Category: Contest

Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 2, by A.&J. R.

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Let’s now focus on the supplies we will require to be able to address the medical issues we are most likely to experience. This goes way beyond the first aid kit. At the end of each section, we’ll also note essential oils that may be helpful. Essential Oils The specific usage of essential oils, the amounts, carrier oils, and contraindications are beyond the scope of this article. The essential oils are included here so that you can see what you may wish to acquire to treat conditions you and your family are more likely to experience. Just as you’ll want …


Bring Your Own Bandaids- Part 1, by A.&J. R.

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Disclaimer: The following is for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should always consult your physician for any questions regarding your health or that of a family member. The authors are merely discussing items you may wish to have on hand to care for a family or group, for when a licensed healthcare provider is available but supplies are hard or impossible to come by. We write from the perspective of patients (a Type 1 diabetic with hypothyroidism and his wife who has had her spleen, gall bladder, most of her pancreas, and half a pinkie removed) and parents of …


Medical Supplies, Principles of Use and Purpose, by J.V.

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Today’s world climate seems to reinforce more and more the need to be prepared for various situations that might arise. Everything from terrorism to tensions with whatever country it is this week. We all need to do our part to be prepared. This includes the medical side of things. Knowledge and Practice Nothing beats knowledge and practice of a particular skill set. Even without the proper tools, if you understand the principle inside and out, you can think of ways to adapt and use what supplies you have on hand. This is the true meaning of survival– making due with …


Guess What? We Grow Up, by The Autistic Prepper

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It was good to read about dealing with autistic children and their special needs in survival situations, and I’d like to thank Grey Woman for her article. There have been articles about the elderly, the physically handicapped, those with dementia, but we on the autistic spectrum have been largely ignored. Our differences are too bizarre for most people to understand. Adult With Autism; We Grow Up Let me introduce myself. I’m an adult with autism, and I’m also a fervent SurvivalBlog reader and occasional contributor. I also like to watch water going down a drain, insist that my egg be …


Reducing the Breadcrumbs Produced By Your Digital Life, by P.L.

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None of us want to unknowingly share personal information, but it’s happening everyday if you browse the web, use email, or have a mobile phone. You could decide “I’m going off the grid!”. That’s great if you can, but it’s not practical for 99% of us. The Breadcrumbs So, how might you go about reducing the breadcrumbs produced by your digital life? ProtonMail First, consider using ProtonMail for your personal email. There are no ads and no tracking. A basic account is free. I paid for the Plus account, since I wanted more features. I access ProtonMail on my iPhone …


Never Think You Are Safe, by A.E.

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Back in 1986, I was living in a ground floor condo in a large complex where I thought I was safe. My apartment opened onto a grassy common area, which several buildings faced at differing angles, as it was not geometrical. While I was playing on my patio with my one year child, I heard a women yell “help me, somebody help me”. Unfortunately, her voice was faint and the buildings caused a slight echo, so I could not pinpoint the exact building or condo. As I searched the area, the voice abruptly stopped. Was she gagged? Beaten? It was …


Staying Hidden Online, by Z.M.

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We’re being monitored, online. That’s nothing new though. We all know that. In a world that increasingly grows to rely upon technology, and where your individual data points can mean big money for some advertiser somewhere, it should come as no surprise that just about everything that we do online has been recorded and stored on some server somewhere. I’ve grown quite alarmed over this the past few years, but I have never really known where to even start. I just thought “Incognito” mode on Chrome was enough to hide me from all that was happening. I was wrong. After …


The Simple Things, by The Watchman

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So you think you have this prepping thing pretty much down pat by now? Or are you new to this world of prepping? You have your water filters, generators, fuel, guns, ammo, food stores, medical supplies, a bug out vehicle, and heating elements. You have researched, taken courses, practiced drills and you have completed a mock bug out. If you said “yes” to any of this small list, you are already off to a good start. But sometimes we overlook the simple things we need in order to get by day to day. List of Essential Things One of the …


Preparing for Chaos, Theory and Application- Part 2, by DF

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In part 1 of this two-part article, I wrote about the theory behind the reason for preparing for chaos and provided and overview of the laws of supply and demand. Then, I moved from theory into practical matters. I began with alternative feed for chickens, as chickens are a means for sustaining us when the SHTF and our transportation system is not delivering feed, chicks, or supplies to our stores. We have looked at crabapples and how to provide them with various insects. Now, let’s look at sunflowers to use as chicken feed. Sunflowers/Sunflower Seeds One of my neighbors grew …


Preparing for Chaos, Theory and Application- Part 1, by DF

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Many people view the possibility of economic/societal disruption and collapse as science fiction, suitable as entertainment in dystopian novels or movies. I view it as actual science, not fiction and am preparing for the ensuing chaos and necessities to get past it. Well-proven theories in the areas of nonlinear systems and economics can help us partially understand what can happen, how we can prepare and respond, and even what is not possible to predict. My first section on “theory” is quite abstract. It looks at some of the basic principles of chaos theory to describe the mechanisms of economic/societal collapse. …


Creating Your Own Secure Messages – Part 2, by DaytonPrepper1

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Yesterday we talked about how to create and use a One Time Pad. Today we will talk about another way of encoding messages. I am sure I am not creating anything new with this method, but I have not seen it before nor do I have a name for it. My working name is Word Grid Substitution. Description of the Method The heart of this method is a 25,000 word grid. The current word grid is 10×2500. I take the message to be encoded and search for the first word from a random spot in the list. When the word …


Creating Your Own Secure Messages– Part 1, by DaytonPrepper1

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I am an experienced programmer with a lot of time spent in Excel everyday for my paying job. East Sierra Sage’s article on Cipher Security got me thinking again about One Time Pads and other secure message techniques. I really enjoy automating things with Excel’s powerful formulas and macros. So I set off to create a tool for a One Time Pad spreadsheet that would create the One Time Pads and also encode and decode the messages being sent. How to Use a One Time Pad (OTP) You will need a Shift Chart and an OTP Chart as the basic …


The Four Things I Missed Most In Urban Survival Mode, by J.C.

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Did you ever picture putting all your survival know-how to the test in an urban environment, in a giant city? Did you think about all the piles of rubble you’d have to work around to “put rubber to the road”? Mexico City Earthquake, September 19th, 2017 I know I didn’t, until I found myself in Mexico City on September 19th of last year, that is. This was the day a 7.2 earthquake shook Central Mexico, toppled buildings, and killed nearly 400 people. This also happened to be the anniversary, to the day, of the hugely destructive 1985 Guerrero Earthquake that …


Birth- Part 2, by A.E.

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According to the CDC, about 11,000 babies are born in the U.S. every day. If anyone in your family or group is of childbearing age, you might want to think about preparing for an out-of-hospital birth. Most people have never witnessed a “natural” or med-free birth. Therefore, they have no idea what natural birth looks like or how to prepare for it. In Part 1, I spoke about the importance of the mother’s psyche in childbirth and also about the sphincter law that applies to childbirth. We began the topic of Preparing for Birth with suggestion for books, such as …


Birth- Part 1, by A.E.

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Typically, when we think about a survival situation, like TEOTWAWKI or SHTF, our minds race to food storage, defense, clean water, growing gardens, and raising livestock; often times, we forget other necessities, like good medical care and childbirth. According to the CDC, about 11,000 babies are born in the U.S. every day. If anyone in your family or group is of childbearing age, you might want to think about preparing for an out-of-hospital birth. Most people have never witnessed a “natural” or med-free birth. Therefore, they have no idea what natural birth looks like or how to prepare for it. …