Freeze Dried Friday

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Welcome to a new column on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Drier 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!

A Halting Start

This week with the garden harvest starting to ramp up, the freeze dryers are getting ready for their workout. Freeze Dryer number one is back up and running after having the main seal blown. It only took about an hour to pull the pump apart, replace the seals, and get it fired back up. I’m not sure why I dreaded that job so much because it was easier than I remember the last time.

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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 contrarian investing. (See the special section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

Dovish Draghi Comments Drive Gold Prices

Commodities:

Irina Slav: Stability Is Returning To Oil Markets

o o o

Could The Gulf Dispute Actually Help Iran?

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Preparedness Notes for Thursday – July 20, 2017

Today is the 84th birthday of novelist Cormac McCarthy (born, 1933.) He is the author of the survivalist novel The Road, which later became a popular movie with the same title.

On July 20th, 1969, At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

America’s Public Schools are Government Indoctrination Centers

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The following article might strike some of our readers as a bit of a rant. So if you dislike reading rants, then please just skip reading this article.

It Started With a Letter

The impetus for this article was a fairly cogent well-intentioned letter from a SurvivalBlog reader:

Dear Editor:
I am concerned about some of the information linked on your blog. I’m a Christian, an avid prepper, and a daily reader of your blog. I support your effort to make readers aware of the world around us, and the changes that we feel are to come. I do have concerns when it comes to the negative portrayal of public schools. It is easy to stereotype groups of people, but not always an accurate way of looking at them. There are individuals who believe those of us who read your blog are crazy. We are all unshaven, dirty, live in underground bunkers, wear aluminum foil hats, and hold our illegal firearms as we talk to ourselves. Is this accurate? No, it is not.

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Request for Information on Dehydrating Fruit

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Sweetened Dried Fruit

My dehydrator has failed me. Well, not really, but I can’t seem to create what I want so I’m asking for help from the SurvivalBlog readership. I love the sweetened dehydrated fruit that you can buy in stores, but I am unable to recreate this yummy snack. While I can successfully dehydrate fruit for storage, it has a tendency to look like leather rather than the colorful, tasty treat that you see in this picture. If you can tell me how to re-create this, you will make me a hero to my grand-kids! Leave your ideas in the comments section.- HJL

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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”. As part of today’s focus on the Public School system, take a look as some of the current headlines under the “Public Schools” header below.

Venezuela

Venezuela’s opposition party called a nationwide strike for today in an attempt to keep Maduro from rewriting the country’s constitution. They are hoping that this will help force Maduro from office through early elections. Of course, the expected response will be stepped up confrontation and violence in the streets. In the meantime, food shortages continue and the people suffer. Yep, that’s socialism for you.

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Guest Post: So Why Would You Do Tactical Training?, by David

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“So why do you do this tactical training stuff?” This is a question I get asked from time to time.  Sadly, the answer does not lend itself to a sentence or two.  Let me lay out my premises and then some conclusions.

(This article comes from David, who is a multi-class MVT alumni. He is the organizer of the Idaho Classes in 2016 and 2017. And MVT says, “We have already scheduled Idaho May 2018.”)

Assumed Role

In our family, I am literally the last man standing of my generation.  Since I am no longer immersed in pursuing “the rat race”, I have time to contemplate the long-term future and security of our children and grandchildren.  Our kids are busy with their careers and families.  Put differently, while I fervently hope bad times will not come knocking, I am the one most inclined to contemplate and plan for those “unlikely but very bad” scenarios.

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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 investing in single malt whiskey. (See the Tangibles Investing section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

First up: Lower Fed rate hike chances Gold price impact

o  o  o

Next, it looks like the price of gold may be breaking out of its downtrend.

Commodities:

And over at OilPrice.com: The Only Way OPEC Can Kill U.S. Shale

o  o  o

North Korea’s Fuel Prices Soar After China Suspends Exports. (After China’s National Petroleum Corp. halted sales of fuel to Pyongyang, North Korean gasoline and diesel prices have jumped substantially.)

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day

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“You can say ‘stop’ or ‘alto’ or use any other word you think will work but I’ve found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much the universal language.” – Clint Smith, Founder of the Thunder Ranch firearms training school

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – July 18, 2017

July 18th, 1954 is the birthdate of Ricky Skaggs, an American country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster, and banjo.

o o o

We are coming into the homestretch of Round 71 of SurvivalBlog’s Writing Contest. It’s time to finish up those articles and e-mail them to us.  This is a merit-based competition, with more than $11,000 worth of prizes awarded bi-monthly. It is not a game of chance!

A Backpacker’s Perspective on Bugging Out, by Z.M.

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I like to backpack and want to share my perspective on bugging out. I’ve done hundreds of miles out on the Appalachian Trail and have spent a good number of nights out on the trail in the woods as a result. Having the wrong gear while trekking out for any length of time makes life pretty miserable.

Bugging In or Bugging Out, With a Comprehensive List

With prepping there is a lot of debate on whether one should bug-in or bug-out post-disaster. The answer to that obviously depends upon not only the situation but how well prepared you are with tangible assets and outdoors skills as well.

I’ve seen a host of writers, who talk about bugging out, give their “comprehensive lists” with what you’ll need. But, to me, it is readily apparent that very few of these writers have ever spent a night out in the woods.

If somebody did attempt to take all of the unnecessary junk itemized on those lists out into the woods for any distance, they would quickly discover that life is pretty miserable because it’s impractical to lug around the amount of stuff that was recommended in many of those lists.

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