This article has been contributed by Tess Pennington of ReadyNutrition.com.
Tess is the author of the highly acclaimed and best-selling book The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Prepare For Any Disaster and the original Prepper’s Cookbook.
I am inspired by the very definition of self-reliance: to be reliant on one’s own capabilities, judgment, or resources. Ultimately, it is the epitome of independence and lays the groundwork of what we are all striving for – to live a life based on our personal principles and beliefs.
It is a concept rooted in the groundwork that made America great. Being dependent on our own capabilities and resources helped create a strong, plentiful country for so long. That said, the existing country as it is now is entirely different than when it began.
Why Are We So Dependent?
It is much too complicated to get into how the “system” was created. That said, the purpose is to enslave through debt and to create an interdependence that will force you and your family to never truly find the freedom you are seeking. It manipulates and convinces you to continue purchasing as a sort of status symbol to make you think you are living the good life; while all along, it has enslaved you further. Wonder why we have all of these holidays where you have to buy gifts? The system needs to be fed and forces you into further enslavement. If you don’t buy into this facilitated spending spree, you are socially shamed.
Collectively speaking, the contribution from our easy lifestyle and comfort level has created rampant complacency and a population of dependent, self-entitled mediocres. We no longer count on our sound judgement, capabilities and resources. The system keeps everything in working order so we don’t have to depend on ourselves, and furthermore, don’t want to. I realize that many of the readers here do not fall into this collectivism, as you see through the ideological facade and know that the system is fragile and can crumble.
Breaking away from the system is the only way to avoid the destruction of when it comes crumbling down. When you don’t feed into the manipulation tactics of the system, or enslave yourself to debt, and possess the necessary skills to sustain yourself and your family when large-scale or personal emergencies arise, you will be far better off than those who were dependent on the system. Those who lived during the Great Depression grew up in a time when self-reliance was bred into them and were able to deal with the blow of an economic depression much easier. Which side of this would you want to be on? Those who had the patience to learn the necessary skills, ended up surviving more favorably compared to others who went through the trying times of the Depression.
Develop Personal Dependence
Now is the time to get your hands dirty, to practice a new mindset, skills, make mistakes and keep learning. Developing personal dependence is no easy feat and requires resolute will power to continue on this long and rambling path. To achieve this you have to begin to break away from the confines of the system. You don’t have to run off to the woods to be the lone wolf. Simply by asking yourself, “Will your choices and the way you spend your time lead to more independence down the road, or will it lead to greater dependence?”, will help you gain a greater perspective into being self-reliant. As well, consider ignoring the convenient system altogether. This will help you to detach yourself from complacency and stretch your abilities and your mindset.
Most of us can’t move to an off grid location. We have responsibilities that keep us from doing so. Therefore, live according to what is best for you and your family (common sense, I know) and do what you can. My family and I moved to the rural countryside four years ago to pursue a more self-reliant lifestyle. We learned many lessons along the way and are proud of where we are. Am I 100% self-reliant? No. But, I am venturing closer to living more self-reliantly with each skill I learn. Many of my little homesteading, off-grid ventures can be read about here.
Here’s What You Can Do:
1. Inform Yourself – Understand that there are events on the horizon, some large-scale and some personal that could wreak havoc on your quest toward a self-reliant lifestyle. Informing yourself and planning for them will be your best in staying ahead of the issue.
4 Things You Must Eat to Avoid Malnutrition
Most Likely Ways to Die in a SHTF Event
End of an Era: Prospects Look Bleak For Slowing the Coming Food Crisis
Collapse Survivor: “There Was Little Room For Error… Either You Learn Fast Or End Up Dead”
The Perfect Storm: Grow Local or Grow Hungry?
GMO Labeling: Will Congress Keep Us in the DARK?
2. Learn Skills – When you can depend on your skills to support you and your family’s life, then the outside world doesn’t affect you as much. When large groups of people in a general area possess self-reliant skills, it makes your community stronger.
10 Skills Necessary For Survival
49 Outdoor Skills and Projects to Try
As well, look into these DIY projects found on Ready Nutrition
3. Get Out of Debt – It is paramount that each of us begin actively practicing economic self-discipline. Many believe that because of the ease in money confiscations from the banks, you shouldn’t have all of your money stashed there. Diversifying your money and investing in long-term ways to preserve your wealth will ensure you have multiple ways to pay the bills.
How To Break Up With Your Bank
Buy Commodities at Today’s Lower Prices, Consume at Tomorrow’s Higher Prices
Money and Wealth Preservation During Times of Uncertainty and Instability
How to Use Ebay to Find the Most Affordable Silver
Silver Bullion or Junk Silver for Long-term Bartering?
5 Reasons Why There Is Security In Seeds
4. Store food – Having a supply of food to subsist on in times of dire circumstances ensures that you are not dependent on having your basic needs met by someone else. This gives you the control of what food to put in your body and how you want to live.
25 Must Have Survival Foods: Put Them In Your Pantry Now
11 Emergency Food Items That Can Last a Lifetime
Best Practices For Long Term Food Storage
Meet Your Emergency Food’s Worst Enemies
5. Start raising your own food – With the high prices of meat at the store these days, many are turning to raising their own meat sources. Rabbits, chickens and fish can easily be started in backyard homesteads.
How Micro Livestock Can Be Used For Suburban and Rural Sustainability
Waste Not, Want Not: How To Use EVERY Single Part Of An Animal
6. Prepare for emergencies – Preparing for the unlikely emergencies is a way to insulate yourself from the aftermath. The simplest way to begin preparing is to prepare for the most likely events that can affect you, and go from there.
FREE Emergency Preparedness Guide: 52-Weeks to Preparedness
SHTF Survival: 10 Survival Tools That Should Be In Your Survival Pack
5 Reasons You Should be Preparing
Buy The Prepper’s Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide to Prepare You For Any Disaster
Six Ways You Can Keep Yourself Alive With Animal Bones
7. Repurpose – We must take steps to stop being a throw away society and get back to a population who makes do with what they have.
50 Things You Should Stop Buying and Start Making
5 Ways to Make Candles from Household Items
Survival Uses for Household Items
SHTF Planning: 7 Ways to Use The Items Around You To Adapt and Survive
8. Make Your Own Supplies – You have everything around you to survive, but many can’t look outside of the box to see how they can use what they have to survive. Having versatile preparedness supplies saves space and can serve multiple uses that can double up as ingredients to make soaps, medical supplies, etc.
3 Ways to Naturally Make Yeast
10 Dehydrator Meals for Your Prepper Pantry
SHTF Survival: How to Prevent Infections
7 Kitchen Essentials That Deserve To Be On Your Preparedness Shelves
9. Use Up What You Already Have or Find Another Use – Being self-reliant means using up what already have. This is a crucial principle of being self-dependent. Saving leftover construction supplies, food, clothing, etc., can be reused for another day.
Why Everyone Should Have a Rag Bag
8 Slow Cooker Meals Made From Leftovers
10 Household Products You Never Have To Buy Again
Complementing Your Food Storage Pantry with Dehydrated Foods
Five Essential Tools for Fixing Your Clothes on the Cheap
10. Live More Naturally – Life is chaotic these days and many of us feel we have to keep up with everyone else. It’s time to forget that and start living more simply and naturally.
7 Off Grid Projects for Survivalists
Five Eco Friendly Alternatives For Emergency Preparedness
11. Grow Your Own Medicine – With the vast medical advancements in the Western world, we are turning our backs on the first medicine – natural medicine. It’s time we begun exploring a more mindful, natural existence.
30 Most Popular Herbs for Natural Medicine
Step-By-Step Guide to Making Colloidal Silver
Essential Oils for SHTF Medical Care
How to Make Dakin’s Solution for SHTF Medical Care
12. Grow Your Own Food – The cost of making healthy decisions about the food we put into our body is eating our budgets alive. We want the very best foods for our family, but buying solely organic products can be costly. All the while, you are questioning the legitimacy of this produce. Is it genetically modified? Where was this grown? Was it exposed to salmonella or another food-borne pathogens? What was the type of water used to grow it? There comes a time when you want to throw your hands up and shout, “That’s it, I’m doing this myself.”
25 Survival Seeds You Need For Your Garden
10 Foods You Should Not Feed Your Chickens
Medicinal Plants for the Survival Garden
6 Essential Food Types To Grow Your Own Food Pantry
Make Your Own Herbal Tea Blends
13. Be Flexible – I often tell those who are preparing that the single most important thing you can do is continue to be flexible in your preparedness efforts. Doing so gives you leeway in your planning and backup planning, as well as helps you move more fluidly through the aftermath. This concept can be applied in non-emergencies, as well. Self-reliance can help us be more flexible in our life and our decisions.
Survival of the Most Adaptable
8 Prepper Principles For a Prepared Mind
Blending In: The Secret to Keeping The Target Off Your Back
5 Survivor Traits That Make a Prepper Successful
5 Steps to Become the Smartest Person in the Woods
14. Barter Better – Bartering for goods and services was the first currency that went around. Let’s be honest, everyone is up for a good deal. Using self-reliant skills, you can use these as leverage in bartering. As well, having a surplus of survival/preparedness items can also help you make good bartering deals.
A Free Falling Economy Makes Bartering Go Boom
15. Teach Your Kids – We must teach our children how to be more mindful and self-reliant. After all, we do not want to continue the cycle of having a dependent, self-entitled population. By informing them, we are setting them upon a self-sustaining path for life.
How Farmers Markets Can Teach Your Kids the Values of Local Food and Community Building
We must come to the understanding that there is no true safety net for us to fall into; it’s up to ourselves to get us out trouble. How easily you land depends on how reliant you were to begin with. Adopting certain concepts as your new life’s code will help you on your path.
Many of us share a common goal: to be free from the shackles of the system. This goal doesn’t come over night. You have to work at it, invest in it and ultimately, change your way of thinking. The point is, we are all at different places in our preparedness efforts, so don’t get discouraged! Continue on the pace, keep learning and step-by-step, you inch closer and closer to that goal.
***********
Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, a comprehensive guide that uses real-life scenarios to help you prepare for any disaster. Because a crisis rarely stops with a triggering event the aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. The well-rounded, multi-layered approach outlined in the Blueprint helps you make sense of a wide array of preparedness concepts through easily digestible action items and supply lists.
Tess is also the author of the highly rated Prepper’s Cookbook, which helps you to create a plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply and includes over 300 recipes for nutritious, delicious, life-saving meals.
Visit her web site at ReadyNutrition.com for an extensive compilation of free information on preparedness, homesteading, and healthy living.
I co-wrote that article with you, Tess.
Bad boys bad boys, watcha ya gonna when they
come for you? Gotta love Bob Marley hey.
Oops, watcha gonna do when they come for you?
Like Mr. Bojangles, I drinks a bit.
NGDirt Band. Love them ‘ol boys.
“said his name Bojangles and he danced a lick, ‘cross the South. Grabbed his pants and feathered stance fore he jumped so high, then he clicked his heels, he let go a laugh, let go a laugh, shook back his clothes all ’round”….
Great article Tess! Lots of useful information!
Bird flu spread updated since Tuesday.
Tuesday – 5.3 million Iowa laying hens to be destroyed in bird flu outbreak
– “The virus is capable of killing an entire flock within 48 hours.”
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2015/04/20/avian-flu-chicken-eggs/26094811/
Today – Additional chickens infected and to be destroyed.
“The strain of avian flu that has been identified in 12 U.S. states and led to the extermination of more than 7 million birds is different from the H5N1 bird flu virus that has spread from birds to humans in the past, an official with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.”
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/04/23/risk-low-for-human-infection-from-us-strains-bird-flu-cdc/
The price of chicken and eggs will go UP.
If you don’t have your own chickens, buy some extra chicken (to can or freeze) and fresh eggs.
Fresh eggs will store safely in the refrigerator easily for over a month.
Some extra #10 cans of powdered eggs might also be a good purchase now – for future use or trade.
We have our normal laying flock that keeps us in plenty of eggs, and right now have 25 Cornish cross in pastured tractors that will go in the freezer/canning jars in another 4 weeks, providing us with a year of chicken. What is scary is how this flu is spread by wild birds. You can’t stop them from flying over and spreading it to your flock, no matter how isolated you try to keep them.
On the wild birds spreading disease….
it is a fact that i learned the hard way back in the eighties.
I raised and sold registered Boxer puppies as a hobby/business.
As I kept my breeding males separate from the females and, or, pups, I used a gravity feeder for the male dogs that would bump the swinging door and get a mouthful at a time.
Sometimes a chunk would fall outside the feeder and the wild birds would find it. The wild birds became so aggressive that they would push their way into the door and grab a chunk and fly off. As birds do, they would leave a deposit that got on the feed that my dogs ate.
One of my older males became sickly and deteriorated to the point that he almost died, even after many trips and tests, to the vet. Finally, the vet said the blood work was now showing a bad infectious disease that is only carried by birds.
He found the culprit was coming from wild bird feces, being eaten by the dogs. My younger dogs immune systems were better able to fight off the disease, and therefore were not showing the signs.
BTW, a friend of mine lost his horse due to possum piss in his round bales of hay. I had told him I would not feed my horses round bales left out in the field; just a few months prior to this happening. He laughed and said, “you have to feed every day, and i pick up a round bale once a month, with a tractor, and drop it under the covered feeder ring in the pasture.”
I didn’t laugh at him, when he had to pay out over a thousand dollars for treatments, eventually a visit from the vet to put the horse down, and backhoe fee for digging a grave for his $1500.00 horse.
Live and learn.
Hey I love Bob Marley, but I think that was by Inner Circle. Trekker Out
OutWest, anyone who comes for me will receive ‘lead and brass refreshments’.
Braveheart… With that mentality you’ll amount to nothing more than a one mag martyr… Try to have a little hope in folk… They may well just be a force for GOOD my friend… Peace be on Braveheart.
If they ‘come for me’ they are not coming as a ‘force for good.’
No need to ‘have a little hope for folk’ that are coming for you. If you do, you’ll be the one who is a ‘one mag martyr.’
Nothing wrong with living to fight another day, but that decision sometimes can’t be made ahead of time.
agreed any one who cannot understand what the purple paint means. or read no tresspassing signs. and dares to climb the fence. No matter who they are or what the reason are risking their lives.
Anon, I do have hope for people like us who have critical thinking skills and prepare for what’s coming. I gave up on the nonpreppers long ago and had plenty of reasons for doing so. Preppers will definitely be a force for good. My mentality is the reason I’m still alive. Peace be on you also, Anon.
Why do idiots assume every Reggae song is Bob Marley???
Inner Circle wrote that about 8 years after Marley died.
Funny, I just listened to him sing it on you tube?
OK, After much research I’ll concede
and stand corrected.
It seems Inner Circle leans heavy on
Marley’s reputation as a bad boy for
their own personal gains.
That is definitely not bob marley, the group is inner circle. Just thought you oughta know.
Right on OutWest! Hat tip should go to you and to all of those who contributed ideas. No one is an island in this community.
Tess, wonderful article. Much thanks for assembling and organizing all the links.
Holy Cow Tess, Now that’s a info dense article! Kudos to you and keep up the good work!
Agreed Genius! Well said / defined, per Tess’s “magnum-opus!”
…tip-o-the-hat..to you Tess, outstanding work..ma’am!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the positive feedback. We’re all in the same boat and the more we can help others and get the information out, the less of the unprepared there will be to worry about. Have a good night!
Well, this blog just lost another reader. So sick of this Tess bullshit. Total crap only for beginners. Best of luck to you all.
NobodyCares.
What subjects are you looking for to read.
C’mon, you know you love it here 🙂
I try to include posts for a wide variety of users. Whereas you may be a seasoned pro, there are others who are just getting started. As you can see by the number of comments and the number of folks who shared this article on their social pages, it appears there is a need for information just like this.
I am always open to recommendations and encourage folks to email any time they find useful information we should share. Likewise, feel free to direct users to information/articles/video/etc. via the user comment areas — simply include the link to material you think is important and helpful.
Thanks for visiting —
Mac
I was sooo worried about how I was going to make homemade mascara. Thanks!
” There is little room for error. Either you learn fast or end up dead”.
Selco.
Thanks Tess for another great article.
In the future it will become more and more important to learn to become invisible. You become invisible when you blend in with the crowd, the back ground. Any time you do what TPTB are looking for you become visible. Living off the grid may be great but that could be a reason to draw attention from TPTB.
I recently got chased down by our local cop for not coming to a complete stop at a stop light before I turned into my neighborhood. I gave him an opportunity to notice me. I had seen it done many times and there was absolutely no traffic. I was in a hurry back from work to pick up the children to take to school. I suddenly became visible. Learning camoflage techniques is not just what we wear and how we disguise ourselves but our actions can give us away as well.
Perhaps someone would like to talk more about becoming invisible!
Just a thought from the Louisiana Redoubt. Louisiana Eagle
Laeagle:
Great minds DO think alike!;-}
After TSHTF don’t run around looking like Rambo or Sgt. Rock or GI Joe. Also keep your weapons concealed, but ready to use at all times.
Who the fuck is sgt rock?
Laeagle, good to see you back. How’ve you been?
BH, Thanks. It is always good to see your comment.
I have been trying to follow everyone’s posts but have not been able to interact or post comments due to a hectic schedule. I do miss BI and JOG?. I have recently come across an article that claims that ‘mystery Babylon’ refers to the USofA and that an EMP attack is imminent. The writer makes a very compelling case. Whether an EMP attack is natural, i.e., from a sun-flare, or a nuclear explosion 20 miles into the atmosphere above the US (Russia, NK, Iran), we all need to be more aware of the dangers and prepare and prep accordingly. At this time, I admit that I am vulnerable. I am going to work on building a Faraday cage to start off. Help me out folks.
Laeagle, I use a metal trash can [$25 at Home Depot] and insulate it with packing bubbles [big roll from The UPS Store or Fedex for $15]. That’w where I store the electronics I want to preserve; shortwave radios, LED lights, etc. Also, don’t forget to stockpile lots and lots of batteries for the electronics you’re trying to preserve. I don’t think you have to store the batteries in the faraday cage; they should be OK. On BI and JOG, I also miss them and wish they would at least visit occasionally just to let us know they’re OK.
Great point and it would be a very good article topic. I’ll keep it in mind.
Tess,
I have been a loyal reader of everything you write at your website and have come to appreciate your commonsense, insight and wisdom. Mac is a lucky man. We are all fortunate that you have taken on the challenge of teaching us about prepping and survival. Again, thanks for a very well written and researched article.
God bless you and yours,
Louisiana Eagle
OutWest, I could’ve written the same thing, but that’s OK. Tess expressed everything better than I could have. Outstanding article. Everyone sucking on the government tit at this time will be toast when TSHTF. This is only one reason why we prep.
Woooooooo… Welcome to the movement my heavy brothers and may peace be with all you gun toting dudes.
Great article! I will copy this one!! 😉
Personally; I’m just walking into the hail of hollow points and leaving the rest of this crapsack to the rest of you. I’ve got no reason to prep or survive; and no ability either. The best I can hope for is that my getting gunned down distracts them so that more others can get away who matter.
Tuesday’s gone…
Plants in the wild that you should NOT eat…
ht tp://survivallife.com/2015/04/23/survival-skills-poisonous-plants/
Bless all here…
I’ve got to go read up on the half dozen wonderful articles suggested above. Damn, this was a very useful article, thanks Tess.
Thanks Sixpack,
I really appreciate it. If you’re reading Mac’s website, I’m sure that you are very well-versed on these subjects already. 🙂
Plants in the wild that you should DEFINITELY smoke… Marijuana.
Good plan for a WROL situation….get stoned.
Thanks in advance for all your stuff.
Some imports articles came out today.
http://www.naturalnews.com/049463_FBI_forensic_science_hair_analysis.html
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/another-american-water-emergency-utah-municipal-water-supply-tainted-by-chemical-spill_042015
Another important topic is liberty tool cleaning. Whenever you do a lot of shooting and have a badly copper fouled barrel and find that liquid solvents just don’t cut it, try this stuff>> http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning-chemicals/solvents-degreasers/bore-cleaning-paste/j-b-non-embedding-bore-cleaning-compound-prod1160.aspx I put it on a patch and attach the rod to a cordless drill and ream the barrel out good multiple times. This works great even on the worst of barrel fouling. I do a couple of 2 minute reamings, swab it out with some sweets 7.62, run a clean patch and repeat.
Genius, I’ll check my local sporting goods stores for that product, although I’ve never encountered anything that Hoppe’s No. 9 Solvent couldn’t handle.
Brave you will be amazed. I couldn’t find it around here so I order it online at brownells .com Clean your barrel with it AFTER you think it’s clean and see what I mean.
Brave—>>>
Genius, is “spot-on-the-money”..per his recommendation & avocation of this product…its the real-deal, sir!!!
..serious L.D.O.s use this stuff..it works!!!
–..addendum to above..–
..just be sure to run a patch..soaked w/ “break-free”, down the barrel..when you’re finished!!!
..yeah, I know…”tis almost a religious thing..to some of us!!!
Thou shalt see you in the church of long range shooting Hunter 🙂
Amen, brother!!!
..now open the hymn-book to:..and cue the chorus:
—————————-
“..mine eyes have seen the target, at a thousand yards or more..
“..I have regu-lated my breathing..and my trigger-finger’s sore…………..”
“..I have scored inside the 10 ring..since the spotter’s keeping score…”
“..his calls..are….my guide..!!”
—-glory…glory…halleluiah—–
—-glory…glory…halleluiah—-
*************************************************
**(and so on & so on)**
………….
..sometimes I wonder, if a few of us…had the “same” instructor????
-(dude played a ‘mean’ git-fiddle too)-
–addendum #2–
Cue TAPS..& salute…
..rest in peace ‘Big Jim’!!!!
Hunter, that was great lol.
Bubba, Here’s a couple of comments from people that I’m quite sure are a hell of a lot better than you>>
Here’s what a couple of the most respected names in the shooting industry have said about J-B. Jim Carmichel, gun writer and dedicated shooter, “I have used J-B for years and routinely use it even on my very finest benchrest rifles. When no other bore cleaner will get the job done, J-B will.
.” The late Warren Page, a benchrest shooting legend, wrote the praises of J-B when it was first introduced to the shooting public. He said, ” J-B is an ultra mild, abrasive oil paste, finer than jewelers’ rouge, which we in the rifle accuracy shenanigan, a few years ago, found was the answer to problems of metal fouling and serious powder fouling that solvents either won’t touch, or will cut only by much labor.”
put that in your bong and smoke it!
Long range shooting? Drones can shoot 300 miles away?
The old Hoppe’s No9 had nitromethane in it and was great on ice cream. The new stuff not so good. Better look at what you are shooting, If you are getting that much copper you ether have the wrong slugs or you maybe shooting to hot of a load. Look at your primers see if they show overpressure.
Any fool who spins a cleaning tool coated with any sort of abrasive inside his barrel using electric drill deserves the damage he will cause. DO NOT DO THIS to any gun you care about!.
I can’t believe that even the checkout-counter gun rags he gets his “genius” from would advocate that.
I’m all for using JB Bore paste, but use it on a tight patch and let the rod rotate with the rifling.
If you MUST use aggressive chemical methods, Barnes CR-10 works, but it as it contains ammonia it must be kept away from blues surfaces and wood, and the barrel lmust be aggressively cleaned of the ammonia residue using water-wetted patches, followed by alcohol, followed by fresh Ed’s Red. (The acetone in the Ed’s will remove the last molecules of the water/alcohol.)
Ed’s Red = equal parts Dexron ATF, mineral spirits, kerosene (lamp oil), and acetone. Will remove all fouling but not copper. Store in tight metal cans or old nail-polish bottles to keep the acetone from evaporating. It’s also the best penetrating oil known to man. Add 15% by volume of anhydrous lanolin for better long term rust protection. (Personally I pass a patch soaked with RIG as the last cleaning step.)
A substitute for JB Bore Paste is powdered feldspar, found in Bon Ami and Barkeepers Friend. Also many toothpastes.
Let them live in their own delusions.Idiots.
They probably clean bores from the wrong end as well.
NO ONE who actually shoots long range would scour their precision rifle bore with abrasives after the initial break in.(which removes artifacts from the machining of the bore).
I wonder if they even know the difference between button rifling and broached rifling.I’d be willing to bet they have never measured anything with an Intrimic and seriously doubt they even know what a 50 millionths dial indicator is. Do they own a surface plate? I doubt it.
I shoot Barnes bullets and know about all there is about removing copper fouling and not ruining my iron.
Their rifles are now junk. .5 MOA my ass.Good luck fools.
I have used a flat table to do measurements down to .0001 in. Dial indicators and Micrometers. Bearings and seal surfaces for Aircraft Engine Components.
Bubba, your reply ended up there above ^^^
Go shoot a couple hundred rounds out of an AK and see how well CR10 works lol. You could spend all day with ammonia based cleaner and still not get the copper out. I only use the drill (low speed) for a barrel that is major fouling and it works great. JB compound liquifies as you use it and does not harm barrels. Use scouring powder additive??? WTH I don’t think so.
The original, time-proven formula developed by Jim Brobst and produced under exclusive license. J-B has been getting burned-on, caked-in powder residue and copper jacket fouling out of gun barrels since the 1960’s, and hasn’t damaged an inch of rifling yet. Today, J-B once again proves itself a champion by the way it easily cleans the dirtiest, moly-fouled barrels.
Do whatever works for you but my method works great for me.
A unique combination of ingredients and a one-of-kind, multi-step mixing process give J-B its special characteristics. They work together to cushion the abrasive action; the soft paste liquifies as you use it, then wipes out of the bore easily. The non-embedding feature means there’s no abrasive residue left behind which might keep “cutting” after you’ve finished cleaning.
Old Coach: A substitute for JB Bore Paste is powdered feldspar, found in Bon Ami and Barkeepers Friend. Also many toothpastes.
HA HA HA HA, Thanks for the laugh 🙂
As I expected. no comment when your foot is in your mouth 😛
Cut-and-paste some promotional BS is the best you can do?
I bet money you believe in Glowbull Worming, too. And Chemtrails.
BTW I’ve been working since my last post. Have you?
I dont have to work right now fool lol. Is that the best reply you have? Your pathetic lol.
Strike that last post. You don’t need me, you can and DO make yourself look stupid all by yourself. But you are too stupid to see it.
The Liberals/Progressives or what ever you want to call them, uses our once great document to destroy us. In the opening Statement of our Constitution one short line “Promote the general Welfare” has been used to destroy our work ethic as well as our Independent nature. We now have farm programs that instead of helping a multitude of small farmers, now only helps corprate farms and also the largest of farmers that know how to play the system. And through these government programs they drove the price of land up and out of the reach of the small farmer. Then government got involved in home loans and this also drove home prices higher and caused many to get into trouble buying homes they couldn’t afford. Now we have a quarter of our population on government assistance, whether for food or medical or child care or housing allowance. Now “general welfare” means, free college for everyone regardless of your grade point average, and I’m sure that will include college loans for all. Where and When will it all end, is anyones guess. Trekker Out.
It will end when the banksters have milked every single red cent out of us that it can get.
That’s the thing six, they want all of it. Every thing down to and including the rusty nails.
I believe our asses are on that list as well. After all someone has to work to feed the slugs.
All the information is very good in this article and it is good to practice all of them. BUT, NEVER TOALLY GET OUT OF THE SYSTEM.
Here’s why, If you totally leave the system TPTB will see it and it will put up a red flag.
This will draw attention to you and they will be watching.
Even if the SHTF, Do not lay low and not take advantage of any government type hand outs or assistance.
If you do not partake in them not only TPTB but everyone else around you will know something is up because you are not there and you are healthy and not starving or out of water and meds. blend in with the crowd the best you can, but keep your mouth shut and stay independent from the none preppers.
After all it was your tax dollars that paid for those goodies they are handing out!;-}
S.T.S.F.P. N. Reb
Reb, As long as the goodies don’t have strings attached as they mostly do.
Genius:
That is 100% correct. Me no like’m strings, stay the he*&!!! away from anything that has an attachment to it.
Northern Reb and Genius, braveheart is the same way. Me no like’m strings either, keemosabbee.
Camouflage, blend in and look like everything around you so you don’t stand out.
FWIW, you’re right about those handouts. It doesn’t hurt to make some of your planning around supplementing those (probably meager) hand outs with your preparations to make your supplies last longer. You don’t take them at all and you stand out, the Japanese have a saying that “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down” which is good advice for the prepper wanting to survive.
Sharon, one thing everyone is overlooking about the handouts. Only white women and minority people can get on those programs. When was the last time you saw a white male with an EBT card or a welfare check? YOU NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL SEE IT. But we are still expected to ‘contribute’ a certain amount of revenue toward those programs regardless.
I’m just a dirty white boy 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUDMy-GplkQ
Northern Reb,
See my post above. My thoughts exactly. Great minds think alike. This thought came to me after a recent incident with the cops. There is nothing to be gained by becoming the focus of the attention of the TPTB. Be aware of your surroundings, blend in with the crowd, be prepared to get out at a moments notice.
Louisiana Eagle
Great article Tess. The introduction was on Target. That many links for each section could have been embedded into each of the 15 “do/don’t”. As I was reading, because of them I kept on wanting to stop and click. It will take me a good month to study the main trunk’s numerous branches and shoots.
Thank you for such thorough Work!
I must be one of those socially shamed and unacceptable.
Good resource article.
Woogie, welcome to the brotherhood. Hooyah.
OutWest and Woogie, braveheart is also a ‘social outcast’, but doesn’t give a shit. Proud member of the brotherhood for my whole life.
Feel the love 🙂
Don’t worry, Woogie. You’re in good company. Continue to rebel against the tyrannical system.
Good stuff, Tess.
We were warned….
“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” ….
“Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.” ….
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”…
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. To compel a man to furnish funds for the propogation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Great article Tess. The introduction was on Target.
Thank you for such thorough Work!
About a half an hour ago I tried to break up with my bank. Not going to happen. Yes, I can have a cashiers check sent to me but first must answer a questioner. Than the rest must be in person. I ask: well, I put the money in under all legal standards so why can’t I get it out? No reply that made any sense to me. It’s too much? WTF if I were a Millionaire? Soooo, even though I was willing to keep this account going they didn’t want to give me my money back! And my family thinks I’m Nuts? Wasn’t there a time you could go to your bank and take your cash out accordingly?
I am actually devastated to think the Bank has more rights to my cash than I do. So, just in case anyone thinks this isn’t true, I promise it is.
Tess
Very good article.
Thanks.
I have some newbies to Prepper Community that needs to read this.
I’ve been doing this with my brother for more than 30 years now. We are almost done.
The problem we have is that we are in the public so much that if we just dropped out they would come looking for us.
Again thanks good article!
Sgt.
Can you take your cash out in smaller increments of say 1500 a week? I would do what I could so there was no reporting or questions and keep my cash in a safe place hidden and OUT of the banks. They don’t pay enough interest to take the risk of them stealing it anyway. They recently passed a thing saying the money you have in the bank is actually theirs! Do what you have to to get your funds out and DO NOT put them in a bank.
Genius:
Go ahead, Iv’e been doing that for years. I have several places that were I put my money and all safe areas. I do not keep a lot of cash on hand, my stash is in silver.
Silver does not burn it might melt but that’s still will not be a loss, just a big hunk of silver!;-}
Good point reb! I only have in the bank what I need to order things online or pay 2 small bills. Silver is a great store of wealth and very undervalued. I keep some cash on hand to do my solar selling stuff or buy liberty tool acessories lol. Pay other bills with money orders and cash too.
Genius, I’m the same way. I only keep enough in the bank to cover 2 bills and some occasional online shopping. I keep the rest of it in an old Sentry safe with the old combination dial lock [private banking]. My combination is well-hidden and never revealed to anyone. all of my prep shopping is done with cash only.
Thank You Genius, Just not as easy as it seems. I thought I’ll just leave one bank. Perhaps put in another in order to diversify any cash holdings. It seems the Bank decided that my money is theirs??? Any thoughts folks? I seriously doubted for a while that the banks had any right to my finances, only to find different. Just say’in…….careful people!
Thats a bad move tishie, see sharons reply, it’s true!
Tishie,
thy changed the laws over the last few years and when you make a deposit into the bank it becomes there money< the reason behind that is NOW IF the bank starts to fail they can keep your money and it helps to prevent ( bank runs) YUP it is a bunch of crap but that is just one more reason to try to keep up with what is happening around as you don't always know how those LITTLE suttle law changes WILL effect you! anyway, you can get your money but take it in small amounts. wish you the best!
“G”
I don’t know if they will start asking question when you first start taking out the money, but if you have let say $75,000.00 in the bank by the time you get to $50,000.00 they will start asking questions. (Man I wish I had that kind of money).
Like you. I don’t keep money in the bank other than taking care of my truck payment. I only have around $300.00 to $350.00 in my checking. The rest I invest in my Prepps.
Never put all of your eggs in one basket!
A.S.M.S.
Sgt.
Sarge, you too are a genius!
Sarge, you too are a genius!
Could this be Love? Sounds like you two should get a room,lol!
It isn’t your cash.
You gave it to them and became a creditor to the bank when you deposited it.
The Court has already ruled on this.
Seen it before first hand,,,
The sad thing
The person just keeps going along with that crap…
Still doesnt have access to all her money
Tishie, I believe you and am sorry to hear about your plight. I personally know of someone else going through something similar. Banks are evil.
I hope my 11 dollars are safe 😮
Most people don’t know that the Banks have the right to delay money from your savings account. That’s been the way it is since the Depression. On the other hand, your checking account is a demand account and they are supposed to honor your checks, it’s an important difference that most people don’t know. So, if you write a check to someone on your account, they can get the money. That’s why Ck accounts didn’t pay any interest.
That’s why the banks started giving a minimal amount of interest on checking, so they can delay withdrawals from checking as well as savings.
Yes, they do have more rights to your cash than you do, the way the Feds see it. They oppress banks with rules to the point where banks are so scared that they oppress you even more than they have to.
I go past my bank every time I got to town for food or hardware items, so I make a practice of pulling cash from the ATM at least twice a week. Varying amounts from $200 to $400 a week, whether or not I actually need it. (Actually I rarely ever do.) If anybody ever asks, I’m going to auctions in a neighboring state where they won’t take my check. Keeps my account balance under $1000 after I’ve paid my utility bills and CC balance off.
tishie,
Thank you for caring to share this vital info. This is absolutely frightening. You shouldn’t have to answer a single of their crap evil questions unless its superficial one strictly having to do with customer service. Hire a lawyer while you can. It will only get much worse from here on.
We have to have an account to pay some of our bills. We put in what we need to cover our bills and take cash for the rest. If they pulled that I would say okay and leave. But over the coming month I would withdraw it through the ATM over a week or two.
You can take out cash at some supermarkets if you pay with a debit.
One way or another you can get it out. Once it’s empty, go in and close the account.
When you deposit money into the bank, it becomes THEIR money, not yours. Now what you need to do is start drawing it out until there is none left in the account then shut it down. Write checks in cash and go to the drive up window and cash them. I just keep enough in to cover the monthly’s.
Another thing you can do is write checks to a friend and have them cash it. Keep writing checks until your account is about gone. Under the memo on the check just put contractor work and make it for 3000 bux or so.
Great article with outstanding links.
Thanks, this is worth it!
We’ve slowly be erasing our “foot prints” over the years, and have been paying “cash” for years now, heck, we even ask IF there is a discount for cash, and usually get it! Yeah, I’m that frugal, not “cheap”, cheap is for fools.
Nothing is for free, but there are some excellent trades and barter out there, if one is willing to invest the time into looking.
Thanks Tess for this article. It was much needed.
Good article you forgot to mention get off public assistance. This will force your hand to do all the above stuff. Public assistance makes you a slave to the gov and politicians use program cuts against the opposing party so you will keep voting for democrats because your being threatened your gonna lose programs. If you were self reliant you would be pissed that people are getting away with sitting on their ass. They still have all the things you have too. Obummer says it’s fair and equal. How is you working for a living while others get assistance programs fair and equal. As long as there is a way to survive without working people will take it. People always take the easiest route. Self reliance is not a new thing to me I’ve always been this way.
Asshat, I totally agree. I’ve always been self-reliant. Except for my late wife, I’ve never trusted anyone. I’ve never depended on anyone but myself. I work full-time and pay taxes into the system and it burns me to no end to see useless scum living better than I do courtesy of my hard-earned tax money. They can go and get nice vehicles financed and no one will approve a credit application for me for shit. That’s the biggest reason I’m in a company vehicle. I haven’t owned a vehicle in 11 years.
Right on Buddy!!!! I cannot find a job as they give’em to illegal criminals now a days, everyone I spoke to tells I need to apply for that government crap. I don’t as that’s how they keep people down on their Knees. I am job ready, no drugs no children, and you won’t believe the dehumanizing they take one through once you go in, so I don’t. I got obamo phone and it proved not to even work half of the time!!!!!So I disconnect the piece of shit after only like less than a month of crap service. Now they can track their own rears instead of mine. I trained my self to fast for several days at time. So if push comes to shove, I’d just wait and starve in PeACE LOL. rather than obey these criminal assholes. LOL.!!! I am an honest law abiding citizen and have no guilty conscience WHATSOEVER.
So hat off to you, you are right!!!!
And even tough I could use a Doctor right now I never went anywhere near their obomo health care crap, as I do not medically trust them either. The dems signed me up for that without consulting me as at the time they did I receive food stamps. Not long ago, I received a letter telling me that they want to check my boobs, and there is nothing wrong with my boobs. I think they call that “mammogram appointment that I never asked for”. I just discarded it. I am reasonably healthy, know how to keep myself standing. And they can go ahead and chuckle somebody else.
it’s all about the acronym…
“Jade Helm 15 JP 3-35.
JADE (Joint Assistance for Deployment and Execution)
HELM (Homeland Eradication of Local Militants)”
* if you are serious about fighting the nwo zog dhs gestapo blackboots on your own town streets if things go ZOG FALSE-FLAG live , you need at least a true ‘battle rifle’ of the 7.52×54 / .308 caliber or similar power and knowledge on how to make Molotov cocktails.
Cocktail recipe: Fill a 1 pint mason jar 2/3 full with gas gelled with styrofoam. Fill the other 1/3 with sulphuric acid. Wipe the jar clean and seal it well. Wrap the jar with paper soaked in potassium chlorate and dried and attach with rubber bands. When the glass breaks the acid and potassium cause a fire which ignites the gas gel. I got this from W. Rawles 🙂
“Sweet Jesus!”
some of you prepfolk scare me with what you know!
“REBELLION AGAINST TYRANNY, IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD!”
I’m glad you 3% who will fight are the “Good Guy’s”!
FYI use non returnable beer bottles for that kind of thing, the returnable bottles won’t break when you throw them, Another recipe fill 2/3=3/4 with gas and the rest with oil, roll up and stuff with paper towel for a wick. Cops told me that 40+ years ago. Isn’t it amazing, there was a time when the cops trusted the people and the people trusted the Gov and the cops. God I’m getting old.
Paranoid, do NOT ever use beer bottles for the chemical types! One drop of leakage and you have a serious problem. The seal has to be absolute. Beer bottles for the gas oil would be good and I agree. Was the cop that gave you the tip named Sheriff Taylor?
You don’t have a bottle caper do you?
Off topic but I was reading about the cops in Maryland picking up some children .3 mile from their home. Took the kids to cps I guess now their is an investigation on the parents they are calling it free range children. Who comes up with this shit really. Free range is like cattle terminology. So now the gov wants our kids supervised at all times. Kids will feel that they are not trusted at all. This is a tyrannical measure to have our kids be controlled more easily. They won’t know what freedom means. Their kids will neither. The gov should not tell us how to raise our kids. I’m gonna let my run free to go against this. My son is a responsible kid I let him go to his buddy’s all the time about 4 blocks away. He knows our phone and address and his grandparents too. He is scared of things that are dangerous like power tools dirt bikes trains cars he needs to make his way. He never gets In trouble in school. Why should I hover over him I don’t got the time for that either.
Long ago, when I was about 12-13 I was walking through town, on the way to a farm about 3 miles away, with a rifle over my shoulder. Cop stopped, asked me what was up, I told them I was going shooting out of town at a guys farm. Cop reminded me not to shoot in town, I said: “Yes Sir” and we both went our ways.
The thing with the “free range” kids make me giggle, my husband and I were talking about that the other day because when we were growing up if the same rules applied 99% of the kids we grew up with would be in custody we were taught how far we could go, what time to be back home, and how to behave when we were out. These parents are really not doing anything wrong but treating their children like human beings and let them grow into young adults. Guess they just need to plop them in front of the TV and dumb them down these kids are way to normal for their own good, says who………….
One of my grandsons is under direct adult supervision at all times. Poor boy is becoming extremely rebellious, and I can’t blame him. (His mother was indoctrinated in college, more’s the pity, and won’t listen to me anymore.)
My mother knew where I was only at mealtimes and when I was asleep. But then we were rural, and there was not much in the way of bad influences among our peers. I had to move to the city after I was out of high school to find that.
I was walking across town by myself to first grade when I was five years old. My mother walked with me the first time so I could learn the way.
I read the same article before, just can’t remember where. How about some articles on cannabalisim? You know, choicest cuts, how to dress out a human, how to grind up the bones, you know. (Joke) gotta laugh once in a while.
The other other white meat
Ummm, wonder if different races taste different?
Why do cannibals NOT eat comedians???
Cuz they taste funny…
I walked into that one.
What do you get when you cross a road worker and a lesbian?
2 people that don’t do dick 🙂
Genius, I fell out of my chair on that one. Outstanding. Eppe, let’s see if you can beat that one.
Republicans taste like elephants.
Democrats taste like ass…
Andrew Zimmern says animal meat tastes like what they eat, so here is a non PC musings:
Indians taste like curry.
Asains taste like sushi.
Canadians taste like maple syrup.
Peruvians taste like ceveici.
Irish taste like whiskey.
Russians taste like borst.
Most Americans probably taste like McDonald’s…
Just a joke people, add more…
Eppe:
I heard that we taste like chicken nuggets!;-}Your choice of sauce!;-}
S.T.S.F.P. N. Reb
Northern Reb, good one. For me it would be BBQ sauce.
Why is aspirin white?
You want it to work don’t you?
Whats the difference between a joo and a canoe?
A canoe tips.
You have a mexican and a black man in the same car. Whos driving?
The cop.
Whats long and black and smells like shit?
The line at the welfare office.
Lol, so many cool on this site. Thanks for making me laugh and also educating me.
Mexicans taste like hot peppers.
Polish taste like vodka.
Scottish taste like haggis.
French taste like crossants.
Koreans taste like dog.
Alaskians taste like seal.
Californians taste like a granola bar.
Sorry, not to hurt anyone’s feelings…
Do Kentuckians taste like racehorse? Lol
* I’ll take the Irish any day! *
I have a marinade sauce with Crown Royal that will make your tounge slap your ears to get at it.
Eskimos taste like whales.
Vietnamese taste like kimshe.
Chinese taste like rice and noodles.
EBT users taste like lobster…
Bless all here…
Here ya go…
http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/e-sermons/butcher.html
Seems like this guy has actually done this. We’ll skip the cannibalism.
Genius, keep it up and you just might replace Eppe as the king of comedy here.
Confederate–>
-(snip & quote)- “…cannibalism? You know, choicest cuts, how to dress out a human, how to grind up the bones, you know. (Joke) gotta laugh once in a while.”
—————————
Funny you should mention / breach that subject..w/ humor! Yeah, I grinned also, but on the other-hand, please allow me to relate an actual episode that occurred in the lunch-room of a large sub-contracting job-shop, amid 8-10 guys @ a table…several months ago!!!
*****************************************************
True story—
—(background scene)..was contracted by customer, to replace & align mirrors / optics on a CO2 3kw laser & repair weeping seal on the unit’s chiller—
..munch-room chatter originated from cut-back in O.T., due to reduced orders from clients, w/ the usual bitching, per reduced income / paycheck dollars etc..
..the subject soon broadened into an overall analysis of the economy & general sit-rep, of things here in ‘Murica…
Surprisingly, most agreed we’re headed for a collapse…& several guys stated their family’s were preparing..to varying degrees, for such.
..individual assessments of TEOTWAWKI soon prevailed & escalated onto progressively foreboding scenarios..as each guy said his piece / opinion..then it was “Mike’s” turn..
He said:..
“..I can’t afford that shit..hell, I can’t even own a gun (a prior felon?)..I pay alimony & effing child-support..but I ain’t gonna starve either!!!”
-(enter “Rick” a retired history teacher, who works part-time running a press-brake)-
Rick:..
“so what’cha gonna eat..survive on?”
———————
Mike:..
“..hell, anything I can…I’ll kill & eat a kid if I have too …’cuz they’re weak & easy (to subdue).”
———————
A cold realization descended upon everyone gathered there..as a study of Mike’s face / demeanor / body-language..spoke truth to his words!
..he looked at me & asked: “..so what do you think?”
I replied (per Opsec): “..I’m calling you “FRIDAY” from now on, Mike!!!”
————————–
-(Rick was the only one who caught the allusion too / reference)-
BTW, ..”Friday” was the cannibal in the epic novel:..
“–Robinson Crusoe–”
—————————
Heads-up, folks!!! There really are cretins out there, who think like “Mike”……….
That’s one heck of story. Donner Pass situation may happen.
Hunter, Sounds like all he needs to stock up on is BBQ sauce 😛
My favorite recipe.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).
Place Butt in a roasting pan. Score the rind of the butt with a diamond pattern. Press a clove into the center of each diamond. Drain the juice from the pineapple rings into a medium bowl, and stir in the brown sugar and lemon-lime soda. Coat the butt with this mixture. Arrange the pineapple rings over the outside of the butt. Place a maraschino cherry in the center of each pineapple ring, and secure with a toothpick.
Bake uncovered for 4 to 5 hours, basting frequently with the juices, until the internal temperature of the ham is 160 degrees F (72 degrees C). Be sure the meat thermometer is not touching the bone. Remove toothpicks before serving.
It also kills the AIDS virus. Enjoy!
According to accounts the palm of the hand is the most flavorful part. Supposedly we taste a lot like pork, they called us “Long Pig”. Significant issue is some places cannibalism is a bad idea. SW Pacific area, cases similar to the Mad Cow disease came from Cannibalism. In any case recommend minimum cooking temp of 155-160. Personally, I suggest, deep pit with garlic, onions, S&P. Children under age of 5-8 are OK but for most, I suggest a salt brine overnight. Pressure cooking for 45 minutes then addition of tomatoes, onions, potatoes; and another 15 minutes will give you a good stew start. Thicken with arrow root flour. would be a good for older people
the ‘real meaty’ choice cuts are the ‘rump roast’ and ‘thighs’, younger the better.
save the skin, cure it for pouches, medical bandages and hair for fire starting, medical thread.
some bone can be used for tools, weapons, spear points, arrow heads, use the rest for huntin’ bait.
*if you look real hard on the internet you can find the actual ‘cooking book’ for long pork.
Or you could ask the queen of england, I hear she likes eating babies.
FWIW,
The average cowboy in the Old West era died of pneumonia somewhere in his late 20’s.
Guns and all that chest beating macho stuff may be fine, but it you really plan on long term survival for yourself and your family in an extended breakdown you’d be better off making plans on how to deal with such things as cholera, pneumonia bubonic plague and other diseases we hardly think about now because we just run down and get an antibiotic if we somehow manage to catch them.
A means of sanitizing our water supply and isolating our sewage waste from it is probably the most important preparation for a long term disaster situation.
Sharon, I would agree. Don’t forget the accidents, childbirth, bad food, like you said, water and poor sanitation. I’ve been stocking up on antibiotics and OTC types of supplies. It’s not cheap but without “obamacare”, it’s not going to be pleasant. Fortunately for my wife and I, we were both nurses at one time. It’s amazing how much you remember when you have to. I wouldn’t do surgery, but I would stich you up.
I’d only add getting up to speed on family nuclear threat preps with ‘The Good News About Nuclear Destruction’ at http://www.GoodNewsNuke.com. You’ll discover a hopeful & empowering message/proof there that 90% of the expected casualties from blast & fallout are 100% avoidable when you know how.
Shane,
Thanks for that URL. It fits with something I am trying to understand. There are those who want to give up completely if it comes to nuclear war. As always, there will be those who survive, some better than others. We need to educate ourselves. Just turning and ducking could make all the difference during that initial stage. Curiosity killed the cat, and it looks like it killed a lot of Japanese. Again, thank you for the information. In many scenarios, our survival will depend on our initial reactions and instinctive actions. All the preps will go to someone else who finds the motherlode if you don’t survive that initial impact, whether it is an earthquake, tornado, fire, flood, riots, or nuclear holocaust. What do we need to do? Opsec and all that.
Louisiana Eagle
Going Rogue?
If you are prepping, you are Going Rogue. We all are at different levels. Although we would all want to be self sufficient and away from the bullshit right now. We will all get a taste of rogue in the reset. Maybe be more Rogue than we wanted to be. Think of the pioneers who crossed this land. How about the Homeless that walk among us. Sooner or later it will get here. Just have to be patient.
Rogue govt. = rogue people.
Slingshot, I was rogue before I even became a prepper. Prepping has been more like a ‘graduate school’ for me as far as being rogue is concerned.
I work for Costco and I have seen plenty of white guys using ebt cards.
Ahh….THIS is what I’m talking about! This is a great article. Much of this I live already but I can ALWAYS learn.
Thanks!!!
Actually going to bookmark this one. Hopefully it stays around for awhile.
Thanks Guys. A bit late for me. I was just trying to explain….You can come in, but you can never leave. I am allowed a certain amount of $$, but that’s it. I’m of the ilk that what I put IN belongs to me. Apparently NOT! My point was exactly what this post is all about. Your Cash, Moneies, are NOT YOURS!
I wouldn’t be surprised at this point that my space would be invaded by TPTB. Too little, to late.
Another way I’ve learned how to stay out of the system (when I way younger) was (1) drop out of school and (2) stay away from those who tend to get you into trouble (the junkies, the vandals, shoplifters, et al.) I’ve hung out with some rotten types in my life, when I was a youngin’, and all it did was make me spend a little time behind bars. Folks, if you wanna go rogue you gotta stay away from the system and stay away from the people who depend on this rotten system (or exploit this rotten system). That should be No. 1 on the list. No. 2 should be stay away from debt! Live frugal if you must, if you have money then use it to prepare.
KILLCEN, damn good points. I’m debt-free so I can get more preps at one time than I would normally be able to. Never had any type of loan or credit card and don’t want them, either. All my spare FRNs go toward prepping, never toward anything stupid or wasteful. I live modestly. My prepping is my No. 1 priority and I don’t let anything interfere with that.
OFF TOPIC:
Watch Baltimore. There is going to be trouble there tonight.
Let the system work and see where it and how it shakes out.
Then again the Turds will burn down their own areas.
Sgt.
So glad I live in an area that is 95% white lol.
Sarge, I get the feeling Baltimore might make Ferguson look like a walk in the park. I’m curious as to what really happened to that kid while he was in that van.
My truck is packed up with “tools” in case I have to go there and get my daughter out if things get dicey in Bmore. She knows I’ll be coming for her.
how the hell did i miss the “Baltimore” issue?
please link or expand on what happened
FreddieGray situation?
EotS
yes Gray.
Sgt.
Seems a guy was take into custody and shortly thereafter had a broken spine and died, very little data
Paranoid,
Don’t worry because EVERYBODY knows the cop is ALWAYS right! Whether or not you die is irrelevant, the safety of the cop MUST always be first and foremost! Now remember that and don’t ask any questions or I’ll haul YOU in for some ” questioning”.
Genius
Dull isn’t it. ;0)
If you don’t hear sirens and gunshots in my area, you think something is wrong. Hahahaha!
Yep nice and quiet. Black people here stand out like a dick in a disney movie lol!
Ha ha ha I used to live in vegas and I know what you mean. The police helicopter used to piss me off so bad I wanted to shoot them!
Very many years ago in my neighborhood, they did shoot them down. I was across the LA river from Compton. Just make sure they are going away from you so they can figure out where you are.
Sorry, “Can’t figure out where you were”
Slingshot, it’s the same way where I live also. I’m glad I have my ‘ventilation team’ on standby.
Here is what my learned friend shared with me:
McDonalds profits down 33% for first quarter 2015
GE reports loss of over $13 billion
Economy is in a free fall first quarter 2015 when seen with the Baltic Dry Index and other indicators.
Watch the next derivative collapse which is triggered now.
Very soon our life will radically change so please be prepared.
God bless you all.
– the Lone Ranger
McDonald’s problem is this: the prices. They raised the price on those tiny fish sandwiches to over $3.00, so I can’t afford to eat there anymore. I can get two double cheeseburgers for the same price at Burger King. Also, our local McDonald’s remodeled so they have a cushy lounge area, so fewer people can sit in the dining room at one time. They put in free wi-fi, so there are people using the internet all day without spending money. It’s a case of mismanagement, just like a lot of other businesses I’ve seen fail.
Tip: If you take the computer survey on the back of your Burger King receipt, you can get a free Whopper when you buy a small drink and small fries. You’re supposed to only do this once a month, but you can do it multiple times by using other people’s computers. That’s not a bad meal for the price.
Got a small medical library started for cheap- check out used books stores etc. for home remedies, first-aid and such.
And sometimes you can pick up crutches cheap at Goodwill (I have also fabricated decent ‘quick jacks’ for changing motorcycle flats from them)
I think it’s a good idea for everyone to have a working bicycle also, you can always pick one up fairly cheap…
– onward thru the fog, friends
“A”
Please get some training. Hands on will teach you more than a book.
Sgt.
Ive been thinking about picking up some mountain bikes, is a good alternate transport, right now its scary to ride anywhere near a road with them over here, people get smacked all the time, but after SHTF will be great, everybody in our neighborhood (well most and the ones i actually like) have UTVs, i know i can go all over the place in my Mule, can cary a bunch of stuff too.
Have a laptop with all the data you could want. An EMP could happen, it might not. But the laptop will continue after a financial collapse.
I sometimes wonder what books they had 100 plus years ago or if they passed all knowledge down verbally.
You’d be amazed by what old time farmers had. Books on practical chemistry, genetics (as understood back then), blacksmithing, metallurgy, animal husbandry of course, architecture (one that I have is Modern Farm Buildings, circa 1910 – how to build an efficient cow barn, among other things. Off grid, of course, ‘cuz there wasn’t one.) My prize piece, found at an estate auction a good 15 years ago, is an encyclopedia of technology. Covers are illegible, and first few pages are gone, but it covers everything from telegraphy to “aerial navigation” (balloons), to steam powered cotton gins to coke ovens. I’m enough of an industrial archaeologist to place it at about 1890. An old FARMER had this.
http://www.forgottenbooks.com is republishing some of the best old ones. I just bought “The Manufacture of Iron” published 1851, from them.
It’s a bit of a shock, but the literacy rate in America has actually fallen since the end of the 19th century. Rural folks HAD to be able to read and write, and do it well.
I have multiple TBs of reference books, including old engineering and farming books covering old technology that might come in handy later.
Here is an excellent list of books to save for a restart of civilization. Books, until recently, were the core of our civilization. Now, schools and cities are closing their libraries.
http://zerogov.com/?p=3846
Make sure you have a good power protector or UPS for your laptop. It is at least as susceptible as a desktop to frying when plugged in to recharge. I have a Belkin, my second. The first cooked when the transformer in front of my house was struck by lightning and exploded, but my computer was undamaged.
I am so glad for Tess’s article it is about time we get back to what this site is really for, a lot of what is put on SHTF I do not read because it isn’t about what this site was intended for. Yes, we need to know what is going on but some of it just isn’t anything we can do or prevent so with such a small amount of time to prepare we need a lot more articles like this one. Thanks Tess keep them coming.
I love her site,
Modern survival blog and the prepper journal are also real good,
Great article – much more in keeping with the ostensible theme of the SHTF site than all the “buy gold” scaremongering.
Tess missed one point – Kill Your Television. Which today includes your Netflix, Faceplant, and Twitter accounts as well. Buy BOOKS, and learn to read again. Good books are still being written and published, although for how much longer is arguable.
Great article, off topic ; Does anyone on here know much about fish antibiotics, are they effective? What is there shelf life, are there better alternatives. Feeling the need to tackle this issue but don’t really know where to start.
they work pretty good.
cheaper than a doctor visit if you emergency holistic medical training.
store them in a cool 50f dry place out of the sun and they’ll last 10 years if sealed.
don’t abuse them.
less is more.
only take the required amount.
—
‘colloidal silver’ is still better for your body and liver long term.
Solus, Also antibiotics can and will destroy your gut bacteria. Have a supply of Digest a Cure or similar products to help renew gut bacteria after treatment with antibiotics.
The main thing to know is that the fish antibiotics are identical to human antibiotics. The tablets have the same codes stamped into them.
Well, I never took the cancer surgery I was told I absolutely needed over 10 years ago, and still dropped my health insurance after quitting my last mainstream job almost 8 years ago. So nowadays I take fish antibiotics on ocassion, and here I am :D.
Back in the late 90’s I bought a couple 75 watt solar panels for $475 each. I threw them on my roof and ran the wires down into my garage into two deep cycle batteries, drilled a hole into my living room and wired in a 12 volt fluorescent table lamp. I was hooked, I was making light from sunshine.
I was a truck driver for a while and ended up buying a 12 volt coffee pot, 12 volt electric blanket, 12 volt alarm clock, 12 volt cooler, 12 volt cell phone, 12 volt radio, 12 volt TV & VCR. I even ran a laptop computer from 12 volt through a inverter to make 110 volt AC to power it. I then realized you could run a house on 12 volt power. And ever since I have dedicated my life to the research and development of 12 volt systems.
12 volt systems are used in big trucks, RV’s, boats, cabins SO why not your home???
The ONLY things you can not run on 12 volt power are your Hot Water Heater, your electric Heat & Air Conditioner and your cook stove. But there are work around’s for most of these things. Things like a 12 volt swamp cooler to cool your home. Propane to cook with and a wood stove to heat your home. You will find it’s not that hard to do and cost very little to start. Modern 100 watt solar panels are now from $50 to $100 each including shipping. (So what are you waiting for?)
Start today to wean yourself off the grid by making your own power and you to can truly become your own power plant.
See how you can run your whole world on 12 volt power at: http://www.iplantosurvive.info
drbuzzsaw, Good point! Our retreat is mostly 12 volt powered. 12 volt lights, 12 volt water pump, 12 volt car type outlets to power cell phones, radios, security system, cameras, etc. Solar panels have come wayyy down since you bought yours. I use the inverter to power the refrigerator and power tools. One thing you need to understand is that most charge controllers will take the battery voltage up to around 14.5 volts which can damage some sensitive electronics. You can get voltage regulators on ebay cheap and install them on the outlets you use for items that may be damaged by higher voltage. I have found that the 24 to 12 volt 5 amp regulators work with inputs of 12.5 to 15 volt and regulate the voltage to around 12.2 volts. The 20 amp ones don’t work I don’t know why I guess they need higher voltage input. Pumps and lights work ok with the higher voltage but radios and cameras etc. can be damaged. Just an FYI to protect your investment.
Something I recommend is for any prepper worth their salt to go and live in a third world country for a couple of years. This has many benefits: you will have to become resourceful straight away and use your skills; you will come off the consumer and propaganda grid of the West and start to think differently; you will, ironically, become wealthier because you will have to practice the saving and wealth habits people in the third world do because they do not have access to easy credit.
After two years, you will be healthier (no easy access to junk food), you will have lots of money and no debt, you will have sharp skills, and you will have a great support network because you will need it to survive. And you will have a lot of fun because you will not need to live to the politically correct rules of modern America (listening to Hillary chortling with her fema-nazi pals, simpering transgender freak shows and gay dads etc.).
Our femnazi drones will find you. You will never be free 😛
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
We are in the last days and what is spoken of in the verses above is becoming more intensified in America and throughout the world. Yes it is very important to prepare to live off the grid because in reality we are going to have to survive off the grid when the mark of the beast is being implemented.
The antichrist is here, the lawless one, Barack Obama.
Resist Obama and his father the devil. Repent of all sin to God through his son Jesus Christ. Enter into the light of life which is in Jesus.
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Good article with a nice collection of links with information to be more independent, save money and build useful life skills and survive….among other things. And I bet some of these points in the article we heard from older generations who went through tough times in their life…..
a little something from 2013
Senior Obama Official: “We Are Going To Kill The Dollar”
ht tp://www.infowars.com/senior-obama-official-we-are-going-to-kill-the-dollar/
Yep, that is why everyone needs to convert the dollars to gold and silver. Mortgage your house if you haven’t already and buy gold and silver. Don’t worry about paying it back cause when the SHTF (which will be right before the 2016 elections) all the banks will be gone and most of the bankers with it.
Thank you Ms. Pennington, great article.
BigB
Gold, buy all that you can.
On the news the other day they were talking about young children being gender confused and they had some university doctor saying to embrace this. They are saying it’s ok for Sally to be Sam if she wants to be a boy it’s ok. They said when we don’t embrace it that these kids struggle in life and wind up committing suicide. This is crazy to me I don’t think god makes gender mistakes just like people aren’t born with tattoos. It’s a sick world to lie to children. I’m not saying give them a hard time for it but there are psycological problems possibly with these kids. What do y’all think.
Hey A. Hat. I think the prob with these gender confused kids are their parents or lack of parents. Boys need a man in the house to teach them how to be one and girls need a woman in the house to teach them how to be one. It’s as simple as that. We are raising 5 and not one of them is gender confused. I also think the msm has brainwashed parents and are demonizing them if they let boys be boys. Boys need to take things apart, put things back together, wrestle each other, throw stuff, build, shoot, chop firewood etc…you get my drift. It’s natural. Too many parents are soooo woosified themselves and will not let their boys be boys. They want them to act like little girls. No wonder they are gender confused. Which I don’t understand. If you’ve got a penis your a boy. If you’ve got a vagina your a girl. How hard is it. Am I missing something here?
Never under estimate the stupidity of the American voter.
Yea, i actually overheard two women talking about how wondeful it would be to have hillary as president, made me want to walk in front of the bus.
Another good reason to detach from the system as much as possible and work towards self sufficiency and a small footprint.
No dont YOU walk in front of the bus, KFarmer!. push them in front of it.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people.
MSNBC story line “parents have a sex change on a 2 year old”. Are these parents in prison for child abuse? Hell no, they are being glorified by the MSM.
Do some SHTF bloggers believe a 2 year old even knows what “gender” they are or should be? According to a Facebook poll there are at least 51 genders! Really?
Bruce Jenner, unfortunately has himself involved with the devils spawn, the Kardashians. Wonder if they have run out of story lines for their viewers. Maybe Jenner’s supposed plight (just beginning to see the light of day now) can rev up viewers interest in this pitiful families coming and goings.
The devil is having sway with the whole world at the present time….what is next?
BTW, it is being promoted no more separate public bathrooms for men and women. To solve the problem, build a third s#%thouse for the confused.
I think Bruce wants his own show.
Granny, what do you have against the Kardashians, or as like to refer to them as, the KKK (Kim, Khloe, & Kourtney)
Never thought of them as the KKK. I think of them as Zionist stooges, however.
I always thought Cardassians were aliens on one of the Star Trek shows.
Hey granny, I’ve got a good name for the third shitter built for the “sexually confused”; place the name on it…..
“Somethings In-between”
Is there a country somewhere that doesn’t hate it’s own citizens so much?
Yep, It’s called the Republic of TEXAS.
You know it, brother.
A new country has been formed between Croatia and Serbia. Liberland. Google it. Saw the President of Liberland on TV today. Great opportunity. Get in on the ground floor. Cheap. I think you can do a dual nationality, online acceptance.
That’ll be crushed in….5..4..3..2..1……..
Armed Oregon protesters gather at Bureau of Land Management office over mine dispute, report says
More than 100 demonstrators, some of them armed, reportedly surrounded the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford, Oregon district office Thursday to protest the agency’s regulations against a rural gold mine.
Supporters of the Sugar Pine mine tell the Mail Tribune that Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials LIED when they said mine owners George Backes and Rick Barclay needed to file a plan with the agency for what they called previously unknown mining activity.
BLM LIED..are you kidding me no way! sarc
Book: “Dare To Prepare” by Holly Drennan Deyo. Bought this book 5 years ago and still look through it on occasion, lot of information.
I have this book in our library — definitely a great resource: https://standeyo.com/Our_Books/DTP.html
Self-described “Floridian-American” Tamah Jada Clark filed an expletive-laced legal brief lambasting U.S. District Judge Willis B. Hunt on April 20 for dismissing her civil rights lawsuit.
The brief, embedded below, opens with “F*ck This Court and Everything That It Stands For.”
if nothing more but entertainment.. you need to read this, and the court document
ht tp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/f-ck-this-court_n_7136176.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Great article! I had read it previously on your site Tess.
I especially like the article on micro livestock.
Where I used to live a neighbor wanted to buy any extra garden produce, goat milk or eggs we had. he was always inviting himself to come help for a share. I told him I don’t ever have any extra. I only milk what we need. and the eggs are preserved with water glass or frozen. the garden stuff goes to the pigs or compost heap. He got angry. I told him become self reliant and produce his own. go away leave me alone. Where I now live I don’t know the neighbors and they don’t know me. That’s the way I like it. I do have extra that I sometimes want to sell. I take it to a monthly auction that’s a 100 miles away.
One of, if not the best of articles posted here! Good, sound, realistic advice to everyone. More self-reliance makes SHTF less so.