Category: Contest

Composting Your Black Gold – Part 2, by Hobbit Farmer

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) After your pile is built you wait. The microbes do the work. One helpful tool in this part of the process is a compost thermometer that will probe temperatures 18”-24” into the pile. The internal temperature tells you what is going on inside the pile so you know when to turn the pile. We will only be turning the pile once. As you can see this pile is cooking at around 140 degrees, which means my microbes are in turbo mode. You probably don’t want it much hotter than this. The lower …


Composting Your Black Gold – Part 1, by Hobbit Farmer

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Composting: Microbes, Black Gold, and Growing the Best Food A search of the SurvivalBlog archives will uncover pages and pages of articles mentioning compost and its value in gardening. However, if there was a startup composting guide I missed it. If you are an experienced composter hopefully you can still learn from this article, but everything here will be geared toward someone just starting out. Be warned I don’t use a sophisticated “fast” method. I work with God’s design, and let the microbes do the work. Well-balanced compost takes time–8-to-12 months with this method. This means you need to start …


Hurricane Preparedness–Floridian Style, by R.L.

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Florida. The name conjures images to people from around the globe. Sure, most people imagine the beautiful beaches, Disney, NASA, the Daytona 500 and others, but one cannot think of the State of Florida and not think hurricanes. Hurricanes are not concerns for Florida residents only, no way, as we have witnessed many of the most destructive hurricanes in the United States impacting states such as Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, Texas, even New York State! The reality is that a major hurricane (Category 3 or above) is going to wreak havoc and devastation anywhere the storm impacts. This …


Relocating to The Yaak, by L.S.

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I could type for hours with stories of Cougars, Grizzly Bears, Wolves, The Elements, and Cantankerous Neighbors. Allow me to introduce myself. I am a resident of Yaak, Montana. It is a tiny little town in the extreme northwest corner of Montana, not far from the Idaho state line. For the most part, I have raised and am raising six children here in these wilds. I have been married for 30 years. This article focuses on my experiences in the Yaak River Valley–commonly called “The Yaak”–but it encapsulates some truths that are applicable to moving to nearly any rural area …


Active Assailant Response: Plan to Survive, by J.M.

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Introduction Your personal safety, along with that of your family or your extended group of like-minded individuals, is probably a top priority for you. As a self-prepared individual, this is part of your nature. You are committed to ensuring the security of those you care about, not only in your normal day-to-day activities, but also in preparation for an unanticipated threat. Unfortunately, despite your best efforts, an unexpected incident may include an attack on your place of work or a public setting you happen to be in at the wrong time. With the riots and looting taking place in so …


A Primer on UVC Light – Part 2, by Dr. David J.

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(Continued from Part1.  This concludes the article.) Area Disinfection For area disinfection, an unshielded UVC light bulb is put on a lamp and controlled either by remote control or timer. Many are purpose-built, but it is certainly possible to buy a UVC bulb and place it on your own unshaded lamp and use a generic remote control or timer. The UVC rays will neutralize microorganisms in the air and all surfaces that the light strikes. It can also be used to disinfect strategically placed masks, clothing and other items. In my opinion, the strength of area UVC light is to …


A Primer on UVC Light – Part 1, by Dr. David J.

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Whatever your take on COVID 19, it has certainly sharpened our focus on contagious disease. As we spiral downwards as a society, it’s a good bet that other contagious disease will be visiting us more often. It is important to remember COVID 19 has not made other diseases fade away, even if the media attention on this virus makes it seem that way. Preppers often focus on bullets, beans and bandages – weapons, stored foods and trauma-related first aid supplies, but realistically disease is probably the main killer in any long-term scenario. The purpose of this article then, is to …


The Next Two Years, by A.E.

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The following is my conjecture about the turmoil ahead in the next two years. I have this waking nightmare that we are living on a knifes edge and the next two to five years may be the time we slip on that edge.  I started writing this to try and get my head around where we are and where we’re going. It spiraled out from there. I have tried to rewrite it so it isn’t so negative, but that hasn’t worked, it keeps veering in the following direction. China had the Cultural Revolution and the Red guards; we have the …


How to Safely Pressure Can Meat, by Sandi H.

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I grew up eating my grandmothers’ canned vegetables and fruits. Both of them put up the harvest to feed their farm families in the winter. But neither of them canned meat. It never crossed my mind that one could can meat until, in my thirties, I started canning my own spaghetti sauce and wondered if I could add hamburger to it. It turned out that I could! And that opened up a whole new world of canning opportunities. Now, canned meats are a pantry staple for my family. I enjoy being able to grab a jar and have dinner on …


Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) Bag Guns, by Joe H.

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Personal defense weapons (PDWs) or “bag guns” have seen a recent surge in popularity due to concerns over the COVID-19 quarantine and urban riots. This has come just at the availability of more attractive PDW options is expanding. For the sake of this discussion, a PDW will be defined as a compact detachable magazine-fed semiautomatic firearm that can be shouldered. Such weapons are desirable as they can be discreetly transported and have greater firepower than conventional handguns. PDWs have been used by military and security details for these reasons. They are also included in pilot survival kits. Security details employ …


Ancient-Style Farming With The Three Sisters, by Murf

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Can Ancient Farming Techniques Help Prepare Us For The Future? Native North Americans traditionally grew three crops for most of their food needs. Affectionately these amazing three plants are referred to as the Three Sisters. In light of our current pandemic situation, ongoing social unrest, and whatever the planet next decides to throw at us, I personally believe that ancient native farming techniques can help us prepare for the future. It might be time for you and I to consider growing these food sources on any available land we have. Even if it might be late in the season. Some …


What if We Win?, by CPT F.T.

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When all is said and done, there is much more said than done. This will be the first of many quotes that I did not come up with and will not reference or footnote because I’m not trying to get a passing grade on an essay but am trying to communicate a few ideas that I think may be germane to our culture. With all the survival and instructional blogs (this one being the capstone by which all others are measured) and web sites pontificating and gesturing broadly about what to do when (fill in the blank with assorted and …


Stand Your Ground Against COVID-19, by Mark B.

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Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice, just information provide for educational purposes. What have you done to stop COVID-19 from sickening, permanently injuring, or killing your loved ones? This disease isn’t just like the flu, COVID-19 can leave the “recovered” with long-term debilitating physical, cognitive and psychiatric damage, sometimes even in people who only suffered mild symptoms. The current US toll from this disease is about 130,000 dead, with an 8% infection mortality rate. The elderly or those with common high-risk factors, like high blood pressure, diabetes, or a compromised immune system have suffered …


Intelligence Gathering at Protests, by J.D.

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Over the last few weeks, as protests and riots have continued, I decided to stop blindly accepting the media’s reporting and to get out and see what was actually going on at the rampant protests. Let me start by saying that I don’t advocate everyone doing this…I’m a trained professional with over 20 years of investigations experience. I do want to share the interesting findings and make a few recommendations to everyone, though. The narrative being presented was that these protests were not centrally organized and that they were grass-roots protests just springing up in response to social issues. My …


Versatile Photovoltaic Power – Part 2, by Tractorguy

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Refrigeration Refrigeration will likely be one of the biggest loads on your solar power system, if not the biggest. I went back and forth for a long time on the propane vs. DC electrical discussion to run refrigeration. I finally came down on the side of DC refrigeration for two reasons: 1. The rugged terrain around my Buglout Location (BOL) would make it extremely difficult for a truck to deliver a tank and refill it; and 2. The availability of bottled gas after a grid-down or TEOTWAWKI situation would be pretty much …