Category: Field Gear

Letter Re: Sew You Think You’re a Prepper? Look to Your Treadle in Troubled Times

Some great points have been brought up by R.S. in a response to my original article. I appreciate the input and agree completely with the value of a true industrial machine while electricity is available. Nothing compares to a walking foot industrial for those heavy jobs that use materials such as thick leather, webbing and multiples layers of canvas. I should have mentioned that a household low-tech treadle would pale in comparison to a modern electric industrial machine. I too, appreciate their capability for sewing heavy work.  As luck would have it, I own and operate both a Consew 226R …


Letter Re: Sew You Think You’re a Prepper? Look to Your Treadle in Troubled Times

JWR, The sewing submission by TJG about Singer 66 Treadle machines is informative and “generally” relays the usefulness of such a machine, especially in a grid-down environment, however, as I have learned personally, her claims that the Singer 66 can handle THICK and BULKY items like leather and nylon is not accurate in my opinion. I learned this by buying a beautiful electric-motor-driven Singer 66 “Red Eye” model to do all the nylon web gear modifications I have always wanted to do to my gear, as the Singer 66 is indeed a tough all-steel sewing machine, yet I quickly discovered …


Emergency Bags for Your Vehicle, by Z.T.

Most preppers probably have a pretty good handle on how to assemble a bug-out-bag (BOB). And, it’s probably so large and ungainly, that it gets stuck in the closet, just like mine. Let’s be honest, are you going to have it when you need it? I think we have covered the likelihood of being at home when “it” happens in plenty of detail in the past. We have seen that the chances of you being at home on your couch with your BOB beside you are slim. What about all the other situations? In other words, where to you spend …


Field Evasion Skills, by JOAT

So there I was, in the back of the UH-60 Blackhawk lifting my feet at various intervals for fear that they would scrape the pine trees as the pilot hugged the terrain below with the chopper.  One thing led to another and the next thing I knew the chopper was on the ground and I was running full speed to get to the trees to find concealment from nearby hostiles that intended to do me harm. As I got up and over the nearest ridge and ducked into some temporary concealment; I stopped and listened. After waiting for what seemed …


Pat’s Product Review: Maxxeon WorkStar 2000

Way back before computers completely took over our lives, life seemed a lot simpler. If it were up to me, I’d live without computers, microprocessors, cell phones, texting, e-mails and tweets (whatever that is). I long for the time when cars were more simple to work on, I used to love tinkering with my own cars, improving on them, repairing them, and just playing around with them. Heck, I even worked as a dune buggy mechanic in Hawaii for a time. Today, with all the computers running cars and trucks, I can’t hardly figure out anything on new vehicles, you …


Local Food and Energy from Top Lit Up Draft Micro-Gasification Stoves, by Doug B.

"Food and energy are the two keystones of any community economy anywhere on earth.   If we produce and distribute food and energy locally, we have the food, the energy and the money.   We establish the capacity to create and retain wealth in our community.   We put in place the two foundations of any human economy."  -David Yarrow. More and easier food and energy production immediately raise standards of living. Less time worrying about essentials, leaves more time to do everything else.  Do not overlook this simple truth in preparedness and future planning.  Top Lit Up Draft (TLUD) stove technology has …


Bangladesh: Lessons Learned and Brought Home, by K.G.

A few months ago, work requirements took me to a country where I’d never been before, and where, frankly, I never dreamed I’d go: Bangladesh. I’d venture to guess that few Westerners (and even fewer Western women) have had the opportunity that I recently did, and so I’d like to contribute to readers some of the experiences I had and some of the lessons I was able to bring home. Before writing further, let me say that less than two weeks in any country does not make an expert of any visitor – myself included. I can’t and won’t pretend …


The Po’ Mans TEOTWAWKI Guide, by R.B.

Useful tips and advice for the rest of us. Don’t have lots of money? Just started prepping when it hits the fan? This guide is for you. Free of charge! Tip #1: Bug-in Chances are that you won’t be in such immediate danger (dirty bomb, lava about to engulf your house, spiders like in that Arachnaphobia movie) that you actually have to leave your home. Most likely the government will stop functioning or the power grid will be down for a long time. Of course, there is always risk of civil unrest, but that is not likely to effect your …


Self Defense When Your Options are Limited, by L.J.

It started with a pirate story. I was chatting up an old sea captain and asking how folks might take countermeasure against the threat of pirates (think Somali-like, not Disney-like).  He explained that most pirating these days in North and South American waters is either drug related or opportunistic.  To avoid the former, avoid anything associated with the drug trade.  To avoid the latter, harden your target a little bit.  I was particularly interested in the non-firearms related aspects of this, since when cruising on the ocean, many ports of call are in countries with less than friendly firearms laws.  …


Letter Re: Four-Tier Survival for the Newbie

James, Thanks so much for all you and your family do to keep survivalblog.com going. It is a daily read for me. Upon reading “Four-Tier Survival for the Newbie,” I reminisced about what my father would say to me while I was initially preparing my bug-out bag:  “Son, you are preparing for luxury. Back when I was a boy during the Depression we used to go out camping with just the clothes on our backs, our pocket knife and a potato in our pocket. We took a potato ’cause we generally couldn’t ‘find’ potatoes.” Being in my mid-fifties now, I …


Packing Horses and Mules, by R.S.

In today’s world most people will never pack an animal to move their goods from point A to point B. However it wasn’t that long ago that animal power was the primary land transport system. In a grid down scenario it may return if only briefly. I offer this article only as an introduction, or primer with a few “how to’s” and a few “how not to’s”. If only one piece of knowledge stays with you, it could be very beneficial.   Many of the things I will cover are the basic principles of packing.  Some of the knowledge may …


Pat’s Product Review: The Power Pot

Living in the country, is really great, but there are a few problems that one can expect. One is loss of electrical power – especially in the winter months, where I live – in Western Oregon. We have a lot of rain, and it causes trees to fall across power lines, knocking out power, and we lose our power at times, for days. I have a back-up generator, and I use it to keep my refrigerator and freezer cold, so I don’t lose any foods. I don’t have a need to watch tv all the time, or surf the ‘net, so …


Four-Tier Survival for the Newbie, by C.H.

A little about me: I am 27 years old, I have been married to my wife for 7 years. We have two boys, ages six and 22 months. Both my wife and I are school teachers; I also coach football and power lifting. So, we are the epitome of the American middle class. I have always enjoyed hunting, camping and the outdoors. So I have developed some basic “outdoorsman” skills throughout my youth and early adult hood. As a young child and early teen, I was very interested in survival, homesteading, and living off the land. I remember reading Foxfire …


Skis for Creating Winter Survival Options: The Norwegian Edge, by 60 Degrees N., in Norway

Norwegians know winter. It’s ingrained in their culture. In 2002 this country of under 5 million ranked first in Olympic gold medals and third overall. Imagine Colorado, and only people born in Colorado, doing this and you begin to realize what an accomplishment this is. Ask a Norwegian to name the top items needed for a winter emergency and they will likely not mention skis (cross country skis). The reason for this omission is obvious, at least to a Norwegian. With skis, a situation would be far less likely to be considered an emergency.  On moving to Norway 10 years …


Marksmanship and .308 Battle Rifles, by Ulysses in Montana

Like a lot of guys I did some shooting and hunting while growing up, only to set it aside in early adulthood as the frantic task of making it in life overcame interest in such ‘boyish’ pursuits.  When I returned to shooting later on it was with an emphasis on self-defense, particularly pistol shooting, which provided a fresh and stimulating way to ease back into it, as I had previously never fired a pistol.  I quickly settled on the Glock models in .45 ACP, keeping it simple and relatively inexpensive, and have kept at it steadily ever since, wanting above …