Category: G. O. O. D.

Update: Retreat Locale Selection: Seek a Diverse Economy

JWR’s Introductory Note:  This post is an update to a short post that I wrote for SurvivalBlog, back in August, 2005: — A diverse local economy is of great importance when evaluating potential retreat locales. Unless you are retired or about to retire, the opportunity to find steady work pre-TEOTWAWKI is also very important. Of course, if you are self-employed or a “Work From Home” telecommuter, then this is less of an issue. These days, with the advent of Starlink Internet and affordable photovoltaic home off-grid power, you can live just about anywhere. Depending on the scenario you envision, you …


Reunite Your Family After a Black Swan Event, by J.P.

Like many of you reading this, I have been in the preparedness community for more than a decade. We have seen the videos, read the blogs, read and listened to books, and thought about the what-ifs and I would-bes…. Seemingly endless “when it goes down imma gonna get my kit and my body armor and my weebo disk made by Acme company” or “in the first hours imma gonna go here and do this and that”. The first person tends to be me, myself and I. To be honest, no you are not. Hard stop! You may have loved ones …


Lessons From a Road Trip, by Richard T.

In April of this year we made a road trip from our home near the upper Mississippi River to the southern tip of Florida. In a previous article I covered navigation, communications (between driver and passenger), and maneuvering in traffic on that trip. This article is about other aspects of the same trip and what worked, and what didn’t. This trip had a two-fold purpose, to make a visit and to deliver cargo. Late the night before we were going to leave we decided to take the truck instead of the car as we needed the room for the cargo, …


Bugging Out: Some Realities, by Mr. Zipph

I recently relocated from a rural suburb in a purple state to a much smaller community in a very red state. I had long-term plans to make this move, but an unexpected career change enabled me to move sooner than expected. While my new home is not a compound deep in the woods, it does provide me with more security, more privacy, the ability to expand my gardening efforts, the option of raising some chickens and/or rabbits in the future, abundant wildlife, and a smaller community where people go to church and value their freedom. When making our relocation decision, …


Solo Road Travel, by Hollyberry

THE PLANNING STAGE I live in Maine, and my mom lives in New Jersey. The drive, one way, is 550 miles. Depending on weather conditions and traffic, the drive will take 9-10 hours. I have been making this trip several times a year for about 19 years now. Due to mom’s declining health I have been required to travel more frequently. We have some animals/livestock that need attending to so my husband stays home on “homestead duty”. I wish my dogs were car dogs but they would make that 10-hour drive even longer so I go by myself. Over the …


Road Trip Navigation, by R.T.

This is about our cross-country road trip; not about where we went, what we saw or what we did, but about how we got there and how we found our way back. Why should this journey be of interest to you? Because someday you might have to make a road trip that doesn’t go as planned, or maybe not even planned at all and with little or no technological help. My wife and I are occasional long-distance travelers. The long-distance road trips we have made have been primarily to the same destination for family events via variations of the same …


Exiting Babylon – Part 2, by The Watchman

(Continued from Part 1.This concludes the article.) The third path: come out What does it mean to “come out” of Babylon? To exit Babylon means to no longer seek the culture’s favor or approval, to no longer seek its desires, to no longer seek its wisdom or counsel, to no longer seek its good or advancement, and to put no more trust in it. It means to put as much emotional, mental, physical, and above all spiritual distance between your family and the culture. Like Gideon, we must depose the idols in our own houses (Judges 6:25-27). We must abandon …


Exiting Babylon – Part 1, by The Watchman

I’ll begin this essay with two quotations from the book of Revelation: “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.” …


Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Part 4, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.) Resources Once you have your route options figured out and taken into account potential obstacles and hazards, the next step should be to take a look at potential resource requirements and availability. The first resource I will typically look at is food – I always have some amount of emergency food stocked in my travel kit, including bags of nuts, trail mix, Fritos, emergency ration bars, small freeze-dried meals, etc. However, for any trip home longer than 3-to-4 days it becomes difficult to pack enough food to account for the whole trip, …


Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Part 3, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 2.) The Weather The next thing I look at when starting a trip plan is what the weather will be like at my destination as well as locations between my destination and home. For a shorter get-home journey these may be pretty much the same, but depending on distance, terrain and weather patterns you might experience very different weather in locations even 10 miles apart. For route plans that I use on a regular basis I’ll usually include monthly averages chart and just check the 10-day forecast shortly before I pack. Here’s a screen clip of the …


Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.) Railroad tracks are another possible route that you could use to get home, but doing so can potentially be very dangerous – unless you’re in a grid-down scenario and you’re absolutely sure trains aren’t running then I strongly recommend you avoid them. If you can use them safely they could provide a possible route that’s typically isolated and free from obstacles. Railroad bridges are potentially less likely to be monitored or blocked, so if you need to cross a terrain feature like a river or steep gully while avoiding contact they may be a better option …


Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Part 1, by J.M.

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s mantra is “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”, and the entire movie is pretty much about her following a yellow brick road to get there. Many of us spend a good chunk of our lives away from home, whether it’s at work, on vacation, visiting family or friends, or just going on a camping, hunting or fishing trip. If you spend any amount of time more than a few miles (or kilometers) away from your home or bug-out location (BOL), there’s a chance that an emergency or disaster might strike …


Siege Stove Titanium Gen 4 Flat-Pack, By Tom Christianson

The appetizing aroma of roasting venison wafted enticingly from the twig stove in front of me. The sound of sizzling meat coming from the folding grill on the top of the stove reinforced the attraction. I rotated the grill from time to time to allow the venison steaks to cook evenly on each side. After about 20 minutes, the steaks appeared to be fully cooked. I removed the folding grill from the stove, opened it, and cut one of the steaks with my EDC knife to make sure it was fully cooked. It proved to be well-done. I used my …


A Florida Vacation, or SHTF?, by Z.P. Wilson

Greetings from Michigan, where the summers are glorious, and the winters long and cold. My wife and I have lived here all our lives, and have endured the seasonal cold by hunkering down at home with books and television. During our work lives, I often told her that when we retired, we would travel to warmer places when the snow flies. We retired last year, so this was the first winter to put my idea into effect. I rented a house in Florida for the entire month of February. As we made plans for what to do and what to …


Compact Power To Go – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.) Battery The next item to consider is a portable USB battery, frequently referred to as a USB power bank. These range in size from a little credit card-sized 2500mAh up to massive power bricks with over 60,000mAh. Note that USB power banks that provide QC or PD charging levels have recently started hitting the market, and they tend to be somewhat more expensive than the older ones that only provide 5V/2A outputs. I ended up using one that I picked up a while back, which is the Miisso 5000mAh model. It provides …