Personal Notes of Application From SurvivalBlog’s “The Frog in A Slowly Heating Pot”- Part 1, by C.F.

First of all, let me say that Mr. N.H., who wrote The Frog in a Slowly Heating Pot, is a skilled writer; he provided a very picturesque, succinct, and articulate article. More importantly, the experience he shared was dynamic and highly educational. It was not some far-fetched, improbable scenario, but a very common and probable one, and the lessons he learned can be a blessing to many, it seems. Yes, we have questioned the story’s authenticity, but upon close examination I cannot find anything that would prove it to be fictitious based on internal evidence. If it is fictitious, the …


Prepping Like It’s 1920, by G.S.

My grandparents were born at the turn of the century, right around 1900. They were married around 1920, and my grandmother died in 1923, a year after my dad was born. Their entire life was, in a snapshot, the epitome of today’s prepper beliefs. If it didn’t happen virtually without the involvement of anybody except the immediate family and what was there at the farm, it didn’t happen. It did help that they were far in the woods on top of a mountain in Vermont. The funny thing is that when you really look into it, they had everything we …


Don’t Forget To Prep Your Spice Chest, by T.H.

Spices may be the number one overlooked item when prepping a kitchen to survive the apocalypse. The following article, which I wrote based upon my 15 years of chef experience and a lifetime quest for a self-sustaining lifestyle, includes reasons why you should stock up on spices, information about prepackaged spices, my technique for building a stockpile, the addition of seed-stock to your stockpile of heirloom seeds, how to store home-grown herbs/spices aswell as some techniques for using them. Surviving Doesn’t Mean You Have To Suffer One of the pillars of prepping for survival is to stockpile food. This is …


Does the Number of the Beast Have an Area Code?, by CTS

[Editor’s Comment: SurvivalBlog does not endorse the concept of the “number of the beast” being associated with any form of technology; however, the information presented in this article is of import to anyone who is concerned about the collection of private information and government oversight.] Listen carefully. I’m about to tell you something that they don’t want you to hear. I’m also about to tell you something that you most likely don’t want to hear, so you may want to sit down for this. You don’t need your cell phone. There I said it. You may say, “but they are …


Conditions for Combining Survival Groups Under Extraordinary Circumstances – Part 2, by G.R.

How much of the land floods? i.e. During past tropical storms, how much of the land was under water? Again, this is ***(a southern state)***. Yes, the land gets wet when heavy rains come. All campsites and camper parking areas must be able to be elevated by the owners. The harder the rains, the worse the situation would be. In fact, a very good chore would be scouting and foraging for lumber and then constructing suitable platforms for tents. There is nothing different here than at any scouting campground or other public campsite. The land is protected by a wide …


Conditions for Combining Survival Groups Under Extraordinary Circumstances – Part 1, by G.R.

The following is a response addressing concerns of those to whom a proposed “Plan B” bug-out scheme had been provided by a larger, existing group to multiple smaller groups. This larger group had extended an invitation to smaller groups that are lacking the financial and over-all resources of that larger group. This is a series of responses that have been/were made to the chief “officers” of the smaller groups. The basic proposal is for a 60-day, temporary sheltering at a safe location with provision capabilities for a larger group of individuals and families beyond the recognized community/core member group. This …


Protecting Both Tube and Transistor HF Communications Equipment From E1 EMP Pulse- Part 2, by PrepperDoc

Transistor / QRP Equipment The solutions shown so far may not adequately protect computer-based software-defined radios, hybrid transistorized-vacuum tube radios, or fully solid-state QRP or low-power stations, or transistorized shortwave radios. These radios will need to use protection that clamps at a much lower voltage than 700 volts! While transistor transmitters may use power amplifier transistors that may have breakdown voltages in the scores to hundreds of volts, the input circuitry of many QRP transistorized receivers will likely be fried with voltages well under 100 volts. There are a couple of solutions that can offer lower-voltage clamping more appropriate to …


Protecting Both Tube and Transistor HF Communications Equipment From E1 EMP Pulse – Part 1, by PrepperDoc

Introduction and Tube Radios Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) is a serious national threat with growing public awareness. A high-altitude atomic/nuclear explosion sends electrons plowing through the earth’s magnetic field lines and thus generates powerful radio waves that impact the earth below the explosion within a radius of many hundreds to thousands of miles. The peak field strength is immense, on the order of 50 kilovolts per meter, and covers a very broad frequency spectrum, from very low frequencies, past 100 MHz; but the first wave (named E1) is evanescent, over in a mere microsecond or so. There are additional, slower incident …


Getting Started With Aquaponics- Part 2, by F.B.

Plant Rafts with Sprouting Blocks I utilize six plant rafts, each 4’X6’, for a total of 144 square feet of growing area. Each tank has room for three 2’x4’ polystyrene 1” thick rafts. Each raft has 27 one-inch holes made to accept rock wool sprouting blocks. These are commercially available on Amazon or most hydroponic source stores online. Each block will hold several sprouted plants (if you want to grow multiples on the block) or a single sprout if you prefer. Larger plants, like cabbage, take more room between plants than vertical growers, like tomatoes. Fully planted with (for a …


Getting Started With Aquaponics – Part 1, by F.B.

Aquaponics is a practical skill to learn for prepping now, while the ability to obtain all the pieces and parts exists. The technology of aquaponics combines raising fish with gardening vegetables only in water. (There is no soil used at all). This usually takes a dedicated room that is water resistant, a reliable continuous (read redundant) source of electricity, food safe tanks of various sizes (any material from plastic to glass), and a good source of water. With the drought in California, which is the part of our nation that supplies a major proportion of the vegetables we find in …


Compressed Air Well Pump and Pressurized Home Water System Bubbles- Part 2, by H.W.

Acquiring Parts To build this pump, I wandered for about two hours through the plumbing section of one of the big box home improvement stores. I love it when the guys who work there come up to me and ask what I’m looking for. I tell them I have no idea, and then I show them the back of my envelope with still-wet scribbles, as I design my project in real-time while I’m walking through the store! They see this a lot, I think. It might be called Home Depot engineering. I’ve noticed that the big box stores have stopped …


Compressed Air Well Pump and Pressurized Home Water System Bubbles – Part 1, by H.W.

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There have been many great articles and letters on SurvivalBlog recently regarding alternative, non-electric, or low power well pumps. I’ve built an alternative well pump that runs on compressed air. It does require electricity to compress the air, but an air compressor can be run off a modest solar/battery rig easily and can pump a decent amount of water suitable for an emergency situation. I’d like to describe how I built this pump and how it works. First, let me say that there are various air-operated pumping systems out there, including variations of this one; there are also some you …


Becoming A Warrior At Gunsite Academy, by J.H.

I had dreams of becoming an armed warrior at a very young age. My father and my uncle put a .22 rifle in my hands after I joined the Boy Scouts, and they asked that I go with them through the woods along the Cahaba River in Shelby County, Alabama. They cared less about sports and preferred that I learn how to survive in a non-urban/non-suburban environment. I believe they were interested in passing along family history as much as anything else. They told me how my ancestors, mainly my great-grandfathers, survived as warriors when they fought in the American …


A Guide to Assembling an Off-Grid Carpentry Tool Box, by B.F.

I pre-ordered JWRs book Tools for Survival last year and have read through it twice now. It is a great guide for anyone preparing for a time when self reliance becomes more of a day to day necessity than it is today. With that in mind, I wanted to add to the body of work by reviewing and commenting on the contents of two different tool kits that I have had a fair amount of experience with. Either one or both will serve well in an off-the-grid world. The first one is the US Army Combat Engineer Carpenter’s Squad Tool …


Orange Coffee Nut Firestarters, by Missouri Maven

One of the favorite things I create over the course of spring, summer, and fall are my Orange Coffee Nut Firestarters for my wood stove. I think my recipe came about because my grandparents instilled their Great Depression mindset of “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” into me at an early age. The stories they told me, of using things up until they were used as fuel to survive winter on the prairies of South Dakota, are ones I still tell my grandchildren today. With all their gadgets and technology, it is a little …