Preparing – Practicing & Preaching, by TJ in Georgia

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Regardless of who you are now, who you were in the past, or who you will be in the future, I think everyone will now be a ‘prepper’. Please consider this: We’ve all had a taste of doing without something in the past month or so, and I for one don’t look forward to this time in history becoming the new normal. I was in Girl Scouts from about 2nd grade until 7th grade. We learned many skills such as hiking, cooking outside, sleeping outside, fire starting, selling cookies (yes, that is a skill) and being a responsible citizen. In …


Generosity in Dire Times, by Elli O.

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Warning: This article may be considered controversial by some readers. During this global pandemic it seems as if TEOTWAWKI could be just around the corner. Daily the media is not only reporting the number of infected and deaths, they are also reporting on different shortages- both real and unsubstantiated. Some are in the present and others in the near future. First it was toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Then it was N95 masks and disinfectant wipes. This past week it was meat- poultry, beef, and pork. For those of us who have been preparing for such times, we were not …


100 Days of Final Preparations – Part 1, by Elli O.

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I’m writing this as a stand-alone article. However, if you would like to read more about our journey through the world of preparedness and our homestead, please see my previous article in the SurvivalBlog archives for November 26-27, 2019. As a follow-up I am writing this to explain what we have done just in the past 100 days and how the global pandemic and possible near-future economical collapse has impacted us and our preparations. 100 DAYS OF FINAL PREPARATIONS For as long as I can remember, I have always had a mindset of preparedness, partly because of my background as …


Knives Under $50 That I Love – Part 2, by The Novice

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(Continued from Patrt 1. This concludes the article.) The Mini Survival Kit Since I mentioned the mini survival kit, I will tell you more about it. It is easy throw into any pack or game pocket when I head outdoors. In addition to the aforementioned Opinel No. 8 knife , it contains a waterproof match case filled with waterproof matches, a ferrocerium rod with a built in compass and whistle, an extra whistle, and a half dozen or so cotton balls dabbed with Vaseline enclosed in a plastic bag. All of these things are kept in a pint sized SubZero …


Knives Under $50 That I Love – Part 1, by The Novice

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The use of tools is one characteristic that distinguishes mankind from the animals. It may be true that chimpanzees will crack nuts with a stone and that some kinds of crows will use a stick to extract insects from tree bark. But when it comes to making and utilizing tools, human being operate on a level far above the most sophisticated denizens of the animal kingdom. Perhaps the most widely used tool across cultures and throughout history is the knife. From the flint knives of paleolithic tribes to the laser knives of modern neurosurgeons, knives enable us to cut things …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 3, by St. Funogas

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(Continued from  Part 2. This concludes the article.) The other big problem I soon discovered with the Thank a Vet program is that it propagates the myth that our military keeps us free. Think back to our childhoods: riding our bikes down to the gravel pit with our Stevens Crackshot .22’s across our backs with a sling, then walking into the little grocery store afterwards to buy some penny candy and nobody calling the police or thinking anything of it. We rode on the floor in the back of the station wagon, or in the front passenger seat of the …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 2, by St. Funogas

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(Continued from Part 2.) Propaganda can also be very damaging to us as individuals, and especially to us as a nation. Advertising = propaganda is ultimately about controlling us. Controlling us so we’ll quit littering, or controlling us so we’ll hand over our money and buy their products instead of the competition’s, or controlling us so we won’t object when they take away more of our freedoms either in the form of raising our taxes again or by passing more laws pushing us towards a more Orwellian future that awaits us. The term Military Industrial Complex (MIC) was popularized by …


Propaganda and My Prepping – Part 1, by St. Funogas

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(Part 1, of three parts.) Author’s Introductory Note: I normally enjoy interacting with commenters after JWR posts one of my articles but I will state in advance that I will not be debating any of the topics discussed herein. My apologies for that. My sincere desire is that you will read this, avoid knee-jerk reactions, and ponder what I’ve said before you respond. I’m sure some of it has never crossed your mind before. So I hope that instead of forming an immediate opinion, you’d instead ruminate on this for a while and let it simmer over a cinnamon roll …


Bug-In/Bug-Out Transportation, by WVA

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In this articles, I will discuss some considerations for selecting and preparing your Schumer Hits The Fan (SHTF) vehicle. Nearly all post-disaster/prepper/survivalist/etc. novels follow one of two plot lines. The first, our heroes are caught away from home and forced to travel on foot when their vehicle ceases to operate due lack of fuel, mechanical failure, being stolen, etc. The second, our heroes are at/near home and are bugging-in, using the vehicle for short trips until bugging-out when the situation deteriorates. Either of these plot lines show how vital reliable and capable motorized transportation will be when the worse happens. …


Thoughts on Force in the Real World, by K.M.

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The following is my essay that explains the 2nd Amendment, with the issues distilled down to essential truths. The right to keep and bear arms is a God-given right to self defense against any source who would force their unlawful will on you. Whether that is to violate your person, relieve you of your property, or physically attack you, or as an extension, to protect others in the same dire situation. For such a right to be capable of performing in the real world it would have to be able to meet a threatening force with an equal or greater …


Home Water Storage on a Budget, by KC Seven

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There is really no reason why one can’t store a considerable amount of water. If you have access to food grade containers and some potable water from the tap or better, a modest water filter, then one can store copious amounts of water. It just takes a little time. We are retired and living that “fixed income” lifestyle. Fortunately, we learned to prepare at a fairly early age and spent a little time to store important tools and supplies when we could afford to do so. Then, later in our careers, we found ourselves acquiring a broader array of tools …


Wu Flu Versus Spanish Flu, by Steve Coffman

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I’ve long been unhappy with the way COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu of 1918 have been compared. Obviously it is a short hand way to compare quarantine and stay at home measures of today with 1918, as opposed to the lethal nature of the sickness. For the record, the Spanish Flu was a far more terrifying and deadly disease than the Coronavirus. On the subject of quarantine though, there are reasonable comparisons but only to an extent. While the Spanish Flu shut down many places, it did not cause the same crippling economic impact that we are seeing from Coronavirus. …


Reaching Out to Others May Save Our Lives, by Ani

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Whenever I’d get upset about not understanding why someone was doing what they were doing or thought the way they did, a friend always used to remind me that “not everyone thinks like you do”. That adage sounds simple on the surface but I’ve realized that it is a profound truth and of critical importance to us preppers. At the time that I’m writing this we are immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic. I watched this coming, from the earliest days when the first reports of some strange new Coronavirus associated with the market in Wuhan was briefly noted online. That …


Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), by Pudge

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What are standard (or standing) operating procedures (SOPs), and why should you have them? According to the U.S. Army, a SOP is “a clearly written set of instructions for methods detailing procedures for carrying out a routine or recurring task or study.” Now what does this really mean and how can I actually apply this to both my daily life and also high stress situations? First, a quick background so that you can understand why this topic is so important to me. I’m an active duty Army Special Forces officer (O-3) with extensive experience around the world. I make my …


Facing Lockdown in an Apartment – Part 2, by J.F.J.

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Barricade doors and windows with heavy or bulky furniture. Keep the intruders out of your apartment, but do not trust your barricades to stop bullets. Remember that reinforced doors, boarded-up windows, and bookshelves-turned-barricade are for keeping out intruders; they are not for ballistic cover. Building bullet stops for a safe room is not the focus of this article. Please consult the shooting and ballistic experts for advice on that subject. For our purposes, let us turn to the needs of water, food, and fuel. Water Unless facing a water outage because of …