Best Christmas Gifts for the Survivalist

I can't believe I originally wrote this two years ago for Christmas 2008. But it's a fun topic and overdue for an update.

Ho ho ho! Everyone loves Christmas and its just around the corner!

So what to get the bunker dwelling, canned food hoarding, "end of the worlder" in your life?

Or maybe you need a handy little list of suggestions to slip under the pillow of a loved one who is not sure what to get for a prepper like us?

Here are my Best Christmas Gifts for the Survivalist

1) A retreat. If money is no object, then give your favorite survivalist a super gift!

Survival Realty features only survival style properties throughout the United States. Some are very affordable and there is one near (in the same state) where you live.


Or check out Missile Silos for Sale and let your special survivalist design his own fixer upper or get one already done! As for me, I am not a big proponent of buying a former government base for a bug out retreat as everyone knows where it is. But for the true afficinado, nothing beats an old Atlas or Titan silo.

2) The ultimate bug out vehicle

You got to have wheels to get around. Fortunately, there are several to choose from and model your own after out there.



What survivalist doesn't want his own special set of wheels for hightailing it to the mall before Christmas and to the wastelands the day after?

Why bother looking for a Ford F150 with a camper top when you can have something more exotic?

How about a Unicat

Or a Unimog ready to go?

Or your own submarine? While they don't have one currently for sale, they do have access to more for the buyer who wants their own World War II era sub for quick getaways!


3) Food, food, food


Nope we are not talking about a little food basket or worse, a fruit cake. We are talking survivalist food!

How about a Nitro Pak one year food supply? The best long term storage food company out there and now, for a low one time price, can purchase a year supply of goodies to stock the bunker. What prepper would not love to wake up to a full pallet of Nitro Pak boxes and white buckets?

How about some MRE's? MRE's are like SPAM and Tang to your prepper. A couple of cases are affordable and fit just right under the tree!

Trying to keep it simple? How about a case of SPAM Classic, 12-Ounce Cans (Pack of 6 )?
Speaking of Spam, nothing goes better with egg nog than a Spam sandwich for Santa!

How about some quickie gifts from Amazon?

A Leatherman Surge!

Petzl E49P TacTikka Plus 4-LED Headlamp, Black

Or an LED headlamp?

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse

Or how about a simple copy of Patriots?

Either way, shopping for the prepper in your life is easy. There are only about 30 days left, so shop early and shop often!

SHTF Movies: Panic in Year Zero

When I was eight years old, a freak ice storm hit our area. The roads were nearly impassable, traffic was tied up and naturally, my school called a late start that morning.

My sister and I carpooled with another girl nearby and were able to make it to her house before we found out school was delayed. Her mother parked us on the couch, put on the television and went about her morning chores. (this was in the old days when mothers drove station wagons, wore their hair in curlers until 4:45 PM and cleaned house daily).

In those days, there was only 5 channels in our fair town; CBS, ABC, NBC, one local channel and a single UHF station broadcasting religious programming. At that time, national and local channels pretty much had free reign as to what they wanted to broadcast during non-prime time hours.

We had swell shows like Dialing for Dollars (watch a movie and during the commercials an announcer would call viewers and have them guess the jackpot), local cooking shows, farm reports (the show sets looked like they cost $10.00 in scrap lumber to build) and of course "women's programming" like fashions, household tips and exotic travel documentaries to places like New York City or New Orleans!

In the morning hours, there was usually a movie on to kill two hours. These films were all "B" movies which were cheap for local broadcasters to run unlimited numbers of times in the morning and late at night.

It was that icy morning I saw my first survival themed film.. "Panic In Year Zero".

Released in 1962 in full black and white splendor, "Panic" starred Academy award winner Ray Milland along with Jean Hagen and teen heart throb, Frankie Avalon.

The story follows a Los Angeles family as they head out early one morning for a camping and fishing vacation. Two hours after they leave home, they notice a flash in the sky far behind them. They ignore it until a few events take place (a car crash, a Conelrad radio alert and a crowded diner) reveal to them that a nuclear war has taken place.

Their home, Los Angeles has been hit and phone service to the area is out. Mom wants to return home to check on her mother, but dad Milland says nothing doing.

First, the family hits a small town and buys a few hundred dollars worth of groceries. In those days, that was enough to stuff their trailer full of canned goods and other things. The best scene here is the daughter picking up some sodas and her father saying, "No, leave that and get chocolate bars and honey". (Dad remembers WWII and knows what will be needed and what is junk!). On the way out, Dad advises the owner to lock up and hoard is stock as a mob will be coming soon from nuked Los Angeles to clean him out.




Next, they go to the hardware store and have their first problem. After they stock up on gasoline cans, rope, axes, and other hardware, Dad picks out a shotgun, lever action rifle and a fine .45 automatic (Ah, old school hardware stores). When the time to pay comes, Dad is short on cash and offers to write a check. The owner laughs and says "fat chance". Dad pulls his recently acquired .45 on the owner, leaves a check and clears out. The hardware store owner vows revenge.

Gasoline is next on the list and by now, the service station jockey knows about the war. He wants $3.00 a gallon for thirty cent gas. Dad belts him and throws a handful of rapidly devaluing cash on the sprawled unconscious body of the attendant. (Dad is fine with taking stuff, but nobody better try that business on him!).

The family plans on heading to their campground and holing up until things get better. More problems ahead..

Traffic from LA stalling their path.. Dad burns his way through that..

A road block in a small town.. Dad blows through it.

A carload of hoodlums ("Cops kinda busy, daddio"). Son chases the off with shotgun, but after Mom blocks his killing shot..

Finally, they arrive at their campsite. They tear down the bridge to the camp (good) and dump their trailer (dumb) and move into a cave (interesting).

Things get rough soon after..

The daughter is assaulted by the same carload of hoodlums..

The hardware store owner arrives and moves into their abandoned trailer!

The hoodlums have to be eradicated, but soon after, Son is shot!

And more adventures happen soon after.

Happy ending however and all turns out well. As the final line of the movie goes "Good, another healthy family to rebuild America". Happy times.

Get this movie from your local vendor or of course on Amazon.

Panic in Year Zero

I loved this movie as a kid and laughed at the crazy loud music in every scene. Apparently, Milland directed this classic as well as starring in it and had a hand in picking the score. This was the film the subconsciously got me into the whole prepper mentality, I just didn't realize it until twenty five years later.

A great watch for a somewhat corny, but hard to find film. "Panic in Year Zero" gets one thumb up from me (the other is holding my .30-30).

SHTF: The Road

Unless you have been under a rock or in your bunker for the past two years, you have heard of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Forget that it is an Oprah book club book, whatever, rather that it is a masterpiece of literature.

The Road describes a world where everything, all life, people, animals, plants, are dying off after a cataclysmic event. (Although the book does not say, to me it is obvious an extinction event, such as a massive meteorite storm or comet strike has taken place. Other reviewers love to pontificate, incorrectly, that the the story describes "nuclear winter" after a man-made nuclear war).

Amongst this ruin, we have a man and his son, both unnamed, traveling across this blasted and cold land moving south where they hope there is warmer temperatures and food.

The story is about survival, but it is more about love and keeping hope in the darkest of times. Something we here understand and appreciate all too well.


Heavy handedness aside, let's get down to practicality. If you have read The Road, you probably thought what I did - "How could I have survived in that situation?"

As I read The Road, I figured out these few lessons:
- Be prepared - duh. But really prepared with food for several years, ways to grow more and preserve it in adverse conditions, to have a retreat well off the beaten path and obscure from passers by and have plenty of ammo for your weapon.

With that in mind, is there anyway anyone could survive that cold desolate world described in The Road? I'd like to think there is, after all, there were communes and survivors who had not yet degenerated into cannibalism and despicable acts.

To get started..

Don't be a refugee - Lesson one. The Man and Boy are wandering with all their worldly possessions. Around every corner is death and destruction waiting for them. Rather than walking to death, we know to have a retreat ready before the day happens.

Retreat location is everything - we don't know how the disaster took place, but we do know from The Road that pretty much everything above ground was affected. So having an underground shelter would be advantageous. Further, the shelter should not be too far north (colder), near an earthquake zone (falling asteroids could trigger a quake) or near the sea (flooding). So somewhere in the southwest or lower Plain states would be nice.

Our shelter must be over a deep aquifer for our well to go. Something with water for years and unaffected by the elements. So a well is mandatory and having the pump run on wind or another renewable power source is mandatory

Next, our shelter must be large, very large to house what we are going to stock it with.

Food,food,food - the characters in The Road are starving most of the book. We will need to stock our shelter not for a few months, but for years. That means the some sort of list of foods and schedule of consumption:

Year one, two - canned and packaged food.
Year three - long term storage food such as grain, rice, beans, powdered milk, honey, cooking oil.
Year four through seven - more long term grain, powdered milk, honey and oil. Retort foods such as Emergency Essentials, Meals-Ready-To-Eat for variety and as a treat.
Year eight and on - Underground food production garden with grow lights and hydroponics. Continued use of grains. Small scale animal production such as pygmy goats and chickens.

That was my estimate, so I went to the food calculator and entered in my data. Here is what I got..

First, I figured in seven years worth of food with four big people and one little person consuming - so that (7 x 4) + (7 x 1) x the estimated annual amounts.

That would mean
Grains - 9436lbs
Fats (oils, etc) - 413lbs
Beans - 1848lbs
Sugars - 1883lbs
Milk - 2359lbs
Plus a bunch of cooking essentials like baking powder, yeast, salt, etc.

Using this same calculator, I would increase the number of years I plan to stay in the shelter and stock accordingly.

It is a lot to consider, but think about the core food, grain. Only 10K lbs would feed five people for 7 years.

So the shelter has to be huge. I figure that I would have to buy a truckload of grain at a time, although I think a grain truck carries about 20,000 lbs so one would be enough. Just having a place to store it would be a chore.

With food and water covered for our post-The Road world, we need a few other essentials.

Power - Solar is out and the electric grid is down. The wind still blows and wind power may be are only option. We have to keep the wind mills running in all the dust and ash, and discovery will always be a problem. But if the windmills are running outside and our shelter is underground hidden from view, other refugees and bandits will pass them by hopefully and move on.

The windmills would store their power in deep cycle batteries and would power cooking, heating and lights.

The other option would be to have several thousand gallons of propane stored underground around my bunker. It could be used for cooking, heating and powering a generator.

Wood and coal fire would be out as the smoke would have to be expelled and that would attract others.

Washing, toilets and personal hygiene - all I wanted to do when I was reading The Road was the desire to take a shower. Having wash facilities would be crucial as would be toilets. The waste would have to be used for fertilizer in the growth rooms for vegetables and fruit productions.

Water from the bath/shower would be reused for watering the plants. Waste from the animals would be used for earthworm production and fertilizer.

What else would we need? Clothing, including changing sizes for children as they grow. Shoes too.

Vitamins as our diet becomes progressively more limited. Medicine as the chance of minor infections spreading becomes a real issue in our closed bunker environment. Having a sun lamp or tanning bed for artificial sunlight and vitamin D production would help too.

I would want to have at least four or five families in the shelter. We would probably be down there, with very limited exposure to the outside world for 7-10 years judging from the book. At that time, most of the die off would have unfortunately happened and then we could wait for the world to hopefully heal itself.

Could you survive the world of The Road? Most likely not based upon what I read. But thinking about solutions to problems is what we should do and do often. However, some survival situations are simply too big to grasp and plan for.

SHTF: Survivalist Movies 2009

The subject of "survivalist themed movies" is a big one on several other survivalist blogs I read or have visited. (for a list of some of my favorites, check the bottom of this page).

For 2009, there are a bunch of great survivalist themed movies coming out. By great I mean in concept. The trailer can be good, the idea of the plot can be good, but the actual product most likely will be awful. Its an odds thing that Hollywood can't seem to change.

Just a few of the great movies coming out..

I love the Terminator movies and we have a fourth installment. Good.

We have another new film with the world gone upside down - a film sure to please the Mayan calendar crowd as well as the pole shift fanatics out there.

We have a cult comic book brought to life..

And we have a tough guy cleans up the cruddy neighborhood one punk at a time..

So let's get started.

The Terminator series has been one of the most successful franchises in history. Three blockbuster movies (especially Two and One in that order), a TV series and multiple comic books.

Terminator Four: Salvation stars the new post-apocalyptic poster actor for the 21st century, Christian Bale. Bale apparently stars as slightly older John Connor in the years immediately after the machines have unleashed their fury on mankind.

Lot's off shooting, running and gunning. And shocking enough, there are actual scenes which take place in day time. The original Terminator movies always featured the fight at night, when the "Hunter Killers" could be evaded.



Regardless of how good the dialogue is, the fighting and survival scenes in the Terminator movies have always resonated well with the survival crowd. After all, who can forget the scene from the first Terminator when Reese returns to base in the crowded tunnels beneath the ruins of Los Angeles? The children staring at the fire in the television console, the boy hunting rats, the guy eating green goop in a bowl?

Good stuff..


2012

Next we got the "world goes nuts" in the new end of the world film, 2012. The premise is pretty simple. Based upon an interpretation of a Mayan calendar which says the world will end in that calamitous fateful year.

So Hollywood puts together a bunch of cool CGI effects of big things, like the Himalayas, getting kiboshed and off to the races we go.

Here is the downside; We got John Cusack as the lead.

When I think of Cusack, I think of High Fidelity or Better Off Dead. I don't see him in a big time adventure role lead. Plus, Cusack has that whiny uber-liberal shriek to him that leaves me wondering how he can fill the survivalist role without lots of multi-cultural, blame conservatives, celebrate idiocy carp.

Add to that Danny Glover as President Wilson and you know this is going to another Day After Tomorrow "It's all America's fault the world ended!" hand wringing fest. Hey, maybe the special effects will be good?



The Watchmen

If you never read the comic book, go on Amazon and get the compilation as it is one of the best produced works in comic book land ever.

The Watchmen takes place in an alternate universe America where superheroes have helped change the course of history. Only there is one catch, with the exception of a blue super man whose genetics were altered by a nuclear accident in the 1940's, the rest of the Watchmen are regular people in costumes simply fighting crime.

When one of their own is murdered in his home, the gloves come off as retired superheroes come out of hiding to solve the murder and uncover a sinister plot to change the world.

Best Super Hero Character: Rorschach.
Best runner up: The Owl.



Now is Watchmen really an end of the world movie? If you read the book you know it is and in many ways. This movie should be either a great or a big fat mess.


Gran Torino

Finally, we have not really an end of the world movie, just a movie that we like to watch. Really tough old guys who take on young punks and kick their baggy pants wearing butts.

Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" - nuff said.

SHTF: Post Election 2008

Thankfully, the longest U.S. presidential campaign in history has finally ended (nearly two years!).

I don't care who you voted for or who's fault it is that (Obama Chuck McCain Barr Paul) is or is not president elect; we deal in realities here.

In January, a new man will be sworn in along with a different Congress. Laws will be changing in short order. I predict a couple of immediate presidential executive orders as well. Might as well get ready.

With any change in government, there will be a transition. With the continued economic mess and challenges in the world of 2008, there will be pain for all Americans.

It is going to be a tough winter and spring. If the economy goes further down, there will be layoffs, cutbacks and credit shortages. Already, the jobless rate is the highest is has been in 14 years and it will be growing.

You do not want to be a burden to your family, friends or community. By building some self reliance, you will not strain private and public resources when the hard times come.

Who knows? You may be able to help others.

Don't be a hindrance, refugee or end up homeless.

It is too late to pay off your home, but try and minimize expenses and stop adding debt.

Scale back Christmas plans now.

Focus on tangibles.

Continue stocking long term emergency food.
Stock up on basics now that food prices are going down.
Flour, sugar, salt, powdered milk, cooling oil, spices.

Purchase additional canned goods. Not a few cans, but a case or two as possible.

Purchase plenty of "fillers" - rice, pasta, grain, beans.

Continue stocking seeds and gardening supplies.
Lay out your spring garden now.
Grow some winter vegetables and herbs.
Google cold frame.
Build a greenhouse.

Go on Amazon and buy a dehydrator. Go to the grocery store and buy plenty of in season fruit and dry them. Store in Ziploc bags.

Go on Amazon and buy a home canning system.

Go to the grocery and buy plenty of Ball jars - they are on sale now that the fall is here. Get lots of lids and rings.

Start canning tomatoes, cucumbers and corn.

Continue storing water. Buy some larger water containers, but get plenty of five gallon water containers as they are portable.

Get plenty of bleach and coffee filters.

Get a portable water filtration system like a Katadyn.

You already know the drill - firearm prices and ammunition scarcity are rising already everywhere.


Like it or not, guns, in the hands of responsible citizens, stop crime. It is proven every day. An armed population scares a brutal dictator, jealous invader and overbearing government.

Buy as much .22 and 12 guage ammo as possible. Buy plenty of any other caliber you own, use and depend upon whether it be for hunting or protection.

If you do not have a defensive rifle and money is tight, consider an AK or SKS variant. There are plenty of .223 knockoffs out there. Research online and buy what you can afford. .223 is the standard among military and police.

Get plenty of magazines. Factory is best, but get what you can get and afford.

Consider purchasing a few boxes in calibers you do not own, (9mm, 38 Special, 45, 357, 30-06, 243, 270, etc). Buy no name or cheapo brands if money is tight. Your friends and neighbors will show up with a fine rifle but only ten rounds to feed it. Ammo makes a fine investment and trade item - but only with people you know and trust!.

Stock up on batteries, propane, canned camp fuel. Get a camp stove if you do not have one - camping season is over.

If possible, get a wood stove for the house. Get plenty of firewood for this winter.

I cannot stress this next section enough - hygiene and medical preparedness.

Winter means cold and flu season. If you lose your health insurance.. if the local hospital goes bankrupt and closes in February.. if a pandemic borne overseas makes its way to our shores through unmitigated migration..

Stock plenty of aspirin (generic is fine), cold remedies, and other over the counter medicines.

Get plenty of vitamins.

Stock liquids for sickness, Gatorade and Tang powdered drinks.

Stock plenty of Lysol, bleach, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies - keep your home virus and germ free!

Get a flu shot now.

Get a full physical and fitness check up.

Restock all prescriptions and eyeglasses, contacts.

Start a strength training regime now. Weights, running, walking, biking..

Eat correctly for strength, health and stamina. Keep your internals running smoothly.

Stop smoking, excessive alcohol, cut out sodas, fast food and junk food. You will save money and develop the habits needed for the world of 2009.

Drink plenty of clean water!

Invest in precious metals once food and other tangibles are taken care of first. That means junk silver (pre-1965 silver U.S. coins) and gold coins. Small denominations will be preferable for day to day transactions.

Look, I don't know what will happen in January or February of 2009. As a preparer, I am an optimist and seldom leave my fate and future to others, no matter how well meaning.

However, as stated, any transition is precarious, especially in these times.

Get ready, be ready, stay ready.

Tell me what you think!

Add a comment or click below!

SHTF: Where is your survival retreat?

I had a dream the other night that the end had finally come (What else do we dream about? :)). The family across the street went to grandfather's ranch. The couple next door went to their lake house. Wife's friend and family went to family farm.

We had no where to go.

All relatives were either long gone or lived in urban areas. Nobody to go to and no one who could take us in.

I have always believed in "bugging in" first as part of my survival preparedness plans. Why? Because this is where my supplies are. I know the area, where supplies may be available, what plants and food grows best here and the people around me.

However, all of us in the preparedness world need to consider a fall back, well out of town retreat should the big one happen.

For instance, if there is a nuclear, chemical or biological attack.
If there is a pandemic.
If there is wide spread social breakdown, rioting, looting and unleashed crime.

Staying in an urban area would be the worse idea in those situations.

How to get out of town is one thing which i will not cover here.

But where to go, your survival retreat is the first problem needed to be solved.

A survival retreat can be a few acres of land a couple of hours out of town. It may be a hunting lease or fishing camp. Perhaps the corner of some family property someone still has mineral rights for.

To prepare for your survival retreat, check local listings within two hours of your town for rural properties for sale. A house, farm or shelter is not neccessary if money is tight. Rather, find five or more acres with access to running water for starters.

When checking the property, count the number of ways in. Is there a farm to market road? Dirt road? Uphill or downhill? Trails? Rocky or difficult terrain? After all, when you go to your retreat might be in bad whether or in the winter.

How about that water supply? Is it a running stream, river or creek? Or a dried up stock tank? Access to a river is ideal as it can supply drinking, bathing, washing water and a potential food source.

So your survival retreat has all these things? What next? Well where would you live?

Consider a portable travel trailer for starters. Or maybe a used mobile home. Or a do it your self cabin kit.

Any of these cost affective options are good, but the priority should be on inexpensive and portable. Why?

Because you may only visit your survival retreat a few times a year. Rural properties left unattended are often the targets of vandalism, crime and potentially squaters. Wouldn't it stink to find a family of meth heads camped out in your 250,000.00 dollar retreat shelter?

Also, consider finding a storage space in a nearby town to pre-place supplies. Things like water filters, camp furniture, sleeping gear, cooking equipment including a stove and fuel, long term storage food, "defensive equipment" and other necessities which will not go bad or expire.

I don't think anyone should place needed supplies at their retreat unless they are well hidden in caches onsite. But that is my opinion.

The catch is how to pay for something like a survival retreat. Consider a rural home or property loan. Or use part of your retirement savings. Remember, land nearly always increases and maintains its value. It might be a good financial investment.

Finally, know how long it takes to get to your survival retreat and how much fuel will be needed. Maintain that stock at all times. Keep supplies close at hand and ready to load should you have to leave home with little notice. And always have more than one route to your retreat. Preferably off the main roads and beaten track.

SHTF: Emergency Survival Kits

Do you have an emergency survival kit in your home, office and car? The goal of an emergency preparedness kit is not to live indefinitely from the bag, but rather to have enough supplies to get you home or to another safe location.

Let's explore some of these options for you and you family.

Emergency survival kit for the office.

After 9/11 and the World Trade Center, I started keeping emergency preparedness supplies close at hand. First in my car, but working in an office building, I began keeping one in my desk. If you do not have the luxury or room to have your own locking desk, keep your emergency survival kit as your everyday carry bag for work or as a substitute for a purse.

Here is what I keep in my emergency survival kit:
1) I use a medium sized backpack which fits in my office desk drawer.
2) 4 .5 liter bottles of drinking water
3) 1 nalgene water bottle with filter
4) 4 protein bars
5) 4 bags on snack foods like cookies or nuts.
6) 1 flashlight with fresh batteries (check often).
7) 3 N95 air filtration masks (available at any hardware store).
8) 3 pairs of nitrile gloves.
9) 1 bottle of hand sanitizer.
10) Toiletry kit including travel sizes of soap, shaving, etc.
11) 6 tea bags
12) 2 packets of instant cocoa
13) 50' of rope
14) battery powered cell phone charger.
15) One pair of cheapo shoes for backups.
16) 2 pair of socks.
17) One pair of sweat pants.
18) Swiss army knife
19) Gerber-knockoff multi tool.
20) 2 inexpensive FRS (family radio services) walky talkies with batteries.

There are several more things I could add to my emergency survival kit for the office, but it is a work in process.

Next, what is in my car emergency survival kit!

Quick tips for the SHTF garden

You hear this a lot...

"We are going to put in a garden on our property and grow our own veggies and fruit once things go downhill.."

"Just put in a garden and grow your own food in a small space!"

"Anyone can put in a container garden and have their own food once the SHTF, right?"

I have bad news for the novice gardener, it is not that easy to plant a producing garden if you have never done it before. What's more, there is no worse time to learn how to grown your own food if the poop has hit the fan.

So, the time to get started is now. It is summer in most parts of the country and there is no reason to not start growing at least some of your own food now. Be prepared: it will take some work and effort to get your garden underway and producing.

- The fastest way to start is with containers and already sprouted plants like the ones sold at the garden stores and big box retailers.
- Avoid using the black plastic pots the plants are sold in. They capture too much ambient heat which stresses the plant and evaporates the moisture in the soil faster.
- Replant only in high quality soil. I cannot stress this enough. Do not use any soil sold in a bag or worse, unfortified soil from the yard.
- To make your own potting or bed soil, use a high quality base soil for your area, add compost and vermiculite.
- Raised beds work better than planting direct into ground.
- Water in the morning. Water in the heat of the day burns off before it can help the plants. Water in the evening can produce mold on some plants.
- Water deeply container plants daily and raised beds a couple of times a week.
- Use natural fertilizers like fish emulsion and green sand. Make insect repellents from hot peppers and garlic.
- Work natural compost into your beds and containers often; it replaces the nutrients in the soil.
- Mulch beds using friendly bedding material like alfalfa grass. I purchased a bail at the local farmers market and had enough for my entire tomato bed.
- Grow what works local. For instance, tomatoes, corn and melons grow well in my area while asparagus, broccoli and lettuce does not. Post-SHTF is not the time to experiment with potential failed crops.
- Camouflage your garden space. Surround the borders of your yard with weeds, overgrown bushes and native plants. Grow food as landscaping. Grow herbs in the front or side yards where passersby will think they are wild growth or weeds.
- Fruit trees take 3-5 years or longer before they produce edible fruit. Plant dwarf versions now. If possible, put in large containers on wheels so they can be brought in during cold weather. I have a producing orange tree I keep in this manner and have done so for over 10 years.
- Experiment with seeds only after you have successfully grown from plantings. Start with small pots filled with top quality soil and replant in beds or larger containers. Herbs are best to start with.
- Corn is an excellent and fast grower, however it rapidly depletes the soil. Be ready to grown rye or another nitrogen replacement crop during cooler months in your corn patch.
- I have never had much luck with fruits or vegetables grown in doors. Maybe your experience is different.
- Certain food crops can be grown during the winter months like garlic, onions, and kale.
- Finally, don't bother gardening if you have not learned how to store your surplus with canning, drying and dehydrating!

Rice? What rice? What price rice?

Rice is a staple food eaten all over the world. The top producers of rice are:

China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Brazil and Japan.

Of these countries, only Thailand and Vietnam export (send out of the country) any measurable amounts. The third largest exporter of rice is the United States and by the numbers, is not in the top ten producing countries.

China and India consume much of their production. The Philippines cannot produce enough to meet demand and must import a certain amount of rice annually.

Rice is inexpensive, nutritious and filling. It can be used a main dish and augmented with other foods such as meat and vegetables to create a healthy meal.

And now the problem.

Because of demand, weather and costs, rice has become difficult to buy. Check out this story from Costco's CEO. This is taking place in the U.S. Not some third world country, but here.

The demand for rice is outstripping the supply. As I said, there are many causes. A healthier economy in Asia. A colder than expected winter in China and Vietnam. Higher demand from third world nations. Even commodity speculation.

With so few countries exporting, then the other shoe drops. India announces that they are curtailing their exports to keep prices low at home. Thailand, which usually holds a large surplus, has found itself with a three month supply and multiple customers including oil-rich, cash in hand nations like Iran shopping for a dwindling supply.

Food, once considered a boring commodity, is now a hot resource, much like petroleum and precious metals.

How does this affect us?

Rice, like wheat, constitutes a large part of our preparedness stores. At our home, we regularly keep 100 to 400 pounds of rice on hand in storage buckets. I recently checked at our Costco and found no rice in stock at all, save for the 10 lb bags of basmati rice which is not a big favorite at our house.

Rice, which used to be cheap and could be counted on as an everyday and emergency food stock is now hard to obtain and more costly when available. This can seriously hurt our preparedness plans.

What can we do?

First, we are facing a demand problem and not necessarily a shortage. Rice is available, but it might be hard to find.

Second, the time to buy was last year, but the time to buy is also now before the shipments stop and there are no restocks.

A few suggestions;

- Purchase smaller bags (1, 2 and 5lb) from your grocer.
- Check big box retailers like Walmart. Often they have the big bags like Costco or Sams.
- Check with Asian and Middle Eastern retailers. I would buy 25 and 50 lb bags from the Asian market near our house anyway. Also check the Hispanic oriented supermarkets if they are in your town.
- Keep an eye out at Sams and Costco. Ask the manager when shipments may arrive. According to the news, new stock arrives daily.
- Buy in reason. There is no need to snatch every 50lb bag you see. Buy what you can afford and reasonably store.
- Store what you buy, eat what you store.
- Consider other grains which may be in stock.

A note.

There have been a number of news articles about food shortages and riots. So far, this has not happened in the U.S. yet and I don't see it happening for some time.

Also, there is plenty to eat (real long term storage food) in the markets. I have not seen the all edged shortages of flour, sugar, salt or yeast some are hysterically reporting nor have my retailers placed any limits on purchases.

Finally, the government has not issued a statement on the rice demand. When the government issues a statement like "please limit purchases" or worse, "we have implemented price controls and rationing", then you have a real problem on your hand.

That does not mean to say that you should not continue to store food. On the contrary, we prepare for all eventualities which includes short term shortages such as what we are experiencing in addition to more serious events.

How long could you last at home?

Here is a neat quiz you might want to try today.



With the food I have on hand, I could live for over 200 days in my home. Funny, they did not ask about water or the ability to make more fresh drinking water. No water, you no live.

Prepare! Ultimate Surburban Shelter

Check out this place!

Ultimate Home Shelter!

1600 Square Feet underneath a neat, suburban home located in Washington State. Yes, this whole place was built by hand over a TWENTY YEAR period. Incredible.

And it is for sale. Only 575K with creative financing available.

Before you run out and mortgage your home, life and internal organs, be aware of the following:

A - You want this house for a daily dwelling and survival location for bugging in.
B - The house has been at this location for several years so the neighbors know well about it and the shelter.
C - The current owners have publicized the heck out of the property so everyone else in the world now knows about it.
D - When the poop hits the fan, expect a mob run on your property and that mob knows where all five entrances are.

Prepare! Fallout Shelter 353 changes

The new link is tpass.org (The Preparedness and Survival something or other). One of the forum members has taken over the old site, has revamped it slightly, (more of a blog feel) and hidden everything else. Look carefully for the Discussion Forums link on the right and find the old entries.

Jerry D Young has two new stories; QHT is really good. Jerry's writing and story lines just keep getting better with each entry. I don't know how he does it, but it says a lot about getting better at something from practice. I hope he is realizing some sort of revenue off of his passion.

Prepare! Eating in a crisis

Like most of us, I eat all sorts of things daily. Yesterday, I had eggs and biscuits as part of a Sunday morning feast. We picked up hamburgers after church and dinner last night was meatloaf, scalloped potatoes and broccoli.

Here on survivalist, we only discuss ways to be prepared in the post-TEOTWAWKI, post-apocalyptic, end times world we think is coming. Most of what was on my menu this past Sunday would either not be available (hamburgers) or hard to get (broccoli) or rare (eggs) in the survivalist' bomb shelter.

With that thought in mind, how can we better prepare for the end of the world with practice? You can, by trying a little experiment.

Take a fixed amount of time on the calendar. Say one week or a month, whatever. For that time, only eat the foods you have stored for "just in case". For instance, oatmeal for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch and dinner and once or twice a week, a "treat" or something extravagant like a can of tuna, beef stew or a chocolate bar. The rest of your diet would include a single servicing of instant coffee or tea once a day, multi-vitamins and water.

Could you do it?

With the Lenten season coming to an end, I thought it might have been a good experiment to try before Easter. Unfortunately, I thought it up just a few days ago and Easter is next week. Maybe next year?

Regardless, it would be a good test of my will, preparedness and personal survivability.

In my own opinion, I don't think most could survive this sort of experiment. I think most armchair survivalists believe they will make the changeover in diet and living conditions without a bleep. That should be interesting to see!

Prepare! Realistic defense post-SHTF

I read a great deal of survival, end of the world fiction. Most includes this type of scenario:

Ted carefully approached the now defeated raiders vehicle. Checking the bed of the pickup, Ted saw several pelican cases stacked haphazardly. Curious, Ted took the two largest and carefully opened them both. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw the contents. Not one, but two fully operational Barrett BMG .50 caliber rifles with all the needed accessories...

If you read survival fiction, you would think that Barret .50 caliber rifles grew on trees. The protagonist is always finding one, or purchasing a couple for his retreat or whatever.

Realistically, unless you win the lottery or have an enormous sum of unallocated money, a Barret and most other high end firearms are out of your preparedness budget. Face it, while preparing for TEOTWAWKI, we also have to pay bills, buy clothes, food, etc. and a three thousand dollar rifle and five buck a pop ammunition is not going to happen.

Self defense and firearms are part of your complete preparedness planning. Keep your plan simple and arm accordingly. Experts generally recommend a few core pieces such as a pump shotgun, a center fire rifle and a revolver. Once obtained, along with an appropriate amount of ammunition, magazines and cleaning equipment, a rim fire rifle might also be useful to have in your basic armory.

Having the firearms is not enough. Ammunition is required and not a single box. Plan on a few hundred rounds minimum for monthly practice and another few thousand rounds for each weapon for use.

Next, practice, practice, practice is required. Regularly and with appropriate training and coaching. Select a range near home or work and visit often.

The defensive plan and strategy

Randy examined his work. He used the backhoe to dig a eight foot deep defensive moat around his forty acres. He filled the trench with a combination of claymores, napalm and pointed sticks. This was the first ring of defense. His three story retreat was made of impenetrable rock reinforced with rebar steel and featured another redoubt wall eight feet high with the top covered with concertina wire, high voltage strands and broken glass embedded along the flat surface. A dozen starving dobermans and rottweilers patrolled the inner wall twenty four by seven, yet Randy still slept with a Cold Steel fourteen inch fighting knife between his teeth and kept a loaded .45 tied to each hand...

Again, survival fiction. In the real post-apocalyptic world, you will be defending your suburban home, country retreat or possibly car or truck on some remote highway. Most likely, you will have a limited armory to choose from and a fixed number of people to assist in the defense.

Rather than invite a large scale attack, it is far better to maintain a "low profile" and to make your location as uninviting as possible.

For the suburban home, that would mean boarding up the windows and doors, hiding vehicles or leaving one out front on jacks, partial vandalized. A foreclosure sign on the front lawn and little activity could make your home appear abandoned and less of an opportunity for thieves and looters.

The rural home owner would close off the road to his retreat or hide the access road inbound with bushes and debris. Trips outside of the retreat would be done cross country, under the cover of darkness or in a round about, hard to follow pattern.

A round the clock guard, watching from higher ground nearby is necessary as is at least one other person watching the primary home from inside. Good communications are needed as well which can be as simple as a wired handset or a pair of walkie talkies.

Most important is to not attract attention to you or your home. Too many survivalists plan on making as much noise in the post-SHTF world as they would today. Don't plan on running loud generators or other equipment until you know full well that others with less than honorable intentions are not nearby.

Yes, in the fictional world, we all have military style weapons collections, dozens of trained helpers and a nearly impenetrable defensive location. In the real world, however, we have only ourselves, a few resources and our intelligence to protect ourselves and those around us.

Prepare! Friday useful survival links

Jerry D Young over on FalloutShelter653 has a new story posted. Jerry writes the better survivalist fiction out there. I read this sort of thing frequently and will feature regular reviews of good stories. See Jerry's story here.

How much food should you plan on storing for your family when the SHTF? I found a great food planner here courtesy of the LDS. After making my calculations, I realized I needed to stock up on a few things. Since running the calculator, I have picked up another 10 lbs of corn meal, 5 lbs of honey and always more rice. Check it out and don't forget about water!

Another neat blog to check out. Nice layout and good information.

Have a good weekend. Check your preps, check your vehicle and get ready.

Prepare! The Most Important Emergency Supplies To Buy Now

Go online to any of the survival themed forums.. TB2K, Frugals, etc. Check and see what the experts there have to say is the most important items to have on hand should a nuclear war break out, an asteroid strikes the earth, a mega earthquake or alien invasion should take place.

Guess what? None of them will agree. One survivalist will say proper firearms. The next will insist upon junk silver coins or cash. Another will say a preparedness retreat in the hills.

All of the above survivalist answers are wrong. The correct answer is food.



Try this. Go a day without eating. No, not breakfast, no coffee, no quick lunch, no sodas, no dinner, no dessert or snacks. Odds are you will either make it until 2 in the afternoon before you break down and go for that candy machine or you will feel so awful you will give up on the spot.



That is what hunger does to almost anyone. The adverse affects kick in quickly because our bodies are programmed to want three squares a day at regular intervals. When we fail to get food, our blood sugar begins to short circuit and the rest of our body begins to suffer.

Only after a few days will our body adjust and begin to deplete our bodies fat and muscle content for energy.

A starving individual, family or group will be unable to produce, to work or defend a home or retreat. So much for the firearms and gold bullion.




What makes food easy is that unlike weapons or precious metals, food is readily available to any survivalist at a reasonable price. The local grocery store contains enough products to fill a survival pantry several times over.

Finally, food is available now. Once the stores are cleaned out, those with the supply of food will be able to barter and trade for the other things they need.

So, stock up on food now. Get to the market and start with the basics. No not beef stew and tang. But component foods; flour, salt, sugar, honey, baking soda, powdered milk, yeast, and oil. All of these products store well for a long period of time and are very cheap.

The survivalist stocks food first and all other items (with the exception of water) come second.