This is the birthday of explorer and pilot Admiral Richard Byrd (1888–1957). His autobiography titled Alone is a must-read.
Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925. She was the UK’s first female Prime Minister. She died in 2013.
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We are running quite low on articles in our queue of writing contest nonfiction articles, so I encourage you to write! Just a 1,500-word article will qualify you for the judging — and the heaps of great prizes. Please share your knowledge, folks. Many Thanks!
At the urging of my readers and consulting clients, in this piece I’m going to go over the basics of running a gun show business. Renting gun show tables and then selling and/or trading items for tangible gain can be quite fun and rewarding. I rent show tables to make trades, primarily to improve my personal collection. For example, this weekend (Friday and Saturday only–Oct 25 and 26, 2019), I’ll have three tables at the Butte, Montana gun show. I won’t be there on Sunday.
To begin, I must start with some caveats on why renting tables is not for everyone. It takes an outgoing personality. It also takes a commitment of time–not just to travel and attend the shows but also the requisite hours of technical and market research. You also need to be in good health. Hauling your merchandise in and out of shows takes a bit of physical strength. And just standing up for 9 or 10 hours a days is demanding for some folks.
It also takes money to buy inventory. This falls in the category of: “It takes money to make money.” Unless you have at least $5,000 in cash or the equivalent in gun-related items that you already own and are willing to turn over in trade, then you should probably not consider a gun show venture. The alternative–that is, starting out with less than $500 worth of goods and gradually “trading up” to a large inventory–would probably prove to be a long and frustrating quest. It really does take some money to make money, in retail sales.
I must also mention that the current legislative war, if lost, might very well destroy gun shows as we now know them. (That is, at least in the 37 states of the Union that currently allow private party sales of post-1898 guns.) So put that risk into your decision matrix.Continue reading“Running a Gun Show Business – Part 1”
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 investing in timberland. (See the Commodities section.)
Spot rhodium is maintaining its strength longer than I had anticipated. Congrats to anyone who heeded my “buy” advice, three years ago. It has been an amazing run. But it is definitely time to take your profits on about half of your holdings.
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Gary Tanashian: The Gold Stock Correction And What Lay Ahead
At Zero Hedge: 55 Ways To ‘Starve The Beast’
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Video: They Must Go to INFINITE QE or The System BREAKS — Jim Willie. (The discussion of interest rates starts at around the 19:50 mark.)
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Yep, it is looking like QE (by any other name) infinity, indefinitely. The Wall Street Journal reports: Fed to Increase Temporary Liquidity Available To Markets
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“We are tainted by modern philosophy which has taught us that all is good, whereas evil has polluted everything and in a very real sense all is evil, since nothing is in its proper place.” – Joseph DeMaistre
October 24th is the anniversary of the firing squad execution of Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling, in 1945. His ignominious place in history was to have his surname become a noun. “Quisling” is now a moniker synonymous with treason and alliance with an invading army.
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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:
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.
Background: We bought our homestead in November, 2012. At the time we lived in the same area but in a neighborhood with protective covenants on a half acre lot. We found we weren’t able to do the things we needed and wanted to do in order to be resilient no matter what the economic or natural environment threw us. The property we moved to was about 5 acres with plenty of room to incorporate an orchard. I had pre-ordered a number of fruit trees and had prepared the ground to plant them in our old yard. They arrived after right before our move and we quickly needed to get them into the ground in our new property. We have learned many things in the seven years since we planted our first fruit trees. Our hope is that you may benefit from our mistakes and decide to grow a fruit tree or two — or many.
Our Homestead: Our homestead is located in a rural part of North Georgia. Agriculture and tourism are the main economic activities here. There are many orchards, vineyards, and broiler houses in the county. We are located in the foothills of the Appalachians which means lots of hardwoods and a shortage of level land. Water is abundant in rainfall, as well as the many rivers, streams and springs. Our property is shaped like a “U”. The property lines are on the high sides on the East and the West with the valley running North and South. Also much of the land is in old growth oak, hickory, and poplar.
Our First Planting: Because the new property was an “accidental” find and we weren’t planning on moving anytime soon, we had purchased bare root trees earlier in the year that were to be sent when dormant as bare root trees. Those trees arrived days before our imminent move and were one of our first projects at our new homestead. The difficulty when planting them was apparent. There just weren’t many places they could go because of the orientation of the sun (getting at least 6-to-8 hours of sun) and because the new homestead already had so many trees and not many open areas. We settled on the Eastern edge of the property on a nice slope. The trees would have good drainage, some morning sun and lots of afternoon sun. So far, so good, I thought.Continue reading“Lessons Learned in Our Orchard, by C.D.”
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 again look at the rise of YouTube censorship.
Communist China & YouTube – Demonetization isn’t censorship, but it is control. Here is a related web page, on some of YouTube’s outright bans: Channels that Have Been Recently CENSORED By Youtube, and How to Find Them.
Atlas Survival Shelters posted this: Bunker Explosion Kills Three in Texas. And here is a television news story on the same tragic event: Three dead following explosion in Red River County. A quote from Atlas Shelters: “Ron has been preaching that you should not have explosive materials in your bunker. We are sad to report that three men are now dead probably because they put a propane water heater inside their bunker. At this time we do not know who built this bunker but it was not Atlas Survival Shelters!” (A hat tip to Tim J. for the links.)
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.” – Thomas Jefferson
On October 23rd, 2002, around 50 Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater, taking 700 hostages during a popular musical. After 57 hours, during which two hostages were killed, Soviet Special Forces pumped a powerful narcotic gas into the theater knocking the terrorists and hostages unconscious before breaking in through the walls and roof. When the dust settled, most of the rebels and 120 hostages had been killed.
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I just heard that SurvivalBlog readers can get a free radiation monitor card for just $1 shipping. Visit the KI4U web site, and look about halfway down the page. This is a limited-time offer!
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:
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.
(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
A search of the internet revealed a number of suggestions for combating flinch. There were three that I decided to try first.
The first of these measures was more frequent and extensive dry firing. Over the course of the following days, I set out to rack and dry fire the PPQ at least 200 times. I hoped that this might help to dampen my flinch somewhat. It should also serve to gently break in the moving parts and further smooth out the trigger.
The second involved wearing both ear plugs and ear muffs during my next range session. This would reduce the impact of noise on my flinch.
The third involved a more relaxed stance. This should help me to receive the recoil more flexibly, thus reducing its shock.Continue reading“My Continued Handgun Search – Part 2, by The Novice”
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. Since we are in the Amazon Associates program, we will earn a commission on any Amazon sales. This week the focus is on the last few Baofeng UV-5R multi-band radios still available on the gray market in the United States. (See the Gear & Grub section.)
Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame), has a new book that is rightfully on the New York Times bestsellers list: The Way I Heard It. This book has been described as: “…a delightfully entertaining, seriously fascinating collection of his favorite episodes from America’s #1 short-form podcast, The Way I Heard It, along with a host of personal memories, ruminations, and insights. It’s a captivating must-read.”
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American Medical Association Guide to Your Family’s Symptoms
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Emergency War Surgery (2014 Edition)
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The Prepared Family Guide to Uncommon Diseases. (This was written by the editor of the great Paratus Familia blog.)
“A mouse in the paws is worth two in the pantry.” – Renowned cat illustrator Louis Wain
This is the birthday of painter and book illustrator N.C. Wyeth (1882–1945)
It is also the birthday of actor Jeff Goldblum (born 1952), who had unforgettable roles in Buckaroo Banzai and in the Jurassic Park and Independence Day film series.
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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:
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.
I have been on a quest. It is the search for my ideal handgun. The ideal handgun for me may not be the same as the ideal handgun for you. If you have not yet found your ideal handgun, then perhaps the story of my search will give you some ideas and inspiration for your own search. If you have already found your ideal handgun, you may at least find this story to be entertaining.
Most modern handguns have an intrinsic accuracy that is more than sufficient to meet my needs. The problem is that I am not a human Ransom Rest. I can take two handguns with the exact same intrinsic accuracy and fire one of them much more accurately than the other. If I practice a lot and concentrate, the difference in my accuracy between the two guns may become smaller. But in a high stress situation, I will have a natural tendency to be more accurate with the gun that fits me the best.
The anticipated use for the handgun also impacts which one is ideal for me. For example, do I want to use it for competition, plinking, hunting, home defense, concealed carry, open carry, etc.? The gun I am looking for is for both plinking and home defense. For these uses, a larger frame and longer slide and barrel may give me better results than a smaller package.
On July 27 and July 28, 2019, SurvivalBlog.com published an article describing the beginning of my search. “A Beginner’s Handgun Journey” tells about my first handgun purchase, my efforts to master basic handgun skills, and my experiences with how well various handguns worked for me. It tells how I acquired a Smith and Wesson SW22 Victory, how I could shoot that gun more accurately than any others I had tried, and my search for a handgun in a self defense caliber that I can shoot as well as I can shoot the SW22.Continue reading“My Continued Handgun Search – Part 1, by The Novice”
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 Wolf Resurgence in Washington State. (See the Eastern Washington section.)
Several of the American Redoubt states ranked well here: Ranking the States by Regulation. A brief quote:
“All told, the least regulated states are South Dakota, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and North Dakota, while the most regulated states are California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas.”
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Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Easing Energy Rules in US West
‘He will be well cared for’: Elliot the Elk finds new home in Texas
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Green Boodoggles: Idaho Power Wasting Millions
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Tim Kastning Announces Candidacy for Idaho House of Representatives
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Yet another instance of Perps From Out Of The Redoubt: One dead after high-speed police chase through southern Idaho and police shooting. And here is a follow-up article, with some background on the bad guy:
Man killed by police after high-speed chase on I-84 was suspected of kidnappings in California, Nevada.Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”
