Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 3, by T.R.

(Continued from Part 2.)

Some background: I still work almost full time, but portions of the year are full throttle 60+ hour weeks and other blocks are much lighter, with my husband retired from the military. We wanted a vacation in terms of scenery and wildlife and we wanted to test our plans across a number of elements.

To appropriately field test our plans with a degree of stress testing that would replicate a certain amount of tension present in real threat condition whilst isolating certain elements one at a time to calibrate parts of our plan in a systematic way, we tried to set a few parameters that would shape the testing conditions: 1. Pack the car and get out of dodge quickly, with the hope to leave in less than 4-6 hours; 2. Be on the road with gasoline services to get as far as possible and then artificially cut ourselves off from stores, gas and retail purchase power for some period of time. 3. Deal with weather/climate and test shelter, security/safety, water, food, health/fitness and personal fulfillment (wildlife, nature and reading) for a 30 consecutive day period of time.

For those of us without 30 days in a row available (which was us for most of our lives working until very recently), one could test Colorado (or like location) as one 10-day chunk of time and then Wyoming as a separate 20-day test of time. In the past, when we did not have these large consecutive blocks of time, we would avoid restocking for our 2nd vacation week and see how well we did running down on leftovers. That wasn’t really much fun in terms of enjoying our vacation nor did those part camping outings really have enough documentation and controls (e.g. inventory of what we brought, field notes of what worked and what didn’t) to be a true mastery of our goals.

However, building on last summer’s camping trip to the Everglades which was a completely different climate of hot, humid and wetlands vs. this summer with mountains and colder temperatures was a good variation. In retrospect, we were thrilled at our test location(s) – we saw wildlife, nature, met amazing people at a few national parks and we also went far backcountry with surprisingly few people but that’s not the topic of this essay.Continue reading“Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 3, by T.R.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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 “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at another wolf attack and feature an excellent letter forwarded by SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson.

Democrats Threaten Supreme Court with Expansion

By way of the news aggregation site, Whatfinger.com: The party of tyranny: Democrats Threaten Supreme Court with ‘reorganization’ if justices don’t rule in favor of gun control.

Camper Saves Family From Wolf Attack

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“I have an appetite for background checks. We’re going to be doing background checks. We’re working with Democrats. We’re working with Republicans.” – President Donald J. Trump, August 21, 2019 (JWR’s Comment: It is high time to call the White House, your congressman, and both of your U.S. Senators. Our liberty is at stake!)

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 21, 2019

1

In 1986, Lake Nyos in Cameroon erupted with an estimated billion cubic yards of carbon dioxide gas. The gas had apparently been accumulating in the crater lake, held down by the weight of the water. When it finally erupted, the gas cloud smothered and killed every living animal, including insects, in its path until it dissipated. Outsiders learned of the disaster when they approached the villages and found animal and human bodies on the ground. The best estimate is that 1,700 people and thousands of cattle died.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 2, by T.R.

17

(Continued From Part 1.)

During 2018, I made a dot chart counting how many days fit into each category A, B, C and D in terms of readiness and then converted the “dots” into a percentage of time for the year. As a corollary, if things are leaning environmentally towards TEOTWAWKI, then we would already be limiting our “D” types of trips away from home and/or starting to pursue our exit via our “B” plan scenario. If things look particularly grim but quasi-temporary, then we would limit our “C” scenarios to avoid leaving home for long blocks of time and leaning towards staying home at night altogether.

Regardless, our “A plan” (we are at home, with car stocked with a basic bug out bag in the trunk and miscellaneous winter gear for an emergency) represents our most outfitted and overstocked scenario, had already been tested multiple times from local power grid outages (Hurricane Sandy or Hurricane Irma or other ice storms) and been a major focus of our efforts over the last few years. Furthermore, we have a food rotation plan with a paper log book coupled with a large propane tank for stove top cooking, fireplace heat and a water supply. Whilst we can always make improvements, this “A” plan of “stay at home” is the strongest and most resilient of our four-pronged flowchart. We add gear, test new ideas and share them with our grown kids on camping trips each year and then back-feed those ideas into each plan. However, not all of the gear could fit into a vehicle for the “B” plan for Get-out-of-Dodge, not even close.

Around Easter/spring, we typically begin refrain from buying new groceries until we draw down some of our non-perishable food rotation to keep it fresh/cycle the stock and also because that eats down the pantry and fridge somewhat before we go on vacation to save a little money. I test a few new recipes for weekend gatherings, and we rate them for gourmet quality and ease of preparation. Since my husband does most of clean up while I do the bulk of provisioning and cooking, we added ease of clean up as a sorting criterion as well. Continue reading“Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 2, by T.R.”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

9

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on nature’s greatest predator: the humble mosquito. (See the Books section.)

Books:

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator

o  o  o

Peter X. wrote to mention one of his favorite books:  The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics

o  o  o

Edward’s Snowden latest book is already a best seller, several weeks before its release: Permanent Record.

o  o  o

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

Instructional Videos & Vlogs:

Over at Full30.com: Mud Test: H&K 416/MR556

o  o  o

Tim J. suggested three instructional videos this week:

Fill the Freezer with FREE ORGANIC MEAT from Craigslist.

“A lot of people get into small livestock in the Spring when the babies are fluffy and don’t eat very much. By late summer those same babies are big, loud, and eating you out of house and home….and you raised them so you can’t bring yourself to butcher them. In comes the smart Craigslist farmer to the rescue! Get healthy juvenile animals that only need a few weeks of better food and water and fill the freezer just before Fall. We don’t eat family pets so we don’t take any animals that the owner states they don’t want to be eaten. It works really well with rabbits, ducks, and chickens because they develop quickly and take very little extra space for the few weeks you have them.”

DIY Pallet Greenhouse Build

“I collected all of these materials last summer but didn’t like how it was turning out using only pallets. This go round we used pallets for the ends and old lumber and tin for the sides. All materials were reclaimed, even the cow panels. The idea for this project came because my renter was using our commercial greenhouse and I wanted a greenhouse for spring greens but I really needed it to be built for free. The greenhouse also needed to be wind proof since two years ago our geodesic greenhouse blew away in the early spring winds. How to anchor the greenhouse when our ground doesn’t let us get spikes in the ground? Build our raised beds and fill with compost and wood to hold the whole thing sturdy! So excited to see how it works! For now with it still being summer the cow panels could work as a trellis for green beans or anything else that needs support and could shade the greens in the bed a bit. Right now I don’t have the plastic on since we have heat for another two months. Will keep you up to date as I make improvements!”

The Best Rat Trap I Have Ever Tested. The Uhlik Repeater Trap. Mousetrap Monday.

“In this video we test out an incredibly effective rat trap called the Uhlik Repeater. If you have a rat problem this is the trap for you.”Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — August 20, 2019

4

20 August is the birthday of former Congressman Ron Paul (born 1935). Dr. Paul is to be commended for fighting the good fight for many years.

—

August 20th, 1866 was the day that President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 1, by T.R.

4

(Editor’s Note: This Part 1 of a five-part article series.)

My goal in this article is to detail how to “build the plan” versus “test the plan” for bugout, while having fun.

We regularly read SurvivalBlog and enjoy it immensely. We’ve also read and studied a lot of great books including Lights Out and Patriots. However, a few years ago we realized our learning curve was too slow for the fast-moving risk profile of a civil society becoming more frazzled (coupled with having moved to a hurricane-prone state after my husband’s retirement). We brainstormed how to compress the time required around implementing many of the great ideas from SurvivalBlog and associated books and articles.

Our first thought to accelerate our preparedness path was to better balance table top planning with actual field testing of our plans. We have the checklist of all checklists and we spend time camping but had we really combined the best of both planning and test? Before this latest trip and this essay, the answer was: “Not really.” After our trip and composing this essay, we feel more confident of our survival skills and eager to further improve.

We agreed on a testing scope during a longer than usual personal vacation. We crafted this to mimic certain attributes of off road living we wished to pursue (and in some ways, certain chapters of the novel Patriots  written by JWR, but without the dose of civil unrest portion).

Previously, Hurricane Irma gave us a real dose of evacuation reality testing within a year of moving to Florida. That hurricane happened early relative to our really getting settled, thus it was a perfect “real” stress test of our conceptual plan. However, we reflected that if we did everything we wanted to prepare in serial order, we would never get done and quite frankly, we’d be chasing an elusive goal. Neither of us wanted to wish for another Hurricane to see how we did. But we always wanted to visit more National Parks and eventually visit the majority of them having already spent time walking through museums in Rome and trying to stay awake. We were tired of international travel and liked the idea of spending our discretionary dollars in the USA.Continue reading“Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 1, by T.R.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

3

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on an odd ATV accident. (See the Idaho section.)

Idaho

Sheriff’s Office: Missing Athol man spent days pinned to tree after ATV crash prior to being located. He was pinned just 300 yards from his home.

o o o

Home Invasion Leads to Fatal Shooting

o o o

Idaho roadkill study begins along wildlife migration route

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

22

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 “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at possible Federal body armor restrictions.

Senator Schumer Wants Body Armor Restrictions

Several readers sent this: Senator Chuck Schumer Now Wants to Regulate the Sale of Body Armor, Too. JWR’s Comments:  Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer is a notorious anti-gun career politician. Now, he also wants to require background checks to buy purely defensive items. This proposed legislation clearly illustrates how statists want to empower and insulate themselves while leaving the general citizenry defenseless.

Some Device Privacy Tips

The folks at DuckDuckGo have posted a web page with some Device Privacy Tips.

C. Diff Bacteria Now in Two Distinct Strains

Reader C.B. sent in this interesting news: Diarrhea-causing bacteria adapted to spread in hospitals. A quote:

“Scientists have discovered that the gut-infecting bacterium Clostridium difficile is evolving into two separate species, with one group highly adapted to spread in hospitals. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and collaborators identified genetic changes in the newly-emerging species that allow it to thrive on the Western sugar-rich diet, evade common hospital disinfectants and spread easily. Able to cause debilitating diarrhoea, they estimated this emerging species started to appear thousands of years ago, and accounts for over two thirds of healthcare C. difficile infections.”

Gondola Cable Cut in Canada, in ‘Deliberate Act’

Reader Tim J. sent us this: Gondola cable cut in Canada, sending cars crashing to the ground in ‘deliberate act,’ police say

Body Posture Affects Confidence in Your Thoughts

A hat tip to DSV for spotting this: Study: Body posture affects confidence in your own thoughts

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Intellectual freedom is essential — freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship.” – Andrei Sakharov

Preparedness Notes for Monday — August 19, 2019

1

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 first 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.

—

Thirty years ago, on August 19, 1989, Hungarian border guards allowed East German citizens to cross freely into Austria for the first time. This was the beginning of the end for the Iron Curtain, culminating a few months later, with the fall of the The Berlin Wall. Liberal journaliists are now ballyhooing about the supposed irony of Hungary erecting barriers against illegal aliens from the Middle East. But there is a huge difference between keeping foreigners out, and a government keeping its own population in.

Fivejoy Compact Shovel, by Pat Cascio

8

I’m not quite sure where the name for this compact folding shovel came from – but its called the “Fivejoy” for some reason – I’m sure there’s something behind the name. There are a lot of compact folding shovels out there on the market, and many are absolute pieces of junk – not worth having in an emergency, even if they were free. I’ve tested a lot of folding shovels over the years – and I mean a lot. There are some poorly made copies of the tri-fold military shovel, and they look good, but are junk. There are some small, fixed handle shovels, and they are much better in many respects, we’ve tested and reviewed them here on SurvivalBlog.com over the years.

Long-time friend, Jeff H. sent me the Fivejoy compact shovel. I was more than a little excited when I pulled this shovel out of the carrying case it came in. By far, this isn’t the most compact emergency shovel, nor does it have a folding handle, instead, the handle is in pieces and you screw those pieces together. The shovel head itself folds, and you can fold it at 40-degrees, 90-degrees and 180-degrees, for your digging or trenching needs. The shovel spade itself is made out of carbon steel, not stainless steel. I’m not quite sure where this product is made, but some claim China, others claim Vietnam. However, it is a quality-made tool. I noticed some negative comments on the Fivejoy, but I don’t take everything I read as truth – so keep that in-mind. If you read any 1911 forums, you will come away believing that there are no good 1911 pistols made by anyone. Some people have nothing better to do with their time, than write and post product slurs.

Right now, I know I have three compact shovels in my pick-up truck…not excess, but they can be used for different chores – they just happen to be in my truck, because after testing them, I never removed them. I think my wife has two compact shovels in her e-box inside her SUV. I like to keep duplicates of different tools and other emergency gear in my rig – remember, “one is none, and two is one” – in the event one breaks or gets lost. It always pays to have a back-up, when it comes to survival tools. Just makes real good sense to have more than one tool on-hand, if you are caught out in the middle of no where.

Continue reading“Fivejoy Compact Shovel, by Pat Cascio”

Letter: COMPSEC Warning on Windows 10 Updates

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Dear Editor:
I used to have respect for Kim Komando, but after reading her article about the recent Windows 10 update, I have moved her to my “don’t trust” list. Let me explain:

For my own COMPSEC I only connect to the internet wifi while I am actively using it and even then I monitor the data and CPU usage in real time using task manager. That way I know which program(s) are active. About 10 days ago, I detected the Windows 10 update in progress. It eventually took Four Hours of machine time (6X the usual time) and ate 5 gigs of data–more than enough to completely reinstall an operating system.

When the time stretched on, I became curious about what it was doing and I caught it doing a full scan of every file and program on my hard drive. This was a detailed scan and I could determine that it had actually changed at least one program (McAfee Web Advisor of all things) in addition to adding restrictions to the Windows features. (Komando touts a your ability to pause windows updates now for 7 days. Before the update, you could pause them for a month.)

After the scan was completed there was a period where the data flow was FROM my computer to Windows. That has never occurred during an update before.

The update also changed the IP address on my computer which set off security alarms when I checked gmail.

I don’t know whether that is now a standard procedure or targeted, but I do know that the SurvivalBlog bookmark is prominent.

Some recent searches have made me suspicious that there is also new tracking of internet activity through Windows 10–irrespective of the browser being used.

I thought I’d give you a heads up. After all, as you know Windows has declared itself a “service” (not a software company) and the similarities to some of the other “services” (YouTube, etc.) that have censored/blocked users for “undesirable” content, I am quite uneasy about their intent and will be taking steps to move to an alternate (open source) operating system.

I am not generally a fanciful person, but too many pieces are beginning to fit together. With the new 7-day limit for blocking “updates” you cannot deny the corporation access to your own computer for any longer period. I have to wonder whether it has less to do with updates than with monitoring. – Mr. C.