Category: Survival Mindset

Tactical Solutions for Preppers, by The Grunt

As a sound and forward thinking prepper you should already be on your way to some level of sustainability in the event of some kind of social breakdown.  The food, water, medical, and sanitation needs are boring, but important enough that without them-anything else doesn’t really matter.  As readers of this blog I sincerely hope you’ve utilized the vast wealth of knowledge available here to develop your own systems of storage, rotation, and skills development.  So with all of that as a foundation, I pose a question.  With your family, your plans, and your supplies all depending on you for …


You Have To Start Somewhere, by Jason F.

As a blessed and married father of five, you continuously do what you can to make sure that all will go well on a daily basis.  Things like the car running, the roof not leaking, the kids having shoes on their feet, clothes on their back and family having food in their bellies.  Just recently I have been thinking more about the possibilities of a tragedy striking and the “what if” scenarios that could be involved.  You can call me crazy, concerned, or even paranoid but whatever the case may be, I want to be prepared. I’ve never considered myself …


Maintaining Good Morale, by Audax

If you take prepping seriously, you’ve probably stored up quite the array of supplies—or are at least working diligently at it.  You may have even downloaded the Excel spreadsheet found on Survival Blog, and if you’re like me, you might have been slightly overwhelmed at first, at the number of things that are necessary in order to really become self-sufficient in the case of a SHTF scenario.  For those of us who are actively preparing for whatever may come, prepping is a never-ending exercise in gathering, training and building.  In between all of these prepping activities, however, sometimes we forget …


Who Shall Protect Us?, by Shepard Humphries

Imagine you and your family are asleep in your home and at 2am you hear a downstairs glass window breaking.  You hear voices laughing and cursing, saying that they are going to F-Up you and your family.  Based on the historical length of violent encounters, you know that this whole violent situation will likely be over in 1 to 3 minutes. This is not a pleasant scenario, but I am setting the stage for you to do a mental exercise.  I will not give you solutions; rather you will.  As Gavin DeBecker describes in his must-read book, “The Gift of …


The Joys of Prepping, by V.R.

Who said prepping couldn’t be fun?   Granted, prepping is something that should be taken seriously, but in our journey to prepare for a possible eventual catastrophe we can enjoy the ride.  I think of it as setting up home, going camping and uniting the family all wrapped up in one.  In my eagerness and urgent desire to see friends and family prepare for an oncoming disaster, either natural or manmade, I feel like I have frightened or overloaded them into inaction.  Discouraged by my lack of persuasion I was reminded of one of Aesop’s fables where the Sun and the …


Six Letters Re: A Contingency Bag for Frequent Air Travelers

Hey, Jim: I think we need some more collective thought on this. I’ve got more time in the air than most people–4,000+ hours as an Army helicopter pilot (where we wore a cleverly-stocked survival vest; alas, a lot of the contents would not pass TSA scrutiny), 2 million+ miles on Delta, and about that many more on defunct airlines (especially Eastern and TWA). Getting stuck somewhere could happen to me on a trip. Here’s some of my thinking (and I still need some help): It seems to me that anything important should be in the carry-on bag, not checked. Most …


Harnessing (and Creating) the Community to Work Together in a TEOTWAWKI Situation, by Meir L.

I have recently been reading SurvivalBlog.com, and as an avid hiker/backpacker/adventurer, I am very interested in what this site has to offer. I have been reading the different TEOTWAWKI posts, and I have read different TEOTWAWKI situations, learning and understanding more and more about survival. I enjoy giving back to the community, and I have been searching for my own TEOTWAWKI situation that I can use to help myself and other people learn from it. I realized that about 1 year ago, a really serious TEOTWAWKI situation happened to my community (and family). I am a religious Jewish 18 year …


In It For The Long Haul, by Java-Powered

I first got serious about prepping in 2006, when I realized the U.S. Dollar was on its way down.  I had a young son at home, and I wanted to make sure he would be safe if civil unrest occurred. I built a home on some acreage in the country in 2007 and started getting setup to be self-sufficient. I believed 2008 was going to be a bad year, and I wanted to be ready. I installed a wood stove in my home and purchased a hand pump for my well. When I moved my chickens out to the new …


Protecting Your Church, by Wandering Will

The service has ended, we say goodbye to our friends, wait for everyone to leave then lock up the church.  The drive home takes only a few minutes and when we arrive my wife and I take off and secure our weapons and conduct a debrief on any problems we encountered during the service.  Not exactly the Norman Rockwell version of a day in church.  I realize that the fact that someone would carry a weapon in church is appalling to many people.  However, before you begin stereotyping Christians as right-wing radicals, ask yourself a few questions.  When you were …


Still Living in Defiance, by Tim B.

I frequently read about varying doomsday scenarios.  Everything from a total collapse of the economy, to super-storms, to EMP attacks, and lately even dubious writings about life in a post-antibiotic world.  While the odds are not in favor of one devastating event that ends the world as we know it and plunges us into a repeat of the Dark Ages, there is still the possibility that something like a surprise EMP attack or an unexpected asteroid impact could wipe out most of humanity.  There’s always that “What if…?”  Before I go any farther, however, let me offer this strong disclaimer:  …


A Winter Storm After Action Report, by Emily in North Texas

The ice storm that hit north Texas this past Thursday was forecast at least four days in advance, if not longer, but when it hit  apparently just about everyone was taken by surprise.  Drivers on I-35 north of Denton were stuck for so long they eventually abandoned their cars and sought refuge in local churches.  There was talk of sending in the National Guard to rescue them before that.  These people had days of advance warning about the weather but chose to drive anyway.  (Many of them apparently on their way to a rap concert in Dallas.)  Imagine the conditions …


Letter Re: Preparedness and Divorce

Mr. Rawles, I was happily married for 14 years.  I lived through hurricanes and snowstorms with my ex-wife.  We were preppers, with many firearms, ammunition, water filtration systems, storage food, etc.  One thing that was lacking was mental health.  She has suffered from long term mental problems for over a decade.  She tried to have me arrested as a domestic terrorist.  When that failed to happen, she tried to make me out as a child abuser.  When that failed, she divorced me, and forced a sale of all of our stored food, guns, ammunition, etc. I wanted to let your …


The Benefits of a Homesteading Approach to Preparedness, by Chaya

We all have our own personal style at preparedness, and the style seems to mature with you the longer you prepare.  I have noticed this in others and myself; that we all gravitate towards the preparedness hobbies that best fit our personal inclinations—homesteading skills in the traditional sense just might not be your gig.  I get that—it is another great reason why a close knit community of prepared people is a super idea.  Let someone else make homemade candles if you just cannot get kicks and giggles out of dipping string repeatedly into a burning wax. (Tactfully)  Identify others, identify …


Letter Re: As Preppers We Must Invest in Our Marriages

My most important prep, While most people start by thanking Captain Rawles, and rightly so, I would like to thank Dan in Montana.  I’d also like to start with a question.  Has anything every just hit you and made you think, “that’s been it all the time?!”  Well it just happened to me.  I have been prepping for several years now and even farther back if I think about it.  So it seems like an easy question, what is my most important prep.  I have seen my focus change over the years.  It has changed, as I have changed.  Being …


Preparedness and Divorce, by Dan in Montana

“We” had been prepping since Y2K, reading, watching, canning, storing, organizing, teaching and moving to the North West Montana mountains. A Monday morning knock at the door three months ago changed everything.  At the door was a court appointed clerk serving me divorce papers. The crash I felt was not the economy or a gale force wind blowing down my house.  My entire world had just collapsed around me. For me the TEOTWAWKI just occurred. It took hours to orientate myself, stop my head from spinning, re-read the court papers and try to accept what had happened. My wife of …