Category: Survival Mindset

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 …


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

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, …