Category: Contest

In Our House, by K.M.

As of this writing, the Ebola virus has done enough damage to spread fear throughout the globe. There have already been many books written on the horrors this virus brings. In the blink of an eye everyday concerns are pushed back and replaced by fear of the unknown. Being afraid can be a very good thing, unless we let that fear take hold. The resulting panic does nothing but create its own problems. In the simplest words, Ebola is a virus that burns through your body at an alarming rate. As the beginning, symptoms of headache, fever, fatigue, vomiting, and …


Quarantine Procedures for Ebola and Other Diseases at Your Bugout Location, by F.C.

With the most recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, causing the deaths of close to 900 people as of this writing in August 2014, along with reports that some people infected with the disease are now arriving in the U.S., many of us should now be asking this question: In all of my preparedness procedures, how do I protect myself, my family, and others in my bug-out or bug-in location from Ebola and other deadly diseases? What do I do if family and/or friends show up weeks after a full-fledged pandemic has broken out? Do I welcome them instantly …


The Skills of Spotting, Scrounging, and Scavenging

The best prepping will only take you so far. Just like when folks go on a vacation, things are forgotten, not anticipated, or broken. In a TEOTWAWKI situation, having a plan and stocking is great, but there needs to more after that, as well. Think about: What if you’re mugged or carjacked for your BOB and equipment? What if you’re away from home when it hits the fan? Although you thought you had everything, what things escaped your prep lists? Your last spare broke, now what? A TEOTWAWKI situation will likely last years, if not decades or longer. Your thoughts …


How To Survive Without Your Glasses, by J.E.

“Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks. Piggy cried out in terror: ‘My specs! One side’s broken.” – William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Chapter 4 In the classic dystopian novel “Lord of the Flies,” one of the main characters, Piggy, is virtually incapacitated when his spectacles are broken and stolen by the other boys stranded on the island. For those of us who wear glasses, Piggy’s plight is one that strikes close to home. If you are a glasses-wearer, you have no doubt included optometric equipment in …


Introduction to Tactical Combat Casualty Care, by W.H.

This is an introduction to Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), which is the medical training that U.S. troops are currently taught to save lives on the battlefield. TCCC is the result of collaboration between U.S. Special Operations Command, trauma doctors, and emergency medical personnel to address the shortcoming in combat medicine at the start, and actually well into the current Wars On Terror. It is the combination of good medicine with good tactics. It incorporates some procedures that are proven to save lives but in the past 75 years were shunned in the medical community. TCCC has proven to reduce …


Being Prepared, by JRR

(Forward by HJL: This article presents some controversial subjects such as milk and eggs without refrigeration. Make sure you perform due diligence on any concept presented as the issue may be more complicated than presented.) Getting started being prepared isn’t hard, but it does take tenacity. It’s not always easy and can be downright mentally and physically draining, at times. There are busy seasons, and there are slower seasons (usually winter). Always looking ahead (what to plant/grow/harvest) and keeping one eye on the weather. What we can’t change, we just have to roll with what nature brings us, but we …


Raising Joyful Soldiers: Practical Methods for Teaching Children to be Responsible, Productive Leaders in a Survival Situation – Part II, by Dr. W

Infants and Toddlers Obtaining sleep is critical, and one wailing baby in the night can have devastating effects on everyone’s ability to make sound judgments and work cohesively the next day. We eventually learned (the hard way) the value of training babies to sleep in many conditions, whether alone in a bed or sharing bed or tent space, in an atmosphere of quiet, or in an atmosphere of chaos. We often used a sound machine that had several different sounds on it, and made sure there were some nights without it, so they would not become dependent on the noise …


Raising Joyful Soldiers: Practical Methods for Teaching Children to be Responsible, Productive Leaders in a Survival Situation – Part 1, by Dr. W

The very first writing prize on this blog was awarded to an article titled “Preparing Your Children”, which explored the mindset and general principles of nurturing our children to become responsible adults who can survive and thrive in a post-collapse setting. This article will guide readers away from the general to the specific, exploring, in detail, easy-to-implement principles and activities that parents can begin to apply now, regardless of their children’s ages and stages, to the nitty-gritty details of raising our children day to day. As a homeschooling family with several children, we aimed to raise our kids to love …


Readiness Matrix, by BKB

If you are reading this, you are a member of a relatively small, unique group of people. You have pulled your head from the sand and are no longer blinded by Normalcy Bias: the belief that tomorrow will be like any other day, week after week, year after year. You see the signs and know that the relative tranquility we have enjoyed won’t last. You feel deeply that preparation is essential; you want to live. There are a lucky few, with a stone castle and moat high in a mountain retreat, who clutch their custom AR-15s to their chest while …


Systematic Efforts by the U.S. Forest Service to Take Control of Private Water Rights, by W.W.

Jamal Utah I am writing today to inform the readers of this blog about systematic efforts by the U.S. Forest Service (“F.S.”) to take control of private water rights. Recently, this blog made mention of efforts to institute the “public trust doctrine” in California. In Colorado, we have been fighting ballot initiatives concerning the public trust doctrine for years. While the public trust doctrine issue is increasingly concerning, I am writing today about what I feel is a potentially even greater threat to private water rights. In the last few years the U.S. Forest Service has been quietly revising its …


Saving Your Marriage for the End of the World – Part III, by Cottage Mom

This is the final portion of the three-part article, outlining ways to embark on a prepping journey with a prepping-adverse spouse. The list of suggestions continues below: Use Current Events as a Springboard for Purchases Many non-preppers don’t give much thought to the future, and they only see the need to prepare while they are in the eye of the storm. Use mini-emergencies or news stories to support purchases and advanced preparation. That latest tornado warning is a reason to get a weather radio. The cell tower outage is a reason to develop a family communication plan. The energy tax …


Saving Your Marriage for the End of the World – Part 2, by Cottage Mom

Today, we continue the second portion of this three part article. Yesterday, we read that the purpose of prepping is to take care of your closest loved ones with wisdom and protection, not to hurt them and drive them away. Prepping should make your life better in the long run, not worse. If you are hitched to a spouse, here are my continued suggestions for embarking on your prepping journey: Don’t Play Tug-of-War Over Prepping or Anything Else; Instead, Negotiate This is human nature at its most counter-productive, but it is hard to identify when the tug-of-war begins to happen. …


Saving Your Marriage for the End of the World – Part 1, by Cottage Mom

Could there be a greater, more important survival topic than building a stronger marital union, which is the bedrock of civilization? This topic reminds me of a young man I once spoke with. He noticed a young lady and heard the Lord telling him that she was to marry him. Even though he barely knew her, he intended to declare God’s will to her, go to the altar, check off the wife box on his bucket list, and move on, clueless to the reality that winning her is a journey. I counseled him that he was trying to barge in, …


Pre- and Post-SHTF Vehicle Operations and Preparation, By C.C.K.

Ask yourself this question: How will you get to your retreat when the SHTF? Do you imagine it will be easy? Even if you live at your retreat, there is still a good chance you work away from home. What about you city dwellers planning to jet out hundreds of miles away to a safer place? While getting there now may not be to difficult, this can all change in a heartbeat. Are you even prepared to deal with a simple breakdown, getting stranded, or a roadside medical emergency? Chances are that your pre- and post-SHTF travel plans aren’t as …


Balancing Prepping and Prophecy, by D.V.

Our faith influences our actions and course in life; our understanding of that faith can change the course of both action and life. If we are not careful, we will passionately study one rail on our train track, with lesser attention to the other rail; the result is not only fighting within our self, wasted energies, and veering off course but also a potentially significant train wreck, instead of efficient stewardship. It is not my intention here to sway you to one prophetic view or another, and I won’t even mention here what mine is, other than to say that …