The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

14

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”.

Smoke and Knives

Our favorite knife maker is back at it again. This time he created a knife out of smoke. Technically, I guess you could call this a carbon fiber knife, but he makes the carbon and fiber himself, then forms it into a knife using a mold with the carbon fiber paste. After it hardens, he uses his normal methods to create an incredibly sharp knife from the blank. This one is a bit more messy to create than his others, mostly because the dust from sharpening is so visible. As usual, the video is fascinating to watch. He also adds a section at the end where he compares the hardness of various knives that he has made in the past. This one ranks very well.

Fever Deaths

Something is brewing in northern India that doesn’t bode will for people. A sickness has broken out among the people with the primary symptom presenting itself as a high fever. Reader G.P. sent in this article in which at least 50 people have died over the past two weeks from this illness. The patients are testing positive for malaria and viral infection, a usually non-fatal sickness that causes coughing and colds. Local hospitals are being overwhelmed with makeshift clinics being set up to accommodate the patients. This is India’s most populous state with over 200 million people living in impoverished conditions. It is suspected that heavier rains than usual have contributed to the conditions of this years outbreak.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth ‘home.’ Before you know it, I am calling luxuries ‘needs’ and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don’t think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached people drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mind-set that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set.” – John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – September 12, 2018

2

After nearly 40 years of riding across millions of American TV and movie screens, the cowboy actor William Boyd, best known for his role as Hopalong Cassidy, died on this day in 1972 at the age of 77.

o o o

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.

Practice Makes Perfect- Part 1, by BON

12

We live in a time when information on virtually any subject can be found with little effort. Prior to the Internet, in order to pick up a new skill or gain new knowledge on a subject, one had to learn by trial and error or find an expert to pass along information. With the plethora of blogs, websites, forums, and videos found online, “expert” level knowledge can be found without ever leaving the comforts of home.

Knowledge Put Into Practice

While knowledge is always a good thing, the only way to truly understand any subject is to get hands on and put that knowledge into practice. Then, that practice makes perfect when practiced perfectly.

The advertising meme of “but I stayed in a particular hotel last night” may sell rooms, but it could be dangerous if applied in the real world. Would you want to have your ruptured appendix removed by someone who just went to a seminar on the procedure or by a seasoned doctor who has done the procedure a few dozen times before you were laid out before him on the operating table?

“Just Do It”

Survival, preparedness, and personal defense skills are serious business. One certainly does not want to be learning new skills in the middle of a crisis, when these skills can mean the difference between life and death. While athletic shoes may not be synonymous with these skills, perhaps the advertising meme of “Just do it” should be applied to these skills.

Continue reading“Practice Makes Perfect- Part 1, by BON”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

6

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 Higher Interest Rates.

Interest Rates:

Let’s start off with this important piece at Wolf Street: Markets Increasingly Sure: 4 Rate Hikes in 2018.  Plan accordingly!  I believe that the Federal Reserve’s continuing interest rate increases will slow if not collapse the stock market, automobile sales, and the real estate market. Debt–especially credit card debt–will not be your friend, with higher interest rates. If you are paying attention to the Big Picture, then you’ll see that it is time to pay off your consumer debt, folks!

o o o

You might have missed this piece when it was posted back in mid-August:  Trump might get his slowdown in rate hikes, but for the wrong reason

o o o

Here’s what J.P. Morgan says could cause the next financial crisis

 

 

Cryptos:

Paxos Unveils Dollar-Backed Stablecoin Approved by New York Regulator

o o o

Bets Against Ether’s Price Hit All-Time High JWR’s Comments:  A lot of crypto investors are still hoping to see the usual seasonal swing in cryptos. If that doesn’t materialize in November and early December, then It is easy to foresee a massive selloff, across the board.

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

2

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

Books:Holy Bible: KJV Giant Print Thumb Index Edition: Brown (King James Bible)

o  o  o

2019 Official Red Book of United States Coins – Spiral Bound

o  o  o

Hank Reinhardt’s Book of Knives: A Practical and Illustrated Guide to Knife Fighting. JWR’s Proviso:  Be forewarned that this book is not for the squeamish!

 

Movies & Television:

The Survivors (1983). “Robin Williams and Walter Matthau star as two unemployed men who find themselves the target of a hitman who’s out-of-work himself.”  The survivalist parody is good for a few chuckles.  Available on DVD, or for free streaming via Amazon Prime. Note: There should have been a special academy award for “Best Supporting Valmet”, for this film!

o  o  o

Alaska Spirit of the Wild – Narrated by Charlton Heston. Available on DVD or for free streaming to those with Amazon Prime.

o  o  o

Bowhunting Basics for Deer / Archery-Beginners Guide

 

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” — John XV 15
This is unquestionably a contrast between an enforced and a free religious condition. It is a transfer from a life compelled by fear, through conscience, to a life that is inspired and made spontaneous by love. The strength of the phrase does not come out in that term servant. It is slave in the original. To be sure, the condition represented by the term slave was not at that time marked so sharply by the contrast of its misery with surrounding circumstances, as it is in our own day; nevertheless, it was a condition to be deprecated; and throughout the Scripture it is spoken of both as a misfortune and a disgrace. Our Savior looked upon his disciples as if they had, as Jews, and as worshipers after the manner of their fathers, been tied up in a kind of bondage. He was a member of the Jewish commonwealth, and was of the Jewish church; he had never separated himself from any of its ordinances or observances, but was walking as the fathers walked; and his disciples were bound not only to the Mosaic ritual, but to him as a kind of Rabbi; as a reform teacher, but nevertheless a teacher under the Jewish scheme. And so they were servants — slaves; they were rendering an enforced obedience. But he said to them, “Henceforth I shall not call you my servants — persons obeying me, as it were, from compulsion, from a sense of duty, from the stress of a rigorous conscience; I shall now call you friends.” And he gives the reason why. A servant is one who receives orders, and is not admitted to conference. He does not know about his lord’s affairs. His lord thinks first about his own affairs, and when he has consummated his plans, he gives his directions; so that all the servant has to do is to obey. But a friend sits in counsel with his friend, and bears a part in that friend’s thinking and feeling, and in the determinations to which he comes; and Christ said to his disciples “You come into partnership with me hereafter, and you stand at friends, on a kind of equality with me. There is to be liberty between you and me hereafter.”
Christ, then, raised men from religion as a bondage to religion as a freedom. I do not like the word religion; but we have nothing else to take its place. It signifies, in the original, to bind, to tie. Men were bound. They were under obligations, and were tied up by them. Christianity is something more than religion— that is, religion interpreted in its etymological sense, and as it is popularly esteemed. Christianity is religion developed into its last form, and carries men from necessity to voluntariness — from bondage to emancipation. It is a condition of the highest and most normal mental state, and is ordinarily spontaneous and free. This is not an accidental phrase.” – Henry Ward Beecher, The Nature of Liberty, 1873

 

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – September 11, 2018

6

September 11th is of course the anniversary of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. , but it is also the anniversary of the Benghazi Embassy attacks, in 2012. (Those events were recounted in the recent Hollywood film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.) Please remember the sacrifice of J. Christopher Stevenson, Sean Smith, and CIA (former Navy SEAL) agents Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Between them, Woods and Dohery reportedly dropped at least 60 of the attackers, before their position was overwhelmed. Please also remember the spineless worms in Washington, D.C. who decided to not back up the embassy staff when they were in dire need of help. Eventually, they will pay for that. Time wounds all heels.

o o o

Sitka, KUIU founder Jason Hairston dead at 47

o o o

Let’s please continue to pray for those who are in the path of Hurricane Florence.

Toward Federal Decentralization: A Long Term Plan for the GOP

30

Decades ago the leadership of the Republican Party began to succumb to Hyper-Federalism — the centralization of regulation, taxation, and sheer power in the Federal government. This gradual change crept up first on the Democrat Party and then the GOP. These shifts were so subtle and gradual that the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) hardly noticed. The end result has been the diminution and subservience of the State governments to the Federal government, gross over-taxation, and over-regulation.  The Republican leadership of the early 1960s would hardly recognize the form of government that has emerged in the early 21st Century. Vast Federal bureaucracies now lord over nearly every aspect of our lives. And the GOP leadership came to embrace a socialist, statist, corporatist, and hyper-Federalist outlook that is now to well to the left of where the Democrat Party once stood!  (If John F. Kennedy were alive today, he would be categorized as an “ultraconservative.”) It may sound hard to believe, but it is the Republican Party leadership that is now dragging its feet on removing Federal socialized medicine program. This is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.

Continue reading“Toward Federal Decentralization: A Long Term Plan for the GOP”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

9

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 the Pendleton Round Up. (See the Eastern Oregon section.)

 

Region-Wide:

Video: When the Inland Northwest’s fall colors are expected to peak

o o o

Old Farmer’s Almanac: 2019 Long Range Weather Forecast for Intermountain West

 

Idaho

Fleming Creek Fire: Handled the Right Way

o o o

Fighting a ‘monster’. The article begins: “Neighbors call it the “monster” that has terrorized their views and navigation paths for the past three years on Lake Coeur d’Alene’s Everwell Bay. They created a website called ‘Mistake on the Lake’ to rally more support for opposing the two-story, four-bay boat garage owned by Brian Kenworthy.”  JWR’s Comment: Don’t like it?  Tough Transoms. Go buy yourself a piece of land with a private lake, or perhaps a parcel surrounding a bay on a larger lake where you control your entire line of sight. Otherwise, stop whining!

 

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

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

12

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’s edition contains an interesting article on post 9/11 America.

Hurricane Preparedness

For those who are in the path of Hurricane Florence, Valley Food Storage has created an Emergency Kit Checklist that you might want to take a look at. These are things that you will find a need for whether you shelter in place or evacuate. The list is broken down into several sections that cover Food and medicine, Safety items, personal care items and an emergency car kit. These are also just good all around fast preps that will help you get through any temporary crises.

o o o

Rob Moffet also posted a video on line that details 12 hurricane prep items that work for him. Of course,number one on his list is water. A plastic water jug is only about $10 and by just having a few on hand, you are ahead of about 90% of other hurricane survivors in the aftermath. The rest of the list is made up of things that Rob has found necessary as he has weathered hurricanes in his home state.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

2

“Something is wrong. We are in a rapid descent… we are all over the place. … I see water. I see buildings. We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low. … Oh my God, we are way too low… Oh my God, we’re –” – Flight Attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney, in the final words of her phone call to a supervisor describing the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11, on September 11, 2001

Preparedness Notes for Monday – September 10, 2018

2

On September 10, 1776, George Washington asked for a spy volunteer. Nathan Hale stepped up to the challenge of an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City. Unfortunately, the British captured and executed him. He is probably best known for his last words before being hanged: “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” He has long been considered an American hero, and in 1985, was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut. It is good for us to remember that every American patriot and hero from the times leading up to and during the American Revolutionary War would have been considered traitors to the crown and would have suffered much the same fate as Hale had America not won her independence.

CRKT Goken Folder, by Pat Cascio

2

Designed by an award-winning Black Belt martial artist and someone who walks the walk and talks the talk, the CRKT Goken folder is under review. In my opinion, it is a winner in all respects.

James Williams, Knife Designer and Martial Artist

Having spent more than 35 years in the martial arts myself and earning Black Belt rank in five different disciplines, I was more than interested in some of the knives designed by James Williams for CRKT. To be sure, CRKT has been producing several of Williams’ designs for some years now, and I believe I’ve tested them all. They’re all winners, in my book. I also design knives on a very part-time basis, and I know what is involved in producing a design that flows. All of Williams’ knives have a certain symmetry about them, every last one.

I did some research on James Williams for this article. In my research, I discovered he is a member of the Black Belt Hall of Fame, as a weapons instructor. He has also been involved in the martial arts since 1960 and teaching since 1975. He is well known throughout the world for his skills. The list of his various martial arts training is too lengthy to list in this article, but rest assured the man is revered for his skills. The list of military and law enforcement agencies Williams has taught span the world, not just in the USA. That says a lot about the man. It is nice to hear about a genuine martial artist, like Williams and his many accomplishments. He’s the real deal!

Continue reading“CRKT Goken Folder, by Pat Cascio”