Growing Potatoes From True Potato Seeds, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

6

Take a quick look at this clever video (1:47) describing the advantages of growing potatoes from potato seed.

Advantages of Growing Potatoes From Seed

Using traditional cross-breeding techniques, a company in the Netherlands named Solynta (So-lynn’-ta) has developed a line of potatoes that reliably produce “true potato seed” (“TPS”). Most potato seeds have a lot of genetic diversity, which is not a bad thing for home gardeners. They produce potatoes with varying sizes and colors, so they’re unsuitable for commercial production.

Less than one ounce of their seed can be planted in place of 5,500 pounds of “seed tuber” potatoes that would otherwise need to be cut up into pieces and planted. The seeds are lightweight, compact, and will last in storage several years. I don’t know if they’ll survive freezing. But how hard could it be to protect a thimbleful of seeds that could plant a whole potato patch? The tubers, on the other hand, require careful storage (around 40° and moderate humidity) and are subject to rotting, insect infestations, and potato diseases, not to mention they’re a lot more bulky than seeds.

Continue reading“Growing Potatoes From True Potato Seeds, by ShepherdFarmerGeek”

Letter: Earthbag Shelter

1

Regarding the Odds ‘n Sods entry last month: Owen Geiger has several earthbag shelter designs that are inexpensive but labor intensive and that are an option for radiation protection.

Examples

Continue reading“Letter: Earthbag Shelter”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This column is posted on Tuesdays. Here, we present news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies in the region of interest to preppers. Today’s focus is on newly-elected Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte.


Idaho

First in our news headlines: The row over Idaho’s sales tax on groceries continues. The Idaho Governor actually missed his deadline to veto a bill that would have ended the tax, but they let that slide.  (The veto was somehow certified.)  See: Clash of the Idaho Titans

o o o

This innovative small company in Sandpoint, Idaho deserves a special mention: Advanced Offroad Trailer (AOT). Check out the videos of their ATV trailers in action. What a great design!  (Note: The elk carcass loading video is not politically correct. But it shows both the strength and versatility of the design.)

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

18

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”. Today’s focus is on survival food.

Survival Food

Canadian Prepper has a video review of the SolSource parabolic Solar Cooker. If you like cooking with solar energy, you might want to take a look at it. This is not an inexpensive device, but its efficiency is very good. It does need full sunlight in order to cook, but it works well. It is also large and primarily plastic (the reflector), which makes it fairly durable but difficult to transport and store. This is something that you would set up in your backyard rather than transporting when traveling.

o o o

Reader DSV sent in the link to this article on canning potatoes for long term preservation. Step-by-step instructions with photographs are included to make it easy. Note that this is a job for a pressure cooker (not a hot water bath process) as the potatoes are not acidic enough by themselves.

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

Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“Cartridge firearms are compact vehicles for change that have shaped modern history. The righteousness of their use is entirely up to their users, since like any other tool they can be used both for good or for ill. A firearm is just a tool with no volition. A rifle is no different than a claw hammer. To wit: A hammer can be used to build a house, or it can be used to bash in someone’s skull—-the choice of uses is entirely up to the owner. A bulldozer can be used to build roads, or to destroy houses. A rifle can be used to drill holes in paper targets, or to dispatch a marauding bear, or to murder your fellow man. Again, the choice of uses is entirely up to the user.” – James Wesley, Rawles, in Tools for Survival (2009)

The Editors’ Preps for the Week of June 12th, 2017

12

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 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 also welcome you to share your planned activities for increasing personal preparedness in the coming week. (Leave a Comment with your project details.) Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

At the Rawles Ranch we are in full Summer Mode, which usually means lots of gardening, fencing,  and construction projects.  Since we live at a fairly northern latitude, the days are very long when we get close to the Summer Solstice. This gives us plenty of daylight–almost too much, since we sometimes work ourselves to the point of exhaustion.

Continue reading“The Editors’ Preps for the Week of June 12th, 2017”

Ruger GP100 .44 Special, by Pat Cascio

9

Ruger GP100

Ruger recently introduced their GP100 revolver in .44 Special. I still remember the very first .44 Special handgun I ever owned and shot. At that time, it was the “new” Charter Arms .44 Special Bulldog. And, if I recall correctly, back then the only factory ammo available was some lead round nose ammo that wasn’t very accurate. I couldn’t hit the target very often. When I did, the round key-hole went through the target sideways. Still, I kept that gun for a good long time. I don’t know why!

My long-time friend, confidant, and fellow gun writer, John Taffin, is probably the biggest proponent for the .44 Special caliber that I’m aware of. He has written tens of thousands of words on the virtues of the .44 Special caliber, not to mention a book on big bore handguns, which focused on the .44 Special & Magnum. When John speaks, my ears perk up and I listen, intensely. Taffin has promised to leave me one of his .44 Special handguns in his will, too. I don’t expect one of the fancy custom guns. Nope. I’ll take whatever he cares to leave me.

I used to be a huge fan of the .44 Magnum caliber. I still like it for medium to bigger game hunting, but I don’t much care for it as a self-defense round. It’s just too hot and will over-penetrate the human body, with most of the ammo available. That’s not a good thing. However, when stoking the .44 Magnum with .44 Special ammo, it’s a whole different ball game.

Continue reading“Ruger GP100 .44 Special, by Pat Cascio”

Economics & Investing for Preppers

4

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 quirky “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on Chinese investors.

Precious Metals:

First of all, Greg Hunter offers his Weekly News Wrap-Up  (6.9.17)

o  o  o

From Reuters: Palladium surges 7 percent to highest in 16 years; gold retreats

Commodities Economics:

Next, over at OilPrice.com, there is an informative piece by Irina Slav. The Next Big U.S. Shale Play

o  o  o

InvestorIntel: Rare Earths Monthly – May 2017

Continue reading“Economics & Investing for Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day

4

“Hillary’s aides began planning her first national television interview of the campaign, a chance to strike back at the widely held perception that she was hiding from the press. Palmieri asked Abedin to find out which newscaster Hillary would prefer, and the answer that came back was ‘Brianna.’ That meant CNN’s Brianna Keilar, and Palmieri worked to set up a live interview on CNN. Only it turned out that Hillary had said ‘Bianna’—as in Bianna Golodryga of Yahoo! News, the wife of former Clinton administration economic aide Peter Orszag. By the time the mistake was realized, it was too late to pull back. Hillary went through with the interview on July 7, and it was a disaster. ‘People should and do trust me,’ she insisted under a barrage of questions from Keilar. One aide described Hillary as ‘staring daggers’ at her questioner through the exchange.” – Jonathan Allen, Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – June 11, 2017

2

On June 11, 1979, Marion Morrison (better known as John Wayne) died at age 72 after losing a battle to cancer. John Wayne was an iconic American film actor known for his conservative political views. His trademark drawl and good looks ensure that he will be remembered. Appearing in over 250 films helps that as well. My favorite films of his were Fort Apache, The Quiet Man, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Alamo, The Green Berets, and, of course, True Grit (1969).

o o o

I just heard that Adam West (of Batman fame) passed away, at age 88. It is sad to say “Adios” to one of the Good Guys. Since he was born in Walla Walla, Washington, Adam West was a native of The American Redoubt. – JWR

USMC Mountain Survival Course- Part 5, by E.T.

25

Casualty Exercise

A few hours later, after dawn, we began our death march back to the USMC Mountain Survival Course base. To add excitement to our return, the instructors gave us several “casualties” that had to be carried out. We cut poles and ran them through our buttoned blouse sleeves to make stretchers. We soon realized that even with the casualty holding on, they would need to be tied onto the litter. As we carried it over rocks and up and down inclines, they would slide around and fall out. We almost made them into a real casualty several times.

This was extremely draining, but it was uplifting to know we were on the home stretch. At this point we were all emaciated and filthy. The hump back seemed to take forever. We moved continuously, passing the casualty from group to group of six people. As one group passed the stretcher to the next, they would move past them up the trail a few hundred feet then wait. This way we “leap frogged” with short breaks as we waited on the casualty to catch up.

Arrival into Base

After several hours, we humped into base, posed for the obligatory picture, and were turned loose into the barracks. Orders were to drop gear, strip to skivvies, and go out back for our weigh in before anything else.

Continue reading“USMC Mountain Survival Course- Part 5, by E.T.”

Letter Re: Excessive OPSEC

3

JWR,

A good friend of mine recently died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack and had excessive OPSEC. Let’s just say he was prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse but not prepared to die. He kept much of his information to himself, including the combinations to his gun safes, hidden keys, and buried caches among other things. This has created huge problems for his surviving family members. Since none of us are immune from death, proper planning should include passing on critical information in a secure manner. – JEH

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

7

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”. Today’s focus is on politics.

Politics

In a continuation of the political prisoner drama in the American West, the judge in the Bundy Ranch case wants the defendants in chains for the trial. While I can’t condone the actions of the Bundys, it is clear that this judge is biased from the outset. At this point in the process, the only reason for this demand by the judge is to further humiliate the defendants.  He wants to “set an example” as a warning to others who challenge the Federal government.

o o o

How does a British Primer Minister, who rode to power on the Brexit vote, so quickly lose the advantage? Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large, sent in this article demonstrating a strong link to Britains proposed “dementia tax”, which again takes from the middle class to fund yet another government health program. In just a few short weeks before the election, Theresa May lost a comfortable 20 point lead in the polls. She just barely survived the election, but now also lost her power base. As Mike states: “This is a good reason to have your property owned by a family trust.”

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