Today’s graphic: Map of NATO countries, as of March, 2024. Sweden just recently joined. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)
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Please send your graphic ideas 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 militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace both from the enormous expenses with which they are attended and the facile means which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers to subvert the government or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers and will generally even if these are successful the first instance enable the people to resist and triumph over them. And yet though this truth would seem so clear and the importance of a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable it cannot be disguised that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline and a disposition from a sense of its burthens to be rid of all regulations. How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger that indifference may lead to disgust and disgust to contempt and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.” – Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
Today we remember the birthday of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, an outstanding improviser whose style was characterized by lyricism and purity of tone, was born on March 10, 1903 in Davenport, Iowa.
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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.
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Today we present another entry for Round 111 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 111 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.
Sheep are mostly binary creatures: Zero or One. Either they are strong and healthy, or they’re dead. There isn’t much in between. Once they’ve lived for 24 hours, they are likely to do well for the rest of their lives. But the exception to that rule is when they’re lambing.
Sheep farmers of today are not like Biblical shepherds. When the Bible was written, time was measured by most people in days, or fractions of days, according to the movement of the sun. Shepherds could take the time to search for a lost sheep, or dress the injuries of a sheep that had been mauled. These days, when time is measured in milliseconds by clocks based on atomic decay, time is money, and usually, a problem sheep isn’t worth the time it takes to deal with it. A lost sheep is a write-off, and an injured sheep is put out of its misery. If a sheep has problems lambing, she’s marked for culling if she survives.
As a backyard sheep farmer, I’m somewhere in between the Biblical shepherd and the large-scale sheep farmers. My sheep live in fenced fields, so if they go missing, it’s because something or someone took them. If they are injured, I do my best to get them through it, but if it’s clear that they’re not going to make it, I end their suffering with a hollow point round. If they have problems lambing, I balance that against the quality of their fleeces. I’ll keep an ewe that I can’t breed if she has a nice enough fleece. I like sheep, and most of mine are in a gray zone between “livestock” and “pet”.Continue reading“Lambing Woes, by H.F.K.”
The latest meme created by JWR:
Meme Text:
If the Second Civil War is Fought By The Trans & Woke Versus The Trad & Chad
Any Bets on Who Will Win, in the Long Term?
News Link:
Gun Ownership Higher Among Republicans Than Democrats.
Photo Credits:
Photo on left by Miguel Discart at a Pride.be event. (Creative Commons licensed. Found using Flickr-commons.) Photo on right from the outstanding photographer Patrick Hall, on Fstoppers.
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.
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” – Revelation 3:6-12
Pancho Villa‘s men killed more than a dozen residents in a raid on Columbus, New Mexico.
March 9, 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces bombed Tokyo with napalm, causing fires that destroyed a quarter of the city and killed some 80,000 civilians.
Today is the birthday of writer John McPhee (b. 1931), a master of creative nonfiction. One of McPhee’s most widely read books is Coming into the Country, which eloquently describes the Alaskan wilderness.
On March 9, 432 BC, the Parthenon was consecrated in Athens.
March 9th is the birthday of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin – the first man to ever travel in space. He was born in 1934 and died in the crash of a MiG-15-UTI fighter on March 27, 1968.
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Today we present another entry for Round 111 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 111 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.
(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
Some winemakers recommend dissolving the yeast in water first (called “proofing”). I’ve done it both ways, and adding the yeast directly seems to work best for me.
There are many different kinds of yeast for winemaking. (If you want to keep a bunch of oenophiles busy for days, ask them what the best yeast is, and then scurry away while they argue over it.) I use one of four kinds that I keep on hand, depending on what kind of wine I’m making. Yeasts vary in how well they tolerate alcohol. If you prefer a sweeter wine, choose a yeast that isn’t as alcohol-tolerant, such as Red Star Premier Classique. If a drier wine is your goal, you should choose a yeast such as Red Star Premier Cuvee (which is a white wine yeast). Different yeasts bring out different flavors in the wine. You can read about what yeasts produce what type of flavor, but ultimately, the best way to find out which yeast you like best is through experimentation.
Within three to four days, your primary fermentation should start working. If you use an airlock that has water in it, as I do, you can watch the airlock bubble away, like a 60’s lava lamp, and you’ll start to smell your wine. Open the primary every other day and give the material a good stir with a long-handled spoon or stirring rod. Sometimes a crust, made of bits of fruit pulp that stick together, forms on top, and it’s important to break up the crust.Continue reading“Making Wine At Home – Part 2, by H.F.K.”
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!
We had fairly nice weather this week, so I got outdoors to do some snow shoveling and various other projects around the ranch. Spring is coming!
I’ve had a few recent auction purchases arrive, so I soon added them to my Elk Creek Company online catalog. These include a U.S. Springfield Armory 1884 Trapdoor Rifle that is Chicago “Boston Store”-marked and a scarce Carcano M1891 Torre Short Rifle that is dated 1897 on the barrel ring.
Now, Lily’s much more loquacious report…Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”
“And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba.
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.
And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” – 1 Samuel 8:1-18
On March 8th, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people lost contact and disappeared, prompting the most expensive search effort in history and one of the most enduring aviation mysteries.
March 8th is the birthday of famed revolver shooter, big game hunter, and gun writer Elmer Keith, who co-designed the S&W .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum cartridges. He authored the book Sixguns, which is still considered a standard reference. His fascinating life story is told in his last book, Hell, I was there! A Proto-Redoubter, Keith spent the second half of his life on a ranch near Salmon, Idaho. (Keith was born in 1899 and died February 12, 1984.)
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In honor of Elmer Keith’s birthday, I have put all of my percussion revolver inventory on sale, at Elk Creek Company, for the next two weeks. Every cataloged percussion revolver has been discounted! This sale ends on March 22nd, 2024.
Today we present another entry for Round 111 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 111 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.
People have been making wine for almost as long as there have been people. In the Bible, we’re told that Noah, after disembarking from the ark, “was the first to plant a vineyard.” (Genesis 9:21)
This article will give you some how-tos, whats, and whsy on making wine at home, as well as a brief description of how I got into it.
The first time a friend of mine, Pastor B., visited our home, he gave us a bottle of homemade apricot wine. It was incredible. I picked his brain on the subject of winemaking.
“It’s really pretty simple,” said Pastor B. “It comes down to this: You give the yeasts sugar in a nice place for them to live. They eat the sugar, poop alcohol, and pass carbon dioxide gas. When the alcohol content gets high enough, they die, and your wine is done.”
When pressed further on specifics, Pastor B. gave a simple recipe for winemaking: Three pounds of fruit and three pounds of sugar per gallon of wine.Continue reading“Making Wine At Home – Part 1, by H.F.K.”
Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at record-high gold futures prices, in Dollar terms. (See the Precious Metals section.)
Published on Tuesday: ‘We Have Liftoff!’ – Spot Gold Takes Out Record High. JWR’s Comments: The fundamentals of gold haven’t changed, as a hedge. It is the U.S. Dollar that is showing its inherent weakness. Oh, and ditto for Bitcoin, which also hit an all-time high in Dollar terms, this week.
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Gold Futures Close at Record High.
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Commentary from Gary Wagner, at Gold-Eagle.com: The Truth About the Collapsing US Dollar and Its Impact on Gold & Silver Prices.
Fed policymakers look past ‘bumpy’ inflation toward rate cuts.
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In the U.K.: Banks force closure of 140,000 small business accounts.
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Millennials on course to become ‘richest generation in history’.
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Nolte: Bud Light Boycott Cost Tranheuser-Busch $1.4 Billion.
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Will Denyer, by way of Zero Hedge: Good Story Versus Bad Valuations.
“Unjust authority confers no obligation of obedience.” – Alexander Hamilton
On March 7, 1778, Captain James Cook first sighted the Oregon coast at Yaquina Bay.
March 7, 1707 was the birthday of Stephen Hopkins, (Governor of Rhode Island) one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
And March 7, 1944 was the birthday of Townes Van Zandt, a gifted Texan singer/songwriter. (He died in 1997.)
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Update: We are running out of 2005-2023 SurvivalBlog archive USB sticks. There are only about 200 left. Many readers are ordering 2, 3, or 4 sticks. There will not be another batch of sticks produced this year, so get your order in soon.
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Today we present a brief reader-written review article. It was too short to qualify for the judging in the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.
We are in great need of entries for Round 111 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 111 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.
