Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 1, by Ani

75

As a prepper for many years, I’ve put some consideration into trying to understand the mentality of the “hordes” who might be forced to leave their cities and heavily populated suburbs, in the event of a major disaster. I think that while we may not know how things are going to unfold or what sort of disaster might provoke people into leaving and essentially becoming refugees, we can consider some of the more likely to occur scenarios. Doing this will let us examine how well-situated we are in our own homes, the risks that we might be most susceptible to, and actions that we could take. And if you’re reading this and still living in a city or heavily populated suburb, well, then this is also for you.

Lights of the USSo as someone who has lived my entire life thusfar in the heavily-populated eastern part of the US, I already know that wherever I may live here I’m at a higher level of risk than say someone living in a sparsely populated area of Idaho or Wyoming. One only has to take a look at those really amazing night sky maps of the US such to really get the picture of the difference in population numbers and density across the country.

In general, more cities and more population isn’t a good thing if TSHTF. So why, knowing this, am I still here? For me as for many people, the reasons vary but mostly have to do with family commitments, money, and the difficulty of a long distance relocation. I’ve seriously considered moving to an area such as the “American Redoubt” not just for prepper reasons but also for the wide open spaces and lower population levels as well as the generally Conservative politics which I prefer. I’ve realized though that it’s just not feasible due to family here plus the costs of land and housing there which are beyond my means. So I’m here in the east and have to make the best of it. I suspect many of you are in the same boat. That is: Knowing what you might prefer to do but facing up to the reality of the factors keeping you tied down where you are.Continue reading“Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 1, by Ani”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

20

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, I’m featuring an antique .44 S&W double action revolver at my web store. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Books

LandBook: The small landowner’s guide to buying, improving, maintaining and selling rural land

o  o  o

Some great reading for your time in “self-isolation” is this book that I’ve mentioned many times: The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 50th Anniversary Edition: The Original Manual for Living off the Land & Doing It Yourself

o  o  o

This book is a must for homeschooling your kids: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? A Fast, Clear, and Fun Explanation of the Economics You Need For Success in Your Career, Business, and Investments

o  o  o

Antique Trader Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2019.Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 24, 2020

9

March 24th is the birthday of Dr. Art Robinson, who was born in 1942.

—

The bloodbath on Wall Street is continuing. Alarmingly, this is taking place soon after the Federal Reserve pledged to make “unlimited” stock purchases. This will be through a new round (or rounds) of Quantitative Easing (QE) –they’re already talking $4 trillion worth of stock buys! How’s that for yer “plunge protection? On Monday (March 23, 2020) the S&P 500 fell 2.9%, closing at 2,237. The S&P is now down 34% from its all-time high on February 19th. Meanwhile, the DJIA closed down another 3.04% to 18,591. This ongoing equities market rout is now rightfully being called The Crash of 2020. We are living through a turning point in history, folks.  Someday, your grandkids will ask you: “What was that like?”  I hope and pray that my readers took my advice and exited stocks early or at least had stop loss orders in place. One last thing: This is not yet the bottom. I predict that won’t come until the depths of the nascent recession or depression.  So be ready to sell your remaining stock shares into any market rallies between now and early December.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 87 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 87 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.

Ensuring Winter Egg Production, by A.J.

40

Canned, dried, frozen, and preserved foods are excellent for winter survival. And they always have been. A fresh bit of produce or dairy, however, can go a long way in keeping you healthy by providing fresh vitamins. And they break up the monotony of menus, as the cold days drift by.

Eggs are a prime food for such circumstances. Packed into each egg are a quality assortment of vitamins, protein, omega-3, and omega-6 fatty acids that are fresh, and simply a gold-mine during a long winter of canned goods and stockpiled food. I personally consider fresh eggs are one of my most valuable winter survival foods.

Eggs from a healthy free-range hen will give you:

  • Protein. About 6 grams per egg. Approximately equal to 1 ounce of meat.
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin D
  • Vitamin E
  • Beta Carotene
  • Folate
  • Omega-3
  • Omega-6
  • Choline
  • Vitamin B12
  • Vitamin B2
  • Iodine
  • Antioxidants (lutein and zeaxanthin)

…and many more nutrients, which makes a big difference when the garden is under the snow and fresh vegetables are months away. Especially when vitamin supplements are hard or even impossible to get.

For those of you who have chickens, you know how egg supply drops drastically—and sometimes stops—in winter. I’ve raised egg layers over a decade. Implementing the right strategies, we have a steady daily production of about 10 eggs per every 20 hens, all throughout the winter.Continue reading“Ensuring Winter Egg Production, by A.J.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

45

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on the coming American Redoubt real estate boom.  (See the Region-Wide section.)

Region-Wide

Reader C.D.M. wrote to ask: “I’m wondering if you have any thoughts about price trends in the Real Estate markets over the next 12 – 18 months?  I’m guessing that real estate will take somewhat of a hit, but that rural, retreat and farm properties will fare better than city and suburban homes.”  JWR’s Response: I believe that the pandemic will inspire another wave of relocation to the American Redoubt region. Seeing the locust-like stripping of store shelves made it clear to nearly all Americans that we have vulnerable supply chains. And the population density of cities and even suburbs is making millions of Americans feel very apprehensive while in “lock-down”. Note for instance how urbanites are buying guns in record numbers, and that many of these folks are first-time gun buyers. The collective anxiety meter is pegged! People will surely remember this crowded feeling, and they will naturally yearn for the hinterboonies. “In town” tract house sales have temporarily slowed, but real estate agents are already reporting to me that they are getting lots of phone calls, and e-mails from buyers with detailed property specification lists for “remote” properties. They are even receiving sight unseen offers on rural properties with water. So… what will things be like by August and September?  And by the May of 2021?  My #1 Son, who operates SurvivalRealty.com, expects a multi-year boom in the market for retreat properties. But the property inventory is thin, so prices can only head in one direction: Up! – JWR

o o o

Wyoming Troopers Use Spike Strips to End Chase, Arrest Idaho Man

o o o

At INW Report: When a Constitutional Sheriff becomes Judge and Jury

Idaho

Details on COVID-19 numbers and locales in Idaho. (That page will be kept updated.)

o o o

The snow geese have arrived — and there are so many of them!. Here is a snippet:

“Last night I figured there were from 15 to 20 thousand and there is almost twice as many tonight.”

o o o

Zombies and Cain’s dark 50: Court documents offer a look at what those close to Lori Vallow have to say

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 23, 2020

31

Today is the anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death speech. It was delivered to the Second Virginia Revolutionary Convention meeting at St. John’s Church, Richmond, on March 23, 1775.

This is also the birthday of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. He directed 30 films. His samurai films (many of them starring Toshiro Mifune) such as Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Hidden Fortress, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, and Ran are considered legendary in the cinema world.

—

Now that I’m back at the ranch, I have reactivated the ordering system for Elk Creek Company.  Thanks for your patience. You’ll notice a lot of new listings. With the current nationwide rush to buy guns, I’m sure that my small inventory will sell quickly.  I’ve read that there are many planned and a few already implemented state and local sales restrictions because of unconstitutional decrees and “expansions” to COVID-19 lockdowns. (Bellingham, Washington, New Orleans, San Jose, Fresno, et cetera.) There have also been some foul-ups with completing NICS background checks, and the state of New Jersey intentionally stopped all NICs processing. But thankfully, none of those have any impact on my ability to quickly get pre-1899 guns shipped to most of you reading this. The restrictions don’t apply to pre-1899s–because they are not “firearms”!

—

Some eastern liberals attempt to explain prepper fiction, in the NPR radio show On The Media: In Prepper Fiction, The Preppers Always Win.  I should mention that in the 9-minute segment they started out with slur that my novel has “…just a touch of The Turner Diaries.” This implied that my novel was racist.  But Patriots–and all of my writings–are distinctly anti-racist. In the segment, they relied heavily on clips from the audio book of my first novel, Patriots.  Somehow, without any explanation, they included a rather bloodthirsty-sounding clip of an audio book from a different author, and a different narrator. I consider that much worse than someone quoting from my writings, out of context.

—

Today, we return to regular product reviews by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

Kimber Custom II, by Pat Cascio

5

I’m a sucker for well-made 1911 handguns, especially when chambered in .45 ACP. It is just hard to beat this combination. I don’t think that John Moses Browning had any idea that his 1911 design would be popular for so long. We are closing in on 109-years since the 1911’s adoption by the U.S. military. Who would have believed that a gun that was first designed around 1904 would still be alive and kicking more than a century later. In fact, .45 ACP M1911 variants are still in limited issue by the U.S. Marine Corps, as the M45A1. The USMC says that they have “plans” to phase them out, by 2024. I won’t believe that until it happens.

I’ve tried – a number of times, to count the actual number of companies who are producing 1911 handguns these days. Im sure its safe to say that there must easily be at least 60 or 70 different companies producing  M1911 variants. And, the number of different models – as they say in the current parlance: “OMG! “It is impossible to count how many different models there are – from a shorty “Officers” model, to the “Commander-sized” to the Government sized, to long slides and everything in between! I cut my teeth on a full-sized Government Model, but I knew there were Commander-sized M1911s out there – in all-steel as well as with a light-weight Aluminum frame.  I’ve surely owned several hundred M1911s over the past 50 years.

Like everyone out there, who owns and shoots a 1911 handgun, I have my favorites, and hands down, I much prefer the Commander-sized, light-weight version – that’s one with a barrel length of 4-inces to 4.5-inches – depending on which company you decide to buy from. For a lot of years, I carried a full-sized Government Model 1911 and it was very comforting on my hip. However, as I grew older – and believe me, the years start to fly by, as you grow older, I decided on the Commander-sized, light-weight 1911 in .45 ACP. I still get this question, all the time from readers, and friends, “what is your favorite gun?” And, that covers a lot of territory. I believe they are asking what is my favorite handgun, and I still struggle with this one. For many years, I would simple answer a 1911 – without picking one particular model.

If push came to shove, I would still pick the Commander-sized 1911 over all the other versions. However, I don’t believe I would pick the 1911 – in any version, as my one and only handgun for an End Of The World handgun. My choice would be the Glock 19X over the 1911, for a number of reasons. One would be, the capacity – the Glock 19X comes with 17 and 19 round magazines, and a handgun chambered in 9mm with 19+1 rounds is hard to beat, when the lead is flying in my direction. There I said it, the 1911 wouldn’t be my first choice as my one and only handgun for the End Of The World any longer. Whew, got that one off my chest – at long last. Nothing “wrong” with a good ol’ 1911, but more ammo on-tap is more comforting to this old gent these days.

My local gun shop is always getting in some great deals on firearms, since they are also a pawn shop. Many times, a gun comes out of pawn, because the person who pawned it, didn’t pay the pawn ticket off, and the shop can then sell it. And, there are fantastic guns and prices to be had. I picked-up a Kimber Custom II, two-tone Government Model for $625 and it was like-new. A steal of a deal in my book.Continue reading“Kimber Custom II, by Pat Cascio”

Safety Versus Security, by Michael Z. Williamson

23

I have a few brief observations:

Your typical citizen is a pushover who’s all-in on living in a police state to be “safe.”

Example 1:

A while back, I had an Australian woman perusing the wares in my booth. She looked at a reproduction rapier. “Very nice. But we wouldn’t be allowed to own something like that. Keeps us safe, though.”*

“Oh, are random rapier duels in the street something you worried about in Sydney?”

You could almost see her neurons engage.

*Swords are not, in fact, banned in Aus. But that she assumed they were proves my point again.

Example 2:

When I had my store in the mall. Lots of people buying swords, paying by check, and I ask for ID and note their info on the check against NSF.

“I assume you need my ID so these can be registered like guns?”

“No, I’m just making sure your check is good. Swords are not registered anywhere in this country, and very few places register guns.”

But they happily performed “Papers, please” for anyone asking, assuming it was some government purpose to keep them “safe”. – MZW

JWR Adds: All of the gun and knife shows that Mike Williamson had planned have surely been cancelled, for at least the next two months. But he is still operating via mail order.  Take a look at his knives in the “Handmade Knives” section at: www.SharpPointyThings.com

Recipe of the Week: Tom’s All-in-Skillet Macaroni and Cheese

1

Reader Tom in New Hampshire kindly sent us his All-in-Skillet Macaroni and Cheese recipe. You can cook it in 12″ to 14″ diameter deep skillet that is oven-safe. It serves four adults.

Ingredients
  • 4 tbsp. White or whole wheat flour
  • 4 tbsp. Butter, sliced into pats
  • 3 c. Whole milk or cream, warmed
  • 8 oz. Rigatoni, (or similar pasta noodles)
  • 8 oz. Sharp Cheddar, grated coarsely
  • Salt, to taste
  • Ground pepper, to taste
  • 10-oz. Butternut squash cubes
  • 3 oz. Baby spinach (about 3 cups)
  • 4 oz. Potato chips, crushed (about 3 cups)
  • 2 tbsp. Chives, finely grated
  • 2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Directions
  1. Heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Melt the butter in a deep 12-inch or 14-inch skillet over medium heat. Once it is foaming, add the flour and whisk it, until smooth.
  3. Whisk in the milk a little at a time, making sure the mixture is smooth before adding more liquid.
  4. Add 1 cup water.
  5. Add up to 1⁄2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. (To suit your taste.)
  6. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
  7. Immediately add the pasta and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes.
  8. Cover the skillet, transfer to the oven and bake until the pasta it is just cooked (12 to 14 minutes).
  9. Remove from oven and heat broiler.
  10. Fold the cheese into the pasta until melted and smooth, then fold in the squash and spinach.
  11. Sprinkle the potato chips, chives, and Parmesan cheese on top.
  12. Broil until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes.

SERVING

Serve from the pan, hot.

STORAGE

Leftovers will keep refrigerated for up to three days.

—

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

Economics & Investing For Preppers

18

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 the recent run on guns, nationwide. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

I noticed that spot silver rebounded a bit on Friday, to $12.33 per Troy Ounce. I still consider silver a strong “buy”. That is IF you can find any physical silver for sale. Most dealers have completely sold out!  Is your local coin shop sold out? Then phone around to your local pawn shops. Perhaps they still have some…

o  o  o

Rhodium has continued its nosedive–with the spot market now down around $2,500 per ounce.  I hope that folks bought some when I suggested it in February of 2016 (at $670/oz.), and sold some when I suggested it in February of 2020 (at $10,000 per ounce.) If you did, then you owe me a dinner!  A really nice dinner.

o  o  o

Jim Rickards: economic freeze is here, get gold, silver if you can and get ready

Economy & Finance:

The U.S. Congress is now poised to pass a $2 trillion emergency funding legislative package. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has committed to $4 trillion in a new round(s) of Quantitative Easing (QE). In the long run, both of these moves will be wildly inflationary. But for now they are just trying to staunch teh stock market bleeding, and deflation.  Get ready to be whipsawed by deflation and then inflation, folks. This will not end well! – JWR

o  o  o

I was asked by a reader about the DJIA rally on Friday morning (March 20, 2020.) My reply: It is amazing how high a dead cat can bounce.  Then, sure enough, the Dow dropped 913 points, before the closing bell.  We can expect continuing volatility, in the next few weeks. The Bear has arrived.   Treat any  rallies that you see as Bear Trap rallies.  Sell off most of your remaining equities, during these rallies.  The only exceptions might be a very few depression proof blue chip stocks. Oh, and shares of the makers of hospital ventilators! – JWR

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: The Crash Of 2020 Is Now Worse Than The Great Depression.  The piece begins:

“Back in December, someone in China made bat soup (at least according to the officially accepted narrative that doesn’t get you banned on Facebook, Twitter, etc), and the rest is history: in the next three months, the global equity market has lost $24 trillion in value, more than the $22 trillion in US GDP. And here is a staggering chart from BofA putting the crash of 2020 in its historic context: in the past month, the US stock market has crashed faster than both the Great Depression and Black Monday, and in terms of the total drawdown, the crash of 2020 is now worse than 1929 and is fast approaching 1987.“

o  o  o

European Banks Face Financial Crisis 2, Shares Hit 1988 Lows

o  o  o

Also at Wolf Street: After Blowing $4.5 Trillion on Share Buybacks, Airlines, Boeing, Many Other Culprits Want Taxpayer & Fed Bailouts of their Shareholders

o  o  o

Distressed debt doubles in a week in the US

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day

“I told y’all yesterday that we have a government of the banks, by the banks, and for the banks, and today proved that in spades.  Federal Reserve announced it is re-opening its Primary Dealer Credit Facility  (PDCF) through which it created $8.6 trillion in the 2008 crisis.

These bailouts follow the Garbage Can Principle, like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in the 1990s Savings & Loan Crisis.  There is a ton of bad debt, so where does the government hide it?  They create a “garbage can” to hold it until the crisis passes.  In 2008 the garbage can was the Federal Reserve balance sheet.  At 100 cents on the dollar they bought Mortgage Backed Securities and other trash debt worth about 20 cents on the dollar so they could clean up the banks balance sheet.

This PCDF is a similar garbage can scheme.  To primary dealers of the New York Fed, mostly the really big banks, they will loan money up to 90 days at 0.25% or less against the following collateral, in addition to US government securities:  investment grade corporate debt securities, international agency securities, commercial paper, municipal securities, mortgage backed securities, asset backed securities (Including CLOs and CDOs), and equity securities.”  –  Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 22, 2020

11

This is the birthday of Louis L’Amour. (Born 1908, died 1988.) Some of his novels have survival themes. One of particular interest to survivalists is Last of the Breed.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 87 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 87 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.

Get Going on Gardening – Part 3, by St. Funogas

28
  1. Figure out the crop timing for your exact location

The last frost date indicated on the USDA frost maps is only a ballpark figure for your area. You should have a garden journal where you keep track of the date each year for future reference and planning. Some crops such as beets, turnips, potatoes, and radishes can take some frost. Other crops like tomatoes, peppers, and sweet potatoes will be pretty upset if you plant them and they get frosted so don’t take any chances with those.

Timing is important for other reasons as well. Some crops should be harvested after a certain number of days, others should be harvested before they go to seed or they will become pithy and the quality will be greatly reduced. Other crops you want to go to seed so you will have some for next year’s planting. All of this will come with experience so the sooner you can get your garden going, the sooner you can start making mistakes and having successes and getting all of this experience under your belt.

And keep a garden journal, no matter how small and basic! Write down planting dates and harvest dates. It will come in handy in the future, you can bet on it. You’ll need to start tomato and pepper seeds indoors so write the date down when you sow the seeds. If they get too big by the time you plant them outdoors, or they’re not big enough, make a note in your garden journal so you can adjust next year’s seed-planting date accordingly.

And last but not least, the last reason why you need to get going on gardening this year is to…Continue reading“Get Going on Gardening – Part 3, by St. Funogas”