Category: Survival Mindset

Letter Re: Retreats in the Eastern United States

Dear Editor: As you likely know from my prior communications, I am a long time reader of your web site, your novel “Patriots”, and your recent “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” book, which is, other things being equal, well written and interesting. However, the obvious exclusion, which you freely articulate, is the Eastern US. I’ m bringing this up for two reasons: 1) I am an ex-military Emergency Room Physician, who is convinced that TEOTWAWKI is very, very near ( the next signal is when the US Dollar Index goes below 77, that’s it! The “Patriots” [economic collapse] model will …


Letter Re: Bad News on Peak Oil: Five Year Slide to a 50% Production Crash

Dear Jim and Family, I have bad news on the Peak Oil front. We’re about five years from losing 50% of our current production, in real world terms. The producing countries are failing in their big fields, many from 8-15% decline a year (Cantarell in Mexico is down 25% from last year, Ghawar is down 10.5%, Burgan in Kuwait down 12%, Iran down something like 16%, Russia down 12%, UK/North Sea no longer exporting). Even if there are no wars and no embargos, we only have about 5 years before we only have around half as much oil (gasoline, diesel …


Letter Re: An Exercise in Humility–Starting a Poll on Embarrassing Mistakes

Jim: Freeholder’s comments on the need for real world experience in animal husbandry are part of a larger issue. How can we gain hands on experience in so many diverse survival skills and still have time for work, family, friends etc? Even if we wanted to, how many stupid mistakes would we make without someone mentoring us? It’s just as important to know what doesn’t work as what does. This blog has had a lot of great ideas of what to do. Now I’d like to see some of what not to do, otherwise, I’m likely to do that same …


Letter Re: Cargo Trailers Not Advised for G.O.O.D. Travel

James: I’m not a regular user of cargo trailers; I do own a 26-foot boat with a long-tongue trailer. Whenever I trailer the boat and whenever I have had occasional need for a cargo trailer, I have been the source for entertainment for bystanders. I think I inherited this failing from my father–but that’s another story. My point: is, unless you are really adept at trailer handling, you may want to consider the fix you will be in if, while trailering to your secure location, you come upon a street barricade with armed folks. The attendant super adrenaline rush, together …


Two Letters Re: SHTF Shopping

Dear Editor: SF in Hawaii had some good ideas in his post on Imminent SHTF shopping. However, I strongly disagree with his plan to pick up chicks and rabbits at the last minute — “Items that require maintenance that you don’t want to deal with pre-SHTF (i.e. guard dog, male and female rabbits and chicks (for raising meat) and the food and housing that they will require.” It requires skill and experience to successfully raise rabbits and chickens, skill and experience that don’t come in a few minutes time. (It also requires skill and experience to train and handle a …


SHTF Shopping, by SF in Hawaii

There are two types of survivalist [“Schumer Hits the Fan”] (SHTF) shopping. Pre-SHTF, and Imminent-SHTF. Let’s look at both of them . Pre-SHTF These are things you buy now while there is no immediate threat and no mobs of desperate people trying to get the same thing. People who know you think you are eccentric but mostly harmless. The readers of this site already know what kinds of items to store in advance (food, guns, ammunition, etc.) and so it will not be repeated here. Conceptually, these items should have long term storability, and in terms of food be used …


Letter Re: .223 For Long Range Sniping?

JWR: I’m a proud Ten Cent Challenge member, and enjoy reading SurvivalBlog daily. I would like to point out something that might not be readily apparent about that Blackwater Sniper incident in Najaf that gets so much press, and it leads to a greater point about the usefulness of small caliber precision rifle fire. The art of sniping is fairly new in the field of war craft, and new and creative ways to employ sharpshooters are being developed quite rapidly. The only limiting factor in sniper efficiency is the inability of infantry commanders to understand and effectively employ snipers on …


Letter Re: The Psychology of Denial in the Information Age

Jim, I was interested in your response to Bill H. who wrote about the Psychology of Denial. Your suggestions were excellent, and Bill’s ideas were good also, but I fear those suggestions will convince very few people. I just turned 60 and have been a “prepper” since about age 10. I grew up in the Cold War and my folks were scared silly about a nuke attack (we lived in the Sand Francisco Bay Area). We had a rudimentary bugout bag…in 1956! We always maintained about a month’s worth of food and bottled water. While our preps were very inadequate …


Letter Re: The Female Side of Surviving

Jim et al, Having seen [the movie] ‘300‘ this last weekend and the cable documentaries about the Spartans, one particular concept stood out. Debates about the culture, the movie, and such aside, I was stuck by the idea that to raise strong and capable men that it was essential that they be born of strong, independent and capable women. Elite Spartan women had a level of freedom that was nearly unprecedented in the ancient world and as young girls went through much of the same training as the boys. This is not generally the case today. As I’ve been learning …


Letter Re: The Psychology of Denial in the Information Age

Jim: Good morning. I don’t know that I have seen any discussion on your blog on the psychology of denial–why folks aren’t more prepared. I acknowledge that it may not be the most vital topic, and that you are doing your part to get the word out, but I correspond to you on this topic in sheer frustration. Let me be more specific. I have friends and family members who make serious money in their chosen professions, many of whom are in the finance sector. Yet, when I raise the barest reference to preparation and our fragile infrastructure, it’s like …


Letter Re: The Psychology of Survival in TEOTWAWKI

Sir: I have been trying to paint mental pictures of men, women, and children scouring the countryside for food and fuel, arriving/crashing through the gate to my property, intent on their own survival. They are hungry, desperate, and in a panic state of mind. I have tried to picture myself shooting warning shots over their heads, hearing them scream and curse at me, and hopefully going away. I have Dakota Alerts in place for early detection during the night. I had dogs, but they are shot or beaten to death early on in the nightmare scenario. But the alarms keep …


Letter Re: Stocking Up on Augmentin–the Antibiotic of Choice

Jim: I finally bit the bullet and bought 100 tablets of Augmentin (Co-Amoxiclav), the survivalist’s antibiotic of choice (or so I’m told). It was a tidy sum and unlike the rest of my supplies, it is not something that will store indefinitely (18 month expiration date, but I’d use it at twice that date as it is being stored in a refrigerator), nor is it something that I can rotate though and use like food. On the way back from the pharmacy I showed the kids what I’d gotten. “But dad, I thought you hated antibiotics.” my eldest said. “I …


Letter Re: The Jericho Television Series — A Review

Dear Jericho Staff, So I’ve read others comments online about the TV show Jericho. I decided to watch it via the CBS.com web site and see if there was more value than my initial dismissal from the original pilot. My feelings are On the one hand, it’s nice that someone had the guts to put a survival drama TV show on the air, in prime time, and have the guts to tell the more palatable survival-apocalyptic stories set here in the USA. Points for that. Each episode talks about a couple different survival problems. Each deals with a few new …


Letter Re: The “Third Way” Approach–A Forward Base En Route to a Remote Survival Retreat

JWR, I have been reading a longtime reader of your blog since it started, and wish to thank you for writing your novel “Patriots”, which I have read cover to cover many times and has helped me on my way to becoming a prepper. In response to Paul’s letter for a forward location between your retreat and current home I have some ideas as well as some other good info I feel your readers could benefit from. Now the plan of having a forward location by Paul is a somewhat good idea but like you pointed out a bit flawed.My …


Letter Re: The Coming Dark Age, by Roberto Vacca

Shalom, Jim Recently I read a quote on SurvivalBlog from the book The Coming Dark Age, written by an author named Roberto Vacca. I went to Amazon.com to research it and found out that it was written in 1986, and, surprisingly enough, there were no reviews on file from other readers. 1.) Do you recommend this book? 2.) If so, what do you like about it? Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Hodu l’Yahweh ke tov (Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good), – Dr. Sidney Zweibel JWR Replies: I first read Roberto Vacca’s short book The Coming …