Category: Survival Mindset

Letter Re: Things to Prep For

Just thought I’d send a note to let you know some thoughts. I use my hands for everything. One of the biggest things I would say to stock up on is rubber gloves for yourself and the kids. It hurts to do the dishes with cuts on your fingers. Rubber gloves take care of that problem, but they do rip easily. You need another pair for changing the composting toilet, another for doing laundry by hand when you have bleach in the water, and another pair for anything gross that comes up. Also we have used the disposable gloves quite …


Letter: Things That May Be Essential But One Never Sees Mentioned

Hugh, Little things mean a lot. Here’s a few: Imodium – Avoid dehydration, discomfort, and dis-association. Ant-acids – Nothing worse that having to puke while you’re trying to hide. Shoe Laces -Two things: Moving about with loose shoes. Taking them off if laces are knotted. Tire stuff – Makes for an intense fire. Especially useful in wet conditions. Usually found by road sides. Hand restorer – Nothing is easy with split finger tips. And there’s lots more everyday stuff, when one thinks about it! – A friend!


Attaining Food in Urban Locations (From Land and Sea)- Part 1, by Cracker Makk

If it has hair, feathers, or scales, it is edible. In the desperate times that lay ahead, people are going to have to make a choice. They’ll either become self-sufficient and revert back to the practices of our ancestors (the hunter/gatherers) or stand there with their hand out and wait for something that isn’t coming. You need to learn how to keep your body nourished and feed the ones you love. The truth is there are food sources everywhere around us that are easily obtainable with a little patience and technical know-how. However, many people in this country have become …


Letter: Hoarding Silver, Gold and Diamonds

Hugh, I remember when I was young and would sit for hours listening to the depression stories that the old people would tell. One thing that stuck in my mind was that the only time that precious metals or stones were worth much was during times of plenty when you could buy products with them. I watched my grandfather open his safe from time to time, and he would show me the gold and diamonds he had in it from years ago. Seems that when urban dwellers who were rich ran out of food, they would come to trade and …


Change Your Clocks and Change Your Batteries, Water, Et Cetera, by R.C.

This time of year we must change our clocks, fall back or spring forward. As a retired firefighter and EMT, I take this seriously. If your smoke detectors are over 10 years old, please change the unit. This twice a year rotation also offers us a chance to rotate other items we have stored in our preps. It is important to have someone verify that you have rotated your stocks, like a group check off or a family weekend project. Fuel First is the gasoline. Every six months you can dump the 5-gallon containers into your truck. Luckily, I had …


Letter Re: What’s a Dime Worth?

HJL, The contributor states $4 today will buy: “Now, we ask, when we walk down the aisles of our local grocery store, what’s currently priced for about $4? Let’s start with the staples: Two gallons of milk Two or three loaves of bread Two or three dozen eggs” I am not sure where he is shopping, but it is obvious it is not in the USA. Milk is closer to $4 for ONE gallon, bread (decent bread) is over $3 a loaf, and eggs are selling from $3-6 a dozen depending on organic/ NON Gmo etc he also writes: For …


It’s TEOTWAWKI and the Living’s Easy, by N.M.

I’m talking about the upside of long-term, remote, Rocky Mountain survival. The very fact that you are reading this essay means that you are concerned about the state of the world around you and that you have serious concerns about what you are seeing. Whether your concerns center on the threat of attack from outside forces, economic collapse, fears that elected officials in the American government are taking us irreparably away from the government envisioned by our founding fathers (my concern), or the Zombie Apocalypse (my wife’s favorite), you’ve decided that the time has come to prepare for the possibility …


Our Family’s Journey to Preparing For an Extended Grid Down Event- Part 2, by Old Man

Katrina was one of those life-changing moments, when we awoke and realized how unprepared we really were. Katrina caused us to completely overhaul and step up our prepping. We changed many things, but for purposes of this article I will focus on the power aspects. We began to ask ourselves what would we do if we had no power for weeks. We answered that question by taking an inventory of everything electrical in the house. Due to the work we previously did with reducing our electrical usage, we had a complete inventory. Additionally, as an unanticipated benefit, we had already …


Letter: Another Note on Infant Nutrition

Hugh, We raised six healthy kids on a diet best described as “locally grown, in harmony with the seasons”. Unless you’ve got the food stockpile of the century, you too will soon be eating primarily “locally grown, in harmony with the seasons” when those refrigerated rail cars quit rolling and are looted out. We live in the grain belt, and whole grains in one form or another play a major role in our diet as they have for much of mankind’s history. I’m not talking about white bread, Doritos, or noodles here but the “Staff of Life” freshly milled whole …


My Experiences And Lessons Learned As A Suburban Prepper- Part 1, by CGman

As I sit here typing I wonder again what has taken me so long to write down these thoughts. I think this website is one of the most important places on the Internet for people who are actually concerned for the future of their family and this country. I cannot begin to write down all of the things I have learned and used from reading the articles on SurvivalBlog. My reason for typing this article is not to win a prize but to try to pass some important information along to others who are in similar circumstances. As an upper-middle …


Letter Re: Head Up, Eyes Open, by Hondo

HJL, I would like to comment on the article, “Head Up, Eyes Open”, by Hondo in the 10/30/2015 blog. I too have a background in law enforcement and am currently working as a full-time trainer with a state academy. I will strongly agree with the author that the vast majority of people in public are tied to their “smart phone” or some sort of attention-stealing electronic device. Professionals in the criminal justice field are not immune. Just this last week, while working with two significantly different groups of trainees, I noted that at every break the first thing upon clearing …


Feeding The Vulnerable At TEOTWAWKI: Infant Nutrition- Part 2, by P.G.

Plant-derived Milk Substitutes Are Dangerous For Infants Plant “milks” should never be used as a substitute for breastmilk or infant formula. Without exception, they are too low in calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Soy, rice, almond, and sweet chestnut milks have been associated with severe problems in infancy, including death. Protein malnutrition and growth arrest, rickets, hypothyroidism, iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin B12 deficiency, seizures, and coma have all been reported in infants who were fed these substitute milks. Substitutes For Commercial Baby Foods Most pediatricians recommend that infants receive only breastmilk, no water or fruit juice, for the first six months …


Six Prepping Principles Derived from One Year as an Expat- Part 2, by G.L.

Fourth Principle: Prepare for Where You Are I can think of no greater irony than for someone who is a “prepper” moving somewhere and not doing some of the basic analysis required to adjust the preps for where you are. Still, I have talked to several like-minded expats who basically suspended their preps while on assignment. In researching the assignment country, we noted that there are particular risks for which we have never specifically prepped in our part of the U.S. These are risks for which our preps would contribute to the preparedness required for those events. This can be …


Six Prepping Principles Derived from One Year as an Expat- Part 1, by G.L.

About a year and a half ago, my company offered an expatriate assignment for a period of between two and three years. For those who don’t know, an expatriate assignment is where an employee and his or her family is relocated to another country (from now on referred to as the “assignment country”). In large corporations, this generally includes certain benefits to make the transition easier and “worth it” to the employee. For our family, this news came at a great time from a career point of view and for the age or our kids and what an international move …


Soothing the Savage [Beast], by Captnswife

It’s easy, when preparing for the worst, to concentrate only on material needs and ignore the less tangible but vital elements of health. Music, and the ability to produce it, will be an extremely important salve on the mental, emotional, and even physical wounds of a diminished lifestyle, should the SHTF. Modern science has shown us that there are tangible physical benefits of listening to music, including the ability to help in healing illness and injury. We must remember it’s only been in the most recent decades that the Western musical experience became the passive listening of professional recording artists. …