Category: Retreat Groups

Picking the Imperfect Retreat Location, and Making the Best of It, by Michael C.

I think I’m the the position of many out in the real world. I’m strapped for cash. Feeling the time crunch that I must do something soon or be caught up with the unprepared masses and get overrun. I’m also feeling the responsibility for my immediate and extended family whether they are preparing or not. It’s a huge burden to bear when you have been raised to be the “man” of any situation that might affect you and your family. That being said, I’m also a logical, common sense person. I approach things like this: 1. Look at the situation …


Prepping, in Its Infancy, by E.B. in Florida

I was trying to come up with way to write down all of things that I have been going through lately as a concerned husband, son, uncle, and brother.  A little background on me: I am turning 36 tomorrow.  When I was 24 I joined the U.S. Army.  I was fooling around in college (still) without a good source of income.  My three year relationship was coming to an abrupt end as my girlfriend was graduating college and moving into the next phase of her life (kudos to her making the tough decision to do what was best for her, …


Learning From Our Elders in Prepping for TEOTWAWKI, by the Measure Man

Let me begin with a brief history and a few insights into my journey towards being prepared for The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI.) I was born and raised, until the age of 7, in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States (the greater Los Angeles area). At which point my parents came to the realization that city life was no way to raise a family. So, they moved my sister and I to the Central San Joaquin Valley and began my education in rural life. At age 18 I joined the military …


Dragging Your Family Into Preparedness, by W.M.

I am 52 years old – a working woman, a wife, mother, stepmother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, niece, and daughter.  My parents had six children, I have six grown children, and you can start counting out from there.  We are a big family.  We are the typical outgrowth of middle class American suburbia.  Some of us are financially better off, but all of us are accustomed to our luxuries, even if that means rich, freshly ground coffee in the morning or a delicious sip of good red wine in the evening.  Many of us lost substantial resources during the past …


Social Cooperative Learning: The Benefits of Belonging to a Group of Survivalists and Preppers, by R.H.

The Beginning of My Journey: Why I decided to Start My Own Meetup Group ­ I began my journey towards preparedness about 3 years ago.  I had wanted to start preparing for an emergency but just didn’t know where to start.  It also felt very overwhelming when I thought of all the work I would need to do in order to go from being poorly prepared to becoming truly prepared.  However that egging feeling of “what if” kept pestering me.  As a San Diego native earthquakes were a natural threat and there was always that fear of the “Big One”.  …


Letter Re: Combating the Darkness Within

Jim, Reading Paul’s “Combating the Darkness Within” article, I can see that he has a scientific mind, lacking faith in God, or maybe even belief! And this is one of the first things you need in the survival mind set, a true faith in God, and guidance from the Holy Spirit, and without this guidance, no matter how prepared your are materially, your chances of making the right decisions when the time comes are questionable at best, without God’s spirit guiding you. This is why you always store a little more than what you need for [charity for] your family, friends and …


Making a Business of Preparedness, by H.P.

An aspect of survival preparedness that is easily overlooked and sometimes ignored is the utilization of a home-based small business as a means of financial preparation as well as a method of acquiring and stockpiling survival necessities.  It appears likely that some level of collapse and restructuring of our financial and monetary system will take place in the near future.  Establishing your own business is a good way to protect against a financial system catastrophe and prepare for other disastrous events.  Starting and growing a small business may seem a daunting task for many, however, it can be done with …


When The Lights Went Out in The Southwest, by R.H.

The following is a chronological list of events and occurrences when the lights went out on September 8th, 2011, or what I like to call “The Great Blackout of 2011”. 3:38 p.m. – I live in San Diego, California, and when the lights went out I was at home taking a nap. For some reason after I got home from teaching that day I was exhausted (probably the heat) and needed to rest.  It was a good thing too because I would need my energy in the hours to come.  While I was sleeping I could hear my phone going …


Save Them!, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Spokane was sparkling with light and still bustling when I looked out at it from a downtown building last night. So beautiful in the darkness. My thoughts went out to the hundreds of thousands of little children, women, grandmothers, grandfathers, boys, girls, and men those lights represented. Not just people – persons, each one unique, each with God’s calling on their lives for His purposes. Yet most of them are lost: hopelessly adrift in an empty, frantic, stupid, shallow culture of blindness and conformity and entertainment. Like the people of Jonah’s time they metaphorically don’t know their right hand from …


Maintaining Good Morale in a Survival Situation, by Lisa F.

While much has been written about the essentials of survival (emergency shelter, fire-making, water purification, defense, hunting, bug-out-bags, etc.), few survival experts have focused on ideas and tactics for maintaining morale and good mental health in a stressful and possibly sustained emergency situation.  This essay is intended to arm the reader, figuratively speaking, with some tools for helping people stay positive and energized while under stress.  These tips and ideas will be useful for any group, whether or not it includes children, or an individual.  The games are not my inventions; rather, I’ve picked them up over the years from …


How to Find Helpful People Around You, by K.W.

I have lived in the UK for the last 25 years, but the first 25 years of my life I spent in what is now called an ex-Soviet block country, so I have a view from both sides. In the Eastern Europe people would generally be more interdependent, for the simple reason that the society was less commercialized. In the West you can usually buy anything you need, so the biggest issue is to have money to purchase goods and services. In the East there was more reliance on the informal means, especially when times got tougher. Younger people, who …


Sleeping With the Friendlies, by Heidi C.

In comes TEOTWAWKI. You grab your B.O.B. pack and lay feet to a packed truck and trailer toward a predetermined secret house in the boonies. After a long day of inventory, greetings, and ears peeled to the radio, you amp down from that first frightening night of your uncertain future. You lay exhausted, in 1 of 3 bed sheet curtain bedrooms, and suddenly find yourself all and sundry, plummeted into a collage of personalities and lifestyles you thought you were familiar with – but are you? In what once was your quiet home, your new place is full of distractions. …


Maintaining Mental Health in the Face of Crisis: Dealing with Anxiety Disorders, by G.M., RN, MSN, CNL

Many of us have considered how we would provide for our family’s physical needs, including medical care, during a prolonged crisis.  Indeed, it would seem foolish to be unprepared for trauma related to accidents, violence, fire, etc., when professional medical care might not be available for weeks, months, or more.  What most of us don’t think about, however, is the toll a long term crisis could take on our mental health.  This may seem to be a low-priority concern, next to food, shelter and security, but depression and anxiety related to traumatic events can have lasting and highly detrimental effects, …


Learning To Prepare, The Hard Way, by Barbara L.

I cannot even remember a time when I wasn’t a “prepper”.  Although until a few years ago, I had no idea of what I was preparing for.  Before the dawn of my awakening, I had serious urges to learn how not to kill plants and flowers. I wanted to grow my own food eventually, so I started with a trip to the local Big Box store, and bought some bare root fruit trees. Now in my mind, they are already dead, so if I could resurrect them, and keep them going, I was on my way. If they didn’t survive …


I Didn’t Want To Be a Prepper, by Laura Y.

I didn’t want to be a “prepper”.  In fact, when I first starting hearing about survivalists and preparing for TEOTWAWKI,  I thought it was a bit extremist.  I have long been a conservative and Christian, but a skeptic as well.  When my sister-in-law started talking to me about stocking up on things and buying a water filter, I have to admit my initial reaction was not to jump on the bandwagon.  Oh, I followed our state’s recommendation to have two weeks’ worth of water and food on hand for a disaster, but that was about it.  The turning point for …