Category: Retreat Security

Letter Re: Learning From an OPSEC Failure

Letter Re: Learning from an OPSEC Failure Hello Mr. Rawles, The shopper who had a badoperational security (OPSEC) experience at the grocery store is not alone. Here in Canada I had the same thing happen to me in a slightly different way. It was a tax free weekend at a major store and I stocked up on everything subject to both provincial (state) and federal sales tax. Big (12%) savings on every item that wasn’t food. I provision a family of seven, I wait for these weekends. For the first time I noticed I was stared at by other shoppers …


Letter Re: Learning From an OPSEC Failure

Dear Mr. Rawles, I read your site daily and am very appreciative of your work and that it is from a Christian perspective. Thank you so much. I wanted to relay a personal operational security (OPSEC) failure that happened last week that your readers may learn from. My Husband is gone on an extended business trip and before hand I had convinced him to allow me to “prep” for his being gone. We have several young children and I didn’t want to have to go shopping regularly. While my Husband is not a prepper, he is slowly listening to me …


Letter Re: OPSEC and Pattern Analysis

Dear SurvivalBloggers: The concept of operational security (OPSEC) is simple. You conduct yourself in a way that doesn’t give anyone the impression that you’re doing anything out of the ordinary. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It’s not. Everything you do and say is an indication of the things that are going on in your life. Most importantly, people tend to operate in predictable patterns. It’s called a rut. When you get into one, you define who and what you are. If someone has an interest in you, all they have to do is watch and establish that pattern. If you make …


Loose Lips Sink Ships, by Margaret

The title of this piece is a motto used during WWII by which the population was being warned to be circumspect about what they discussed and with whom they discussed it. It seems to me that it may be timely for the motto to be recycled for use by the Preparation Community. I’ve read over and over in this excellent blog and in other articles “find someone or a group of people you can trust”. I think that instruction is much more difficult and more time consuming than stocking up on beans, Band-Aids and bullets. Although I live in Australia …


Two Letters Re: Advice on Insuring Survival Gear

Mr. Rawles, Regarding the recent post on homeowner’s insurance: I am an insurance claims professional. Most standard homeowners policies have a stated limit (in your example, $250,000) for the main structure and then 70% of that (or $175,000 in this example) for personal property. This 70% is the amount that would cover all food storage and other gear. Even in total house fires, I rarely see a claim where that limit is exceeded. If someone thinks it would be, then that coverage limit for personal property (called Coverage C) can be increased through your insurance agent. Like you said, the …


The Disappearing Suburban Basement–Part 1, by Jeff W.

Two years ago, as I began preparing for TEOTWAWKI, the first thing I did was take a real, accurate assessment of what I had and what I was going to be able to do for my preparations. One of the first issues I needed to face was the fact I would never have a true “survival retreat” located out west, far away from any major population centers, and tucked away in some forgotten corner of the country. As much as I would love to have something like this in place, the balancing act between having a family, financial commitments and …


Letter Re: Advice on Insuring Survival Gear

Hi. I have a question that I haven’t found the answer to yet on your site (which I read every day.) I have over $40,000 in storage food and survival supplies. I was wondering about insuring it with my homeowners insurance. I doubt my company would believe me if a fire or tornado destroyed everything. If I take out a supplemental addition to my insurance there goes OPSEC. Should I just take pictures on everything and store them off site? What are your thoughts on this? Thanks for all the great information. – Nancy S. JWR Replies: Many homeowner’s policies …


Letter Re: Advice on Building Harder Off-Grid Houses

James, The article on perennial food sources was both timely and excellent! Kudos. We are already planning to introduce many of the species into our farm. Next, a question. Since your book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” has caused me to re-think several things — and after I have spent 20 years being a prepper –I figured I should buy your book “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation”. Chapter 14 is of special interest to me right now as we are building a snug little adobe house on the farm we just bought. We …


Letter Re: Feral Dogs and Coyotes in a Schumeresque World

The problem of feral dogs after TSHTF will be a real one. In my part of the country we have a problem with people dumping unwanted dogs. They were cute when they were pups but outgrew the family. Some people would take them to the pound, but with it’s over population and short ‘stay’ led a lot of people think that they were doing the dogs and cats a favor by letting them loose to fend for themselves. This is animal cruelty any way you look at it. There have been several cases where a feral dog joined up with …


Lessons in Survival From Rural Afghanistan, by FrmrMarineGrunt

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade in service to our nation. First as a Marine in Iraq and the last three years in Afghanistan as a civilian “security” contractor. And I’ve spent more of the last three years in a very rural valley in north-eastern Afghanistan than at home. In the last year with the birth of our first child, and the destruction of the ideals our country was founded on I found myself thinking more and more about the state of affairs in the world today and began to prepare for TEOTWAWKI. Starting as many beginner …


Letter Re: Storage Options–Hidden in Plain Sight

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers: How do you conceal resources so an intruder won’t see them? Try storing things in plain sight. An old soft drink machine, the kind that looks like a large refrigerator and dispenses cans, makes a great weapons locker. Anyone looking through your shop or garage would walk right past a machine like that, if it’s not plugged in and shows no sign of active use. The great thing about these is they are very difficult to break into and when all the can distribution stuff is removed, they can hold a lot of guns, ammo or food. …


The Un-Secret Garden–Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Grow my Garden, by Jason A.

For a lot of survival-minded folks, gardening is one of the first, most logical steps to take toward self-sufficiency.  Most of us agree that when the Schumer hits, the thin veneer of society will be removed so fast that in weeks we won’t even remember it was once there.  Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that during hard times, a garden could become a prime target for theft, destruction, raids or other attacks.  The most discussed hypothetical garden raids include a Golden Horde or Mutant Zombie Bikers who, like locusts would descend upon your garden and rip it to shreds, …


Limiting Your Carbon-Copy Footprint, by Matthew S.

Most of us that live in the post-modern era have undoubtedly heard the term “carbon footprint.” This is a term that has come to the forefront of most of our daily lives due to a streamlined and tenacious push to increase the green mentality. We have seen posters, commercials, testimonials, political rants and even legislation on this topic. The idea is to keep your impact on your local environment small so that you minimally affect the “worsening global condition.” I will not go on any type of tirade about how those that impose these ideas don’t follow it themselves (multiple …


Letter Re: Establishing a Veteran’s Bona Fides in TEOTWAWKI

Captain Rawles: I am a fairly skilled soldier in the U.S. military. Without going into details suffice it to say that I am extremely capable mentally because of my military experience as well as a healthy desire to educate and train myself in my free time. However, I travel most of the time. I have no stored food and don’t own any possessions that won’t fit in my car. Due to travel I don’t even own my own firearm, even though I am trained in the use of dozens of arms and explosives. Assume that I’m am the perfect soldier …


Three Letters Re: Four Great Preparedness Myths

JWR: Reading over all the responses to Dan B.’s article, there seems to be a common misunderstanding of the foe we are facing. I have seen several failed states and disasters up close and they are nothing like a “B Movie”. Please don’t expect to face a disorganized mob of lightly armed refugees. The refugees are going congregate in a town nearby. They are not going to storm your cabin, they are going to vote in a town meeting to send professionals to do it. There may be “raiders” in the form of biker gangs or prison escapees (think The …