Category: Contest

Maximizing the Homestead Apple Orchard, by Eric K.

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“Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits” – Henry David Thoreau American homesteaders and gardeners have a high degree of familiarity with eating and growing apples.  Who hasn’t enjoyed biting into a fresh, crunchy apple on a cool fall morning?  Most homesteaders plant an apple tree or two early on in the process of establishing their property.  This makes sense – the apple is deeply connected to American pioneering history and culture.  Johnny Appleseed traveled the Ohio River Valley and parts of Appalachia planting apple seeds.  Oregon Trail settlers carried seeds and seedlings with them when they came west …


Fighting .22 Rimfires, by Steve in Missouri

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The .22 rimfire cartridge is the oldest self-contained round still in use today.  It was introduced in 1856, and you would be hard-pressed to find a shooter who didn’t learn to shoot with a .22 caliber firearm.  Even many non-gun people have a .22 somewhere in the family, and I’d hazard to say a home is not properly kept if there isn’t a .22 rimfire pistol or rifle available.  It is considered by many to be the optimum round to have in a long term survival situation, and is perhaps the most useful cartridge one can have. That being said, …


Some Thoughts About COVID-19, by The Novice

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Introduction COVID-19 has a big impact on each of our lives. We make decisions daily regarding COVID-19 that influence the lives and futures of those we love and care for. As a result, I have been giving COVID-19 a lot of attention and thought for many months now. I would like to share some thoughts, opinions, and speculations about COVID-19 that may spur your thinking. I invite you to share your thoughts, opinions and speculations as well, in case they may be helpful to me. The Bottom Line COVID-19 is a new virus, to which none of us has prior resistance. It has …


Lessons Learned From a Decade of Food Storage, by Sandi

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The pandemic lockdown of 2020 has led to a re-evaluation of my family’s food storage. This is  a food storage that began more than ten years ago. We began actively storing food in large quantities in 2009 and have continued intermittently since then. Where we have failed, however, is in not eating what we stored and not rotating our stock. Our experience with what lasted and what did not may be of some benefit to others as they consider what and how much of certain foods they should store. Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised at how long our food …


The Secret Salad Garden – Part 3, by D.G.

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(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) Microgreens That I Have Grown What follows are descriptions of some of the greens I have grown so far with a few observations I’ve made along the way. If you are planting trays several times a week, you’ll have overlapping harvest periods, and this gives you flexibility in terms of the different combinations you can make at dinner time. Basil Basil grows more slowly, at least initially, but is well worth the wait. I sowed a couple 1020 trays more sparsely than I would normally, and let them grow for a full …


The Secret Salad Garden – Part 2, by D.G.

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(Continued from Part 1.) Gear and Materials: Soil The first trays I grew using ordinary Central Texas yard dirt and the results were good. But dirt from outdoors can introduce mold, gnats, and other insects, so I have been using potting soil ever since. Professional growers will use various mixtures which might include perlite, vermiculite, compost, or coconut coir. Some grow hydroponically. Some add fertilizers and nutrients. It’s very likely that, by following their recommendations, or through experimentation, I might increase yield or see other benefits. But I’m satisfied with the results I’m seeing for now, and I suspect in …


The Secret Salad Garden – Part 1, by D.G.

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Introduction In the spring of 2020, it became apparent that the coronavirus posed a potential threat to public safety. The severity of the threat was unclear, so my wife and I, being reasonably well-prepared, decided that our family would ‘batten down the hatches’ until we could better assess the situation. Like many people, we learned a lot. We learned how prepared we were, and we learned how prepared we were not. We had never made a trial assessment of our ability to adapt to a situation like this, so it was an eye-opening opportunity to learn and improve. One of …


The Bookends of the Prepping Life: Investing and Diversifying, by Mr. B.

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I was a “closet” prepper until recently. Years ago, I began to slowly amass both long-life food and countless resources that would be necessary if basic commodities were no longer available. The spark, if you will, was in the wake of reading articles about global shifts that sought to deconstruct and reconstruct economies based on dangerous ideologies. I also purchased hard assets in case conventional means of buying ceased overnight, for I read of once strong banks and currencies collapsing or weakening with each financial year. Recently, with the events leading up and still being felt because of COVD-19, I …


Going Old School, By 3AD Scout

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As Preppers we like to use the adage of “one is none and two is one,” and there is a good lesson in those words but if we have two of everything are we really safe from the doom that will befall us when a particular piece of equipment and its spare no longer work or are gone? One of the trends I see in the survival and prepping community is trying to maintain our reliance on technology for our survival. Relying on technology for survival in my opinion is an oxymoron, at least if that technology requires electricity. There …


Why I Chose a .308 Winchester AR – Part 2, by Dusty

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Handguard and Barrel Nut The final parts of the upper include the barrel nut and handguard. The barrel nut is used to secure your barrel to the upper and is generally included as part of your handguard. There are some handguards that don’t supply a barrel nut so you will want to check for that when purchasing your specific handguard. You will also want to match your handguard, gas tube, and barrel to make sure they all match. Standard barrel lengths are 16, 18 or 20 inches. There are various gas tube …


Why I Chose a .308 Winchester AR – Part 1, by Dusty

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The arguments for .308 Winchester over 5.56 NATO are well known and far spread through many internet forums. Undoubtedly many of you realize the advantages in firepower of the .308. We know of the incredible amount of reloading data, DOPE, and other consumer information available from the .308 community. This information will help you find a load that meets your needs or give you a great starting point to load your own high quality ammunition. If you have decided to invest in a weapon chambered in .308 Winchester chances are you have seen rifles being referred to as AR-10 or …


Abandoning Home, by Francis

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This essay is not about survival skills in their basic form. Rather, this is a gedankenexperiment about abandoning suburbia and getting us somewhere safely in the event of TEOTWAWKI. This is often called “Bugging Out” in the current parlance. Thus, I consider us not preppers but semi-preppers. I’ve previously written in SurvivalBlog about our preparations for survival. Because of recent events, we are concerned about our extended family’s safety. I could kick myself for not purchasing the SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick that was offered back in January. Because of the most recent events of the riots (the mainstream media would …


Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 6, by J.M.

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(Continued from Part 5. This concludes the article series.) Pilot of the Airwaves Another area where mobile electronics can provide some useful tactical functionality is communications, even if cellular networks and the Internet aren’t available. There are a lot of good articles here on SurvivalBlog.com about radios, so I’m going to focus on other areas. One very useful option for communications is a goTenna Mesh paired with each mobile device on your team. They’re around $180 a pair, but goTenna frequently has them on sale for 20% or more off. It’s a small device that you clip to the outside …


Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 5, by J.M.

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(Continued from Part 5.) A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words One of the most useful capabilities of mobile devices is their ability to take pictures and videos. If you’re out on a patrol you can photograph people you encounter, potential enemy locations, plants you discover for future foraging, abandoned material for future scrounging, etc. Pretty much every mobile device has a built-in camera, and most have both a front and rear camera. My Armor X5 has a 13 megapixel (MP) camera, which can take high-resolution pictures. I recommend that you always use the highest resolution possible for photographs, since …


Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI – Part 4, by J.M.

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(Continued from Part 3.) There’s an App for That The ability to run thousands of different apps is where the power of a mobile device really comes into play. It allows you to have access applications, files, sensors and other things in the palm of your hand. One of the most obvious app uses for mobile devices in field operations is maps – you can use them to figure out where you are, plan you need to go, note your findings, etc. I’ve standardized on mapping apps that utilize Open Street Maps (OSM) data files and support GPX files for …