Letter Re: New Year’s Resolutions

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Hi Hugh,

I am interested in hearing from the readers about their New Year’s resolutions.

Some of mine are:

  • I will include daily prayer for my family members who are not prepared. (Yes, I have been guilty of leaving them out in my daily prayers.)
  • I will go off the grid for as long as I can using what resources I have at hand and keep up to military standards of hygiene, cleanliness, and good health. Plus, I will maintain communications. (My only exception is toilet flushing; I was thinking of digging a latrine and reminding myself and family when they use the bathroom that out back is where they would actually go in a grid-down event.)

What are yours? Hearing from you would assist me and hopefully others in some new ideas.

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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”. In today’s edition, learn how to remove Google from your life.

Confusion on New Gun Rules

Over the last two years, California has passed considerable gun control legislation. Without getting to political, I think it’s fair to point the finger at Reagan’s immigration amnesty program as one of the root causes of the left leaning biases in the state today. A fair warning to anyone considering such an action today. With many of the new rules being challenged in court, how do you know what you can and can’t do right now? Reader P.S. sent in this article with a reasonable interpretation of the current state: New gun restrictions are coming to California in 2018. Here’s what they mean to you

OPSEC Failure

A 19 year old  girl has been arrested for the murder of a 19 year old male in Texas after an attempt by the young girl to steal the mans guns turned into a domestic violence incident and resulted in the girl shooting and killing the man. the man was apparently dating the girl, who then stole the guns and held them for a $2000 ransom. the negotiations turned deadly after the man apparently grabbed her in a headlock and held a pistol to her head. there are so many things wrong with this story it literally makes my head spin. thanks to T.J. for the link.

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How To Prep For … Throwing In The Towel- Part 2, by DR in Tennessee

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Yesterday, we began by asking many questions to determine just how prepared and ready you were for a situation when you or your spouse were unable to continue daily or regular responsibilities around the homestead. It is apparent that many preppers are aging and just can’t do the independent prepping and property maintenance and management they had envisioned and begun decades earlier. So, in part one of this article series, we discussed some of what it takes to prepare your property for sale.

Today’s Reality

That brings us to today’s reality. Plan now for a time when the Good Lord calls you up, as unlikely or as remote as that possibility may seem to you now. Plan for the liquidation of your property, because it’s highly unlikely that your heirs will get the full value of what you invested into your retreat property when they sell it at the average per acre price for farmland in your three-county area. No! You’ll not get anything near the outrageous sums that developers paid for 200+ acres of attractive mountainside about six miles from your retreat. But you can get a very fair price and can help your survivors hand off a great off-grid property to another prepper… if you do your research and your homework now.

Think of it like life insurance. When you’re gone, it pays off for your survivors. Planning now pays off because you leave vital information behind that helps your heirs properly value the retreat assets in a manner that reflects the true investment you and your family made over the many years you worked the property.

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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 the long-banned R-12 refrigerant.  (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

U.S. Mint Posts Weakest Coin Sales In A Decade As Gold Prices Rise

 

Stock Markets:

A record year for the S&P 500: The index finished 2017 with 12 months of gains

 

Commodities:

Oil Hits Highest Since Mid-2015, Then Dips
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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 Darn Tough brand socks.  (See the Gear section.)

 

Books:

The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible: KJV Edition, Hardbound

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Here is the latest from hard sci-fi novelist Andy Weir (the author of The Martian–which became a quite popular movie): Artemis: A Novel

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The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouse

Movies:

After umpteen recommendations from family and friends, I finally had the chance to see the movie Hacksaw Ridge. The combat scenes are brutally realistic, but the movie has a great message.  I highly recommend it to all adults.  It is not for kids!

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Sophie Scholl: The Finals Days. This is a good dramatization on the capture, interrogation, trial and execution of a White Rose German resistance movement leader. This was produced in German, with passable English subtitles. It is available on DVD, or free streaming to those with Amazon Prime.

 

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day

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“There’s an ugly, unavoidable reckoning building. The cynic in me says however remote you are, or self-sufficient you are, however well-appointed your hidey-hole, however much ammo you have, however deep your deep larder, however much training and comms and meds you have, it probably ain’t enough for what’s coming.”  – Blogger Ol’ Remus, in his Yer Ol’ Woodpile Report

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – January 02, 2018

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January 2nd, 1776 is the anniversary of the first revolutionary flag to be displayed. Also on this date in 1936, the first night vision electron tube was revealed in St. Louis, Missouri.

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We are currently working on the 2017 SurvivalBlog Archive and hope to have information about it up within the week.

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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.

How To Prep For … Throwing In The Towel- Part 1, by DR in Tennessee

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Certainly if you read this blog frequently, you know why and how we prepare. The archives of SurvivalBlog are an unmatched treasure trove of practical and technical survival wisdom. This article is designed to offer practical guidance of another kind. It’s intended to encourage mature individuals to imagine a different type of prepping. I want you to think long and hard about your realistic future as successful long-time preppers. I write this based on personal experience and with firsthand knowledge of the experiences of others who share my age and attitude about preparedness. Those of you who may be relatively new to prepping can benefit from this reading as well because an exit strategy (for you or your heirs) should be part of your overall prepping stratagem, just like having a defensible fallback position if your retreat is overrun by bandits. Like most prepping, this advice is common sense.

Questions

I’ll be asking a lot of questions to help you think through where you, as veteran preppers, are today and where you want to be in say 10 years. Some of us who were full of piss and vinegar 15 years or so ago, when organized “prepping” was in its relative infancy, are getting longer in the tooth. If you fall into this category of aging preppers, I challenge you to do some soul searching.

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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 the Salmon-Challis National Forest Plan.

Region-Wide

The Redoubt series appears to have been completed at The Sandpoint Reader tabloid newspaper. The latest (last?) installment was: The American Redoubt Series: The anatomy of a one-party state: How Idaho has become more conservative since the 1990s

That article had a bit of a “Sour Grapes” tone to it. The author seems to long for the bygone days of Democrat Governor Cecil Andrus and his cronies.  At least the author conceded that the Republican Party is now firmly controls Idaho’s legislature and governorship. This is in part confirmation that the American Redoubt relocation program is working. We are helping to make what was already a Red State a deeper shade of red. It is also noteworthy that the Redoubt movement is helping to seat more conservative, libertarian-leaning Republican candidates, to replace the old crop of “centrists”. (Some of these politicians were confirmed Republicans in Name Only (RINOs.)

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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”. If you have chickens, you are going to want to see the videos on preserving eggs in today’s edition.

Farmers’ Markets are Racist

Two professors at San Diego State University have now criticized the whiteness of farmers’ markets in a chapter of “Just Green Enough”. From reader H.L. “Just when I thought that professors could not say anything more insane, I found this article. Of course, it is The Republic of Kalifornia, but more and more younger people want Socialism, and of course, they have been infected by schools, and their parents are clueless how to raise a child that loves freedom, and really understands the free market, and the evils of socialism/communism. I remember that in Germany of WWII, the teachers were requiring the school children to ‘rat’ on their parents if their parents did not like Hitler! Think it cannot happen here? Something like it is already happening. Some teachers suggesting that children need to “tell” someone in authority if their parents do something they do not like. Examples vary. Children “required” in some schools to answer on paper very intrusive questions about their home lives. The government wants to be in everyone’s life. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is becoming our reality! We need to get our heads out of the sand.”

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.” – George Washington, from his farewell address, September 17th, 1796

CRKT Crossbones Folder, by Pat Cascio

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Under review is one of the newest folding knives from CRKT. It’s the Crossbones, and it is one dandy gentleman’s folder, too.

Folding Knives

Regular readers will know that I’m a fan of folding knives with a blade between 3.5” and 4”. For my personal taste, that 3.75” blade is about perfect for my daily chores. I like a stout folder, because I never know what kind of chores I might have to use a pocket knife on. However, I certainly do appreciate smaller folders for every day carry as well; they have lots of uses.

Designer Jeff Park in Hawaii

Jeff Park, who resides in Hawaii, is an up and coming knife designer and maker, and he learned quite a bit about designing and making knives from world famous Ken Onion, who also resides in Hawaii. In the past, I interviewed Onion for an article in a knife magazine, and we had a great visit. To be sure, Ken is one wild man to talk to. In any event, Jeff Park learned from one of the best in the business, if you ask me.

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