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.

Teaching Preparedness To Family, by Old Bobbert – Part 1

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Just a few months ago our family in the Midwest was pummeled by terrible storms and flooding. I knew we had to help them to cope with the dangerous weather events in their neighborhoods. So I put together a “Family Prepper Package“ of information. Here was my process:

Step #1 Create a Written PLan

We made a copy of the plan a part of the presentation binder contents for each household in our extended family. Our plan evolved loosely into a seven part program based on current interests, current economics, infrastructure lack of maintenance, and the real probability of a financial collapse in the fairly near future. Our immediate local Utah family has been involved in preparedness for nearly 30 years, beginning with accepting a volunteer church assignment as our local congregation’s preparedness / self reliance specialists. Please note that our personal viewpoint of preparedness is that it is actually a select group of proven principles  — namely frugality and forward thinking / awareness integrated into our daily lives.

A key proviso: If your survival plan is complicated, if your survival plan is expensive, if your survival plan is too short term, if your survival plan is out-dated, or if your survival plan is not based on ample food and water, then It Will Not Work Well.

Our church does promote preparedness as a suggested practical concept, and no, it is never a doctrinal premise or membership requirement. Principles are never denominational, and no group can ever have sole ownership of a principle. That maxim does well in our family, since there are members of four different religious denominations plus our one agnostic son who has terrific values and personal integrity  and standards.

Okay, we are past the useless churchy objectionable bias stuff. Now let’s go for the proven procedures that can be learned from folks you may not agree with on any topics, ever. Claim Whatever Works For You!

Simplistic Food Supply Planning Rule #1:
Never store food items that you have not eaten in the past six weeks. Think about it.

Simplistic Water Supply Planning Rule #2:
When the lights go off, fill your bathtub with cold water while you still have water pressure. Think about it.

These two simplistic common sense concepts of survival were proposed, taught, and re-taught to our midwest family repeatedly so as to enable them to finally begin to both think and feel that planning ahead for disaster response decisions, and making a written plan, would save lives and conquer fear. We made these two rules the foundational basis of the Family Prepper Package.

You can easily go to YouTube and search for: “WENDY DEWITT – FOOD – and then download her very special and personal food storage methods program. We put it in the video group. It runs a little more than an hour and she starts with a statement that: “this is a church sponsored presentation that is not approved by the church, it just works so very well”.

We live in SW Utah and our full / extended family groups are located many hundreds of miles away in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and up in Idaho. They range in age from 59 down to an infant. And only one adult grandson (in Kansas) was interested in serious preparedness before we made a committed decision to update all of them with binders filled with selected print-outs and two inexpensive USB flash drives filled with downloaded videos.

Continue reading“Teaching Preparedness To Family, by Old Bobbert – Part 1”

Editors’ 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 fairly quiet week. Other than writing, the highlights of the week were deer hunting, horse hoof trimming, and some organization around the house.  I got busy and tagged and cataloged most of the antique guns that I’ve purchased in past few months. My goal is to be ready to re-launch my mail order company, come March or April, of 2020. With that venture, I’ll be re-selling antique guns and various gun accessories, nationwide. Because my blog and books are being shadow-banned, de-ranked, and demonetiized, that new revenue stream may prove crucial for keeping my household afloat.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.” – Proverbs 23:1-22 (KJV)