Hurricane Milton After Action Review – Part 1, by Soyez Ferme

Date and Location: October 9, 2024 — West Coast of Florida, under the eye of Hurricane Milton, inland from landfall. Hurricane winds howled outside, and the rain pelted the windows when the lights flickered for the final time and died. On the darkest of nights as Hurricane Milton unleashed its fury on our rural Florida bunker, my mom confidently stated, “I feel safe here.” After a long, and mostly sleepless night, we rose before dawn to walk the property. What follows is a breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly of our preparedness strategy for weathering a vicious …


Our Hurricane Experience in South Carolina, by K.U.

We live in a rural county about 60 miles from Augusta, Georgia. The night of September 26th, 2024 was one we never thought we’d experience so far inland. A full-blown hurricane was upon us (winds were recorded at 80-100mph in our county). We awoke early on the 27th to no power and 1 bar of very spotty cell service. We built our house on a hill and made sure that no trees were nearby, so our house had minimal damage. We had some water come in and down a wall from the chimney, but plan to fix that with a …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 5, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 4. This concludes the article.) This photo shows the area behind the stove that is about 18 inches away. It could have been safely installed at only 12 inches away, yet because there was the space available and to help improve the airflow at the closest point, 6 inches, this was a good use of the additional distance. In addition, we can see the welds around the stove pipe collar on the wood stove and the welds at the juncture of the lower half and the pan that supports the grate. The bottom of the stove becomes …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 4, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 3.) Army Tent Stove Modifications As the M1941/H-45 assembles with one half that sits on top of the lower half to make it ready to use. It can be made about 8 inches lower in height of its is assembled size for transport as one half can sit inside the other. The H-45 when assembled uses 3 nut and bolt attachment points on the outside of the stove to secure the pan to the top half. This is a worthwhile improvement as it would be possible to knock the top half off should some take a hard …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 3, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 2.) Operating the M1941 In Extreme Weather I’ve found that the M1941 at -30F will provide adequate heat for a cabin that is not insulated and that is no more than 300 square feet in size. It will keep you comfortable and the water in the plumbing flowing if those pipes are exposed to the cabin’s interior. It will burn 6 to 8 loads of wood every 24 hours at that temperature depending on the type of wood used and how it was processed or split. One load of wood will fill a 6-gallon plastic bucket. Larger …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued From Part 1.) The Simple Wood Stove In a small, well-insulated home, or not so well-insulated home, even if it is only a tent, heating a smaller area requires less fuel and effort to make a comfortable space in which to live. In some cases this might be just a temporary shelter during the winter months. In the 1800s, living in a small one-room wood cabin that housed an entire family meant less wood had to be cut by hand. My grandpa raised a family of 10 in a dirt-floor cabin built from logs on his Missouri farm during …


U.S. Military Tent Stoves – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

In my most recent article titled Practical Wood Stoves, I discussed affordable and durable conventional wood stoves for the home in a general way. An early 1980s Forester wood stove was the focus for that class of stove. There are a plethora of wood stoves on the market. When selecting an appliance that we may very well depend upon day in and day out for the next decade to provide life-sustaining heat, we must be careful not to settle on what is on hand or what looks good in the home, and certainly not what is the most affordable. I …


Georgia: Hurricane Helene – Part 2, by Forward Preppers

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) We had seven trees across our driveway, all of them on power lines. And no way to get out. We were trapped. I let that sink in…. I’m not leaving here unless someone comes along and cuts these trees. These trees that are in contact with power lines. Power lines that scared me to death. So, gingerly, I walked around the property taking it all in and taking some pictures with my phone. The two trees on the propane tank had strangely missed all valves and gauges but the weight of the …


Georgia: Hurricane Helene – Part 1, by Forward Preppers

Our background: We have been prepping and part of the SurvivalBlog community since 2011. We moved to our bugout location in the summer of 2016, a secluded spot in Middle Georgia. I work full-time at a local bank in a town about 25 minutes away. My husband had total knee replacement surgery several weeks prior to the hurricane, so he was unable to help much. We are in our late 50s/early 60s, respectively. Back in September 2017 and 2018 we experienced hurricanes with power outages of five days on the first one and three days with the second one. And …


Practical Wood Stoves, by Tunnel Rabbit

Wood stoves are the heart of everything that happens at a off-grid homestead. The obvious reason is that it provides heat that keeps the home warm and comfortable, yet it can also be used to cook and preserve our food, boils water for drinking and cleaning, and just as important, wherever it is located there will be the family gathered together. The Fisher/Forester style stoves were produced in the the early 1980s all over the U.S. in small and large metal fabrication shops that purchased the doors that had the name brand cast into the door. Had the name plate …


Pressure Cooker Lessons Learned – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) The first issue when I started was using the pressure cooker even though the gasket had some very small wrinkles along one surface. On the previous two experiments the pressure hadn’t gotten above normal and the gasket held. The second issue developed after Experiments #1 and #2. The lid was harder to turn into place so I applied butter to act as a lubricant for this third experiment. The owner’s manual suggests a little mineral oil if a small amount of lubrication is needed. Too much butter making the gasket too slippery …


Pressure Cooker Lessons Learned – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) I took the pressure cooker back into the house and washed and checked everything again. Pressure cooker knocked over in use – Next, I wanted to know if a pressure cooker got tipped over or knocked off the stove, what would happen? I was expecting a steam release, but how much? I set up the stove and pressure cooker on a stump in my north 40. This time I just used water. I placed an old sleeping bag next to the stump to avoid damage to the pressure cooker when I pushed it over after attaining …


Pressure Cooker Lessons Learned – Part 1, by St. Funogas

This article refers to what happens if you break all the rules while using a pressure cooker. It refers only to stove-top models, not electric models such as Instant Pot which I have no experience with. My First Pressure Cooker Many people don’t own a pressure cooker because… Who wants a bomb in the kitchen? I worried about the same thing the first time I ever used one. I warned my family ahead of time that I was taking the new pressure cooker on a trial run. I instructed them to be on alert and if they heard me yell, …


Mentoring: Steps Toward Changing The World – Part 2, by A Grateful Mechanic

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) What I implore you to consider is how can you take direct action to help our younger generation to find an old and better way to spend their time. If you are not physically able to interact with your community, I ask for your prayers. Prayers for our leaders, for our adults, and especially for our young people. Sitting idly by and complaining will not change anything. Becoming demoralized will not change anything. I too am disgusted by the degeneracy that I’ve participated in during my younger years, as well as what …


Lessons Learned from Hurricane Helene, by N.C. Ham

I really did not give a lot of thought ahead of time about the approaching storm. I spent time at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo in Cuba growing up and I have lived through several hurricanes in the Southeast. I won’t make that mistake again. I now see how we can get way too comfortable with the daily situation live in and not see the forest for the trees. My work location is several hours from my home which is in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I work from home about half the time and was in the mountains when …