Category: Survival Mindset

Letter Re: Sad and Silent

Dear Sad and Silent: I have learned to speak in terms of resilience and not prep. I regularly engage in DIY projects because of the mental stimulation. I seek to know about all things, saying that I am a very curious fellow. Every fifth person laughs. When I buy, I grab a little extra of nails, screws, oil, filters, et cetera. Commonly, I do household projects out of inventory, in terms of screws and nails, making sure to replace them. That does not mean it did not take three trips to the hardware store to finally get the stove installation …


Letter Re: Sad, Silent Prepper

Dear Sad, Silent Prepper, I feel for you, bud. I was on the same road for years, trying to convince the wife that there were several scenarios that we needed to be concerned about and maybe even a few for which we needed to be prepared. My personal journey took years, but in the end it obtained moderate success. And by moderate I mean not perfect or complete, but it was good enough for me. Total covert? No. More open minded and sympathetic? Probably. I have tried to be consistent, not too over reactive, and as subtle as possible. “Gee, …


Letter Re: Sad Silent Prepper

HJL, I too am dealing with a family that does not grasp the dire situation we are in, in this country. My wife is of the opinion that it has never happened here and thus never will. My children (all grown and out of the house) think I am looney and will actually get up and leave the room if the conversation even starts to go in that direction. I am prepping as best I can and don’t care what they think. I pay all the bills at my house, so if I decide to spend money and on what …


A Mother’s Perspective, by B.H.

Prior to 2000, my husband and I had already begun to prepare for the Y2K that, well, never happened. Although this event never took place, we learned valuable lessons on what we were missing, and we were not parents at that time. First aid was not at the top of my priority list. We were planning on bugging in, and we naively thought we would be good with staying put in our sleepy town of 1200 people. I remember that we spent $10,000 on preparing for that event. We had more disposable income (again, we had no kids yet), so …


Prepping with a Terminal Illness, by D.P.

About a month ago I was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of brain cancer– glioblastoma. There’s no cure, and the chances of long-term survival are pretty slim. It’s referred to as “terminal” cancer. However, there are some long-term survivors, and I’m hoping to add to that number. If not, without a shred of doubt I have been one of the luckiest and blessed people I know. I’ve been blessed with a beautiful and caring wife, two young boys I love beyond measure, wonderful family and friends, and not least importantly from long ago an appreciation for the wonder of …


Letter Re: Intellectual Survival

HJL, I enjoyed reading D.W.’s article on Intellectual Survival and liked the anthology list of resources listed. I know that there are free digital downloads of the Harvard Classics on at least three sites from Open Culture. The links to The Gutenberg Project and Internet Archive are provided. While the digital downloads are not the annotated version, a third link, below, provides a page scan version of the Harvard Classics that are annotated. While not a hard copy, these can be stored in one’s electronic library for use on several platforms. Regards – A.C. Ohio


How Do I Get Prepared for Emergencies?, by Justin Case

Start by considering all the elements of the question you just asked yourself. Think it through carefully! Jot down your most obvious thoughts, since we often forget what we were thinking if we don’t. Don’t panic! Even if you are in an emergency situation that you are just realizing you are not prepared for, thinking is the key to making it. Look around you, and catalog the things that may help you immediately. Select the most critical actions, and start putting them into play. Yes, this is when most people start to think about being prepared. Now that you are …


Letter: The Sad, Silent Preppers

I enjoy reading SurvivalBlog and a couple of other sites. It consoles what I call myself as “the sad, silent preppers.” “Who are they”, you ask? They are the ones like me. My wife thinks I am insane and not trusting God enough and gets angry when I show her the Scriptures. The good thing is that she doesn’t talk to me for a couple of days after that. My children understand why I do it, but they have absolutely no enthusiasm in it. My in-laws also think I am totally crazy but for different reasons. “Nothing like that will …


Intellectual Survival, by D.W.

“Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it.”[1] -Blaise Pascal “It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason, when the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.”[2] -Aristotle Imagine for a moment, you have just finished eating dinner with your family. You have been living without power for months. You planned for this, of course. …


Starting Life In The Country, by J.E.

Sitting here in the living room with a hot fire in the wood stove and arctic winds blowing the snow across our property, I smile at just how lucky we are. The power has been out for a couple of days, and the snow and ice make driving into town not worth the risk. Just over twenty years ago, we decided life in the city was no longer for us. Now, reflecting on how good we have it, I would like to write my first post and share with those of you considering a move into rural life. The first …


Letter Re: What is Your Purpose

HJL, This career Special Operations officer and combat veteran was both shaken and touched by MAC’s self-effacing honesty in his writing. Apparently, I’m not quite as alone as I’ve thought, as clearly we’ve walked the same path in many ways. I write “shaken” because he brought home to me a truth about something that has been troubling me for all the many years I’ve been diligently plowing ahead with this “Prepping thing”. I’ve always approached it as a tactical challenge, a battlefield in which one more weapon, one more plan, and one more tool would accomplish the mission. The truth …


What Is Your Purpose?, by MAC

So, like most of you, I have gotten very serious about surviving TEOTWAWKI. In fact, it can dominate my thought processes on a daily basis. From the very day I started reading Patriots, I realized that regardless of all the skills I learned in Montana growing up and the extensive survival training I learned in the military, as well as my subjection to countless “no-notice” survival exercises, I didn’t know squat about sustainable or long-term survival. Everything I had learned was focused on the relatively short term, say a few weeks at most. And, you know what? I loved every …


Letter Re: Hurricane Preparedness

HJL,That was a great article about his experience and some practical advice [for hurricane preparedness]. For those interested in a possible simpler solution a product named “Generlink” at www.generlink.com is available. It is a collar that fits behind your meter at the power pole, and it allows you to control your power usage through your current breaker panel. The only cord needed is between the Generlink collar and the generator. As long as the power pole where your meter is located is intact and you have underground wiring to the house, you should be okay. It’s worth a look. – …


New Year’s Leadership-Part 3, by Sarah Latimer

Are You the Leader? So many of us today think we are in control and have to take care of everything. I sometimes fall into this faulty thinking myself. I get too bound up in the thinking that everything rests on my shoulders. I am actively involved in preparing for whatever might come and sometimes get the mindset that “I’m ready”, when in fact none of us can be fully prepared for an unknown future. The reality is that I really have little control over anything beyond my own actions. I can plant a garden, but I don’t control the …


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 …