Category: Contest

Five Common Mistakes New Preppers Make and How to Avoid Them- Part 1, by S.M.

Those new to prepping, and even those more experienced, will often find themselves overwhelmed with not only information that is often conflicting but with tasks. “Where do I even start?” is a common question. It is my intention to help you become less overwhelmed and more organized in what you will soon realize is a marathon journey rather than a sprint. In doing so, I will attempt to keep my particular opinions to a minimum and just provide helpful information to the readers. Failure to Properly Assess Your Situation There’s an old saying, “If you fail to plan, then you …


Survival Escape and Evasion, by Nemo

When reading survivalist literature, on various blogs and in fiction, there are many good ideas and suggestions, but often suffering from an idealization of circumstances, both before and after “the event”, which throws all into confusion. On the one hand, preparations for disaster are too often haunted by the twin hell-hounds of over-confidence and the myth of universal preparedness. Over-confidence, in that the prepper is assumed to have unlimited financial resources and time to purchase the items suggested and to acquire the training needed to do various things. Universal preparedness, being a myth, is based on the idea that the …


A Micro Solar Power System With Maximum Utility, by B.C.

Necessity being the mother of invention, I recently stumbled backwards onto an inexpensive and truly totable way to power two-way radios, shortwave, and other receivers; charge smart phones and iPads; provide lighting; quickly purify water on the go; keep night vision functional; enable electronic security systems; and pump rainwater to a gravity tank, while protecting all these functions from EMP in the interim. I will quietly be turning 50 next month. I joined the survivalist movement in the early 1980’s, at the tail end of that upswing of interest in such things. Vietnam was still fresh in our minds, and …


Building An Infrared Triplight (and Other Ideas), by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Here’s an idea for how to build a tripline-activated infrared light that will illuminate a path or area when triggered. The person passing through will not know they have triggered it, and an observer with a night vision device will be able to see the person better than with only ambient light and without activating their own infrared source/spotlight. Why set up triplights? The reasons would be to: (a) alert you to the approach of someone at night, (b) to help you identify the approaching person(s), and possibly even (c) to help you target the approaching person if you absolutely, …


The Prepper’s American Dream: A Practical Guide To Strategic Relocation- Part 3, by Charles T.

Land: Does the area you are moving to offer an improvement from your current residential situation? How fertile is the ground, if you are planning on gardening? Are there regulations on livestock or farming activities, if you plan on farming? What is the cost of living, compared to your current location? Is the housing market higher or lower compared to your current location? Are property taxes higher or lower in your location? Is the kind of house/property you would like to purchase readily available? Do houses tend to stay on the market for a long time, or is the resell …


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 …