Category: Contest

Preparedness: Now What? – Part 2, by O.C.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Into The Pentagon After nine years or so as a defense contractor around the DC area, I was able to secure a job in the Pentagon as a civil servant in the Directorate of Special Access Programs. There I learned about Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government (COOP/COG) for the first time. It’s fascinating. Although Nancy Pelosi originally claimed that she was not taken to a secure location, she indeed was, based on COOP/COG protocols. I won’t say exactly where, but I think it was [a hardened site] not far from D.C. I …


Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced — Round 104

We’ve completed the judging for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize-winning writers are: First Prize First Prize goes to A Grateful Mechanic, for Career Change to a Durable Trade. (Posted on January 24, 2023.) He will receive the following prizes: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value), Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried …


Preparedness: Now What? – Part 1, by O.C.

Upfront, I should say I am a few months away from 70 years old. I was raised in New Jersey. Even though I spent 26 years in the US Air Force and the Montana Air National Guard, I was not prepared for anything out of the ordinary. My journey to prepping really began on September 11, 2001. At that time, I was working as a defense contractor in Crystal City, Virginia, just down the road from the Pentagon. Meanwhile, my wife was a civil servant working inside the Pentagon building. In my cube-ville we were no radios or televisions allowed. …


Society’s Sudden Death: 2023-2026, by Jakobus A. Rechnen

Editor’s Introductory  Note:  The following translated article could be considered a conjectural rant. It was written by a European SurvivalBlog reader, under a pen name. If you don’t like reading rants, then skip reading this. – JWR — This is my gedankenexperiment for period: the three years following, Europe, in U.S.A., and the world (whole). It has its basis in my scary belief that the Covid Vaccines are actually for the worse than the Covid illness that the Vaccines (Impfstoffe) claim to be preventing. I may be completely wrong, or I may be mostly right. Maybe. You decide. Premise: I …


Risk Management for Small Business Owners, by T.S.

I’m willing to bet that many SurvivalBlog readers own a small business of some sort. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store, sell homemade goods at a farmer’s market, or have a “side gig” with eBay or Etsy, figuring out how to make your small business resilient (without much expense) is an excellent use of your time. I own a small and entirely online business that ships products across the USA. This is currently an additional income source. My “day job” is in IT, where I’m certified in risk management and disaster recovery planning. I’m going to present an industry-standard plan …


A 12-Month Preparedness Checklist – Part 2, by Reltney McFee

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) June June is the month to assess the animals: are their vaccinations current? How is that Veterinary Medic Bag coming along? In addition, while I am out and about, June might be a nice month to function test my generator, and, following the thought that a power failure might require my generator to function, would it not be nice to have, gosh, LIGHT, while poking around getting such things set up? Why, now that you ask, yes! Yes, light would be pleasant! I checked the batteries in January, and this month’s check …


A 12-Month Preparedness Checklist – Part 1, by Reltney McFee

It has been said that amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics. I have attempted to put things aside for rainy days, and, with Mr. Biden at the helm, and Mr. Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation, well, my achy knees tell me that rainy days are a’comin. This last November, I had the epiphany that I needed to check the condition as well as charge of my batteries. This is a task for me semi-annually. I inspect for signs of leakage, I test the strength, using a voltage meter. Radio Shack used to sell them for $10-$20, once upon a time. …


Doing Laundry Off-Grid and DIY Soap Recipes, by E.H.

When living completely off-grid, without either running water or corporate electricity, I wash clothes by hand and that’s okay. One way to maintain a good attitude about hand-washing laundry is to stay on top of it. Facing a mountain of dirty laundry with no washing machine can stir up feelings of dread, so I do it in small batches on a regular basis. I’d rather head for a laundromat when confronted with a big pile of stained and stinky laundry. Days are coming, however, when that won’t be an option, but you can bet things will still keep getting dirty. …


Career Change to a Durable Trade, by A Grateful Mechanic

I get great enjoyment from reading the perspectives and implementing the ideas in SurvivalBlog. This is a wonderful space to be able to share operating experience and ideas for making our futures brighter and better. An article by Mr. Rawles dated October 12, 2009 references career paths that are recession-proof: What Recovery? Find yourself a Recoveryless Job. In the article, he made reference to difficult, dirty, and dangerous jobs. I recall reading that article and it made an impact on me and my life. Six years ago, I embarked on a journey to find a new career that would offer …


Pessimist or a Realist? Our Present Situation – Part 5, by The Lone Canadian

(Continued from Part 4. This concludes the article.) Food Shortages Right now, at this moment, we are facing a global food shortage thanks to wars, and floods and droughts. Farmers in the Netherlands are recognized as the most efficient farmers in Europe, if not the world. And yet their own government is in the process of forcibly seizing as many as 3000 farms and euthanizing the livestock because their “Nitrogen Minister” has deemed their farms to be emitting to much nitrogen. The government claims that this is necessary if they are going to meet their 2030 emissions goals. Goals that …


Pessimist or a Realist? Our Present Situation – Part 4, by The Lone Canadian

(Continued from Part 3.) The Real Energy Crisis Energy is the lifeblood of progress and industrialization. We don’t refer to countries as Second World or Third Worldworld anymore, that’s not politically correct. Now we call them “emerging markets.” And for them to “emerge” from Third World, or Second World status to take their place at the “big boys” table internationally takes energy. “Developing Nations” need energy to develop – pretty simple. And not just energy, but a stable supply of relatively cheap energy. The more they develop, the more energy they need to continue to develop. We may have hit …


Pessimist or a Realist? Our Present Situation – Part 3, by The Lone Canadian

(Continued from Part 2.) On the other side of the world….kind of….depending on how you look at it, China continues to make aggressive moves toward Taiwan. Much like Russia with the Donbas region, their claim is repatriation, not invasion. President Biden has stated on more than one occasion that we will put troops on the ground to help the people of Taiwan, although every time he says it, the white house tries to walk it back after the fact. You’d almost think that they are confused over what their course of action would be. But that might just be their …


Pessimist or a Realist? Our Present Situation – Part 2, by The Lone Canadian

(Continued from Part 1.) While we’re on the subject of interest rates, lets explore low interest rates. I’ve mentioned that the government, through the Fed, has kept them artificially low since about 2008. Now, the general thought was that low interest rates would stimulate the economy. Low interest rates mean that you can buy that bigger house, or new car. It also means that businesses can expand because the risk on a loan is lower. It means that new businesses can start up because people can more easily qualify for a loan, and their payments are relatively low, so its …


Pessimist or a Realist? Our Present Situation – Part 1, by The Lone Canadian

“My wife calls me a pessimist. I claim I’m a realist. Chances are, I’m just an a** with an attitude problem.” That’s my tag line on one of the sites that I belong to. Now, you may take offense at my wording, but if you knew me, you’d have to agree that the sentiment is pretty accurate. I’m writing this in the final few days of 2022, and I’ve had to go back and examine that tag line. I’ve had to question whether I am a pessimist, or am I simply well-informed when it comes to current events, and honest …


Portable Power Systems: Providing Remote Energy, by K.R.

As we moved onto our current rural retreat some years ago, one of our first steps was to install a set of grid-tied solar panels, very similar to the system described in the Survival Blog article by St. Funogas on September 10 and September 11, 2022. Similar to the author of that essay, we figured that we would use that system, along with isolated single panels for single applications, until we goft up the nerve to build a full-scale off-grid solar system. However, since that time new products have come out and my thinking has shifted. There is a new …