The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 38

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. I’m writing this Tuesday morning, well ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall. By all accounts, this one is shaping up to be a doozy. Coming right on the heels of Helene, the southeastern portion of the United States is already just devastated. One bit of positivity is seeing so many people working together and helping one another. I wish it were under far better circumstances, though.

Recovery from these hurricanes is going to take a long time, no doubt about it.

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Prepper Tip -- Something that’s come up in the last day or two is the suggestion to put important documents and such into your dishwasher ahead of flooding possibly hitting your area. The notion is that the dishwasher is waterproof and thus the contents will be safe. This is an idea that’s been around for a while and crops up from time to time.

Here’s the thing. A dishwasher is not a closed system. If the drains back up, guess what’s going to happen inside the dishwasher? Also, the seal on a dishwasher isn’t meant to handle the higher pressure that could be present in a flood. Water can and probably will still get into it, if the flood is severe enough.

Sure, putting the paperwork into a ziplock plastic bag is good protection. Putting that bag into the dishwasher is perhaps marginal additional protection. But don’t just toss photo albums and such into the dishwasher and assume they’ll be protected, as that may not be the case at all.

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Episode 8 of How to Survive 2025 is up on YouTube and making its way to all of the other usual podcast sites as well. This time around, we’re talking about bug out bags. We’re planning a special Q&A episode soon. If you have any questions that you’d like to see us address, please email me – jim@survivalweekly.com.

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Our special Gear Guide edition of Backwoods Survival Guide will start showing up in stores any day now.

This issue is NOT part of any subscription. It only be available on newsstands. We had a blast putting this one together. You’ll find buyer’s guides, product reviews, and a whole lot more. I timed this one specifically so that readers can just earmark the stuff they like, then hand it off to their family as a holiday wish list, LOL.

The Gear Guide should be available anywhere magazines are sold, including Walmart, Walgreens, Tractor Supply, Barnes & Noble, Publix, 7 Eleven, and Safeway.

We’re hoping to make this an annual thing, if the issue is popular enough.

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I have two 2025 calendars available for purchase.

Real World Prepping has about 130 tips, hints, and suggestions scattered throughout the year to keep you moving forward to being ready for life’s little and not so little curve balls. There’s also a ton of bonus content that can be found through the QR codes that are printed for each month.

Point to Pommel is for my fellow knife nerds. The calendar features knives from:

• Bark River

• LT Wright

• 7Forge

• Spartan Blades

• Buck Knives

• Night Watch

• White River Knives

• TOPS Knives

• Kopis Designs

• Smith & Sons

• Vehement Knives

• Dan Tope

If you are interested in a bulk purchase of either calendar, drop me an email [jim@survivalweekly.com] to discuss rates.

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The last couple of weekends were pretty hectic, so for our hike this time around I wanted something a little low key. We ended up at a newer park we’ve only visited once before. It used to be a golf course that closed up. The city eventually bought the land and turned it into a park. I don’t know what all they have planned, but right now there are just a few hiking trails running through it.

Survival Tip – Do the Best You Can

Something I’m seeing posted on social media quite a bit in the last few days is this idea that prepping could be all for naught. You could have the most carefully curated food pantry in the county, with enough vittles to last years, but if a massive flood smashes into your home and turns it into matchsticks, then what’s the point?

A few things come to mind when I see posts along those lines.

It’s important to recognize that you can only do so much. We all have limitations, from budget to storage space to physical ability. Rather than zero in on all the things that you can’t do, focus on the things you are able to accomplish. I can’t afford to buy my dream property of 1,000 acres of wilderness and outfit it with an incredible home. But I can afford to buy a few more grocery items each week to squirrel away. Every little bit helps.

You have to play the odds, at least to a certain extent. As has been pointed out by several people already, the devastation that has hit WNC isn’t just like a 100 Year Flood. It’s something that hasn’t been seen since around the time Noah’s neighbor came by and said, “Dude, can you lay off the hammering for a bit? And what the heck are you building anyway?” Be aware of the common threats to your area and plan for them. Don’t worry so much about the 0.00001% events, at least not until you have a good handle on the more likely ones.

Depending on your particular situation, having a secondary location where you can keep at least a basic level of gear and supplies isn’t the worst idea. But then you need to decide where that location will be. On one hand, you want it close enough that you can easily access it in an emergency. On the other hand, if it’s too close, then whatever disaster hit your house might have hit that location as well. If we use WNC as an example, let’s say you were using a rented storage unit for your back up prep location. Even if it didn’t get flooded out, getting to it might be dicey at best given road conditions. I don’t know that there is a good standard answer for how to handle this approach.

Do the best you can with the resources you have available to you. Leave the rest to fate or whatever higher power resonates with you.

Backwoods Survival Guide Magazine

For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for Backwoods Survival Guide magazine. Here is the cover for the current issue 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 are available here.

Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?

I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.