The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

34

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”. Hawaii emulates the U.K. with their descriptions of a “large” cache of weapons

Hospital of Horrors

I tend to think of South Africa as a relatively advanced country, but this article sent in by reader S.M. makes a person realize just how bad things are there. Apparently, in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, the conditions are so bad that the local hospital has a serious problem with feral cats. Up to 150 cats have made the general ward their home, often climbing into bed with the patients and stealing their food. The hospital does not have the funds to forcibly remove the cats, nor is anyone willing to donate the costs associated with capturing and putting the feral cats down (feral cats evidently can’t be re-homed)

“Large” Cache of Weapons Found in Waikiki

If it weren’t so annoying, I might actually class this one as mildly humorous. As it is, I have come to expect this sort of reporting from the UK, but I am still surprised to see it in the U.S. The “large” cache of weapons turns out to be an AR-15 with 15 standard-capacity magazines, a shotgun, two handguns and less than 1000 rounds of ammunition. All in all, a good start on a single person’s load-out for a defensive mission. A bit on the anemic side if anything. All the weapons were legal to own. One more reason to use good OPSEC no matter what you have. If the report is to be believed, he brought the scrutiny on himself by bragging about things he shouldn’t have. Thanks to DSV for the link.

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

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – May 12, 2018

On May 12th, 1949, one of the first crises of the Cold War came to end when the Soviet Union lifted its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. A massive U.S.-British airlift had broken it.

At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four sectors administered by the four major Allied powers: the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France. Berlin, the capital, was also divided into four parts, though it was located well within the USSR sector. The future of Germany was hotly contested among the allies. The United States, Britain, and France eventually united their sectors into one economic zone, which became the independent nation of West Germany. The Soviets withdrew from the council and formed East Germany. Likewise, Berlin was formed into two parts under separate rule.

When the Western powers introduced a new Deutsche mark currency, in West Germany and West Berlin, the Soviets saw that as an attack on the East Germany currency and began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West. Britain and the United States responded with the largest airlift in history. 278,288 relief missions in 14 months flew in 2,326,406 tons of supplies, 2/3 of which was coal to run the power plants. Flights were made around the clock. At the height of the airlift, in April 1949, planes were landing in the city every minute.

The Soviets made no effort to block the airlift and on May 12th, 1949 allowed the first American and British convoys to drive the 110 miles to Berlin to continue to supply West Berlin.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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 76 ends on May 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.

Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 5, by A.&J. R.

11

In this six-part article, we are focusing on the supplies we will need in order to address the medical issues we are most likely to experience, whether we get to a “Bring Your Own Bandaids” clinic or we have to treat matters on our own. Our lists and discussion goes way beyond the first aid kit, and at the end of each section, we also note essential oils that may be helpful.

Pregnancy

In a grid-down scenario, pregnancy tests are not used to satisfy curiosity. A few should be stored by every woman as pregnancy can mimic other serious conditions. If a woman is pregnant, treatment protocols need to be adjusted. Is that pelvic pain appendicitis? Or an ectopic pregnancy?

Radiation Sickness

Exposure to radiation, whether from a nuclear blast or power plant meltdown, is perhaps best decreased by taking refuge in a very good shelter. In addition, taking potassium iodide 30 minutes to 24 hours before radiation exposure will prevent thyroid cancer. Anti-radiation tablets are available from SurvivalBlog advertisers ki4u.com and campingsurvival.com. Essential oils to consider include rosemary, clove, thyme.

Pandemics/Biological Warfare

Historians and physicians have warned for years that the world is overdue for another pandemic. Terrorists and rogue nations threaten biological warfare every once in a while.

Smallpox

It’s suspected that though smallpox research was officially ended years ago, there may still be smallpox samples out there that could be weaponized and bring about a pandemic. It’s also theorized that even if an individual were vaccinated against smallpox, that vaccine (received at least 50 years ago in most cases) would be ineffective against weapons-grade smallpox. Antibiotics are not effective against smallpox; prevention is either by vaccination (supposedly the CDC has enough vaccine on hand for all of us) or complete isolation away from infected individuals.

Continue reading“Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 5, by A.&J. R.”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

19

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,
Our region had nearly 140% of normal snow pack, last winter.  So now, with the warm spring weather, the Un-named River—that flows through the back end of our ranch–is at flood stage. It is now fully out of its banks and inundating our two back pastures. We now feel, ahem, “over-blessed” with water. The good news is that this regular flooding gives our property a high water table and hence sub-irrigated pastures.  None of our structures have ever been threatened by the annual flooding up until this point. It is more of an inconvenience. The Inland Sea”  certainly looks dramatic. It also fun to do some kayaking on it. The flooding has our cattle and horses more heavily grazing the other pastures, on higher ground.  I’ll be happy when we can move them back onto the pastures nearest the river.

Our #2 Son was back at the ranch this week, organizing his gear to get ready for some more overseas travel. I won’t be surprised if he eventually goes Full Expat.

I did some organizing in JASBORR. Part of this was preliminary packing for a gun show trip at the end of this month. I only rarely operate tables at gun shows, so unlike a lot of other gun show folks, this means that I don’t keep plastic bins packed and ready to go at all times. I always agonize in deciding what to keep and what to sell. I almost always bring copies of my own books. Since I buy those by the case at the “author price” from my publishers, it make sense to sell those regardless of the ups and downs in the gun market. There is a fine line between being well-prepared and full-blown redundancy. I feel comfortable selling the downright redundant items. Since the Trump Era gun market is fairly weak, I’m not in a huge hurry to sell too much. As a “buy low, sell high” adherent, I have to be choosy and pick out gear that I bought in bulk, at bargain prices. Perhaps after the mid-term elections next fall, when The Buying Frenzy returns, I can pull out a wider selection of guns, ammo, magazine, and field gear to sell.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

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”. Dominating the news today is the escalating battle over Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Troubled Iran

From reader D.S.:

Do you remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis of President Carter? I do. and I will for all my days. The nightly news feature”America Held Hostage,” was etched into my sensibilities. A weak American government had no answer as we suffered the shame for our inept leadership. The parading flagellants with their chain whips brought me to Psalm 2…the heathen certainly were raging to chants of ‘Death to America.’ The leadership regime they empowered has only grown in its hate for us.

Now they will do it again.

o o o

Like a spoiled child, Iran is throwing a temper-tantrum since the Trump administration pulled out of the horrible nuclear deal where Obama gave the farm away for nothing in return. This article, sent in by reader G.P. suggests that Iran will probably start launching cyber attacks against western countries within months in retaliation for Washington’s move. A most risk are banks and financial services, government departments and critical infrastructure providers along with oil and energy firms.

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

Preparedness Notes for Friday – May 11, 2018

On May 11, 1949, Israel was admitted into the United Nations.

o o o

2005-2017 USB Archive Update

We have discovered a bug in the software that managed the orders for the archive. Apparently, a certain small percentage of orders that were successfully paid through PayPal were marked as “canceled”. The software somehow missed the message from PayPal that the order had been paid and it timed out waiting for the payment. We are in the process of manually reviewing all orders that were marked as canceled and matching any corresponding payment that may be attributed to it. We do have another order of USB Archives arriving on Monday, May 14th. The plan is to fulfill all orders caught by this glitch before releasing any of those for sale. If you paid for your order through PayPal and have not yet received it, then yours probably was one of these orders. Thanks for your patience.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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 76 ends on May 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.

Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 4, by A.&J. R.

22

In this six-part article, we are focusing on the supplies we will need in order to address the medical issues we are most likely to experience, whether we get to a “Bring Your Own Bandaids” clinic or we have to treat matters on our own. Our lists and discussion goes way beyond the first aid kit, and at the end of each section, we also note essential oils that may be helpful.

Dental Injuries and Problems

Dental injuries and problems actually constitute a significant number of visits to the ER today. Unfortunately, we sometimes overlook this part of the body in our efforts to prepare for medical issues. So add to your preps a set of dental tools, if you don’t want someone else’s tools in your mouth. You may also want to include a mouth guard for holding in teeth that have fallen out due to injury, Orajel to manage pain, and some Temparin temporary filling/crown replacement sets. Essential oils to consider include clove.

Eyes

Eyes are a sensitive and important part of our bodies, yet they are often overlooked. There are a variety of concerns here.

Conjunctivitis

Also known as pinkeye, conjunctivitis can be treated with doxycycline. However, the antibiotic should probably be saved for more critical needs. Natural remedies include using chamomile or goldenseal teabag poultice as well as chamomile, baking soda, or honey eyewashes. Essential oils to consider include chamomile.

Stye

A stye is essentially a pimple on the eyelid. Warm compresses can relieve pain. Essential oils to consider are lavender.

Continue reading“Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 4, by A.&J. R.”

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 Swiss Franc parity with the US Dollar. (See the Forex section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold & Silver Looking To Rally As The World Moves From “Inflation Expectations” To Plain Old “Inflation”

o o o

Standard Chartered: Floor For Gold Price To Keep Rising

 

Forex (Swiss Franc Parity):

The trading value of the Swiss Franc (CHF) is bouncing right around parity with the US Dollar (USD). Although there may be continuing Dollar strength through this spring and summer, the long term outlook is still dour for the Dollar.  Trump (and the Fed Banking Cartel) will likely continue to pursue their Weak Dollar Policy. Trump wants to see “Huuuuge” improvement in the U.S. balance of trade. So this is a good time to swap USD for some CHF.

o  o  o

Currency Strength and Weakness

 

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday – May 10, 2018

May 10th is the birthday of the late Col. Jeff Cooper (born 1920, died September 25, 2006).

May 10th is also the birthday of the late Janis Pinups (born 1925, died 15 June 2007). He was one of the last of the Forest Brothers anti-communist resistance fighters. He came out of hiding, after five decades, to obtain a Latvian passport in 1994, after the collapse of eastern European communism. (He was never issued any communist government identity papers and by necessity lived as a nonexistent ghost during the entire Soviet occupation of Latvia.)

o o o

2005-2017 USB Archive Update

We have discovered a bug in the software that managed the orders for the archive. Apparently, a certain percentage of orders that were successfully paid through PayPal were marked as “canceled”. The software somehow missed the message from PayPal that the order had been paid and it timed out waiting for the payment. We are in the process of manually reviewing all orders that were marked as canceled and matching any corresponding payment that may be attributed to it. We do have another order of USB Archives arriving on Monday, the 14th, but the plan is to fulfill all orders caught by this bug before releasing any of them for sale. If you paid for your order through PayPal and have not yet received it, you are probably one of these orders.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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 76 ends on May 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.

Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 3, by A.&J. R.

14

We are focusing on the supplies we will need in order to address the medical issues we are most likely to experience, whether we get to a “Bring Your Own Bandaids” clinic or we have to treat matters on our own. Our lists and discussion goes way beyond the first aid kit, and at the end of each section, we also note essential oils that may be helpful. We’ve already covered some pre-existing conditions and common injuries in Part 1. Let’s continue forward in our six-part article.

Skin

In this section we will take a look at some common skin conditions and injuries and how to treat them.

Hives

Hives are treated quite effectively with the usual anti-histamines like Benadryl, Claritin, and Zyrtec. But they can also be managed with Zantac, Tagamet, and Pepcid. Corticosteroids can be used, if you have them on hand, but these are potentially life-saving medications that should probably be saved for more critical purposes. Essential oils to consider include German chamomile, yarrow, tagetes.

Abscesses

Abscesses are managed by lancing and draining and then keeping the affected area clean and covered. Essential oils to consider include lavender, tea tree, and chamomile.

Cellulitis

Cellulitis, an infection of the soft tissue below the skin surface, will be a different matter. Any break in the skin, whether from cuts or scrapes, bites, cracks that developed from dry skin, et cetera, will allow the bacteria that are normally on the skin to go below and cause infection. Sometimes cellulitis will resolve on its own, but usually antibiotics are needed. This can be a life-threatening infection and should be evaluated by a licensed medical practitioner. Antibiotics generally prescribed for cellulitis (and other) skin infections include augmentin, cephalexin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and doxycycline. Essential oils to consider include lavender, tea tree, and helichrysum.

Continue reading“Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 3, by A.&J. R.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

17

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”. Users are gain finding out that digital security is not easy – it turns out that the Signal app isn’t so secure after all.

Signal App Isn’t so Secure

Signal App promoted itself as a secure messaging app because it would self delete delivered messages, making it easy for you to maintain security in the case of mishandled (of confiscated) devices. According to this article sent in by P.L, it’s not that easy though. It would appear that even though the app deletes the messages, the notifications that MacOS gives the owner of the device keeps a database of these messages. You may not be able to access the original message, but the database of notifications can be scanned and the information recovered. This flaw appears to live on the macOS version only at this time.

South Africa Emulates Zimbabwe

There is much inaccurate and deliberately misleading news out their with regards to South Africa’s move to the left and it’s new racist policies. Reader S.M. sent in this article that does much to correct those news reports. South Africa is clearly going to emulate Zimbabwe with it’s racial land expropriation without compensation. The combined majority of the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) and the ANC (African National Congress) exceeds the required two thirds of the South African parliament with will enable them to change the constitution which still nominally protects property rights in Section 25.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

1

“The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.” – H.L. Mencken