Category: Contest

A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 4, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. At this point, we’d already dug and poured the foundation and put in the walls of our log cabin. However, it’s not a log cabin without logs. Unloading Logs (Four hours were dedicated just to unloading the logs.) This required another piece of rental equipment called a lull. (It is a large fork truck that can keep level when it’s on rough terrain by tipping its shocks to compensate.) The semi-truck pulled up and parked 200 yards from the site due to the …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 3, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. In part 2, we began with an overview of our finances/expenses of our move and property purchase and began detailing the build activities. Today, we are continuing with our log cabin construction process. Concrete Pour (We required one day for the concrete pour.) At this point, your first cement truck will arrive, with spinning bucket and all. Back them up to the corner that you want to start at, and have him extend the chute to boom over to line up between the …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 2, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. In part 1, we explained why we made the move to the American Redoubt and now we are getting into the nuts and bolts of our process. Finances/Budget Milestone Cost – USD Property Search/Travel to locations $4,000.00 Land Purchase Classified Log Package Kit $37,000.00 Foundation $15,000.00 Subfloor $5,000.00 Gables /Roof $7,000.00 Roof foam/frame $8,000.00 Tin roof $4,000.00 Porches $1,500.00 Stain/log jam $3,500.00 Temp Stove/Chimney $3,200.00 Septic Tank/chambers $3,000.00 Propane Tank/Filled $4,000.00 Grading Property $3,500.00 Interior walls/Insulation $2,000.00 Plumbing $2,500.00 Electric $3,000.00 Vents/interior wall …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 1, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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Epigraph, Genesis “And God said unto Noah, ‘The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms though shalt make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without pitch.’” – Genesis 13:13-14 KJV Background Let us give you a little background about ourselves. X. Liberal is a man with athletic build who played ice hockey in college, where he was educated with a master’s degree in accounting, and is a CPA. X. Liberal’s …


Traveling to Your Safe Haven During a WROL Event- Part 3, by E.P.

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In the first two parts of this article series, we have been talking about traveling to your safe haven during a without rule of law event. Part 2 began the overview on traveling by vehicle. We left off with discussion about roadblocks and multiple cars traveling a good distance apart so that the lead car could make a three-point turn in the reverse direction and warn the other cars in advance of a roadblock. Let’s continue with this scenario. Over-watch Team Defending the Lead Vehicle Now is the time for the first vehicle to better assess the situation and report. …


Traveling to Your Safe Haven During a WROL Event- Part 2, by E.P.

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Yesterday, we began this article series on traveling to your safe haven during a without rule of law event. We touched on two major issues. These issues involved how to identify and communicate a WROL event within your group, unite your team’s commitment to its mission through a mission statement as well as agreement upon standard operating procedures and rules of engagement. Issue 3: Traveling by Vehicle, Standard Operating Procedures First things first. The suggestions below are just my opinion based on experimentation with several groups over a period of years. Use them as a starting point for your group’s …


Traveling to Your Safe Haven During a WROL Event- Part 1, by E.P.

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This article will provide general guidance and a few specific examples on getting your team to your safe haven destination during a “Without Rule of Law” (WROL) event in one piece. I am an engineer and a lawyer by trade. In my 20+ years of prepping, I have come across few fellow preppers with a well thought out plan for traveling to their bug out location during a WROL event. I have an important note at the outset. With respect to all of the comments below, it is assumed a WROL event has occurred. Most of us are well on …


A Maslow-Like Hierarchy of Survival, by I. M. Learning

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Maslow’s Hierarchy details the steps a person needs to achieve to be able to function at a level of success. Food and Water The first step is ensuring a supply of food and water. Any newbie to prepping is at least aware of this in the basic sense. But how much food and how much water is necessary? Where do you put it? How do you keep the food usable and the water available and potable? Twenty-Five Year Food Buckets I started out, as I’m sure many new to prepping do, buying 25-year food buckets. I’m not saying that isn’t …


PGP for Preppers- Part 2, by Groundhog Gravy

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We should be especially careful when communicating electronically: it’s little more than trivial for a government, a corporation, or even a couple of well-equipped criminals to intercept phone calls, emails, or text messages. This article explains how to use simple, secure tools that do only encryption and do it right. These are based upon a tool that is significantly better than the name suggests, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), and offers excellent communications security for preppers. Part 1 covered PGP and how it is used. Now, we are continuing. Setting an Expiration Date Now that you have created a key, there …


PGP for Preppers- Part 1, by Groundhog Gravy

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Introduction We all have a need for private communication. Whether it’s details of our preparations that we want to share with others in a group, discussing tactics, carrying on trade, or any of a hundred other matters, we should be concerned about keeping our communication private. We should be especially careful when communicating electronically: it’s little more than trivial for a government, a corporation, or even a couple of well-equipped criminals to intercept phone calls, emails, or text messages. We can use encryption, which transforms data into a form that can only be read with a secret key, to help …


The Rules of Engagement: Meet PTSD- Part 2, by Autistic Prepper

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Illness Triggers High fevers can also trigger flashbacks. During a bad bout of flu, H’s temperature soared to 105 degrees, and he went back to the hospital where he was treated for peritonitis after being shot. Sometimes medical treatment in Vietnam had to be improvised. H was placed in a tub of ice, which burned like fire but did lower his temperature. Now, in the present, he looked at me with beseeching eyes and begged me not to put him in the ice. I promised I wouldn’t. Hyper-Vigilance: Once Learned, Never Forgotten Hyper-vigilance, or hyper-alertness, is also common. People who …


The Rules of Engagement: Meet PTSD- Part 1, by Autistic Prepper

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PTSD is an acronym thrown around quite a bit. Principally, this mental diagnosis term of posttraumatic stress disorder was assigned beginning in the early 1980s, primarily to those who had experienced traumatic events, such as war. Let’s meet PTSD and talk about the rules of engagement surrounding it and those who carry its burden. Why I Wrote An Article A while back I wrote an article about adult autism, an issue I’d never seen addressed in prepping literature. A perceptive reader wondered what the condition had to do with prepping. It is relevant for two reasons. First, it’s a reminder …


Essential Survival Skills You Should Learn, by B.T.

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Life is a game of survival. Everything is possible. Anything can happen. Preparation is the key, but what if you are struck unaware? What if you are left with nothing but the clothes on your back and a flashlight? Getting lost in the wilderness or being stranded on an island can be tough, but you will live if you have the will and courage to tackle the unknown and make do with what’s in front of you. The Art of Survival When it comes to events of a catastrophic scale, there’s nothing more important than staying alive and focusing on …


VA Nightmares and Real Resources of Hope for Veterans- Part 2, by Informed Consent

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This article is written to expose the broken VA system and provide a forum for veterans to share their story in the comments. Furthermore, at the end of this article, I will share information and resources for alternatives to the VA system. Let’s continue. Grumpy-Pants Who Do Not Care About Veterans I’m sure there are some grumpy-pants who do not care about veterans reading this article. I probably won’t be able to change your mind. Perhaps your heart runs cold and your eyes are scaled over. Or, perhaps you are someone who has illogically made the conclusion that all veterans …


VA Nightmares and Real Resources of Hope for Veterans- Part 1, by Informed Consent

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In honor of Memorial Day, I thought it fitting to expose the broken Veterans Administration (VA) system to those who are not aware. This is not a sob story or victim card lecture. It is simply sharing the reality of the current VA system and the consequences of such on real lives. Most veterans will have no problem accepting the premise of this paper. However, some still believe that the VA is the ultimate savior, when it comes to their failing health. Oh, and the VA money, well, that money seems to come with strings attached, doesn’t it? “Nothing is …