The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 15
Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. I’m working my fingers to nubs hammering out content for our upcoming Gear Guide special. I may have underestimated how much work I needed to do on this before the end of this week. I’ll get it all done, but I might have a few late nights before I get there.
I’m writing this on Tuesday, and today is the birthday of British author Samuel Youd. He passed back in 2012. You may have heard of him via his most well-known pen name, John Christopher. Under that name as well as several others, he wrote dozens of books. His most famous work was his Tripods Trilogy (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, The Pool of Fire), which was adapted to TV in the UK at least once. It was an earlier book, Empty World, that started me on my post-apocalyptic fiction interest, a passion I still have today. It isn’t a stretch at all to say that Sam Youd is one of the people directly responsible for what I do for a living today. I’m glad I had the opportunity to share that with him before he passed. One of my most prized possessions is this signed sticker he sent me to put in my copy of Empty World.
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Prepper Tip -- There’s been some rumblings on prepper social media about the possibility of hyperinflation hitting the US in the near future. This is a severe form in inflation, where the costs of goods and services skyrockets in a short period of time. Imagine a gallon of milk going for $3.00 today and $5.00 at the end of the week, then $8.00 next week, and so on.
Now, this “threat” has been talked about in preparedness circles quite a bit in the last few years, and I’m not suggesting that it’s going to happen anytime soon. But, on the list of major disasters, it’s definitely one of more realistic ones.
Fortunately, many of the strategies you can use to cushion the blow of hyperinflation are things that will benefit you even if it never happens. Here are two quick suggestions.
1) Do everything you can to retire debts that have an adjustable interest rate, such as credit cards. The higher those interest rates climb, the bigger the bite of your wallet they’ll take. Don’t get me wrong, working on fixed rate debts is also wise, but if you have to choose where to focus, work on those credit cards first.
2) Stock up on staples as best you can. Think about it like this. Remember at the height of the shopping frenzy during COVID, when you couldn’t find things like toilet paper? Those kinds of store runs could happen again if hyperinflation seems to be starting. People will want to buy everything they can before the prices jump again. However, don’t go into debt to do this. Just buy what you can afford when you have a little extra to spend.
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Here’s a tip courtesy of my good friend Craig Caudill at Nature Reliance School. Many of us like to use metal water bottles when we hit the trail. If you have any thoughts of using it to boil water in the field, such as to make it safe to drink or to use it to rehydrate food, be sure that you’re using a single-walled container. The double-walled models, like those advertised as being vacuum-sealed, can explode when you try to boil water in them over a fire.
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Alice Jones Webb has a fun article here about old wives’ tales and how accurate they really are.
While you’re there, I recommend subscribing to her Substack. She’s a great writer.
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A few days ago, I was told that Tractor Supply was carrying Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide (2nd edition). I checked my local store and didn’t see it, but others might still have it on the shelf, in case you’re interested.
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If you have young children in your circle, this is a great article from Daisy Luther about getting them ready to fend for themselves at home for short periods of time.
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Events in the Middle East lately have a lot of people nervous. There’s always a chance of some sort of retaliatory efforts made against the US and other countries. Rather than fret about what might or might not happen, my suggestion is to keep moving forward with your prepping plans. A few things you might want to take care of sooner rather than later:
--Make sure you have adequate cash on hand, in case banks and ATMS have problems.
--Gas up your vehicles and fill spare cans. Prices are likely to go up rather than down.
--Review your “inventory” and see if there are any gaps you can easily fill.
Also, keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary when you’re out and about. If you see something, say something. If possible, you might want to limit out of town travel. Stick close to home.
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We were accompanied on our hike this week by our youngest son. Because he was tagging along, we chose a trail near his home. We don’t see him nearly often enough.
Survival Tip – Pill Organizers
Medication organizers have been around for quite some time. For many people, a weekend ritual is sitting down and filling each of the little compartments with their meds and vitamins. In the last couple of years of his life, my dad had two and sometimes three organizers, due to all of the prescriptions he was taking.
They work well for keeping you on track with meds, but there’s another use for them. They’re excellent for storing OTC medications for your first aid kits, Bug Out Bags, and the like. Fill each compartment with a different medication, being sure to label each properly. What I do is then toss the organizer into a ziplock plastic bag to keep it protected from moisture. For labeling, you could put a small sticker on the front or bottom of the organizer and write down the contents on it, such as:
Sunday = Ibuprofen
Monday = Immodium
Tuesday = Antacids
And so on.
You can find these priced pretty cheap at dollar stores.
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.
What a terrific addition to your favored book. That was kind of him.