The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

”These Sarah Brady types must be educated to understand that because we have an armed citizenry, that a dictatorship has not happened in America. These anti-gun fools are more dangerous to Liberty than street criminals or foreign spies.” -Theodore Haas, a Dachau Death Camp Survivor



Preparedness Notes for Thursday – November 30, 2017

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 73 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. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
  8. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Continue reading“Preparedness Notes for Thursday – November 30, 2017”



God’s Perfect Bounty: Our Natural Survival Garden- Part 3, by D.M.

Today, I’m finishing my article on some of the plants God provided for our survival. I’ve written on the American beautyberry and its medicinal, culinary, and decorative uses, including recipes. Most recently, I’ve been talking about the Seminole squash (or pumpkin, as it is sometimes called), which also has many uses. I’m currently sharing about culinary uses.

Seminole Squash (continued)

Ways to Eat Seminole Squash

Young stems, flowers, and leaves of Seminole squash can be eaten as a green vegetable or added to soups. The squash can be eaten raw, stuffed, fried, baked, mashed, roasted, steamed, boiled, or dried.

The fully ripe squash can be cooked as a winter squash, such as butternut or acorn. I’ve tried steaming or roasting them and then taking the meat out of the shell, mash with butter and cinnamon, and then add some pecan pieces. My family liked it. You can also add brown sugar like mashed sweet potatoes or use it as a pumpkin, too!

Continue reading“God’s Perfect Bounty: Our Natural Survival Garden- Part 3, by D.M.”



Letter Re: Israeli Battle Bandages Expiration

HJL,

I have a question about the vacuum sealed Israeli battle bandages. They have an “expiration date” on them: what does that mean, in terms of medical and common sense applications? My thinking is if I need it and have it, who cares how old it is… Thank you and thanks for all you do. RJH.

HJL’s Comment:

While many medical items have expiration dates that are critical (like insulin), some are there only because of legal liability reasons. If you pull out a bandage that doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to or has some problem that complicates it’s usage, the company does not want to be sued. You have to use your judgment on whether a device needs to be replaced or not. If you have nearly unlimited resources, by all means replace it, but if you are like most of us, you need to be more careful in your expenditures.

My personal method is to keep some bandages for practice. Applying life saving medical treatment is a perishable skill and needs to be kept fresh. When practicing, you need to work with the real thing whenever possible as well. I take the oldest bandages every year and use them to practice with. Tourniquets, Israeli Bandages, compression bandages, splints, et cetera all get used eventually. In addition, you should inspect all of your supplies at least once a year. If you see that the package has been damaged, relegate that bandage to the practice heap and replace it. As long as you stay on top of inspecting your supplies and don’t take chances with supplies that are actually perishable, you should be fine in keeping them beyond their printed expiration date.



The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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”. Today, Steven Crowder answers his critics over the allegations that he faked his Alexa video.

 

North Korea

Reader P.S. sent in this article with North Korea showing that it is continuing in their quest for an ICBM that can reach any part of North America. In their latest test, the missile reached the highest altitude of any NK missle test yet and splashed down in the Sea of Japan. The test shows that they now have a vehicle capable of striking the U.S. but they do not yet have the miniaturized nuke to place on the missile. However, it is only a matter of time. In conventional thinking, this ability is a ploy to gain concessions from the U.S. as they have done over the last two decades because any such first strike would lead to certain annihilation. But it is Kim Jong Un we are talking about.

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg is showing a remarkable inability to grasp the dangers of AI. Facebook recently announced that they would be running algorithms to identify users who are suicidal. Stating that this automatic recognition simply forwards the posts to human managers, Facebook believes it will be able to save lives and everyone will love it. The company does not have any answers on how it will avoid scanning for political dissent or petty crime. Additionally, users do not have the ability to opt out of the scanning. Every user account will be scanned. Thanks to DSV for the link.

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



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

”If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of crime rates reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying — that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 — establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.” – Senator Orrin Hatch





God’s Perfect Bounty: Our Natural Survival Garden- Part 2, by D.M.

I have been telling you about God’s provision for our survival through nature and specifically writing about the many uses of the American beautyberry. They are edible, medicinal, and decorative berries. In part 1, I shared a recipes for insect repellent, tea for skin ailments, and more using various parts of the American beautyberry plant. I also told how I made juice with the berries. Now, let’s move on to more culinary uses for the American beautyberry and take a look at another multipurpose plant as well.

American Beautyberry Jelly

After much experimenting with several jelly recipes (some twice), I kept getting glaze instead of jelly (due to the humidity, altitude, and other factors). Finally, I came up with one that actually jells. This pursuit is how I happened to experiment with the syrup and glazes. You can see now why it’s important to experiment!

Continue reading“God’s Perfect Bounty: Our Natural Survival Garden- Part 2, by D.M.”



Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest 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 the upcoming OPEC conference. (See the Commodities section.)

Precious Metals:

To start, Rory flagged this at The Daily Coin for us: BRICS Gold Trade Settlement To Begin in 2018?

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HSBC: Platinum to Average $1,055 in 2018; Palladium $975

Stock Markets:

Has Amazon Killed Value Investing?

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European shares snap two-week losing streak as DAX gains

Commodities (OPEC Conference):

Video from BNN (Canada): Commodities for Monday, November 27, 2017

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There is an OPEC meeting scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, in Vienna. It is noteworthy that U.S. oil production is at an all-time high. The decisions in Vienna should prove interesting. Russia’s input could be crucial. If there is discord among those gathered, the price of crude oil could collapse.

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”



JWR’s Recommendations of the Week

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on JWR’s preferred gun lubricant: Frog Lube.

Books:

Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived

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The Instant Pot® Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals

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Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

Movies:

The Right Stuff.  This otherwise fine film is marred by some crudity.  Available on DVD and available for free download for Amazon Prime members.

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Enemy At The Gates

 

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week”



The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“You might say that someone incapable of cruelty is a higher moral being than someone who is capable of cruelty, and I would say that is incorrect, and it is dangerously incorrect. If you are not capable of cruelty, you are absolutely a victim to anyone who is.” – Jordan Peterson





God’s Perfect Bounty: Our Natural Survival Garden- Part 1, by D.M.

When God made the heaven and earth, he made them perfect. He provided everything we need for our survival, from nutrition to medicine for both humans and animals, from knowledge and natural instinct to even giving us beauty to behold.

Knowledge of Survival Lost And Forgotten

The knowledge of survival using God’s perfect bounty has been lost and forgotten over time. While gaining new knowledge with the advent of modern grocery stores and medicine we’ve forgotten God’s natural survival garden.

There are many varieties of plants that grow naturally without any help from us. Many are disease-, drought-, and pest-resistant, and they have multiple uses.

Everything on Earth Put Here For Our Survival

Everything on earth was put here for a reason– our survival. God made those for us, and it is up to you to take advantage of it.

Do Research While You Still Can

I urge you to do some research as I have done, while you still can. Experiment now rather than later. Find out about native varieties of plants, bushes, trees, algae, lichen, and even the wildlife in your area. Talk to friends, neighbors, and old timers. Look on the Internet while we still have it, and read books. You can never have enough knowledge, especially when SHTF.

Then, pass the knowledge along so you can help others learn of the bounty and love God has for us. This is the reason I decided to write this article.

Continue reading“God’s Perfect Bounty: Our Natural Survival Garden- Part 1, by D.M.”



SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on clarifying how Redoubters reject racism.

Region-Wide (Redoubters Reject Racism):

The third installment of the ongoing Redoubt article series at The Sandpoint Reader has been posted. JWR’s Comments: The writer seemed perplexed and somehow dubious that I’m not a racist. She wrote: “It is the racial aspects of encouraging people to move to a predominantly white area that has some critics questioning Rawles’ motives.”  That is a subtly libelous statement. For the record, I selected the Redoubt region because of its light population density, its geographic isolation, a mostly agrarian economy, defendable terrain, plentiful water, and energy independence. That is all.  The fact that the majority of the population is fair-skinned is coincidental. The same “racial” makeup is paralleled in Iowa, but I would never recommend it as a retreat locale.

Let me make this abundantly clear:  I am an anti-racist and pro-Israel. So are the vast, vast majority of the other people who have intentionally migrated here, in answer to my call. And all of the leading voices of the American Redoubt movement are similarly anti-racist. This includes Alex Barron, who is black. But yet the leftist journalists who cover the American Redoubt movement consistently try to make us look like we secretly harbor some racist sentiments. The fact is that I have no patience or room for accommodation with racists.  I consider racism to be profoundly anti-Christian, ignorant, and illogical– so therefore I abhor it. In The Great Commission (Matthew 28: 16-20), Jesus sent his followers out into all nations, to share the gospel in true equality. I take that quite literally. “All nations” means every tongue and tribe, and every skin tone and hair color.  I even go so far as to say that there is only one “race”, and that is the Human Race.

The smear campaign against the Redoubt movement can be traced to the ultra-liberals who operate the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC.) They have a long history of using innuendo to stir up strife and distrust.  Their classic tactic is guilt by association. But in my  case, they’ve even tried to use what I call guilt by disassociation.  They point to statements that I have made to thoroughly distance myself from criminals, racists, and anti-semites, and imply: “Aha! He must be trying to hide something.” Take note: The SPLC is famous for cleverly using loaded words, half-truths, and guilt by association to attempt to destroy the reputations of conservatives. Don’t give any credence to the SPLC’s lies, or to the lies of their minions in the leftist press.

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Accompanying this article in The Sandpoint Reader is another biographical sketch of a Redoubter: Profiles of the Redoubt: Sean Statham


Idaho

Down in Idaho’s only “big city”: Man fled bond agents, hit 1 with vehicle in incident sparking ‘shots fired’ call, police say

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Idaho Fish & Game Evolving To Corporatism

 

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”



The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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”. São Paulo, Brazil is giving us a look into how inner cities might look in an SHTF situation where total collapse has not occurred.

Politics

The Democrat party has given up the moral high ground that they briefly held in the battle over sexual allegations of senators. For weeks, they have called for Roy Moore to step down from the race. Then came the allegations against Senator Al Franken and Representative John Conyers. After briefly claiming the moral high ground by throwing ex-president Bill Clinton under the proverbial bus (20 years too late), the iron faced Pelosi declared her double standard and refused to even engage on the subject of removal of All Franken. The best we get is that John Conyer is voluntarily stepping down from his leadership position.

Middle East

An Arab newspaper Al Jarida has announced that their Israeli source has disclosed that Israel is ready to ramp up operations in the Middle East. The source claims that Israel is cutting a deal with Assad where Syria agrees to create a 40km DMZ in the Golan Heights and Israel will stop their attempts to remove Assad’s regime from power. Israel is reportedly favorable to that deal but will continue to eradicate Iran and Hezbollah from Syria. The article also acknowledges Israel’s humanitarian work in the region with those who have been affected by the war, but says that when Israel treats the rebels, it is the same as working against Assad. There is no official position from Israel on the deal yet. Thanks to G.P. for the link.

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