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

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – December 19, 2018

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On Dec 19, 1776, Thomas Paine published “American Crisis”. “These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” These words were an inspiration to Washington’s dispirited men, having suffered humiliating defeats and encamped at McKonkey’s Ferry on the Delaware River. The beleaguered troops mustered their remaining hopes for victory, crossed the Delaware, and defeated the hung-over Hessians. The revolution had been salvaged.

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Writing Contest Reminder:

Round 80 of the SurvivalBlog Writing Contest is currently underway. This is your opportunity to wrap up your article and get it submitted to the editors of SurvivalBlog for inclusion into the contest. Here are a couple of reminders about the “rules”:

  1. You can only be awarded on of the top three prizes once per year. That means if you already won and it has been longer than a year, you can enter the contest again. Those who won “Honorable Mention” are still eligible at any time.
  2. If you are worried about OPSEC, you can write under a pseudonym.
  3. Articles that focus on practical skills or instruction that is applicable to TEOTWAWKI get special judging consideration.
  4. You can include illustrations or pictures with your article.

See the full list of qualifications and rules as well as our past winners articles on our contest page.

Some Sample Ideas for Articles:

  • Home-based businesses
  • Tech articles on incorporating technology into your preparedness
  • Gardening
  • Managing your prep inventory
  • Communications
  • Dealing with family members who don’t prepare for themselves
  • OPSEC considerations
  • Retreat security measures
  • Traditional fieldcraft skills such as tracking, hunting, and fishing
  • Experiences that have required you to implement your preps or skills
  • Animal husbandry
  • Farming
  • Building/Architecture
  • Getting Out Of Dodge (GOOD)
  • Bugging In
  • Firefighting techniques/skills/preps
  • Digging or driving a well
  • Traveling long distances in unusual ways
  • Networking with other preppers
  • and many more…

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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.

A Prepper’s Wife’s Perspective, by ATL

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I am married to a 55-year-old “boy scout.” Over the several years we’ve been together, I’ve learned a lot about how and why to be prepared for disaster. I’ve never questioned his wisdom or strategy in stocking emergency supplies, both the kind you consume and the kind that make being without electricity for days on end possible and maybe even comfortable. Early on in our relationship he explained it to me as equivalent to an insurance policy.

As A Kid

He’s been practicing prepping a long time now. When he was a kid, weekends meant hiking, backpacking, overnight camping in the woods, or all of the above. To my family, being outdoors meant spending an afternoon at the beach. We packed a blanket and towels, a jug of iced tea, sunscreen, and maybe our lunch.

Yet, my mother had prepper tendencies, at least in the food department. Her pantry was always stocked with two or three more of everything we consumed on a regular basis. They were “backups”, as she called them. Even after us kids were grown and out of the house, one was unlikely to go hungry in my mother’s house.

So Much More

There is so much more to being ready for an emergency, however, than having ample food in the house. I learned this firsthand over the last few months when where we live became the target of two hurricanes and an early winter storm that dumped a year’s worth of snow in a single weekend.

Continue reading“A Prepper’s Wife’s Perspective, by ATL”

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 the FOMC meeting. (See the Stocks section.)

Precious Metals:

Signals Show Great Upside For Gold In 2019 – Bloomberg Intelligence

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Clive Maund: Gold Price Market Update

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Second Chances: Silver To Finally Shine In 2019

Stocks (FOMC Meeting)

All eyes are on the upcoming two-day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, December 18-19. If they bump rates up another .25% then we will probably see even deeper declines in American stocks. Some market analysts have opined that the recent stock drops are already building this planned rate hike in to the market, as a fait accompli. (Or as they say on Wall Street: “Already baked in the cake.”) But I’m not certain that will happen. If the FOMC decides to pause their rate hikes at this next meeting, then there could be a brief rally in stocks.  (Hint: That would be a good time to eject!)

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Not Enough Lifeboats: Markets Far More Dangerous Than Generally Believed

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on food dehydrators. (See the Books and Gear sections.)

Books (Dehydrators):

The Beginner’s Guide to Dehydrating Food, 2nd Edition: How to Preserve All Your Favorite Vegetables, Fruits, Meats, and Herbs

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The Complete Dog Breed Book: Choose the Perfect Dog for You

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The Making of the Atomic Bomb

 

Movies:

On DVD and also now available via Amazon Prime: Exodus

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The Bridge On The River Kwai

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An often overlooked John Milius film: Farewell to the King

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” – William Butler Yeats

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – December 18, 2018

December 18th is the birthday of Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788). He wrote more that 1,700 hymns. Today is also the birthday of Jørgen Haagen Schmith (born December 18, 1910, died October 15, 1944). He was better known under the codename Citron and was a famous Danish resistance fighter in occupied Denmark. His biographical sketch at Wikipedia describes his death, after he was tracked down by the Nazis: “German soldiers arrived at the house to arrest or kill Schmith. He fought for hours against an overwhelming force of enemy troops killing 11 and wounded scores of others before the house was set on fire and he was shot attempting to escape the flames.” His exploits were dramatized in the movie Flame and Citron.

Family Preparations for Nuclear War

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Today, I’m addressing a subject that I suppose should have had more emphasis earlier in SurvivalBlog: The risk of nuclear war, and how families can plan and prepare to survive it.

The Risk

The risk of nuclear war is now actually greater than during the bad old Cold War. Back then, there were just a handful of nuclear powers that were divided into two or three camps. But today, there are umpteen factions and even terrorist groups with potential access to nukes. Face the facts: We live in a dangerous world. Someday, one or more of hose nukes is going to go boom.

If at all possible, i recommend relocating to a lightly-populated region, soon. Ideally, that would be one that is not down-wind of major nuclear targets. But at least move out beyond the expected  blast, thermal, and overpressure radii!

It makes sense for every family to have a shelter. A lot of your preps to survive fallout will also double for being prepared for the ash fall from a major volcanic eruption. And the storage food in your shelter can of course be used in other disasters–or even just surviving an extended period of unemployment. The general advice that I’ve given my consulting clients is:  For an existing house: Buy a house with a full dry basement and then retrofit half or all of it into a walk-in gun vault/fallout shelter with a vault door that opens inward. If you are going to the expense of adding a walk-in vault, then it it worth spending a bit more to have it double as a fallout shelter!  For new construction, I suggest that you have a cased well drilled in one corner of the planned footprint of your shelter, before you excavate your basement.

Continue reading“Family Preparations for Nuclear War”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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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 Bend, Oregon news. (See the Eastern Oregon section.)

Region-Wide

SPLC vs the American Redoubt

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Apparently, one gent considers my novels cruise-worthy reading.

Idaho

Man who stabbed stranger doing yardwork at Boise home found unfit to stand trial

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US to shut down Idaho nuclear waste processing project

Montana

Big Sky Country Bitmining: Questions, no answers from CryptoWatt

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Butte man gets 15 years in prison after squatting in deployed service member’s home

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I just noticed that Shield Arms (in Bigfork, Montana) has expanded their line of machined aluminum pistol magazine extensions. They’ve added new models and new colors. Nice!

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