Category: Retreat Groups

COA Analysis of Common Survival Strategies, by JIR

Having spent a lot of years on military planning staffs, I can’t help war-gaming scenarios. In short (as you know well) Course of Action (COA) development is a big part of Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) and is a fairly reliable way of looking at possibilities and choosing likely sequels, given scenarios. In effect, a way of war-gaming out the future. There are a number of horror scenarios that seem to me to be fairly probable and they keep going around and around in my head as I try to sequence them and assign probabilities to each one. I …


A Prepared Christmas, by Hunkerdown

As most folks are running around fiercely to holiday parties and the malls in search of the perfect gift, even in these troubled times, it dawned on me that this is a unique time of the year that preppers can share our enthusiasm for our lifestyle. I started my preparedness journey (Yes, ‘journey’, as I’m now sure there is not a final destination. Can you ever be too prepared?) a little less than a year ago, and through sites like SurvivalBlog, have spent many hours educating myself about the numerous issues we may face in TEOTWAWKI. I often find prepping …


Solo Survival in a Societal Collapse?, by Wry Catcher

When it comes to natural and man-made disasters, I’ve seen my share, and each was a learning experience. Although diverse in type, all of them shared a common factor: a dire impact on the human populations they affected. That impact, in turn, led to dangerous encounters with some rough criminals. Some people cannot cope, so they turn to ruthless behavior. Other people are selfish opportunists. While we may have pity for those who can’t cope with the stress of a survival situation, we should nonetheless remain vigilant for those who would do us harm in any way and for any …


Letter Re: Preparing Your Spouse

I really liked the post about preparing your spouse but saw one thing missing or at least not stated explicitly. Your spouse needs to know how to do these things and the only way to really learn most of these practical tasks is to do them with your spouse. Binders [full of information] are great but unless you know how to execute all the steps, where all the necessary tools and pieces are and how to use them binders are not going to help much. To illustrate the importance of actually doing something I will relay a recent tale from …


Letter Re: Preparing Your Spouse

Mr. Rawles,Several years ago I took a serious fall and was out of commission for several months. My husband had to completely take over the household responsibilities during that time. Fortunately, he was working at home and I was available to give him direction and information. Had I not been, he would have really struggled to figure out just how I got things done. As he was buttoning up the house in preparation for winter this year it occurred to me that, if he were suddenly unavailable, I too would be at a loss to remember all of the details …


Three Letters Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for the time and energy spent on your blog and your books. I read your blog and static pages often and own most of your books. Your writings offer a deep perspective not often found. Your writer from Idaho has hit on one of the most debated topics that has ever been discussed between a man and his wife. How does a man prepare his family without frightening, boring or going overboard? I’ll tell you what has worked in my family. The most important point is to bring your spouse on board, slowly. Rome wasn’t built …


Seven Letters Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness

Dear Mr. Rawles, I just came across a post that might give some more ideas to the gentleman who wrote in about getting his wife “on board” with preparedness efforts. It’s titled “All Aboard” and was posted over on Kathy Harrison’s The Just In Case Book Blog. (As may be obvious, Kathy is also the author of the [nonfiction preparedness] book entitled Just in Case.) As a side note, my husband and I “came together” on our preps about two years ago while watching the television show Jericho. We had seen some episodes in passing earlier in our marriage, but …


Over-Planning: Get Thine Act Together!

I occasionally hear from consulting clients that get stuck in the rut of “over -planning”. They do so much planning for training, and planning for stocking up, that they never seem to get around to doing either! Lengthy “to do” lists are worthless if they never get implemented. This sometimes reaches absurd lengths, as illustrated by one of my clients that showed me a spreadsheet on his laptop PC, in which he not only compared prices from various vendors for ammunition, but also tracked the changes in their prices, over the course of two years. I asked him: “Well, when …


Letter Re: A Bulk-Buying Solution–Form a Buyer’s Club

Hi Jim, The bulk-buy solution I settled on was to start my own food co-op or buying club, as an associate of a bulk supplier. They send out a monthly price list and can deliver weekly in my area with only two days’ notice. My orders must meet a minimum of $350 each and I must be present when the truck backs down my driveway in order to properly receive and write a check for the shipment. The driver calls me an hour ahead of time so I don’t have to wait around all day. My aim was to make …


Letter Re: It Takes a Village for Perimeter Security

Jim: I’ve been reading your blog for some months and went out and purchased “Patriots” as soon as I learned about it. Good job, I very much enjoyed it and will probably read again and again as I often do with books I enjoy. After reading your ‘Precepts’, I thought I would drop you a note. because I have always appreciated anyone that agrees with me. First, I am a retired cop and a retired soldier so I have studied people in one career and weapons and equipment in another. I have been to a number of Third World countries …


Two Letters Re: Maintaining OPSEC in a Geographically Extended Retreat Group

James, An idea for maintaining security: One could setup and run their own IP telephone server and use encrypted IP phones to communicate amongst their group. Asterisk is an example of an open source telephony server that runs on Linux. The server must be connected to the internet and has to be made specifically aware of the particular encrypted phones that the group uses. The phones must also have Internet connections. The entire comm channel is encrypted. If the server can be kept secure, then I think there is no point in the channel that is subject to monitoring. If …


Letter Re: Maintaining OPSEC in a Geographically Extended Retreat Group

My Dear Brother in Christ, Before I get to my question my wife and I would like to express our sympathy (a overused word I now but heart felt) at the loss of your partner and our sister in Christ. I know there is joy to be had for her being with Jesus but the loss is still felt by you and your kids and our prayers are with you. Now my main question. Do you have any ideas regarding security with it comes to putting a group together where the potential members are separated to the extent that it …


Letter Re: Thoughts on Preparedness in a Diverse Community

I just met this past weekend with a group of ” preparedness folk.” They are on a farm about 30 miles from here. I have become interested in the subject after reading One Second After (a New York Times best seller, highly recommended!) and some writings by James Wesley, Rawles. I was surprised at who they were and the mindset I encountered. A few observations: 1) The root idea is that whether or not some disaster hits, we are far too dependent on a very fragile and tenuous energy and distribution grid. Raising your own chickens, goats, vegetables, rabbits, turkeys, …


An Instructive Survival Story from the 1930s

Do you thrill to read pulse-quickening stories of survival where individuals triumph over extreme odds? How about a survival situation that didn’t occur over a period of minutes, such as a tornado….or a survival situation that didn’t occur over a period of hours, such as a hurricane ….or a survival situation that didn’t occur over a period of days, such as a flood. What about a horrifying survival story that dragged on year after year with no help, no rescue, no hope, no end in sight? Fearful survival stories of the last Great Depression abound, but we are losing those …


You’re Not (Yet) Prepared, by Ted B.

You saw the warning signs years ago and decided to be the ant, not the grasshopper. You found and purchased the home on land that is now your residence as well as your retreat.  You’ve gathered the materials to survive, perhaps even thrive, during the coming storms of political upheaval, food shortages, social disorder and economic distress.  You took courses on weapons use and feel confident in your ability to defend home and kin with any of the weapons in your personal armory.  You assembled canning materials and learned how to use them.  You consume, replenish and rotate those foods …