Category: Survival Mindset

A Widow’s View of Preparedness, by Catherine T.

I am a widow of over three years whose youngest son was serving our country in the Middle East when my husband’s death happened.  My husband lost his job and was forced into early retirement before his death.  I will not go into the details of all the turmoil then and of having a child home with injuries of war.  In a SHTF situation there will be many people with war injuries in our own neighborhoods.  My other children and I are so glad he is still alive.  My income dropped further not long after this.   It was the end …


Security Issues for Preppers, by R.H.

I have nearly thirty years of law enforcement experience. That experience was gained as a local police officer, a deputy Sheriff and finally as a state trooper.  The last decade or so of my trooper career was spent as a crime scene investigator for a state police agency.  I only tell you this for you, the reader to weigh the opinions and statements that will follow.  This experience serves as my only true “skill” as I’m a terrible carpenter, plumber, cook, welder, gardener or nurse!  What follows is my small contribution to the “how to” lessons for a prepper that …


Letter Re: Self-Defense and Stress: You are Your Own Last Line of Defense, by Jessica B.

James: Jessica B wrote a good article entitled “Self Defense and Stress” and to add to what she wrote about the lack of articles on “…that moment that you find yourself in a stressful, self-defense situation and how to overcome it,” Col. Cooper’s “Four Conditions” immediately came to mind. That great man not only gave use the “Four Rules” for firearms, but the “Four Conditions” for mental preparedness for self-defense, both of which are as perfect as simplifying the complex can be. I assume they have been discussed before, but are worth repeating. From Father Frog’s web site, a good …


Self-Defense and Stress: You are Your Own Last Line of Defense, by Jessica B.

I have seen many articles on Self-Defense. What I have not seen is topics regarding that moment that you find yourself in a stressful, self-defense situation and how to overcome it. I have taught my children from age 4 that you are your own last line of defense. This realization in itself can be pretty stressful. What most people don’t realize is that when attacked you only have ½ a second to react. This may not seem like a lot of time, but I assure you, your life can be ended by what happens in that initial ½ second. People …


Caring for the Chronically Ill Family Member in a Disaster, by Rebecca H.

Caring for a chronically ill family member takes an emotional and physical toll on the caregiver. Compound this in a time of disaster, civil unrest, social and economic collapse and you might feel there is no chance for survival. I cannot say that. There might be insurmountable odds against a seriously ill family member living in harsh conditions for very long, but it is my goal as a caregiver to ensure I have the tools and knowledge to keep that family member as comfortable; physically, emotionally and spiritually as I can. As the wife of a recent kidney transplant recipient, …


Shopping in the Dark, by A.D.G.

[Editor’s Introductory Note: I didn’t write the following article. It was written by reader A.D.G. Normally I wouldn’t run an article that discusses loathsome behavior. Stealing from your employer or from your fellow employees isn’t conscionable. But I decided to post it because it underscores the importance of keeping a well-stocked Get Home Bag (GHB) ready whenever you are away from home. Do not put yourself in a position where you must loot to survive. – J.W.R.] I found myself at the office during a power failure and I started thinking about what to do in an emergency situation if …


Preparedness for College Students, by An Oregonian

I was raised in a family with a survivalist mentality. We were the family prepared for Y2K. I learned to shoot at age six. We lived on a farm and had the knowledge and ability to grow all our own food. I was taught self-reliance and how to think as a "prepper". Basically, my parents did the best they could to impress on me that the stability and safety we experience in the United States is precious and very possibly temporary. But even with all this training, my first year living away from my family I was caught unprepared. In …


Letter Re: SurvivalBlog and Building a Preparedness Mindset

Mr. Rawles, I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of years now and I really wanted to tell you how informative and practical I found the article written by Eli in the Southwest about hiding and finding things. Sometimes living in a bigger city can feel so overwhelming, especially when all you want to do is get out! His article made me feel like there was something I could do in my house today that would improve the security of my preps. It’s not our forever home but it’s where we have to be for now and reading that …


Two Letters Re: Advice on Disaster Pet Euthanasia

Hi Jim, A couple of things worth considering for painless pet euthanasia.  This is never a pleasant subject, but: 1. Carbon monoxide poisoning.  People die of this painlessly all the time.   Prepare a setup now to connect to your vehicle exhaust (or any other gas engine exhaust) to an enclosure sized to hold your pet. 2. A person can be made unconscious simply by pressing two fingers against the juggler veins in the neck without any feeling of strangling or otherwise. It’s like going to sleep (the brain is deprived of oxygen and you black out).  A prolonged application …


Letter Re: Advice on Disaster Pet Euthanasia

Mr. Rawles, I am constantly impressed by the wealth of information that I am able to find on your web site and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and all involved for the work you do on this.  I was also wondering if you, or your readers, might be able to help me out with a certain, unsavory aspect of my preps.   Currently, our family is overseas in a country where we are required to maintain an evacuation plan and needed supplies at all time.  I am wholly on-board with this and have done this, …


Networking as a Survival Skill by K.C. in New York

The ground smolders with the charred remains scattered across once-green fields now turned black from cinders and dried blood.  An electric pole lies on its side across an abandoned road, menacing with the occasional buzz and spark.  Your home is gutted, shredded like a soft chunk of cheese.  A stack of crisped tortillas lie uneaten on the hearth, abandoned in the chaos. The air is fowl and acrid though silence has now settled after the screams and destruction of the night before.  You were lucky, though.  Living on higher ground, you heard the mobs coming and you had time to …


Your Better Half: A Force Multiplier, by J.L.H.

It’s no secret the majority of survivalists are males.  If your better half is just as prepared for emergencies as you, or you are a female survivalist who is reading this article, then congratulations!  But what about others who have a wife or significant other who goes about their daily life in ignorant bliss; unaware of the dangers surrounding us in today’s world, and how to prepare for and handle them?  I am sure you all love your spouses, and when disaster strikes, you’re going to look after them.  However, wouldn’t they (and you) be better off if they were …


Never Let Your Guard Down: Adventures in the City, by B.D.

The rustling came again from the back of the shotgun-style apartment. Was it squirrels? We had a few of the little gray buggers living in the trees around us and they made quite a racket. I assured my wife via text that a squirrel wouldn’t come through our window screens. She got up and looked into our bedroom just to make sure and saw a head and back sticking through about half way onto our bed. Letting out a blood curdling yell, she screamed and ran towards the window as the perp backpedaled out and ran off down the alley. …


Some Observations on Privately Owned Firearms

Washington D.C. is presently all abuzz with talk of the BHO Administration looking for an opportunity to enact the UN’s stalled Small Arms and Light Weapons Treaty. Meanwhile, Senator-For-Life Dianne Feinstein is “consensus building” to reenact the so-called Assault Weapons and “high capacity” magazine ban. (Note that the term “high capacity” is a specious political creation, to wit: A 30 round magazine is standard capacity for an AR or an AK, and anything less than that is a reduced capacity magazine. Get your terminology straight and don’t fall for semantics traps!) Rumor has it that this new incarnation of the …


Three Letters Re: Hurricane Sandy After Action Reports

James Wesley, By now you probably know that the mountains of West Virginia got snow generated by Superstorm Sandy so our local disaster looks somewhat different than other areas.  In our case we got better than 3 feet of very heavy wet snow dumped on us in short order.  Trees came down over a couple of day period in numbers great enough to make walking outside hazardous. One of the local farm families I know had to cut their way to the barn to care for the live stock and then cut their way back home.  Over a week later …