Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

Letter Re: Observations From Fence Building

JWR: Texas Rancher’s comments on fence building are spot on.  Build it right the first time or you’ll regret it.  If you’re in big country, then barbed wire is the way to go.  If you have a smaller place, from a few acres to a few hundred acres, you may want to consider high tensile electric fences.  High tensile fencing has a number of advantages over other types of fencing, particularly if you live in an area where there are trees. If you’re not familiar with high tensile electric fencing take a look at  Kencove.com  They are a good source …


Letter Re: Observations From Fence Building

Dear Mr. Rawles: As a Texas rancher, I understand the difficulties associated with fence building and repair. Too much fence building in a short amount of time will run off a good ranch hand. Mudflap’s comments about proper clothing and hydration when fence building are right and should be given attention. We use twisted smooth wire (no barbs) for horse pens but to contain cattle, barbed wire is necessary. Good gloves are essential. Pigskin gloves are very barb resistant. You will be nicked by the barbed wire, so stay current with tetanus shots. Every vehicle on my ranch has a set of fencing pliers …


Two Letters Re: Strong and Sticky Stuff for Sticky Situations

Jim, Regarding J-B Weld: It is not like most other two part epoxies.  The additives in the product impart a very important characteristic: It can be machined (drilled, grinded, sanded and even tapped.   Normal two-part epoxy tends to chip and shatter when drilled, can’t be tapped effectively and is extremely hard to sand.  J-B Weld, on the other hand, is easily worked with normal home workshop tools.  Just last weekend I had a stripped machine screw hole for the screw that holds one of my car’s sun visors up.  I filled the hole with J-B Weld, let it cure overnight, then …


Two Letters Re: Observations From Fence Building

JWR, I’m a fan of your books and blog reader… in a recent guest post,  Observations From Fence Building, by Mudflap, however, the author stated something that is practically true when exercised with common sense, but is factually incorrect and potentially dangerous. The author stated flatly that: “You cannot drink too much water.  As long as you can freely urinate, keep drinking water.  Don’t keep track of how much water you are downing.” When the contrary is quite true – water intoxication, and hypnotremia could occur – in addition, gross excess of water in your system can trigger a reflex …


Letter Re: Strong and Sticky Stuff for Sticky Situations

Sir: Do you or any of your readers have any experience with J-B Weld? Is it recommended for use as a survival item — i.e., pros and cons versus traditional methods of joining [materials]? Thank you! Best, – J.C. JWR Replies: Yes, it works quite well, and I do recommend it.  But don’t let the “liquid steel” marketing hype fool you.  It is just a two-part epoxy. To be properly equipped for emergency repairs on vehicles, tractors, and assorted gear at your retreat, I recommend watching for sale prices and stocking up on a variety of sticky and strong stuff. …


Letter Re: Machine Shop Tool Recommendations

James, In your blog you recently mentioned Transfer Punches. A more important tool to have is the automatic center punch. These are handy around the shop and in a bug out bag. They are great for emergency egress from an automobile accident. [Since these will shatter the tempered glass used in the side widows of cars.] They are handy, compact and versatile. The ones made by Starrett, though pricey, are the best quality. I used mine at work for over 20 years and once a year would oil the spring and still have it after 40 years. Quality always wins …


Getting Home and Getting Away, by D.L.

My life has become a series of bags. I’ve written before about how ill-prepared my family and I were for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11th. Although we were very lucky, and to this day have experienced only minor inconveniences, we nonetheless dove head-first into something resembling prepping. Unfortunately, prepping with neither a plan nor a little forethought is a bit like diving head-first into a strange lake without first surveying the depth and the bottom. The best that can happen is nothing; the worst that can happen is permanent damage. Our attitude when we went shopping was …


Raising a Healthy, Happy Infant in a Survival Situation, by Brittany B.

Humidifier – check. Electric fan – check. Lullaby CD – check. Nightlight – check. Final kisses and whispered prayers, and at last you’re ready to lay your tiny baby down to sleep. Modern convenience makes caring for a little one easy as pie and exhaustingly complicated at the same time. Our parents muse, “How did we ever get by without that nursing pillow/bottle warmer/Sippy cup tether?” Yet somehow, the human race got this far without all of today’s fancy gadgets designed to ease parents through the baby years, and we would be wise to consider how it used to be …


Letter Re: Securing Windows With Plywood The Fast And Easy Way

Sir: I’ve been researching ways to secure windows in a SHTF scenario and it seems that one of the best ways to do this is by screwing pre-cut sheets of plywood to the window frame.  This will take many screws and it will leave screw holes in your window frame if/when it comes time to take down the plywood.  It also takes precious time to put a lot of screws in even with a powered screwdriver and depending on the size of the window, you might need several people to hold the plywood in place while you put the screws …


Three Letters Re: Hunter-Gatherer Mobile Survival

JWR: I just read Blue Sun’s comments and feel I too must comment. I believe that he has the beginnings of what I envision as a End of the World scenario, inasmuch as the ‘friend’ from yesterday is the enemy of today. But we part company when he is suggesting that deep woods is the location for survival. I see no room for the weak or infirm nor women and children. I see only a Jeremiah Johnson-style survival thing for a lone male that is young and in good health and very good shape. How long one expects to be …


The Easy Storage Survival Harvest, by Minnesota Rose

I have tracked down, purchased, and read over 25 books this past winter, all having to do with gardening, food storage, and food processing.  My goal was to come away from many long winter nights soaking and reading in my claw foot tub with more than wrinkled toes.  My agenda was simple: I wanted these new, used, and out of print gems to provide instruction and inspiration in formulating a plan to grow as much of my family’s food as possible as soon as the snow finally melted—and then put the harvest in storage.  As I soaked in the hot …


Prioritizing My Prepping, by R.W.L.

First of all, a note of praise to JWR: thanks for all you do.  You’ve got an amazing reference blog site going here and are providing an immeasurable amount of help to your readers.  I stumbled across SurvivalBlog via a link in the comments section of another blog called The Deliberate Agrarian, last October. The link included the warning: “Just see if you can escape from the archives in less than four hours.”  Two weeks later, I emerged from the archives with blood shot eyes and was both enlightened and scared at the same time.  I had a lot of …


Letter Re: Survival Electronics and the Lowly Vacuum Tube

James: This is in response to an earlier letter where a reader asserted that his knowledge as an electronics engineer will be of little use after TEOTWAWKI. He is wrong, we will not abandon all the technology invented over the past 100+ years. Say for example we are hit with the big solar event, several EMPs and most solid state electronics are destroyed. One component that will survive is the vacuum tube. There will still be means to generate electricity here and there that will not be affected, hydroelectric generators will still spin, steam turbines, some of these can be …


Letter Re: Another Instructables Reader

Hi Mr. Rawles, Instructables.com is one of five web sites I visit on a daily basis (second to yours, of course), and I love seeing links to it from your blog.  I don’t know if you’ve seen the following entries, but they’re certainly handy in a pinch: Emergency Duct Tape field stretcher Paracord Rifle Sling Paracord Bandoleer Of course purpose-built stretchers, slings, and bandoleers would serve one best; but once the Schumer hits the fan, the next best thing might just be made from stockpiled duct tape and parachute cord! Best Regards, – Skip H.


Letter Re: Beyond Outdoor Survival

James,     As someone who has taken multiple week-long backpacking trips in the Rocky Mountains, I noticed a couple of things in this article that I would like to address.  The first is the author’s advice on mountain shelters.  First of all, if you do decide to pick a cave for shelter please be aware that mountain lions are plentiful in the mountains and one may have already decided to make that cave its home.  I have literally walked within feet of a mountain line that was laying in its den in the middle of the day, a very unnerving …