Category: Retreat Logistics

Letter Re: Advice on Storing and Recharging Hearing Aid Batteries

JWR, Thank you so very much for what you do! Your blog is the best resource on the net for preparedness info, news and views that I know of! My 8 year old daughter wears hearing aids in both ears,. How long can I reasonably expect hearing aid batteries to store? In the event of TEOTWAWKI, I would be heartbroken to see my little girl unable to utilize one of our most precious senses. I imagine many elderly folks may have the same problem. What a very dangerous predicament to be in, the world falling apart, and you can’t even …


Life On the Road Presents Preparedness Dilemmas, by Wandering Will

As I sit in the front seat of my motorhome looking out at the beautiful hanging Spanish moss, feel the warm breezes and know that all I have to do for breakfast is walk five feet and pluck a fresh grapefruit from the tree beside my campsite, I once again know how blessed I am. However, as idyllic and normal as the situation appears, I know full well that it can all come crashing down at a moments notice. I have always been a preparedness freak to some extent and even finished up my career as an emergency management specialist …


Letter Re: Observations on Preparedness from a Gulf Coast Hurricane Veteran

Mr. Rawles, I just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed your site. I had no idea that there were whole survivalist communities out there until I stumbled on a link by accident. In fact, I didn’t really know that I fit into that category myself. My wife and I live on the Gulf Coast and we discovered the hard way during Hurricane Rita that a bag of trail mix and a bottle of water, was not preparing to evacuate. Eighteen hours in traffic in a hundred and fifty mile traffic jam taught us to find the …


Letter Re: Advice on Grungy Military Surplus Magazines

I took your advice and ordered some FN-FAL magazines from What-A-Country, and they were promptly delivered. However, I was surprised to find that the military surplus magazines were quite dirty with what appeared to be black sand, and slightly oily. Is that common for used magazines? As a first time battle rifle owner making my first military surplus purchase. I don’t know if this is common practice or not. If it is, what is the best way to properly clean the magazines so they can be used? Any advice or a link to a web site with additional information would …


Letter Re: Acquiring Tire Repair Supplies and Compressors

Mr. Rawles, After getting a flat tire recently in the back-country I decided to beef up my off-road repair kit with more than just a spare tire. I now have two spares. I’ve also added a portable 12V compressor along with a portable tire puncture repair kit like this one. For $35 the kit includes enough plugs to repair perhaps a dozen punctures, extra valve stems and valves, valve wrench and high quality reamer and needle for applying the tire plugs. It is an excellent kit and is much higher quality than the plug kits you find in typical auto …


From the SurvivalBlog Archives: Survival On a Shoestring Budget

I often get e-mails from readers claiming either directly or indirectly that preparedness is “only for wealthy people”–that working class people cannot afford to prepare. That is nonsense. By simply re-prioritizing your budget and cutting out needless expenses (such as alcohol, cigarettes, convenience foods, and cable television) almost anyone can set aside enough money for a year’s worth of storage food in fairly short order. It is amazing what can be done with hard work, ingenuity, and very little money. While I do not endorse interloping on public lands nor do I suggest that you live like a hermit, the …


Letter Re: Inexpensive Spare Eyeglasses

Hello JWR, Thanks for the site. Information is the best currency. I will send 10 Cent Challenge money in February. Just wanted to give you a link to LBWEyewear.com, a site I discovered which sells [made-to-order] prescription eyeglasses. Most normal pairs are less than $25. Some less than $15. I don’t have any connection to that site, just a satisfied customer. I’m sure there are others like it. I have found that paying 200+ dollars for a pair of glasses is not economical because I lose them often and break them. It’s always good to have a spare pair in …


Fear and Loathing in America’s Age of ZIRP

You’ve surely heard by now that the Federal Reserve has effectively lowered interest rates to zero. Obviously having learned nothing from the mistakes of Japans’s decades-long recession, Ben Bernanke & Company have instituted their own Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP). By artificially lowering interest rates, many economists predict that the Fed will actually delay economic recovery for many years. ZIRP was a failure for Japan, and I predict that it will be a spectacular failure for the United States. The Fed could, in fact, lower interest rates below zero, to the so-called “Super Zero” range. Such absurdities are not impossible …


Survival Dentistry, by The Army Dentist

Dentistry may be one of the least exciting topics under preparedness. You will never see a television show on the daily life and death struggles in a dental office and you won’t find too many stories “from the front” on the dental team. But a dental emergency can quickly complicate or even bring to a standstill, daily living and tasks. In a SHTF scenario, this is not something you want to deal with. The confederate army was the first army to recognize this and fielded a dentist for their troops. In Vietnam, dental disease accounted for 11% of Disease and …


Letter Re: A Company Layoff Underscores the Need to Be Well Prepared

Jim, What a surprise my wife and I received at work yesterday. My wife and I work for the same manufacturing company and after two banner years and a huge Christmas bonus the company is reducing everyone to 20 hours a week. The company we work for is a total “team oriented” place to work and if one person gets a bonus we all get a bonus and the same is true when it comes to layoffs. While our company sets and exceeds the world standard for what we do many of the companies we are dealing with are unable …


Comparing the Big Three Battle Rifle Chamberings in the United States, by Kyrottimus

Since there are probably many folks new to firearms in the recent months, it may help to convey a sense of awe and respect for the power which they possess. I intend to use practical examples to give the average person a relative understanding of firearm ballistics; dealing primarily in the overall energy they are capable of unleashing at varying ranges. I will focus on the three most common military-spec cartridge calibers found in semi-automatic battle rifles in the U.S.: 7.62x51mm NATO (.308 Win), 7.62x39mm Soviet/Russian and 5.56x45mm NATO (.223 Rem). I will also address some comparisons with handgun ammunition …


A 1911 Dinosaur Turns Over a New Leaf — Switching to XD Polymer Frame Pistols

I have been shooting M1911 steel-framed Colt .45 ACPs for more than 35 years, and up until now, I’ve always considered myself a M1911 die-hard. But through those years, I’ve seen the price of Colt pistols and spare parts radically escalate. My first M1911-series pistol was a slightly-used Colt Commander that I bought in 1981 at a San Jose, California gun show, for $160. (In those days, you could pay cash for a pistol from a fellow private party, and walk out the door with it, sans any paperwork. Sadly, things have changed in California–and that was one of the …


The Practice Load-Up, by Papa Papa

For most of us who don’t live at a retreat [year-round] our plan is to G.O.O.D. When the time comes we plan to load up our bug-out vehicles and head to our own “Shibes Meadow” as the family in the movie Panic in Year Zero did. At least that’s the plan. But how well have you considered this plan? In other words, have you done a practice “load-up”? Some of the characters in Mr. Rawles’ novel, “Patriots“, had to implement their bug-out plans and pack their vehicles for the trip to the Gray’s retreat. In that packing process they discovered …


Gardening and Seed Saving, by Carolyn W.

I see some people making choices that concern me because these choices may cause them problems if they really have to survive on the food supplies that they have stored for TEOTWAWKI. I am no great expert, but my husband and I have been concerned about the possibilities of having an economic disruption since the early 1970s when a friend let us borrow some tapes by Robert Preston. We have learned quite a bit, but still have a long way to go. If this article can at least encourage people to actually try to grow a garden and save seeds …


Letter Re: Seeking Advice on Storing Guns and Magazines

Mr. Rawles, I have taken your good advice and purchase a few rifles and a number of full capacity magazines as an investment,. Now how do I store them for the long term? Should I spray them with something first? Please continue to help. – James B. (a “Ten Cent Challenge” participant) JWR Replies: The precautions that you need to take depend a lot on where you live. If you live in a high humidity climate, then you need to be particularly vigilant with your guns, magazines, and other tools. In essence: the higher the humidity, the greater the degree …