The Unraveling: A Book Review, by S.A.

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Spoilers Alert: I don’t believe this review gives the story away, but if you don’t like any details in advance, then you might not want to read this.

The Unraveling, Book 1 of the Bound to Survive Series
by Charley Hogwood
324 pages
Kindle $5.99

First, who names their baby Tempest? Even in this day and age of last names being used as first names (for example, Smith, Parker, Jackson, Davis for little girls or little boys) and the revival of old-timey girl names (Donna, Ruth, Hazel, Myrtle), “Tempest” seems over the top, unless maybe you are a Shakespeare scholar.

A small group of the woke in Florida forms and comes together just at the outset of a pandemic that arises out of the failed state of Venezuela. Their success just shows us that maybe God does love fools, and this time, just maybe the newly aware will fare as well or better as those who have been accumulating skills and tools for years. Of course, everyone needs lots of guns and proven ability and experience with shooting, and this group has it.

Prepper acronyms and pieces of equipment are explained early on for those readers who are brand new to prepping: Mylar, TEOTWAWKI, SHTF, etc. I believe that is the target audience for this book, but old hands at prepping can enjoy it, too. The characters are likable.Continue reading“The Unraveling: A Book Review, by S.A.”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on the Gear Cloud Defensive OWL weapons light.  (See the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

The Prepared Family Guide to Uncommon Diseases

o  o  o

Every Man a Hero: A Memoir of D-Day, the First Wave at Omaha Beach, and a World at War

o  o  o

The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850, by Brian Fagan

o  o  o

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West

o  o  o

One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — June 25, 2019

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On June 25th, 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeated the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River. The Battle of Little Bighorn–also called Custer’s Last Stand –marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. While complicated, the generally accepted reason for the battle is that the discovery of gold in South Dakota’s Black Hills in 1875 led to the U.S. government disregarding previous treaty agreements. The gruesome fate of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Preparing for Everyday Life, by D.W.

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This article doesn’t address When The Schumer Hits The Fan (WTSHTF). No, this is just about preparing for everyday life, and everyday hazards to your property.

Life will always be a higher level of importance than property. However, in this article we will be discussing property and how to mitigate its loss. When we think of being prepared, we think about the worst things imaginable happening, EMP blackout, Nuclear war and civil unrest are just a few. But more likely than not, our individual lives can be affected more frequently by smaller-scale incidents that can have a huge impact on us. A fire, flood, tornado or even a residential burglary. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) reported 1.3 million fires in 2017. And according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics of 2015, 11.2 households out of 1,000 will be a victim of a property crime. Add to these, the unpredictable number of tornadoes and flooding or even earthquakes that can occur from year to year in the United States. Being prepared for these is just as important as preparing for any other critical incident. These types of events can happen to anyone, whether you still live in an urban environment or have established a retreat further out from your neighbors.

When thinking about preparedness, one might fall into the trap of tunnel vision. Tunnel vision is explained as being so focused on a result or goal that we lose focus on everything else around it. I have developed the mentality of being an All-hazards preparer rather than focusing on just one incident. Much of the time, the cross-over from one to another only adds a couple of steps, but being mindful to look at what can occur everyday to you or your neighbors is just as important as navigating the larger picture.

Continue reading“Preparing for Everyday Life, by D.W.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. Today, we focus on Kitfox STOL aircraft. (See the Idaho section.)

Idaho

Raúl Labrador announces candidacy for GOP chairman

o o o

Kitfox STOL Video (with tundra tires, of course): HOT SPRING HOP WITH THE KITFOX!! Flight VLOG (Part 1).  “Silvija and I flew the Kitfox to the Idaho Sawtooths and landed at a few hot springs around the Idaho Sawtooth mountain range. Near Stanley, Idaho, Salmon, Idaho, Barney Hot Springs, Gold Bug Hot Springs  and Craters of the Moon. Almost ground looped the Kitfox. Landed on dirt roads, had a strong crosswind landing and takeoff at Challis, Idaho airport.”

JWR’s Comment:  You gotta love those “casual” dirt road landings in very rural parts of southern Idaho. Given the terrain, there are not many opportunities for that in central and north Idaho, at least with fixed-wing aircraft. But the rotary pilots definitely land in some interesting places.

o o o

Judge orders Sawtooth Valley water diversions examined

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

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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”.  Today, we look at the recent South American Blackout.

U.S. Put Malware In Russia’s Electrical Grid

G.P. sent this: U.S. Reportedly Planted Offensive Malware In Russia’s Electrical Grid. A quote:

“The New York Times reports that the Cyber Command has been able to infiltrate the electric grid of Russia and plant offensive malware. It’s unclear just how deep it has been able to infiltrate the grid and what this malware is capable of doing. However, it’s evident that this is meant to serve as a weapon should the situation between the United States and Russia reach a point where its use may seem warranted.”

Insider Blows Whistle at Google on 2020 Election Meddling

Reader S.H. sent this bombshell: Insider Blows Whistle & Exec Reveals Google Plan to Prevent “Trump situation” in 2020 on Hidden Cam

Huge South American Blackout

Courtesty of reader Tim J., here is a report from BBC: Argentina and Uruguay reel after massive power outage. This outage left 44 million people in the dark.  The grid failure was not attributed to malware, but rather to a physical problem with a grid inter-tie. Here is a pericope:

“Power has been restored to much of Argentina and Uruguay after a massive electrical failure left tens of millions of people in the dark.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has promised a full investigation.

Argentine media said the power cut occurred shortly after 07:00 (10:00GMT) on Sunday, causing trains to be halted and failures with traffic signalling.

The blackout was prompted by a failure in an electrical grid that serves both Argentina and Uruguay.

The outage occurred as people in Argentina were preparing to go to the polls for local elections, delaying voting in several regional provinces.

Parts of Paraguay and Chile were also affected, a state energy company said.”

Oregon Senator: “Come Heavily Armed”:

Reader H.L. sent this at Zero Hedge: “Come Heavily Armed”: Oregon Senator Threatens Violence As Governor Hunts Down Lawmakers.

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday — June 24, 2019

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June 24th the birthday of rifle-toting abolitionist pastor Henry Ward Beecher. (Born 1813, died March 8, 1887.) He and his adherents from his church smuggled so many Sharps rifles to Bleeding Kansas that the Sharps rifles picked up the nickname Beecher’s Bibles. Wikipedia states: Several of his brothers and sisters became well-known educators and activists, most notably Harriet Beecher Stowe, who achieved worldwide fame with her abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Zero Tolerance 0460Ti Folder, by Pat Cascio

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I often get requests for high-end folding knives, that our readers want to have me review. It is no small task requesting samples of expensive knives, but our friends at Kershaw Knives/Zero Tolerance (ZT), always come through with something new and exciting to test. Today we’re checking out the sleek model 0460Ti, and here’s one definition of the word sleek: “having an elegant, streamlined shape or design…” And, you’ll see why I agree with this description of the particular folder.

During a visit to Kershaw many years ago, to tour their (then) new plant they had just moved into, I was shown several brand-new knife designs, that they were going to put into production. I was quite impressed with the high-quality and designs. However, I was sworn to secrecy. So I couldn’t report on the new knives and the new “Zero Tolerance” line-up from KAI International. I was promised that samples would be coming, that I could test and write about, and true to their word, Kershaw got those knives into my hands in short order.

First things first: Zero Tolerance knives are made 100% in the USA, I know this is important to a lot of our readers, and ZT only uses the finest materials available to produce these knives, and they are advertised as being for “professionals”. I believe that. This line-up was originally intended for military and law enforcement use – and to be sure, many of these pros use ZT knives. However, savvy “civilian” knife users, also want the best cutlery they can find, and I’m betting more ZT knives are sold to us civilians than to the law enforcement and military communities.Continue reading“Zero Tolerance 0460Ti Folder, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Kathy’s Hurried-Up Curried Chicken

Reader Kathy kindly sent us one of her favorite recipes. She calls it her Hurried-Up Curried Chicken. Serves four adults, or two adults and 3-4 kids. Takes just 25 minutes from start to finish.

Note: Use less curry powder ane less mustard seed if you are not accustomed to them.

Main Ingredients
  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast (about 7 thighs, or 4 breasts), cut into 1″ or smaller cubes
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil or vegetable oil (plus 2 more teaspoons for browning cashews and mustard seeds — optional)
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped (or less, to taste)
  • 1 (14-ounce) can of coconut milk (preferably full-fat)
  • 2 1/2″-long piece of raw ginger, peeled
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 5 ounces of baby spinach, washed
  • Cilantro leaves, washed, to taste
Optional Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup raw cashews, chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow and/or black mustard seeds
Directions
  1. Toss the cubed chicken with curry powder, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.
  2. Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet (at least 12″ in diameter) over medium-high burner. Add onion and cook, stirring, until onion softens–about 2 minutes.
  3. Purée the coconut milk, ginger, and garlic in a blender until very smooth.
  4. Add chicken and coconut milk mixture to skillet and cook, tossing occasionally, until chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened, 7-10 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, if desired, heat 2 of teaspoons oil in a small skillet over medium. Add cashews and mustard seeds and cook, stirring, until fragrant and lightly browned, 2–3 minutes. Immediately transfer mixture including the oil to a small bowl.
  6. Fold the spinach into chicken mixture and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Divide among 4 serving bowls. Top with cilantro and cashew mixture, if desired.
Serving Suggestions

This dish can be served hot over steamed jasmine rice or with naan bread to accompany. If you don’t have a source for naan, or if you lack the time to bake it yourself, then pita bread from your grocery store will suffice.

This stores well in a covered dish, for re-heating, up to 48 hours. After that, compost it it or feed it to your chickens. (Don’t mention to them that they are cannibals.)

—

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at investing in scarce M1 Carbines. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

To begin, there is this at Seeking Alpha: Gold Likely To Soon Be Lifted By Rising De-Dollarization Surge

o  o  o

Gold Maginot Line Broken – Time to Buy Insurance

Economy & Finance:

Some demographics analysis, over at Zero Hedge: Meanwhile, Over On Planet Japan… (Thanks to H.L. for the link.)

o  o  o

The State of the Canadian Debt Slaves, and How They Compare to the American Debt Slaves

o  o  o

New Airbus Jet Spells Trouble For Boeing

o  o  o

Inspired by Deutsche Bank Death Spiral, European Banks Sink to Dec 24, 2018 Level – First Seen in 1995

o o o

Italy proposes tax on savings hidden in safety deposit boxes

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — June 23, 2019

1

On June 23, 1868, American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for a typewriter. Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard. Along with Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt, Christopher Sholes has been contended as one of the inventors of the first typewriters in the United States.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Are You Building Capacity or Capability?, by 3ADScout

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First let’s define “capacity.” Capacity is how much of something we have. Think about your “capacity” in terms of beans, bullets and band-aids. For food, your capacity might be 72-hours’ worth of food in a bug-out-bag, or 1-year supply for 4 people. Your capacity for bullets might be 1,000 rounds for rifles and 500 rounds per pistol. For band-aids, you might have 10 boxes of 4×4 gauze pads, 2 boxes of gauze rollers and 2 rolls of tape enough to dress one small wound for about a week. When your capacity runs out, you have no more unless you somehow resupply.

Many of us are very good at building our capacity to meet set goals. Some of us don’t have set goals for capacity. For example, we see many preppers write that they “never have enough ammunition” or perhaps they add a bag of rice to their stores every month regardless of how much they have already and plan to continue that practice indefinitely. There is nothing wrong with this strategy but we need to ensure that all our needs for the long run are addressed in our preparedness efforts and that is where building capabilities comes into play.

We can define a capability as our ability to “do something.” Many of our Prepper capabilities are very easy to identify. Let’s go back to the old beans, bullets and band-aids mantra. We need to have a capability to provide nutrition, protection and healthcare. It is very easy to go out and simply buy something to fulfill a need. But does simply buying beans, bullets and band-aids really build a capability?Continue reading“Are You Building Capacity or Capability?, by 3ADScout”