Article Archives

SHTF One Gun Defense by Greg Rentchler, Editor-at-Large

I’ve been spending a lot of time at my BOL thinking about a one-gun solution for defending the family in time of SHTF. After much discussion with my survival family and colleagues, we collectively concluded that there is no such thing as a one-gun solution to address the plethora of variations of circumstances involved in ...

Dutch Oven Cooking While Camping

Believe it or not, these past few days was the first time we managed to get away and do a bit of camping with the kids this year. Of course, we had a lot of fun, played plenty of games (my arm about fell off playing catch), and we got to break in a new Dutch ...

Explaining the Layout Changes (with pictures!)

As I’ve just finished (I hope) making layout changes here, I figured I would try to explain how things have changed and what to expect in the future. Before that, however, I want to re-iterate what my view for this site has always been, and that is to provide YOU with the most interesting, relevant, ...

The Illusion of Knowledge Could Get You Killed!

A few weeks ago I watched an episode of Brain Games–a television show on the National Geographic Channel–that challenges how you think and attempts to show you how your brain really works. I can say that I thoroughly enjoy the series and look forward to new episodes each week. Anyway, this particular episode (I think it was ...

Why Buckets Should be a TOP Priority Purchase

If there’s one supply that I feel people tend to overlook in their preps for long term survival, it’s buckets. Yup, buckets. Buckets of all sizes and shapes, from larger five and six gallon buckets to simple pails. Heck, why not throw in large drums while I’m at it, but that’s not what this post ...

Over 75 New Products at Full Moon Survival!

The folks over at Full Moon Survival recently let me know that they have over 75 new products listed in their ever-growing array of emergency food and gear, including two new brands of food by Mother Earth and canned meat by Survival Cave Foods. Check it out!

6 Reasons Why Bugging Out is a Bad Idea

It’s no secret that I feel bugging out should NOT be your first reaction to an emergency situation. After all, I’ve written an entire e-course about sheltering in place. In my opinion, you should stay put most of the time, and for good reason. Now, let me state clearly that I also understand there are some ...

Don’t Mow the Lawn, and Other OPSEC No-No’s

I thought I was done with OPSEC last week, covering the basics that everyone likes to talk about, including lighting concerns, noise concerns, and smell concerns, but then I got to thinking, there’s more to it than that. As obvious as it might seem, there are quite a few activities that we do on a normal ...

15 Survival Medical Supplies You May Have Missed

We’re all well aware that medical supplies, equipment, and especially qualified assistance will be tough to get hold of after most any disaster, especially longer term situations. With that in mind, I thought I would be a good idea to list several items that would prove useful to you and yours that you might not have ...

Remember, This is WHY We Prepare…

I was reading some news yesterday and looking through quite a few images of the recent damage and devastation that ripped through Oklahoma earlier this week and thought to myself, “this is WHY we prepare.” Granted, there are times when all of the preparations and plans in the world won’t save you–maybe this is one ...

What’s That Smell? Oh, Nothing… Nothing at All

The third major sense we need to consider when it comes to OPSEC during a SHTF scenario is that of smell. Again, as with the other senses, our sense of smell isn’t as good as many animals, but it is plenty good at detecting the unmistakable odors that result from human activity. Things like cooking ...

Did I Hear Something? Of Course, You Didn’t

This is the second of three posts regarding OPSEC this week. Today we’re going to discuss the need to keep quite; I don’t mean about your supplies and gear, I mean when you’re trying to keep a low-profile during a SHTF scenario. Besides, the ability to see, humans have a pretty good sense of hearing ...

There’s Nothing to See Here… Move Along Please!

I figured I would spend this week (three total posts) talking about OPSEC concerns. We need to have a plan on how to minimize the ability of others (the bad guys) of detecting our presence as much as possible. In particular, we need to consider our three most important senses: sight, hearing, and smell. Today we’ll focus on sight. The ability of ...

What Makes More Sense: Stock the Supplies or Stock the Ingredients?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about making more and more of my own supplies. While I’ve made things like toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, and a few other cleaning products in the past, I’ve been contemplating going “all in” if you will, and attempting to make as much as I can. My reasoning is for ...

Light Sleepers Look Out!

Strangely, one of the things that “worries” me the most on a personal level is my ability to sleep in a grid-down situation. You see, I’m a light sleeper, I mean REALLY light sleeper and if you are too you know what I mean. Some might think that’s a good thing during times where you ...

Why Seasonings Are Necessary Preps to Stockpile

I don’t know about you but I would be hard-pressed to think of any meal that didn’t make use of some form of seasoning to enhance the often bland flavor of a base meal. Think about everything you eat and I’m willing to bet the vast majority of it has been seasoned, from soups and stews to ...

What Would You Do With 3 Cups of This Stuff in a Grid-Down Situation?

Can you guess what this is?… I’ll give you a hint, it’s edible and normally thrown out. Give up or already know? Ok, it’s simply leftover juices from an assortment of canned foods–such as beans and corn–when I made a meal a few weeks back. Though I’m not sure why, instead of draining the juice right down the sink like ...

Featured Website: DailyCarry.net

It’s been a long time since I’ve featured a website and I’m pleased to point out a very good one today: DailyCarry.net by Avery Smith. The website’s tagline states “Unbiased outdoors and survival equipment testing and emergency preparedness information all in one place” and I’d have to agree. In fact, Avery does plenty of product reviews, videos, and ...

One SHTF Prep Item I’ll Bet Almost Nobody Has

I’ll cut right to the chase: I’ve been pondering wireless alarm systems lately. Ever since my 99 capacities post on Detect, Deter, and Deny Intruders a few weeks back I’ve been thinking that an alarm system is a potential prep item that I’ve overlooked. Sure, we talk about alarm systems as being something you can and ...

Dealing With Chronic Pain in SHTF and WROL by Irish-7, Editor-at-Large

The video posted by Patriot Nurse on March 27, 2013 “Pain Control In Disaster Scenarios” was excellent! I am grateful that she shared her experience and input. Although I have no formal medical education, I do have some thoughts on this subject. I suffer from chronic, painful spinal conditions ...

Did Inflation Just Smack Me in the Face?

A few months back I posted this Review of RazorPit Men’s Razor Blade Sharpener because I just despise spending money on new Mach 3 blades. By and large I’m glad I purchased the RazorPit but it’s not as awesome as I hoped it would be; that said, I think it will work out to be a good ...

Guest Post: Surviving a Home Invasion

Home invasion is on the increase and for many people there are few things more terrifying than the thought of someone forcing their way into your home, especially when it occurs at night when your family are tucked up in bed. Few people have any idea of how they would react if they woke to ...

This Might Be My First Official Quote…

John at ProperSurvival.com reached out the other day looking for quotes (actually, words of advice) from various survival blogs and I happily obliged here: 20 Survival/Preparedness Tips From The Pros. Though I don’t consider myself a pro whatsoever, it does feel good being included among so many other highly respectable blog owners. Check it out ...

How to Make Deodorant Quickly, Easily, and Inexpensively (Well… Almost)

A few weeks ago my wife decided that she wanted some new deodorant from a company called Penny Lane Organics. Now, it’s been my experience that anything with the word “organic” has a markup of at least 200%. And, after living with her for a good 15 years I’ve become accustomed to spending more money ...

Guest Post: Creating Burglar-Proof Front Door

These days, you can’t be too sure about your safety even if you’re inside your home. With crime rate increasing in recent years, you need to make sure your house is safe from intruders. One way of doing this is by making sure you have a secure door. Aside from the obvious solution of locking your ...

If There’s Anything That I’ve Learned About Prepping The Past Few Months…

…it’s that I have no idea how I would really be able to survive if SHTF. Seriously. You see, there’s a weird conundrum afoot with respect to this particular problem. On the one hand we have the belief in OPSEC, save yourself (and your immediate family), too bad for everybody else mentality that is generally a ...

How to Evacuate in a Matter of Minutes

As much as I’m a “shelter in place” kinda guy, I do recognize the need to be able to evacuate your home should the need ever arise. There are many, many reasons for doing so, including natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and wildfires to man-made ones such as a natural gas leak, and chemical spills. ...

Share Your 401K Savings With Me Or My Family and I Will Die (The Analogy That Says It ALL)

Here are two scenarios for you to consider… Scenario 1 Imagine this scenario: you and a very good friend (or brother/sister if you like) are very near retirement age. You’ve both had good careers, worked hard, taken care of your respective families, maybe even bar-b-qued every Sunday for that last twenty years together. Then one day it hits you and you ...

I Got Schooled by My Kids This Weekend (and what it means to your prepping)

Ok, I’m not proud of it but I did get “schooled” by my kids this weekend. Long story short, we were out and about trying to find what my kids called the “ladder” park which turned out to be a nearby playground at the local lake. After about 45 minutes of driving we finally found ...

Why Vitamin and Mineral Supplements Are Important to Long Term Food Storage

  Many people, me included, recommend vitamin supplements in your long term preps. Then, as I often do, I got to wondering how important they really were and if they’re possibly not needed at all. So, I figured the easiest way to decide this is to compare the numbers. Therefore, I looked for an easy to reference ...

Better Places to Find Last Minute Preps

The post on Monday asked whether pet stores were a “secret” place to find last minute preps and the answer was obviously NO. Today, however, I try to point out a few places where you could actually find last minutes supplies if you really had to. Now, even though I wrote an e-book about last minute ...

The Top 50 Things to Disappear from Store Shelves during an Emergency (from Camping Survival Blog)

Tom at CampingSurvival.com mentioned they recently wrote an article about The Top 50 Things to Disappear from Store Shelves during an Emergency and I thought it was good to share and remind you of the things that most people become desperate for because they felt no need to store them before they really needed them. Check it ...

Are Pet Stores a “Secret” Place For Last Minute Preps?

I was recently watching a show about Armageddon or zombie apocalypse (aren’t they really all the same?) when one of the people on the show suggested that your local pet store was a better place to find lats minute supplies–in particular food and water–than any local grocery store. I said “What!? No way.” He basically stated ...

How to Keep Children Safe, Part 6: A Few More Things

Thus far we’ve covered how to keep your children safe in public, at home, in school, ...

How to Keep Children Safe, Part 5: Online and Social Media

This is a topic I’ve had to deal with more and more lately as my kids ...

Have You Seen This L’EQUIP Nutrimill Grain Mill?

I came across this post on a Grain Grinder (includes a video) from FiveGallonIdeas.com and thought that’s a really neat way to grind wheat directly into a five gallon bucket. The post is about the L’EQUIP Nutrimill Grain Mill. Of course, it needs electricity to operate and may not always be the best way to grind ...

How to Keep Children Safe, Part 4: From Strangers

I’m not sure I can think of much in life that’s more disgusting than someone who ...

How to Keep Children Safe, Part 3: At School

I always look forward to sending my kids off to school (is that wrong?) because it ...

How to Keep Children Safe, Part 2: At Home

There’s so much that can be covered here, from fire safety to safety topics by age. ...

How to Keep Children Safe, Part 1: Public Places

This last Saturday we took our kids (along with nieces and nephews who ranged from age ...

Happy Easter to You!

I thought I would quickly say “happy Easter” and hope you have a safe and fun day today. Though my kids no longer believe in the Easter Bunny, they’ll have plenty of chocolate-filled eggs to hunt and even got to color a few hard-boiled eggs too…  

ArmageddonOnline.org Preparedness Links Massive Update

The folks at ArmageddonOnline.org wrote me and said they’ve updated their library links (mentioned previous here) to 954 files… I didn’t try to count them. Here’s the link if you like: http://www.armageddononline.org/disaster-prep-help.html

Are Secure Credit Card Sleeves a Useful Prep or Just a Waste of Money?

Remember that being prepared is every bit about protecting yourself and family from “everyday” problems like credit card and identity theft as it is about being prepared for the next hurricane to roll through your town. Just yesterday I read an article that discussed what to do if your credit card is stolen and it got me to ...

2-DISC “HOW TO KILL WITH YOUR HANDS” DVD IS READY TO SHIP!

Looks like my friend, Coach David Alexander, has chosen to offer his 2-disc set “How to Kill With Your Hands” to us normal people. I had a chance to review it (he briefly offered it on YouTube). Fortunately, he’s now offering it in a variety of formats but the biggest point is that he’s selling it ...

What Would You Do If You Broke Your Arm During a Disaster?

Just yesterday (in my 90 Day Exercise Routine Update) I mentioned that I had done something funny to my arm (and body) after messing around with my kids earlier in the week. Yeah, I know, I’m getting older and shouldn’t do stuff like that but it got me to thinking what if this were an actual emergency ...

3 Reasons to Stay Away From DIY Projects

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, especially about how I approach prepping. I’ve been re-thinking many things I do, from how I ensure I’m not neglecting things or better use of checklists and one area that I’ve been on the fence about is the DIY aspect of prepping… until recently. Now, I’ll be among the first to ...

Today is World Water Day [infographic]

Apparently today is “world water day” and I was asked to mention this infographic on Why Plumbers are Heroes. Spend 30 seconds and read the infographic; it’s an eye-opening reminder about how important clean water is to our health. In fact, I’m reminded of a quote that went something like “we owe our health more ...

297 Free Survival Books and Manuals

ArmageddonOnline.org contacted me a few days back and pointed out they had a huge library of survival books (PDF files) and other manuals that you may want to bookmark… and I thought I had a lot of files to share! FYI, I had trouble opening these files in my browser (it could just be my ...

What Are You Neglecting? (Keep Up With Things That Wear Out)

Preparedness is about a lot of things, from buying stuff to learning new skills and especially about making plans. It’s also very much about keeping up with your stuff and ensuring your equipment and supplies are there and ready when you need them to be. I’m sure I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: ...

Introduction to Small Game Hunting and Trapping by Editor-at-Large, Jerry Ward

We’ve all heard the “rule”- the human body can survive for roughly thirty days without food.  Our individual metabolism and body fat percentages can cause a shift of a few days in either direction, but at some point a caloric deficit will lead to the shutting down of organ systems and death.  Given that fact, ...