivalBlog archive waterproof USB sticks.

The New SurvivalBlog 2005-2024 Archive USB Sticks

I have some great news: The new batch of 32-gigabyte waterproof SurvivalBlog archive USB sticks is now available for pre-sale.

I’ve had some folks write to ask about what is included in the new 2005-2024 SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. There certainly is a lot!

These sticks of course have everything that has ever been posted in SurvivalBlog, dating back to its launch in August, 2005, and up to December 31, 2024. In my humble opinion, these feature articles, product reviews, columns, and quotations just by themselves are worth the price of the archive stick.

But then there is also a veritable mountain of carefully curated bonus material from the public domain.  Many of these are rare pre-1929 books from my personal library that I had professionally scanned, at considerable expense. Most of those books are not available online. Here is a partial list of what is included:

The pre-1929 bonus books that were recently scanned to include with the new 2005-2024 edition sticks are:

  • Fishing For Salmon, by Cyril Darby Marson
  • Fix It Yourself, Edited by Arthur Wakeling
  • Good Manners, Reliable Advice on Etiquette
  • Orchard and Small Fruit Culture, by E.C. Auchter and H.B. Knapp
  • Practical Local Anesthesia and its Surgical Technic by Robert Emmett Farr, M.D., F.A.C.S.
  • Principles and Practice of Minor Surgery, by Edward Milton Foote, A.M., M.D.
  • Raiders of the Deep, by Lowell Thomas
  • Sporting Firearms, by Horace Kephart
  • Tamerlane The Earth Shaker, by Harold Lamb
  • The Glorious Adventure, by Richard Halliburton
  • Trader Horm, by Alfred Aloysius Horn

Also included are all of the great bonus content from the previous years’ editions, including:

King James Bible
English World Messianic Bible

Food Books, including:

  • Good HouseKeeping’s Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries
  • Preserving Game Meats
  • Preparing and Canning Fermented Foods and Pickled Vegetables
  • Food Storage: Use It or Lose It
  • Canning Principles
  • Culinary Herbs – Their Cultivation, Harvesting, Curing and Uses
  • The New Butterick Cook Book
  • Uncooked Foods and How to Use Them, by Eugene Christian
  • Anyone Can Bake, published by The Royal Baking Powder Company
  • Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer
  • Milk and Its Place in Good Cookery by Mildred Maddock Bentley
  • Nine Hundred Successful Recipes, by Lulu Thompson Silvernail

Information on Homesteading, including:

  • Dr. David Roberts’ Practical Home Veterinarian
  • Backyard Composting
  • Basic Knots
  • Concrete and Masonry
  • Carpentry
  • The Practical Poultry Keeper
  • Farm Knowledge – Volume 1 (Farm Animals)
  • Farm Knowledge – Volume 2 (Soils)
  • Farm Knowledge – Volume 3 (Implements)
  • Nut Growing, by Robert T Morris
  • Pioneering Knots & Lashings
  • How to Feed the Dairy Cow
  • Orcharding, by Victor Ray Gardner
  • Practical Plant Propagation, by Alfred Hottes
  • How to Make Baskets, by Mary White
  • Practical Muskrat Raising, by E.J. Dailey
  • Construction and Repair Work for the Farm, by F. Theodore Struck
  • The Complete Works of Thomas Dick, Volume 1

Several Medical and First Aid books and military manuals.

A wide range of U.S. and Allied military manuals, including:

Basic Visual Tracking Australian Air Training Corps
Incendiaries FM31-201-1-20
Infantry Patrolling (Canadian Army)
Map Reading & Land Navigation FM21-26
OSS Simple Sabotage Manual
USMC Martial Arts
USMC Winter Survival MWTC
Survivability FM 5-103
Combatives FM 3-25.150
FM 3-22.68 Machine Guns
Grenades and Pyrotechnic Signals (2009 edition) FM 3-23.30
Navy SEAL Sniper Training
Nuclear War Survival Skills 1987
Ranger Unit Operations FM 7-85
Telephone Set TM 11-5805-243-13 (TA-1).pdf
US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook
USMC Survival FNM21-76_MCRP 3-02F
Camouflage FM 5-20
Camouflage of Vehicles FM 5-20B
Explosives and Demolitions FM 5-250
Field Hygiene and Sanitation FM 21-10
Fire-Fighting Operations FM 5-415
First Aid FM 21-11
Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs TM 31-210
Infantry Rifle Platoon-Squad FM 7-8
NBC Decon FM 3-5
NBC Protection FM 3-4
Ranger Handbook SH 21-76
Special Forces Unconventional Warfare TC 18-01
U.S. Marines Close-Quarters Combat Manual
Soldier’s Handbook for Individual Operations and Survival in Cold-Weather Areas (1986)
Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) Operations
Military Mountaineering
Arctic And Sub-arctic Operations
Arctic Tent, 10-Man Manual TM 10-8340-222-10
Physical Security FM 3-19.30
Basic Communications Rules
Canadian Military Fieldcraft B-GL-392-009/FP-100
Civil Disturbance Operations FM 3-19.15
First Aid FM 4-25.11
Mufti-Service Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Kill Box Employment
Visual Aircraft Recognition FM 44-80
Special Forces Use of Pack Animals FM 31-27
Scouting, Patrolling, and Sniping FM 21-75
NBC Protection FM 11-9
Mao Tse-Tung on Guerrilla Warfare FMFRP 12-18
Management of Dead Bodies After Disasters
Internment and Resettlement Operations FM 3-39.40
Special Forces Communications STP 31-18E34-SM-TG
Special Forces Tracking TC 31-34-4
Engineer Field Manual FM 5-34
Mountain Operations FM 3-97.6
Engineer Field Manual FM 5-34
Mountain Operations FM 3-97.6

Various Firearms Books and Manuals, including:

  • Amateur Gunsmithing, by Townsend Whelen
  • M16 and M4 Marksmanship
  • AK-47
  • FN-FAL 7.62mm
  • Mossberg 500
  • M24SWS (M700 Remington)
  • Beretta 92FS
  • Glock Pistols
  • Remington 870
  • M1/M2 Carbine
  • Colt 1911 Series 90
  • HK 91
  • Ruger 10/22
  • M1 Garand
  • Colt AR-15
  • M1A
  • Ruger Mark II

Anti-Intrusion Devices (Multiple manuals)
Meteorological Equipment (Multiple manuals)
High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (Multiple manuals)
Radio and Communications (Multiple manuals)

And a panoply of other useful books and manuals, including:

Nuclear War Survival Skills (1987)
Winter Survival Course Handbook
Wilderness Survival Guide – Military. Abridged EditionTerrain Analysis
Soldier’s Handbook for Individual Operations and Survival in Cold-Weather Areas (1986)
The Lincoln Library of Essential Information — Parts 1 & 2 (a compact encyclopedia: 2,174 pages!)
John Brown’s Body, by Stephen Vincent Benet
Stories of Classical Fables — A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Junior Game Book, by T.S. Denison & Company Publishers
The Oregon Trail, by Francis Parkman
With Lawrence in Arabia, by Lowell Thomas
The Individual’s Guide for Understanding and Surviving Terrorism
How to Start and Train a Militia Unit
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (1957)
Sun Tzu on The Art of War
CIA Lock Picking Field Manual
Basement Fallout Shelter
The Nameless Island – A Story of Some Modern Robinson Crusoes
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Western Europe in the Eighth Century and Onward
History of the Fall of the Roman Empire Vol 1
History of the Fall of the Roman Empire Vol 2
Forensic Spoorology
Counter Insurgency Lessons
Civilization During the Middle Ages, by George Burton Adams
Games, Contests, and Relays, by Seward Charle Staley
Sports and Pastimes, Young and Old, by Mrs. Grace Townsend
The Guardians of the Columbia, by John H. Williams
The Science of Everyday Life, by Edgar F Van Buskirk
Hoyle’s Games
The Book of the Sailboat – How to Rig Sail and Handle Small Boats
18,000 words often mispronounced; William Henry Pinkney Phyfe
Famous paintings of the American Revolution
Beyond Khyber Pass, by Lowell Thomas
Great Poems of the English Language (1,502 pages!)
The Practical Book of American Antiques
The Royal Road to Romance, by Richard Halliburton

And even more books that are not listed individually, here, for the sake of brevity…

USB Stick Specifications

The 2005-2024 sticks are now available for pre-ordering. It is loaded on a 32 GB stick, which also allows some extra room for you to load scans of all of your important documents, and your treasured photos on this waterproof, vibration/shock-resistant, and highly EMP-resistant stick. Just as with previous editions, it is mounted in a threaded alloy case with an o-ring seal. So it is great for your bugout bag, or for caching at a secure site. We recommend passing along your older-edition sticks to family members. This new edition is engraved “SurvivalBlog.com 2005-2024.”

Note: We again opted for more expensive USB 3.0 sticks so they will be faster to load, if your laptop, desktop, or smartphone is USB 3.0-compatible. But these sticks are of course also backward-compatible with USB 2.0.  Note that with some operating systems, it may take up to one minute for the stick to initially load.

They Will Sell Out Quickly!

Many readers order  2, 3, or 4 sticks, so I expect them to sell out rapidly. Last year’s edition of the archive stick sold out within five weeks, so be sure to order yours, soon! 

USB stick mailings should begin by around February 5th, but with the expected rush of orders, please allow up to four weeks for delivery.

As usual, all U.S. orders are shipped in the sequence of their order numbers. So the sooner that you order, the sooner that yours will arrive. This is truly a  “First come, first served” situation.

To order, see the 2005-2024 SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick ordering page.

Again: This year the stick capacity is 32 gigabytes and it uses the faster USB 3.0. We had to raise the price from $30.95 to 32.95 due to increased product and postage costs. The postage fee is flat rate, so you’ll pay just $7 postage for your order whether you buy 1 stick or a dozen of them. Deliveries should begin in the first week of February.

Note: Orders must be made through our automated ordering system. 

Stick mailings to customers should begin on or before February 5th. Allow up to four weeks for delivery. Thanks for your patience.

These sticks sell out quickly each year, so order your sticks soon! – JWR

Maven S.2 12-27x56mm Spotting Scope, by Thomas Christianson

With a bright, crisp, and crystal-clear field-of-view; lightweight; highly intuitive zoom and focus rings; an unbeatable warranty; and easily packable contours; the Maven S.2 12-27X56mm Spotting Scope is an outstanding optic for field, range, or home use.

It has an Abbe-Koenig prism, fluorite glass, and it is waterproof and fog-proof. It is made from Japanese components that are assembled in San Diego, California,. The scopes then undergo quality control in Lander, Wyoming.

The S.2 was priced at $1,050 at the time of this writing. (Full Disclosure: Maven is an affiliate advertiser of SurvivalBlog.com. SurvivalBlog earns a modest commission on the sales of any items that are derived from visits to the Maven site from clicks on the affiliate ad link at SurvivalBlog ). This price is by no means cheap, but it is reasonable for an optic of this quality. If you are in the market for a first class spotting scope, then I recommend that you consider this one.Continue reading“Maven S.2 12-27x56mm Spotting Scope, by Thomas Christianson”

Recipe of the Week: Pasta and Beans

The following recipe for Pasta and Beans (Pasta Fagioli) is from SurvivalBlog reader Callie B.

Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or less, to taste)
  • Salt (to taste)
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) canned chicken broth (or equivalent volume of fresh or frozen broth)
  • 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
  • ½ cup of a small dry pasta such as ditalini, ditali, acini di pepe, small shell pasta, tubettini, orzo, or the old favorite: small elbow macaroni.
  • 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, with liquid (or equivalent volume of rehydrated beans — soak overnight, and then change the water and soak another  3+ hours, to de-gas them)
Directions
  1. Rehydrate the dry beans (if used), the day before cooking.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
  3. Add onion, celery, garlic, parsley, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes, and salt; cook and stir until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
  4. Stir in chicken broth, tomato sauce, and tomatoes. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
  5. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
  6. Stir in undrained beans and cook until they are heated through — about 4 minutes.
SERVING

Serve it hot.

Chef’s Notes

Callie Says: “Good side dishes for this are fresh-baked bread, veggies of your choice, or a garden salad”.

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Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven recipes, slow cooker recipes, and any recipes that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic was suggested by Avalanche Lily: Map of U.S. Gun Ownership Rates. (This map is courtesy of Visual Capitalist.)

The thumbnail below is click-expandable.

 

 

 

 

 

JWR’s Comments:

Take note that this data comes from the anti-gun website The Trace.  So I suspect that the figures are all skewed low.  When they are polled in telephone surveys, I assume that many gun owners hang up, or are reluctant to report their gun ownership.

You can see how strongly the American Redoubt region ranks. If Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington were separate states, then their rates of gun ownership would almost surely also be at or near 60%. Correspondingly, the western halves of those states probably have a gun ownership rate below 40%.

I can see that Idaho has some catching up to do, to match Wyoming and Montana. Idahoans should buy or build more guns!

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Please send your graphics or graphics links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“…what I can say is that there is an alignment with all those who are willing to fight against socialism at the international level.

All those who want to fight against socialism at the international level are my allies. Because the enemy is socialism, the enemy is statism, the enemy is collectivism. And all those who are willing to fight that fight, we are all together.

Later we will discuss the emerging order, whether it will be more or less liberal, whether it will resemble classical liberalism or minarchism or anarcho-capitalism, but that is a second order discussion.” – Javier Milei

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — January 12, 2025

The Brazilian city Belem (the entrance gate to the Amazon River) was founded by Captain Major Francisco Branco on January 12, 1616. The photo of Belem above is courtesy of The Drinking Traveler.

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John Hancock was born on January 12, 1737. He was the first and certainly the most prominent signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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The British-Zulu War began on January 12, 1879.  British troops, under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus, invaded Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.

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Today is the birthday of Edmund Burke. (Born 1729, died 9 July 1797.)

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Reader M.B. mentioned this interesting history tidbit from the cia.gov website:
“On 12 January 1968, four North Vietnamese AN-2 “Colt” biplanes, painted dark green and modified to drop bombs, flew into Laos headed for a US radar facility that was providing critical all-weather guidance to American warplanes flying strike missions against targets in North Vietnam.  By chance, an unarmed CIA UH-1D “Huey” helicopter approached the site at the same time and gave chase with the onboard flight mechanic firing his AK-47 at one of the Colts.  After a 20-minute pursuit, the Colt crashed, thus earning the Huey’s two-man crew the distinction of having shot down an enemy fixed-wing aircraft from a helicopter, a one-of-a-kind victory.”

See:

and,
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Today’s feature article is a guest post by one of my consulting clients. It is not eligible for the writing contest judging. – JWR

We are seeking entries for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $935,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. 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. Round 116 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Thoughts on Farming – Part 6, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 5. This concludes the article.)

The number of hours required to complete an agricultural task has been in decline for over 100 years. This is one of the key concepts that you need to understand in order to have the best chance of surviving the future as these efficiency increases also are across many industries.

Time is not spread out evenly on a farm which is a problem from a labor perspective. There are many times in the life cycle of a grain farm where there is nothing to do, but wait especially with dryland (non-irrigated) farming meaning that you allow natural precipitation cycles instead of introducing irrigation through pivots.  There are some times during the initial stages of planting and the last stages when harvesting that there is too much to do in a given day given the needs of human operators.Continue reading“Thoughts on Farming – Part 6, by Single Farmer”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

Meme Text:

News Report: Justin Trudeau is Depressed After His Ouster From Canadian Leadership

But He Can Earn The Praise Of The Citizenry, If He Volunteers To Be “MAID Of Honor”

News Links:

Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks!

Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.

 

The Editors’ Quote of the Day: 

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” – 1 Corinthians 10: 1-17 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — January 11, 2025

Today is the birthday of the late Gunnar Fridtjof Thurmann Sønsteby, who was born in 1918. He was the most decorated hero of the Norwegian resistance under the German occupation. Sønsteby was the leader of “The Oslo Gang” sabotage and assassination team that was directed by the Norwegian government in exile. They were trained and equipped by the British SOE. He died on May 10, 2012.  Sønsteby’s autobiography, titled Report From #24 is fascinating reading.  It was the basis of Nr. 24 — a fairly historically correct movie that was released in 2024.

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Today is birthday of big game hunter and writer Peter Hathaway Capstick.

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January 11th is also the birthday of Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804.)

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I just heard of the passing of singer Anita Bryant, at age 84. Though she is still vilified by the leftist/godless mass media as an “alarmist”, she made a genuine stand for righteous living. Her warnings about extending special rights to homosexuals were prescient. Today, 48 years later, we can in retrospect see that she was absolutely right about the moral decay in our nation, and how those trends were accelerated by “gay” and lesbian activists. Let me summarize the “”LGBTQ+” pushing, bluntly and tersely: 50 years ago, they demanded tolerance. 30 years ago, they demanded acceptance. 10 years ago, they demanded marriage equality. But, now, in the 2020s, they are demanding participation in their vile month-long celebrations, demanding adoption rights (sometimes with disastrous results) and they brag that they will groom our children into their “lifestyle.”  They are now coercing everyone. Some of this corercion is subtle, and some of it is overt.  Anita, you were right! – JWR

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Today’s feature article is a guest post by one of my consulting clients. It is not eligible for the writing contest judging. – JWR

We are seeking entries for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $935,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. 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. Round 116 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Thoughts on Farming – Part 5, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 4.)

The Economics of Farming
I often hear statistics that farmers receive 15 percent of a food dollar. That statistic really needs some examination in comparing it to previous generations. Back in 2016, we sold wheat in the $3.80 range and we were fortunate in that the official statistic for wheat for our area is $3.20 a bushel. I will be generous and use our $3.80 a bushel number: At that number, a pound of wheat is a little over 6 cents. Wheat is commonly used in bread, so an example that I often think about is how much of a loaf does the farmer get and that often demonstrates the difficulty in profitability.
For these purposes, I will say one pound or 1/60 of a bushel is the amount of how much wheat is used for the loaf of bread (although many bakeries use less than a pound of wheat flour per loaf, so they could bake more than 60 loaves to a bushel). In 1950, a loaf of bread was 12 cents and the family farmer would sell his wheat for 3.4 cents a pound receiving about 28 percent using that equation. Using the 2023 full year numbers as this is being written in late December 2024 before the complete numbers are available which likely are higher, the average price for a loaf of wheat bread was 2.54 dollars and we a family farm sold our wheat for under 9.5 cents a pound earlier this year receiving under 4 percent using that equation. The price we sold wheat actually declined in 2024, versus what we sold it for in 2023. There are a lot of people paying more than 2 dollars and 54 cents a loaf for bread further reducing a farmer’s percentage.

Continue reading“Thoughts on Farming – Part 5, by Single Farmer”

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:

This week I helped Lily complete the reorganization of our Hall/Pantry.  I discovered that I mail-ordered a few too many Sterlite plastic storage bins for the hall shelves, but the excess bins will go to good use in our workshop.

I split and stacked some more firewood.

At this stage of my life, most of my firearms acquisition and gunsmithing is for the benefit of our grandchildren. I just completed another M4-length .223 Wylde AR build.  For the first time ever, I used a 1/2″x28-threaded Kaw Valley Precision “MACH 3” Modular Linear Compensator.  I ordered that from Optics Planet. (They are one of SurvivalBlog’s affiliate advertisers.) I also ordered a few additional threaded MACH 3 body sections, for greater versatility.

These “linear compensators” have no baffles, so they are not classified as “suppressors” or “silencers” by the ATF.  But they do a great job of throwing sound forward, so there is less sound heard by the shooter.  By the way, I plan to order another one of these goodies to install on our SW .22 rimfire pistol. It has a now ubiquitous 1/2″x28 threaded muzzle. I’ve found that pistol is the one that I grab the most often for pest shooting, or putting down livestock. It has a high-mounted red dot sight, so the large diameter of the Kaw Valley compensator won’t be an issue.

Now, Lily’s part of the report…Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”