Category: Retreat Groups

Letter Re: Getting The Family On Board

Dear Mr. Rawles,   First, I want to thank you for the work you do and the time and effort I know it takes to provide all of us the wealth of resources and information you do.  I have been steadily preparing for bad times only for the past two years.  Prior to that, my family and I were all about the “Good Times” – Working for the weekend, staying tuned into the television shows, enjoying the “American” way of life.  I became involved in stock market trading a few years ago and took several classes with a gentleman who …


Move to the Mountain States–The American Redoubt

(Note: This essay launched The American Redoubt movement. It was first posted in 2011. It was last updated on May 17, 2017) To begin, I recognize the fact that “all politics are local”. I also recognize the international readership of SurvivalBlog.  Therefore I de-emphasize politics in my blog. However, an article got my blood boiling: Motorists illegally detained at Florida tolls – for using large bills! So, not only are Federal Reserve Notes not redeemable “on demand” for specie, but effectively they are now no longer “…legal tender for all debts public and private.” It is often hard to pinpoint …


Making the Move: Retreat Bound, by L.P in The Ozarks

I’m writing this in an effort to encourage others who might be in the process of, or thinking about moving to a full time retreat. Our situation is not unique.   In the spring of 2008 we saw the writing on the wall (economic, political, and social trends) and we wanted out of the suburbs and into a full time retreat in the country side.  We are a family of four that includes two boys in their early teens. My wife and I had great jobs, we lived in a planned community that was 30 miles away from the big city …


Considerations for Disabled Preppers, by Kevin R.

Over the last few years, I have seen numerous articles on everything imaginable . This has been the most informative site amongst “many” others I frequent. I am a Messianic Christian and partially disabled. I once weighed over 500 pounds and was written off for dead with severe sleep apnea. By the grace of God I have since lost 300 pounds. Many years spent in a wheelchair have pretty much weakened me from the knees down. If you see me in the mall I am probably zipping by you, but I cannot stand for long. I will never be able …


Disabled–But Not Helpless, by J.E.

“I would probably die.” my friend responded to the question of “What happens if there is a power failure while you sleep?”  His smile was closer to a grimace.  He was a fragile old man, out of the hospital for just a week, and would be using supplementary oxygen for the rest of his life.  His oxygen concentrator, used at night while asleep, required 115 VAC.  It wasn’t an idle question.  We had, on different occasions, discussed survival situations, including TEOTWAWKI.  (It is similar to deciding how high “up” is.) Within days he had cobbled together an alarm that used …


You’re Ready for the Outlaws, But What About the In-Laws?, by Ellie Mae

I’ve been a daily visitor to SurvivalBlog for nearly three years now.  I really can’t believe it has been that long since that desperate day when anxiety from losing my job took over and compelled me to search for survival information on the Internet.   You see, I was a 20 year mortgage originator.  Not only had I lost my job when my company folded, it was clear to me that I and millions of others had lost any ability to make a living in that crumbling industry.  The music stopped while I was chasing the dollars and it was game …


Affordable Preparedness, by Phil in East Tennessee

I enjoy reading SurvivalBlog each morning as I prepare for my day. I have only been a reader of the blog for six months, and enjoy all the varied insights. So I feel compelled to share some of my experiences. Let me start off by saying I was raised in a Christian preparedness household.  Both my parents suffered through the Great Depression as children and my mother was deeply impacted by the possibility of being hungry and cold again. As a teenager in the mid-1970s I remember we had a basement full of Neo-Life brand long term storage food, thousands …


Letter Re: Getting Family Members On Board With Preparedness

Jim, I’m looking to try and wake up some of my family members and have an idea, but may need a little help to execute.  My issue is one of gaining someone’s attention without turning them off.  With several of my friends and family members I was able to buy them a copy of “Patriots” and their frame of mind was one that was open to jumping in.  I know several others, my brother chief among them, that, were I to give him an entire book, it would be overload and I’d lose him.  Obviously I’ve spoken with him, as …


Do Not Underestimate Airsoft as a Training Aid for Youths, by Scott D.

My son who is 15 years old recently got into Airsoft and started to amass a collection of replica looking, fully functioning and firing Airsoft rifles and pistols. I had planned on enrolling him in a Hunter’s Safety course soon as he is of age but the more I watched him and his buddies play Airsoft in the bush like a rag-tag wild bunch I decided to take action.  This was a good way to train them to be soldiers.  Mostly because it was out of fear of some of the younger children getting seriously injured, since those plastic pellets …


Training and Practical Tactics, by Southwest LEO

First and foremost let me say that this is in no way meant as the definitive way to do things. This is only one man’s opinion of things that I have used in my job and have kept me safe over 15 plus years on the job (I am also not a tactical operator–I am just a beat cop). Also know and respect your local laws when training. Safety is also a factor. I have done live fire training and even with all safety being a priority wearing body armor and having an instructor right next to you my pucker …


Recognizing Societal Fragility and Making Substantive Preparations, by C.P.

I was raised in a small town outside the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois  A normal kid in the 1970s, I really didn’t care about anything except getting out of high school and moving on with my life.  I hated history class, geography was alien to me, and other than having to know the constitution in order to pass out of eighth grade, politics didn’t mean much to me, either.  I did, however, try to get my fellow classmates to vote in a mock presidential election in 1980.  My family didn’t discuss worldly events.  In essence, I had no clue.  After …


Choosing Survival Group Partners, by C.G.

What kind of person are you and how does that relate to surviving the end of the world as we know it? I am far from completely prepared for TSHTF scenario but I am working hard on it.  I do a lot of reading and research on the subject and one of my toughest areas has been in finding other like minded individuals of which I would be able to trust in a post-TEOTWAWKI situation!  I never really realized how difficult this could be.  In my close circle of friends there is but one that is even close to being …


One Retreat’s Rules, by T.N.P.

The following is a document that I have developed for our retreat. Obviously your mileage may vary. These guidelines are based on our area, family connections, our previous preparations and many other factors. Feel free to use them as a starting place for drafting rules for your own group. Retreat Rules It is not the goal to have a burdensome and complicated set of rules. However, there must be some rules so that everyone is on the same page. In the event of “Retreat Activation”, the survival of any one of us depends on the survival of the rest of …


Letter Re: Firsthand Experience in Doubling Up

Mr. Rawles, In your novel “Patriots” and in many articles of SurvivalBlog, people discuss what to do when TEOTWAWKI comes. The one thing common in most of the situations is doubling up at a retreat. My wife and I have some experience in this and I want to pass some information on to help people prepare for the situation they may be facing.       My wife and I moved in with her parents about 13 months ago due to financial hardships. We were living in Arizona and struggling to make ends meet. I was working a job that covered …


Spreading the Word–Working Toward a Community Food Reserve, by Rex C.

“No man is an island…” – John Donne Readers of SurvivalBlog.com tend to have an independent streak, and our attitudes toward preparedness and degrees of readiness vary accordingly. Some of us have unplugged from the grid and are completely self-reliant, many have dreams of doing so at some point, while some of us are a little behind the curve and playing catch-up. Others are new to the field and are making what preparations they can in their current circumstances. Whatever our individual temperament, most of us are members of a community–a church, a neighborhood, an extended family–and we need to …