The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 10, Issue 46
Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. By the time this lands in your inbox, I’ll be back home from my surgery. It was originally scheduled for a few weeks ago, but it was postponed until now. Fingers crossed all goes well. I’m not overly nervous about it, but there’s a certain level of anxiety involved with any medical procedure, I think. The plan is for me to take a day or two off, but then get back to work by the end of the week. We’ll see how it all plays out.
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving where you live, I still hope you had a great weekend. We didn’t do much Black Friday shopping at all, which is perfectly fine with us. I spent several years bouncing to a bunch of stores the morning after Thanksgiving. Honestly, it was kind of fun as it became sort of a contest to see how quickly I could get in and out of each place. But these days, we do most of that sort of shopping online, which is much less peopley.
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While details haven’t been finalized yet, I’ve been invited to do a book signing and possibly a short class of some sort at a bookstore in Columbia, Pennsylvania next year. I’m excited about this as I’ve never been to that part of the country before. I’ll be sure to make a proper announcement once all of the details have been worked out.
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Prepper Tip -- Most would agree that mindset is extremely important when it comes to surviving a crisis. You can have all the tools in the world, but if your head’s not in the game, you’re going to struggle. However, there’s a difference between confidence and arrogance and it is important to understand the distinction.
Confidence is knowing you possess the knowledge and abilities needed to overcome the problem you’re facing. It is typically gained from practice, study, and experience.
Arrogance is an inability to consider the chance that you could make a mistake, and thus you may not recognize when your plans or actions are ineffective or going awry. Further, it tends to inhibit learning, particularly learning through trial by error. Quite often, arrogance is the result of not having your skills put to the test in any meaningful way.
Confidence will help you make it through a disaster or emergency. Having faith in your abilities is vital to success. Be convinced, all the way down to a molecular level, that you’re going to prevail in the crisis at hand.
Arrogance…well, that can get you killed. Life, karma, and Mother Nature all take a dim view of arrogance. Get too cocky and one or more of them will smack you upside the head. Never lose sight of the fact that you’re only human and thus you’re not infallible. Tempting fate is often a losing proposition.
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It was 11 years ago this week that my very first book, PREPPER’S HOME DEFENSE, landed on my doorstep. The book didn’t go live on Amazon for another couple of weeks, but I’ll never forget the feeling of opening that box of books.
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Many of us are familiar with the acronym ICE, which stands for In Case of Emergency, and refers to a specific contact listing you’re supposed to put into your phone. The idea is that if you’re in an accident or something else happens where you’re unable to respond to questions, EMT personnel can look in your phone and easily find your emergency contact person.
I stumbled on this product on Facebook over the weekend, and honestly, I’m amazed that this is the first I’m ever seeing something like this.
The concept is simple. You have a small tag that fits on your keychain notifying rescuers that you have a wallet card with information they need to check. The wallet card identifies someone who should be notified of the situation so that they can get to your house to care for your pets. Obviously, this is something you’d have arranged with that person ahead of time, providing them with a key to your home and instructions on what to do to take care of your critters.
Whether you purchase this kit or you come up with a DIY version, this is something I highly recommend all pet owners do.
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I had someone ask me about my magazines recently, wanting to know which one I’d recommend if they could only afford to get a subscription to one of them. Here’s how I see the difference between the two.
Prepper Survival Guide is focused on, well, prepping. We discuss developing skills and stockpiling supplies that will help you keep yourself and your family safe in a crisis.
Backwoods Survival Guide is more along the lines of self-reliance and homesteading, with a healthy dollop of outdoor-centric activities.
Subscriptions to either or both can be found here.
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Our hike this week was a visit to one of my very favorite nature areas. It’s fairly small, but it has some really cool “ruins” that are remnants from a resort that closed up back around 1948.
Survival Tip – Prepping and Realism
I’ve talked about this before, but I felt it was worth touching on again. A week or so ago, I was surfing through YouTube and checking out various videos on bug out bags and similar kits. Came across one where the so-called “Go Bag” the guy was showcasing was ridiculously large. Seriously, it was so big he could have probably crawled inside of it, if it weren’t already packed to bursting with gear.
Here's another example of this sort of thing. Several years ago, I attended a prepper meeting and the topic of the day was bug out bags. The class/meeting was being held at a library. As we were waiting for everyone to get there, I noticed one guy walk in the front door and begin making his way to where we were sitting. The bag he was carrying was enormous. By the time he got to where we were sitting, he was breathing so heavily I thought we were about to have a cardiac event.
Listen, if the bag is so big and heavy that you can barely carry it, then you can’t rightly call it a “Go Bag,” can you? Sure, you could probably lob it into a car or truck, but push comes to shove and you end up on foot, then what?
Always try to keep a level head when it comes to prepping and avoid flights of fancy, such as being able to carry a 150lb pack on your back for miles on end.
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.