Category: Self-Sufficiency

This article is not about practical survival skills; it’s quite the opposite. It is a pre-collapse idea only and will disappear post-SHTF. Why this is useful information is that it’s an idea that may let you make the leap to living at your retreat full-time sooner and help you make ends meet while other income sources are developed. It is a plan for your home-based business, requiring no start up capital, and it’s a job for which you are already hired. You won’t have to leave the house to work or to get paid. There is actually no selling either. …

You’d think an old lady would learn. Going through old papers and files the other day in my attempt to clear out clutter and be organized, I came across the file containing receipts and all sorts of paperwork that reflected our experience with the May 3rd, 1999 tornado that went through southwest Oklahoma City and Moore, Oklahoma. I shook my head thinking, “What did I learn from this?” Allow me to provide some detail of that experience. First of all, I was home alone with four dogs….big dogs. These were dogs that didn’t get along well with each other. Two …

I am probably your less than common prepper. I’m a working mom who lives in the suburbs of a mid-sized city and has a husband who just barely tolerates my prepping. Luckily for me, a lot of the prepping skills and lifestyle choices just come naturally for him; we just don’t call it prepping! I don’t know where exactly my prepping started, but I remember at nine years of age packing a bag with clothes and food for both my brother and me “just in case” Mom decided to finally take off from the abusive boyfriend. At the age of …

This piece is a much needed wake up for prepper families that think it is okay for Dad, Mom, Son, Daughter or someone else to do everything…alone. This warning goes both ways, as I know plenty of men who “go it alone” because that is the way they want it. They haven’t figured out that young man/lady in the house, watching TV or hanging out with his friends, is capable of much more and needs to earn the confidence that practice gives. If your older children or parents, or your neighbor down the road is counting on you to help …

The intensity and length of this winter’s coldness reminds me of a survival disaster that happened to me during one particularly frigid and frightening winter in the Adirondacks at our wilderness homestead. Back in the 1970s, I had moved my family away from hectic, urban living to the peaceful and beautiful Adirondack area of upstate New York. One summer I happily foraged and harvested many wild edibles I found all around me. I gathered enough nutritious bounty that summer to prepare and can 420 mason and atlas jars of food in the form of pickles, wild berry jams and jellies, …

The author has certainly learned good lessons from his storage experiences, but there are lots more lessons to be learned, like how to put to new use items that can no longer be used/eaten. Specifically, the big jug of soya oil. In itself, soya oil, is no longer a healthy alternative, but it does make excellent lamp oil, whether rancid or fresh. Label it for oil lamp use only, and you’ve saved the cost of some commercial lamp oil. Another lesson is that any sort of plastic container will never store for any length of time. Air leaks through the …

This is the story of my family’s experience during the ice storm that hit the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) of South Carolina and Georgia. My family and a network of friends, who live in the area, are reasonably prepared for any problems that may come our way with food and water storage, shelter, generators, et cetera. When the “ice hit the fan” in our area, we had a very real test of our preps that lasted five days, and some families were still without power seven days later. First, a little background on our area. The Central Savannah River …

I have a story to tell you. A couple of weeks ago, YouTube decided to suggest in my sidebar that I view a video of Oprah flashing “satanic” eyes. I took the bait. Lo and behold, Oprah closed her eyes and weird snake-like eyes appeared on her eyelids. I spent the next week wondering if there was a chance that Oprah was possessed. Then, a few days ago, I came across another snake-eye video. This time, it was of Justin Bieber in court. Bieber blinked, and the eyes appeared instead of his usual eyes, AFTER he blinked and not on …

Greetings, As always, thank you for the survival blog. It is a wonderful resource. I remember seeing a link or list of American made products, but I can’t find it on the site. I’m starting tool boxes for my young children for either DIY home projects or for survival on the homestead after the SHTF. Do you have any suggestions for quality American made tool boxes and hand tools? Thanks – JR HJL Replies: JWR posted a list of companies that sell American made gear and tools last year. If our readers are aware of any others, we would be …

Hi, My fiance and I really appreciate the work that you do at SurvivalBlog.com. We are Reformers who are trying to figure out our strategy as I speak. We live in British Columbia and were looking to South America, but realize that maybe being in English-speaking remote BC would be a better idea. I am a horse/farm girl. He has always been a city boy. I know the meaning of hard work, and I am taking everything sometimes too seriously. (I think I over focus.) I am actually just reading Jim’s novel Founders. At any rate, I thought that on …

Dear Editor, I find myself often not knowing what skills I should have. As a former Boy Scout, I have thought about getting a stack of the merit badge pamphlets, but which ones should I get? I think this website may be of interest to some of your readers, especially those interested in the Newbie section. It is a list of all the requirements for each Boy Scout merit badge, and each one includes a bibliography for those requirements. Sincerely, – S.K. HJL Replies: The Boy Scout merit badge pamphlets are a good place to start, but you should be …

We have all heard the stories of the panicked rush on grocery stores by the unprepared masses at the onset of an emergency. Within a matter of a few hours even a so-called superstore can be picked clean of all worthwhile supplies. We all accept this as an inevitability when the SHTF, and this is why we prepare. Many may not know, however, that even after the shelves at the local store are bare there are still more resources that I believe will become available after TEOTWAWKI. As soon as I was old enough to work I started bagging groceries …

Many people are intimidated by the idea of becoming more self-sufficient or preparing for disaster because of the misconception that you have to live in the country or at least have a bug-out location in order to do so. This simply isn’t true. There are many things urban or suburban dwellers can do to improve their chances of surviving or even thriving in the event of a disaster when leaving is not an option. A little thoughtful preparation can prevent you and your loved ones from becoming victims in an unstable situation, even if you live in the city and …