Freeze Dried Friday:

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Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here! Freeze Dried Tomato Meat Sauce is today’s feature.

Broken Pump Seal Update

I received the supply of spare parts I ordered including the spare vacuum cartridge. An interesting note is that I thought the bulk of the weight of the pump (aside from the motor) was in the casing. Nope. The vacuum cartridge is quite a bit heavier than the aluminum casing of the pump. When one of these cartridges breaks down and has to be replaced, I think I’m going to tear it apart just to see what’s inside. In the meantime, due to some other pressing concerns, I wasn’t able to rebuild the leaking pump, so we will put that off until next week.

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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 the False Recovery.  (See the Stocks section, below.)

Precious Metals:

The spot price of platinum is still in the doldrums, but recently saw an uptick.  Any point in time when you can buy an ounce of platinum for less than ounce of gold, then it is a good time to buy platinum!

o  o  o

I’m not a believer in most of what the Chartists have to say. But I found this macro analysis interesting: Ira Epstein’s Precious Metals Video August-2-2017.

 

Commodities:

After spiking in 2016, the price of sugar seems to be returning to its long term downtrend. The 2016 spike was attributed to El Niño weather patterns. If you ever hear of another El Niño developing, then immediately stock up on sugar!

o  o  o

The average price of propane is around $2.40 per gallon, nationwide. Locally, we just saw a deep dip in prices in the northern half of the American Redoubt. This might be a good time to top off your tanks.

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Preparedness Notes for Thursday – August 03, 2017

August 3rd, 1846 is the day that the Donner party found a note warning the emigrants that their expected route through the mountains ahead was nearly impassable. Hastings, an unscrupulous trail guide had created his own “short cut” route and wasn’t even at the meeting place at Fort Bridger, but had left word for the part to continue on. Hastings had claimed easy passage through the rugged Wasatch Mountains, but had left a note attached to a forked stick for the party explaining that the route was more difficult than he thought. Eventually reduced to cannibalism, only 45 of the original 89 emigrants reached California the following year.

The Novice And The Expert- Part 3, by Old Bobbert

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Yesterday, we took a look at what we’d need to do first in the event of an EMP and just barely began to look at the possibility of a tsunami or serious flood across the U.S. East Coast, causing complete evacuation and shut down. We’ll continue today to look at this incident and others that might happen.

East Coast Tsunami (continued)

In the event that the New York City financial service system shuts down, for any reason, that singular event will shut down the entire world banking system. Awe, shucks! And this will happen while the system is correcting itself with more of what has caused the problems in the first place. They are working to borrow the money needed to pay interest and to get out of debt currently. As I read history, isn’t that called an illegal “ponsi scheme”? Yes, it is! This is a very real near future reality event.

In the event that Washington D.C. shuts down, happy days are here again, right? No! Wait! That didn’t work the first time. Well, awe shucks. If NYC and/or Washington were to stop functioning, would my social security check have been deposited? That would be a very real SHTF incident especially if it happened without warning.

On that day that the warning comes, regardless of where you live, empty your bank account and buy what you need with your visa. If we lose the East Coast, we lose everything and every everyone there. Our debt-ridden, fiat money-based, digital society will fail, and it will fail world wide.

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Typeay’s Book Review: The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun, by Matt Bracken

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So, how does one categorize The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun?

In my opinion, you simply can’t.

Anyone taking a cursory glance at Amazon’s current fiction novel listings will confirm what many folks may have already surmised. The past few years have seen an explosion of what is commonly now referred to as “dystopian fiction”.

In the typical dystopian tome, a lone protagonist or group sets out on a quest for survival in what was once the world as he, or she, knew it.

I will cut right to the chase.  Matt Bracken’s latest novel is not a work of dystopian fiction.

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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”. Wait till you hear about the new YouTube Censoring rules!

“Hand Out” Survival Kit

SensiblePrepper has a YouTube video where he goes through a simple kit that you can put together to “hand out” to those who are with you on an outing, hike or camping trip. It contains simple to use items such as fire lighting kit, flashlight, knife, emergency poncho and simple first aid kit (boo boo kit), and a few other things. Those who are woefully unprepared for an emergency get a better chance if they are separated. Thanks to T.J. for the link.

MVT 1000 Yard Precision Rifle Range

Max has a new 1000 yard rifle range at his Romney, West Virginia training center. With the opening of this new range, they will be running the first Long Range Marksman Course (LRMC-1) on September 3-4. MVT is a first rate school and this is an excellent opportunity.

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Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“To me, the most terrifying form of warfare would be if there was some simultaneous cyber attack on our grid, on the banking system, and on our transportation system. That would be quite a devastating thing, and yet in theory, absent some real protective measures, that could happen.” – Wilbur Ross

The Novice And The Expert- Part 2, by Old Bobbert

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Today, we are continuing to learn, whether we are a novice or an expert in preparedness. If experts, we can learn how to guide a novice in their preparation planning.

Confidence Key Words

We left off yesterday with a group in a pandemic situation going grocery store shopping in teams with lists and cash. We had a reference to use confidence key words at checkout to help avoid being a victim. What are these confidence key words? I know that you know them. Read the following out loud: “Please and thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. We appreciate your help.”

“We” is used often and especially if you are actually alone. These are the key words and this is the style of the type of person that the bad guys want to stay away from. You will then easily look to be the confident non-victim. You will most likely be safe.

Continue reading“The Novice And The Expert- Part 2, by Old Bobbert”

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 investing in hairspring watches.

Precious Metals:

First, at Seeking Alpha: Mining stocks’ valuation attractive, led by copper and zinc, BMO says

o  o  o

India’s Demonetization Policy Takes a Turn for the Worse

Commodities:

Sanctions On Venezuela Could Push Oil Into The Mid-$50s

o  o  o

China’s threatened scrap import ban jolts copper into life: Andy Home

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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 stainless steel wool. (See the Gear section, near the end of this column.)

Books:

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun by Matt Bracken.  (Recommended by long-time blog reader P.T..) Matt Bracken is a former U.S. Navy SEAL. His thought-provoking novels always include a lot of practical and tactical goodness woven into the storylines. (Matt’s better-known Enemies Foreign and Domestic” novel series is widely read, for good reason!)

The Shoestring Girl: How I Live on Practically Nothing and YOU Can Too

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Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – August 01, 2017

August 1st is celebrated as Swiss Independence Day, in recognition of the signing of the Federal Charter of 1291, which united Switzerland’s first three cantons. As of 2017, Switzerland has been free and independent for 726 years. Having a well-armed populace has assured that.

August 1st is also remembered as the election day in 1946 that sparked the Battle of Athens, Tennessee, when returning World War II veterans took up arms to oust a corrupt local government that was rigging an election.

Round 71 Non-Fiction Writing Contest Winners Announced!

Any article submitted but not published will automatically be rolled over to Round 72. Here are the winners:

First Prize goes to J.E. for “Horizontal Relationships: The Key to True Independence- Part 1” and “Part 2” published on July 4th and 5th, 2017. He will receive the following prizes:

  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 $1,195 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. An infrared sensor/imaging camouflage shelter from Snakebite Tactical in Eureka, Montana (A $350+ value),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Continue reading“Round 71 Non-Fiction Writing Contest Winners Announced!”