The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 21

Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. I’m running a little late with this one. That’s partially due to the Memorial Day holiday throwing me off my game and partially due to my wife starting a new part-time job, which has also thrown off my schedule for a bit. But, I’m only a few hours behind when the newsletter normally ships out to everyone.

This week, I’m eyeballs deep in articles for Prepper Survival Guide 24. I have to have all of the copy edited by Friday. We have some really great content in this issue, and I’m enjoying reading through the submissions quite a bit. Here are just a few of the topics we have in this one.

• Conducting area studies

• Natural tinder material options

• Travel safety

• Neighborhood security

• Multi-tools

• First aid for pets

This issue comes out in November.

*          *          *

Prepper tip -- This stems from a post I saw on Facebook. A person posted their informal review of a specific freeze-dried meal. As part of the review, they shared a photo of the ingredients list. Several people commented that they felt that the product had far too many chemicals, preservatives, and such for their liking. In response, a few people replied that those folks will just end up starving because they’re being too picky about their food.

I don’t understand the insistence that this is an either/or proposition. Either you buy and eat the “survival food” or you starve. Those aren’t the only choices here, not by a long shot.

I’d agree that some of the food marketed to preppers isn’t all that healthy, especially if those products are the primary source of calories for a long period of time. Fortunately, they’re not the only game in town.

Shop around at your local grocery store to see what they have for healthy options that are also shelf-stable and easy to store.

You can learn how to preserve food you make at home, such as through canning. Dehydrate garden produce.

Invest in a freeze dryer for your family, or maybe see if you can split the cost of one with a few people.

The point here is that when it comes to prepping, it rarely comes down to a choice between just two singular routes. Explore everything that’s available that will fit within your budget and meet your needs. Mix and match until you find the right fit.

The thought process here goes well beyond food storage. That’s just a convenient example, don’t get hung up on it.

*          *          *

I spent most of last Saturday taking a class in first aid, CPR/AED, and Stop the Bleed. We covered a lot of ground. Some of it was refresher for me, some of it was new, and all of it was great information to have. The instructor, Curt LaHaise, is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and he did a great job for our group. We’re in the process of trying to line up another class, this one a two-day event on wilderness first aid.

As I may have mentioned before, one of my goals this year was to invest some serious time and effort into training and education for myself, and this sort of training was high on the list.

*          *          *

The day before that first aid class, I took the day off and my wife and I visited her parents. She goes over there about once a week, and I decided to tag along this time. We spent a couple of hours with her dad clearing some of his walking paths in the forest by their home. Several trees had come down in recent storms. I’ll admit, it was kind of fun to play Paul Bunyan for a bit.

The problem was that it’s a fair walk to get from his garage to even the first fallen tree, and doing so while carrying a chainsaw, loppers, and other tools, even with three of us splitting the load, wasn’t going to be a lot of fun. My wife suggested we bring over our folding wagon. Well, HER folding wagon, if we’re being honest. I bought it for her a couple of years ago for Mother’s Day.

While it doesn’t fold completely flat, all four sides drop down easily. The handle can be removed by just undoing one screw and nut. We have a small Chrysler Sebring and it fit into the trunk rather nicely, though we did have to fold down one of the back seats.

The wagon performed quite well on the trails. We loaded it up with all of our tools and away we went. There were only a few spots where we had to lift the wagon over some larger logs that we didn’t plan to remove. It was just narrow enough to make it through any of the tight spots and light enough that we could do so easily even with all of the tools.

This all got me to thinking that adding a folding wagon to your preps might not be the worst idea, depending on your overall situation. It’d make evacuation on foot a bit easier, should the need arise. They’re also quite handy around the house if you do a lot of gardening or landscaping. And like I said, we were able to fit it into a pretty small car with plenty of room to spare, so it could be easily transported to another location.

Here's a non-affiliate Amazon link to the one we were using.

*          *          *

An awful lot of us have been seeing a lot of stormy weather lately. You need to watch out for storm chasers who prey upon homeowners who have experienced property damage. The State of Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection recently put out this news release about these predatory scam artists.

*          *          *

We took a short hike this week, what with everything else we had going on. But here’s a photo of a little family we came across during our walk.

Survival Tip – Keeping a Clear Head

A few years ago, I was reading a survival manual, one geared specifically toward emergency preparedness rather than wilderness survival. I’m not going to share the title, but I’ll say that it is part of a very large series of books geared toward teaching skills in a huge range of disciplines.

Most of the book was fairly decent. Nothing earth shattering, but relatively solid advice. However, there was one paragraph that has bugged me ever since reading it. The author stated that if you were dealing with a disaster or other emergency situation, sitting back and getting a good buzz on from beer or booze might be a great way to spend your time.

I’m not the only one who sees the break in logic, right?

I mean, okay, let’s say it were a bad snowstorm that forces you to hunker down at home for the day. All other things being equal, adding some peppermint schnapps to your hot chocolate might not be a terrible idea. That’s about the only example that comes to mind where I could see ingesting any sort of intoxicating substance to be acceptable.

If we’re talking about any sort of situation that might require you to take some sort of action, the last thing you want to do is hinder your ability to respond. Save the booze for the celebration after things have gotten back to normal.

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.