Category: Survival Mindset

An Elderly Prepper Moves On, by L.T.

My husband and I started following the writings of Jim Rawles many years ago and his advice helped us find our ideal location in the Missouri Ozarks. Then, unexpectedly, my husband passed away and now Jonathan Rawles’ SurvivalRealty website is helping me sell my homestead. The tapestry of life. My husband and I loved the challenge of creating a sustainable lifestyle, a productive homestead, and learning the rural life.  We took a piece of rather rough land and created a beautiful place. Not finished when he passed, but I’m not sure it would ever be finished, that was the enjoyable …


By Default: Habits, Good and Bad – Part 2, by N.C.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Altering Your Default Behaviors If you are not executing your own positive plan you’re a resource to other agents at best and their servant or slave at worst. As Seneca put it to his protégé discussing how people decry things but do not change themselves “they are lingering of their own free will in a situation which they declare they find it hard and wretched to endure. It is so, my dear Lucilius; there are a few men whom slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.” Or, …


By Default: Habits, Good and Bad – Part 1, by N.C.

Part 1: Design Your Default, or Lose We’ve all had the experience of realizing that you were zoned out while you were driving. Your brain was fried from a long day at work, you got in your car and realized that (without a conscious thought) you were somewhere. Maybe at a drive-through restaurant. Maybe your house. Maybe a bar. Wherever it was, it was not where you told yourself you would go this morning. Your conscious intent was to run an errand, hit the gym, go to Wednesday night service, or go to the park for a walk. But it …


Home Security for the Gun-Deprived, by R.J.

When your temporary or semi-permanent home has to be away from true-home, you want to be secure there as well. This review is based on experiences and plans my family and I had when living and working (and for many years with young children) in not-the-most-salubrious-parts of the planet. These places also didn’t allow foreigners to own firesticks whether long- or hand-guns; a couple of countries grudgingly allowed private possession of shotguns but only for citizens, not transients, even if the transient was going to be there for years at a time. As a consequence, the Lady of the House …


Coping With a Spring Snowstorm, by Hollyberry

Here in Maine we had been experiencing a mild winter and heading into spring warmer temperatures than normal. The ground was bare, little plants were poking their heads up and the birds were singing. Most people took the plows off of their truck and dreams of gardening early were running through our heads. Well, there is an old saying: Man plans and God laughs.  That came true. On March 20th into the 21st, we received about 9-10 inches of heavy, wet snow. Then the temperatures plummeted to teens with below-zero wind chills. Okay, this is spring in Maine and these …


Silver Stacking: Patience and Persistence Pays Off

I have been a “silver stacker” for many years. With money earned mowing lawns, at age 16 I started buying pre-1965 mint-date “junk”  U.S. silver dimes and quarters in 1976 at a small local coin shop in Livermore, California. It was called Bob’s Coin Corner. Bob was patient in explaining silver coins to me.  In 1979 I sold nearly half of my silver coins just after silver peaked, when spot silver was at $47.75 per Troy ounce. I started buying some silver and gold again in June of 1987, when silver was at $8.98 per ounce. A practical silver investor …


Liberty Safe HDV-150X Biometric Handgun Vault, by Thomas Christianson

I have grandchildren. I love my grandchildren very much. I earnestly desire for them grow up safely and to enjoy a healthy and productive adulthood. I also own handguns. I have other handguns that are entrusted to my care periodically for review. One facet of my strategy for helping my grandchildren grow up safely is keeping handguns and other firearms out of their hands until they are old enough to know how to use them responsibly. I own a full-size gun safe. The gun safe was getting a little full. If I was going to keep my grandchildren safe, then …


Persistence: Thoughts From An Old Prepper, by Bulldog

After a lifetime of living the prepping lifestyle, and as I reflect upon it, I would describe my prepping journey as an evolution of sorts. Such evolution appears present not only with my life but also within the entire movement. When I look back at my upbringing and early experiences of the mid 70’s and early 80’s I cannot even remember the term “prepping”. Certainly, however, I remember the term “survivalism”, particularly as I considered myself a student of the late Mel Tappan. I think it is safe to say that in those days and to a great extent, Joe …


Why I Bought a Pluggable Hybrid EV Car, by R.G.

I live in the high desert in the Southwest on a 20 acre homestead within a small farm/ranch community of 200 hardy souls. My homestead includes all the typical accouterments of a homestead including wells, septic, gardens, greenhouse, tractor, barn, and animals. I recently installed a 8,000 watt off-grid solar system. A good-sized county seat town is 20 miles away with WalMart, drug stores, grocery stores, local hardware store, courthouse, and regional hospital within that 20 mile range. An extra five road miles gets me to a Costco and big-box hardware stores. A major city is 100 miles away with …


Caveat Emptor – “Let the Buyer Beware”, by Steve M.

As you make prepping related purchases, bear in mind that there are transactional risks that should be considered and mitigated. Two recent incidents have served as a reminder that business practices have changed, for the worse in my experience. Business accountability that we once took for granted, can no longer be assumed. A common saying of old was “the customer is always right”, but I’m afraid that Biblical principles are increasingly ignored and negative societal trends have permeated the business world, changing the focus away from a customer-first. Let me first summarize two recent transactions. I am of course withholding …


The Greenhorn’s Guide to PSYOPS, by Scarecrow

When in doubt, do the OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In other words, see what’s going on, understand how it relates to your situation, figure out what to do, then do it. But what happens when you can’t do your OODA loop because you can’t properly see what’s going on, i.e., you can’t Observe and then Orient? What happens when the tools you use, for example, mass media, are (at best) trying to obscure the truth or (at worst) are intentionally lying to deceive? Here are some clues that “they” (the government, the media, etc.) might be using propaganda …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 4, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 3.) 8. Simple Electricity: Car Batteries and “Solar Generators” Car-battery electric systems are basically a DIY “solar generator” and are easily put together at a fraction of the cost of commercial ones using three inexpensive components. As mentioned, solar generators don’t actually generate electricity and are really just large portable batteries with some extra features. They’re better referred to as “portable power stations.” They can be recharged three ways: solar panels ranging from 25-100 watts, 120-v house electricity, or 12-v vehicle electricity via the cigarette-lighter plug. They’re handy for many functions such as lighting, recharging laptops, and …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.) 5. Meals and Menus for Day One and First Week This may seem like a silly priority item but read on. There term “menu” is being used very loosely. My DOM Action List 1. Keep freeze-dried foods in plain sight on the table. 2. Check cabinets for other easily-prepared foods and put on the table. First and foremost: Do NOT open the fridge/freezer to get food for meals! During my 10-day preps test I lost 6 lbs (and I’m not overweight to begin with) mostly because I was so busy and didn’t want to have to …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) Now, let’s dive in. My Day One TEOTWAWKI Manual Table of Contents 1. Do This First! 2. Don’t Do This! 3. Round Up the Group 4. Freezer and Refrigerator Contents 5. Meals and Menus 6. Fuel 7. Electricity: Generator 8. Lighting 9. Electricity: Using Car Batteries 10. Electricity: Whole-house Solar Panels 11. Inventory 12. Water 13. Sanitation 14. Garbage Management 15. DOM Copies for Neighbors 16. Defense 17. Nuclear war preps Points 1-4 are ultra critical for any prepper’s manual and must have the highest priority in order to prevent wasting important and/or irreplaceable resources as …


Day One of TEOTWAWKI: A Written Plan – Part 1, by St. Funogas

Last year I did a 10-day test of my preps. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) It was the most important prepping activity I’ve every done and a real eye-opener to say the least. I found it an enjoyable experience that required a lot of problem-solving. For 2024, I highly recommend such a test of our preps, even if only for a few days. How about during a week’s vacation? I promise it’ll be one of your most memorable and educational. As the test began, I quickly I discovered I only had a very fuzzy idea of what …