Multiple Families on Your Retreat, by Farmer Brown

When our family moved to our ranch/retreat, we spent the first year living in a 30-foot travel trailer in the barn. With five kids, ages fourteen down to one years old, it was a tight squeeze. That was some good rustic living experience; we used a wood stove for cooking, an outhouse as our toilet, solar showers, and solar power. We gained a lot of new skills and gained the motivation to get the old farm house fixed up and livable. Living in the barn also gave us and the kids a new appreciation for hot water, flush toilets, and …


How to Obtain Your Amateur Radio License, by N.M.

This article will provide you with some information on how to study for and obtain your Ham/amateur radio license and what to look for in your first radio. License Classes The amateur radio (aka “Ham”) licenses issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are issued in three classes– Technician, General, Amateur Extra (usually just called Extra). Each license class brings increasing privileges of frequencies that can be used. There are three grandfathered licenses classes called Novice, Technician Plus, and Advanced. The Novice license was issued to those who passed the old five word per minute (wpm) Morse code test but …


Low-Budget TEOTWAWKI Preps – Part 2, By E.J.H.

So let’s go into some improvised methods for each of the prongs listed earlier. Improvised Methods for Detering Invaders You should get a loud dog. I have a golden retriever, who, even though he would probably just lick an invader’s boots, sounds like a dog three times his size when he barks, and he sounds very deadly. He is not effective for defense, but he could definitely deter a potential looter. A good dog would be a German Shepard, Pit Bull, or Bullmastiff to deter robbers/raiders even before the world ends. I know I would not like to even risk …


Low-Budget TEOTWAWKI Preps – Part 1, By E.J.H.

I am here to teach you some practical tips for preparing and surviving the end of the world without fancy preps or high-dollar retreats. I will also share some practical uses I have found for everyday items. As much as I would like everyone in America to be able to afford nice, expensive things for their preps, that just cannot be. Let’s face it, Mr. James, not everyone has enough money, time, or space for prepping, or maybe it is just not a big aspect of their life. Yes, I would love to have a multi-million dollar retreat, but some …


Traversing the Hinterlands – Part 3, by Iowa Farm Boy

Dangerous Areas It will be extremely difficult to cross this region while avoiding some major cities. For example, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are very close together. You all know as well as I do what happens when people get desperate. How far away from the cities this will effect the countryside, I don’t know. Cities to avoid specifically are the ones with major prisons, like Fort Madison or Anamosa. There are several prisons or minimum security facilities across the region, and someone coming through Iowa needs to do their research and avoid them, if possible. I have spent the …


Traversing the Hinterlands – Part 2, by Iowa Farm Boy

Weather As with all situations, it depends on how long it has been since the SHTF. If it is Spring when you set out or Fall, you will be in pretty good shape temperature wise, although Spring can be quite windy at times. In the heat of the summer with high humidity, I’d suggest traveling at night. You will bake out in the open on a day with no wind. Even if there is a strong wind, it may hit you like a blast furnace. The night may not necessarily bring respite. The heat will become oppressive at times, and …


Traversing the Hinterlands – Part 1, by Iowa Farm Boy

I have lived in the Midwest all of my life, 90% of which was spent in the Central Iowa region. I’ve traveled the roads and byways from Toledo, Ohio to Denver, Colorado and from Minneapolis, Minnesota to St. Louis, Missouri, and more. Most of this was via the Interstate highway system, so I can’t comment too much about what is too far off of the main road, except in my immediate region. It must be noted that there is a specific reason why the original Lincoln highway (Hwy 30) and Interstate 80 go right through the center of this part …


Tails for MacBook Users: Anonymity for the Survivalist, by Losttribe

Since the exposures of details regarding the NSA’s communication capture and domestic spying programs, many Patriots wish to keep their identities as anonymous as possible. Examples would be avoiding the tracking of us (who read online blogs, search for articles and information applicable in TEOTWAWKI, and make certain purchases that we feel are not the business of the powers that be) by those who wish to capture and store all of this detail for use against particular individuals and groups, whether it be in our current “big brother” era or future TEOTWAWKI. For many users, reducing your cyber footprint is …


Hypothermia: Prevention, Identification, and Treatment, by Stonecold

Hypothermia is a condition wherein the core body temperature drops from its “normal” temperature, with normal being between 97.7 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Some symptoms, in order of increasing seriousness, are cold extremities, mild shivering, mental confusion, muscle incoordination, severe shivering and shaking, combativeness, paradoxical undressing, and cardiac arrest. A drop in core body temperature of as little as three degrees can result in these symptoms and eventually lead to death. Hypothermia should be a concern with anyone who lives in Western Washington, given our wet, temperate climate. Its prevention, identification, and treatment must be in the forefront of our …


Our Experience Growing and Storing Our Own Food- Part 3, by Tennessean

Farming Equipment Farming equipment is useful in various functions of gardening, particularly when growing a large garden for a family’s self-sustenance. Mechanical Seeders Two months ago we were on a UT field trip visit to a farm several counties northeast of us. I was extremely impressed with “Farmer Bob”. He demonstrated a Jang Clean Seeder. it actually worked! Two other push hand seeders we have tried have been about as useless as a screen door in a submarine. This gizmo is NOT inexpensive, but it does the job. We bought a fertilizer attachment, a row marker attachment, a rough soil …


Our Experience Growing and Storing Our Own Food- Part 2, by Tennessean

Seed (continued) Winter Squash One needs to give these cultivars a LOT of room, planting on a grid 8’ by 8’ is about right. This year we are growing two winter squash cultivars that keep a long time in a root cellar. Anna Swartz is a C. maxima and Waltham Butternut is a C. moschata and will not cross pollinate (this is why you must have Suzanne Ashworth’s book!), so we will be saving the seed from these. Insects pollinate the cucumber family, and we’ve oodles of all sorts of pollinator insects in East Tennessee, and they fly for many …


Our Experience Growing and Storing Our Own Food- Part 1, by Tennessean

A recent post commented on how it is next to impossible to grow one’s own food. It’s very hard work, has a difficult and long learning curve, but it can be done. This essay explains how to efficiently grow and store your own food. You can learn from our mistakes. Both my sets of grandparents farmed with a team of mules. We know a couple in a county north of us who farm using with a team of mules; they are able to feed themselves, the mules, and also customers at a farmer’s market. About Me I’m 73 years old …


Getting Home – Part 2, by BF

First, I had to decide where to spend my time bargain hunting and then plan my trip to maximize opportunities. The places where I decided to shop for the remaining necessary “get home” items were: Thrift shops Estate auctions Pawn shops Tag sales Craigslist.com online listings Walmart Dollar stores Grocery stores Thrift Stores These are stores that serve as outlets for the donation of goods to support the charity’s mission. Goodwill, DAV, and Salvation Army are the mainstays in this area. These are generally good to browse at, but they can be hard places in which to find bargains, as …


Getting Home – Part 1, by BF

I recently had to travel for work to a large, Midwestern city with a population of about two million. I needed to spend two weeks there working with a team to help recover an IT development project that had gone “south”. I could have traveled back home for the middle weekend; however, I didn’t want to spend all the extra time traveling, waiting for connections in airports, and so forth, so I stayed in the city. The Challenge For fun, I decided to spend that weekend seeing what I could put together for a get home bag, with a target …


Bugging Out “Alone”, by Professor Prepper

There have been many articles written about the folly of bugging out into the wilderness in a TEOTWAWKI event. However, if you want to see what it will be like to bug out alone in the wilderness to try to survive, then you need to watch the History Channel’s new show Alone. The concept of the show is to drop 10 survival experts off on Vancouver Island alone, with minimal supplies. The last man on the island wins $500,000. You can read the ten men’s bios and the list of the 10 survival items that each chose on the History …