Category: Retreat Groups

Commerce Model Prepping: A Re-Evaluation, by B.H. in North Idaho

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Editor’s Introductory Note:  This article serves as an update to B.H.’s original piece on this topic, published in SurvivalBlog back in March of 2013. Introduction Over the years since I first read the novel Patriots by James Wesley, Rawles and made the decision to embrace prepping my idea of prepping has changed. It started when I recognized that friends, acquaintances and strangers all had varying ideas and degrees of preparedness even within very similar prepping models. The greatest characteristic of Survivalblog.com is that there is something for everyone presented in articles and information. Regardless of your station you’ll find information …


Preparedness Lessons from the 1930s – Part 2, by J. E.

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(Continued from Part 1. This part concludes the article.) Twice a year the cabin was emptied of everything. The walls, floors, and ceilings were scrubbed with lye soap and a bristle brush. All the belongings were also cleaned before they came back into the house. This was pest control and it was needed until DDT became available. Even then, bedbugs, lice, ticks and other creepy crawlies were a fact of life and were controlled by brute force. Failure to do so left you in misery and maybe ill. Foods were stored in bug proof containers. The most popular was fifteen …


Prepper Complacency, by Wood Tamer

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In this writing I will be referencing Hurricane Michael. This is not just a narrative about my experiences with this hurricane but rather a reflection on my life experiences as a prepared individual, family, and neighborhood. Throughout my life I could probably be defined as an individual more prepared for unexpected events than most others. That was not necessarily by design but rather necessity and lifestyle. I was raised in a large family and we always needed to make ends meet. As an adult I have been blessed with an abundant life without much adversity or concern until I heard …


Displacement Planning – Part 3, by J.M.

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(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article series.) Regardless of how you plan on loading equipment and supplies, it is critical that you document a loading plan. This should define what gets loaded in what order and where it’s loaded. How detailed this needs to be depends on your requirements – if you’re planning on walking from your location to a well-stocked bug-out compound, keeping a simple bug-out bag packed will probably meet your needs,  since you won’t need to pack much to get going. However, if any significant amount of packing or loading will be required prior to …


Our Path Towards Preparation, by SBC

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On our curious and sometimes convoluted path towards being prepared for TEOTWAWKI, I have sometimes impressed, often confounded and occasionally amused myself and family with our brilliance and stupidity. Here follows the outline of the story of our adventure in the hope that it will inspire or amuse or warn you and help your own journey be a bit easier and the load a bit lighter. We began our journey after Hurricane Katrina when FEMA so effectively demonstrated how inadequate the federal support system was dealing with large scale disasters. So what began as a ah-ha moment of “perhaps we …


Challenge & Password for The Prepared Family, by A. Jackson

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One of the best ways to improve your preparedness skills is by adapting military skills to preparedness uses. Today we’re adapting the U.S. Army Common Task of ‘Challenge & Password’ to the needs of the survivalist. Scenario Consider the following scenario: About six weeks ago it finally happened, the currency collapsed and since then the security situation has rapidly deteriorated. Crime has begun to run rampant as the populace grows more and more desperate to fill their and their family’s bellies. At some point most of the local police force realized that their entire paycheck couldn’t even buy their family …


From the Deep South to Northern Rockies: Pt. 2, by GritsInMontana

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(Continued from Part 1.) Critters Goats: My neighbors decided to be “goat foster parents” for the summer. (“It will be a great experience for the children!”, they said.) The plan was to return the goats to the rightful owners when September rolled around. My response was “That owner is probably three states away by now….” Sure enough, as fall approached, the owner was nowhere to be found and my neighbors now had to figure out what to do with their foster-goat-situation for the winter. You see, getting rid of a goat will almost always require some level of treachery and …


Strangers in a Strange Land: Communication, Pt. 2, by L.C.

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. HUMBLE YOURSELF. We took Danish lessons. It is a very difficult language that has 6 extra vowels that I can’t even hear the differences. After living on our small street for several months, we received an official-looking post card. Using our Danish-to-English dictionary made no sense of the phrases on the card. We had met our neighbors but had not developed friendships. We had learned that all Danes are taught English from 3rd grade onward. If we spoke Danish, they would answer in English. So I humbly …


Strangers in a Strange Land: Communication, Pt. 1, by L.C.

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HOW TO MEET PEOPLE/MAKE FRIENDS IN A NEW AND FOREIGN AREA After growing up on small farms in Ohio, my husband and I were given the opportunity to live in Denmark for his work. Looking back, that was total culture shock to both of us. Also looking at it now in hindsight, I’ve compiled a plethora of hints with anecdotes, to illustrate. HOPEFULLY, THESE HINTS CAN APPLY TO ALL PEOPLE MOVING INTO A NEW HOME, OR TO A BUG OUT LOCATION. To make this meaningful, perhaps a little more background is necessary. As I mentioned, my husband and I each …


Age-Adjusted Prepping, by Wandering Will

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It is said that prepping is not a movement or a philosophy. It is a way of life, and a way of life must accommodate changes in life. Having squarely arrived into my “Golden Years,” I was reluctantly forced to take a fresh look at my prepping agenda. Not exactly a newbie to the game. I’m still eating Year 2000 Problem (Y2K) food, I have accumulated food, gear, and training over the years and have reached a somewhat reasonable level of comfort. However, we all know what happens when we start feeling confident. After a few recent practice drills and …


Guest Article: Maps and Pins Won’t Save You, Part 1, by Kit Perez

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Editor’s Introductory Note:  This article on Intelligence first appeared at the excellent American Partisan web site, and is re-posted with permission.  Part 2 will be posted on Saturday, February 2, 2019. I recommend American Partisan as “must reading.” Consider bookmarking it. — Part I: Understanding Your AO There’s a disconnect among many in the prepper community between information and intelligence. In recent years, a disturbing notion has become fashionable; namely, that in order to effectively operate in your area — whether it be due to a societal meltdown of some type or a natural disaster — you need a big …


Family Preparations for Nuclear War

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Today, I’m addressing a subject that I suppose should have had more emphasis earlier in SurvivalBlog: The risk of nuclear war, and how families can plan and prepare to survive it. The Risk The risk of nuclear war is now actually greater than during the bad old Cold War. Back then, there were just a handful of nuclear powers that were divided into two or three camps. But today, there are umpteen factions and even terrorist groups with potential access to nukes. Face the facts: We live in a dangerous world. Someday, one or more of hose nukes is going …


The Well-Balanced Gun Collection

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A topic that comes up in more than half of my consulting calls, is firearms. Most survivalists gravitate toward guns for obvious reasons. If anything, SurvivalBlog could surely be labelled a “guns and groceries” oriented blog, and most of our readers are like-minded. We tend to have large gun collections. We aren’t entirely gun-centric, but our concept of preparedness includes owning guns and having full proficiency in their use. The greatest difficulty vis-a-vis guns for those in our community is not hand-wringing about whether or not we should own them. We’ll leave that pseudo-question up to the leftists. Rather, our …


Guest Article: Seven People You Don’t Want in Your Group, by Kit Perez

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Editor’s Introductory Note: This article first appeared in the American Partisan blog. It is re-posted with permission. I get a lot of questions about recruiting. How to do it, when to do it, when not to. While the best way to answer those questions is in an actual class (and there are still a few spots open in the webinar class I’m teaching on it), there are some hard and fast rules about the type of people you want and don’t want in your group. In fact, there’s a list of automatic disqualifications that I tend to use and teach …


Guest Article: Strategic Relocation: Are You Missing Out? by Kit Perez

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This article originally appeared in the American Partisan. The concept of strategic relocation is not new, but it’s recently become more popular, as more and more liberty-loving folks get tired of being crammed into crowded public transportation or spending hours on the road in the daily snail-pace commute. For many, the thought of leaving everything can be a bit terrifying, and if you have a family who doesn’t want to leave, you might be thinking that your Big Move is more of a pipe dream than a real possibility, even though you see the death grip on your everyday freedoms …