The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“As to the present value of old technology in stoves, look for a moment at Finland. Finland is an advanced country, known for fine workmanship and good design. The Finns are international traders. Their products have to be good, especially in regard to heating because their climate is like that of Alaska. Today, [1984] Finland’s government actively encourages the construction of masonry stoves through tax policy. About two-thirds of Finland’s new houses have built-in masonry stoves. Most of the rest have wood-fired masonry baking ovens which can also be used for space heating. This government policy says a good deal about Finland’s confidence in an old technology, even in the space age. It says something as well about the country’s assessment of the energy situation.

Masonry stoves can sharply reduce wood-burning safety problems. The iron stove is frequently so hot that it will burn anyone who touches it. The masonry stove is commonly designed in Europe with benches attached, so that you can sit and lean against the stove. There is a world of difference in safety between a stove you can lean on and one that burns at the touch.” – David Lyle, The Book of Masonry Stoves — Rediscovering an Old Way of Warming

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — November 5, 2019

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On this day in 2009, 13 people were killed and more than 30 others were wounded–nearly all of them unarmed soldiers–when a U.S. Army officer went on a shooting rampage with a pistol at Fort Hood, Texas. The massacre was carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was the worst mass murder at a U.S. military installation. In the Fort Hood shooting, Hasan reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” After his capture, Hasan said that “Muslims should rise up.” He was later sentenced to death.

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I’ve recently learned that SurvivalBlog has been penalized through de-ranking by search engine algorithms, partly because of the short length of some of our columns. So I’ve opted to henceforth consolidate the “Odds ‘n Sods” column to just Sundays and Thursdays. It will no longer be posted on Tuesdays. Not to worry, as the total number of column items seen each week won’t be decreasing much. I’m sorry to do this, but to maintain  visibility to folks doing web searches, we must cater to the vagaries of the search engines. They now de-rank any blog entry that is less than 600 words long. One way that you can counter their de-ranking of the blog is by encouraging your friends to make SurvivalBlog.com their browser’s home page, and by occasionally linking to SurvivalBlog articles from your own web page or blog. Many Thanks! – JWR

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 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 $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Signals Intelligence for Regular Folk – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

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This is another attempt to put a vital part of a security operation into an affordable box, that will provide ‘the mostest, for the leastest’, the quickest, and in the easiest way. In time, the basic tools will be the foundation of whatever improvements to an area of your security plan that fits you.  At present, the discussion is about radio related topics as it pertains to a security operation. The pros know that actionable intelligence should drive defenses.  We will likely not have the time to develop that lofty level of intelligence, yet there is one type of intelligence where the “low hanging fruit” is easily had.  We seek to discover this threat, so that action will be taken. This certain and basic information, a no-brainer, is about threats that should cause one to heighten their defenses, if not put eyes on the problem. So what are we talking about?  Bad guys using radios to coordinate movement, against you and yours.

At the end of the day is it not what you got, but what you can keep. The ability to keep what we got is the goal. As alluded to, ad naseum, *Security will be job one*. You can have a dedicated security team that is supported by everyone else, yet sadly most of us will be hurting for certain without enough hands that make work light.  Can we have dedicated security team?  Gotta S2 for you? Got no clue? How about your own SIGINT? No? Bummer!  How can we cram, at least one of these important functions into something bite size that a prepper can chew? Can we consolidate capabilities, downsize one critical task? Is it possible to put at least some of it into a manageable size box that can provide at least some of what is the most useful?  Can we adapted these tasks to regular folk’s background, without a steep learning curve?  All these pesky questions were needed to be asked. As it pertains to the recent topic d’jour, we can indeed take a bite of the security problem out, by starting with a single scanner. The threat will not disappoint, and neither will a scanner, if used properly.  Give Grandpa, or the big kid, a scanner for Christmas. You might be glad you did.  It is a critical part of your security and commo plan, that does the first intel job: Warning.Continue reading“Signals Intelligence for Regular Folk – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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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 conifer encroachment.   (See the Montana section.)

Region-Wide

Inland Northwest Trends, Fall 2019 (Gallery). Far from being just “hicks, out in the sticks”, many builders in the American Redoubt are constructing and final finishing some very beautiful homes.

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In Redoubt, Matthew Barney retells an ancient myth in a survivalist American landscape

Idaho

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University of Idaho deficit expected to increase to $22 million

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Books in Idaho prisons: What’s allowed, what isn’t, and what they mean to those inside. JWR’s Comment: I’ve heard that because of their technical details, my nonfiction books and even some of my novels have been banned by state and Federal prisons.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Like the larger context of suburbia, the giant consolidated schools seemed like a good idea at the time. The idea was to save administrative costs throughout a given district or region and the unanticipated consequence was to make education a loathsome and pointless experience for the students. The public schools are well on their way to just collapsing under the weight of their outlandish costs, especially their pension obligations, and the onerous school bus fleets.

Similarly, the colleges that have absorbed the flow of public school graduates — many of them ill-prepared for higher ed — using the loan racket to support their operations, are verging on criticality en route to collapse. Two colleges in my region shut down this year: Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT, and Southern Vermont College in Bennington. A third, Hampshire College over in western Massachusetts, is “looking for a new partner,” i.e. whirling around the drain. Many more will be following them.

The psychology of previous investment plays a big part in all this. Having spent so much of our national wealth building all this stuff, we can’t imagine letting go of it. And we built it during the decades of our greatest wealth accumulation. Now that we are paying today’s bills by borrowing from the future (i.e. accumulating massive debt), we can’t really continue to maintain all this infrastructure. But we’ll continue to pretend we can until we reach the moment of systemic criticality, where reality can no longer be denied. It’s liable to be messy. Like moments of criticality in natural systems — earthquakes, avalanches — financial shock tends to be quick, disorderly, and destructive.

The resolution of all this will be emergent, too, like its origin. That is, it will work itself out nonlinearly and chaotically. As for schooling itself across the whole spectrum from primary to higher ed, a lot of it will simply collapse and disappear, at least for a period of time, maybe a long time. It is most likely to reorganize on the fine grain of home schooling or home schools that aggregate into group teaching. But education will be nothing like the gargantuan enterprise it has been in our time. Some institutions of higher ed may survive, if they can downscale stringently. But anything organized at the giant scale is likely to find it very difficult to go on.” – James Howard Kunstler

Preparedness Notes for Monday — November 4, 2019

November 4th is the birthday of Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone. He was born in 1916 in Buffalo, New York.

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On this day in 1979, student followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini sent shock waves across America when they stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The radical Islamic fundamentalists took 90 hostages. The students were enraged that the deposed Shah had been allowed to enter the U.S. to seek medical attention. Just a few days later, the provincial leader of Iran resigned and the Ayatollah Khomeini took full control of the country. Two weeks later, all non-U.S personnel as well as female and minority Americans began to be released. The remaining 52 hostages were held for 14 months until the election of President Reagan.

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To finish paying off some family bills, I decided to auction one more of my original pre-ban HK91 rifles. This one is woodland digital camouflage dipped! The opening bid is just $2,200. This auction runs for just one week. (Ending on the evening of November 10th.) Get your bid in early!

LA Police Gear: LNT Pack and Core Boots, by Pat Cascio

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Introductory Disclaimer: Los Angeles Police Gear (LAPG), is a fairly new advertiser to SurvivalBlog.com – however, I am an independent contractor, I do not work for ether LAPG or SurvivalBlog.com – I have no vested interest in either of these companies. LAPG contacted me and asked if they could send me some samples of their products to test. What you will read are my independent findings, and mine alone.

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Unknown to LAPG is the fact that I have been a customer of theirs for many years. This dates from when I did police work, and had my own private security firm, doing K-9 security patrols. So, I am more than a little familiar with some of their products, and more importantly, their customer service. I don’t know about many of our readers, but no matter how great a company might be and their products, if they don’t have good customer service, then I’m just not interested in doing business with them. I’m sure a lot of readers can appreciate the lack of customer service at some of the big box stores. That sort of treatment irritates me to no end. I’m happy to report that LAPG has an outstanding customer service department.

Over the years, I’ve done business with other law enforcement/private security supply houses, but I don’t think that any of them come close to the sheer number of products that LAPG offers. If LAPG doesn’t have what you’re looking for, there’s a good chance that, no one else does either. Their website will make your head spin, and it will take you a good long time if you just want to browse through it. And, the best news is that their prices are hard to be beat.

Now, keep in mind that, LAPG doesn’t just sell products that are aimed at the law enforcement industry, far from it. They have an array of survival gear, weapons, camping, hiking and all manner of products that will surely catch the eye of preppers, as well as those in law enforcement.Continue reading“LA Police Gear: LNT Pack and Core Boots, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Jim’s Asian Broccoli Beef

Jim X. kindly sent us his Asian Broccoli Beef recipe.

Ingredients
  • 1 pound of trimmed beef steak, sliced very thin across the grain.  (Note: Nearly any beef cut will do–even inexpensive flank steak, as long as it is thinly-sliced.)
  • 1 pound of raw broccoli crowns
  • 1/2 cup of soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup of cornstarch
  • 1 to 2 cloves of minced garlic (to suit your taste)
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons of cooking sherry (depending on taste)
  • 2 to tablespoons light brown sugar (depending on taste)
  • 3 tablespoons of peanut oil or olive oil
  • 1/4 cup of beef broth
  • 1/4 cup of bottled oyster sauce (depending on taste, you can substitute more beef broth)
  • Salt, to taste
Directions
    1. In a bowl, mix together the soy sauce, cooking sherry, brown sugar, ginger, cornstarch, and garlic.
    2. Pour half of this liquid over the sliced meat in a bowl and toss it. Set aside the other half of the liquid.
    3. Heat the oil in a heavy iron skillet or wok pan, at high heat.
    4. Add the broccoli and stir for a minute. Remove the broccoli and set it aside in a bowl.
    5. Let the skillet heat up again.
    6. With taco tongs, add the meat in just one layer. Spread out the meat as you lay it it in the skillet, but delay stirring it for 90 seconds. (Brown it is quickly as possible, without burning it.)
    7. Turn the meat and brown the other side for another 45 seconds.
    8. Remove the browned meat and set it aside in a bowl.
    9. Pour the set-aside half of the sauce that you first made into the skillet, combining it with the the oyster sauce and the beef broth. Cook this mixture over medium-high heat until you see it start to thicken.
    10. Reduce burner to low heat.
    11. Add both the broccoli and the beef back into the skillet and toss to coat them.
    12. Season with salt, to taste.
    13. Remove from stove, and serve ASAP.

SERVING

Best served hot, with with Chow Mein noodles and/or long grain rice.

STORAGE

Left-overs of this recipe should not be stored refrigerated for more than 24 hours, or the broccoli will get mushy.

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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

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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 the export side of the Swiss watch market. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Mike Gleason: Fed’s Own Forecasts Again Dead Wrong as QE4 Accelerates

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Why are Gold and Bonds rising together?

Economy & Finance:

The Hill reports: US debt surpasses $23 trillion for first time. JWR’s Comment:  That is a $1.3 trillion jump in past 12 months.  For some perspective: It took the first 205 years for our Federal government to pile up the first Trillion Dollars of debt.  We are now witnessing an almost upright spike. A Dollar crash is now inevitable.

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At Zero Hedge: JPMorgan Prepares For Next Recession By Shifting Jobs From NYC To Texas

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Rents Fall Southern California, Seattle, Miami, San Francisco, San Jose, Chicago, Honolulu & Others. JWRs’ Comment:  Chalk this up as an omen. If you own any rental properties, then this is a good time to cash out!

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Another from Wolf Street: Global Slowdown? Mexico’s GDP Declines Year-Over-Year for First Time Since 2009

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — November 3, 2019

On November 3, 1903, Walker Evans, the American photographer best known for his portrayal of America during the Great Depression, was born.

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I’m still running short of articles to fill out the current round of the SurvivalBlog nonfiction writing contest. Please write an article at least 1,500 words long, and send it in. The prize packages for the top three judged articles are amazing! There are more than $12,000 worth of prizes.

Teaching Preparedness To Family, by Old Bobbert – Part 2

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

Step #4 – Warnings About In-House People Problems

We specifically included the following blog article for its high self discipline / self management value. This was a last minute find equal to being a “ Golden Nugget “ for our family and for me personally. This is a highly protective tool!

Prepper Complacency, by Wood Tamer (May 3, 2019)

Another excellent tool we included from the archives was the following:

Five Common Mistakes New Preppers Make and How to Avoid Them- Parts 1 & 2  (June 1, 2016)

Failure to Properly Assess Your Situation

There’s an old saying, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” This could not be truer than when it comes to survival. Failure to assess your individual situation from the beginning can and most likely will leave you more unprepared than you would like to believe. If you are new to prepping and just getting started, the first thing on your list should be a complete assessment. If you have been prepping for a while and have not done a proper assessment of your specific needs, then now is a good time to do so.

STEP #5 – How To Properly Plan For Prepper Success

Again, I went back to the blog archives for success from the past and I found the very best “how to “ instructions in the article named and quoted below. Note the “everyday life wordage “. It’s a principle!

The Thorough Planning and Orders Process – Part 1, By J.E.D. (September 10, 2015) After reading articles on this site and many other similar sites over the last few years, it has surprised me that no one has written about the planning process itself. I have read quite a few well written articles that have contained very good information about planning for tasks such as defending your home, bugging out, and other activities. In this article I would like to address the overall planning process that can be used for everyday life.”Continue reading“Teaching Preparedness To Family, by Old Bobbert – Part 2”

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 yet another prediction of a possible second civil war.

Rep. Gohmert Predicts Second Civil War

Linked over at the great Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Rep. Louis Gohmert: Impeachment ‘Coup’ Will ‘Push This Country Toward Civil War’

Tax Collectors Ferreting Home Improvements

Company Allows Tax Collectors To Secretly Look For Home Improvements And Airbnb’s.  (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.) The article begins:

Trust a corporation to turn property tax collectors into property owner surveillance operatives.

Deckard Technologies (DT) promotes Smart City surveillance by creating a program that allows tax collectors to surveil resident’s properties anytime they want.

If you hate corporate doublespeak like I do, then you will love DT’s explanation of how their product works.

“Applying advanced data analytics, machine-learning and the talents of our data scientists, we identify, monitor and analyze real estate data and property activity for cities demanding answers with accuracy and precision.”

Let’s start with their “advanced analytics that identifies, monitors and analyzes real estate data and property activity.” In a nutshell they use Google Earth or other satellite imagery of peoples homes and compare them to their building plans.

After a tax collector has looked at someone’s property they can fine the owner for any number of reasons, which in turn adds to that city’s bottom line. Turning government tax collectors into a for-profit business venture is infuriating.

Goat Herd Saves Reagan Library From Fire

Goat herd credited with saving Reagan Presidential Library from wildfire in California

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.

Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” – 2 John 1-11(KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — November 2, 2019

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On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour submitted a declaration of intent to establish a Jewish homeland known as the Balfour Declaration. While Arab hostilities and the outbreak of World War II delayed the desired outcome, the Nation of Israel was eventually re-established in 1948.

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Today we present Part 1 of an article by regular contributor “Old Bobbert.”  Because this article primarily references other already published articles, it is not eligible in the Writing Contest judging.