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  • newPreparedness Notes for Wednesday — March 29, 2023
    Today would have been the 104th birthday of William “Bill” Summers Anderson. He passed away on June 29, 2021, at age 102. The following is from his biography at the Infogalactic wiki: “He was born March 29, 1919, in Hankow, China. On December 8…
    - 11 hours ago 29 Mar 23, 7:04am -
  • newHomeschooling, a Report From the Trenches – Part 2, by N.C.
    (Continued from Part 1.) Three principles for educating your child Educating your children is going to take a lot of investment. In beginning stages the things you need are free or cheap but you will need to invest a lot of time. As the student gets…
    - 11 hours ago 29 Mar 23, 7:03am -
  • newSurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets
    This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that w…
    - 11 hours ago 29 Mar 23, 7:02am -
  • newThe Editors’ Quote of the Day:
    “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – William Butler YeatsThe post The Editors’ Quote of the Day: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.
    - 11 hours ago 29 Mar 23, 7:01am -
  • Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 28, 2023
    On this day in 845, a 5,000-man strong fleet of Danish Vikings invaded Frankish lands. They only retreated after besieging Paris and securing a ransom from the Frankish King Charles the Bald. This was part of a series of devastating raids begun by th…
    - 1 day ago 28 Mar 23, 7:04am -
  • Homeschooling, a Report From the Trenches – Part 1, by N.C.
    I was surprised to see that homeschooling was a topic of interest for SurvivalBlog but given homeschooling’s growth over the last few years, I ought not have been. So first, why should you listen to me? Well, I was homeschooled K-12, graduated coll…
    - 1 day ago 28 Mar 23, 7:03am -
  • SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt
    This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We al…
    - 1 day ago 28 Mar 23, 7:02am -
  • The Editors’ Quote of the Day:
    “Every action is seen to fall into one of three main categories, guarding, hitting, or moving. Here, then, are the elements of combat, whether in war or pugilism.” – B. H. Liddell HartThe post The Editors’ Quote of the Day: appeared first on…
    - 1 day ago 28 Mar 23, 7:01am -
  • Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 27, 2023
    On March 127, 1975, construction began on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline; spanning 800 miles (1,300 km), the oil pipeline cost $8 billion. It was completed in 1977. Today is also the anniversary of Tennirife airliner collision disaster, in 1977. And March…
    - 2 days ago 27 Mar 23, 7:05am -
  • Valley Forge Damascus Bowie, by Pat Cascio
    There was a time, some years ago, when many of the knives coming out of Pakistan were pure junk, and I mean junk! This has changed over the years, and now some high-quality knives are coming out of Pakistan, at very good prices. I previously covered…
    - 2 days ago 27 Mar 23, 7:04am -
  • Recipe of the Week: Grain & Dried Fruit Salad 
    The following recipe for Grain & Dried Fruit Salad is from SurvivalBlog reader D.J.: Ingredients 3 cups water 1/2 cup medium pearl barley 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice 2/3 cup uncooked basmati rice 1/2 cup slivered almonds 1/2 cup sunflower seed kernels…
    - 2 days ago 27 Mar 23, 7:03am -
  • Economics & Investing For Preppers
    Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. Most of these items ar…
    - 2 days ago 27 Mar 23, 7:02am -
  • The Editors’ Quote of the Day:
    “It should be clear that modern fractional reserve banking is a shell game, a Ponzi scheme, a fraud in which fake warehouse receipts are issued and circulate as equivalent to the cash supposedly represented by those receipts.” –  Murray Rothba…
    - 2 days ago 27 Mar 23, 7:01am -
  • Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 26, 2023
    On March 26, 1812, in opposition to the redrawing of districts to favor incumbents in an upcoming election, the Boston Gazette published a satiric cartoon that graphically transformed the districts into a fabulous animal, “The Gerry-mander”; the…
    - 3 days ago 26 Mar 23, 7:05am -
  • A Special Notice: The Harvest Guard Company is Up For Sale!
    I was just informed by the owner, Brad Stieg, that because he is nearing retirement, that the Harvest Guard Reusable Canning Lids business is being put up for sale. Note that this is an essentially recession-proof business, because when times get har…
    - 3 days ago 26 Mar 23, 7:04am -

SHTF Plan

More Than Just Surviving

  • Invasion of Ukraine – Please Grow a Pair
    Evening folks. Long time no chat as usual, but much like the pandemic, sometimes fuckery of untold proportion unfolds which forces me away from the repetitive rigours of normal life to hammer away at my keyboard. So here we are. Unless you have…
    - 24 Feb 22, 9:41pm -
  • COVID Lessons & Lockdown Life in a Vacuum
    As of last Friday, my little slice of the hemisphere ended the COVID lockdown. I am not sure what sort of reaction I expected. Perhaps a level of jubilance that we managed to get 85% of country vaccinated, or an economic sigh of relief, but fra…
    - 3 Oct 21, 2:15pm -
  • Are Dalstrong Knives Overhyped? Dalstrong Shogun Series X Knife Review
    For my first review of 2021, I figured it would be fun to court controversy by taking a look at Dalstrong knives, Specifically the Shogun Series X 10.25″. Now to some of you sitting at home who haven’t heard of Dalstrong knives and remain b…
    - 13 Jun 21, 11:03am -
  • Lockdown Lucidity: A Prepper Perspective
    As this pandemic stretches to an unforeseeable conclusion, this felt like a good time to drop back in and give you lot an update on my own perspective as a jaded prepper. The current situation here in Portugal is, to put it bluntly, dire. We ha…
    - 24 Jan 21, 4:01pm -
  • Emergency Experience: Forest Fire on My Doorstep
    The interesting thing about forest fires is the powerlessness one feels when placed kissing distance from an inferno. I never really understood the underlying threat of forest fires until 3 days ago, but folks, I learnt that lesson pronto. Firs…
    - 19 Jul 20, 2:29pm -
  • Coronavirus: A (Realist) Prepper’s Perspective on the World Opening Up
    As the world unwinds our collective enforced isolation protocols, it’s good to take stock of the situation at hand and see where this will lead us. The reality is that the economy shutting down until a vaccine is discovered & mass inoculation…
    - 25 May 20, 2:51pm -
  • The Coronavirus Crisis Is Going to Upend Our World in a Way We Can’t Really Fathom
    Figured I was long overdue for an update. With lockdown still in effect, I have no longer have much of an excuse. Isolation is an odd word in our new reality. As a society we have never been so connected. The world is just a click away and it s…
    - 15 Apr 20, 7:15pm -
  • Will the Coronavirus Make Regular People More Prepper Minded?
    If there’s one thing that’s bothering me the absolute most about this pandemic, it’s the uncertainty. The fact that we don’t and can’t know when this will all blow over leaves me a little on edge. And yes, I know that Thomas & I will…
    - 8 Apr 20, 9:29am -
  • Come on Governments, of Course FOMO = Panic Buying; Can’t Stop Human Nature
    As this crisis continues unabated throughout our little blue planet, I find myself growing more and more irritated with the powers that be. Since I have been on lock down for what feels forever (you will understand soon enough America!), I want…
    - 23 Mar 20, 11:43am -
  • Coronavirus Stockpile Tips for Beginners & Why It’s Sensible to Worry
    As this shit show shows no respite, I figured this was a good time to discuss what the girl and I are doing in terms of preparing and what my thoughts are on this developing situation. Stockpiling 101 for Beginners Seems to me that as of a few…
    - 13 Mar 20, 8:24pm -
  • Debunking Coronavirus Myths – Yes, Some Are Completely Idiotic
    On the heels of my no-bullshit Coronavirus explanation article which I recommend you take a quick look at, I feel the need to clarify and debunk some of the nonsense I have seen over the past few weeks. Drinking X Will Kill the Coronavirus Drin…
    - 8 Mar 20, 12:52pm -
  • Coronavirus: A No-Bullshit Explanation of Where We Are Now
    This could get dicey folks. As of 26 minutes ago, we hit over 80,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus including a disturbing rise in a country adjacent to my own. The spread of this virus has shone a light on the darker impulses of our species fr…
    - 26 Feb 20, 11:19am -
  • Conversation time
    After so many years of blogging (admittedly, not so much recently), its interesting to sit back and muse about what MTJS represents and how the girl and I have evolved along the way, both as people and as content creators. MTJS was created as a…
    - 2 Feb 20, 1:22am -
  • Security Information Overload: From Panic to Apathy & the Remedy
    Security overload leads to apathy. How often do you hear a car alarm go off and roll your eyes hoping the owner would disable the blasted thing before the incoming headache comes a knocking? The primary objection I have to such systems is they…
    - 24 May 19, 12:30pm -
  • On Biased Blogger Reviews & Scribbling Opinions as If They’re Gospel
    Re-reading my past scribbles is always interesting to me, not because I am obsessed with my own written word, but rather because bloggers, by virtue of being given a platform to be highly opinionated, tend to ignore uncomfortable realities when…
    - 15 Apr 19, 5:35pm -
  • Real Talk, What Happened to MTJS
    Blogger burnout is a real thing. I have been scribbling reviews and sharing my thoughts with you all for quite a few years now. It seems it all started off as a way for me to talk about my love for Spydercos and evolved into a great community o…
    - 29 Dec 18, 2:58pm -
  • How Much Is Your Life Worth? SafeGuard Armor Ghost Bullet Proof Vest Review
    Before I get into the meat of this review, I want to structure this away from regurgitating specifications like every other review of this sort and instead spend it musing about what this product represents to so many people the world over. Bul…
    - 11 Oct 18, 11:08am -
  • It’s Strangely Satisfying That What I’ve Stockpiled Has Never Gone to Waste
    This is not exactly relevant to the epitome of prepping at all – I think it’s important to prep even if you end up with waste (though I think it’s good to minimize waste) because I think it’s important to be prepared in case worst-case…
    - 23 Sep 18, 2:34pm -
  • Hazard 4 Grayman Series Patrol Tactical Backpack Review
    Tactical backpacks are always a tricky proposition. Either they make you look like you just got off the set of Rambo or they are jam packed with performance compromises in an effort to pass as a normal pack. The Hazard 4 Grayman Patrol is one…
    - 19 Sep 18, 7:43pm -
  • Yes, We’ve Been AWOL; Here’s Why
    Long time no scribbles my friends. I have been AWOL as of late, but rest assured – we had a good reason! As some of you may have guessed, the girl and I have once again uprooted and made our home in a new country. Some of you may remember tha…
    - 17 Sep 18, 3:02pm -

Blue Collar Prepping

  • Misfires and Hangfires and Squibs, oh my!
    While working on a segment for Assorted Calibers Podcast, I realized that it's likely not all of our listeners there, or our readers here, would be familiar with the three main ammunition failures and how to safely resolve them.There are overlapping…
    - 7 days ago 22 Mar 23, 5:39pm -
  • Seasonal Allergies
    While it's not yet officially spring where I live, the impending season is visible on the horizon. One of the more unfortunate aspects of this time of year is the blossoming of a particularly unpleasant, invasive plant species: the Bradford Pear tree…
    - 20 days ago 9 Mar 23, 5:41pm -
  • Gear Stowage
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.No, not storage; stowage, as in "stow your gear". The arrangement of containers, as it were. Cole-Tac Popcorn BagI've talked about my EDC hip pouch and shown all the things I can…
    - 22 days ago 7 Mar 23, 5:55pm -
  • Homemade Soap
    Keeping clean is an essential part of maintaining both physical and mental health. I've taken enough bloodborne pathogen and hazmat classes that not being able to wash my hands regularly makes me actively uncomfortable. Any of our readers who have be…
    - 26 days ago 3 Mar 23, 7:03pm -
  • Minimal Motorcycle Medical Kit, pt. 2
    The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. Even though it is "California cold", raining, and I'm not riding very often, now is a good time to go through my various first ai…
    - 35 days ago 22 Feb 23, 9:09pm -
  • Home Shooting Range
    For many years, one of my dreams was to have a shooting range on my property. When my wife and I moved to rural Tennessee in 2017, I was able to start working to realize that dream. The back third of our property slopes up from the basement door on t…
    - 41 days ago 16 Feb 23, 11:26pm -
  • Two Life Hacks
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.I'm going to flying to Utah on Wednesday, so that means posts by other authors may be late because I'm not around to edit them before publishing. It also means this article is going…
    - 44 days ago 14 Feb 23, 1:17am -
  • The RANGE-R Card
    The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. I needed a way to easily teach an experienced shooter how to estimate how far away objects are, because going over the several dif…
    - 47 days ago 11 Feb 23, 3:15am -
  • Prepper's Toolbox: Adhesives
    Throughout history, humans have needed to attach things to other things, sometimes permanently and sometimes temporarily. While fasteners such as nails, screws, and rivets are all fine choices, there are times when some form of glue is better suited…
    - 49 days ago 8 Feb 23, 8:51pm -
  • Comparing Compasses
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.Over my years as a prepper (and before that, as a Scout) I've accumulated a number of compasses. Some have been good, while others were clearly cheap trash. However, many of them oc…
    - 51 days ago 7 Feb 23, 4:08am -
  • Look For The Helpers
    If any of our readers have ever been witness to an emergency of some sort, they’ve probably noticed different behaviors from people immediately following the event. I'm not talking about professionals, like EMS or fire fighters; I mean the bystande…
    - 52 days ago 6 Feb 23, 3:58am -
  • Guest Post: MSR Dragonfly Review
    by StephenHello intrepid readers! My name is Stephen, and I am a recovering gearhead. My first camping trip was at age six when my family drove 12 hours to the Upper Peninsula and spent a week at various campgrounds there. Between family and Boy Scou…
    - 55 days ago 3 Feb 23, 3:42am -
  • How Many North Poles?
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.You may be surprised to learn that the planet Earth has more than one North Pole.There is the Geographic North Pole, also called the True North Pole, which is the point on the Earth…
    - 57 days ago 1 Feb 23, 2:45am -
  • Car Prepping
    The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.It seems that I occasionally make wise choices that pay off! I don't get to say this very often, but this was one of those times…
    - 61 days ago 27 Jan 23, 7:56pm -
  • Prepper’s Pantry: Oil
    Most dishes require a liquid element during cooking. In some cases this can be water or broth, but for many types of cooking, something to reduce sticking, induce browning, or aid flavor blending is also needed. This is where cooking oil comes into t…
    - 63 days ago 25 Jan 23, 9:31pm -
  • What is Fatwood?
    For as long as I've been in prepper circles on the internet, I've heard of something called fatwood. Folks talking about it make it seem like it absolutely litters the forest floor, and that if you merely let it look at a fire lay and say Shirak*, y…
    - 68 days ago 20 Jan 23, 6:37pm -
  • Prepper's Pantry: Cheese
    Let me preface this post by unequivocally stating that I love cheese. Perhaps not every single type of cheese, but the vast majority of them. (Due to a mold allergy I pay a price for enjoying some varieties, but sometimes it's worth it.)One of the e…
    - 70 days ago 18 Jan 23, 8:02pm -
  • Leave a Message
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.Theseus used a ball of yarn to find his way through the Minotaur's Labyrinth. Hansel and Gretel used white pebbles to find their way out of the forest in which they'd been abandoned…
    - 74 days ago 14 Jan 23, 9:39pm -
  • After Christmas Report
    The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.The holidays were very uneventful this year, since my sister moved to the mountains and there wasn't a big local gathering. I d…
    - 75 days ago 13 Jan 23, 8:51pm -
  • Prepper's Infirmary: Tourniquets
    There have been many posts here, as well as discussions on social media pages, about  tourniquets and Stop the Bleed classes. This made me wonder how many people were interested in getting a tourniquet and training, but didn't know where to start.Ba…
    - 77 days ago 12 Jan 23, 4:41am -
  • Prepper's Armory: Scope Zeroing
    Now that the scope has been properly mounted to the firearm, it's time to adjust the optic so that Point of Aim (POA) matches Point of Impact (POI) for a specific distance. This is called zeroing the scope, and while this can be approximated on the w…
    - 84 days ago 5 Jan 23, 2:53am -
  • Why I Have a Motorcycle Lift Table
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.Traditionally, this blog goes on vacation between Christmas and New Year's Day. For that reason I let David off the hook this week, but I wanted to write something because I've made…
    - 89 days ago 31 Dec 22, 4:12am -
  • Prepper's Armory: Scope Mounting
    As with iron sights, there's a proper way to mount, adjust, and sight in a scope. Actually, I should say proper ways, because there are a number of variables as well as preferences involved with the process.Early scopes were externally adjusted, mean…
    - 96 days ago 24 Dec 22, 3:41am -
  • Rucksack Night Walking
    Not actually Erin.Picture by KJ Photography& is used with permission.Now that it's become pleasantly cool here in Florida, I've been taking nighttime walks around the neighborhood loop with my camping rucksack. As I mentioned back in April, my Bug O…
    - 98 days ago 22 Dec 22, 4:47am -
  • Guest Post: Waterproofing a Bivy Cover
     by George GrootGeorge is a member of our Facebook Group and has written for us before. In the late 1990s I turned in my old olive drab canvas sleeping bag and received a new issue of the Army Modular Sleep System (MSS), which consists of a lig…
    - 19 Dec 22, 4:45am -

Survival Medicine

  • What To Do About Church School Shootings
    News outlets are reporting another attack on a faith-based institution, this time at a church school in Nashville, Tennessee. In this instance, three adults and three children were killed by, apparently, a 28-year-old woman, before the threat was abo…
    - 2 days ago 27 Mar 23, 6:48pm -
  • Tornadoes
    Recently, an outbreak of severe weather swept across several southern states, producing a number of tornadoes, including one in Mississippi that has been responsible, so far, for 26 dead, dozens injured, and number of missing. If I had to choose betw…
    - 3 days ago 26 Mar 23, 2:02pm -
  • Video: A Compact Vehicle Medical Kit
    In this video, Nurse Amy again steps in front of the camera to demonstrate what she thinks should go in a compact vehicle medical kit. This isn’t your full “Bug-Out Bag,” but a lightweight setup that works in normal times or if the you-know-wha…
    - 4 days ago 25 Mar 23, 2:22pm -
  • The Group Medic In Hostile Actions
    Almost a decade ago, before Russia invaded Ukraine or even Crimea, I wrote about a Ukrainian medic named Oleysa Zhukovskaya, a young woman who volunteered as a medic at protests against the Pro-Russian government at the time. In the midst of the acti…
    - 7 days ago 22 Mar 23, 2:30pm -
  • Landslides
    Heavy rain across the state of California has caused landslides, including one that left several homes dangling from a cliffside in San Clemente. The state has seen an unusual amount of rain in certain areas lately, causing destruction and blocking r…
    - 10 days ago 19 Mar 23, 9:41pm -
  • Survival Medicine Podcast: Chemical Emergencies, Thyme, Medical Supplies, More…
    In this episode of The Survival Medicine Podcast, Dr. Joe Alton and Nurse Practitioner Amy Alton discuss the importance of the medic knowing their role and job description in times of trouble, plus how to decide the types and number of medical suppli…
    - 20 days ago 9 Mar 23, 6:50pm -
  • Chemical Emergencies
    I guess by now you’ve heard of the chemical emergency caused by the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in early February. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the hazardous materials included 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride…
    - 21 days ago 8 Mar 23, 4:08pm -
  • Medical Supplies: How Much Is Enough?
    A common question that family medics ask of me is “how much”? Indeed, the state of the world is making people more and more uneasy, and many casual preppers are now becoming more serious about their preparations. This means a real inventory of me…
    - 27 days ago 2 Mar 23, 8:07pm -
  • Video: Minor Wounds
    In this video, Nurse Practitioner Amy Alton steps in front of the camera to discuss what should be in a solid minor wound kit and storage for a possible long-term survival scenario. You’ll be dealing with lesser wounds a lot more often than life-th…
    - 30 days ago 27 Feb 23, 4:55pm -
  • The S.O.A.P. Note In Problem-Oriented Exams
    Last time, we discussed some principles of the medical history and physical exam, something important to know for those  medically responsible for a group in survival settings. Few medics will be conducting regular yearly physicals in survival scena…
    - 41 days ago 16 Feb 23, 4:31pm -