Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

Letter Re: Declining Aquifers

Hello Mr. Rawles, I am a great fan of your work and I eagerly anticipate the release of your new novel.   I live in rural Northeastern Colorado, where both sides of my family settled in the 1870s.  The mid-sized ranch, 1,900 acres, that I live on has been owned by my family for 104 years.  I raise cattle, goats, horses and hay along with my dad, my wife and kids.  I also have a “government job” in local emergency services to help make ends meet.    I read the recent article by Denise Chow of Live Science, titled Water Woes: …


Two Letters Re: Advice on Come-Alongs

Hi Jim, I’d like to mention another heavy duty come-along/manual winch you and your readers may be interested in.   It is built by a long time American manufacturer, Wyeth-Scott.  Please note the pull ratings are based on dead lift capacities and, as they state, pull ratings are approximately double those.  Please see their notes regarding rating differences between lifting and pulling.  A vehicle on a flat road or a tree, through mud, up a hill. Thanks, – Guy S.  Dear Mr. Rawles, and Readers, Always be careful where you place your fingers around come-alongs. I always warn people who …


Loss Prevention for Your Long Term Retreat or Bug-In Location, by Manatee

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For the preparedness minded individual, this old cliche couldn’t be more important. In my primary profession in the insurance industry, I observe on a regular basis all sorts of damage that happens to people’s homes. Today, there are ample available supplies to repair damage, contractors to complete repairs, and insurance coverage to help cover the costs. Tomorrow, we may not be so lucky. This is where our “ounce of prevention” comes into play. Whether you are preparing to live through a short-term event, a natural disaster, a grid-down event, or …


Letter Re: Manual Hair Clippers

Jim, I enjoy your blog very much, have been following it for years. Keep up the good work.   On the many lists of items preppers are encouraged to obtain, I have never seen hair clippers suggested.  An essential item. (By hair clippers I mean manual, not electric.) – Pastor D. JWR Replies: Although they are probably still made in India and China, the best place to find traditional clippers is used, via eBay or Craigslist. If they are well-made and aren’t rust-pitted, even a century-old pair of clippers will probably last another century. Just be sure to keep them …


Advice on Come-Alongs

Reader L. in Tucson recent wrote to ask for some guidance on buying come-alongs for his new retreat ranch in northern Arizona. Here is my advice: Ratchet cable hoists (commonly called “Come-Alongs”) are crucial tools for life on a retreat and for off-road driving. They have umpteen uses for everything from wire fence stretching to lifting elk carcasses for butchering. These should be purchased in pairs, for the greatest versatility.  We keep four come-alongs here at the Rawles Ranch: Two that are 2-ton capacity and two that are 4-ton capacity.  All four are American-made, by Maasdam under the trade name Pow’R …


Letter Re: American-Made Tools

Mr. Rawles, Regarding your big listing of American-made tools: For 30+ years I was a devotee of CeeTee pliers because they were the best.  Alas, like many, they are no longer American made.  Even 25 years ago, I noticed that the then-new CeeTee pliers were not as heavily made as the pair I had purchased in 1971.   A few months ago, I was bemoaning the state of CeeTee pliers to a friend that works in a hardware store.  He set me onto his favorite pliers (like me, he had been a CeeTee devotee):  The pliers are from Wilde Tools. …


More All-American Makers

Several readers wrote to suggest some more American makers to add to my recently-posted lists: Alvord-Polk Tool – Aircraft quality reamers.  Brubaker Tool, Division of Dauphin Precision Tool, LLC  – Mills, taps and drills. Ames Corporation is the parent company for several brand names that make all American-made tools. These include: Ames tools – A variety of hand tools, hoses, wheelbarrows, etc. True Temper – Gardening, farming, landscaping, and snow removal tools Jackson Professional Tools (best known for their wheelbarrows.) Razor-Back Professional Tools – Shovels, rakes, hoes, hay and spading forks, digging bars, turf edgers, etc. Union Tools – Shovels, …


Animal Food Sources in TEOTWAWKI, by Michael H.

The prepper has many preparedness areas to consider. Obtaining and managing food, water cleaning and storage, security, communications, and efficient transportation, are only some of the areas that a good prepper will be concerned with. Finding, cooking, and storing food rightly seem to be the focus of many preppers preparedness strategies.   With food and water survival becomes much more likely.   While you may be cold or wet, uncomfortable, cut off from the rest of the world or in an unsecured location , you will at least have the essentials that will allow survival. Everything else can be worked out later.  …


All-American Tool Manufacturers

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Following up on my recently-posted list of field gear makers that have all American-made products, I’ve compiled a comparable list of American tool makers. The Sell-Outs Some companies that have long been thought of as “American” companies now produce most or all of their tools overseas. For example, Craftsman (the Sears house brand) now produces many of their tools in Asia. Others include: Cooper, Disston, Eastwood, Greenlee, Lufkin, Milwaukee, Peerless, Porter Cable, Shurlite, Snap-On, Thorsen, Vise-Grip, Vermont American, Weller, Williams, and Winchester. The many, many others are almost too numerous to list. Some of the “good guy” companies that I …


Letter Re: If Life Gives You Tomatoes, Make Salsa!

Dear James, Thank you to S.M. for the great article about gardening in the desert southwest (If Life Gives You Tomatoes, Make Salsa!). I’ve spent most of my years in the desert southwest near the metros of Tucson, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque and have grown gardens in these regions for the past decade. In 2010 a similar article was published in SurvivalBlog titled Starting Your Desert Backyard Garden. I was one of several readers that submitted some helpful comments and tips on that article. This is my fourth season growing in the high desert of Northern New Mexico. I’m at …


Letter Re: The Bug Out Boat

Dear Editor: Lean Jimmy’s bug out boat idea is good, but on most rivers of North America you’ll have “pirates” set up at strategic points along the watercourses — as in yesteryear — and have a tough time getting by them. It’ll only be a matter of time before they take control of those defined travel lanes and lighten the load of fleeing refugees. Slave trading might also come back into vogue.   How could you outfox them? Travel at night? Maybe. But if your craft was small, almost silent and light enough to carry or collapse into portable pieces, you’d obviously …


Deep Winter Prepping, by Ronald in Alberta

I live on a small ranch in Northern Alberta, Canada. I’m approximately a half hour drive to the nearest small town, and the winters here can be tremendous. I’ve always taken a slightly different approach to preps than most of my American counter parts, because most energy, food, shelter, water and defense advice floating around the Internet is not cold weather viable. In this short paper I will attempt to relay to you, the reader, the importance of being ready for winter in all aspects of survival. This is a short collection of some thoughts and experiences I’ve had living …


Letter Re: Stealth Wood Cutting and Splitting with Electric Tools

James, I wanted offer some praise to J.J.S. and is thorough submission titled Heating with Wood 101. I’m following his lead and wanted to offer your readers some additional ideas on wood processing with some stealth after TSHTF. Running a 50cc chainsaw and a 34-ton log splitter is all fine and dandy when there’s no one around meaning to do you any harm but its completely inappropriate in a TEOTWAWKI situation. If you are lucky enough to have a renewable energy source its advisable to switch to electrical tools because they are so quiet. Either of the big box stores …


Heating with Wood 101, by J.J.S.

 “If I have seen for miles, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton This line sums up SurvivalBlog and the contributing writers: it is a community of concerned preppers trying to share knowledge to help each other out.  My focus today is residential heating with wood as your fuel based on my experience heating with my airtight cast iron stove.  Pretty boring topic for the seasoned prepper, but I think there are plenty of new preppers who have recently seen the light and can feel the stuff hitting the fan and hopefully this …


Letter Re: Low-Budget Photovotaically Charged Drill Batteries

Dear Mr Rawles, This letter is in response to the piece on using photovoltaics to charge batteries by C.K.. I feel I should spend some time discussing some potential problems with charging Lithium Ion (“Li-ion”) batteries the way C.K. proposes. However first a few general notes. – I am all for scavenging if you know what you are doing like some of us. But ‘newbies’ are better off not trying to disassemble anything more complicated than a desktop power supply for safety reasons as JWR pointed out. I should add that the process that causes the ‘bounce’ after discharge also …