Category: Survival Mindset

Terror in Texas: An Active Shooter, by Sophie

This is a wake-up call for all of you who think you’re ready when the Schumer Hits the Fan (SHTF). Whatever trigger may cause the mayhem, you think you’re ready for it because you read all the advice from experts like SurvivalBlog so that your prepared to handle anything thrown at you. Well I’m here to tell you that when it does come your way, either by lack of practice, planning, forgetfulness or not doing what you know you should, life can turn for the worst to immediately change your life and those you love. Yesterday was my day to …


Hurricane Matthew–Some Lessons Learned

Dear Editor: Although I shouldn’t have been, I was once again amazed at the panic and last minute attempts to prepare, as Hurricane Matthew approached Florida. Florida’s geography dictates that there is only one way to travel to get out of the state, and that is north, unless you own a boat or plane.  The interstate freeways and highways get a lot of traffic and the stores get cleaned out, by hurricane refugees.  The parking lot of the Walmart that I visited was full of recreational vehicles (RVs).  Many of their owners were standing around with nowhere to go.  When …


My Personal Journey to Embracing the Second Amendment, by K.F.B.

My great appreciation and understanding for the need of the Second Amendment and the necessity for the right to own guns was a slow and incremental journey. No one in my generation of my family owned guns. I was not raised around guns. I grew up in densely populated suburban areas of California, the Midwest, and New England. I never served in the military or in law enforcement. My maternal grandfather was a highly decorated U.S. Marine in WWI with the Fifty-Fifth Company of the Fifth Regiment. He fought at Champaign, Belleau Wood, the Argonne Forest, Verdun, and Chateau Thierry. …


Letter: Circling Back on My Preps

Dear Editor, My preps are in five areas, per the “group think” of SurvivalBlog. I have worked from area to area starting with what is easiest and cheapest up the ladder in each area. As I circle back I am working my way up but also looking back and questioning myself: Where did I store the extra ammo? Exactly what is in that unmarked box on my closet shelf and how might I better package to grab and go should we have to hastily migrate? Electrical items are on the agenda today. It started up with recharging the AAA-size batteries …


Ten Lessons I’ve Learned For a Preparedness Lifestyle, by The Patriarch

1) Preparedness is a lifestyle not a “kit”. I really didn’t start long-term preparation until after seeing the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina in 2005. On the other hand, I have always had an interest in survival and preparation, whether it was for a disaster or it just meant having some simple comforts during life’s unexpected events. I usually bring extra food and clothing when away from home. This not only saves money, but it also allows more control over one’s life. Packing food allows one to not only eat what they want but also when and where they want, all …



How To Find Food in Your Own Backyard, by Z.M.

If it ever really comes down to it, you can easily find food in your backyard. I remember reading a survival book when I was younger that mentioned how absolutely ludicrous it is to die of starvation in the wild. The book mentioned the sheer number of times that starved lost hikers’ bodies are found lying in a patch of edible plant life. After reading that, I agreed with the author and set out to educate myself on the edible plants I walk by every day. The end result is that I can now take a hike through the woods …


Live Your Survival and Gain Sufficiency-Part 2, by E.M.

Mental Health Physical health for the mind is equally as important as exercising it. Like our body, if we have an unhealthy mind there will not be much exercise. We must make sure that we are not taking with great excess or frequency those things that alter and damage our mind and cause us to lose focus. There are also foods we can eat daily and place in our preparedness food shelter which will aid the biological make up of our physical mind. This topic is a book in and of itself, and there is a very large selection of …


Live Your Survival and Gain Sufficiency-Part 1, by E.M.

Self-sufficiency – noun: the state of not requiring any aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective independence. Survival – [s?r?v?v?l] – noun: the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances.[1] In our day-to-day world, there are varied degrees of survival required of us. This is true simply because there are wide-ranging degrees of threat that we face. And in today’s economic death spiral of Keynesian Economics[2], politically corrupt leadership, and a war torn world, many are already beginning to experience …


The Art and Practice of OPSEC, by T.H.

What is it? We often hear the term OPSEC, also know as Operations Security (not Operational Security), but few people actually know what it really means. When asked they often say, “It means not talking about what you are doing.” Or, they may say, “It means staying gray.” This is an extremely simplistic view of the program and fails to incorporate the nuances and methodology of the process. The concept is nothing new. In the fifth century BCE, Sun Tzu wrote, “If I am able to determine the enemy’s dispositions while at the same time I conceal my own, then …


Prepping Mindset: The New Normal, by D.V.

I am a one year oral cancer survivor. I survived a 13 hour operation that included removing my lower right jaw and replacing it with the tip of my shoulder blade. My operation is called a lateral neck dissection, and it sounds nicer than it felt! The lining of my cheek received a living tissue transplant from the same shoulder area. I had a tracheotomy and couldn’t speak. During the “cut, burn, and poison” treatment, I was connected to a feeding tube for four months. Months of treatment and physical therapy have helped me survive, but I am still discovering …


Why a Higher Alert Level Is Appropriate This Fall, by Kass Andrada

Since time immemorial, the spring and fall have been war-fighting seasons. Aggressors chose Spring if they wanted a lengthy campaign to cover a lot of ground or reduce fortifications before winter. Fall was chosen if they wanted a shorter campaign followed by consolidating gains and regrouping over the winter. It is only in modern times that all-weather fighting has become more common, but even then there are reasons to prefer spring and fall– thaws, road travel, better or worse flying weather, fog, rain, fewer storms or more, more comfortable temperatures, or better mechanical and physical reliability. This fall is shaping …


The Time Is Short, Stock Up! – Part 1, by J.H.

The world, as most SurvivalBlog readers understand, is a place full of unpleasant truths and harsh realities. It is not, nor has it ever been, nor (until our Lord returns) will it ever be a place where the lion lies down with the lamb. We are charged to pray for our nation and its leaders and to hope for the best, but we are to prepare for the worst. We would all like to believe, as Abraham Lincoln put it, in the angels of our better nature. I would like to believe in this as well, though the stark facts …


Continuity Plan, by E.M.

I guess I have always been a survivalist. As a small child during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I remember bugging out from our house near a SAC bomber base in Florida to a piece of land my dad owned about 70 miles away. I was awakened in the middle of the night by my parents, had a blanket draped over my shoulders, and was carried to my dad’s pickup. I didn’t really know what was going on, but I could tell my parents were scared. My uncle, who was in the military, called my dad in the middle of the …


Letter Re: The Golden Moments of Silence

Hugh, This article, “The Golden Moments of Silence” struck me by its coinciding with my experience from just last week while traveling through a very majestic and picturesque part of the country. This paragraph in particular by Sarah Latimer: “This article, I hope, will inspire you to look up from the computer, smart phone, iPad, or pull out the ear buds ….” While camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota last week I was appalled at the behavior of those who drove up to scenic overlooks that jumped out of their vehicle and went to the perch and held …