The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 17
Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. I’ve been working like mad the last several days. The content for the upcoming Gear Guide is complete and I’m about to dive into editing the layouts. With one of our regular issues, that takes maybe two days. This one is going to require at least twice that amount of time, I reckon. There’s just a lot of little things that need attention.
On top of that, my wife and I are taking a short vacation soon, which means I need to work ahead to ensure I don’t miss any deadlines. We’ll only be gone a few days, but I hate it when I know people are waiting on me before they can get their own work done.
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Prepper Tip -- Recently, some 911 service outages hit the news. Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas were the states I saw mentioned. Localized outages aren’t rare, of course. Tech equipment isn’t perfect and it will fail on occasion.
What I recommend is jotting down the non-emergency numbers for your local police department or Sheriff, as well as for fire and rescue. Put those numbers on the fridge or somewhere else that they’ll be easy to find. If 911 goes down in your area for a bit, you may still be able to get assistance by calling those numbers. I know in my area all 911 calls are routed through the Sheriff’s Department dispatch center. But if that system were to go down for some reason, I could call my police department’s non-emergency number instead.
While yes, you certainly could just look up the appropriate number when you need it, you might not want to waste the time doing so.
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Two new covers to show off this week. First, we have our special Natural Disasters issue of Prepper Survival Guide, which should be out in the next week or two.
Then we have Prepper Survival Guide 22, which should be out on or around 5/22.
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Great article here from my friend Waysun Johnny Tsai on reality-based self-defense training.
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Some reminders, courtesy of Ready Wisconsin.
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The other day, my wife found that our granddaughter had taken one of her play kitchen knives and hidden it in a kitchen cabinet. Not even two years old and she’s stashing weapons throughout the house.
<sniff> I’m so proud.
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Something I’ve wanted to write about but haven’t had the time yet is the prevalence in the survival world of overestimating our skills and knowledge. Sort of how if we’re blind to realizing we don’t know what we don’t know, we could end up in a world of hurt. This article talks about the same concept, just without the focus on survival/preparedness.
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With all of the severe weather happening recently, such as the Oklahoma tornadoes, make sure you have multiple ways to receive weather alerts. The sirens our communities use aren’t intended to be heard indoors, so there’s a good chance you won’t hear it, especially if you’re asleep. Not to mention if you live rurally, of course.
Some options include:
--weather radio
--cell phone alerts
--one of the various Alexa devices
How do you handle this in your home?
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Our hike this week was kind of short as we got a very late start. But it was still a nice walk through a local park. Several hills, which helped me to realize I really need to buckle down and lose the weight I’ve put on over the last couple of years.
Survival Tip – Rethinking Two is One
One of the most common sayings in the prepper/survival world is, “Two is one, one is none.” A few seconds of research seems to point to this originating with the US Navy SEALs, but I can’t say that’s true with certainty. The basic concept is to have multiple ways to achieve survival needs, so that you’re not left high and dry if you suffer some sort of gear failure.
While that makes sense, it can also lead down a rabbit hole of trying to decide when you truly have enough gear with you. If two is one, then surely three is even better, right? Well, probably not if you’re the one carrying the load. The most common areas where I see what might be termed excessive gear loadouts is with fire and cutting tools. For some reason, many people are compelled to pack 27 entirely different ways to make fire, along with a few dozen different knives, saws, hatchets, and other sharp edges.
Interestingly, one of the other very popular sayings is, “The more you know, the less you carry.” The idea there is that skills are weightless, because they live in your head and in muscle memory. More than once, I’ve seen the same person spouting both of these sayings. They aren’t exactly opposite ends of the same spectrum, but it might seem difficult to make your peace with both at the same time.
Blind adherence to any concept is rarely a good idea. In this case, there are several things to consider, including your skill level as well as the details of your planned trip (location, duration, weather, etc.).
For cutting tools, realistically, there isn’t much you can’t do in the field with a good knife with a four- or five-inch blade, a folding saw, and maybe a pocket knife, as each have different uses. With fire making, if you have some experience a couple of BIC lighters and a ferro rod are probably sufficient.
I’m not saying that redundancy or backups are inherently bad ideas. Just that like anything else in the prepper arena, you need to customize the plan to suit your individual needs. In this case, the more experience you have on the trail, the easier it’ll be to determine what you truly need to pack and what you can eliminate from the load.
Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide
For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for both Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide magazines. Here are the covers for the current issues that are available in stores right now.
You can find them just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:
Walmart
Sam's Club
Costco
Publix
Walgreens
Rite Aid
CVS
Tractor Supply
Fleet Farm
Barnes & Noble
Subscriptions to both titles are available here.
Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?
I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.