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 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,
A lot of the accumulated snowfall has melted, here at the Rawles Ranch. But the weather forecast shows a couple of weak storm system approaching, promising a mixture of rain and snow, for the next couple  of weeks. But at least it looks like I won’t have to do a lot of snowplowing. I don’t plan to be outdoors for much more than just feeding the livestock, toting firewood, and checking on the stock tanks. This a good time of year for those indoor projects.

The Drafty Door

With the recent cold weather, Avalanche Lily noticed a bit of a cold draft coming under our bedroom door, from the hall.  This is because whomever built the house had apparently hung the door with eventual deep pile carpeting in mind, leaving a hefty 1.25-inch gap beneath it.  I first considered adding a thicker threshold piece, but I realized that we’d just be tripping over it. So instead, I solved this problem by extending the bottom of the door.  I used Torx head power screws and my trusty  Dewalt to attach a 1″-square wood furring strip and then a broom style vinyl-and-pile door sweep. (I was careful to first drill pilot holes for the screws, to prevent the furring strip from splitting.) Problem solved.

Our local farrier was out to the ranch a few days ago, for hoof trims on our horses. The horses (and their hooves) are doing well, despite the alternating wet and cold weather this year.

Continue reading“The Editors’ Preps for the Week”

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”. it’s that time of year again. The pink hats are out in force for the Women’s March.

Relocation of Illegal Aliens

Reader B.B. sent in this article on how the government is relocating illegal aliens within the borders of the U.S. by using Homeland Security officials in plan clothes as escorts and commercial flights to avoid drawing attention to the program. At least two flights are known (originating from Harlingen, TX and Tucson, AZ) where illegal aliens who appeared to be in their late teens were escorted by Health and Human Services chaperons. Judicial Watch has contacted the agency for comment on the incidents, but so far has not received any answers.

Business Surcharge

Budget stricken California can’t afford to keep up their overbearing social programs. Rather than curb spending, they have now proposed a surcharge on businesses to fund the programs. Under the bill, companies making more than $1 million have to turn over half of their tax-cut savings to the state. What do you know, Nancy Pelosi was right – The tax cut is bad for business! Thanks to R.K. for the link.

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

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – January 20, 2018

Today is the birthday of Congressman Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794)

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 74 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 Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 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 74 ends on January 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.

The Long View- Part 3, by J.M.

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I try to have a long view, one that is both near and far in perspective. We are in the final part of this article, taking a look at the preparations required for a long-term scenario, in the event of a major societal break down. This is part of my routine, as I evaluate my own preparations compared with risk assessments.

We have looked at repairs, food, water, weapons, and medical topics in the previous two portions of this article. Now let’s move on to how we keep warm and prepare our food.

Heating and Cooking

If you don’t live near the equator, you’ll probably need a source of heat for your dwelling, and you’ll definitely need a source of heat for cooking no matter where you live. And unless you’re near a surface coal mine, the only real viable long-term sustainable source for producing heat and fire is wood. Even if you currently use propane or oil and store a large amount, you’ll eventually run out, and if you don’t have a way to produce or acquire more you’ll have to switch to something else. That’s where the problem comes in, if you aren’t already set up for heating and cooking with wood. Converting existing appliances to work with wood is pretty much impossible.

Continue reading“The Long View- Part 3, by J.M.”

Letter: My Emergency Grab and Go Kit

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Hugh,

I have seen lots of emergency survival kits. I think that most of them fail in their efforts to provide the security they are hoping to sell. When making your own to use on the street, consider the following.

Most of the kits out there fail. Why? They do this by splashing all over what they are. Now, let me ask you how stealthy is that? That’s not at all good, in my book.

I wanted to share what I have put together and carried for the last 20 years, at least. I take it to the office as well as carry it to the casino. It goes everywhere I go.

I carry a laptop computer case. Why is that? That is because they are still seen everywhere. They’re not as popular as a few years ago, but they’re still out there. They do not draw attention. The number one rule in stealth is to not draw attention to oneself.

Leather

Instead of nylon or fabric, I use a rather nice leather one, because it is stronger. It always includes a shoulder strap to carry the weight. Mine has at least two zipper compartments and one flap compartment with pockets inside. For me, black is the best color. Women can use colors, et cetera.

Continue reading“Letter: My Emergency Grab and Go Kit”

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”. Was Hawaii hacked? An exposed password may have allowed it.

Hawaii Hacked?

Human engineering, the bane of system administrators the world over has struck again. The Associated Press had a photo from inside Hawaii’s emergency management agency that showed a post-it note attached to a window with a critical password written on it. You would think that agencies would at least circulate a memo and/or give a warning to employees about leaving such information out in the open when visitors are in the center. The logical position is to ban such behavior, but humans, being what they are, will simply ignore such bans. Thanks to P.S. for the link.

Venezuela Money

The socialist utopia of Venezuela’s money has now basically stopped working. The store shelves are empty anyways, but one can apparently find 20-bolivar bills strewn about the trash. The small denomination isn’t even worth the paper it is printed on. As the article points out, looters won’t even stop to pick them up. Each on of those bills (officially pegged at $2 USD) is worth on $0.0001. Humorously, when you point out the failure of Venezuela to an American socialist proponent, you get the standard pat answer: “It wasn’t implemented right”. Thanks to S.R. for the link.

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

The Long View- Part 2, by J.M.

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I try to have a long view, one that is both near and far in perspective. Whenever significant events occur, I do a quick review of my potential events risk analysis to see if anything’s changed that might impact how I’m prepared. In this article, I am taking a look at the preparations required for a long-term scenario, in the event of a major societal break down. We have covered the need for repairs and tools to make repairs, when items or parts and supplies won’t be easily replaced or shipped to us.

Food (continued)

Yesterday, we also covered a significant portion on the subject of food, particularly on gardening and practicing now to supply your family’s food needs, but we haven’t completed this discussion just yet.

Hunting and Fishing

Are hunting and fishing part of your long-term survival food plans? Bear in mind that after a major TEOTWAKI disaster a lot of other people are going to be planning on the same thing, and the wild game populations will probably plummet for the first few years. As with everything else, if you’ve never hunted or fished and processed your take, post-SHTF is not the best time to learn to do so. If you’d like some idea of how to get started hunting, butchering, and cooking wild game, I highly recommend Steven Rinella’s series of books (“The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Volume 1: Big Game” and “Volume 2: Small Game and Fowl”). Just remember that reading about it is a far cry from actually doing it.

Continue reading“The Long View- Part 2, by J.M.”

Letter: Is the U.S. a Christian Nation?

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Hi Hugh,

I am interested in what legal actions should a person take and when, as to regarding The United States of America as a “Christian” nation, especially under the first Amendment concerning the separation of Church and state? In this past year many people have arrived in this country, that are a different faith than Christianity. Members of Christianity are now facing increasing persecution by simply professing their faith openly.

It appears on the surface Christianity is still strong, Yet many people in this nation are losing their personal Morals and Values. Furthermore, I believe is that the more people who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, while rejecting Sharia law; The better we will all be in the long run. Or it may be a matter of Revolution. What do you believe? – M.S.

HJL’s Comment:

Contrary to public opinion today, the founding fathers did not want “Freedom from Religion”. They simply didn’t want a state that controlled the religion (like the governments of England and Germany controlled the church.) Nor did they want an organized religion that controlled the state (like many governments were controlled by the Roman Catholic Church.) They wanted each man to live by ethical principles and carry those same principles over into their public office. They wanted tolerance. If you were Catholic, so be it. If you were Presbyterian, so be it, and so on. However, even tolerance, as the founding fathers desired it, has limits. If one religion attempts to impose itself upon a people, that tolerance is short lived.

I have my own opinions on why men of religious standing have forsaken their duty to their fellow man by allowing evil and corrupt men to assume the roles of leadership, but that is probably a discussion for another place. We will not see any improvements in our country until righteous men stand up and do what is right.

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 U.S. Creditworthiness. (See the Economy and Finance section.)

Precious Metals:

First off, there is this, at Seeking Alpha: Gold Weekly: Too Late To Ride The Wave?

o  o  o

Also there, Scot MacDonald asks: Is Silver Ready For Takeoff?

Stock Markets:

Reader Diane C. suggested this: Here’s What Historically Happens to Stocks When Bull Markets End.  JWR’s Comment: This shows the wisdom of placing automatic Stop Loss sell orders with your broker , or online brokerage system. Do so soon, so that you can sleep well at night!  Consider that your First Exit, in a crisis. The Second Exit–one that most people won’t bother to take–is what I call: “The Exit Through The Gift Store.”  By this I mean: Take the cash generated from liquidating your equities and reinvest most of that into something tangible and practical. Productive rural retreat land is at the top of my list of tangibles.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday – January 18, 2018

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Kevin Costner, who starred in Open Range, was born on this day in 1955.

o o o

Are you concerned about your storage of calcium hypochlorate to generate chlorine for water purification? Is it eating through your containers and/or destroying all metals nearby? What you need is a chlorine generator instead. With this product, all you need to store is plain, uniodized table salt and you can have chlorine on demand. It works on the same principle that salt water swimming pool filters work on so it’s proven technology. We’ve tried quite a few different models here at the Latimer household and the one we keep coming back to is the MSR SE200 Community Chlorine Maker. Its use is so simple that a child can make chlorine with it and all you need is a 12 VDC power source like a car battery (making it ideal for a solar powered project). Check it out at Ready Made Resources.

o o o

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 74 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 Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 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 74 ends on January 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.

The Long View- Part 1, by J.M.

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I try to have a long view, one that is both near and far in perspective. Whenever significant events occur, I do a quick review of my potential events risk analysis to see if anything’s changed that might impact how I’m prepared. For example, when North Korea started acting up, I realized that I needed to do some additional preparations to handle potential nuclear and EMP events. At the start of every year I also do a deep-dive review to see if there’s anything I might need to re-consider or adjust.

A Question During This Year’s Review

During this year’s review I thought of a question that I really didn’t have good answer to: How long am I really prepared to survive for? I have about a year’s worth of food stored. Every year I have a decent-sized garden that I harvest and can for the winter, and I also harvest the seeds for next year’s garden. I can fish and hunt year-round, so I have pretty steady access to meat. I have several waterproof bins worth of medical supplies, and my house can be heated with wood alone, if necessary.

There ared several hundred gallons of water stored inside, and several high-capacity water filters. (I live next to a lake and near a river.) But I also realized that many of these preparations aren’t sustainable in terms of multiple years, and many depended on having the right tools, supplies, and skills available and in working order to make them viable in the long term.

Continue reading“The Long View- Part 1, by J.M.”