Category: Retreat Logistics

Renters Can Prepare Too, by FLSnappyTurtle

Fifty secluded acres with a fully-stocked, underground bunker, an off grid cabin, and year-round clean water source is what comes to mind when I imagine my ideal prep situation. However, like many others who plan to survive TEOTWAWKI, my family cannot make this vision a reality right now. In the meantime, we rent homes. There are many reasons why folks choose to, or must, rent their living space, but that does not mean tenants cannot prepare for disasters and other negative world events. It may, however, require more creativity at times. This article is written for the beginner survivalist and …


Letter Re: A Problem Today That is Only Going to Get Worse When SHTF

Those that we’ve urged to prep over the decades and who know we are well stocked up personally have given the typical parting comment from most of them; “Well, at least I know where I’m going when TSHTF”. Clearly implying their only prepping will be gas enough to come here. When I hear that I respond that they won’t get anywhere near here then without the password. “Password!?! What’s the password?” I’ll then cup my hands up to my mouth like I’m yelling in from afar outside the gates: “I brought all my own food!” I’m not laughing or smiling …


Letter: A Problem Today That is Only Going to Get Worse When SHTF

HJL, About ten years ago my wife and I made the decision it was time to get out of the city and move to a more sustainable rural environment. We discovered a place with great climate, reasonable land prices, good neighbors, good job opportunities. You know, it had all the right stuff. We moved and began and continue to put our “prep” plans into effect at our new location. Over the years we have had numerous family members come to visit, and they also have fallen in love with the area. Although they are not involved in any type of …


Conditions for Combining Survival Groups Under Extraordinary Circumstances – Part 2, by G.R.

How much of the land floods? i.e. During past tropical storms, how much of the land was under water? Again, this is ***(a southern state)***. Yes, the land gets wet when heavy rains come. All campsites and camper parking areas must be able to be elevated by the owners. The harder the rains, the worse the situation would be. In fact, a very good chore would be scouting and foraging for lumber and then constructing suitable platforms for tents. There is nothing different here than at any scouting campground or other public campsite. The land is protected by a wide …


Your Brain On Paper—How to Write Useful Operating Instructions, by M.R. – Part 3

Responsibilities I designed the storage system and have assumed all responsibilities for filling the water containers and replacing the water every two years. In my absence, that responsibility falls to the oldest member of the remaining family who is also responsible for the continued upkeep of this operating instruction and ensuring that it is available to all group members. If group discipline problems erupt in using the water, that person acts with the authority of a group leader. I may be gone, but I’m watching from heaven! Policy Refreshing Water: The blue, plastic, storage containers at the ranch and in …


Your Brain On Paper—How to Write Useful Operating Instructions, by M.R. – Part 2

Topic Areas for Operating Instructions Topics will vary for different groups, depending upon the extent of their preparations and unique specifics. I live in the mountains of California. You will find earthquake instruction in my binder, but you will not find one concerning hurricanes. Choose one or two areas important to you, and start with them. This will allow you to learn and test the format and save a lot of re-do time. On the bright side, you may find that the operating instructions and the binder provide a place to organize and include papers and information that you have …


Letter Re: My Personal Alexandria, Now Less Flammable!, by ASC

Good Morning Hugh ASC’s article on the E-readers is spot on. I’ve been using e-readers in various forms for some time now, and I’ve incorporated them into my jourmey of getting ready for whatever may be on the horizon. If I may I’d like to add a few additional points that may be of help when using an E-reader as part of a preparedness plan. As JWR has said many times, “Two is one and one is none.” Words to live by. In regards to an E-reader, I encourage those who rely on these devices to accumulate more than one …


Your Brain On Paper—How to Write Useful Operating Instructions, by M.R. – Part 1

Do you have any idea how much of your prepper knowledge is actually recorded in your head and nowhere else? I’m talking about details that you think are common knowledge but aren’t actually common among those in your survival party. If you are the key member of the group—the one who has done the lion’s share of planning and training, it’s likely that others don’t know as much as you think they know or that they will be able to remember as much as you think they will. If you drop off your twig unexpectedly or suffer a mentally-incapacitating illness …


The Care and Feeding of a Woodstove

Here, at the Rawles Ranch, we heat our house with a masonry wood stove. Because of the thermal mass of its masonry construction, the stove holds heat and, therefore, provides a much more consistent heating effect; well, that is the case for at least three-fourths of our house. Our stove’s wood box is large, so there is the risk of overheating the living room, especially in the fall and spring, when the afternoons warm up outdoors. In those seasons, we have to be careful to keep the stove’s air vent nearly closed almost all of the time. (However, we are …


Staff Article: Rotation, Rotation, Rotation! – Effective Food Storage Strategies, by L.K.O.

“If you don’t use it, you lose it.” As any realtor will tell you, at least those who recite the cliché, the three most important factors in real estate are location, location, location. The three most important factors in effective and economical food storage might just be rotation, rotation, and rotation. Of course, there are other considerations, but rotation is often overlooked, and it can have consequences for both your budget and your body; spoiled food is not only costly economically, but it can make you and your family sick, or it can even be lethal, in some cases. It …


Letter: Sharpening Crosscut Saws

Hugh, Since I sent you my comments on sharpening I’ve come across some information concerning crosscut saws that readers who have a crosscut saw as a backup for a chain saw will find useful. This link is for the Missoula Technology and Development Center. For the cost of a phone call you can request free copies of Warren Miller’s Crosscut Saw Manual and the companion video The Crosscut Saw Filer. [Editors Note: USFS- Missola Technology & Development Center has informed us that that they no longer have the Crosscut Saw manual available. Their stock has been depleted and it is …


Little Things WILL Become Big Things, and Food Will Be Everything!, by L.T.

When everything falls apart there are plenty of plans for “bugging out”, “bugging in”, and so forth. Whatever path you choose, things won’t return to normal soon and quite possibly never. Much has been written on beans, band aids, and bullets, but there will also be a huge demand for little things that we take for granted. Of course, there will be an even bigger demand for fresh food. Decent food is a major issue; you can’t live forever on storage foods, and most people can’t live forever in the woods. The following is information from our experiences to help …


What to Expect When Planning A Hardened Shelter With A Professional Team of Engineers and Architects, by D.C.

I’m writing this article to persons considering developing their retreat with a fortified shelter. Here, I will thoroughly explain the expected preparation and process we went through on our shelter design and construction phases with our design professionals (engineers and architects) and other building industry professionals (general contractors, subcontractors, and product vendors). I am a licensed architect, with licenses in more than eight states and over 25 years of experience. Much of my career has been spent in highly technical commercial work (MRI suites, computer data centers, pharmaceutical labs, and so forth). For a mid-career alternative, in 2001, I also …


Letter Re: Multi-Purpose Power Solution

HJL, Liquid fuels are expensive, heavy, dangerous to transport, and a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Even if you have enough stored for a year, what then? Direct conversion of biomass to fuel for gensets has been proven successful for thirty plus years now. I have operated a design for powering small gensets that works as well today as it did in the early 80’s. It’s also driven a few thousand miles on a truck that runs on nature’s finest. Due to space and weight limitations not present in stationary applications, refining wood into gas on board a vehicle …


Multi-Purpose Power Solution For Laying Low Or Bugging Out, by T.G.H.

We live in an area known for food storage. I’m a real estate broker and am in and out of people’s homes all over happy valley. I have firsthand knowledge of who’s prepared and who’s not. Although many have buckets of grains and a few shelves of canned goods, the vast majority are not really prepared for a true disaster lending itself to long-term survival and recovery. Believe it or not, most couldn’t survive a prolonged power outage in the middle of winter. As the readers of this blog know, there is a lot more to it than a wheat …