Category: Survival Mindset

Two Letters Re: Major Mistakes With a Building Contractor

Gentlemen, I wholeheartedly second Pete’s comments in his letter regarding BM’s Major Mistake. In addition to the excellent suggestions Pete made, I would encourage BM to talk to whatever consumer protection agency operates in that area, as well as whoever licenses contractors. Both of them should be willing and able to help him and let BM know if this guy is a frequent flyer with them. If I lost 100k, I’d be out for blood, but I’d settle for getting as much of money back from this clown as possible. – Spotlight o o o Hugh, In Oregon there is …


Letter Re: Major Mistakes with a Building Contractor

Hugh,I would encourage B.M. to sue the contractor even if the contractor has nothing to his name right now. There is a statute of limitations and after the specified time elapses without filing a suit, B.M. is guaranteed to never collect a dime. Sue and get a judgment and then covertly monitor the guy every year or two for indications that he might have improved financially. Very few peoples’ financial situations remain the same forever and most improve to one degree or another. You never know what could happen. State laws vary widely so it is impossible for me to …


Letter Re: Major Mistakes with a Building Contractor

Hugh, Regarding the Major Mistake, B.M. needs to track that guy down and serve him a subpoena. Take him to court. People have tried to rip me off several times for tons less than that. I told them all if they don’t finish the job, pay their bill, or do it correctly, I will take them to court. Each time I wasn’t being overly picky or unreasonable. In each instance, the other party knew I was right. I was patient with all of them. I am sure those people have ripped other people off successfully before. I even emailed / …


New Year’s Leadership-Part 2, by Sarah Latimer

Shifts (Continued) It is well recognized that the biblical Hebrew word for “house” is meant to refer to a man’s wife. The thinking is that a man builds a house by first taking a wife and then together they become one and make a family. So, how important is a wife to a man? Well, she is his home and is the one who enables him to have a comfortable and safe place to go (at least one that’s emotionally safe), a place to build a family, a place he can call his own to bring others, and even a …


New Year’s Leadership-Part 1, by Sarah Latimer

Resolutions It is the New Year, a time when most people reflect on the past year and determine what changes they want to make in themselves and their lives during the year ahead. When I think of a resolution, I think of a vow or serious commitment of resolve to see something through to completion. Usually, New Year’s resolutions are merely ideas or desires that people are willing to pursue with varying degrees of effort and commitment. According to Nielsen’s 2015 Report on Top New Year Resolutions, the top eight resolutions of those surveyed were: Stay fit and healthy, Lose …


Letter Re: The Get-Home Cache, by The Feral Farmer

Hi Hugh – With respect to the recent article about buried caches, burying an igloo-type cooler sounds like a great way to lose an entire cache of stuff. First, the suggested six inches of soil covering provides nowhere near enough protection from a vehicle over an otherwise unsupported area the size of a cooler lid. With no earth-arching over the flat lid, I suspect (but can’t prove) that it would fail if a heavy vehicle tire went directly over it. Second, and perhaps a more valid concern, is that if placed anywhere other than a hillside with great drainage, it …


Keeping Your Head, And Preventing Others From Losing Theirs, by G.F.

In a critical situation, would you rather make war or make peace? I think the idea of cooperating to live through a crisis is much better than a “kill or be killed” scenario. The main reason why we need to think on this topic is that if the unthinkable happens, we can more easily restore our society from scratch. Like the Founding Fathers, we will have a foundation to build on. A pile of dead people is not a good way to start. Peace of mind is the key to happiness, and to have peace of mind you need resources. …


Letter: Fat wood Firestarter

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The fire starter recommendations are all good, and they do work. This article is not intended to take away from those talented writers, but I did want to write something that may provide an alternative that takes little prep time, zero storage considerations, is light weight, works in wet conditions, and can be started with one strike of a ferrocerium rod. If you are familiar with Fat wood and building a good pyre, skip down to the 4th paragraph. I have started fires with a Bow and Spindle, Cotton Ball and Petroleum jelly, char cloth, 9-volt battery and steel wool, …


The Get-Home Cache, by The Feral Farmer

Bugout bags are a popular topic, and the content lists are long and varied, sometimes reading like a LRRP combat loadout. However, they have a couple of obvious problems, including that you have to carry it and keep it handy. It takes a good degree of conditioning to carry a load any distance and a great degree of determination to do so while injured or frightened. Additionally, (unless your kit looks like a baby carrier and diaper bag), your chance of hitching a ride plummets the larger your bag appears to be. Any situation that requires a bugout bag automatically …


Letter Re: Bugging Out With Children

Good Day SurvivalBlog Editor, I have been reading SurvivalBlog for years. I enjoy the articles and often learn various new ideas or approaches to survival. I am not the target audience for this article, since my children are 13 and 18; however, when they were younger we dragged them along on family hunting and camping trips and involved them on extended hikes, packs, canoe trips, et cetera when they were infants, toddlers, and small children. The one caveat I would say is that we always had two parents doing this and both were motivated to make it happen and to …


Bugging Out With Young Children- Part 2, by MPB

In Part 1, I described why I believe it is impossible to bugout into the woods with just a rifle and a backpack when you have young children in tow. In Part 2 I’ll be offering suggestions on what can be done to get your children to safety when you have no choice but to leave home. Before I get into that though, let me stress that by far the best advice when you have kids (or even if you don’t) is to live at your bugout location if at all possible. Besides the many reasons outlined by JWR in …


A Different Look At House Keeping and Preparing for Guests, by Sarah Latimer

Ladies, when you are out in your front yard watering and some indistinguishable person sitting behind dark windows of an SUV or truck drives by and gives a little honk and waves, what is your automatic reaction? Do you smile and wave back? If you live in a fairly safe community, you probably do. I may not wave back, but I usually look up with a smile to see who it is, and I may wave if my hands are free. Often, we never know who it is we waved at, unless at some later time we find out. We …


Neophyte Survival Observations and Lessons from Hurricane Matthew- Part 2, by S.G. in Florida

The extended power outages in Florida after Matthew were due to downed power lines, mostly by wind-fallen trees. Hospitals and other essential services were given priority for power restoration. People who lived near these essential services were more likely to get power restored first. Your proximity to key services might be a good factor to consider when purchasing a home in a suburb or city. After Hurricane Matthew, the city water was cut for an extended period due to the roots of fallen trees damaging city water lines. The two cases of bottled water we had bought for drinking would …


Neophyte Survival Observations and Lessons from Hurricane Matthew- Part1, by S.G. in Florida

Our family of three lives in a suburban area of Florida that was greatly impacted by Hurricane Matthew. While our home survived without damage, we were left without power for approximately a week and without city water for around three days. This article summarizes some observations and lessons, after reflecting on this experience. Hurricane Matthew took a very unusual track in the Caribbean, threading the needle between the mountains of Cuba and Haiti to maintain its strength. After this move, Matthew took a very unusual jog to the West, threatening Florida with a severe Category 4 storm. Once Matthew made …


A Non-Survivalist Survivalist, by L.F.

I enjoy a end-of-the-world movie just as well as the next guy and similarly to most of the “next guys”. I have no specific skills that any survivalist would find useful, such as making a fire with sticks, creating bio-diesel for fuel, or the ability to go stalk game to put on the supper table. I can shoot a gun, skin a squirrel, and fish. That is the extent of my quantifiable skill set. However, as a non-survivalist survivalist, I feel like I have many intangibles as far as ability to learn and am on the upside. I’ve learned over …