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 “HJL”. Amazon polices are being looked at in detail in today’s features. This is not a nice company when you are a seller, but one that you have to do business with.

M4/M249 SAW Replacement

Military.com has an article explaining the Army’s move to a 6.8mm based weapon system to replace the M4 and the M249 SAW. The system is intended to capitalize on the recognized weaknesses of the M16/M4 and M249 platform that the operators of the weapon have had in the course of operations. Primarily among them is the decreased lethality of the current 5.56mm cartridge at long ranges in wide open territory and in the reduced barrel length of the M4. The new round is not yet a sure thing and the program is merely a step in the right direction to remedy problems experienced in the field. The plan is to have gun makers submit proposals for their designs in April with the prototypes delivered by June.

Amazon.com News

Amazon now has nearly half of all retail sales in the U.S. But it’s not actually Amazon that is the power behind the sales. It’s their “marketplace” program that allows other retailers to sell under the umbrella of Amazon. With the huge market commanded by Amazon retailers vie for the top search return spots and things are not always rosy. Common among retailers to target your competitor by buying reviews for them and then turning them in for fake reviews. There are also instances where companies have bought their competitors products, set them on fire and then written safety hazard reviews. At issue is Amazon’s policy of suspending retailers for infractions of their Terms of Service, but not telling you what you did. They also don’t just accept apologies.

To get back on, you have to provide an action plan of what you are going to do to fix the problem and keep it from happening again. It doesn’t even matter if you are innocent – and millions are at stake so you can’t just walk away. It’s like that stereotypical movie wife who is mad at you and is giving you the silent treatment. You have to figure out what you did wrong on your own, admit to it and fix it even if you didn’t do it. This article is long, but a definite must-read. Thanks to T.Z. for the link.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” – 1 Peter 1:3-5 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – December 22, 2018

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December 22nd is the anniversary of the death of SP4 James T. Davis, the first uniformed American combat casualty of the Vietnam War, in 1961. This ASA soldier (of the 3rd Radio Research Unit) was killed in a Viet Cong ambush on a road outside Saigon.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 80 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  2. 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,
  3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. 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).
  6. 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. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 80 ends on January 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.

Some Thoughts About Lying- Part 1, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

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[Editor’s Note: It is the position of the editor’s of SurvivalBlog that the end does not justify the means. Deuteronomy 16:20 states “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow” (KJV), though a more accurate word-for-word translation would be “Righteous justice you shall pursue.” We believe that we are to model our Lord and Savior who did not lie.]

There are six things the Lord hates and seven that are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. (Proverbs 6:16–19)

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. (Proverbs 12:22)

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

Truth is Complicated

In Ephesians, the apostle Paul says to “put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts” (4:22). Then he says, “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors” (4:25).

Judging from these verses (and others) and the many shallow “Christian” articles online, a Christian may never, ever lie; it is a sin condemned by God. But that is not only a simplistic conclusion, it’s not Biblical in any way. The truth is more complicated:

From Paul Copan

The following is entirely an excerpt from Paul Copan’s Enrichment Journal article called “Is It Ever Morally Permissible to Deceive?…”

God is True and Hates Lying Lips

“First, Scripture affirms the trustworthiness of God. God is true (Romans 3:4). He is faithful and keeps His promises (Deuteronomy 7:9). And He hates lying lips (Proverbs 12:22). Jesus calls himself “the truth” (John 14:6). Indeed, the being who qualifies as God would have to be worship-worthy and, therefore, trustworthy rather than faithless.

Continue reading“Some Thoughts About Lying- Part 1, by ShepherdFarmerGeek”

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. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

We had a quiet Winter Solstice day, here at the Rawles Ranch. It is a boost to one’s psyche to know that the days are finally starting to get longer again! Living at this latitude, the darkness of winter can be depressing.  The weather has been unusually rainy. That is supposed to transition to more seasonally-expected snow, in the next few days. Perhaps I’ll be doing some snow plowing this winter, after all.

I do my best to practice what I preach. So this past week I’ve been busy buying various full capacity magazines and also AR lower receivers–both stripped and complete. With the new Congress starting to play their nefarious games one week from Wednesday (January 3, 2019), it is wise to stock up. GunMagWarehouse has been getting a lot of business from me. I’ve also been busy making lists of magazines available from other vendors, and comparing prices. That way I’ll be ready to pull the trigger on an even bigger magazine buy, if and when it becomes clear that a new ban looks close to a certainty.

This week I helped Lily and the kids with one of the regular muckings of our poultry house. This time, the kids did the shoveling, while I handled the usual hauling away the waste in a wheelbarrow–or this time of year, a sled. In the winter, everything is hauled directly to the garden, to rot down in piles. Come springtime, that will be rototilled in to the soil.

We now have stock tank heaters running in both of our tanks. I had to chain a weight to the floating one. This was to prevent one of our most Bovine Delinquent calves from flipping it out of the tank. They do get bored. Just another day on the ranch…

– Jim & Avalanche Lily, Rawles

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

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 “HJL”. The wall is becoming a contentious issue this week. While the government is in a partial shutdown over it, the public may fund it themselves.

More on Bumpstocks

Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large has a good article on what everyone needs to know about the bumpfire ban. Looking past the obvious details and a very unconstitutional ban, Mike delves into the nitty-gritty of why this is a horrible direction and such a slippery slope. He doesn’t even own one because he owns several of the “real thing”. There is so much misinformation in the public arena on just what these devices are, you should be prepared to explain these details to anyone you meet. Who knows, the ATF make make it impossible to wear a belt on your pants in the future because you can do the same thing with your belt loops.

Gun Parts and Ammo

Palmetto State Armory (one of our Affiliate advertisers) has announced a great sale on Gen-2 30-round black MagPul PMAGs. They are just $7.99 each, after you put them in their shopping cart. Search for item “MAG571-BLK” Stock up, before Congress gets busy robbing us of our rights! Be sure to use the coupon code “PMAG” when you check out.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” – Genesis 48:15-16 (KJV)

Cold and Flu Season, by Michele Cooper

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During cold and flu season, what can you do except be as careful as possible? I hate being sick. So, I very carefully wash shopping carts (many flu and cold germs are contacted in this manner), stay away from sick people, wash my hands often, and try very hard not to touch my eyes or nose while out and about.

Assure Your Health

However, there is a way you can assure your health during the cold winter months. The answer is black or blue elderberry! In the autumn, when children head back to school, which seems to be a petri-dish for germs, I immediately make elderberry syrup. Then, Jeff and I start taking it every morning.

Elderberry– A Strong Anti-Viral

Elderberry wine, pie, cordial, and syrup are yum! Elderberry is number one for cold season. Because elderberry syrup tastes great, it must not be very effective, right? No, actually elderberry is a strong anti-viral and works very well as a prophylactic to prevent viruses from replicating and ever getting a foothold in your body, and it will significantly reduce symptoms and length of cold and flu viruses if taken every 3-4 hours in the first 24-48 hours of symptom onset.

Works Extremely Well Against “Enveloped Viruses”

In fact, elderberry works extremely well against “enveloped viruses” and can even protect you from some of the really nasty ones, like Ebola, Marburg, SARS, and hanta viruses, which are enveloped viruses. (Although if those “heavies” were going around, I’d add a small amount of leaf and stem bark tincture for extra anti-viral kick as well.)

Continue reading“Cold and Flu Season, by Michele Cooper”

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 JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on investing in WWII vintage jeeps.  (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

 

Precious Metals:

Todd ‘Bubba’ Horwitz: Silver To Climb To $20, Outperform Gold In 2019

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A headline from Wednesday:  Gold Pushes To Five-Month High As U.S. Dollar Index Hits Daily Low

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Frank Holmes: The Gold Bulls Just Regained The Upper Hand

 

Economy & Finance:

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to raise interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25%.) Not surprisingly, the next day the Dow stocks fell another 400 points to a 14-month low, and the NASDAQ and S&P both dropped another 1.5%. There is a now the strong smell of bear in the air.

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Here is a link suggested by fellow blogger Ol’ Remus of Yer Ol’ Woodpile Report: Half of America hasn’t recovered from the recession

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Also this at Zero Hedge: Wheels Come Off The Leveraged Loan Market: Banks Unable To Offload Loans Amid Record Outflows

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

There was a time when all these things would have passed me by, like the flitting figures of a theatre, sufficient for the amusement of an hour. But now, I have lost the power of looking merely on the surface. Everything seems to me to come from the Infinite, to be filled with the Infinite, to be tending toward the Infinite. Do I see crowds of men hastening to extinguish a fire? I see not merely uncouth garbs, and fantastic, flickering lights, of lurid hue, like a trampling troop of gnomes—but straightway my mind is filled with thoughts about mutual helpfulness, human sympathy, the common bond of brotherhood, and the mysteriously deep foundations on which society rests; or rather, on which it now reels and totters.” – Lydia Maria Child, American abolitionist

Guest Post: Dealing With Hypothermia by Joe Alton, MD and Amy Alton ARNP

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Joe and Amy are authors of The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide For When Help Is Not On The Way and Alton’s Antibiotics And Infectious Disease: The Layman’s Guide To Available Antibiotics In Austere Settings. They also run doomandbloom.net which is an excellent source for austere medical knowledge.

The environment plays a large role in your success as medic in survival settings. If you don’t take weather conditions and other factors into account, you have made the environment your enemy, and it’s a formidable one. Different areas may pose special challenges. If you live in Miami, you might be treating a lot of people with heat stroke. If you live in Siberia, you’ll be treating a lot of people with cold-related exposure. In many places, you’ll be at risk for both, depending on the time of year.

Illness related to cold temperatures is known as ‘Hypothermia”. Normally, the body core ranges from 97.5 to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (36.5-37.5 degrees Celsius) when taken orally or rectally. Rectal temps tend to be slightly higher than oral, and oral temps slightly higher than skin readings, such as those taken in the armpit. Hypothermia begins when the body core drops below 95 degrees.

Continue reading“Guest Post: Dealing With Hypothermia by Joe Alton, MD and Amy Alton ARNP”

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 “HJL”. You’ll want to learn about this bumpstock lawsuit.

Milk Knife

From the man who has turned the making of shivs into an art form comes this project where he literally makes a knife out of milk. The knife produced is obviously somewhat brittle as he uses much more care in the handling of the knife than he normally does, but it is sharp enough to cut thin slices of what looks like a cucumber. What I found most interesting in this video was the process that he used to create a handle for the knife. He uses a molding process and an epoxy resin to recreate the head of one of his cow water holders on the handle of the knife. The entire process of molding the handle is shown and it is as interesting as the usually knife making process.

Bumpstock Lawsuit

With the absurd bumpstock ban looming, a number of legal challenges are already spinning up. One such challenge is the Guedes v. BATFE a lawsuit which you can participate in, by helping to fund it. The ATF’s ban is unconstitutional and a prime example of bureaucratic overreach. The ATF needs to be smacked hard over this issue as it will lead to the declaration of many more non-firearms related products falling under their jurisdiction. If you can, help support this legal action.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Some of you young folks been saying to me, ‘Hey Pops, what you mean what a wonderful world? How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? They ain’t so wonderful either.’ But how about listening to old Pops for a minute. It seems to me it ain’t the world that’s so bad, but what we’re doing to it, and all I’m saying is see what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance. Love, baby, love. That’s the secret. Yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we’d solve lots more problems. And man, this world would be a gasser.” – Louis Armstrong