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Well to day I ordered 2 3 lb PKGS of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carniolan_honey_bee). This will be my first go with this type of Honey Bee(in the past I have kept Italian Honey Bees(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_bee). Wish me luck!

Chances are you didn’t hear about it when it happened or the investigation that followed. Last April just outside of San Jose, California the grid system came under direct attack. Investigators have yet to identify any suspects, but the attack seems to have been well planned. First, someone accessed an underground vault housing fiber optic telephone cables and cut off communications to a large PG&E Substation. Then, for 19 minutes, someone opened fire from long-range. The sniper apparently utilized 7.62x39mm rounds, such as those used in an AK-47, to target the oil-driven cooling systems for 17 large transformers. The shell...

Hi All, This posting is to announce the publication of my new book "When There is No FEMA - Survival for Normal People in (Very) Abnormal Times". Before posting this I coordinated with JimRob to receive guidance on how to do this properly. This professional, textbook-quality, 500+ page book represents the culmination of 3 years of painstaking research and authorship, and is intended to be the definitive reference for anyone interested in modern day disaster preparedness. Topics covered include: Disaster Planning Bugging in and bugging out Emergency food and water Emergency fuel and power Raising small livestock (chickens, rabbits, etc.)...

A popular article in the survival sphere entitled “Lessons from Argentina’s economic collapse” from Ferfal documents the struggles of living in a collapsing society. Download it here in pdf Argentina Collapse or simply read below.

From Terry Burnham, former Harvard economics professor, author of “Mean Genes” and “Mean Markets and Lizard Brains,” provocative poster on this page and long-time critic of the Federal Reserve, argues that the Fed’s efforts to strengthen America’s banks have perversely weakened them. First posted in PBS. Is your money safe at the bank? An economist says ‘no’ and withdraws his Last week I had over $1,000,000 in a checking account at Bank of America. Next week, I will have $10,000.

There’s a whole slew of things that I want included in my food storage pantry, but many of them don’t lend themselves well to the canning process (chocolate!), can’t be dehydrated (walnuts!), or aren’t a great candidate for the classic 5-gallon bucket (sunflower seeds!). Packing these foods in canning jars and then using a vacuum sealer, such as a Food Saver, to store them long-term is super easy.

Have you been paying attention to what has been happening in Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey and China? If you are like most Americans, you have not been. Most Americans don’t seem to really care too much about what is happening in the rest of the world, but they should. In major cities all over the globe right now, there is looting, violence, shortages of basic supplies, and runs on the banks. We are not at a “global crisis” stage yet, but things are getting worse with each passing day. For a while, I have felt that 2014 would turn...

Desperation triggered anarchy in communities flattened by Typhoon Haiyan as survivors of one of the most violent storms ever to hit land struggled to find food, clean water and medicine Wednesday ....[snip].... ANC Television said security forces exchanged fire with armed men amid widespread looting of shops and warehouses for food, water and other supplies

There have been many articles written about so-called "bug-out bags," "grab-and-go bags," etc. All I have read about are very good. My problem is, if I needed something, I would have to rummage through the bag to get whatever I needed. I think my survival vest would be a perfect companion to the bags. Everything you might need in a hurry would be right at your fingertips, plus you could wear the vest while hiking or hunting. When not in use, it can be kept in a vehicle for other emergencies. With the vest, you always have your hands free...

-snip- In reality, Smeerenburg was usually abandoned at the end of each season, though by the 1630s, years of vicious competition led Dutch whalers to try something novel: leave a crew of volunteers to overwinter at Smeerenburg, both to be on hand to protect more expensive equipment that could be left behind, and in order to get the whaling station up and running as soon as possible the following spring. And so in 1632 seven men were left in Smeerenburg to wait out the winter. It did not go well. The Dutch volunteers quickly succumbed to the “polar night disease,”...

For someone in an urban area who plans to hunker down and doesn’t plan to bug out with country cousins, one thing that should be at the top of everyone’s list but that’s very much overlooked is… if you’re in a situation where you have power because you have photovoltaics but your neighbors don’t, you really should concentrate on black-out curtains for your windows. You need to black out your house completely, without any light leaks so that your house will look just as black as any other on your block. Otherwise you’re going to be targeted as the rich...

Some special operations medics in Afghanistan now have a new device that helps save soldiers with the most common cause of preventable death in combat: a traumatic pelvic wound. Unlike a hemorrhage in the arm or leg where a tourniquet can be used to shut off bleeding, there was no way until recently to do the same for wounds in the lower torso, which can kill a person in a matter of minutes. It was “a noted capability gap on the battlefield: How do we treat bleeding where we can’t use tourniquets?” said John Croushorn, a former Army doctor. After...

WASHINGTON — The electric grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11. ~ SNIP ~ One goal of the drill, called "GridEx II", is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain...

Former Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey led a panel discussion on the growing and imminent threat a nuclear or natural electromagnetic pulse, EMP, to America's power grid and devastating loss of life that would follow such an attack. President Bill Clinton’s former Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey, led a panel discussion on Natural EMPthe growing – and perhaps imminent – threat of a natural or nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to the U.S. electric grid and other critical infrastructures that sustain modern civilization and the lives of millions of Americans. The event was sponsored by the newly...

It happened a few years ago during a trip to USA for the Self Reliance expo in Utah. After the expo we decided to go have dinner to this place nearby. Jack Spirko was driving and as he turned to enter a parking lot he had to hit the breaks to avoid running over a woman and her two brats that just walked in front of the car without a care in the world. “People like these, they will be the first ones to go when SHTF” said Jack. You know what? Jack was right. People like that are the...

The latest real estate boom to sweep America comes with all the trappings of luxurious living: custom-built swimming pools, gyms, full-length basketball courts, and even airplane hangars. The only catch is that this time, the features are all buried underground. The boom in bomb shelter sales over the past 15 years has taken the spartan 1950s notion of a fallout shelter and given it a makeover, according the owners of three companies that make and sell shelters. Now, custom installations can create 100,000 square foot underground dwellings that could hold dozens of people for months or years.

Any of you who frequent the prepper threads, or are on the Prepper Ping List, I am putting together a monthly free magazine, BY US and FOR US. This is not a blog pimp post, I don't have a blog or web site, and don't want one. I am looking for interested FReepers to provide content (articles, photos, columns, gear reviews, etc.) that will be assembled into a PDF that is ad free and noncommercial, which will be posted here monthly and, if Kartographer agrees, pinged to the Prepper ping list for free download and enjoyment. Readers will not have...

Says Obamacare leading U.S. down pathway to socialism The surge of bullet-buying confirmed by the federal government – purchase estimates run into the billions of bullets – even as the U.S. military scrimps to find training ammo is raising lots of questions about the government’s so-far unexplained actions. But a video that has been around since last year is being forwarded across the Internet as an explanation. The six minutes recorded by Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, retired, warns that America is well along the pathway that other societies have used to bludgeon and beat their populations into submission...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — First responders from across Los Angeles County are practicing for the “big one” Thursday in a drill designed to measure the response to a magnitude-7.8 earthquake. The exercise is hosted by the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management and will take place downtown from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. “It’s our game day. The NCAA basketball tourney is starting, it’s their game day. It’s our game day for the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Offices, Office of Emergency Management,” Emergency Manager Kenneth Kondo told KNX1070. This year’s functional exercise will feature the California Integrated Seismic...

More and more people continue to buy guns in Hawaii and this weekend's gun show at the Blaisdell was packed. Business at this weekend's gun show is booming. "A lot more women a lot more families, it's not just a man thing anymore," says Sheldon Tyau, Event Coordinator. Organizers say it's the largest crowd they've seen in the show's 35 year history. The longest line was for ammo.