The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 12, Issue 22

Jun 04, 2025

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. And welcome to a whole bunch of new subscribers who joined us over the weekend. I had a sign-up sheet on my table at the Walworth County Preparedness Expo and several people took advantage of it. Thank you for signing up, hopefully you find the newsletter valuable.

I’d say the first annual Walworth County Preparedness Expo was a success. It was a small event, just 16 vendors. But I heard numerous positive comments from attendees:

“I’m so glad you put this together!”

“We really need more events like this.”

“Can’t wait for the next one!”

“How can we get something like this going in our area?”

We had short classes on preparedness, water filtration, emergency kits, budgeting, gardening, first aid, and more.

Emergency Management folks, take note. All of this was organized in less than six months and with very minimal cost. People want practical information about how to be prepared for emergencies. They want to see events like this. They want to connect with others in their community. They want to see, know, and understand the resources available to them. Remember, the better prepared they are, the more they’ll be assets rather than liabilities in an emergency.

Rest assured, we’re already making plans for next year’s expo.

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The Three C’s is a simple way to remember priorities when you’re faced with an emergency situation.

Check for hazards and injuries. Inspect yourself from top to bottom and see if you’re hurt. When adrenaline is flowing, it isn’t uncommon to not realize you’re injured. Look over the surrounding area to identify any existing hazards as well as injured parties.

Call for help. Never assume someone else has already called 911. Not only that, you’ll want to get on the list for responding agencies. Tell them where you are and what your situation is. If you’re hurt and/or trapped, call out loudly to anyone who might be nearby. Be as specific as you can – “I need help! I’m trapped in the basement!”

Care for the injured. As best you can, render first aid to those around you. Be sure to address your own wounds first so that you can better help others. Depending on the number of people injured, you may have to triage them and prioritize who gets help first.

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I was very honored to learn that one of my books made it on this list for suggested Father’s Day gifts.

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Blade Show is this weekend in Atlanta. I couldn’t make the trip this year, unfortunately. Just too much other stuff going on that needs my attention. If you’re going, please make sure to visit some of my favorite companies there, including PNWBUSHCRAFT (table 7BB), LT Wright Knives (table 748), and Grim Workshop (table 40B). Tell ‘em I said hi!

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Work this week has been focused on writing articles for GAT Daily, Recoil Offgrid, and GearJunkie. I have several knife and gear reviews to do, along with diving back into revisions for Prepper’s Home Defense. My deadline for that project is coming up quickly.

Back in 2016 when I was leaving my day job to go full-time with writing, I had a couple of people give me guff about it, suggesting that I was too young to “retire,” as that’s how they saw what I was doing. My response? I only retired from doing the crap work I didn’t want to do anymore. I put in far more hours now than I ever did at any other job, and I’m loving every minute of it.

I truly appreciate each and every one of you who spends your hard-earned money on my books, magazines, and such. Without you, I’d still be punching a clock somewhere.

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Our hike this week was a short walk at Babe Mann Park in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. My wife and I went there right after the expo on Saturday. We had a busy Sunday planned, so Saturday afternoon was our only opportunity for a walk.

Survival Tip – Put Your Ego Away

I wrote this a few years ago.

"Let’s be frank. Ego makes us stupid. It causes us to make poor decisions, ones based on emotion rather than intellect, bravado instead of logic. Make no mistake, there’s a world of difference between confidence and cockiness. Confidence is knowing you can get the job done right the first time. Cockiness is telling everyone you can and hoping nobody proves you wrong."

Now, when I shared that in a group on Facebook, I had several people take issue with it, saying that it didn’t fit the technical definition of ego. They didn’t seem to grasp that I was referring to the far more common layperson’s idea of ego. As my friend Heather Saulsbury from PNWBUSHCRAFT said, “Must have been some people with big egos reading it.”

I’ll admit that I fall into the ego trap from time to time. My wife and I will be out on a hike and I’ll be convinced that we need to turn right at a trail intersection and she’ll say I’m wrong, that we need to go left. I’ve learned over the years that nine times out of ten, she’s correct so we’ll go left. My ego might be a little bruised sometimes because I got it wrong, but that hurts less than adding miles to my walk because I insisted on a wrong turn.

A big ego prevents us from learning, especially from our mistakes. Don’t be that guy or gal. Be humble enough to know that you can’t know everything all the time. Tell you what, the smartest, most experienced survival folks I know also happen to be people who are perpetual learners. They’re confident, no question about it, but they’re far from cocky.

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.