One of the World’s Most Useful Skills, by S.V.

My father impressed upon me a useful skill that has saved my life on more than one occasion. Whether it be traveling on dangerous highways in the saddle of a motorcycle or watching for a gun in the hands of a suspect, constant and consistent situational awareness is a critical survival skill. When the grid shudders to a stop or money becomes more useful as toilet paper than currency, our exercise of practical situational awareness will mean the difference between life and death on a daily basis. This is why we should take actionable steps to continually hone this perishable …




Letter: Asking for Preparedness Advice

Hi there! I heard JWR on InfoWars speaking on investing. This evening, my husband and I looked up your website and found the investment area and read your wisdom. We really already knew what to do, but I find myself overwhelmed and then get distracted. Your advice was to get prepared for a crisis first with beans, bullets, and Band-Aids! I love that. So now we’ll get going back in that direction. We have 13 children. And that’s not a joke. We were wondering if your readers could please point me in a direction that would give me a simple …




Selecting a Portable Handheld Two-Way Radio, by R.

Recently I purchased a good two-way HT (slang for a hand-held Ham radio), and I thought I would share my thinking process behind picking it. General Points Here are a few general points. (Later I will get into the specific details.) Conditions and Reasons May Differ First off, I want to say that these are the conditions and reasons I used to make my choice. Yours may be different. I have a Ham radio license. This means I can operate within a wider frequency range than those frequencies covered by an off-the-shelf radio (FRS/GMRS). If you just don’t want to …




On Chemistry: Making Activated Carbon and Hand Warmers, by R.T.

The practical usefulness of chemistry is often overlooked. In the video game State of Decay, there are various monologues that characters can randomly give. One such monologue speaks about how one person is amazed that all of the toilet paper disappeared after the zombie apocalypse. He jokes that while everyone else was worried about food and ammunition, someone realized that they’re going to continue to use the bathroom, so they’d better stock up on two-ply. In many ways, this represents the two modes of thought on preparedness. You have the people whose first thought is rightfully their immediate needs. You …







Fruit Cake? Are You Crazy?, by NMSourdough

Why in the world are you writing an article about fruit cake? Is it just because of Christmas? No, there are good reasons for writing about fruit cake and how it can supplement your food supplies. (I started the article during the Christmas season and have been delayed in completing it.) “Crazy Like A Fox” Fruit Cake Rations Well, believe it or not, fruit cake should be, or at least could be, a part of your rations to keep you going during difficult times. Whether it is a hurricane, a blizzard, an EMP, economic collapse, or an attack of zombies, …




Letter: Updated Survival & Austere Medicine Book

Hugh, As many of your readers already know, the newly revised, highly recommended book, Survival & Austere Medicine: an Introduction, has been published free online in .pdf format (click the picture!). There are several editions online. Make sure you download the 2017 3rd edition edited by the group collectively known as RAWTWMDBM. Available in Hardcover And now this 2017 edition (589 pages) has been published in hardcopy by Lulu. It’s available in hardcover with black & white illustrations for $29.25; paperback black & white for $19.28; paperback with full color illustrations for $111.91; and hardcover full color for $126.35. This …




From Piglets to Bacon- Part 5, by Animal House

I’m a grandmother who has plunged into raising pigs, and I’ve worked with them from the time they were piglets all the way until they were full grown 400 pound hogs. Then, I’ve butchered two females and processed the meat myself. In the four proceeding parts, I have described this journey– from the animal selection to providing a secure pen, food, and water as well as developing my plan for butchering and processing. There has also been a difference between the plan and reality, and I’ve explained both. Well, actually, I’m now describing my real experience with processing. So, let’s …




From Piglets to Bacon- Part 4, by Animal House

I’m a grandmother who has raised her own small livestock and grown two female piglets into full grown hogs. This is my story. In the first three parts of this series, I have told how I began raising pigs, the selection process I went through, preparing their pen and securing them, growing them, and my plan for butchering them. The process didn’t go exactly as expected, and I’m in the midst of telling you what actually ended up happening and what I learned along the way. Butchering (continued) Butchering is something I have never done so I was flying blind. …




From Piglets to Bacon- Part 3, by Animal House

I am a grandmother who decided to raise her own small livestock, including pigs, and then to butcher them. This is my story. In the first two parts of this article series, I have already written about selecting and growing the pigs as well as told my plan for butchering two female hogs. Slaughtering and Butchering (continued) I laid out my plan in the last part of this article series and included the specific tools and materials required. I expected to complete the whole process of killing, cleaning, butchering, and packaging within two and half days or a max of …




Letter: Scarlet Fever Warning

Dear Mr. Rawles, We just returned from a trip to our local urgent care clinic with our two-year old. He has had a fever of 102ish for over four days. Much to our surprise, he was diagnosed with scarlet fever. My wife and I were concerned with the flu or other related complications when he first became ill. We were not at all on the watch for scarlet fever. However,  his fever completely subsided on Sunday and his energy returned. But we found find him returning to be ill again today with a fever over 102.5. We thought it best …




From Piglets to Bacon- Part 2, by Animal House

This is my story, as a retired grandmother of raising small livestock and our experience of going from piglets to bacon. In part one, I shared about preparing the pen, selecting the piglets, and basically getting them set up and situated in their new space. But after that, it was time for them to grow. Growing the Piglets When the girls were young, we fed them twice a day. They got a varying mixture of healthy non-GMO swine pellets, soy meal, fresh eggs, and hot oats on cold days, any table scraps that the rabbits and chickens didn’t get, and …




From Piglets to Bacon- Part 1, by Animal House

This article is about growing piglets, slaughtering, and butchering hogs. It covers everything we did from start to finish concerning piglets to bacon! Why a Retired Grandmother Raises Small Livestock But first, it is important to understand why in the world a retired grandmother would want to raise small livestock. While this article is not about the bad stuff in commercial pork products, I want to list the reasons why I make the effort to raise my own small livestock. Just for starters, “…synthetic preservatives are added to 70 percent of all factory farmed meat and poultry to prevent spoilage, …




Rethinking Federal Government Preparedness Resources, by J.P.

The government can’t always keep you safe, but they can always get you killed. For a long time I’ve held that notion near and dear to my heart only to have it revalidated whenever and wherever calamity strikes our nation. I’m sure there are some bureaucrats that would agree with my opinion. Furthermore, it appears that some people within our government have fought the good fight for the preparedness community when they made available a number of free resources to add to any preparedness library. It just so happens I keep electronic copies of these publications on my smart phone …




Letter: The Real Restrictions of Australia’s Gun Laws on its Citizens

HJL, Just wanted to give your readers a taste of what our Australian “Gun Control Act” has meant to law abiding Aussie shooters in light of the articles on “Preparing for the Inevitable American Gun Ban”. A firearms license is required for all transactions involving firearms, firearm parts (not accessories) and all ammunition sales (license number and amount of ammunition purchased is recorded). All semi automatic firearms are restricted to an extremely regulated and difficult to obtain Primary Producers License (regardless of caliber). All handgun licenses are for competition shooting only (or Security Industry), handgun magazines are restricted to 10 …