Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

Letter Re: Beekeeping and Fur Trapping at Your Retreat

Jim, I enjoyed the article by Chris on bee keeping and fur trapping. Ever since setting my first muskrat trap in 1974, I have been an avid trapper, not missing a year since, regardless of fur market prices. The knowledge one gains with respect to any furbearer that is pursued becomes very intimate if pursued successfully with passion year after year. Its not enough to just understand the general behavior of the furbearer. To successfully trap furbearers, one must know exactly where the animal will step. Close doesn’t always count in this sport. I once read where if one wants …


Beekeeping and Fur Trapping at Your Retreat, by Chris L.

I am a dentist with approximately 20 years experience.  My hobbies are eccentric by many modern people’s standards.  After reading many of the  articles on the survivor blog I thought that I might have a unique perspective to add to the wealth of undervalued information posted on the site.  While reading James Wesley Rawles book I was not surprised to find out that Honey maintains stability for years in storage. This did not surprise me as I am a hobby bee keeper myself.  This in and of itself makes long term storage of honey a wonderful glucose reserve.  Few people …


Letter Re: Clothing and Shoes, Post-TEOTWAWKI

James, Okay, a year or three goes by, [after TEOTWAWKI]. My wife can sew, but where do you get cloth and thread? I love Goretex (since I live in Western Oregon), but where do I replace those great Hi-Tec boots? No one seems to be discussing what happens when a shoelace brakes after Schumer is in session. You can hardly find them now. Cloth – one will make a spinning wheel and loom after “the fan” has become clogged! All that I can recall is an anecdote about the early Oregon Trail, when the newly arrived – skinny and starving …


A Brief Critique of the Movie “The Road”

Introductory Note: I recently wrote this critique for British newspaper. For the benefit of my readers in the US, I’m posting it to my blog. – JWR The recently released movie The Road, based on the same-titled novel by award-winning writer Cormac McCarthy illustrated some classic blunders in bushcraft and tactical movement. Doubtless, many of these gaffes were intentional–I suspect for the sake of drama, or to provide enough light for the night scenes. Here is a short list: 1.) Following main arterial roads.  In a post-collapse environment, major roads will become linear ambush zones.  To avoid trouble, “The Man” …


America is More Like Haiti than We’d Like to Think

The recent earthquake in the island nation of Haiti illustrates the fragility of all societies. While Haiti is unusual in its lack of infrastructure and its high dependence on foreign aid–more than half of its annual government budget comes from foreign aid–it is still similar in many ways to other nations: From the 1960s to the turn of the 21st century, as in many other nations, Haiti became an urbanized nation. Before the 1960s a substantial portion of Haitian society still lived on rural semi-self sufficient farmsteads. But as urbanization and specialization went on, fewer and fewer people lived off …


Letter Re: Constructing Farm Ponds

James, Hail from Kentucky. I just wanted to add my two cents and maybe some advice to anyone thinking about building a pond to help support their retreat. I just want to say that I am not an expert, just learned a thing or two from the school of hard knocks, and would love to hear the feed back and thoughts of other SurvivalBloggers. I saw a post by a lady a week or so ago that mentioned she wanted to have a pond dug on her five acre plot but she stated that the water table is 12 feet …


Two Letters Re: An Interesting 19th Century Formulary Book

JWR, First off, love your site! It’s level headed and full of wonderful information. It’s now part of my required reading in the mornings along with the news and email. Google Books has Dr. Chase’s Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book, it’s free, it’s PDF format and downloadable. Keep up the good work! – Herman N. James, I’ve been reading the blog for about a year now, I think this may be my first email to you. In searching for Dr. Chase’s Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book, I stumbled across this web site from MSU of downloadable cookbooks and …


Letter Re: An Interesting 19th Century Formulary Book

James Wesley, About 40 years ago I bought a copy of the book ”Dr. Chase’s Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book” printed in 1887 at an estate sale. It was written by Dr. Alvin Wood Chase and published after his death. It is a how-to jewel filled with general information about just about every aspect of Civil War era American life. Food preservation, storage and preparation in a pre-electrical time, along with animal husbandry and general farming and medicine make it a very interesting and potentially helpful read. It can be viewed online at www.archive.org. The site is by Internet …


Death and Dying in TEOTWAWKI, by Snowman

Most of the SurvivalBlog.com articles focus on the “how tos” of living in or preparing for survival situations. We all understand these needs. However, there has been much less discussion on preparedness for death and dying. I have worked in the medical profession since 1975. I have worked with people in various stages of death and dying in hospitals, hospices, operating rooms, clinics and accident sites. While most of us are doing as much as possible to prepare and stay alive in bad situations we know that our options may be greatly limited in future scenarios. Death and dying are …


A Preparedness Plan for a Single Woman With Children

I’ve been reading SurvivalBlog for almost a year.  I am thankful for the advice that I receive each day.  I have had a “be prepared” attitude for about 30 years, although the past two years have thrown several speed bumps and roadblocks my way.  Two years ago my son and his family were in a life threatening accident.  I spent almost every penny I had saved toward retirement to help my daughter-in-law recover.  This year I fought for and won custody of three of my grandchildren from my daughter.  So now, instead of planning for TEOTWAWKI for just myself, a …


Letter Re: Well, Well–An Amazing Find

Dear Mr. Rawles: I have owned my retreat for some years and as unbelievable as it may sound, I found a water well that I didn’t know I had. When I bought the land in the 1990s, I knew that there had been an old house there at one time, but assumed that they had either used a cistern, or drew water from the stream that runs through the property. However, I found the well. It had an old Gould’s 1HP pump at the end of 120 ft. of 2″ galvanized pipe. The well had been capped for years, or …


Four Letters Re: Preparedness for Digital Doomsday

Hello Mr. Rawles, The article by David W. on data storage raised excellent points, and is sure to get people thinking about an often-overlooked subject.. For the prepper on a budget, there are a number of avenues to secure your data that won’t break the bank. While it may be impractical to have several NEW laptops in your stash of supplies, there are plenty of good, used laptops available that will fit the bill nicely. You don’t need a powerhouse just to read your survival documents, and having one or more spares means fewer eggs in one basket. I’ll focus …


Preparedness for Digital Doomsday, by David W.

One subject I’ve not seen mentioned recently is that of data recovery and security. As a proponent of various disaster recovery plans for large companies during my tenure as in information technology auditor I’d like to propose a few ideas to the readers to increase the chances of keeping data post-TEOTWAWKI. No one plan works for everyone and your mileage may vary. First off we all generate lots more data then we think. The most common insurance against loss of a home PC is regularly maintained backups to some form of storable media like DVD-r’s. However, in a post-TEOTWAWKI world …


Letter Re: The Bosnian Experience

Mr. Rawles, I want to thank you for having this site and presenting people with opportunity two obtain useful information that could save their lives one day. I have been dedicated reader of your blogs for some time and now think that is my time to contribute some information instead of just reading it. I have survived through collapse of former Yugoslavia and the years of war that followed after. I will try to cover as much of different topics that pertain to every day survival. No matter on how much the person is prepared, it might not be enough. …


Three Letters Re: Prepping for Fishing in TEOTWAWKI

James, I was thinking about the fishing e-mails and thinking: why are we talking [about using hand-held] rods? In a true TEOTWAWKI situation [where present-day conventions and legalities on sport fishing have gone by the wayside] I don’t want to be standing there for hours trying to catch dinner just like I don’t want to be sitting in a tree stand trying to shoot dinner either. Like hunting, which I tend to agree with you on (you do it all the time by carrying your rifle and being ready at all times — or at least some firearm capable of …