The Editors’ Preps for the Week

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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 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!  This week’s focus is on beginning to prepare for fall.

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,

This week was fairly quiet. The children did a lot of horseback riding around the Ranch and once up into the adjoining National Forest. However, they weren’t long in the forest because the horses were on extra high alert and kept staring into the woods and snorting and making their nervous “whoosh” sounds. We concluded that there must be a predator somewhere just off the road in the forest, and even though we were fully armed, decided to not tempt fate. We erred on the side of caution and went back home. The family continues to do a lot of mountain bike riding around the ranch. (On of our bikes is a Montague paratrooper folder.)

Continue reading“The Editors’ Preps for the Week”

Letter Re: Metal Building as a Faraday Cage

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HJL or JWR

I will be building a small building to house electronic equipment (batteries for off-grid) and want to protect it from any EMP type of conditions. If we use metal roofing and clad the outside in corrugated metal would that be satisfactory protection? There will have to be ventilation for it too. The equipment will have to be well grounded.

HJL’s Comment:

If the panels are bonded together well (meaning more than just the 1 screw every 4 feet) and you have some form of conductive flooring also bonded to the building, then yes, it would work. Most metal building will not work well because of those two deficiencies.

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”. Wait till you read Mike Williamson’s suppressor safety story today!

Hard Left

Once again we find the questionable organization “Crowds on Demand” paying participants in violent demonstrations. The Los Angeles company ran a Craig’s List ad asking for participants for rallies and protests in the Charlotte, North Carolina area a week before the violent counter protest that occurred. Pay was variable but is listed as typically $25+/hour. They were asking for participants and photographers. Of course, the company denies any involvement in the protests.

o o o

Reader H.L sent in this article outlining plans that some hard left groups are making for November 4th. Apparently, the goal is to replicate the “Days of Rage” campaign from 1971 and bring about enough anarchy that a change in government is forced. It is readily apparent that this isn’t about some confederate statues; it’s also about bringing down anything that the hard left disagrees with.

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

We’ve Been Doing Preparedness Wrong For A Long Time- Part 1, by Old Bobbert

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Emergencies

The word “emergency” was first known and used circa 1631 and is defined as follows:

1: an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action

2: an urgent need for assistance or relief the mayor declared a state of emergency after the flood

We, the happy members of “the never well united and non-governmental superior order of universal disaster response practitioners”, are proud to be recognized as “ the perpetually persistent preppers, or the “three peas in the prepper pod”. However, we are also very often guilty of preparing for the wrong event, at the wrong time, with the wrong intents, and finally with the wrong tools.

I do not worry about or prepare for an emergency. Never. Because we have town people who are our local professionals, and they are well trained for almost every type of emergency anyone could ever think of. We know them personally.

Please look at and then think carefully about the dictionary language concerning the word “emergency” shown above from an analytical or usage viewpoint, as is often used by your good buddy, myself, Old Bobbert.

Continue reading“We’ve Been Doing Preparedness Wrong For A Long Time- Part 1, by Old Bobbert”

Eclipse Traffic: This is What a Bug Out Would Look Like

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Oregon Traffic

Here in Oregon, because of this eclipse thing, people are flooding into the state. They expect at least 1.5 million to arrive here…tens of thousands already arriving since yesterday!

Today, on Oregon Highway 26, from Prineville, OR for 15-miles east, they closed the road – it is bumper-to-bumper traffic, nothing is moving – vehicles are running out of gas….with no place to go… Gas stations in Bend and Redmond Oregon are already out of gas…don’t know if they will get another delivery of fuel in the next day or two…

In our area,  gas prices went up 30-cents per gallon since yesterday…I needed to top-off the gas tank on my pick-up, I couldn’t get into any of the gas stations because of the lines…glad I keep spare gas cans full – at my digs, at all times!

I have never seen anything like this in my life. We can only imagine how much worse it would be in a serious SHTF bug out situation.

Here is a news story about the traffic:

Highway reopened but eclipse traffic jam continues in Central Oregon

Freeze Dried Friday:

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Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here!

Chamomile Tea

One of Mrs. Latimer’s favorite hot teas is chamomile. We started trying to grow it about 7 years ago and for some reason, never could get it to take off. Then four years ago we had a successful crop of it and it has been self replicating ever since. It is so prolific now that that it very nearly is considered a weed in some parts of the garden. Of course, it gets free reign since Mrs. Latimer likes it so much.

This week we ran a batch of Chamomile flowers through the Freeze Dryer. Like any other herb, the flavor is much stronger and more vivid when freeze dried rather than dehydrated. We don’t crush the flowers after they are dried so four trays of flowers generates four quarts of finished product.

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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  investing in Rare Earths. (See the Tangibles section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

CPM Group:  Precious Metals Outlook for 2017

o  o  o

Top Four Platinum Stocks for 2017

Stocks:

Thursday’s headline: Dow drops 200 points, led by Cisco. By the time of the closing bell:  The DJIA was down 1.2%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.5%, and the NASDAQ Composite  Index fell 1.9%.  Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Euro STOXX 50 declined 0.3%.  Oh, and gold was up nearly 1%, to $1,288.50.

o  o  o

DOT COM Bubble Do-Over?

 

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Some Alternatives to Health Insurance for Americans

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There are huge obstacles to President DJT’s Swamp Draining Attempt in Washington, DC.  One of the biggest fights revolves around replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This is commonly known as Obamacare. There seems to be a log jam in Congress. This was in part instigated by the left wing of the Republican Party. (That’s is the majority of Republicans in both the House and Senate.) So, despite their rhetoric, it seems like they don’t want to do away with socialized medicine.  This is because the status quo concentrates both power and the flow of wealth through Washington, DC. For now, no real change seems capable of moving through the Swamp-Mired Congress. In this essay, I’ll be addressing making a change of our own. We can do so without waiting for Congressional action: Medical Cost Sharing.

How will this  be resolved by the Congresscritters?  Probably not anytime soon. Consequently, I expect to see health insurance premiums keep ratcheting upward. The “alternative plans” now being developed by the divided Congress probably won’t be much better than the current ACA.  And what about the recently-touted “Obamacare Light” program?  It doesn’t offer much hope of reduced costs for typical American families.

Continue reading“Some Alternatives to Health Insurance for Americans”

Letter: Sealing a #10 Can

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Hugh,

A friend recently acquired the capability to seal #10 cans. He’s bought a supply of new cans and is still playing around with the concept. He offered me the opportunity to do a few cans of my own. The concept has intrigued me. What would you pack in a #10 can if you could choose the contents?

My preliminary thoughts

My thoughts are a #10 can would be good for stuff that must stay one or more of these:

  1. Oxygen free
  2. Dry
  3. Sterile
  4. Clean

Continue reading“Letter: Sealing a #10 Can”

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”. There is an interesting article on the failed state of South Sudan and lessons the KRI can learn today.

Charlottesville

Reader H.L. sent in the link to an interesting video that shows the media is once again lying along with this commentary:

“Short video shows that for the most part, those who asked for and received permit to march (the so-called Alt-Right came armed to protect themselves) were walking and the Left leaning group consisting of Antifa/Black Lives Matter and others came with signs and heavy sticks prepared to cause trouble. The Left also had cans filled with cement and someone had tear gas. There is some narrative and pointing out that one needs sometimes to watch as many videos and angles of such marches to see the truth. Those guiding the left want to tear down our form of government and replace it with Socialism and are well on their way to so doing! Thanks for government run schools and universities that are almost completely Socialistic/Communistic.

“Too many Americans do not realize they are PAWNS in the Globalist Game of Chess to destroy America and hollow out completely our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Only by reading, viewing and searching out the truth and making your own decision will you have the possibility of learning the truth! Americans have the right to think what they want, but they do not have the right to attack other Americans who are living peacefully. This goes for both sides. When people have not learned how to peacefully discuss their philosophies, they resort to violence. Violence tears nations apart and the government steps in and takes over! Economic freedom cannot thrive where there is such violence. Freedom for all is then lost! Remember How Hitler rose to power? History is one of the most important subjects to study. History usually repeats itself.”

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