Living The Homesteading Life Dream – Part 1, by 3 AD Scout

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For many of us, being able to move to our retreat/homestead/bug out location (BOL) full time is an elusive endeavor but for some the homesteading life dream does become reality. Our permanent move to our BOL was planned for post-retirement but those plans were moved up due to a medical condition. This article will recount the good, the bad and the uncategorized of our journey to find, improve, maintain and move into our BOL.

Finding a BOL wasn’t easy. At first, I was looking around the Allegheny National Forest, in Northwestern Pennsylvania. (see “Picking a BOL” by Pete Thorsen, posted on June 2, 2019). Many of the locations that we looked at were just seasonal camps. Many of these camps didn’t come with very much land. The wife was concerned that we would not be able to use it very often or check on it regularly due to the distance from our home. I was concerned about security since there are many break-ins at seasonal camps. One friend even recounted a story of showing up to his camp in the same area to find that someone had absconded with all his firewood. I did not cherish the thought of bugging out only to arrive at the BOL to find that it was looted of our preps like an inner-city Wal-Mart during SHTF. We revised our search area to places within an hour to an hour and a half away from our city home. I had compiled a list of things I wanted the property to have and I can honestly say I think I would have had better luck finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow than a property that had most of what I wanted, at least in our limited price range and target area.

I had to whittle the list of features and attributes for the property down to a list of “must haves” and “would like to have”. That search still seemed futile. It soon became apparent that some of the amenities of the perspective property would have to be really flexible. I wanted 10 acres as a minimum but we found a nice place with 8 acres. Sometimes close enough works fine. At some point, perhaps we can buy some of the surrounding land to get to that 10. Or perhaps we can buy some land a down the road. There are some advantages of having some land within walking distance of your homestead/BOL. The land can be used to cache supplies and also for an annex garden. Somethings that I would not compromise on was the property had to have a basement, a wood burning stove/fire place, not be in a flood plain and be able to accommodate food production (gardens/animals). Continue reading“Living The Homesteading Life Dream – Part 1, by 3 AD Scout”

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 some more Grizzly Bear problems.  (See the Montana section.)

Region-Wide

These Are The Top American Cities For Starting A Small Business.  It is no surprise that many of these are in the American Redoubt region.

o o o

Inland Northwest companies share their success stories at Triangle Venture Expo.

Idaho

Open carry is legal in Idaho, but now chains are asking Idahoans not to open carry in their stores

o o o

Amazon to open first fulfillment center in Idaho, based in Nampa

o o o

Human bones found along Salmon RiverContinue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

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 highlight a new SurvivalRealty.com listing for a farm house on 120 Acres in Ohio.

Cops: Burglar Used Drone for Aerial Recon

A hat tip to DSV for spotting this one: Cops: Burglar Used Drone For Aerial Recon.

Farm House on 120 Acres in Ohio

A new listing at SurvivalRealty.com: Contemporary Farm House on 120 Acres. (See the photo at the top of this column.)

Police Confiscate a Man’s Guns for Posting ‘Joker’ Memes

Linked over at the great Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Red Flag: Police Confiscate Washington Man’s Guns For Posting ‘Joker’ Memes Online. A quote:

“So, this 23-year-old kid does what all 23-year-old young guys do – he posts a meme about the #1 box office move in the country online that mocks the media’s relentless push to prove violent “Joker” represents Trump supporters, and someone online reports him to the authorities, and next thing you know, his guns are taken away.

There’s a very good reason why American patriots rallied against federal red flag laws when President Trump signaled he was open to supporting them after a string of mass shootings.

Red Flag laws are an infringement of our Constitutional rights. There is no due process. Authorities can just come and take your guns away based on an “extreme protection order.” After that is carried out, you have to go through a lengthy and sometimes costly process to get them back.”

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday — October 14, 2019

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A special note for SurvivalBlog readers who live on or near the east coast: A big pro-Second Amendment rally has been scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday, November 2nd, 2019 on the Capitol lawn in Washington, D.C..  Please do your utmost to BE THERE! This needs to be much bigger than the crowd gathered for the so-called Million Mom March, back in 2000. (Which was actually only about 250,000 people, pictured.) Again, please BE THERE!

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And a personal note: I have absolutely reached my tolerance point for spam. Not counting the more than 10,000 spams that automatically get blocked by my e-mail spam filter each day, I still get about 40 e-mails offering me “free content” or “paid content” every day. Sometimes they don’t even correctly re-format their spam template. Here is an example:

“Hi there! My name is Jelly, and I write for Facts.net. I’m a fan of [BLOG TITLE] and I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your article on [TITLE]. I’m writing because I’d like to contribute to your site. If you’re interested, I’ll be sure to write an insightful article that I think you and your readers would appreciate. If you run the article, I’ll do my part to promote it to my readers, so you wouldn’t have to do any extra legwork.”

My apologies to any SurvivalBlog readers who have had trouble getting e-mail through to me.  With the volume of spam that I receive, I need to keep our mail server’s spam filter ratcheted up fairly high. – JWR

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Today we present a review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

Kel-Tec RDB-17, by Pat Cascio

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I’ve never been a huge fan of Bullpup rifle designs – I’ve shot a few over the years, but they just didn’t ring my chimes for some reason. That has all changed, since I bought a Kel-Tec RDB-17 – my local gun shop is always getting in something that catches my attention, and the RDB-17 really opened-up my eyes for some reason. I’ve played around with the civilian version of the IWI Tavor that is being used in Israel with great success, but it didn’t do anything for me – especially the price tag – it didn’t offer anything to me over an AR-style rifle.

I’ve owned more than a few different types of firearms from Kel-Tec over the years, some were great, some were just okay. One in particular is their SU-16, it is a pretty nice little rifle, that folds in half, and fires .223 Rem ammo and takes AR magazines, but they are not super durable – not something I’d willingly take into “war” of any sort – unless it was the only rifle I had – then I’d make do! It just seems a bit fragile for heavy use. I always thought it was perfect as a trunk or truck gun – for survival purposes of emergencies. Then we have the Kel-Tec Sub2000 – nice little folding guns with variants that shoot 9mm or .40S&W ammo – and take magazines from major gun makers. Again, nice guns, a lot of fun to shoot. But taking them into “war” – nope!!! Still, if that’s all you had, you go with it and pray for the best.

Kel-Tec was started by George Kellgren, and he is a firearms design genius. Not quite as good as John Moses Browning, but the guns that Kellgren has designed over the years – all of them – are really quite unique. And, one thing I like about the line-up at Kel-Tec is the simplicity of their guns – simple is better:  Fewer parts, means less frequent breakdowns – I can’t make that any more clear. That is one of the reasons why Glock handguns are so popular, they are simple – very few parts to break, so they work all the time!
Continue reading“Kel-Tec RDB-17, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: K.D.’s Quick Black Bean Hummus

Reader K.D. kindly sent us this recipe for a simple and quick black bean hummus.

Ingredients
  • 1 cup well-cooked black beans (can be cooked a day in advance, if kept refrigerated)
  • 1 of clove of minced garlic (use less or omit, to taste.)
  • 2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons of lemon juice — fresh-squeezed juice is best
  • Salt, to taste
  • Ground black pepper (preferably freshly-ground), to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (optional, depending on your like or dislike of cumin)
Directions

Blend all the above-listed ingredients in a food processor or blender, until nearly smooth.

It is best to let the hummus stand for 10+ minutes before serving. Can be served warm or chilled.

SERVING

Serve as you would with standard hummus: in a bowl for dipping lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, bell peppers, or tomatoes. Or, of course, hummus and any of those same veggies (chopped), can also be served in a pita bread wrap or even in a flour tortilla if you aren’t a purist.

Some complimentary side dishes are rice, spiced couscous, quinoa, or bulgur wheat. And tahini sauce on the side is great for dipping your pita, for the full Middle-eastern effect.

STORAGE

Stores refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

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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. And it bears mention that 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 farm land. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

The spot and futures silver markets are looking strong. Back In May, spot silver was around $14.50 per troy ounce. But presently, it is around $17.50. It has been solidly above $17 per ounce since the 1st of October. My suggestion: Hold on, folks. The silver bull has a long way to run.

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: Stunning Clip Shows Billions In Gold, Cash Hidden In Chinese City Mayor’s Secret Basement

Economy & Finance:

Another piece at Zero Hedge: “Money’s Not Worth Anything Anymore” – Ex-Credit Suisse CEO Blasts “Crazy” Negative Rates

o  o  o

Monitoring yacht prices: Following the Greater Depression on eBay

o  o  o

An interesting piece at Wolf Street: The Day When Repo Rates Blew Out: Fed Recounts a Fiasco that Occurred as the FOMC Was Meeting, and How it Reacted

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 13, 2019

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Today is the birthday of songwriter and singer Paul Simon. (Born, 1941.)

—

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.

Optimizing MURS Dakota Alert Sensors – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

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

—

MURS band Dakota Alert systems are very useful, but they often frustrate the user. Read up. It would be a huge loss if one could not operate their sensors correctly. And just like anything else, take one out of the Faraday cage and use it for awhile to gain experience with it. In a time of stress, getting a ‘false alarm’, could be nerve racking, when all hat it needs is batteries. In a pinch, but only in a pinch, would I connect directly to 12 VDC. With higher voltages they are more reliable in the rain, and cold. My first choice would be to add an ‘extra’ rechargeable AA battery, or two sets of 7-battery packs, wired in parallel to double the ‘run time’ when using rechargeable, or 6 regular alkalines, if the lithium type were not available. Just keep the voltage below 10 VDC, to be safe. The most stable source of power would be the 12 volt car battery with the universal voltage adapter set to 9 VDC. So as not to ‘waste’ a good car battery, use one with a bad cell that no longer can start a car. Once again, here is an inexpensive 10 watt PV panel that can be connected directly to that battery.

Especially if a PV panel is used, be sure to use a universal voltage adapter. And always confirm polarity with a volt meter before connecting.

Continue reading“Optimizing MURS Dakota Alert Sensors – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the suspected nascent Grand Solar Minimum.

A Grand Solar Minimum?

Three pieces of “food for thought, and grounds for further research” from Principia Scientific:

Cloud Formations And Plant Growth Cycles In The Present Grand Solar Minimum

and,

Solar Minimum Is Underway, And It’s A Deep One

and,

Global Cooling expected to last from 2020-2055

The Turkish Invasion of Syria

Linked over at the great Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Four maps that explain the Turkish offensive in north-east Syria

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” – Colossians 3:1-17 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — October 12, 2019

Today, in 1492, after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sighted a Bahamian island, believing that he had reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who had sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.

—

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.

Optimizing MURS Dakota Alert Sensors – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

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Editor’s Introductory Note: This essay describes one approach to optimizing the performance, extending the range, and securing the signal of MURS band Dakota Alert intrusion detection sensors–and other low power transmitters.

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To begin, here’s some ground thruth on perimeter security: Security will be Job One. Everything else supports that objective. Manpower for most tasks will be greatly lacking. Every trick, hack, or tactic should be considered. If we don’t see’em, hear’em or smell’em coming, then it is over before it starts. You lose.

Organizing with your community is the best defense for those without their own manpower. Defend at a distance, not at the mail box. Don’t let them into the area in the first place. Thus, potential intruders will be reduced to a few potentially lawless neighbors.

One of the best plug-and-play force multipliers–often recommended by JWR–is the MURS band Dakota Alert system. We all should know about those by now. If not, then please see a video on it.

Although only a 1/2-watt transmitter with a limited range, external antennas can greatly improve the distance at which Dakota Alert sensors can be deployed. I make my own antennas, but I cannot beat the least expensive and most effective external antenna on the market.Continue reading“Optimizing MURS Dakota Alert Sensors – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit”