Feb 25
Most preppers are looking for ways to generate more electricity and sources of fresh water to use now and in the future. It seems the University of Michigan like the ideas too. Check out this article and video about creating a zero water consumption home.
Josh
Jan 24
Hi. I’m Joshua. I was looking at posts on the blog and came across this draft belonging to Wolverine. While he wrote this article quite a while ago, it’s a good article deserves to be published. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Josh
The First of Several Book Reviews
First, the proud father stuff. My youngest son graduated from IBOLC and is now a full fledged Infantry Officer in the United States Army. He had ROTC in college and wanted to try his hand at a military career. It was a great honor for his Aunt and I to attend his graduation and I felt very proud awarding him his Blue Infantry Cord. (I would have liked to given him my old green and yellow MP cord, but he wanted to take a different route.) He is now preparing for Ranger School and his dad is so damn proud of him he could just bust.
Ok, now the prep stuff. While we were in Georgia for his graduation we went to an out of the way eatery, the Four Winds Restaurant so my son could have a Ranger Burger. While there I spotted a book for sale by the cash register and picked it up. The book was called The Fugitive Forester by Joel Robertson.
The back of the book made a statement that the protagonist “gives real meaning to the term ’survivor’.” I do not read a lot of fiction but this one made me think about buying it so I did. It was fourteen dollars and I think the book is self-published.
In a nutshell, the main character is falsely accused of murder and instead of going to jail he sets up a plan to fake his own death and try and find the real killer. (This just screams for an OJ reference but I will reframe.) He pre-plans his death and places several caches in the area to help him survive.
The book could be a guideline for anyone that is planning to head for the woods in the event TSHTF or your plan of choice is to hide in the woods. The author describes several caching methods and ideas for supplies.
It wasn’t a bad book as it goes. There were several spots where some editing was missed, grammar and typos. There were also several things that just don’t ring true, like the Army leaving a supply of ammo and MREs setting by the side of the road for pick up later.
The book was good enough for me to stay up late one night during the work week to finish it, so that should say something for it. While not a step by step guideline for escaping to the woods reading this book will give some ideas that can be followed up on for later use.
Since prepping should not be all consuming in our lives we can take a break and read some fiction and still get some prepping knowledge at the same time. If you can find a copy give it a read, you just might enjoy the book. The publisher is listed as Brentwood Publishers Group, 4000 Beallwood Avenue, Columbus, Georgia 31904.
Wolverine
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Dec 21
The Mayan End of the World and Continued Prepping
Well, the Mayan end of the calendar has come and went and we are still here. I for one am not surprised, never did believe that we would know ahead of time it was the end of the world. I did not think we would have a problem with Y2K and ended up being at work repairing a drain line as we flipped over from ‘99 to 2000. What does surprise me is the number of preppers and neo-preppers that have contacted me stating they regret that they did not get to use their preps. Excuse me! You wanted to have the world in turmoil so you could say to others, “I told you so.” That is like being disappointed that you arrive home from a night out and find that your house is not broken into. Damn, now you cannot file an insurance claim? Come on folks, we prepare in case we run into trouble, not because we want trouble.
When we used to train for disasters in the Reserves we always had a little let down we never got called out so we could put our training to use, but we also knew that if we did get called out our fellow citizens were in a world of hurt and their lives had turned south. We really did not want to wish that one them just so we could test ourselves.
Thanks to those of you that have sent me encouragement to return to writing. I may write something once in a while, but I will not be regular like I was. In the time since I last wrote until now I have continued to prep and acquire skills and equipment so that I might better survive any glitch in the system. One big thing I did was finally acquire a tractor for the farm. It is an early 1950s one that is not restored but “still has on its working clothes” as they say. The first thing I have tried to do is replace it with a 12 volt system. Because of that I have not used it much as I did not finish the replacement in a timely manner. I also found an old 1930s John Deere corn sheller that I picked up. I was told it would shell my walnuts for me, but it didn’t work as promised this fall. I need to play with it some to see what I did wrong, but it shelled the corn great. Tonto came over and we did a five gallon bucket straight out of the field in nothing flat. I am looking forward to seeing how the cornmeal he is making turns out.
Wolverine
Jul 08
A subject that never seems to go out of style in the Prepper movement is Bug Out Bags (BOB). These types of kits are known under many names; Get Out Of Dodge (GOOD) Bags, 72 Hours Kits and I’m Never Coming Home (INCH) Bags. What these survival kits have in common is that the kits are intended to be comprehensive survival kits intended to provide you everything you need in a survival or crisis situation. Many discuss the subjects of survival kits like it’s a one size fits all concept; this however not the way that I suggest that you approach the subject. Survival is about adapting to the specific situations and challenges you face and your BOB must reflect this reality.
A Bug Out Bag is only a tool in order to make it easier for you to deal with extraordinary situations; but it is still you that will have to deal with this situation and in order to do this you must have the health and physical fitness, skills and experience, knowledge and will to survive that is required to do so.
Before we get into the subject of what to put into the BOB lets go into the subjects of clothing. The elements present one of biggest challenges in any survival situation. It normally takes few days to die from dehydration and several weeks to die from
Jul 08
One of the men at our church has started calling me Euell Gibbons because I have started studying wild edibles. I
have splurged on four books, two on wild edibles, one on wild mushrooms and one on wild medicinal plants and herbs.
Here is my experiences with this the last 24 hours…
Last night we had our preppers meeting at the church and one of the families that are a part of this meeting brought some wild leeks (or shallots) they had found along side the road yesterday afternoon.
Today, one of our 3rd grade girls here at the church when scouting for wild edible plants together. We did this while her mom Carrie and my wife Sandy were taking their CPR refresher class for certification of the daycare.
We enjoyed Wood Sorrel together, we decided we liked the leaves, flowers and pods raw. I think I might try making some soup from this plant in the next few days.
We also found a wild parsnip.
While we were looking at the wild edibles book, we saw a recipe for dandelion bud stuffed mushroom caps. So we went back out and found about 10 flower buds. So we came back in and made the recipe, it was good! We all enjoyed them!
It is pretty easy to make, boil the dandelion buds, to remove some of the bitterness, I boiled the mushroom caps a little to speed up the cooking process at the same time I boiled the buds. Then I stuffed the dandelion buds in the mushrooms, added olive oil to the caps and skillet that we finished them in. Sprinkled a little rosemary over the top of this and finished sauteing the stuffed mushroom caps.
It made for a tasty and healthy after school snack.
Then later this evening Sandy and I went for a walk to the small store here in town, we saw Dan and Josie over at the restaurant. So we walked over to visit with them, while we were talking I found chicory growing up between the cracks in the sidewalk and beside the restaurant. Some yellow dock and garlic mustard had gone to seed already.
It is amazing what God has provided for our nourishment! We don’t have to toil or labor to tend to these plants, just go out and pick them to our hearts contentment!
So what are some of your experiences?
Apr 21
We live in a world that nations seem hell-bent on going to war!
While the Israel News Agency released an article stating war is necessary.
Business Insider is claiming that Russia has troops amassing on the northern border of Iran, just in case Israel or Israel/USA attack Iran’s nuclear sites. (This link is also at the bottom)
It looks like we are in for some rough years ahead, especially if the USA is attacked to neutralize our response.
Becoming prepared for any eventuality is a must, if we are to survive any type of retaliation. We are living in uncertain times, that is for sure!
What are some of the eventualities that you have planned for?
Let’s start a round table discussion that can help each of us to find aspects of preparations we may have not thought of ourselves as we are putting things back for the future.
Pastor Mark
Meet with us at: http://www.meetup.com/CentralMichiganPreppers/
Mar 25
Map of all American Preppers Network and Partner meetup groups.
Scroll past the map for a listing.
http://www.meetup.com/CentralMichiganPreppers/
To start a meetup group in your area go here
Feb 28
Insanity
We have all heard Einstein’s definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I have wrestled with this for a long while and finally decide that I need to stop doing the same thing over and over again since the results were always the same.
I am not sure of all the reasons I started posting on Michigan Preppers Network. Some of the reasons were I am proud of my state and it gave me great satisfaction to see a new weekly post here while the Buckeye preppers post was over six months old. They have since changed that, but for a long while they were all but dead.
I liked the idea of sharing ideas and hopefully getting a good exchange of information going across the state and Midwest. Someday, we will all be in this together. If you do not believe that then you likely do not read these sites for long. If you do believe that then you understand the feeling and have a thirst for information that may help you and your families survive.
I write because I like to write. I am one of my favorite authors. That may sound strange, but I do like to re-read my writings since I write about stuff I like. Hard to explain to people, but I know what I mean and I guess that is all that matters.
I did not start writing here expecting to make a single dime from doing so, and those expectations were right on the money. As I try to explain to my boss from time to time, my main motivation in life is not money. I like the stuff, use it all the time, and could always use more, but it is not the only motivation for doing anything in my life. I have stated before that I write under my real name and do get paid for those articles. If all I cared about was getting paid I would have written only those types of articles and not written for this blog.
There is one thing though that I do need. I need validation. I need to know that the hours I spend writing are doing some good. Since there is only one yardstick that I can use to judge that by I of course check regularly to see if I am validated. The number of comments that I get give me an idea of how many people read the blog and tells me what they think. It is obvious that no one thinks much of my writing. I have not had a comment posted in months.
Each week I post hoping this will spark some interest or generate a little discussion. I will readily admit that I am jealous as hell of Creekmore and the Wolfpack. In the last few weeks he has gotten comments that number over 400, 600 and just 800! I cannot generate a single reply.
I am no longer going to beat my head against the keyboard and hope for a different result. I will keep doing my preps, writing articles for magazines, and all the other things I have done over the last three years save post on the blog.
It has been fun and interesting and I have learned a lot just by keeping myself amused, but without validation from others the motivation is gone. My old boss used to ask us, is the juice worth the squeeze? Not anymore.
Good luck to all. I hope your prepping goes well and you have a full load of supplies when the balloon goes up. I suspect at that time it will truly be insanity.
Wolverine
Feb 22
The History of the Future
I tend to view things through the prism of history. I see events and can relate to how those same things have happened in the past. We are so closely paralleling the Roman Empire that I feel reviewing it is a good way to predict the future. When asked how I view TEOTWAWKI I think of the way the Roman Empire fell. No, I do not see use having hoards of Visigoths raiding Washington DC, but rather the way the world economy went to hell after Rome fell.
Because of the way the empire was structured everything became interdependent on the other. Once the Visigoths toppled the city of Rome there was no one to make sure the water supplies arrived, the roads were kept up, or commerce kept going. Anything that was of value was hidden or stolen. With the influence of Rome gone all of Europe started to fall into smaller fiefdoms and Warchiefs and Overlords controlled large areas and would swear their allegiance to a king so that they could keep their control. The Overlord took from the peasant farmers, and the king took from the Overlords.
I suspect that something similar to that will happen. Call them Gangs, Militias, private armies, or what have you, whole sections of a state will be controlled by powerful lords that will take what they want as a “tax”.
Without gas to power cars and trucks we will start to have small mills and hamlets return to the countryside. A farmer in Eaton County will likely not have to leave the county to sell his wares. Rivers will provide the main travel arteries for outside markets. Study how Michigan, and most of the Midwest, grew and then play it backwards. That is what I see coming in the future.
How far ahead, Quein Sabe? Within my lifetime, possible, my son’s lifetime probable, my grandkids lifetime, most assuredly.
Both of my grandfathers had self-sufficient farms. When the depression hit both were able to carry on a fairly normal life. In fact, during the depression both grandparents added holding to their farms. My Dad’s father came out of the depression with four paid off farms, one for each of his kids. I still live on the farm my Dad inherited.
I believe the salvation for families will be returning to the old agrarian economy of the 19th century. Using guidelines like Kains’ Five Acres and Independence and the Robinson’s Have More Plan you can set yourself up for that type of lifestyle with around five acres.
It will not be easy, it will be hard work. You will need the whole family committed to having it working so that you can survive the first years of the shock to the system.
Am I ready yet? Hell no. I have a long way to go and I have been working on it since the 1970s. Will I give up? Hell no. I keep plugging away at it day after day. As I get older I worry my wife and I will not be able to do what we need to if something does happen. Of course I also feel that whatever happens will not be an overnight event where we wake up one morning and it is the lead story for that news cycle. Our decline will come slowly for most of it with a few rapid drop off cliffs along the way.
Then again, nothing could change much over the next hundred years. All the preps and supplies will be just so much junk for the family to deal with after grandpa passes away. Why in the hell did he have all those bug out bags and ammo? Prepping should be like insurance, pray you never have to use it but be thankful you have it just in case.
Anyway, that is what drives me and my long term plans revolve around that. Make the farm more sustainable and set aside items that might be useful toward that eventuality. However that is not my only thoughts and action for my future. My wife and I still work every day and invest in our retirement accounts and plan vacations. We still have our current day to day lives to live.
Regardless of why you prepare or what you are preparing for it is wise to have an end goal in mind and head for that. I use the prism of history for my lens. It may be the only way to see the history of the future.
Wolverine
Feb 15
The other day I got a note from a friend of mine asking me about saving copper cents for the future. He also asked about buying more gold and silver to hold. Jim moved to the south a decade or so back but we still talk via e-mail nearly every other day or so. I am sure you can infer his questions by my answers.
My Reply to Jim
I am going to try and answer your questions. It is not easy since so many things are interconnected. The short answer is yes, gold and silver are better to hold than paper money. I would say that the longer answer might be that it would be better to hold things instead of gold and silver.
Remember when we first started turning our collectibles into gold coins? We always used to joke with people we were making gold soup for dinner. The reality is that we cannot make gold soup and if you only hold gold and silver than you will starve, for no amount of gold will buy food if everyone is starving. Any gold and silver should be a way to preserve your family wealth for the next few generations and not a plan to buy food after TSHTF.
Several months or a year’s supply of food, safe drinking water or the ability to make some, seeds and equipment to grow more food and preserve it will be the first line of defense. Make sure you can produce more than you need because you can bet that some Overlord will make you pay “taxes” for his protection. I believe that if we have something like an EMP or event that sends us economically backward we will end up in a Dark Age type of situation. Guns and ammo may replace swords and spears, but the theory will be the same. Small fiefdoms will develop and any landowner will be taxed with payment of food and material instead of money. Gold and silver may work to pay those taxes but my guess is once it is known you have gold and silver tucked away the Overlord will pay you a visit and “taxes” will be set high just for you to live. I hope I am wrong, but history tends to put my guess in the probably category.
As for your question about saving the copper coins, that is anybody’s guess. You know the law, Gresham’s Law I think it is, that states good money is driven out by bad money and you saw how quickly silver disappeared from circulation. Hell Jim, we met fighting over a silver dime!
You also know that you can take a metal detector out and find a bucks worth of pennies almost any day of the week. I remember us talking about the fact that someday finding wheat cents would be as scarce as the Indianhead cents we hunted. I guess because we dug so many copper cents I am not that concerned about making sure I save bags of them. I might very look back on this and wish I had later, but for now, no I am not saving copper cents.
Yes, watching Doomsday Preppers is a good yardstick to judge your preps by, but do not think that because you do not have a swimming pool full of fish or an underground bunker that you are screwed. No two preppers look at things the same way every time. Your preps for the hurricane season are way different from my preps for getting a blizzard and snowed in for a few days. Some things are similar like our need for a generator and easy to prepare food, but what and how are totally different. (I for one do not have any boiled peanuts saved!) I feel you have way too little ammo for your guns while you think I have too much. Only time will see which of us is correct in our assessments.
I could make a long list of stuff I wish I had here at the farm right now. Someday I will add some of it to my supplies, but I will never have it all. I asked the question a few posts back about trading a few gold coins for a tractor I would like. Right now my answer would be no, but maybe having that tractor might be better than gold coins if an Overlord wants my stash so I can stay alive. It all comes down to making the best possible choice at the time with the information you have available. Good luck making your choices.
Wolverine
