A Maslow-Like Hierarchy of Survival, by I. M. Learning

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Maslow’s Hierarchy details the steps a person needs to achieve to be able to function at a level of success.

Food and Water

The first step is ensuring a supply of food and water. Any newbie to prepping is at least aware of this in the basic sense. But how much food and how much water is necessary? Where do you put it? How do you keep the food usable and the water available and potable?

Twenty-Five Year Food Buckets

I started out, as I’m sure many new to prepping do, buying 25-year food buckets. I’m not saying that isn’t a good idea, but I began scrutinizing what was actually in those buckets. Not only does everything require some amount of water, but a lot of those buckets are full of powder to make drinks. So, I changed tactics and began just ordering the meat buckets. Unfortunately, I bought buckets that had two to three times as much rice as there was meat. Again, I began doing some research on canned foods and was surprised how many cans of meat and bags of rice I could buy for a fraction of the cost of one 25-year bucket.

Bagged Rice, Canned Meat and More for Fraction of Price of Survival Food Bucket

Instead, I bought bagged rice. Then, I placed each one in a thick vacuum bag and sealed them with my vacuum sealer. I did the same for bags of beans, cereal (which can be eaten without milk), and other dried goods. Canned meats with a minimum two-year expiration date were purchased. I can rotate those out and replace them up to the time buying food is no longer an option. The same principle was applied to canned fruit and vegetables. I acquired all of this for a fraction of the price of a survival food bucket. An added bonus is that canned foods do not require water for cooking. In fact, all canned fruit, vegetables, stews, et cetera can be eaten straight from the can, if necessary.

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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 Restored 1960s 4WDs. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Demolition Crew Strikes Gold In France, Uncovers 600 Historic Gold Coins Worth Over $100,000

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Gold Pricing Moved Little By Singapore Summit

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Sharps-Pixley: Silver’s Not-so-subtle Outperformance

 

Forex:

USD/JPY forecast Japanese Yen on June 13, 2018

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Video from James Stanley: US Dollar Price Action Setups Ahead of FOMC, ECB, BoJ

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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 John Wayne’s last movie, The Shootist.

Books:

Birds of the Northern Rockies

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The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain

 

Movies:

The Shootist. This movie was fittingly John Wayne’s last film. It is about an old gunfighter who is dying of cancer. At the time, Wayne had terminal cancer. It was shot on location in Carson City, Nevada. The supporting roles are also quite well acted. It is available on DVD, and also available for free streaming to Amazon Prime members.

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Refusenik. A great documentary released in 2008 about the long struggle of persecuted Jews inside the Soviet Union, who at great cost finally gained the right to emigrate to Israel and to other western nations.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

[T]hey… have always held… The people are made to transfer their allegiance from the old gods to the new under the pretense that the new gods really are what their sound instinct had always told them but what before they had only dimly seen. And the most effective way to this end is to use the old words but change their meaning.

Few traits of totalitarian regimes are at the same time so confusing to the superficial observer and yet so characteristic of the whole intellectual climate as the complete perversion of language, the change of meaning of the words by which the ideals of the new regimes are expressed….

If one has not one’s self experienced this process, it is difficult to appreciate the magnitude of this change of the meaning of words, the confusion it causes, and the barriers to any rational discussion which it creates… And the confusion becomes worse because this change of meaning of words describing political ideals is not a single event but a continuous process, a technique employed consciously or unconsciously to direct the people. Gradually, as this process continues, the whole language becomes despoiled, and words become empty shells deprived of any definite meaning, as capable of denoting one thing as its opposite and used solely for the emotional associations which still adhere to them.” – Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – June 12, 2018

On June 12, 1987, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

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Don’t forget that we are in a new round of the SurvivalBlog Non-fiction Writing Contest. We are looking for new entries and you have an awesome chance at winning some wonderful prizes. If you’ve been procrastinating on writing that article on your latest project, now is the time to finish it and get it to us.

Window of Opportunity: The Modular Pistol Revolution

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To begin, I should mention that our main carry pistols here at the ranch are all Glock Model 21 and Glock Model 30 .45 ACPs. I intend to keep those as our family’s standard for the foreseeable future. But in the past two years I’ve branched out into buying several SIG Model P320 9mm pistols. I like the clever modularity of these pistols. The same serialized trigger group module can be used in assembling everything from a subcompact pistol to a full size race gun. I also find their ergonomics quite good, their controls instinctive, and their trigger pulls decent–right out of the box.  Notably, a subcompact variant of the SIG P320 is now my designated “Visiting the Big City” carry pistol. My willingness to carry that pistol on those infrequent trips tells you how much trust the design.

SOme History

I should back up a bit and explain that there are have been four major waves in in the history of semi-auto pistols: The first wave began experimentally before 1900 with some rather clunky steel frame designs like the C93 Borchardt and the Mauser C96 “Broomhandle”. The second wave was typified by the sleek Browning design, with many variants that dominated the market for the next 80 years. The third wave came with the advent of the Glock 17, which was the first practical and popular striker-fired polymer frame pistol design. (Although, arguably, it was predated by a decade by the HK VP70. But that was a design with both atrocious sights and a very heavy, creepy trigger pull. Thus, Glock was the first company to Get It Right, with a polymer frame pistol.) The fourth and most recent wave of handgun design combines both polymer frames and modularity.

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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 bear encounters at home and in the wild, and about bear hunting.

Region-Wide:

The Grizzlies Are Coming

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U.S. won’t restore grizzly bear protections near Yellowstone National Park

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Some advice from our neighbors to the north: Bear-proof your fruit trees

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I was recently a guest on Radio Free Redoubt. We discussed some exciting developments in the Redoubt Movement and more in depth on the grassroots Liberty State partition campaign.

 

Idaho

Idaho wildlife officials approve limited grizzly bear hunt

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Unbearable damage: Foresters look to protect trees from black bears

 

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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”.

EU Parliament Article 13

SurvivalBlog readers living in the EU should oppose EU Parliament Article 13 which is touted as copyright protection but will actually destroy free speech on the Internet. AI algorithms will continuously search for any copyrighted text, audio, or graphics OR the links to any such material. Since algorithms will err on the side of caution and zap anything it finds infringing. This will include items genuinely included as fair use–including quotes, news article links, reviews, memes, parodies, satires, remixes, et cetera. With AIs at the switch rather than human moderators, the number of false positives for “copyright infringement” will be enormous! The EU Parliament’s vote on Article 13 is now scheduled for June 20th. Please contact your MEP and express your strong opposition! – JWR

HART

Reader T.D. sent in this article on Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART). This plan is Big Brother on the loose. The plans include a unified data warehouse of everything known, suspected or merely speculated about every person, citizen or non-citizen. Falling under the purview of the NSA, the plan supposedly only collects information on people who have some sort of connection to a foreigner who is within the NSA’s lawful purview, but in this day and age of international business and immigration, that means everyone. You have a connection with a foreign person, even if it is tenuous or incorrect. It is suspected that Amazon, Google and Facebook are all participating in this data collection as well.

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Blackhawk Products Rigger’s Belt with Cobra Buckle, by Pat Cascio

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If you’re looking for one of the best of the best belts for concealed/duty carry, look no further than the Blackhawk Products Rigger’s belt that is under review today.

Tip-offs For Someone Carrying a Weapon

Having worked as a police officer in the past, as well as doing private security contractor work, I trained myself to be observant, always looking for someone carrying a weapon, and in particular, a concealed handgun. One of the first tip-offs that would catch my eye would be a poorly designed holster that didn’t really conceal a handgun very well. Secondly, the tip-off would be a poor trouser belt that didn’t keep the concealed handgun nice and tight to the body.

A Little Story

Let me tell you a little story. Not too long ago, while in our local small box store, I couldn’t help but notice a fellow with a jacket that was too short in the body to properly cover his “concealed” handgun. Plus, his belt wasn’t thick enough to hold the gun/holster combination. The holstered gun was literally hanging upside down on his waist. No, I’m not making this up. His belt was loose to start with, and however this fellow managed it, the gun and holster were flipped upside on his side. Luckily, the holster had a safety strap. Otherwise, his gun would have fallen out of the holster. How on earth he didn’t notice this is beyond me.

Continue reading“Blackhawk Products Rigger’s Belt with Cobra Buckle, by Pat Cascio”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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 Sports Cards. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Silver To Climb 11% In Next Three Months – German-Based Research Firm

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The Quiet Before the Storm

 

Forex:

EURUSD at the Center of Trade Wars, High Profile ECB and Fed Meetings. (Take the time to listen to Kicklighter’s audio commentary.)

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Forex Market Insight Commentary 08 June 2018

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37,000% annual inflation rate: Venezuela’s Bolivar Surges Past 2,000,000 VEF/USD

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I saddled old Satan up, rode over, and sure enough, the East Helena butcher was up a tree over there and the bull was going around after him. His .41 rod ejector Colt had shorts in it. I never heard of such a light load being used for the purpose, as an old bull has two inches of cartilage over the frontal skull plate, and his bullets were stopped by the skull. As soon as th bull saw me he came for me. I shot him square in the forehead, killing him instantly, and he turned a summerset towards me. The old .45 Colt slug went clear through his skull. My horse jumped over the top of him and watched him, but the bull was dead.” – Elmer Keith, in Elmer Keith, His Life Story, “Hell, I was There!”, Chapter Three, “Ranch Life.”

 

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – June 10, 2018

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On June 10, 1967, the Six-Day War ended as Israel and Syria agreed to observe a United Nations-mediated cease-fire.

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I just noticed that Ready Made Resources has an interesting sale right now. A six month package of Numanna freeze dried food is only $1337 and includes 2 extra Numanna Grab and Go Buckets valued at $137 each, a Sawyer Mini filter valued at $24.95 and a foldable 21 Watt Solar panel with a USB port valued at $89. This might be a good time to take inventory of your stock and beef it up.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been 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.