Gunsmith Training, by R2

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I recently began to wonder about retirement. I’m in my 50s, self-employed, and middle-class. My father worked for the same company for 45 years and retired on a comfortable pension, but I don’t see that happening to me. Unlike years past, there isn’t any real loyalty between employers and employees anymore and retiring after long years on the job is more of an exception than the rule now. To add to this concern, there is the reason I’m self-employed. I’ve never performed well under the thumb of a boss. However, I have been able to excel when working for myself. …


What is Survival?- Part 5, by MuddyKid

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What is survival? I am talking about my journey from short-term to long-term survival and thinking on what is legible. We left off on the subtopic of the human predator and specifically with my question about whether the situation in Syria would be considered a short-term or long-term situation. Syria What has been going on in Syria is interesting and one of many regions that I pay close attention to in effort to understand survival. To the leftwing, Syria started because of a climate change induced drought. For the rightwing, Syria started because Assad is a communist sympathizer who is …


What is Survival?- Part 4, by MuddyKid

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I’ve asked the question, what is survival. Mostly, up to this point, I’ve talked about providing long-term resources for food when the stores are no longer an option. We’ve talked about gardening, foraging for plants, and hunting or trapping. This was just part of my journey in developing a means for survival. Feeling Depressed, Looking Through Digital Window As I had previously mentioned, during my time out in the woods learning skills and testing my gear, I was also reading anything and everything I could that related to the state of the world and ways to protect my family. After …


What is Survival?- Part 3, by MuddyKid

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I’ve asked the question, what is survival and am addressing my progress in discovery of solutions from short-term to long-term ones. In the last part, we left off talking about hunting as a survival technique and that not all hunting is the same. Many seem to have the opinion that the “Golden Horde” will strip the land of all flora and fauna and there will be no natural resources. It’s my opinion that this is sci-fi. I explained that not all hunting in the same. Let’s consider some more of my reasons for thinking that hunting will be viable as …


What is Survival?- Part 1, by MuddyKid

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We are all interested in survival, and we read this site often to understand ways to survive. But, have we ever stopped to ask the question, what is survival? A Complex Question I think that is a complex question, because survival means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Survival always has different contexts or scenarios. For the purpose of this article, I want to challenge what the idea of survival is. I plan to do this through experiences and examples that I have personally participated in. Legibility I am beginning this with a framework of …



EMP And The Modern Computer-Controlled Car, by Oldgeezer

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There seem to be a million different opinions on what will happen to computer-controlled cars, trucks, and vehicles of all kinds after an EMP attack. Maybe my experience will help expand your knowledge base. My First-Hand Knowledge I have spent many an hour reading about EMP, watching numerous videos about its effect on civilization, and had some real doubts about some of the claims. While none of us have experienced a true EMP attack, I now have first-hand knowledge of what we may experience when/if an attack occurs. In 2015, a highway patrol car in our state was struck by …


A Portable Water Distiller- Part 2, by JMD

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Recent history has shown us that clean water is almost always one of the first items to become unavailable after a disaster. Since I live within a day’s walk of the Atlantic Ocean and occasionally camp near the shore, I wanted to make a portable water distiller that could handle salt water as well as some of the more contaminated fresh water sources. In this article, I outlined my objectives for a distiller and now am writing how I built one. So far, in part 1, I have provided a materials list and provided the first few steps, which included …


Letter: Computer Backup Software

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Hello SurvivalBlog Readers I would like to ask what system you would recommend for backing up computers? The reason I ask is that recently I had a hard drive crash in which I almost lost all of my data on my computer- including a couple of novels I had been working on. The crash had happened while backing up the computer to an external hard drive. Luckily it looks like my external hard drive did not die and as I’m writing writing this message it is retrieving the files. In addition to an external hard drive what other things would …


A Portable Water Distiller- Part 1, by JMD

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Water is arguably one of the, if not the, most critical element to survival. Recent history has shown us that clean water is almost always one of the first items to become unavailable after a disaster. A Water Distiller To Handle Salt Water As Well Fresh Water Since I live within a day’s walk of the Atlantic Ocean and occasionally camp near the shore, I wanted to make a water distiller that could handle salt water as well as some of the more contaminated fresh water sources. My requirements were: Portable It should be portable. So that means that it …


How to Survive Your Survivor Obsessed Husband, by Abigail A.

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Although I survived Y2K and the Great Economic Collapse of 2008, when my husband became obsessed with prepping and survival techniques, I didn’t know if I would. His words made sense, but already depleted from the day-to-day care of our two children, the new passion unraveled the stabilizing thread in my heart. Intense Fear and Anxiety Over Children’s Future He didn’t understand the unending multifaceted thoughts in a woman’s mind let alone the unfortunate reality: There isn’t a shut off. What will happen to our kids when this happens? How will we survive? Exasperated by news and social media, my …



Guest Post: The Meaning Of Good And Evil In Perilous Times, by Brandon Smith

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Perhaps the most destructive idea ever planted in the minds of the general public is the notion that nothing in this world is permanent — that all things can and must be constantly changed to suit our whims. The concept of impermanence fuels what I call “blank slate propaganda”. The usefulness of the blank slate as a weapon for social control should be explained before we examine the nature of good and evil, because these days it infects everything. Recycled and Repackaged Old Ideas Notorious For Failure The push for never ending social “evolution” has been called many things over …


Maintaining Mental Health in the Face of Crisis: Dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress, by M.G., MSN, RN

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Many of us have considered how we would provide for our family’s physical needs, including medical care, during a prolonged crisis. Indeed, it would seem foolish to be unprepared for trauma related to accidents, violence, fire, et cetera, when professional medical care might not be available for weeks, months, or more. What most of us don’t think about is the effect that a long-term crisis and/or exposure to traumatic events could have on our mental health. Next to food, shelter, and security, this may seem to be a low-priority concern, but depression and anxiety related to traumatic events can have …


How I Sued My Neighbor and Won- Part 2, by A.E.

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In part 1 of this article about how I sued my neighbor, I described the details of how my young daughter and I arrived home to witness a dog attack of our chickens. I tracked this dog through the snow and had an uncomfortable encounter with this neighbor, to whom I explained the situation and asked for compensation. One of the men there pulled his finger, like a gun, and pointed it at me. Subtle intimidation ensued, but I didn’t back down. The end result was his refusal to pay for the expense of my chicken, so I took him …