Mr. Rawles:
I discovered SurvivalBlog just by accident about two months ago, when I was doing a Google search on “FN-FAL” [rifles]. I pretty soon discovered your blog was a treasure trove. Not only am I totally addicted to reading the new postings every day (I read it on my lunch hour at work), but I’ve also started working my way back through the archives. (It was just two weeks ago that I discovered the little “Search Posts on SurvivalBlog” window down under your rotating ads. Maybe you should put that up at the top, so people can spot it easier.) Wow! I just can’t believe how much practical no-BS info that you have put together in your blog postings, and in the permanent [button bar] pages at the top (like your Retreat [Areas] page and your Survival Guns page), plus all your FAQs. Also, thanks for your big glossary, which is great for a newbie like me. (I’m a served as a Air Force mechanic and I know a lot about vehicles and guns, but the rest of preparedness is pretty new to me.) I had always felt the need to be ready for more than just high water and hurricanes, but couldn’t put my finger on why. But now, after reading your blog and your books, I’m connecting all the dots. Everything you write rings true with me. We do live in a very fragile world. I saw that up close and personal, right after Hurricane Katrina. And that was just a regional disaster. Something nationwide will be horrendous. An you were right when you said: “The power grid is the lynchpin.” Once that grid goes down past a few days, people are going to come unglued.
So now, I’m selling off some of my “Big Boy Toys” (like our ski boat, our his-and-hers matched set of jet skis, my Army Air Corps and early Air Force flight instrument collection, and my commemorative guns.) I’m spending all that cash on getting prepared, big time. Example: Right now, the Mrs. and I are getting our long term food stocks and heirloom garden seeds squared away. I just recently got your Rawles on Retreats and Relocation book, plus your Best of the Blog book. They are both some Hotel Sierra reference books. I tore through those books! Now the Mrs. is reading them. And I just ordered your novel [“Patriots”], too, and we can’t wait to read it.
But the main reason I’m writing this is to say that just last week I decided that I was being a freeloader, so I signed up for The Ten Cent Challenge. I challenge everyone else out there reading this to do it, too. Come on you clowns, if you think that SurvivalBlog ain’t worth 10 cents a day, y’all are kidding yourself. Fact is, I’d be happy to pay ten times that–a dollar a day–for what I learn on SurvivalBlog. Example: Just what I learned about generators by itself saved me about $500, last month. (On Mr. Rawles’s advice, I bought a diesel engine low-RPM genset instead of the “bargain” gasoline-powered high-RPM genset that I had originally wanted to buy. It [the diesel generator] will last 2X or 3X longer [than the gasoline-powered model.] Plus, until I had read through SurvivalBlog, I hadn’t even thought about common fuel for [the generator and] my [diesel] tractor and my Dodge pickup, which is also a diesel. That’s just one small example of what I’m talking about. Knowledge is power, and knowledge prevents us making expensive mistakes. Like I said, SurvivalBlog is a treasure trove of knowledge and worth every freakin’ penny to me, and it should be to you, too. It is a disgrace that only 1% of the SurvivalBlog readers have bought a subscription. For you that are freeloading, shame on you. Quit freeloading, and pony up! – Gus in Alabama.