Category: Retreat Groups

Ten Letters Re: Help With a Non-Preparedness Minded Spouse

JWR’s Introductory Note: The recent reply to a an e-mail from Trevor by The Memsahib inspired ten replies. Note that many of these were written by wives with non-prepper husbands! The final letter comes from a family that had their house nd barn blown away by a hurricane. Some sobering stuff. Mr. Rawles, You are truly blessed with your wife’s level of discernment and ability to communicate!. I would like to share our similar situation. Understand that I am an old Girl Scout whose former leaders took us camping from New Mexico to Old Mexico and from the beaches to …


Letter Re: Help With a Non-Preparedness Minded Spouse

Dear Jim and Memsahib, I have been discussing preparedness lately with several of my close friends. One of the things that has aided me in winning friends over to being preparedness minded is your book. Usually, once loaned to a guy, the fellow sees how plausible something like that really is and they begin to prepare. The problem is this; overwhelmingly we find have trouble with our wives. My wife, for example, says please don’t talk to me about that stuff; just tell me to get in the car when its time to go and I’ll go. She tolerates my …


The Warrior Way as Survival Strategy: Attune Yourself to a Martial Mindset in Daily Living, by Jeff Trasel

One of the constant knocks by the mainstream media on the preparedness movement is the oft-touted canard that preparedness, indeed the “survivalist” mindset is nothing more than an excuse by far-right loons to engage in Rambo-esque fantasies of firearms, firefights and macho posturing. While there is a scintilla of truth to this in some far dark quarters of doomsday lunacy, it is for the most part fiction. (This matches JWR’s caveat on discussing unregistered suppressors [in the US] or other illegal preparations). So that we bring no discredit on what is nothing more than prudence, perhaps a few short observations …


After 10 Years–Some Observations and Lessons Learned by a Y2K-Era Prepper

It was June, 1998. Y2K was a salient topic of conversation. It got my attention. When the electricity went off and there would be no water to drink, and no fuel to move food to the JIT grocery stores, I could see things getting very ugly. I had been willing to fight for this nation as a member of the US Army. Now it was time to fight for my household. I bought a Springfield Armory M1A. I bought a safe to store it in. I bought another M1A (for the spousal unit of course!) I bought ammo. Lots of …


Letter Re: Retreat Options for a 20-Something with Cash Savings

Hello Jim, I’m a 26 year old guy living in the city in Washington [state]. I’ve been watching the world deteriorate over the past five years, and suspect it will get worse faster. For a long time, I’d simply resigned myself to dying young. It didn’t really bother me (probably because it was not at hand.) But recently I’ve been thinking that I might have a chance, and anyway I’ve never liked this “labor for dollars” way of life. I’ve saved up $140,000 and about 3-to-4 year’s worth of stored food. I have very low expenses, no debt, and no …


Letter Re: Advanced Medical Training and Facilities for Retreat Groups

Jim, I have been enjoying and appreciating the letters and replies throughout the blog, and I am compelled to respond to “Advanced Medical Training and Facilities for Retreat Groups”. The letter contained very accurate and useful information, but I must comment on medical skills available to survivalists. First of all, need to say that I am a professional Emergency Medical Technician – and have been for 25 years. I have treated dozens of real-life gunshot wounds, hundreds of knife wounds, and thousands of other cases of trauma that I would prefer to not remember. As a 911 responder, I appreciate …


Letter Re: Advanced Medical Training and Facilities for Retreat Groups

Mr. Rawles, Last month I wrote to SurvivalBlog about what do one would do medically in TEOTWAWKI, when all systems are down. I had received three very good replies, and have ben thinking about what was said. I want to thank those people for their valued replies. Now, I have more questions and concerns. From what I’ve read concerning medical advice leaves me wondering. All of the advice given has stated to get a good quality Field Surgical Kit, and two books: “Emergency War Surgery”; and, “Where there is no Doctor”. Then these articles went on to [imply that] when …


Letter Re: Advice on Finding a Retreat Operations and Security Manual

Mr. Rawles, I have been working on a retreat that I will be moving to later in the year. Naturally, construction is taking up a large amount of my time. My family is on-board for the retreat. I need help in the area of an Operations and Security Manual. Is there anything that you know of that would be a starting place rather than from the ground up? I know there are a lot of things that I would miss out on if I started [by myself] from the ground up, and not know it until it’s too late. I …


Retreat Security Planning and Analysis, by Tobin

Planning The key to successful defense is defense in depth. In each layer of security it’s imperative to have a full 360 degree protection afforded by whatever measures, methods or technology you employ. Where it’s simply not possible to secure your entire perimeter due to terrain or financial limitations, it’s important to know what’s not completely protected, why it’s not protected, and what it’s not protected against. To plan your retreat security, start at the conceptual level. Define what is to be protected. It might be your primary residence, or it might simply be a cache containing bug-out supplies. Decide …


Letter Re: Networking With Like-Minded Individuals

Mr. Rawles, Did you ever have one of those awakenings where the paradigm you have been living under suddenly shifts and you see things you never saw before (or have learned to filter out as you “matured”)? I am personally experiencing one of those times in my life and I have you to thank for it. Let me bore you a little with my background before I explain how your novel, “Patriots” brought me out of my Rip Van Winkle existence and into the glaring light of my current situation. I caught the “survival bug” early on as a result …


Two Letters Re: Recommendations on a Reliable AK and a Competent AK Trainer

James, I just finished a two day AK Rifle Gunfighting class with Suarez International, using my AK that I got from Mark Graham at Arizona Response Systems. I fired over 700 rounds in a two day period, and had no hiccups or issues. Mark is a first class gunsmith, and was great to work with. For a quality AK build at a very reasonable price, call Mark. For the best training on how to fight with the AK rifle, not just shoot it, call Gabe Suarez at Suarez International. Regards, – SJC JWR Replies: Gabe Suarez has a fine reputation …


The Precepts of My Survivalist Philosophy

In the past week I’ve had three newcomers to SurvivalBlog.com write and ask me to summarize my world view. One of them asked: “I could spend days looking through [the] archives of your [many months of] blog posts. But there are hundreds of them. Can you tell me where you stand, in just a page? What distinguishes the “Rawlesian” philosophy from other [schools of] survivalist thought?” I’ll likely add a few items to this list as time goes on, but here is a general summary of my precepts: Modern Society is Increasingly Complex, Interdependent, and Fragile. With each passing year, …


The ABCs of WTSHTF, by Mark B.

The ABCs of When the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF.) aren’t what you have prepared, acquired or stowed but even more basic in the preparation processes that we sometimes take for granted. The A is the ability to learn, to adapt and to try. No matter how many classes we take or how much we have stored away there is the potential that we might have missed something or prepared for one scenario and ended up with another. We may be in the middle of TEOTWAWKI and not be fully ready but guess what, we aren’t scheduling it. Ability is …


Lessons From Fiction–A Critique of “I Am Legend”, by Michael Z. Williamson

I finally had a chance to see [the 2007 movie] “I Am Legend“, and analyzed it as a writer, and from a technical perspective. I’ve seen a lot of discussion over his [use of a] M4 [Carbine as his primary weapon]. I have to say for that type of fighting, I’d prefer a shotgun. However, a shotgun doesn’t reload fast enough. He might be better off with a good .308 self-loading carbine, if he can find adequate soft-point ammo. In New York City, that’s unlikely. National Guard armories would only have ball ammo, and likely wouldn’t have anything other than …


Family Learning for Preparedness, by T.D.

My husband and I are like minded, (he realized way before I did), and he and I didn’t meet until I was in my mid-thirties. I was considered weird, called a tomboy and later, a gear head. Don’t get me wrong, I cook, sew, knit and crochet. I had many interests though and wanted to learn. What I have seen lately and in some people we met that are like minded, is the lack of initiative on the part of some spouses. I have seen some women and men that will ridicule their spouses or will just roll their eyes …