August 20th is the birthday of former Congressman Ron Paul (born, 1935.) He recently retired from congress. Dr. Paul is to be commended for fighting the good fight for many years.
August 20th, 1866 is also the day that president Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over.
Most everyone tends to start life with very low levels of what is called situational or tactical awareness. These words are often mentioned in the same conversations along with the term OPSEC (Operational Security). These same men are wearing MOLLE covered gear talking about fields of fire. They might also include fatal funnels, eyeballs on targets, heads on swivels, and other tactical lingo. However, in case you didn’t know, situational awareness is for everyone.
So where do we begin with this discussion? I’m glad you asked. I believe that tactical awareness, just like kindness, should start in the home.
My childhood in the 1970s and 80s may be seen as an unusual childhood by today’s standards. But growing up I felt like I had a very normal, stable childhood. I had parents who made a wonderful home life for me and my siblings. My mother was our nurse, teacher, homemaker, financial advisor, and life coach. My father was our PT instructor, outdoor guide, professor, and provider. We were not home-schooled in the current sense of the word, but we were educated at home constantly. There was always a discussion of what we had been taught in public school. Often there was many a correction made to what we had been taught. I guess my parents did this because they believed we were important to the family.
I writing to you to make amends for an error that was included in a recently published article entitled “Getting Ready For The Long Walk, by Lone Wolf and Cub” on the blog. In the article we discussed a scenario, in which persons may have to walk at least partway to their retreat.
In the article, it was incorrectly stated that a tourniquet can be placed on for two days. The correct answer is tourniquet removal should be considered in two hours. My COC recently has informed me the upper limit should be of eight hours.
I apologize to the readers for this mistake. In the military we admit to our errors, accept any due punishment, and move on.
SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Today brings us an enlightening article on path of Genocide. Do you know where the U.S. is on that path?
Reader H.L. sent in the link to this article on the five most dangerous demands of fear. Excerpt: “It seems the fear is taking over. After all, it’s been such an integral part of our lives for such a long a time now that, sadly, life just wouldn’t feel normal without it.” Some fear is good. It keeps your senses honed to fine edge and can be used as a great motivator to get things done. However, when it begins to control your life, there are some issues.
Reader G.P. sent in this article on the DOJ’s Operation Choke Point. This is the operation that was intended to crack down on questionable activities like online gambling and “escort” services by choking off their finances. Under the Obama administration, firearms sales were also lumped in their, even though that is a constitutional protected activity and is not questionable at all. Many firearms retailers were either forced out of business or were severely impacted when their financial channels were shut down. Now, however, the DOJ has announced that under the Trump administration, it has ended all activities associated with Operation Choke Point.
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3 (KJV)
August 19th is the birthday of Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1906-1971). Farnsworth was an American inventor who is best known for his image pickup device that formed the basis for the fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. Among his many other inventions was the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor, a small nuclear fusion device that remains a viable source of neutrons. At his death, he held over 300 patents, mostly in radio and television.
We’re continuing to take a look at how preppers have looked at “emergencies” versus crises. We must learn the “new old” mindset is that is required. We’ve read about the some of the issues and diseases that caused massive deaths in the mid nineteenth century. Now we are moving on to see what we can do better post-SHTF.
Whooping cough, bad water, starvation, freezing, you name it, and they had it. They died from it. We who call ourselves thinkers and preppers must do better. We now know how important the washing of our hands can be. Now we know that prevention can be a life savior. Sicknesses like these have been returned to our lives, and now we will have to deal with them again. We can not simply re-establish the poor practices of corrupt government that have crept into our lives. The culture of deceit, of low principles must go. The ignorant youth dependent upon the welfare state and the modern mob rule and votes for sale don’t work.
As preppers, survivors, and re-builders, we must carry the burden of individual responsibility and self government. We must provide the education and concern for others that was the foundation of our republic. We must rekindle the fires of freedom wrapped tightly in rational responsibility once again in the souls of our children. They will be our future in our new old world.
To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready! This week’s focus is on beginning to prepare for fall.
Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,
This week was fairly quiet. The children did a lot of horseback riding around the Ranch and once up into the adjoining National Forest. However, they weren’t long in the forest because the horses were on extra high alert and kept staring into the woods and snorting and making their nervous “whoosh” sounds. We concluded that there must be a predator somewhere just off the road in the forest, and even though we were fully armed, decided to not tempt fate. We erred on the side of caution and went back home. The family continues to do a lot of mountain bike riding around the ranch. (On of our bikes is a Montague paratrooper folder.)
I will be building a small building to house electronic equipment (batteries for off-grid) and want to protect it from any EMP type of conditions. If we use metal roofing and clad the outside in corrugated metal would that be satisfactory protection? There will have to be ventilation for it too. The equipment will have to be well grounded.
If the panels are bonded together well (meaning more than just the 1 screw every 4 feet) and you have some form of conductive flooring also bonded to the building, then yes, it would work. Most metal building will not work well because of those two deficiencies.
SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Wait till you read Mike Williamson’s suppressor safety story today!
Once again we find the questionable organization “Crowds on Demand” paying participants in violent demonstrations. The Los Angeles company ran a Craig’s List ad asking for participants for rallies and protests in the Charlotte, North Carolina area a week before the violent counter protest that occurred. Pay was variable but is listed as typically $25+/hour. They were asking for participants and photographers. Of course, the company denies any involvement in the protests.
o o o
Reader H.L sent in this article outlining plans that some hard left groups are making for November 4th. Apparently, the goal is to replicate the “Days of Rage” campaign from 1971 and bring about enough anarchy that a change in government is forced. It is readily apparent that this isn’t about some confederate statues; it’s also about bringing down anything that the hard left disagrees with.
“Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.” Deuteronomy 11:1 (KJV)
August 18th is the birthday of Meriwether Lewis, an American explorer, soldier, politician and public administrator that is best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. An interesting side note is the Girandoni Air Rifle carried by Lewis during that expedition.
The word “emergency” was first known and used circa 1631 and is defined as follows:
1: an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action
2: an urgent need for assistance or relief the mayor declared a state of emergency after the flood
We, the happy members of “the never well united and non-governmental superior order of universal disaster response practitioners”, are proud to be recognized as “ the perpetually persistent preppers, or the “three peas in the prepper pod”. However, we are also very often guilty of preparing for the wrong event, at the wrong time, with the wrong intents, and finally with the wrong tools.
I do not worry about or prepare for an emergency. Never. Because we have town people who are our local professionals, and they are well trained for almost every type of emergency anyone could ever think of. We know them personally.
Please look at and then think carefully about the dictionary language concerning the word “emergency” shown above from an analytical or usage viewpoint, as is often used by your good buddy, myself, Old Bobbert.
Here in Oregon, because of this eclipse thing, people are flooding into the state. They expect at least 1.5 million to arrive here…tens of thousands already arriving since yesterday!
Today, on Oregon Highway 26, from Prineville, OR for 15-miles east, they closed the road – it is bumper-to-bumper traffic, nothing is moving – vehicles are running out of gas….with no place to go… Gas stations in Bend and Redmond Oregon are already out of gas…don’t know if they will get another delivery of fuel in the next day or two…
In our area, gas prices went up 30-cents per gallon since yesterday…I needed to top-off the gas tank on my pick-up, I couldn’t get into any of the gas stations because of the lines…glad I keep spare gas cans full – at my digs, at all times!
I have never seen anything like this in my life. We can only imagine how much worse it would be in a serious SHTF bug out situation.
Here is a news story about the traffic:
Highway reopened but eclipse traffic jam continues in Central Oregon
Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here!
One of Mrs. Latimer’s favorite hot teas is chamomile. We started trying to grow it about 7 years ago and for some reason, never could get it to take off. Then four years ago we had a successful crop of it and it has been self replicating ever since. It is so prolific now that that it very nearly is considered a weed in some parts of the garden. Of course, it gets free reign since Mrs. Latimer likes it so much.
This week we ran a batch of Chamomile flowers through the Freeze Dryer. Like any other herb, the flavor is much stronger and more vivid when freeze dried rather than dehydrated. We don’t crush the flowers after they are dried so four trays of flowers generates four quarts of finished product.
