Surviving Kidney Dialysis in a Down-Grid Scenario, by G.C.

The power-grid goes down two hours before you are scheduled to begin your next round of hemodialysis at a clinic thirty-five miles away. Using the Ham radio, you discover through your III Percent communications network that all power is down across the southern sector. There is little hope of it being restored in the foreseeable future. The clinic should have a back-up generator in place, so (other than an inconvenience) your treatment should go ahead as planned. You lock the place down, turn on the alarms, and then you and the wife head for the clinic. As usual, when you …


Bugging Out With Children, by T.L.

The day that we found out I was pregnant was a happy and joy-filled day. Never once did it cross our minds that a few years down the road, we would fear for the lives of our children and their futures. The world in which we live in is a scary place. The economy is always in peril, the government continues to become more unstable, and it seems we are always one step away from some catastrophic worldly event or the threat of scientific experiments gone wrong, causing a man-made apocalypse. Whatever the case may be, we live in constant …


A Few Thoughts on Water Storage, by N.P.

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I’d like to discuss a few ideas about water storage and describe what I’ve decided to do in our situation. My background, since most of this is my opinion, is that I work as the chemist (meaning I manage the water treatment systems) in a large power plant, hold the highest drinking water license possible in the state where I live, and am a degreed microbiologist. I’ve dealt with various water treatment systems for awhile. I don’t claim to know everything, but I do think that I’ve learned some things, and I hope to pass along a few ideas and …


Solo Prepping, by Scott

I live alone. No, I’m not a hermit, curmudgeon, recluse, or ogre. I simply choose to live alone, and if normality as we know it dissolves, I am prepared to survive alone. As a typical working stiff, I spend the majority of the daylight hours at work. My office is 34 miles away from my home. If things suddenly take a turn for the worse while I am at work, I will have to make it back alone across those 34 miles to get home. Home is where most of my preps are stored. Home is where I am most …


Little Things WILL Become Big Things, and Food Will Be Everything!, by L.T.

When everything falls apart there are plenty of plans for “bugging out”, “bugging in”, and so forth. Whatever path you choose, things won’t return to normal soon and quite possibly never. Much has been written on beans, band aids, and bullets, but there will also be a huge demand for little things that we take for granted. Of course, there will be an even bigger demand for fresh food. Decent food is a major issue; you can’t live forever on storage foods, and most people can’t live forever in the woods. The following is information from our experiences to help …


Building Skills While Paying the Bills: Carving Time to Hone, by Scouter Dad JEB

The Greek philosopher Aristotle– teacher of Alexander the Great (a title given later in life and probably not while he was a student)– is quoted as saying, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This statement applies in many areas in life, but perhaps it rings most true with the prepper/survivalist community. As a budding prepper/survivalist with three young children, the most valued commodity in our family is time. Hours of dedication spent skipping lunch breaks at the corporate office to stay employed, followed by the children’s after-school activities, make time for …


How to Build a Defensible Single Family Retreat, by M.S.

My parents were part of the “Back-To-The-Land” movement in the 1970’s, so I am no stranger to the principles and techniques underlying today’s prepper movement. Cutting ten cords of wood to heat our northern Minnesota home, by hand with an axe and a crosscut saw, was part of my formative years. Raising chickens; living in the deep woods, which were especially deep during the year that my father moved us to a camp in northern Ontario that could only be reached by float plane with the nearest neighbor 60 miles away and only accessible to us by snowmobile in the …


Single Mom Prepares, by M.B.

I am a single mom with a ten year old daughter, a Christian Constitutionalist, and a prepper. I grew up very poor, both physically and emotionally. However, my grandmother gave me a tremendous spiritual foundation for which I am forever grateful. Life is about making choices– choosing to put one foot in front of the next and keep going, regardless of the circumstance; choosing to prepare for whatever comes; and choosing to trust in and follow God in all ways. Establishing a Mindset to Survive The first eighteen years of my life reads like a bad dime store novel. It …


Some Notes on Remaining Humble, by Marine in Missouri

One of the many great lessons I have read over and over in this blog is that practice makes perfect. This can apply to any skill set one wishes to consider. I would like to stress the word “read” in the last sentence; reading does not equate to learning, and often in our human hubris we decide that if we think about it, we know it. I think one of the most potent sins the father of lies enjoys tempting us with is the sin of pride. Without going on a diatribe of theological concepts on pride (and I’ve heard …


Beekeeping for Long-term Self Sufficiency, by T.D.

Several years ago I was introduced to a book called Passport to Survival written by Esther Dickey. This book elaborates on how you can provide for all the essential nutritional needs for you and your family with just four basic ingredients– wheat, powdered milk, honey, and salt. As I thought about these four items, I realized that I had it within my power to provide for one of these four items without much change in my lifestyle and without an excess of effort. I live in the city, so growing more than just a few handfuls of wheat in my …


Ten Ways that Purchasing an Older Home is Helping Us to Prepare, by C.F.

When we first purchased our home less than three years ago, it was a charming four bedroom, two bathroom, Dutch colonial bungalow, built in 1920. It was a complete flip, featuring laminate flooring, faux granite countertops, and some, shall we say, interesting additions and subtractions. What I mean by this is that we had a few new walls where there used to not be any and a few original walls that were taken down or partially removed. The home advertised new carpeting, flooring, windows, and siding. Most importantly for us, though, it came with new plumbing, electricity, and mechanicals. The …


Communications for When SHTF, by N.M.

Communications is a key element in our everyday lives. If you don’t believe me, try going a whole day with no cell phone, Internet, television, or any other means of communications (COMMS). So it stands to reason that having COMMS, when SHTF, is essential to gaining intelligence (COMINT), the safety and security of your family, keeping informed, and keeping at least one step ahead of anybody with bad intentions. Like any skill, it is essential to practice; that means practicing before SHTF, so that you have the necessary skills. While most of the communications methods discussed in this article are …


The Mindset and Experience of a Single Competent Female Prepper, by Skylar

For the majority of my adult life– 34 years– I have taught, lived, worked, and recreated in wilderness settings. I appreciated JMS’s call for articles from single female preppers, as it has been a frustration of mine for many years. My early years were spent trying to prove that women can be effective and competent in a survival setting without having to become “one of the guys” or Rambo-esque. It took me a couple of tries before I found an organization to work for that shared this view. I spent the next 10 years working for Outward Bound, and I …


Covert Communications, by J.K.

When it all hits the wall, one thing you should be sure of is that someone is listening to every communication you make within reception range. Many will use scanners to try and find you or your group. If they hear radio activity, especially activity on the short-range radios, they will know you are near. Some will use direction-finding antennas to get your exact location. The idea with radio comms is to use the least power and radio with the least range that will get you reliable comms. If all has gone south, you will want to use radio only …


God and Guns: Your Biblical Right to Self-Defense, by J.B.

You have a biblical right to self-defense. In a life and death situation, you should know that God says it’s okay. This can prove extremely difficult for Christian believers that respect life so much that they don’t want to take it, even when it means it’s necessary to preserve it. The Natural Right to Self Defense Boiled down to its simplest level, every creature on the planet has the natural right to use whatever means necessary to defend itself. Life feeds on life. Nature is brutal and doesn’t show mercy. Wolves eat their larger prey hind end first while the …