Editors’ Prepping Progress

24

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:

This week I was busy in our woodlot.  We had heavy snowfall this winter. This resulted in a large number of downed trees. These were most small Tamaracks, and few of other species–mostly firs. (we have a half dozen types of fir on the ranch.) In another week or two I should have all the rounds hauled to our woodshed. Some of the small diameter logs were cut 4.5′ long. That pile still needs to be crosscut to nominal 19″ lengths that will fit our wood stove’s firebox. I like to split everything over 6″ in diameter in advance of stacking it inside the wood shed. Anything under 6″ in diameter gets burned as full rounds.

I also rented some tractor time from my neighbor this week. I had few stumps and one large project saved up that required a back hoe. His larger machine with back hoe handled all of it, quite quickly. As my paternal grandfather was fond of saying: “There is nothing like power tools!”

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

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”. Today contains a great link on dehydrating chicken.

Facial Recognition

According to this article sent in by reader R.K., a group of Amazon employees is asking Jeff Bezos to stop selling facial recognition to law enforcement. The group claims that the software will be used to harm the most marginalized ethnic groups. Of course, the letter notes that the police are targeting black activists and those who would be deported. While I certainly agree that the spread of facial recognition is troubling, I find it equally disturbing that those willing to stand against it’s use are the same ones who support illegal activity by those who they claim it is targeting. Oh, the web that we weave! In the end, the letter will probably have very little impact on Amazon. It’s just kind of interesting to see the left eating its own.

Dehydrating Chicken

Reader H.L. sent in this article on storing chicken for survival. Chicken is a relatively inexpensive source of protein and is easy to raise just about anywhere in the world. Chickens also generally don’t take a great amount of care to raise and can be brought from hatchling to butcher age in as little as six weeks with some breeds. They can also forage for their own foods if you don’t live in an arid location. This article covers three different methods of preserving this protein source. Of the three methods presented, dehydration or chicken jerky is probably the most known. I would add that freeze drying is also a viable alternative and probably my favorite method, though the equipment required to freeze dry foods is a significant investment.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.” – Psalm 125:1-2 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday – June 22, 2018

During World War II, the U.S. 10th Army overcame the last major pockets of Japanese resistance on Okinawa Island on June 22nd, 1945, ending one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The same day, Japanese Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, the commander of Okinawa’s defense, committed suicide with a number of Japanese officers and troops rather than surrender.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 77 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.

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 77 ends on July 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 Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 4, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. At this point, we’d already dug and poured the foundation and put in the walls of our log cabin. However, it’s not a log cabin without logs.

Unloading Logs

(Four hours were dedicated just to unloading the logs.) This required another piece of rental equipment called a lull. (It is a large fork truck that can keep level when it’s on rough terrain by tipping its shocks to compensate.) The semi-truck pulled up and parked 200 yards from the site due to the terrain not being drivable.

Unload the Entire Truck and Place on the Property

Bundle after bundle of sticker-coded logs were removed and placed at this site. This process took about four hours in order to unload the entire truck of stackable logs, windows and doors, beams, tongue and groove roof, tongue and groove flooring for the loft, and posts/beams for the interior of the log home. It was a surmountable amount of weatherproof packages to organize and place in the proper order of consumption on the property.

Stacking the Logs

(Stacking the logs took four weeks.) This was the fun part of the project. It was like building a large Link-N-Log home, as you men might have done as a boy. Each log came numbered/lettered coded and held its place on the schematic. The walls where in the proper allotment and would be stacked correctly and real soon. (I recommend stacking the logs as soon as possible.) We waited a winter, and though it is good for the logs to age a bit, they could split and crack to become unusable or, worse, their label could fall off and then you have no idea where its placement should be in the grand scheme of things. Thank goodness neither of those happened to us.

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 4, by X. Liberal & China Doll”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

24

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 Great Unwinding. (See the Economy & Finance section.)

 

Precious Metals:

Gold At 6-Month Low, But Metal Is Now Oversold

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Peter Hug: Gold Stabilizes But Strong Dollar Remains Obstacle To Higher Prices

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Russia Buys 600,000 oz Of Gold In May After Dumping Half Of US Treasuries In April

 

Stocks:

Summer Solstice Blues: Dow drops about 200 points on trade worries, extends losing streak to 8 days

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan, as proposed by this bill, to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose. I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.” – Grover Cleveland, on his veto of of the Texas Seed Bill, (February 1887)

Preparedness Notes for Thursday – June 21, 2018

June 21st is the birthday of Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998), author of Kill or Be Killed. He was the friend and mentor of SurvivalBlog’s Senior Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 77 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.

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 77 ends on July 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 Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 3, by X. Liberal & China Doll

5

As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. In part 2, we began with an overview of our finances/expenses of our move and property purchase and began detailing the build activities. Today, we are continuing with our log cabin construction process.

Concrete Pour

(We required one day for the concrete pour.) At this point, your first cement truck will arrive, with spinning bucket and all. Back them up to the corner that you want to start at, and have him extend the chute to boom over to line up between the footer forms. That’s your target for pouring the first batch of concrete. He’ll hit the lever and start pouring the concrete fast or slow depending on the mixture. The footer mix has more crushed stones embedded in the mix than you will have for your floor or wall pours and is for strength.

As he repositioned the truck after exhausting all the movement in the chute extensions, take your trawl and smooth out the concrete along the footer. It is imperative you do this, as the IFC blocks have to be attached to footer via foam cement and you want a smooth surface without obstructions to have a nice leveled wall when affixed.

Now you can back fill dirt in around the footer on both sides. However, on the inside of the footer, the backfill must be four inches lower to the tops of the footer boards due to crushed stone being inserted for the future floor pour.

Plumbing In Place Prior to Your Footer Pour

You also want to be sure that all your plumbing is in place prior to your footer pour. The PVC plumbing pipes should be secured under the footer due to evading frost. If this is a crawl space, then the recommended depth is four feet. Some examples of PVC pipes under the footer would be from your water cistern or well (usually two inches in diameter), basement/crawlspace floor drains, sump pump if utilized, any venting for solar panel batteries (usually two inches to vent the nitrogen buildup), and sewer if required by code (not recommended as the septic tank is peculiar in its placement with exact slope from crawlspace/basement wall into the septic tank).

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 3, by X. Liberal & China Doll”

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 common gun control lies today.

Off-Grid Air Conditioning

Reader T.J. sent in this interesting video from YouTuber Engineer775. In it, he is installing his first true off-grid air-conditioner with a 75 SEER rating. They are currently unavailable till August 2018, but it is intriguing that you can have a heat pump that will run on 750W of solar panel. Since you generally need air conditioning when the sun is shining, the claim is that you don’t need battery storage with this system. They do recommend a utility connection as backup for those days where you have limited solar capacity. I suspect that the system would work well with an existing largish solar power system. However, don’t expect this to come inexpensively. At nearly $2000, it pretty amazing what it accomplishes, but that’s still quite a bit of money and power demand.

Sheepdog

Continuing along the thought process of wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs, reader H.L. sent in this article on being a sheepdog. Do you know if you have what it takes to be the protector of your family? The author does a respectable job of linking the character traits of people to these descriptions. In particular, I like the concept that the “sheepdog” personality despises injustice, bullies, and those who never tire of ingratiating themselves to bullies. His instinct is to protect those upon whom the wolves and fellow sheep pummel, whether he likes them or not. Do you know which you are?

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment…” – Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – June 20, 2018

June 20th is the birthday of Audie L. Murphy. Born 1925. He died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971.

This is also the anniversary of the death of novelist Vince Flynn. (Born April 6, 1966, died June 19, 2013.) His death at age 47 was a loss to the literary world.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 77 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.

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 77 ends on July 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 Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 2, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. In part 1, we explained why we made the move to the American Redoubt and now we are getting into the nuts and bolts of our process.

Finances/Budget

Milestone Cost – USD
Property Search/Travel to locations $4,000.00
Land Purchase Classified
Log Package Kit $37,000.00
Foundation $15,000.00
Subfloor $5,000.00
Gables /Roof $7,000.00
Roof foam/frame $8,000.00
Tin roof $4,000.00
Porches $1,500.00
Stain/log jam $3,500.00
Temp Stove/Chimney $3,200.00
Septic Tank/chambers $3,000.00
Propane Tank/Filled $4,000.00
Grading Property $3,500.00
Interior walls/Insulation $2,000.00
Plumbing $2,500.00
Electric $3,000.00
Vents/interior wall $500.00
Tile Floors/board $5,000.00
Interior Wall/wood $4,000.00
Labour/Day help $5,000.00
Light fixtures $1,000.00
Washer/Dryer $1,400.00
Hot water Tank $800.00
Water Tank $500.00
Shower Kit $1,800.00
Move to AR w/wares $2,500.00
More to do…. See FUTURE section… ????
Grand Total w/o Land $128,700.00

Continue reading“A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 2, by X. Liberal & China Doll”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

1

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 global instability in the financial markets, triggered by higher interest rates.

Precious Metals:

Frank Holmes: Confirmed Interest Rate Hike Inspiring Bullishness In Gold Traders

o o o

Jim Wycoff: Silver Is Presently A Longer-Term, Value-Buying Opportunity

 

Forex:

The Conundrum Of The US DOLLAR

o o o

Forex Daily Outlook – June 19, 2018

 

Cryptos:

What Crypto Thinks About the SEC Saying Ether Isn’t a Security

o o o

Crypto Startup Circle Reveals How It Chooses New Token Listings

 

 

Economy & Finance (Global Instability):

Charles Hugh Smith: Here We Go Again: Our Double-Bubble Economy

o o o

Wolf Richter: Next Mortgage Default Tsunami Isn’t Going to Drown Big Banks but “Shadow Banks”

o o o

And at Zero Hedge: “The Global Bond Curve Just Inverted”: Why JPM Thinks A Market Crash May Be Imminent

 

Tangibles Investing:

Spitznagel: “Hard Assets Will Return… The Heartland Will Matter Again”

o o o

How Are Farmers Affording High Land Prices?

 

Provisos:

SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. So please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.

News Tips:

Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who particularly watch individual markets. And due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” investing news. We often “get the scoop” on economic and investing news that is probably ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!

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 jerky and biltong. (See both the Books section and the Gear and Grub section.)

Books (Jerky and Biltong):

Make your own biltong and droewors

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Jerky Everything: Foolproof and Flavorful Recipes for Beef, Pork, Poultry, Game, Fish, Fruit, and Even Vegetables (Countryman Know How)

o  o  o

Long Range Precision Rifle. Note: Sadly, Paladin Press went out of business last year, so these books are getting scarce.

o  o  o

Blog reader E.E. suggested this: The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence, by Gavin de Becker.

o  o  o

I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage! Updated and Expanded Version

 

Movies:

Nicky’s Family. An inspiring documentary about a young Englishman who saved hundreds of Jewish children from death in The Holocaust. Available on DVD. Also available for free streaming for anyone with an Amazon Prime membership.

o  o  o

The Devil’s Arithmetic. Available on DVD. Also available for free streaming for anyone with an Amazon Prime membership.

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week”