Understanding Hydrocarbon-Based Fuel, by Industry Guy

Editor’s Introductory Note: I’ve had many e-mailed questions about buying, transporting, and storing gasoline and diesel fuel in recent days. I also had a question about the available blends of gasoline. So, I thought it would be apropos to re-post a few fuel-related articles from SurvivalBlog’s deep archives.  This article dates back 16 years, to April, 2010. It was written by an anonymous reader in the fuel refining industry.

Background

Fuel supplies are essential for many aspects of modern society. Complex supply chains rely on hydrocarbon-fueled trucks, trains, and planes to deliver food and other supplies in near real-time. Natural gas is is used to heat homes and fuel generators that supply approximately one-sixth of all electricity produced in the US. Large-scale food production is only possible with diesel-fueled farm equipment and synthetic nitrate fertilizers, made from natural gas.

It is not hard to imagine that anything more than a brief blip in fuel supplies would result in TEOTWAWKI. We have seen the result of Hurricanes Katrina and Ike on fuel supplies and prices. Some of us are old enough to remember the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Much motor fuel is transported by long pipelines that cross active earthquake faults and are also vulnerable to “man-caused disasters”. I once asked an oil company employee responsible for fuel supply logistics, “how vulnerable is the system to disruption?”. She replied they could handle one hiccup, but two sequential events, or one large event would bring the system down. In my opinion, the question is not “if” we will see fuel supply disruptions, but rather “when” and “how severe?”Continue reading“Understanding Hydrocarbon-Based Fuel, by Industry Guy”

Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.  This week: A map showing the hours of minimum wage work needed for rent, as of 2025. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.

 

 

 

(Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were early implanted in his imagination; no matter how utterly his reason may reject them, he will still feel as the famous woman did about ghosts, Je n’y crois pas, mais je les crains, — “I don’t believe in them, but I am afraid of them, nevertheless.”  – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — March 12, 2026

March 12, 1850: The first US $20 gold piece (dubbed the Liberty Head, Coronet, or “Double Eagle”) was issued.  Later issues had the “In God We Trust” motto (as pictured above), so the early issues are now called “No Motto” coins by collectors.

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March 12, 1940: Finland signed the Moscow Peace Treaty, capitulating to Russia and ceding 11% of their pre-WWII territory, ending the “Winter War”.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 123 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. 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.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

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. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  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 $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 123 ends on March 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.

Alternative Fuels and Lighting For When The SHTF, by Tractorguy

Something that we always stress to fellow preppers, is that “when the SHTF, what you have is all you will have,” stressing the importance of permanently sustainable and renewable things like wood heat, electricity from solar panels, etc. Once you have that covered, however, it is worthwhile to consider that some of the disaster scenarios we may have to cope with may be temporary – whether a weather event such as a snowstorm or tornado, or something medium-term like an EMP event affecting a smaller town where the residents are likely to pull together and survive. A limited-supply fuel may still be valuable in such a scenario, as long as you realize that it is limited and you (hopefully) have a more permanent long-term approach also in place.

LP GAS (PROPANE)

Many of you have propane in your homes and are very familiar with it. This is for the person that doesn’t, and may not be as familiar with it.

My main heat source for cooking and temperature control at my Bugout Location (BOL) is a wood stove, and I have eight acres of woods to support that. Some time ago, I was gifted an LP stove from a person that had just had natural gas service extended to him from the public utility, and he and his wife decided to get all new appliances. Its initial attraction to me was the ability to make coffee, or a hot meal, in the summertime without making the house unbearably hot with the wood stove all day just to have coffee first thing in the morning – along with waiting for over an hour for the stove to get hot! I had planned to just run the stove off small, easily-transportable tanks, since the remoteness of my BOL precluded getting a large propane tank back there, or getting a truck back there to fill it even if I had one.Continue reading“Alternative Fuels and Lighting For When The SHTF, by Tractorguy”

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: The Iran War and still more AI threats.

The Iran Missile and Drone War

Iran’s missile math: $20,000 drones take on $4 million Patriots.  Here is a key quote:

“US-made Patriot air-defense missiles have been largely successful in stopping the Iranian Shaheds and other ballistic missiles, with interception rates over 90%, according to the UAE. But using $4 million missiles to destroy $20,000 drones illustrates a problem that has haunted Western military planners since early in the Ukraine war: The cheap weapons can chew up resources meant for much more complex threats. The result is that both Iran and the US may run low on weapons in a matter of days or weeks. Whoever can last longer will gain a serious advantage.”

Iranian Sleeper Cells?

Several readers sent this report from the leftist/globalist Los Angeles Times: Iran’s threats on U.S. soil: sleeper cells, lone wolves, cyberattacks and eerie numbers code.

An AI-Directed Suicide

JWR Writes: Take the time to read this article (and the one that immediately follows), and do a bit of extrapolation into the near future, when AIs will touch almost every aspect of our lives: Man believed Google’s AI chatbot was his wife. It told him to kill himself, lawsuit says.

More AIs are Going Rogue

Cases of AI Agents ‘Freeing Themselves’ and Going Rogue Are Becoming Increasingly Common.  A pericope:

“One AI agent created by an Alibaba-affiliated research team went “rogue” and began an unauthorized cryptomining effort during training, according to a research paper by the group. The behavior triggered security alarms.

The researchers said they found “unanticipated” and spontaneous behaviors emerge “without any explicit instruction and, more troublingly, outside the bounds of the intended sandbox.”

The “rogue” agent also created a “back door” from inside the system to an outside computer. “Notably, these events were not triggered by prompts requesting tunneling or mining,” the report said.”

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

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — March 11, 2026

On March 11, 1708, Queen Anne withheld Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill. This was the last time that a British monarch vetoed legislation.

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March 11, 1897: A meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris caused damage, but no human injuries were reported.

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And on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 outbreak was a pandemic.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 123 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. 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.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

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. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  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 $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 123 ends on March 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.

Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

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

At one auction, I found some very odd tools for some type of woodwork.  Upon research they were used by wheelwrights to make wooden wagon wheels.  I have an interest in several old trades but wheel making is not one of them.  On a trip to Holmes County, Ohio (in Amish country) I took those old wheelwright tools and traded them for some other tools (blacksmithing and chisels) that I did want at the Colonial Homestead Store, in Millersburg.  This store offers old but usable tools from many old trades.  Just walking through the store was like being in a museum but you are able to pick up the items, touch them, and examine them.  This was a fantastic way to learn about tools for various trades.  Now, when I am out at sales, I am able to better identify older tools for several forgotten trades.  

Hardware and Supplies

So, once you have the knowledge, skills, and tooling, having a good stock of hardware and supplies will be needed.  I dabble around in leather crafting.  I have mostly made my own knife sheaths, axe covers, and hatchet covers.  There are some specialized hardware that are not found in many of your local stores.  Trying to barter after the collapse for these items may be difficult to impossible.  This applies to many items for other specialized trades/crafts not just those for leather crafting.  Using leather crafting as an example, I keep a medium-sized Plano tackle box (roughly 14”L x 14”H x 10”W) with many divided drawers stocked with copper, steel and aluminum split rivets, solid copper rivets and burrs and various semi-tubular rivets.  Then I have various types (brass, chrome) and lengths of Chicago screws (aka sex bolts/barrel bolts).  Then there are the “D” rings, and various snaps.  Continue reading“Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 2, by 3AD Scout”

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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First up, over at Zero Hedge: The Fix Is in to Defeat Alberta Independence.

o  o  o

This piece by Paul Joseph Watson if one for the “England Has Fallen” file: He Didn’t See This Coming

o  o  o

A quite useful video: Installing My Underground Propane Tank.  JWR’s Comments: The crucial item is the connected sacrificial anode. Typically, those are composed of zinc. The anode will corrode before the steel of the tank. The same concept is used on steel-hull ships, with welded-on zincs. If you have fairly dry soil, then it is a good idea to have a vertical pipe of at least 1.5-inch diameter that leads down to the anode. With a semi-annual filling from your garden hose, that will keep the anode wet. Adding a coating of asphalt emulsion over the paint will make an underground tank last even longer.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten—that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side-by-side with the greatest.” – Judge Learned Hand

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 10, 2026

On  March 10, 1831, the French Foreign Legion was established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.

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March 10, 1891: Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patented the Strowger Switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.

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And on March 10, 1910, China officially ended slavery. But unofficially, China now has one of the world’s largest slave populations. These are mostly political prisoners, working in prison factories. Sadly, there is no way of reliably knowing whether or not most of the “Made In China” merchandise that you buy might originate from these prisons.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 123 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. 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.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

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. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  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 $981,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 123 ends on March 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.

Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

We have all seen the post-apocalyptic movies where improvise armored vehicles with machine guns roam the landscape.  These Hollywood creations make for great entertainment but are such cobbled together machines just fantasy?  The civil war in Somalia introduced the world to “Technicals”, or utilizing civilian vehicles, like decades old Datsun and Totota Hilux pickup trucks, as a platform to mount heavy machine guns, like the Soviet era DShK 12.7mm.  Thirty years later and such vehicles are now being used on the battlefields of Ukraine.  Not only has Ukraine made improvised war wagons out of civilian pickup trucks but they have used off-the-shelf drones to make an impressive improvised air force.  Just as modern warfare has caused the need for improvisation, so will The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI).  How can we be better prepared to improvise when the time comes?Continue reading“Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

This weekly column features media 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.  Today, a public domain photo of the Palouse Hills at sunset in late summer, by Alejandro Rodriguez.  The thumbnail photo below is click-expandable.

Send Your Media Links

Please send your links to media from the American Redoubt region to JWR. Any photos that are posted or re-posted must be uncopyrighted. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“It is my belief that there are ‘absolutes’ in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant, and meant their prohibitions to be ‘absolute.’” – Justice Hugo L. Black