“And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay The song of the sailors in glee: So I think of the luminous footprints that bore The comfort o’er dark Galilee, And wait for the signal to go to the shore, To the ship that is waiting for me.” – Bret Harte
July 18th, 1954 is the birthdate of Ricky Skaggs, an American country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster and banjo.
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Today we present another entry for Round 83 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
Round 83 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
Continue reading“Family Medical Preps – Part 2, by Doctor Dan”
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 a wolf-attack nightmare.
Reader Jon C. sent us this: Wisconsin farm family lives wolf-attack nightmare. The article begins:
“On July 8, my father-in-law walked down to the sheep pasture to check on the flock, the same way he has for over 20 years. It was a beautiful summer morning, feeling much cooler after a spell of heat and humidity had just ended, but only one ewe greeted him. It was by the grace of God that she was there.
As he began checking fence to see where the sheep might have gone, he saw a sight straight out of our worst nightmares. He started to find the massacred remains of our family’s sheep. This wasn’t my family’s first go around with a wolf kill on the farm, so my father in-law knew what to do.
Less than two hours later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife adjuster was out and began his investigation and, after finding tracks, was able to confirm it was a wolf kill.
Imagine waking up one morning and everything that you have worked towards for the last 30 years is gone. In a blink of an eye you have lost over 30 years of genetics, 30 years of blood, sweat, and tears. Just to be told that there is nothing you can really do about it except fill out some paperwork and wait for a small reimbursement that won’t equal the true value of the animals you lost.”
Reader G.P. sent this item: U.S. Begins Testing Armored Robotic Vehicles Next Year.
By way of Whatfinger.com: Nevada Bear Smells Freshly Baked Cookies (Video)
“I’ve been walking in my sleep
counting troubles, ‘stead of counting sheep
Where the years went, I can’t say
I just turned around and they’ve gone away
I’ve been sifting through the layers
of dusty books and faded papers
They tell a story I used to know
Gone that happened so long ago
Gone away — in yesterday
and I find myself on the mountainside
Where the rivers change direction
across the Great Divide
Well I heard the owl calling
softly as the night was falling
With a question, and I replied
but he’s gone across the borderline
The finest hour, that I have seen
is the one that comes between
The edge of night and the break of day
when the darkness rolls away.” – Singer-Songwriter Kate Wolf, from the lyrics to Across The Great Divide
July 17th, 1889 was the birthdate of novelist Erle Stanley Gardner. He was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.
The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
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Today we present another entry for Round 83 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
Round 83 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
As Americans, we live in a time of relative peace and prosperity and are blessed to enjoy the most advanced healthcare system in history. Yet, as good as we have things now, we do not know what the future may bring. How can we find better health now, prepare for medical emergencies we may encounter in daily events, and also prepare for an uncertain future where medical resources may be limited or completely absent? The latter is commonly called a When The Schumer Hits The Fan (WTSHTF) scenario. Here are a few suggestions from a practicing physician:
Prevention is superior to treating diseases or injuries after they occur.
Continue reading“Family Medical Preps – Part 1, by Doctor Dan”
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 that have any tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food as and food storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on Milwaukee brand cordless chainsaws. (See the Gear & Grub section.)
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Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods
Dr. Bones Nurse Amy: Boiling Water To Make It Safe To Drink: Disinfection, Filters and Fire. “Many sources of water, even sometimes from a tap, are contaminated and unsafe to drink. Using filters and boiling water will go a long way towards making the water safer to consume. Boiling will not remove certain toxins nor kill all pathogens. Learn more with Dr. Joe Alton’s sound advice.”
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Of interest to those who own metal detectors: Unexpected Discovery Forces Treasure Hunter to Question Everything He Knows. JWR’s Comment: My guess is that with that many discarded broken shoe buckles, the scissors, the hammer head and the thimble, the original owner of the property was a cobbler. It bears mention that the hammer head he found was the right size for cobbling work. Take a look at his other videos. It is nice to see that he packs a Glock, when he’s out in the woods. And there is more than just metal detecting in his videos. He often points out the wild edibles that he finds.
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Reader Tim J. mentioned this video from Wranglerstar: Close Call Caught On Tape.
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An important recent video from “Max Velocity”: How Not to Shoot Your Buddies – Drills to Avoid FratricideContinue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”
“Vices are simply overworked virtues, anyway. Economy and frugality are to be commended but follow them on in an increasing ratio and what do we find at the other end? A miser! If we overdo the using of spare moments we may find an invalid at the end, while perhaps if we allowed ourselves more idle time we would conserve our nervous strength and health to more than the value the work we could accomplish by emulating at all times the little busy bee.
I once knew a woman, not very strong, who to the wonder of her friends went through a time of extraordinary hard work without any ill effects.
I asked her for her secret and she told me that she was able to keep her health, under the strain, because she took 20 minutes, of each day in which to absolutely relax both mind and body. She did not even “set and think.” She lay at full length, every muscle and nerve relaxed and her mind as quiet as her body. This always relieved the strain and renewed her strength.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder
July 16th is the anniversary of the first successful atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945. This portentous event heralded the advent of the age of nuclear weapons. Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939. In 1940 the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research, but in early 1942, with the United States at war, the limits on spending were removed. The total cost was in excess of $2 billion. Germany was also feared to be working on a bomb as was Japan, though neither of those nations could bring the resources to bear in time before their defeat. With that, the nuclear age was born.
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Amazon Prime Day (now actually two+ days) is now underway. If you decide to order anything, then please start out with any Amazon link from SurvivalBlog. That way, even if you delete that first item from your cart, we’ll get a little piece of the action on your entire order, to help pay for our server and other expenses. Thanks!
Today we present another entry for Round 83 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
Round 83 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
While some people are vegetarians and get by just fine, I feel that is not the normal eating habits of humans. Humans are omnivores who are designed to eat both meat and plants. Most preppers have the plant part down with growing their own vegetable gardens, foraging wild plants in their area, or a combination of those two. Meat is a more difficult food item for many preppers.
Edible plants and sprouts can be grown even in an apartment or a small outdoor space. But growing meat in a small space is more difficult, but perhaps not impossible. Fish are a possible answer that can possibly be grown in a small area as long as you have the required food for your fish. Rabbits require only a small area as long as you have access to food and water for them. Chickens are often allowed to roam or are caged in larger pens but could likely be grown in much more confined cages.
Larger livestock require both more space and more food. For instance, a cow or goat can be kept in a very small pen but would require a much larger area just to store the required feed. That is why these animals are often allowed to graze in a large area to reduce the amount of stored feed required.
There are also a large number of wild birds, animals, fish, and crustaceans that can be harvested by preppers in the United States. Meat contains nutrients that humans require to stay fit and healthy. Meat is different from plants in many ways. One difference is that many plants can be eaten raw and in fact, are usually consumed raw. For the most part, meat has to be cooked before we eat it.Continue reading“Storing Meat, by Pete Thorsen”
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 Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Cougar Gold canned cheese from the Washington State University Creamery. (See the Washington section.)
Top 10 Drives in the Northern Rockies
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2019’s Most Patriotic States in America. Predictable results for the Redoubt states. Oregon and Washington surely would have ranked higher, in their eastern “dry side” halves.
I just heard that Kathleen “Kathy” Sims–former Idaho State Representative and State Senator–died on July 5th. My condolences to her family.
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Redoubt News reports: Yankee Fork Restoration Project Disturbs Groundwater
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A television news story from Pocatello: Fish and Game gets girls ready for hunting season
Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”
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 take another look at Civil War 2.
I recommend reading this piece at Cold Climate Change, which perhaps has some alarmist predictions: Hiding Volcanic Eruptions. But even if there is just an outside chance of this coming to pass, then it would be prudent to seriously stock up on storage foods!
Samuel Culper of Forward Observer has now posted two follow-ups with quite cogent analysis, to his Breaking Down “Civil War 2” video:
Part 2. American Balkanization. (He discuses the American Redoubt region, starting at the 15:50 mark.)
Part 4. Insurgency vs. Civil War
Devon at Black Pilled asks: How High is Your Tolerance?
“As a writer, politician, scientist, and businessman, [Ben] Franklin had few equals among the educated of his day-though he left school at ten. (…) Boys like Andrew Carnegie who begged his mother not to send him to school and was well on his way to immortality and fortune at the age of thirteen, would be referred today for psychological counseling; Thomas Edison would find himself in Special Ed until his peculiar genius had been sufficiently tamed.” – John Taylor Gatto
Please pray for the millions of our fellow Americans who face flooding from Tropical Storm Barry.
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I’d like to make special mention of two new retreat properties listed on SurvivalRealty.com:
First, the Rural Revolution homestead, near Plummer, Idaho. This farm was developed by Don and Patrice Lewis of the great Rural Revolution blog. It is an amazing well-developed place with great neighbors and it sits on a very defendable plateau amidst farming country in north Idaho! I’ve personally visited this property several times and can vouch that it is retreat worthy.
And second, a “Fortified house of character situated in an inlet by the sea on the popular safe-haven island of Malta.” Well, folks, a fortress on Malta is something you don’t see listed for sale very often!
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On July 15th, 1888, the Bandai Volcano erupted on the Japanese island of Honshu killing hundreds and burying many nearby villages in ash. While Honshu is in an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, this eruption was surprising. The volcano had erupted only four times in the 1,000 years prior and none had been particularly deadly. However, this eruption was different. The rumblings started just after 7 a.m. Within 30 minutes there was an explosion on the north side of the mountain and over the next two hours there were dozens of explosions giving villagers very little time to escape.
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