Category: Contest

My Recent Experience Bugging Into A Disaster- Part 2, by J.W.

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Travel Prepared- Non-Lethal and Sidearms I always travel prepared for whatever may happen. I am older, and while still in good shape, my fight rounds are probably down to less than a minute before I get worn out (comes with age), so I travel prepared to personally defend myself and those with me in any situation. As always, situational awareness is first and foremost. On short trips, I prepare by carrying both non-lethal protection and sidearms. On long trips (my long trips average 2500 miles round trip), I carry additional long guns that are purpose minded and a reasonable amount …


My Recent Experience Bugging Into A Disaster- Part 1, by J.W.

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I had a recent experience of traveling into a situation where everyone else was leaving due to Hurricane Irma. I learned some valuable lessons during the process. Homes in Both Florida and Midwest My home is in Florida, and my bug out location is in the Midwest. I spend most of my time during the summer at the BOL due to the climate, the gardening opportunities, and most of all the simple peace and quiet living. Two weeks ago, Hurricane Irma was seven days out in the Atlantic and on a track that may bring it closer to Florida. When …


Without This, All Your Preps and Training Are For Naught, by M.P. in Ohio

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The Answer Is Good Health Instead of teasing you by giving you the answer in the third paragraph, here is what you need for your preps and training to be meaningful; it is good health. So before you think you’ve already read similar articles, please read on. I think you’ll find this different. Your health during SHTF scenarios is more important than: 1) All your training, 2) All your stored goods, and 3) Your bug out location I understand we can’t all be in perfect health, but you owe it to yourself to be as healthy as possible. I’m not …


A Strange New Language With Old Words Used in Strange New Ways, by Old Bobbert

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I’m writing about a strange new language and its effect on others. We are told that a SurvivalBlog contest entry essay that is a “how to do it type” topic will get extra recognition in the judging. This is my best effort at writing an essay that is truly a “how to do it”. It’s on the topic of how we preppers can easily regain our lost positions within our families and communities, positions that were lost, or perhaps that we threw away thoughtlessly, back when we first began to think and speak in this new language that we have …


Identify And Secure Your Retreat Like An Engineer, by JAD

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Area assessment and planning is a key component of determining where to establish your secured retreat location. Establishing a retreat is not enough; you need to have clear objectives for what that area will accomplish for you or for those in your network. In order to establish your secured area and to determine the objectives necessary to allow it to function, you must assess and plan. Your planning must consider varying threats, uncertainty in threat duration, and likely enemy strength. Effective planning requires beginning at a macro level and reducing the scope until all details are captured. The work in …


Hidden Storage For Strategic Tools and Security Items- Part 2, by Old Bobbert

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Today, we are continuing with instructions for making a hidden storage area in your bedroom closet. Temporary Wood Screw Handles Again, the two long wood screws, which are protruding about 1-1/2 to 2 inches, will be your only handling devices. Go easy with them. They both recently finished a remedial bite-back class for wood screws lost in the big city. Free the Piece of Drywall Hold one of the two wood screws continually, while you finish the cutting and finally free the piece of drywall. Gently re-position the cut-out piece of drywall out of the way and on the closet …


Hidden Storage For Strategic Tools and Security Items- Part 1, by Old Bobbert

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The following are some hints and instructions on making a storage space for locating your backup strategic tools and varied security items within your home. This space also makes them nearly impossible to find and confiscate. While reading, please note that my strong belief that we are usually far too serious about most everything even remotely classed as preparedness activity has strongly influenced how this article has been worded. Every word has been considered both for humor potential (very subtle and low key) and for serious value. This article, as titled above, will be presented to the readers with as …


Tires As Part Of Basic Vehicle Preparations, by D.K.

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It’s easy to overlook an important item, such as tires, for those planning different bugout scenarios, getting home after an event, or just driving home from work. I was reminded of this during a recent trip moving my daughter to California. We rented a 5’ X 8’ U-Haul trailer, hooked it up to my Chevy Avalanche, drove it to her apartment, and loaded it for the move the next day. She had bagged up trash, and as I was taking it out I noticed some 8” zip ties. I pulled them out of the trash and threw them in the …


A Proposal for a Better System for Sleeping in the Wilderness, by ACC

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In my youth, I was a pretty avid camper and hiker. I spent many a night in a sleeping bag with a pad of some type underneath. Some of the pads were foam, others were inflatable. Probably the best over the years was the Thermarest brand, which is a self-inflating type. However, they were only an inch or so thick, and the ground was always hard. I learned that comfort was relative. If you hike ten miles with a 30-pound pack beforehand, you can sleep in pretty austere conditions. Looking For A Better Sleep System However, now that I’m in …


The Couch Prepper, by J.S.

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There are many types of preppers, including the couch prepper. How many of us “preppers” have sat behind a computer screen and researched the newest and greatest AR-15 accessory that will ensure our survival for the coming “collapse”? I’m sure most faithful readers of this site have put into practice some form of prepping. Maybe that means you have bought a few extra cans of food or purchased that first firearm and some ammo to go along with it. Or maybe you fall in to the camp of focusing on a certain aspect of prepping (i.e. that amazing gun collection …


What We See And Believe Is Not Always Reality, by Old Bobbert

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Let’s talk about reality and what we see and believe, but just for a moment imagine this scenario. Visualize the following presumably safe evening event at your home one day soon. A Grateful Situation…Somewhere You are reflecting on the terrible situation in (name any major city, state, or area) and you are very grateful that your home area is not severely affected by that power grid outage somewhere else in the country, specifically about 1,000 miles away from your home. Your area power system is functioning just fine. You’re feeling really bad for that area as you watch the video …


Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 5, by JMD

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We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate when we do not have wireless electronic communications available to us. We’ve been exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about the different types of communications and types of interference to communication. I wrapped up yesterday’s part of the article by introducing what you should do to prepare. The first part, of course, was plan. Let’s take a look at the second part and conclude the article with the subsequent steps to prepare. Document Once you’ve got a good handle on your requirements and solutions, you should create a couple …


Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 4, by JMD

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We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate when we do not have wireless electronic communications available to us. We’ve been exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about various channels of communications. Today, we’ll move into various forms of communications to consider. Electronic In the beginning of this article, I mentioned that it was about alternatives to wireless electronic communications. However, that doesn’t rule out wired forms of electronic communication. Wired communications tend to be point-to-point, are very hard for anyone to intercept, and can send large amounts of information. The biggest disadvantages are that they require …


Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 3, by JMD

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We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate in the event that our normal, electronic communications equipment are not available to us. We are exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about common content items and encoding. Let’s continue. Medium The medium defines what carries the communication through the channel. For written communication, the medium will usually be paper. For most signal-based communications, the medium will be inseparable from the channel. In the case where communications is sent by a flashing light, light is the medium. Channel The channel is critical to all communications. It determines how the …


Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 2, by JMD

We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate in the event that our normal, electronic communications equipment are not available to us. Yesterday, we looked as some definitions and began defining our own communications requirements. With that in mind, let’s move forward. Options Now that you’ve (hopefully) thought a little bit about what your communications requirements might be, let’s take a look at some possible options for the various elements. Sender/Recipient As I mentioned earlier, the best starting point for figuring out a communications strategy is by making a list of everyone it will need to support. …