The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 10, Issue 48
Seasons Greetings, and all that jazz....
Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. I had a follow-up with my surgeon today and all looks good on the healing front. I’ve been cleared to increase my activity level, which is good as I’ve already been slowly doing so.
With a great assist from our eldest son late last week, the garage residing project has been completed. We were getting nervous as we really wanted to get it done before the snow flies in earnest, but vinyl siding isn’t fun to work with when it gets cold, as it gets brittle. Thankfully, we had a couple of warmish days and my wife and son were able to get it done. I was forbidden to help, due to restrictions from my doctor at that point. It all turned out great, and we got some excellent experience with a variety of things along the way. Plus, it was a good excuse to add to the tools in the garage.
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Prepper Tip -- While we might occasionally forget to charge our phones overnight, I bet that’s a rare occurrence for most people. Tablets and e-readers get charged when we notice they’re getting low. But what about pocket flashlights? Cordless drills? Power packs? Vehicle jump starters?
This is your reminder to take time today or tonight to plug in all of your rechargeable devices and get them back to full power. Not because there’s any specific event on the horizon, but rather simply because if something were to happen, all those devices wouldn’t be much good if they aren’t charged. Consider setting a reminder on your phone or calendar to do this on a regular basis.
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On the work front, I’m just about done for the year in terms of deadlines. We’re wrapping up the layouts for the Natural Disasters special issue and that’s really all I have left until early January. I have plenty of projects I’m hoping to work on during my “down time” the next few weeks. We’ll see how far I get.
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I watched LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND last night. This is a Netflix film that has some folks in the prepper community abuzz. Here’s a brief, and spoiler-free, synopsis.
The film focuses on two families. The Sanfords decide to take a vacation and rent an Airbnb in Long Island. The family consists of Amanda (Mom), Clay (Dad), Rose (daughter, age 13), and Archie (son, age 16). After they arrive to the house, Amanda goes grocery shopping. While she’s putting her bags into her car, she sees a rough looking guy in the parking lot loading cases of bottled water and buckets of freeze-dried food into the back of his truck. Later that day, the family heads to the beach. While there, an oil tanker runs aground at the same beach.
That night, George “GH” Scott and his daughter Ruth show up at the front door. George is the owner of the home. They had been in the city when a blackout occurred, so they drove out to their vacation home. They knew that the Sanfords were there, but they had no way to call ahead as all phone lines, including cell service, are down. Eventually, the two families come to an agreement where they can all stay at the home until they can figure out what’s going on. Information about the situation is spotty at best, but there are a couple of theories posited by the characters.
As the film progresses, we see things like planes crashing, weird animal behavior, and instances of offensive noises causing pain to the characters. There’s also a pretty cool doomsday bunker that gets featured at one point.
All in all, I thought the movie was pretty meh. The plot was interesting, but I felt like there was a lot more that they could have done with it. The director chose to use a lot of “artsy” camera pans and angles that did nothing but make my head hurt. Which I suppose may have been the point, to make the audience physically uncomfortable during certain scenes.
I wanted to like the movie, as I’m a big fan of end of the world films in general. But LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND just didn’t do much for me.
[Note – before my inbox explodes, yes, I’m fully aware that the production company owned by the Obamas was involved with this film. Honestly, that had zero bearing on my opinion of the movie as a whole.]
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The common saying is that the more you know, the less you carry. And while that’s true, I think a lot of people forget to approach it from the other angle – the less you know, the more you should probably carry.
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I recently had to cancel my plans to do a 2024 Real World Prepping wall calendar. Just too many irons in the fire in order for me to get it done in time. However, I’ve already invested quite a bit of work into the project and I don’t want it to go to waste.
So, here’s the plan. Beginning in January, each Monday I’ll be posting on Patreon the tips, suggestions, and goals that would have been in the calendar for that week. The fun begins right away on January 1st!
Here's the link to sign up (Basic Level is just $5/month).
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We took our hike this week at one of our very favorite parks. While I’m being more active, I’m trying to avoid anything overly strenuous for a bit yet, so this was a pretty casual two-mile jaunt.
Survival Tip – Spice(s) of Life
Many long-term storage foods are kind of bland. The focus seems to be on shelf life, first and foremost, with nutrition and taste being secondary considerations at best. Even the venerable rice and beans will get tiresome after a while.
Spices are crucial to a long-term food storage plan. Appetite fatigue is a real thing and it can be mitigated by mixing things up at different meals. Here’s a short list of some things I’d make sure you have available. These aren’t all technically spices, but all are usually found in the same area of the store.
Salt
Pepper (or peppercorns you can grind)
Paprika
Garlic powder
Oregano
Basil
Cinnamon
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper
Bay leaves
Curry powder
Nutmeg
Crushed red pepper
Thyme
Rosemary
Another must have in our kitchen is Rupena’s Poultry and Fish Seasoning. My in-laws turned me on to it several years ago and we like it quite a bit.
Don’t overlook condiments, too. Ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, all that fun stuff will help make boring meals a little more enjoyable.
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.