What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

Organized a bunch of our bug out food.

Ordered a DBAL IR laser. Unfortunately it is a couple/ few weeks back ordered.

Got cash to buy the rail it will go on, either they are out of stock or Troy's website is less than user friendly. Meant to call them today but it didn't happen.

Broke down and ordered a Swack Shack.

Got 100 rounds of 12 gauge #8 shot. Small game loads are something I'm not long enough in shotgun ammo so it is being addressed. Plan to get a case of #4 shot in the next few days.

Made a big grocery store trip to restock a lot of things that have been used up.

Been putting more consideration into eating well and exercising.

What did you do to prepare this week?

Successes and Failures: My Week in Preparation

Some stuff went well this week. Dug into my ruck, inventorying and updating some stuff. Also reorganized my food into 1 day bags (x3) confirming there are enough calories in each one. Would like to add a little bit more as well as some of those little drink packets. Of course now I need to do the same for another bag or two.

After some consideration I am going to take a couple things out of my bag to lighten it up, well really to make room for other stuff. Another part of that is just shifting from winter stuff to summer stuff. Did a little work on the second bag making a mental inventory of what is needed to finish it. That all went well.

There was a deal on the table for a Glock 26. The dude flaked out for whatever reason. These thing do happen for a variety of reasons in private sales. However it was disappointing all the same. I'll end up with one eventually.

Had planned to make spaghetti sauce from a bunch of tomatoes then can it. The sauce didn't turn out right. I'm not sure where things went wrong but instead of spaghetti sauce it ended up as a giant pan of nasty lumpy tomatoes. Tasked like #*$)# to boot. So after wasting several hours the whole mess went into the trash. At least I didn't put a bunch of money into the food that did not turn out.

Still digesting that whole experience but I did learn some things. Was too focused on the preserving side and not enough on the cooking side. Probably need to really figure out some (canning compatible) recipes then worry about the preserving side. Or maybe just do a few easier things like jam, maybe both plans. Also we probably need another big pot.

So a few things happened this week. Some succeeded while others failed. While nobody likes failure it does almost inevitably come with branching out to doing new things. If I have something approaching a cohesive point here it is that skills take time to develop. There will be growing pains and you will find little pieces of this and that which are needed to pull it off. Bottom line in my opinion it is unlikely you will all of a sudden be able to execute new and unfamiliar skill important sets in a high stress environment. So get to learning and making mistakes NOW.

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I did pretty good. Picked up 2 pair of boots (1x Blackhawk gently used and 1x USGI Winter new) for $40 total which was nice. Also got an Oakley backpack gently used for $20. It's going to keep my daily stuff and the GHB stuff will be beefed up and live in my TT bag. Also swapped some '06 ammo I didn't need for 30-30 ammo I can use.

Anyway that's what I have been up to. What did you do to prepare this week?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I'm still working on cleaning up a gun. Slowly but surely just soaking with WD-40, wiping and repeating every day or so is getting the last couple rough spots cleaned up. Ordered a more robust solar setup which is something that has been on the list for awhile now. Will write more about it down the road sometime. Put some seedlings into containers in the garden. The beans seem to be thriving, unsure about the lettuce and spinach as of now.

Other than that not a ton going on here. What did you do to prepare this week?

5 Systemic Mistakes in Survivalism

These mistakes are not universal but I think are widespread and should be addressed.

1) Lack of Physical Fitness. This should not come as a surprise. Some seriously prepared individuals with awesome skills and massive logistics are in pathetic shape. Some famous folks in survivalism would almost surely die if anything actually happened because they cannot do anything physical. I can't say what will take them out but something sure will. It might be walking to the neighbors and coming home with a bag of potatoes, or trying to do farm chores without a truck, tractor, chainsaw, wood splitter, power tools, etc all or maybe not being able to move their body and equipment during a fight or for some other reason. However to think they can fight or live an independent 19th century lifestyle is laughable.

For the sake of this article I don't care what type of exercise plan you have. Be able to move your body and some stuff quickly or for a long time and be able to lift stuff. Get to a reasonably healthy body weight. Enough beating that dead horse.

2) Overindulging in hobbies. Some folks like to sew, others like to garden, many like to shoot guns. The problem comes when we put too much of our preparedness money into our (even useful) hobbies. The woman with 12 sewing machines and a room full of stuff that doesn't have enough food or a gun is one example. On the other end is Mr Joe Survivalist with thousands of dollars in guns,  2 cases of MRE's and a little hotel sewing kit. I recall a guy who had multiple "shtf" motorcycles. You do not need a $600 fly fishing rod to be prepared, a decent alternative could be had at 1/10th of the price. I'm not saying you should not have hobbies or spend money on them. Just don't confuse a hobby (even a useful one) with preparations. Spend hobby money on hobbies and preparedness money on preparedness.

3) Worrying too much about narrow unlikely scenarios. Lots of things MAY happen but putting some energy and resources into ones that are a lot more likely to happen. Cough savings cough medical insurance cough.

4) Overconfidence and lack of training. Few people happen to come into survivalism with every useful skill yet for some reason people think they can fill those gaps  with Bubba at the range, youtube or blogs. That we are willing to spend lots of money on stuff but as a group have little interest in spending money to learn to use that stuff puzzles me.

Maybe it's that cool gadgets are tangible as well as cool. It could be admitting they need to improve or learn a skill does not sit well with many self styled rugged individualists. Everyone has unique skill sets and thus different gaps in the proverbial wire. Someone might need to improve a tactical skill set or learn wilderness survival or medical training or whatever. Over time and in proportion to other efforts ones skill set should be improved.

5) Not using the stuff they have. Gear should be trained with to get used to it and figure out how to make it work. Equipment should be tested. Little accessories and such will be identified during the course of this. Stuff needs to be tested as even good companies make a lemon now and then. Better to figure out your knife/ gun/ radio/ generator/ water filter/ whatever doesn't work on a lazy Sunday when you are testing it than when you need it to save your life.

Well there it is. If these apply to you do something about it. Otherwise feel free to disregard. Thoughts?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

Bought some wheat, some powdered butter, brownie mix, fruit and various other stuff. Trying to add some variety to our stash. Also had the opportunity to sample some OvaEasy Whole Egg Crystals Powdered Eggs which are pretty good. A definite step up from other brands I have tried. 

Working on getting some weapons cleaned up. I think it's at a 75% solution but am going to work at it some more. On the plus side things are better than I thought. The shotgun I am probably going to touch up with some sort of finish but don't think I need to repaint at this time. Would rather do that to take care of the issue then figure it out down the road. Can always decide to rattle can it green and tan down the road but it's harder to go backwards. The blued gun is probably going to be left alone carefully oiled. A bit of character in an older gun is kind of cool.

Been doing some acting thinking lately. I cannot tell you what to do; however buying a  paperless gun or two to put away or maybe flipping some papered guns into non-papered guns might be something to think about. We have sort of talked about this before. 

Also I got another strawberry plant and some of the seeds that I sprouted are growing and probably getting close to ready for planting. I am really enjoying the chives and green onions from the garden. Being able to get what I need for a meal fresh and not have any waste is great. Hoping to do the same with lettuce and spinach in a few weeks. 

Been doing some experimenting with cooking new foods. Sometimes batching it you cook what sounds good for dinner. Might talk more about that down the road. 

Anyway that's what I have been up to. What have you done to prepare this week?
 

Cyprus Preps

Ferfal did a great post on the topic. Seeing as he has actually lived through an economic collapse it's worth listening to him. It goes something like this:
-Basic Preps: Food, medical, guns, ammo, etc
-Cash in hand
-Silver and Gold
-A safe or two
-Offshore banking. I'm not so sure on this one but if you have no debt, plenty of preps and PM's as well as a decent paid off home/ retreat and still have enough extra money to merit the hassle look into it. Here is the video if you have 20 minutes to spare.
I would add that you should take care of medical/ dental stuff that you've been putting off as well as vehicle repairs, new tires, etc all. Get stuff you know is going to have to happen done now while the cost is still sane.

As Thomas Sowell noted this is arguably happening now in the US via inflation. It took me a long time to really understand inflation. Reading The Alpha Strategy and "Economics in One Lesson" let me understand inflation for the sinister regressive tax that it truly is.

We could debate how bad things are going to get in the US or the probability of certain results. The bottom line is that something less than optimal will certainly happen and something bad is probably going to happen. Start doing something about it while you still can. 

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I swapped some .357 magnum ammo we no longer need for 125 rounds of 9mm. We restocked a bunch of household stuff that had been used. Also picked up some more laundry soap, sponges and a few other things to build up some extra. Sold some stuff I had purchased semi speculatively to free up cash. Put some time into the garden and did some sun oven cooking also.

That's about all I can think of.

What did you do to prepare this week?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

A few things happened here. Recently I have put some time and energy into stocking a few extra household items. Stuff like laundry soap, light bulbs, etc. Also picked up a few OTC meds and a half gallon of 'emergency whiskey'. While obviously not a good choice for some emergencies but for plenty of more likely ones 2 drinks at the end of a long day would be nice. It isn't a bad idea to stash some of whatever you like.

Didn't really do a long run but overall last weeks fitness efforts went decent. 

Ended up selling off the crimson trace laser grips that came with my new revolver. They are cumbersome for concealed carry being fairly large for a small gun like a J frame. They are just subtly too big to really let the gun do what I want. Also I shoot it better using the sights anyway. It's true they may be useful someday but that potential day is a long way off and during that time many new developments will likely come into play. Long before then I will probably be running red dots on my defensive pistols anyway. Also it dropped the price point for the little wheel gun which was nice. More importantly along with another sale freed up some cash for some things I will keep to myself at least for now.

Well that is what I did to prepare this week. What did you do?

Goin Down Easy

Sara A Hoyt knocks one out of the park. Read this, think and act.

Getting Started, "I Can't Afford To Prepare", Gardens and Inflation

TEOTWAWKI Blog had an interesting discussion. "One to-do that I walked away with was the need to put together a real budget sensitive kit, and from off-the-shelf stuff. I did the $40 a week series, but even that's out of reach for a lot of people. A $150 or so total investment is probably a good starting point." Continue reading here. 

I commented there but felt like elaborating on the topic. It doesn't matter what you WANT to do it matters what you put meaningful effort towards doing. I would not mind being able to speak Chinese or squat 500 pounds but am not really doing anything to make that happen. Anybody can say they want to be prepared but if they aren't willing to do something about it that is all talk which counts for jack and shit. The point is that wanting to be prepared (or anything else) simply doesn't matter, what we DO matters. I'm not saying somebody not actively pursuing preparedness is bad or whatever, there are lots of good folks who it's just not their thing.

We make choices in life. Having expensive hobbies is a choice, eating out regularly is a choice, going out on the town all the time is a choice. Like I talked about previously well prepared individuals tend to have some things in common.

For what it is worth I find deciding on a goal and then figuring out how to make it work is the way to go. It's like the pay yourself first financial concept. The other option is to wait till the end of the month and inevitably there will be nothing left.

It's the same with space (historically another hot topic). If you look for easy to use storage space that is not currently filled with anything or be obtrusive on living spaces there isn't any in most homes, especially the small ones where space is already an issue. On the other hand if you come at it that your home is going to fit 30 buckets of stored food, 2 contico bins of gear, a backpack and a small gun cabinet then somehow you will figure out a way to make that work.

Of course people should be realistic. A one income family of 6 pulling down 20k a year can't financially do what a high powered couple bringing in big money can. 5 years of food for 6 people and 100k in ammo is not going to fit into a 30 foot RV. Everyone's situation, finances, schedule and goals are different. If $40 (or less) a pay period is what you can put into preps then do it. Have a plan, shop sales and make that money go as far as it can. If you are really short on space then do the best you can and once that is done try to work alternate locations or caches.

One mistake I think many people starting out in survivalism make is getting frustrated at what they perceive to be a lack of timely progress. This is short sighted at best. Focusing on progress is far more meaningful. Like Jim Wendler said "If you bench press 225 and want to do 275 first you need to do 230". Slow progress adds up over time if you are consistent.

At the risk of slipping into tomorrows post I put some more energy into the garden today. Right now we have a few plants. I am toying with ordering some nonhybrid heirloom type seeds and trying to sprout then grow them. There is still time to do so, though not enough to dilly dally for very long before doing so. It would be nice to grow some strawberries and a few other things. Our situation lends itself to container gardening for a variety of reasons. Any advice (where you buy small quantities of seeds from, sprouting, container gardening, harvesting seeds, etc all) would be greatly appreciated.

Has anybody else noticed that prices of stuff just keep climbing? I swear gas is up 10 or 20 cents this week. We aren't eating better but the cost keeps rising. Am I alone on this?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

Yeah it is Wednesday. I sort of forgot to do this earlier in the week. PT and the usual stuff happened. Some dry fire training also. Picked up a few extra household items to stash away. Also got another 200 rounds of CCI Mini Mags which is nice. Can never have too many good .22 shells.

At the store I stumbled into 2 more of the Energizer LED lanterns that we just love. These came with inserts to run on AA's instead of D's. This is significant because it should mean we can run AA's in the D inserts with the other ones we have. I have got to test them and see if they work with rechargeable batteries.

Been fiddling with the loadout for my HPG Kit Bag. I use it rucking and trail running more than I planned so have lightened it up a little bit. Still reading Max Velocity's book Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises. It just keeps getting better. Almost done and a review will follow shortly.

Anyway that is what has been going on here. What have you been up to?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

A slew of stuff arrived in the mail and eventually I will talk about it. Picked up some extra cleaning stuff. The good folks at Camping Survival sent me some canned rice and powdered eggs as well as a Water BOB and a Life Straw portable water filter. Also got some sugar. You will be seeing reviews in due time.

Did some dry fire training with the J and went on a great ruck march yesterday. Also I have been working on barefoot running. It is pretty comfortable but I have also been wearing sandals or minimalist shoes for awhile. My form is changing and it seems to be a lot more efficient.

Anyway that's what I have been up to. What did you do to prepare this week?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I got a new heater. Also picked up a bunch of accessories I have been wanting. A Safariland paddle holster that will accomodate a Glock with a TLR-1. If I like using the light on my Glock down the road a nicer setup will be acquired. A stainless steel guide rod and a Lone Wolf 3.5 pound trigger connector round things out on the Glock front.

Got a set of boot grips for the new heater as well as an en cheapo holster (till I figure out what I want), and some speed loaders. Tossed some more speed loaders and speed strips into the order just because.

Lastly I picked up a Costa Leg Rig. Pretty sure that on a rigger belt is going to be my answer to the 'battle belt'.

Picked up a few odds and ends at the grocery store. Looking at making a decent sized order this week.

Well that is what we have been up to. What did you do to prepare this week?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I filled up the gas and water cans. Have been fiddling with my everyday carry a bit. Speaking of which everybody who likes free holsters and water purification sport bottles should get their stuff together and enter our awesome contest. Also I made an appointment to get my eyes checked and pick up some more glasses.

A few 2A prep things happened this week.

Finally got around to joining the NRA. In the past I haven't been very concerned with them. However right now they need money and new members to bolster their street cred to protect our constitutional rights. Seriously if you are a gun owner but not an NRA member and can afford $30 a year I strongly suggest joining the NRA. Along those lines one quiet morning I took the time to write my senators and congressman.  We could debate the usefulness of this but it certainly does not hurt. The socialists statists democrats definitely have folks writing to press their case and FreeFor need to do the same thing.

Not saying I am somehow special for spending $30 to joint the NRA and doing a bit of writing to folks who probably will not listen but damn it I did something to help the situation. Doing anything positive is a lot more effective than just bitching about a situation you do not like. Maybe you can donate some money to good pro gun causes, or write elected officials and the  'letter to the editor' in the local paper. Maybe you can get other gun owners to do these things. For goodness sake do something.

Of course my efforts in this arena do not mean we haven't picked up a few last things. In general I abhor panic buying but if you have 5 minutes till the store closes you grab as much of the important stuff as possible. Thankfully we've been at this for awhile so it is more of a 'sprint through the finish' than a frantic dash to grab anything. Picked up another holster and a couple hundred rounds of good CCI .22 ammo. There isn't much out there I NEED at sane prices right now. Can use some more .223 but I am going to wait for things to normalize. 1) I think thing will calm down (well ammo at least) as supply catches up to demand and 2) my 'crazy' budget is beyond busted.

Anyway that is what I did to prepare this week. What have you been up to?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

This week we were kind of busy with a sick kid and Christmas as well as the usual mundane life stuff.

We picked up a battery charger for Wifey's cell phone, a big bag of food for Dog and some odds and ends of pantry stuff. Also Wifey found us a BBQ for $20 from some folks who were moving. The propane tank that came with it alone is worth twice that and the BBQ while simple is pretty new and in good condition. The BBQ is a win in terms of life but the propane tank is probably the bigger preparedness win.

I have been doing some wheeling and dealing in terms of guns. Definitely a lot of contacts lead to a few discussions which now and then brings about an actual transaction. Oh well that is the nature of the thing.

The Solo Stove was tested which was both fun and successful.  My rifle plates finally showed up which was cool.

Of course plenty of running and some lifting happened.  This coming week my schedule is a bit more open so I am going to work in more body weight stuff which has been a weak spot as of late and at least one road march. I have been eating pretty decently (well minus Friday night and Saturday) and that has been having some good effects on my body and performance.

Next week I am going to put some lead downrange. Also want to go over the kit for car 1 and put something together for car 2. In any other motivated time I will start reassembling the old BOB. Testing of the Pathfinder Trade Knife is close to done so a review will come out once my thoughts solidify.

What did you do to prepare this week?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

It was a pretty solid week here. Exercise was solidly on pace with 3 runs, 2 lifts and 1 body weight/  lame Army PT session before getting sick. I fiddled with some gear which was good. Did some dry fire drills which are always a positive thing. Did some testing of the solar charger which turned out pretty good. Oh yeah and I purchased 2 BBQ sized propane bottles.

Between getting sick and recovering we pretty much lost the whole weekend which kinda hurt some efforts. However we are pretty much back to normal so that is good.

In terms of material stuff it was a great week. Ordered a year's worth (x1 pax or 4 mos x3) of grains and lentils, 40 pounds of rice and sugar as well as some oatmeal. Project AR Upgrade got some love too with a VTAC Surefire light and mount combo and a VTAC sling to go along with it.

Survivalist Charlie got me now I'm broke so next weeks plans include the usual dry fire and PT (3 lifts, 3 runs, 2 rucks and at least 2 APFT oriented body weight sessions) as well as a contest brought to you by our new but good friends at Camping Survival. If things work out I will look over our kits again and go through the 'go food' as well as testing out some cooking options. We *should* have the right connectors to run our Coleman propane stuff off the big BBQ bottles from the stuff we got from the in laws but well that is why we test things. Also I am still fiddling with the Sun Oven and Solo Stove.

Some good stuff if I do say coming up  so myself. What did you do to prepare this week?

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week and Dog Update

I spent a lot of time writing a post and shortly after publishing decided it had to go back to the drawing board. Not that my mind has changed on the issues but it didn't seem likely to go anywhere particularly productive.

So here we are. In a lot of ways this week was pretty good. The running went well. Lifting and rucking not so much. On the plus side I'm down a couple pounds. I think the illusive reasonable and fits into my life diet code may have been cracked. Will talk about it awhile down the road when things are a bit more conclusive.

My EDC/ GHB is pretty much set as is the car kit. Right now I am running some stuff in the normal bag I haul around every day and just making sure to bring it when I leave the house. This helps keep the amount of 'my crazy junk' in the car to a minimum and is more useful when I have to ride with someone else or whatever. I have a bit of tweaking to do and will write about this stuff sooner or later.

Project AR Upgrade showed up which is pretty cool. It was test fired and zeroed which was big fun.

Slapped some night sights on the Glock 19 which was cool. Picked up one of those new Ruger 10/22's and a Galco Matrix paddle holster also and purchased 200 rounds of .357 magnum ammunition.

Still trying to weigh different options and make some choices. I'll probably do a post and ask your thoughts shortly.

Coming down the pipe: This week I will lift 3 times (1 down), do 3 PT oriented workouts (1 down), run 3 times (1 down) and ruck twice.  Looking to do some trial stuff on our various alternative cooking methods and fiddle around with the little solar charger we have. In the next week or two I will announce a contest. Still lining up prizes and figuring out some details but it should be pretty solid.

Dog is working out really well. He is very easy going and low maintenance. Nudges one of us when he needs to go to the bathroom and generally fit right into the family. Kiddo is still learning how to be nice to the dog but that is a work in progress.

Dog is not exactly a fierce warrior beast but he definitely pays attention to where we are and shows decent guard dog potential. He rarely barks (3x in a week I think) but seems to do it at the right times. That being said most of the home security benefits of a relatively large dog are as a deterrent. The goal is not necessarily to make an impenetrable fortress (thought that is a fine idea)  but for your place to be a higher risk for the crooks) than the one across the street so they rob them instead.

Anyway that is what has been going on this week and a view of what's coming up.

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

Aside from running, lifting and trying with moderate success to eat healthy most energy this week went to unpacking our place. I got the last of my crazy junk out the living room and into the right places this weekend which was good. Also dry fire practice continued.

We started stocking up on some emergency food in a small way with #10 of rice and beans, some peanut butter and a few of those small canisters of propane. We did some used stuff hunting where a wool blanket was found. A sweet new pistol mag pouch came home from the gun shop. 

Considering the amount of time that went into unpacking I am pretty happy with this week's progress.

A bit of tab clearing:
Massive Silver withdrawals from COMEX. Look folks, if you are purchasing gold or silver for inflation/ default protection it is essential that you take physical possession. The only circumstances I can see owning 'certificates' or 'metals stored in a vault' or 'precious metals ETF's' is if you are trading it as a commodity like copper or pork bellies or whatever. In that situation the costs associated with shipping, as well as buying and selling physical metals would really hurt your margins.

Overly Manly Man is a short coffee break's worth of entertainment.

Oleg Volk wrote a great post titled The Mid-Directed Fetish of Marksmanship.

Chris Costa of Magpul fame and lately Costa Ludis is putting out a zombie firearms training series called Operation Z. Got to like a guy who run's a gun like crazy, has a sense of humor and doesn't take himself too seriously.

Well it is time for me to make breakfast. Hope all of your Monday's are as good as they can be.

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

Most of the past week was spent on real life stuff like getting settled here. Wifey and Walker flew down (to stay) and I picked them up yesterday. Very glad to have them here. Now we are furiously working on getting unpacked.

In terms of preparedness stuff the main thing is that I started doing regular dry fire practice. Had a few bucks lying around so I ordered Mike Seeklander's book "Your Competition Handgun Training Program", Starting Strength and a nice set of those impact sports electronic earmuffs.

Our scale came and I am pleased to say I am down a couple pounds.  It sucks but the saying that "you can't outrun the fork" is true. Drinking significantly less beer and eating better, both in terms of food choices and portions, seems to be working. Go figure.

Anyway that is what has been going on here.