Category: Survival Mindset

Why Firefighters are Some of the Best Preppers, by Shawn

I started prepping a few years back when I was in paramedic school.  I had no educated goal when prepping initially.  Then I met a good friend of mine that changed the way I look at prepping, and helped me make my prepping intentional.  I read Patriots and I started prepping all the more; now with motivation and intelligence.  When my friend reads this he will probably view this is as some form of Narcissism even though he falls into this category.  But I digress. I have been a full time firefighter for 5-1/2 years  I am currently a Paramedic, …


The Importance of Healthy Eating and a Readiness Lifestyle

Lately I have begun speaking, teaching, and writing on topics such as How To Eat An Acorn; Ancient Food Preservation Methods Today; Permaculture, How and Why; and Edible Common Landscape Plants. I have also been writing on Christian Culture, and various things concerning our time, from first-hand experience. In 1999, we suddenly became aware of Y2K.  We had a two-year old child, and were horrified [at the prospect of a power grid collapse.] I borrowed from my Dad to get out of bank debt, and sold antiques in order to stock up on foods and other items that made me …


Letter Re: You Don’t Need To Be A Conservative To Be Prepared

Sir: Anyone who spends any amount of time on survivalist and preparedness oriented forums knows that a certain political worldview is the most commonly encountered perspective, particularly with respect to economic concerns. Particularly in the literary niche that is survivalist/preparedness fiction, the protagonist is often identified as a conservative critic of Keynesian economic thought and favors the gold standard. Very often the plot presupposes a very right-wing political orientation. Matthew Bracken (Enemies Foreign and Domestic), Thomas Sherry (Deep Winter, Shatter), Glen Tate (299 Days), and even James Wesley Rawles (Patriots) all share to some degree this worldview. Some authors even …


Are You Sure That You Are Ready To Defend Yourself?, by Brett S.

You stocked supplies with plenty of beans, bullets, and Band-Aids.  You have backup plans to your backup plans and know your family can survive months without any contact from the outside world.  You are ready for just about any cataclysmic event, should one happen.  But are you really ready for the most important decision of your life and the life of your family members?  How far would you go to protect your life and the life of a family member?  Preparing for disaster doesn’t necessarily mean you prepare for armed combat, but practically, disasters create an environment where the aggressor …


Great Grandmother, The Prepper, by C.J.

I got a call from my mother the other day. She is the mother of six, grandmother to twelve and great-grandmother of three children.  She had just returned from a visit to one of my sibling’s homes.  She said, “You are right!  They are serious about this prepping stuff.  Tell me what to do.”  My mother’s revelation has been a long time in coming.  She is a devout Christian and a Bible teacher.  She believes that Jesus will return and scoop us all up to heaven, hopefully before the tribulation.  She is what she calls a “pre-trib” [rapture] believer.  I …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned From My Elders

James: As a five year old I lived with my grandparents in a small isolated village in the foothills of the Austrian Alps.  This was about 1953 until 1958.  Rural life had its own rhythm which now seemed more akin to the 19th century.  Small family fields were plowed with the milk cow which was also used to bring in the hay and the harvest.  Everything planted had a use.  Each tree on these small family farms bore fruits or nuts.  Ornamentals were for the well to do- perhaps the village doctor who had a more secure source of income.  …


Letter Re: Mental Preparation for Lethal Force

Hi Jim, That was a well written and informative article by Mark B. on preparing yourself to use deadly force. As a retired police officer and firearms instructor I can tell you that Mark gives solid advice. We can also look at history for lessons on what’s important in prevailing in a gunfight. I’ve been involved in a few myself and I’ve spent a lot of years figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve studied the old west, taken many courses, read countless books and analyzed my own experiences and how I survived. It can be distilled down to …


Practical Defense Skills When Left with Little or Nothing, by Suburban 10

TEOTWAWKI may leave you alone with nothing. Nothing but your knowledge of what is available to you as a means of survival and defending yourself. Hopeful you have enough skills to find essential items required to survive. Time is limited and for an active person foraging for food, protecting themselves and seeking safe shelter. Without these life essentials, this is (on average) how much time you have to survive: Air -3 minutes, Shelter at O degrees Celsius – 3 hours, water – 3 days, food – 30 days. Take care of these and half your battle of survival is won! …


The Survival Mindset, by M.C.J.

The healthy human mind doesn’t contempt the what if’s in reference to survival. Why should it? The very thought of such a thing does not factor in a persons average day. Especially given how people live there daily lives going about life on the railway to the normalcy train. That redundant moment in time when all is the same and sane . Waking up to conduct a normal work day of work and routine. Having a decent breakfast or rushing off fast grabbing a bite from either the microwave or the nearest fast food outlet, just to beat the morning …


Mental Preparation for Lethal Force, by Mark B.

When preparing for TEOTWAWKI, or any lesser natural or “man made” disaster, it can be mind numbing with all the list, needs, “to do’s”, training, purchases, and planning it really takes to become self sufficient. As you prepare it becomes very apparent how complicated modern life is and exactly how vulnerable our sophisticated society has become. Most Preppers actively research via the internet, routinely learn new self sufficiency skills, train, buy supplies, and are most likely to be ardent supporters of the 2nd Amendment. But there is one area of training that must be considered by Preppers and can be …


Letter Re: The Larger Questions

James: My wife and I have been “aware” that something isn’t right since the whole Y2K scare back in 1999.  Sadly at the time, we had no idea of what “prepping” was or the first thing to do about how we felt.  I think we might have had a dozen gallons of water on our shelves.  Pretty sad, but we really had no clue.  I’ve always had this nagging feeling that things were really getting worse all the time, but it wasn’t until I watched the “37 Things to Hoard” advertisement, that I finally decided I was going to find …


The Kamajors of Sierra Leone: A Model for Survival, by CYA

Those that are concerned with TEOTWAWKI scenarios, as we are, can find great benefit in looking to history for meaningful lessons on what to expect and how to plan and prepare. In many of these circles we often here of and reference the heroic exploits of bands of citizen warriors throughout history. Rogers Rangers, the Minute Men of New England, The Green Mountain Boys of Vermont and other Revolutionary War militia, The guerilla fighting Comanche and Cheyenne warriors of North America,  and of course the various books, movies and television shows that constitute our survivalist-militia paradigm. I wish to add …


Why Prepping is a Good Thing, by P. S. in Virginia

Based on some of the latest articles I have read, I wonder if there is a misunderstanding of prepping or the Preppers themselves. Everyone has their own reasons for prepping, what they consider prepping, prepping for or at what level they can prepare. Not everyone can afford prepping to the levels of others, not everyone has the skill sets as others or can go out and find that perfect piece of property to call their retreat or bug out location (BOL.) For the grannies who buy a few supplies or have found a like-minded social group of preppers where they …


Knowing Your Neighbors: All For One and One For All

Sound like an old cliche? “One for All, All for One”? A phrase from the past. But it is as valid today as it has ever been. Togetherness, cooperation, teamwork, none of those match the totality of “One for all, All for One”.       Of course there is no substitute for preparedness. As a former EMT, a person who has taken CERT training in my community, and who, as much as I can given my limited financial resources, taken the threat, for any reason, of societal breakdown seriously, I can attest to this. I remember my instructor many years …


Prepared For Just Any Old Thing, by Louie in Ohio

 I guess that I have always been a “Prepper”. Fifty years ago I joined the Boy Scouts. Of course most  of us know the Scout Motto, Be Prepared. Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the scouting movement was once asked, “Prepared for what?”  His answer… “Just any old thing.” My Scoutmaster, Mr. Garrison, told us that we needed to keep our backpack packed and ready to go, that some evening he would send out the word and we must report ready for a camp out. There would be a time limit and we must get there under our own power …