Category: Contest

The Prepper’s American Dream: A Practical Guide To Strategic Relocation- Part 2, by Charles T.

Planning a relocation When my wife and I realized that our current location was not where we wanted to stay long term, we had to take the hard step of figuring out where else to go. To do this, we leaned heavily on the core values we had identified for ourselves. We began our relocation pursuit by identifying that we were looking for somewhere that met the following criteria: We could afford to purchase a house on one salary. We could afford to have my wife stay at home with kids. There were mountains and plentiful outdoor spaces to explore. …


The Prepper’s American Dream: A Practical Guide To Strategic Relocation- Part 1, by Charles T.

If you closed your eyes and pictured your ideal bug out location, what would your mind’s eye see? You’d probably see green grass, blue skies, rolling hills, fertile farmland, your family, friendly neighbors, and a basement stocked with a thousand years of food and supplies. Now, open your eyes. Is that what surrounds you now? If not, then why not? Are you stuck in a job, weighed down by family obligations, struggling with debt, or just filled with fear? Many of us have an idea of what we want in life and what we think would be best for our …


How To Trim Your Horse’s Feet- Part 2, by R.B.

Using the Hoof Knife The next step is cutting away dead sole at the toe to find the white line. Dead sole is hard, flaky, and depending on the moisture of the foot may come out with little effort. If you live in a dry area, I recommend watering down an area about 10 feet in diameter around your horse’s water trough for about a week before you do your trimming. This way, every time they drink they will stand in water and mud, which will soak into the sole and make the trim a lot less work. After cutting …


How To Trim Your Horse’s Feet- Part 1, by R.B.

For starters I should let you know that I was school trained as a farrier at the Oklahoma Horse Shoeing School in Purcell, Oklahoma. I went there right after two tours in the U.S. Army. I worked full time as a shoer for about 10 years, then part time for another 10 years, and now I just shoe my own horses. In short, I have about 30 years and thousands of horses under my belt. I suspect the readers of this blog have already read JWR’s Patriots, which was the inspiration for this article. The purpose of this article is …


Understanding the Progressive Agenda- Part 2, by DBS

The Next Domino to Fall After the Glass-Stegall Act Look, our friends over at Wall Street were losing their wealth. We (the elite) couldn’t allow that to happen. They needed more dollars to pay their debts because the stupid middle class had lost their jobs, filed bankruptcy, and were not buying anything. What could we do? Well, we decided to print more dollars and give those dollars to them. Then, they could pay off their bonuses and buy more of their own stocks. They keep up their perceived value, and we will all look rich! We will take advantage of …


Let’s Be The “Good Guy With a Computer” Too, by Tupreco

We all get emails or other Internet postings sent to us about something sensational or horrifying or something that just motivated the sender to repost it or forward it on to you. Most of us just ignore them and shake our heads at the gullibility of the sender. You know the kind I’m talking about. Here are a few of the famous ones that are still making the rounds after years of circulation and recirculation: The Blue Star temporary tattoo for kids laced with LSD! The FCC petition started by atheists to ban all religious broadcasting! Proctor and Gamble has …


Using EMP-Hardened HF Ham Radio to Send/Receive E-Mail During Nationwide Outage- Part 2, by PrepperDoc

Transmit-Receive Frequency Offset This should be zero. Synthesized digital radios have no problem accomplishing this; however, vacuum tube rigs may struggle. Surprisingly, the less expensive HW-series transceivers and the SB’s with the vacuum tube based LMO (VFO), in my experience, have little shift between transmit and receive. Later SB-series transceivers with the solid-state VFO may have an offset. If this offset is > 100 Hz, you’ll notice it during SSB conversations (“leapfrogging” as you chase the fellow you’re talking to), and you’ll want to fix that for digital communications. Happily, the solid state LMO includes a FSK (frequency shift keying) …


Using EMP-Hardened HF Ham Radio to Send/Receive E-Mail During Nationwide Outage- Part 1, by PrepperDoc

There are multiple possible scenarios that may result in a regional an/or national combined loss of Internet connectivity and cell/telephone service, during which you would probably wish to maintain communications to loved ones and others. EMP may destroy routers, cell towers, and power sources; solar coronal mass ejection (CME) may remove power from all communications systems; cyber warfare may have similar outcomes. Travel in some of these circumstances will be difficult, or dangerous to impossible. Ham radio VHF/UHF repeaters may go down, due to power outages or EMP. Direct, point to point simplex VHF Ham radio will still work (even …


Notes from “The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs”, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Did you know that you can get an estimate of distances and elevations conveniently using nothing more than your eyes and your hands? It’s really quite amazing and useful; hikers, hunters, and preppers really need to learn these skills. Ol’ Remus at the Woodpile Report (www.woodpilereport.com) recently recommended a book by Tristan Gooley entitled The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs: outdoor clues to find your way, predict the weather, locate water, track animals and other forgotten skills. It sounded downright intriguing, so I’ve been reading it on my Kindle and enjoying it quite a bit. The first Appendix had …


Readiness Mindset: Your Most Important Survival Tool- Part 2, by B.G.

Keep yourself from giving up. Always stay positive. Negativity will kill you faster than the lack of nourishment, enemy combatants, or nature. It is an absolute guarantee that you will fail, if you give up. Staying calm and keeping a positive mindset will give you the mental endurance to continue on and make good decisions. Find your mental trigger. This is what you will think about when you are on your last leg, ready to give up, or don’t think you can do what needs to be done. This will be your motivation to push that one more mile, to …


Readiness Mindset: Your Most Important Survival Tool- Part 1, by B.G.

Whether prepping for a EOTWAWKI situation or any potential disaster or emergency in everyday life, the most important and powerful tool at your disposal is your own mind. A person can have all of the fanciest survival gear and equipment, but without the proper mindset and training it is all nothing more than a cool looking, expensive pile of useless junk. Even a person who has studied countless books, guides, and manuals for every survival situation imaginable can be rendered completely inept in the moment of an emergency, when all that knowledge is needed the most. If you wish to …


How to Make and Utilize the Most Excellent Tinder Sticks For Starting Fires, by D.A.

Okay, when the lid comes off civilization and things are fun again, you don’t want to be the numbskull sending up a smoke signal that can be seen from space, just trying to get a fire going. You want to be the guy who kneels down for a bit and brings forth fire, like Prometheus or somebody that gets things done. I am going to teach you to make tinder that will stay lit and accelerate your fire. It will be inexpensive, too. Then you will achieve success in building a fire so you can finally crack open that can …


Maintaining Your Household in the Post-SHTF World- Part 2, by S.T.

Wood Stove Cooking The same recipes that you use in the summer with a wonder oven you can also cook in the winter on a wood stove. The Ice House Keeping Food Cold or Frozen in the Hot Summer I do not have ponds or horses and buggies to move large blocks of ice during the winter, so I must improvise. During summer, when cutting and splitting firewood, this will be done over a tarp so that the sawdust can be collected and saved in buckets. When winter is full force, I have 10 each of the 20-gallon Rubbermade totes …


Maintaining Your Household in the Post-SHTF World- Part 1, by S.T.

Today I washed clothes the easy way: I placed the clothes in the washing machine, added homemade laundry soap, and turned it on. When the washer was done, I transferred the clothes to the dryer and turned it on. When the dryer was done, I removed the clothes from the dryer and folded everything. While my automatic washing machine and automatic dryer are working, I am sitting here typing this. I do this three times every week– once for my family, once for my father who can not navigate his basement stairs, and once for my aunt who also can …


Surviving the 2015 Fire of Lake County California- Part 2, by B.G.

Looters- Lessons Learned You don’t need to be an expert killer to deter an attacker. The people who loot an evacuated area are generally cowardly. You need only appear more of a threat than the average person. Buy a gun, learn to use it, but don’t obsess. The survivalist fantasy of defending your home against squads of organized killers is just that– fantasy. What is more realistic is that you will stumble into the opportunist that thinks “mandatory evacuation” means “no one is at home”. Encounters can happen any time. If you are staying, start carrying a gun shortly after …