Are there any SurvivalBlog readers who live in the Orange Free State? 

This began the saga involving a mistyped return address (his error) and a go-around with the neighboring PO Box. It also involved another strap exchange. To make a long story short: James took care of these iterations with courtesy and prompt service. The belt I’m wearing is the one that fits, and works as needed.

I told him that this is the way America should be. I hope this increases the star rating for Siege Belts.”

The one that you are looking for is the unabridged 18-CD set.  The only unabridged CD set that I’ve ever owned is in a cardboard box, for the consumer market.  I assume that there was also a library edition (like your others, in plastic cases), but I haven’t seen one in captivity. You might want to put a “watch” in to find one, as it comes up on eBay.  That is probably your best bet on finding one.  I suppose that you could get a generic empty library-style box separately, for the more common cardboard box version, if you can find one.

Even harder to find are the Playaway editions.  I still don’t have a set of those custom book players, for my books. (Only Patriots.)  The Playaway company still makes them, but frustratingly they now only sell them to libraries. I’d be happy to pay a premium to get Playaway players with Survivors, Founders, Expatriates and Liberators.

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Smokey mentioned this site that keeps track of our congresscritters: Congressional Limited Government Index. Here is a description of the data available from their free service:

“Containing 38,655 votes and 122 in-depth policy analyses, the Congressional Limited Government Index has more unique sampled roll calls than the federal scorecards produced by over a dozen of the leading national advocacy groups — combined.”

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Reader L.E. wrote:

“One comment, regarding finding like-minded neighbors (as mentioned in the Thoughts From an Old Prepper article), I think his rationale is based on a time back when, when there was an unlimited amount of uninhabited virgin land, and anyone new moving in would have been welcomed with open arms by the few existing residents. Having myself moved into a rural area with distantly-spaced well-established residents, I believe this will not be the case in the future. If you are not related to anyone in the area, you will be regarded with suspicion for several years, and any attempts to commandeer, integrate or join community activities will, if not met with outright hostility, will certainly be regarded as “those darned outsiders”. Once resources become scarce, people tend to pull back, or huddle into small groups of tried and tested individuals. As we can see now with unlimited illegal immigration, forcing integration down the throats of disparate groups does not work.”

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I have a credit card merchant account that I maintain for my side business, selling antique guns. By request from a reader, I’ve just created a new monthly SurvivalBlog subscription item there, so that folks can avoid using PayPal. There are also several other SurvivalBlog subscription and donation options available, via credit card.  Note: Just ignore the request for a copy of your driver’s license, since that is intended for payments for antique guns, as proof of age.

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SaraSue sent this snippet:

“Farm update:  My dairy cow is doing very well after suffering from milk fever right after the calf was born.  The bull calf is doing fantastic and will be castrated soon and raised for beef.  I have already made a butcher date for November.  I have 3 full freezers now: beef, pork, and venison, plus fat to be rendered into lard and tallow.  All the pigs and piglets are gone now to new homes, and my freezer is full of pork from the 3 pigs who went to the processor a couple of weeks ago.  It’s sad when they go, and fulfilling when the freezers are full.  The cycle of a farm.

In other news, my car spent a week at the mechanics, but I was fine without transportation for a week because I am always stocked up.  The car needs to go to the dealer for some “updates”, still needs new tires and brakes, but regular maintenance was done.  Hoping to get all the additional work done very soon.

Gardening:  Work has begun on converting the garden from an in ground garden to raised beds.  It’s quite the process to cover the ground, construct the beds, fill them halfway with old wood and other carbon, (I chose tall garden beds – 32” tall so I can save my back from bending over),  then top them with compost.  The farm compost is not ready to use yet, so I have to purchase compost this year and I’m hoping it’s the last year I need to purchase it.  I ordered bulk Mullein seeds since they are hard to find, and plan on seeding a large area specifically for Mullein.  I use Mullein tea to keep my respiratory system clear and it works.  I no longer use medications for those issues.  All in all, a busy week.”

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The coming collapse of “El Nino” and flip to “La Nina”…potential ramifications on the upcoming Atlantic Basin tropical season.

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An interesting new video from SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Mike Williamson: The 1874 Entrenching Bayonet.

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A reader wrote to ask my opinion on Glock Model 19 clone pistols. There are several good clones available here in the States. Most of them are clones of the well-proven Gen 3 Glock design — though many of these are now variants with slides cut to accept red dot sights.  In terms of affordability, the Combat Armory CA19 and the Palmetto State Armory Dagger clones are hard to beat. And in terms of precision machining, Lone Wolf Arms in Idaho makes perhaps the finest quality Glock clones.  Both their Dusk and Timberwolf lines of Glock clones are excellent. They recently added very durable nitride-coated versions of their complete Dusk pistols and their Dusk slides.  Lone Wolf’s offerings are more expensive than PSA’s, but still less than the price of comparable factory Glocks. For do-it-yourselfers, the 80% Arms clones can be quite reliable, and there is no FFL paperwork required if you get the 80-percent-complete version frame.  To finish one up, you can buy a Gen 3-compatible slide and lower parts from any of the four aforementioned companies. Brownells also sells some very nice Glock Gen 3-compatible slides and barrels. Another good option for completing a home-completed 80% frame is to buy a used original Glock parts set from Gunbusters, by way of GunBroker.com. That company buys a lot of police-seized guns and police department trade-ins from jurisdictions that require the destruction of serialized frames. – JWR

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Fittingly, this will be on Patriots Day (April 19th):

MSG Jan “Dutch” Wierenga‘s ashes will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, 19 April 2024 at 1500 (3:00 PM EDT.)

His family hopes that Dutch’s friends and colleagues will attend if possible. Arrive at the Arlington National Cemetery Main Gate 45 minutes early, and tell the guards that you are there to attend the funeral. They will direct you accordingly.

Though he was small in stature, Dutch was a giant in both SOF and intelligence circles. Here is a published obituary. His biography, titled: Dutch: From Rising Sun to the Rise of Jihad, Six Decades of Service was written by “Kim Kipling”, who coincidentally is a SurvivalBlog reader.

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