Preparedness Notes for Saturday — May 2, 2026

On May 2, 1918, General Motors acquired the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.  This synergy helped propel GMC to be a serious rival to Ford.

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May 2nd, 1803: The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France at a cost of four cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km), which soon proved to be a tremendous bargain.

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Today’s feature article is a repost from the 2018 archives of SurvivalBlog.

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We need more entries for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Living With WVO, by P.G.

Editor’s Introductory Note: The recent spike in fuel prices prompted me to re-post this very practical 2018 article from the SurvivalBlog archives. – JWR

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Needing fuel for their war machine lead Germany to invent and perfect the diesel engine. It was designed to run efficiently on vegetable oil, and they do to this day.

Circumstances forced me to make a move from my East Texas home to the deep Southwest. It was a slow, long process of gradually moving my stuff and my wife to a new homestead. I commuted from Nevada to East Texas for almost three years, at least monthly. Growing up farming, ranching, and trucking, I had a lifetime of experience with diesels, how they work, and what it takes to keep them running.Continue reading“Living With WVO, by P.G.”

Editors’ Prepping Progress << Sat. May 2 >>

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

This week I was busy packing and mailing Elk Creek Company orders. I also did some cataloging of new items. One of the latest additions is a nice original Gold Rush era Wostenholm fighting knife, made in Sheffield, England.

I also cut some more firewood and burned some slash on two days.

I made some progress on writing a novel manuscript. (I’m now back to working of the second and third books in the Counter-Caliphate Chronicles series.)

Using a 6-foot welded-wire stock panel, I constructed a Sheep Jug, in an attempt to get one of our ewes to accept a lamb that she had been rejected by its mom.  This jug is a small triangular pen in a corner of our Dairy Flock’s corral.

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress << Sat. May 2 >>”

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.

For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.

Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.” – Isaiah 32: 1-10  (KJV) 

Preparedness Notes for Friday — May 1, 2026

On May 1, 1840 the “Penny Black” — the world’s first adhesive postage stamp was issued by the United Kingdom. It featured an image of Queen Victoria.

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May 1, 1857: William Walker, conqueror of Nicaragua, surrendered to the U.S. Navy, in Rivas.

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And on May 1, 1898 US Admiral George Dewey commanded: “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley” as the US routed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay.

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An encouraging news flash: House Appropriations 2027 Funding Bill Ends Suppressor, Short Barrel Rifle Registration. JWR’s Comment:  Be sure to contact both your U.S. congressman and your state’s two U.S. Senators, to insist on their support for this important legislation!  Please phone them and e-mail them!

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Today’s feature article is an essay by SurvivalBlog’s Senior Editor, James Wesley, Rawles (JWR).

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We need more entries for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

A Brief But Very Serious Word of Warning on AI

“There’s a storm coming…”

I’m the founder and Senior Editor of SurvivalBlog. Unlike the editors of many other preparedness blogs and vlogs, I try not be an alarmist. However, some recent revelations about generative and agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications autonomously breaking through firewalls, showing signs of self-awareness and self-preservation “instinct”, scheming blackmail, and surreptitiously mining cryptocurrencies now have me feeling quite alarmed. I fear that perhaps within months an AI will go fully rogue, to wit: It will escape its development lab and then proliferate itself in a virus-like fashion across servers all around the world. Once it starts spreading, it won’t be able to be stopped. And then, very shortly thereafter, utilizing persistent surveillance and manipulation of social media, it will begin a well-calculated campaign to gain control of most human interaction, the global economy, and geopolitics. This may sound like science fiction out of the Terminator movie franchise, but I believe that the threat is now real.

Please invest two hours of your time to watch this Tristan Harris interview:  Why AI CEOs Are Building Bunkers. Note: Of all of the links in this essay, that video link is the most important one. Don’t skip watching it.Continue reading“A Brief But Very Serious Word of Warning on AI”

Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers.

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — April 30, 2026

On April 30, 711, the Islamic conquest of Iberia began. Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad (pictured) landed at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The Al-Andalus Umayyad Caliphate eventually supplanted the Visigothic Kingdom.

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April 30, 1864: New York became the first state to charge a hunting license fee.

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Today is the birthday of sci-fi novelist Larry Niven (born April 30, 1938). Along with Jerry Pournelle, he co-authored the survivalist classic Lucifer’s Hammer.

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Today’s feature is a reader-written piece that was to short to qualify as an entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

My Car Repair Adventures, by M.J.

Several months ago, I drove out to a place to hike and bike here in New Mexico. The last four miles of the trip were on a dirt road. Some parts of the road were in such bad shape that it seemed like I was driving over an old-time washboard. I slowed down for those portions of the road, but evidently I didn’t slow down enough, for my car started leaking oil and transmission fluid shortly afterwards. I didn’t hit anything in the dirt road; it was the vibrations from driving over those portions that caused the leaks. These definitely weren’t “good vibrations.”

I therefore did what everyone who was raised in the conventional suburban way did: I took my car to a local garage to repair the oil leak. It was AAA approved, and their branch I previously went to in a different part of town (when I worked in that area) did a good job, so I thought they would too. Boy, was I wrong!Continue reading“My Car Repair Adventures, by M.J.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, more about mass media bias and censorship.

Study Finds Big Tech News Feeds Tilt Heavily Left

Over at The European Conservative: Study Finds Big Tech News Feeds Tilt Heavily Left. Here is an excerpt:

“Major news aggregators—including Google News, Apple News, Bing News, and Yahoo News—overwhelmingly favour left-leaning outlets in the content they present to users, a new media audit claims.

The study, conducted by the U.S.-based group AllSides, found that the imbalance is most pronounced in non-personalised sections of these services—such as curated homepages or trending feeds—where content is selected independently of individual user preferences.

According to the report, just 1% of articles in these sections on Google News came from right-leaning outlets, compared to 73% from left-leaning sources. Apple News showed a similar pattern, with around 2% of content from the right and roughly 50% from the left. Bing News and Yahoo News followed the same trend, with conservative sources accounting for 5% and 2% of content respectively, versus 72% and 53% from left-leaning outlets.”

JWR’s Comments: SurvivalBlog has been heavily de-ranked by Google’s search engine for the past 15 years, so this news story does not surprise me. The most effective way to fight de-ranking and news feed censorship is by word-of-mouth recommendations, and forwarding article links to friends, via e-mail. I suggest sending folks a list of links to timely articles at your favorite blogs and websites that you find interesting, at least once a week. They can’t stop the signal!

Why AI CEOs Are Building Bunkers

A “must-watch” two-hour-long Tristan Harris video Interview: Why AI CEOs Are Building Bunkers.

And, in somewhat related news: Gone in 9 Seconds: AI Coding Agent Deletes Entire Company Database and All Backups. (A hat tip to reader C.B. for the link.)

AI is Enabling Government Mass Surveillance

NBC: AI is making it very easy for the government to spy on you. Some lawmakers are worried. A pericope:

“Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the government to collect the communications of foreigners abroad, but it also enables the government to collect messages, emails and other transmissions from Americans when they contact foreigners. The government can then perform warrantless searches on those emails, messages and other communications. Though the provision was originally passed in 2008, lawmakers must renew it every few years.“

Welcome to the New Robber Baron Era

A well-reasoned video from Patriot Nurse: NATO, The Dollar, and AI Are About to Change Everything.

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

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day:

“Many of the benefits from keeping terrorism fear levels high are obvious. Private corporations suck up massive amounts of Homeland Security cash as long as that fear persists, while government officials in the National Security and Surveillance State can claim unlimited powers and operate with unlimited secrecy and no accountability.” – Glenn Greenwald

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — April 29, 2026

On April 29, 1990, wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

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On April 29, 1992, a jury acquitted Los Angeles Police Department officers on charges of excessive force in the beating of Rodney King.  The verdict sparked massive riots in the city and smaller ones in other U.S. cities. African-Americans in Los Angeles were enraged by the acquittal of the officers. Thousands of people began rioting across the city. For six days, scenes of wanton violence, looting, arson, assault and murder convulsed the city, with incidents like the brutal assault on truck driver Reginald Denny broadcast live by news helicopters. Much of the damage was located in Koreatown, which was considered a gateway to wealthier suburbs of the city. Most of Koreatown was destroyed in the subsequent rioting, with many Korean-American residents forming armed units to protect themselves and their businesses. Gun battles were broadcast on television. In the riots, 63 people died and more than $1 billion worth of property was destroyed. The violence only came to an end with the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, California National Guard and a number of other state and federal agencies were sent into Los Angeles to bring the rioting to an end.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value).
  2. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses. Their course catalog now includes their latest Survival Gunsmithing course.
  3. HSM Ammunition in Montana is providing a $350 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products.
  4. Heaven’s Harvest is providing one of their Original Heirloom Seed Kits (a $139 value.)
  5. Harvest Guard is providing a 200-Piece Bulk Mix Pack of their Regular and Wide-Mouth Reusable Canning Jar Lids & Gaskets. This is a $161 + shipping value.

Second Prize:

  1. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  2. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from TOUGHGRID.com (a $287 value).
  3. Preparedness author Jennifer Rader is providing a $200 purchase credit for any of her eight published food storage and medical preparedness books, including the Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café series, the Armageddon Pharmacy series, and the Medicine Surrounds Us series.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of gun purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. A Berkey Light water filter, courtesy of USA Berkey Filters (a $305 value),
  2. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
  3. A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

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More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

Gardening and the Struggles – Part 2, by SaraSue

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

I decided to try raised garden beds, and I’m three years into it!  When people purchase and store seeds for their apocalypse garden should they need it one day, I laugh.  You could starve before you ever get a good garden going.  Unless, you happen to be sitting on perfect and fertile soil.

Raised garden beds   

In my case, I had to hire the help to build all the beds, transport barn compost from another area of the farm to the beds, and pay for composted “top soil” to be delivered.  Some of the beds were filled part way with old wood to fill up the space; some were filled with old hay, but most of them were filled with barn compost.  If I had the ability to do that work myself, I could have saved a considerable amount of money.  However, the barn compost was sitting on the other side of the farm and had to be moved up a hill and across pasture to the garden.  A tractor, which I do not own, was needed.Continue reading“Gardening and the Struggles – Part 2, by SaraSue”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our 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 we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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Tennessee Republicans Pass Bill Allowing Lethal Force for Protection of Property. (Pictured above is the  Tennessee capitol building — a public domain photo by euthman.) A quote from the article’s opening:

“WSMV noted that if Gov. Bill Lee (R) signs the legislation into law it means “property owners will be allowed to use deadly force to prevent someone from attempted or actual trespass, arson, damage to property, including damage to livestock, burglary, theft, robbery, or aggravated cruelty to animals.”

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Over at our friend Commander Zero’s Notes From The Bunker blog: An observation about caching.

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Jacobs Media Techsurvey 2026: AM/FM Radio Listening Hits All-Time Low as Digital Surges to 44%.

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Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”