Nomads of the Second Great Depression, by A.J. in Texas

For 45 years I was all about the Great American Dream.  A 100 mile per day [round-trip] commute to a six figure pressure cooker job supported an upper middle class lifestyle.  All that changed in 2001 when I was squeezed out of that job during a company transition to second generation children.   Overnight, the new CEO and COO determined I was too traditional and old school for the vision they had for the company going forward even though I had served their father profitably for a decade.   In quick succession I lost the house, the cars and a wife of …


From The Big City To Homesteading–Our Ten Year Journey, by Wranglerstar

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Ten years ago, my wife and I, as young newlyweds, were living the American dream. Our future was bright. While my wife earned a lucrative salary and I built a successful online business, we were on the road to success.  Our urban lifestyle provided us with everything our hearts desired.  In 2006 everything changed.  With the collapse of the housing bubble and the economy in a tailspin, we woke up to the fact that our easy urban lifestyle was fragile and dependent on factors far outside of our control.  We began to be alarmed at the precariousness of our current …


Seventeen and Prepping, by Michael on the East Coast

Greetings, my fellow SurvivalBlog readers! My name is Michael, and I am seventeen years old. I live somewhere on the East Coast of the United States of America with my mother and father. To the rest of the world, I appear a normal teenage boy: Glued to my iPad, where I read SurvivalBlog each night before bed, obsessed with both new and old music, and always quoting music lyrics, movies and television shows with my friends. Yet what both the majority my friends and society do not know is for the last year I have been preparing for The End …


Bad as a Bullet: Tick and Mosquito-Borne Diseases, by D.K., DVM

We have SCUBA friends from Canada who do a lot of camping, and one year the wife came down with a debilitating illness that put her out of work for many months.  The medical system there did not make it easy to consult a specialist, especially one familiar with arthropod-borne diseases.  She showed all the symptoms of Lyme disease, including weakness, fever, sore joints, lethargy, headaches, and muscle aches.  Plus she had been exposed to ticks while camping.  She suffered for over a year before she slowly recovered.  Though it was never confirmed to be a tick-borne illness, odds are …


Insulin Dependent Diabetics When TSHTF, by AERC

About five years ago, my husband started worrying about many things happening to our country and the world in general.  Bird flu, inflation, resource grabbing, bank bail outs, government policies, Peak Oil… and more provided fuel for his concern.  As I listened to him talk about what was happening in the world, I began to think about what to do in a situation that would dramatically alter our “way of life”.  We already had goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and chickens.  We already had a nice sized garden and I already canned what we didn’t eat fresh, but it wasn’t done …


Global Economic Collapse: Causes and Some Potential Outcomes, by C.D.W.T.

I believe the global economy stands on the brink of meltdown. The immediate trigger of this collapse is the European Debt Crisis, but the build up to this catastrophe has been building for years and decades. Three of the major drivers of Global economic growth: the US, Europe, and mainland China , are all on the verge of economic slowdown, if not outright collapse. Usually, if one region of the globe is contracting other regions are growing and able to take up the economic ‘slack’. For the first time in modern history, all regions are slowing at once. This is …


Letter Re: Prepping with Fangs: Dogs for a Survivalist

Dear JWR: I have read the previous thoughts on this and I see someone has mentioned several different breeds. I would like to add for those considering a dog to also consider Great Pyrenees. These dogs have the very thick double coats that protect them from attacks, are well known for their ability to take down bears and mountain lions when kept in packs, and are some of the best herd dogs on Earth. If you are wanting to breed them you will have to get the dogs about two years before you are expecting to have pups as generally …


Food Storage on a Budget, by N.T.M. in Nevada

When it comes to food storage, people that I have talked with have almost always made the comment that they can barely afford to feed their family now much less afford to have food storage.  I am currently working with a few people and teaching them how to feed their family and still put food up for TEOTWAWKI.  There are three things that I tell people to always do, (1) gardening, (2) couponing, and (3) food co-ops. (1) Gardening.  When TSHTF, you don’t want to be changing the way that your family eats because then you could be facing worse …


Are We Just Preparing Instead of Preparing and Preventing?, by C.W.S.

Generations of Americans have been vigilant in the past about doing what they believed would provide for their families in times of need.  There has always been a large variation in the types of preparations and the extremes each would go to in these measures.  Why?  Because we are all different people with various backgrounds, influences, upbringings, ethnicities, education and finances.  Some people have lived through the Great Depression, or just hard financial times for that matter. Living through this has instilled a belief upon their families to “put a little away for a rainy day.”  This could mean putting …


Melting Lead for the Meltdown, by Charles J.

As an avid competitor in IPSC and local pistol competitions, a number of years ago I decided to reload ammunition on my own.  I felt this would pay for itself over the long haul as well as allow me to work up loads that would have the correct power factor, accuracy, and excellent feeding for competitions, not to mention self-defense.  In addition, after the passing of the Brady Bill, I took on another task of casting my own bullets with the possible specter of either the government removal of ammunition from store shelves or some other legislative means of taking …


Survival Architecture: Building a Retreat that is Defensible, Sustainable and Affordable, by Phil M.

Have you designed and built your own survival retreat yet?  If not, read on.  Designing and building a survival retreat that can provide protection can be affordable and also provide more than adequate shelter and warmth to not only keep its inhabitants alive, but comfortable. To understand how this is achievable we must first understand what sort of materials are available and how each of them apply to defensibility, sustainability and affordability.  Secondly, we must understand how the arrangement of these materials into form, or design, can lend themselves  to defensibility, sustainability and affordability. Materials A major problem with conventional …


David in Israel Re: Effective Partner and Small Team Tactics

James It is good to see real life combat tactics discussed by Officer Tackleberry. I would respectfully add a few more very useful drills. I am in agreement with Tackleberry that some of the more dangerous drills should be performed with paintball or pellet guns at first to lock in the safety training. but the ‘warrior inoculation” is both important and if done with a range safety officer or two safe. I seem to remember Galls or one of the other public safety catalogs selling a chamber safety plug that stuck out of the barrel a bit to assure that …


Optics — Seeing Is Believing, by Littlebird

When you think of all of the needed equipment during or after an emergency, I am willing to bet that optical devices aren’t at the top of the list.  We will think about and plan for just about everything except seeing what is around us.  While pondering things to prepare for, I had the thought: What would be some items that would take some doings to replace?  While it is highly doubted that FEMA would come to your rescue I am almost certain that they will not arrive carrying the items that I’ll point out. Glasses If you wear glasses …


Precious Metals in Context: Prudence, Moderation and Balance, by Gentleman Jim from Colorado

As I read the occasional letters and articles on SurvivalBlog about storing/using precious metals (PMs) during a TEOTWAWKI of whatever sort, I must conclude that every single writer is absolutely correct–and yet also mostly wrong. You might ask: How can everyone be right and wrong, simultaneously? It’s because most preppers seem to anticipate and plan fairly narrowly for the use of PMs. IMHO, if you’re taking such a narrow lane down the preparation highway, you’re not thinking big enough. Any situation following a currency collapse will be complicated by varying degrees of social disorder, economic breakdown, extreme paranoia among the …


Travel Security, by CapnRick in Argentina (Part 1 of 2)

The following recommendations are a result of my travel throughout the world on business for 20+ years. These observations are offered as a helpful supplement to other sources on the web dealing with personal security issues while traveling. My apologies to those who do not find these observations pertinent to their particular situation. Allow me to say that these suggestions are offered freely and without restriction so they may be passed around with no obligation. Very little of this information is original to me, and I apologize if anyone has written anything similar. Also, I am not a security professional …