The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 16
Hey folks, thanks for checking out this week’s newsletter. I finally wrapped up the content for the upcoming Gear Guide special issue last night. This project turned out to be a whole lot more work and stress than I’d have predicted.
Something I’ll never understand is the difficulty in getting product photos from manufacturers. So many of them seem to not be interested in free advertising – no costs to be involved, no product samples required, just share one photo that they likely already have sitting on their corporate server. But we run into this constantly with our various New Products and other gear-centric features. It’s so frustrating.
That said, I think y’all are going to dig this special issue. It’s shaping up to be pretty cool. You’ll get to see it in October.
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Prepper Tip -- Several years ago, I was asked to give a talk at a library about three hours north of where I live. It was mid-March and the weather was great on my way there. However, we got a fair bit of snow while I was speaking. By the time I was leaving, which was around 8PM, it was dark and snowing. Not a blizzard by any means, but it was enough to make driving not a whole lot of fun.
In my defense, I knew there was snow on the way, but it came in earlier than predicted. I thought I’d be well on my way home before seeing any snowflakes.
About an hour into my drive, I was giving serious thought to pulling off and grabbing a cheap motel room for the night. The roads were just slick enough to require my absolute full attention, as well as cause me to drive well below the speed limit. Visibility wasn’t grand, either. Y’know how if you’re driving at night in the snow, it can look a little bit like you’re in a spaceship and the snowflakes are stars whizzing by? Yeah, that.
I’d eyeball every exit on the interstate to see what motels were there, if any. But, I kept inching my way home instead. Honestly, while I did make it home safely, I should have pulled off. The roads were crap and I was exhausted. What stopped me from doing so?
1) I didn’t earn a ton of money from the speaking engagement and I didn’t want to spend most of it on a motel room.
2) I didn’t have much of anything with me in terms of clothes, toiletries, and such. I had a survival pack with me, sure, but that wasn’t really set up for a stay at a motel.
What did I learn? For starters, money should be secondary to safety. But I also started keeping a small pack in my vehicle. It has a complete change of clothes, including socks and undies, as well as a toothbrush, toothpaste, and other toiletries. There’s a couple of paperback books to keep me occupied, too. Basically, everything I’d need for an unexpected night away from home. Not one where I’m hitting a trail, but crashing at a motel or perhaps a friend’s house.
I used to have a pack like this set up when I worked outside the home, so that I’d have something comfortable to change into if I had to hoof it home for some reason. Not spending a lot of time on the road caused me to get complacent. Thankfully, I was able to learn from that mistake without it being a major ordeal.
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Because this has come up a couple of times recently, please understand that I cannot and will not read your unpublished book manuscript, nor will I take a look at product sketches or write ups for ideas that you want to pitch to companies. It’s nothing personal. It protects both of us.
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Food for thought -- Prepping isn’t a spectator sport. I and others can give you guidance, but you’re going to have to do the bulk of the heavy lifting. That’s sort of what self-reliance is all about. We educators are happy to help and do what we can, but you’re going to have to participate.
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Cover reveal! Here’s the new Natural Disasters special edition of Prepper Survival Guide magazine. It should start showing up in stores soon. This issue is not part of any subscription, so the only way to get it will be in stores. You should be able to find it anywhere our magazines are normally sold, such as Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, Publix, Safeway, Tractor Supply, 7 Eleven, and Barnes & Noble.
The idea with this issue is to focus on the types of emergencies that many of us may likely see in our lifetimes, such as tornadoes, floods, and heat waves. For each type of disaster, we discuss the causes, seasonality and other factors that can clue you in that things could get sketchy. Then, we dig deep to provide you with tips and tricks to help keep you and your family safe. Finally, we drill down on a real-life example and see how it played out, hoping to learn from history.
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This Saturday, 4/27, I’m sponsoring a Meet & Greet event for local prep-minded people. Thus far, the weather doesn’t look great, but I’m hoping for the best. If you’re in the area and interested, here are the details.
April 27, 2024 — 11AM-3PM
White River County Park
6503 Sheridan Springs Road
Lake Geneva, WI 53147
This is intended to be an opportunity to network with local like-minded individuals. Bring along any prep-related gear that you might be looking to trade. I’ll have a few knives as well as back issues of my magazines available. You’re welcome to bring snacks to share if you’d like, but that’s certainly not required.
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We had kind of a fiasco when we went for our hike this past weekend. There was a sustainable living event on Saturday at a local technical college. It’s something they’ve been doing for Earth Day the last several years and we always try to check it out. Because we were headed there, we picked a park nearby for our hike. Well, turned out the road to get to that park was closed off for construction. We tried another location and that didn’t work out for us either. So, the next day we headed off to a nature area we’ve not visited in nearly a year. It was a great hike, though tiring as it was pretty hilly.
Survival Tip – Arc Lighters
This type of lighter first came out a few years ago and they seem to be growing in popularity. If you’re not familiar with the term, an arc lighter generates a small arc of electricity, rather than flame, to light your fire. For a while, they were called plasma lighters, but arc seems to be the current name of choice.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of them, for a few reasons. They run on electricity, typically charging an internal battery via USB. That’s all well and good, but if the power runs out, the lighter is absolutely useless. A traditional lighter, like a BIC or Zippo, if it runs empty will still generate sparks until the flint wears out.
On top of that, the electric arc is typically very small. I don’t have one handy, but if memory serves it’s shorter than ¼-inch. Depending on the type of tinder you have available, it can be very difficult to light with that small of a heat surface.
I’m all for embracing technological advancements in the survival world, but this one isn’t worth the expense.
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.