Maxxeon Work Star Jr. and Cyclops Work Lights, by Pat Cascio

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If you have a need for some extra light when working on cars, firearms, or just about anything, we have tested two outstanding portable light sources– the Maxxeon Work Start Jr. and the Cyclops. We are covering both in this article.

Portable Lights

We have come a long, long, long way, when it comes to portable lights. It wasn’t all that long ago that we had a two cell, D battery, inexpensive, plastic flashlight. While these were barely okay when it came to lighting things up, they fell far short of what we have today in the way of portable lights. First off all, we have much better batteries, and secondly we’ve really grown leaps and bounds when it comes to LED light bulbs.

Hi-Intersity Light for Gunsmithing Work

I don’t do a lot of gunsmithing these days. There is just not a lot of time or great pleasure from it. Yeah, I still work on my own guns and at times make a simple fix for a friend’s guns. However, that’s about it. Still, I’ve found that the older I get the more light I need to work on things, especially small things, like gun parts. I usually turn on a magnifying, lighted lamp on my head. These go by different names, but I just call ‘em “gunsmith goggles”, for lack of a better term. While the small, white light thrown by this setup is usually sufficient for most work, I find at times that I’m reaching for a hi-intensity flashlight, and it is difficult to hold a firearm, parts, plus an extra light. It even gets frustrating at times.

Continue reading“Maxxeon Work Star Jr. and Cyclops Work Lights, by Pat Cascio”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 global wheat market. (See the Commodities section.)

Stocks:

We’ll start with this warning from Michael Snyder: Why Are So Many People Talking About The Potential For A Stock Market Crash In October?

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At Seeking Alpha: The SEC Comes For Elon: The View From Longsville

Economy & Finance:

What Will Surging Mortgage Rates Do to Housing Bubble 2?

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At Wolf Street: Inversion Watch: Dancing the Global “Yield Curve” Tango?

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“My wife and child and I were on a camping trip and we stopped in Virginia City. In the Opera House, I saw a photograph of Maude Adams, the famous American actress. It was such a great photograph that creatively I fell in love with her. What if some guy did the same thing and could go back in time?” – Richard Matheson, on his initial inspiration for the novel Bid Time Return (1975). It was later made into the film Somewhere in Time

 

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – September 30, 2018

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On September 30th, 1938, British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier signed the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement temporarily averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. In one fell swoop, the people of Czechoslovakia were betrayed while the world leaders followed what would be a failed policy of appeasement. While Daladier abhorred the agreement, Chamberlain celebrated it. However, he was eventually required to declare war against Hitler when Germany invaded Poland. After eight months of ineffectual war time leadership, he was replaced as prime minister by Winston Churchill.

It’s Time To Leave- Part 2, by Pat Cascio

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Our family has a plan for bugging out, if it’s time to leave and things come to that. Actually, we have several plans. I am continuing to tell you my plans. Yesterday, I shared my choice of weapons for self defense and hunting.

My Choice of Blackhawk Products

Let me share a word on my choices here. As long time readers will realize, I’m a big fan of Blackhawk products. (Know that they do not pay me to promote their products. I just happen to think very highly of the quality of their gear, and that’s why I selected it.) My family all have similar setups, but they use different makes of gear to their liking.

The Bug Out Bag

As to the bug out bag (BOB), this is a pretty subjective thing. We all have different needs. I have at least one spare mag for whatever rifle I’ll carry and one spare mag for whatever handgun I might be carrying. Magazines get lost or damaged, so it just makes good sense to have at least one spare for your long gun and your handgun. I also have one hundred rounds of spare ammo in my bug out bag for the rifle and the handgun. I recently put a Ruger limited edition Black Hills Ammunition .22 pistol in the bug out bag, along with a couple hundred rounds of extra ammo and three mags all total for it. It’s ideal for taking small game for the stew pot.

Continue reading“It’s Time To Leave- Part 2, by Pat Cascio”

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”.

Terrorism

Last week a 47 year-old man was arrested near LA with shrapnel laden explosive devices in his possession. Saleh Ali was driving his vehicle when he was pulled over on a routine traffic stop. The officer noticed the suspicious looking devices and detained the driver while contacting the sheriff’s bomb squad deputies. The devices were identified and destroyed on scene by the sheriff who notes that there is nothing to connect Ali with terroist activity at this time. thanks to W.W. for the link.

South China Sea

Reader G.P. sent in this article showing the U.S. in live fire drills in the south China sea. with the Chinese aggressively expanding into this critical shipping lane, the U.S. is flexing it’s muscle in an obvious message that it will not be willing to just hand over the critical shipping routes to China’s control in this hotly contested area. this area has long been a flash point between the U.S. (and it’s Pacific allies) and China.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” – John 7:37-38 (KJV)

It’s Time To Leave- Part 1, by Pat Cascio

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Timing is everything, if you decide to bug out and leave! I receive no less than 150 e-mails per day. Many of these are from our readers, even though my e-mail address is no longer listed on SurvivalBlog.com. Readers kept it, even after it was removed. I honestly don’t have time to respond to every e-mail I receive each day. However, one question I get the most often is about bugging out before, during, or after a SHTF scenario, and there is no one answer to this dilemma.

Plan For Many Situations

I’m getting on in years. Very shortly, I’ll be 67 years old, and I realize that I’m no spring chicken any longer. I can’t do the things I used to do not too many years ago. Bugging out from where I live isn’t something I anticipate doing. However, I always like to plan ahead, or prepare, for as many situations that may come into my life as possible. To be sure, no matter how well prepared you think you are, even if you’re a millionaire, something will come up that you didn’t expect or plan for. That’s just life.

Plans For My Family

Now, with the above said, I do have plans for myself and my family in the event we might have to leave our rural and fairly secure location on short notice. We have several plans.

Continue reading“It’s Time To Leave- Part 1, by Pat Cascio”

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

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers:

We had a pleasant, cool, week at the Rawles Ranch. Some out-of-State relatives came to visit for a few days, and we showed them the sights. Frosts are now a real risk, so we’ve been busily harvesting–now mostly tomatoes.

This week we rushed to harvest celery, mint, and tomatoes, before any hard frosts.  Many of the tomatoes were still green, and Lily simply pulled up the vines and brought them into the house intact, in the hope that the tomatoes would continue to ripen indoors. The sheer volume of tomatoes was quite gratifying. We have lot of work to do, to get them preserved!

I am itching to set our slash piles ablaze, here at the ranch. Despite the recent rains, our county government has not yet started the fall “open burning” season. At this rate, there may be snow on the ground before I can legally burn.  But I will defer to their judgement.

This week I had to make an adjustment to the latch on our poultry house.  It had to be tightened considerably, because one our mouthy mares was developing some expertise at fiddling with that latch. Her goal, of course was nosing into to poultry house to try to gain access to the grain bins. “Horses will be horses.”  The potential goes beyond mere equine naughtiness. If they were to gain access to a grain bin and eat their fill, there would be a risk of what could be deadly foundering. I urge SurvivalBlog readers to always take precautions to prevent foundering incidents!

 

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; after that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid. When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.” – Ezekiel 39:25-29 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday – September 28, 2018

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On this day in 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin when he noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory; it remained for Howard Florey and Ernst Chain to isolate the active ingredient, allowing the “miracle drug” to be developed in the 1940s.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 78 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 transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

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, and
  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).

Round 78 ends on September 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.

Dietary Change To Fit A Post Collapse World- Part 2, By J.L. Augusta

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In part 1 of this article, we took a look at the carb-based diet logistics in a post collapse world and outlined some of the health and practical concerns. Additionally, I introduced the Keto diet. The Keto diet focuses on consuming 75-80% or more of your calorie needs from fat sources, 15-20% of you caloric needs from protein, and 5% of your caloric needs from carbohydrates. The human body uses two types of consumable (food) energy. Sugars/carbohydrates turn into glucose and fats, which turn into ketones. Since most individuals have never really been on a Ketogenic diet (except when they were newborn infants breastfeeding, this means most people are not fat adapted (their body forgets how to produce ketones as an energy source for the cells), and would have to go through a transitioning period if their high carbohydrate food sources depleted or became very limited.

We will now look at a dietary change to fit a post collapse world. Doing so in advance of a collapse has its clear advantages.

Transitioning Food Sources

Transitioning out of a high carbohydrate diet typically occurs when a person has started to deplete their glucose stores within their body. Usually this happens when a person’s body goes into starvation mode and the body starts to consume body fat for energy. The process of using fat as energy is called ketosis, and the body produces ketones via the liver. The transition phase from a glucose energy source to a ketone energy source can be extremely uncomfortable and sometimes referred to as the “keto flu”. This phase exhibits flu-like symptoms without actually being infected and typically lasts between seven and ten days. In a post-collapse world, this could result in limited functionality and leave the individual or group extremely vulnerable.

Continue reading“Dietary Change To Fit A Post Collapse World- Part 2, By J.L. Augusta”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 Swiss Franc. (See the Forex section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold Holding Steady As New Home Sales Rise 3.5% In August, July Data Revised Lower

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As of Thursday, the spot silver to gold ratio was 83.08-to 1. In my estimation this is still a great time to ratio trade out of gold into silver!

 

Forex (Swiss Franc):

For the past few years, I’ve written a lot about hedging into Swiss Francs. That is after first getting your preps squared away and hedging into physical silver. I’m standing by my prediction of a stronger Swiss Franc (CHF), versus the US Dollar (USD). Here are some recent articles of interest:

Swiss Franc Drops as Government Readies EU Relationship Framework

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At Seeking Alpha: Swiss Franc Could See Gains Regardless Of Risk Sentiment

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Dollar gains ahead of Fed meeting; focus on rate outlook

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”