Editor’s Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. Note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I had a busy week, conducting a two-day “Pre-Hunker” sale for Elk Creek Company. We took 12 orders for a total of 15 antique guns. Those should all be shipped by Monday. Unless the pandemic subsides earlier than predicted, we will be on a voluntary hiatus from taking any new orders until May 26th. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, I’ll be adding items to the catalog. These will include a few replica guns that are chambered in obsolete cartridges that are no longer found in stores. The relevant Federal law that puts these recently-produced guns in the Federal “Antique” category reads: “…any replica of an antique firearm if it is not designed or redesigned for using rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition, or uses rimfire or conventional centerfire ammunition which is no longer manufactured in the United States, and which is not readily available in ordinary channels of commercial trade.”  – 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3), (a)(16).  Thus, NO FFL is required!

This coming week, despite some recent snow and the forecast of some rain, I plan to be out in our woodlot, cutting up some downed trees into firewood to ready ourselves for the winter of 2020-2021.

Continue reading“Editor’s Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.

Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.

He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.” – Psalm 61 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — April 3, 2020

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

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For those of you who are stocking up to be ready to hunker down for the peak of the pandemic, keep in mind that Harvest Guard is offering a 20% discount just for SurvivalBlog readers. Enter the code “survivalblog” during checkout to receive 20% off any order for Harvest Guard Reusable Canning Lids. I should also mention that shipping to Canada is now an option through their web site. They have very reasonable shipping rates that should help defray the cost for Canadian customers. This is especially true when combined with the current SurvivalBlog discount.

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A follow-up to yesterday’s Note:  I just heard from The Berkey Guy (aka usaberkeyfilters.com) that because they started the COVID-19 crisis with a very large inventory, they were able to ship around a huge number of orders in the past six weeks. They mentioned that they presently have an order backlog of only 2 to 3 weeks. (Many of their smaller competitors have almost hopeless multi-month order backlogs.)

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 88 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First 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 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 Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Sterilization Techniques for Coronavirus, by A Wife First

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Introductory Disclaimer: This essay’s information is scientific in nature, so please perform your own due diligence in understanding the terminology and techniques prescribed forthcoming and tailor them to your own needs. I am not responsible for any damage/injury caused in the misuse of this information.

Historical Account

Patients undergoing routine operations were at very high risk of infection in the early 1900s due to the limited concept of aseptic conditions. This lack of understanding of microbes, caused high levels of infection and even death during surgical procedures of their day. Some factors of the spreading of microbes in times past were that surgeons operated in street clothes without washing their hands. They used sewing thread to suture wounds, and stuck the needles in their frock coats then using the same needle on different patients without washing. Cotton/jute from the floors of cotton mills were the surgical dressings of the day.

Louis Pasteur

Pasteur was the father of germ theory and spent most of his life to the calling in disease related to surgery. He held many inventions such as the autoclave in which to sterilize surgical instruments. It utilized steam and high pressure over a period of time to eliminate microbes. In addition, he was the inventor of what you might already know—pasteurizing milk.

Joseph Lister

English surgeon, Joseph Lister, founded modern antiseptic surgery and based much of his advancements from the study of Luis Pasteur. Lister used a solution of carbolic acid (phenol), to disinfect patients before and during surgical procedures. Evidence proved that the mortality rate of patients improved whilst utilizing his techniques and procedures. However, selling that idea to the masses of surgeons whom held mindset that nothing they can’t see could possibly kill their patient, would take some years and hard checking of “egos” in order to become mainstream in surgical advancements.Continue reading“Sterilization Techniques for Coronavirus, by A Wife First”

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. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at unloading your collectibles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

The COMEX Issues and Stops Reports Expose Conditions Behind Physical Gold Supply Problems

o  o  o

COMEX Can’t Find Any 400 Oz Bars For Its New Gold Futures Contract

o  o  o

Fake Morgan Dollar purchased from a flea market!

o  o  o

Silver and Sanity (Gary Christenson)

Economy & Finance:

SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson describes the now developing cascade of events: Businesses That Are Going To Fail.

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: How Will COVID-19 Impact US Manufacturing? First Indications Are Ugly. Exacerbated by Underlying Conditions

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And at Zero Hedge: US Public Pension Funds Have Lost $1 TRILLION In Recent Weeks

o  o  o

The Return of the Barter Economy, Swapping Eggs for Toilet Paper

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Peter Schiff: Americans Are in For a Rude Awakening

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 2, 2020

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

—

A quick update:  I talked with a major storage food vendor and he reported that the entire industry has an order backlog averaging 8 to 12 weeks. They are not guaranteeing delivery dates, because the big food packaging companies are not guaranteeing them any delivery dates!  Likewise, the folks who make and sell water filters are building order huge backlogs. For instance, British Berkefeld reportedly has an order backlog of 9,000 of their large filters. The vendors haven’t seen anything like this since the last few months before the Y2K date rollover.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 88 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First 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 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 Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced – Round 87

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We’ve completed the judging for Round 87 of the bi-monthly SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The Prize Winners are:

First Prize:

First Prize is awarded to Greg X. for the article Generators for Family Readiness, which was published  in two parts on March and March 15, 2020-.  Links: Part 1, and Part 2.He will receive the following prizes:

  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 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:

Second Prize is awarded to A. in N.D., for the article Smelting Scrap Lead For Bullet Casting, which was published on February 18, 2020.  He will receive the following prizes:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  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:

Third Prize is awarded to Mama Bear for her article A Prepping Reality Check which was published in four parts, beginning on March 5, 2020.  Links: Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. She will receive the following prizes:

  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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Honorable mention prizes ($30 Amazon gift certificates) have been awarded, for these nine articles:

Note to the top three prize winners:  Please e-mail us your USPS and UPS address(es) so that we can arrange shipment of your prizes.

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

My Hawaiian Retreat, by R.L.

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If you haven’t yet moved to a geographically isolated location, then you should do so now.
I abandoned my previous position in Northern California. I had originally chosen it because it wasn’t downwind of any military targets from the Cold War. I moved 2,400 miles to the southwest, to the Big Island of Hawaii.
The attractions were great. Incompetent state and local government, year round growing season, no dangerous predators, and plentiful fish and game. Top that off with no fishing licenses, no insulation or air conditioners needed. “Secondary waterfront” acreage parcels (that are across the street from the oceanfront parcels) are less expensive than acreage outside of Reno.
It’s not been totally without drawbacks. I found three acres at an altitude of 2,200 feet for less than $30,000. Once clearing started though, I found that I needed to bring in an excavator with a hammer to take out some basalt outcrops. Not having budgeted for that set us back more than I had expected.
However, the benefits have been incredible. We packed up our solar array from NorCal and now have it producing our off-grid power. The development we’re in has fiber-optic high speed Internet on every street, so we have Internet less expensively than we did for slower internet in California. We have free water that, to quote the Bard, “…falleth like a gentle rain from Heaven.”, because it’s rain. It’s a pristine environment just 25 miles from where NOAA samples the third cleanest air in the World. The two cleaner places are both in Antarctica.

Continue reading“My Hawaiian Retreat, by R.L.”

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”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the prospect of Internet  Rationing in Europe.

America’s Grimmest Month

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: America’s Grimmest Month

Austria Says: You Must Wear a Mask

Peter sent us this: Austria to Make Basic Face Masks Compulsory in Supermarkets

Study: Coronavirus Could be Airborne

Coronavirus could be airborne, study suggests. This article begins:

“It may be possible for the novel coronavirus to transmit through the air, a new study released over the weekend suggests.

In a joint study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, and others, researchers found genetic material from the virus that causes COVID-19 in air samples from both in and outside of confirmed coronavirus patients’ rooms. The findings offer “limited evidence that some potential for airborne transmission exists,” researchers said, though they warned that the findings do not confirm airborne spread.”

Hamptons Houses are Now Luxury Coronavirus Bunkers

H.L. sent this: Hamptons Houses Are Now Luxury Coronavirus Bunkers

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

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 1, 2020

1

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

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

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Update: We are in the midst of judging. The prize winners for Round 87 will be announced tomorrow.  (April 2nd, 2020.)

Today we present the first entry for Round 88 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First 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 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 Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  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. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 88 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Making Light, by M.E.

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Artificial light is useful for extending working time beyond sunset, for providing comfort in the long dark hours of winter, and for finding one’s way in the night. Without electricity or batteries, solar cells or wind up flashlights, lamps and candles can be made just as they have been for thousands of years.

The cave paintings of the Upper Paleolithic were done by the light of lamps that used a lump of animal fat as fuel and lichen, moss, or juniper twigs as wicks. The light of these crude lamps was sufficient to produce some of the earliest known works of art in pitch-black caves. Some of these lamps were merely rocks with slight, natural hollows in them, others were carved from soft stone to form handles for carrying and bowls for the fat and wick. The carved bowl lamps are not dissimilar to lamps of pottery or tin used into the 19th century in frontier America. (I own a copy of one of these, called a Brown Betty.) As the wick burns, the fat melts and the liquid is drawn up the wick to provide fuel for the flame. The problem with these lamps is when the fuel runs out, the wick will continue to burn in an uncontrolled manner, destroying the wick and creating a fire hazard. Later, far superior designs addressed this problem, although the open bowl style of lamp can still be found today.

The ancient Egyptians and other Mediterranean cultures had a better design, a better fuel, and a better wick. These lamps, made of glazed pottery or metal, run a fiber wick through a narrow opening that snuffs out the flame when the wick burns down and keeps it from creating an uncontrolled blaze once the fuel is depleted. Oil, a far superior fuel to fat, can be added through the hole in the top of the lamp while the flame is still burning allowing for nearly continuous operation. The olive oil used in these lamps is an especially desirable fuel as it burns without smoke or odor. Anyone who has ever burned tallow candles or rushes (porous reeds soaked in animal fat) can understand the appeal of a less fragrant fuel such as plant oil, especially in closed in spaces.Continue reading“Making Light, by M.E.”

March 2020 in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran

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Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance, and the factors that affected gold prices.
I’d like to start this month’s column by just saying “Wow.”

What Did Gold Do in March?

Spot gold ended February on a down note, falling $58 to end at $1,585 an ounce. This wiped out most of gold’s gains for the month.
The second week of March saw gold prices get crushed, as investors sold anything and everything possible to meet margin calls on their stock holdings. Some in the media proclaimed that the week’s heavy selloff of gold “proved” that it was no longer a safe haven.
Those who remembered the global stock crash of 2008 – 2009 knew that gold was doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing – acting as “disaster insurance” for investors’ equity holdings. Those people who had bought gold beforehand fared much better than the lemmings who went all-in on equities at the market top.
Gold recovered from the selloff rather swiftly, although it took silver and the other metals longer to catch up. The virus-induced freeze on factories and heavy industries was especially bad news for platinum and palladium. Meanwhile, silver slumped to an 11-year low of $11.94 per troy ounce before rebounding.
To put the level of volatile trading into perspective: gold futures saw their largest-ever loss in a single day – down almost $75 on March 13 – followed by the biggest single-day gains on record, adding $83 on March 23 and another $93 on March 24.

By month’s end, the yellow metal had cooled off somewhat but still hovered just below $1,600 an ounce.

What Is Different About This Crash?

Experts are saying don’t make the same mistake the talking heads on the news are making. Look to 1929 instead of 2008 to see how the current crash may play out. The 2008 crash was caused by big banks gambling with other people’s money. It’s right there in the name: “The Global Financial Crisis.”

This time the cause of the crash came from an outside source, an infectious virus that shut down all economic activity. The meltdown in markets has happened far faster in 2020 than it did in the last crisis. At one point all of the stock market’s gains since President Trump was inaugurated three years ago were vaporized in a matter of weeks.Continue reading“March 2020 in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran”

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. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on Jim Quinn’s The Burning Platform blog. (See the Blogs section.)

Books:

I recently heard about a small business called LiveFireManuals.com. They offer a bundle of more than 500 military manuals that are downloadable, for just under $7. It might be wise to load up a 8 GB or 16GB memory stick with those. Granted, with a several hours of searching, you could probably find PDFs of most those manuals available at various free web sites, and download them. But you have to ask:  “What is my time worth?” (Probably more than $7, for several hours of work.)

o  o  o

A current bestseller: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

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First Raise a Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War but Lost the Peace

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The Underground Railroad Records: Narrating the Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom

o  o  o

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

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