The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 11, Issue 33
Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. We’re in the middle of a particularly brutal heat wave here, with temps topping out around 110F with the heat index. Weather like this is perfect for hunkering down at my desk to write and edit. I’ve done a lot of jobs in the heat over the years, including working an annealing furnace and spending hours in traffic every day in a black car with no A/C. These days, if I don’t have to be out in it, I’ll pass, thank you very much. My optimum operating temperature outdoors is somewhere around 45F or so.
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Prepper Tip -- I came across this video last week.
Checking out other reports of the incident, what’s known for certain at this point is that the guy in the salmon shirt followed the guy in the truck into the gated community where truck guy lives. Salmon shirt then swerved in front of him, stopped his car, and got out, holding a handgun as he stomped his way to the truck’s driver’s side door.
If you’re the driver, what do you do? Where you live, what are you legally allowed to do?
This situation didn’t end up with shots fired, but it’s worth noting that the driver of the truck was also armed. Salmon shirt was later arrested and charged with a small list of crimes.
But if you’re the person in the truck, how close would you have let salmon shirt get with that handgun? Does your answer change whether you’re alone or if you have loved ones with you?
Do you have a dash cam? That might go a long way toward helping to justify your actions in a situation like this.
This type of road rage isn’t uncommon. It’s a situation that might come up in your life. How would you handle it?
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Our new podcast, How to Survive 2025, is quickly gaining fans. If you haven’t already, please check it out and let us know what you think. This page has links to all of the popular streaming sites and we’re also on YouTube (hosted through Brian Keene’s page there).
You can also Like and Follow us on our various social media pages:
My Patreon subscribers always get each episode about a week before everyone else.
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My in-laws recently had to put their dog down due to some health issues. Obviously, a very hard thing to do and very stressful. As they were getting ready to take him in, they wanted to snap a few last photos, only to find that neither of their phones had any data space left. Neither of them knew how to download or delete photos from their phones and it was too late to ask for help, so they ended up not getting the photos they wanted.
Two takeaways:
1) I’ve said before that if you’re going to carry a cell phone, you should know how to use it. This includes transferring photos from it and then deleting them to save space.
2) When was the last time you cleaned up your phone?
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I found out a few days ago that John McCann and his wife Denise are retiring. They’ve run Survival Resources for ages. John was also an early mentor of mine and is someone I consider a good friend.
Check out their site as they’re running a liquidation sale.
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I’m partnering with my local county emergency management team to put on a small preparedness event next month. They are doing Narcan training and CPR/AED training, followed by a Prepping 101 presentation by yours truly. While the event is completely free, they are requiring registration so they know how many people to plan for with supplies. All they need is a name and email address. You can scan the QR code in the flyer below or just click here.
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For our hike this week, we went to a nature area we’ve not been to in quite a while. As you’ll find out when you get to the Survival Tip a little below, it wasn’t one of best times I’ve personally had on the trail. But, there was some gorgeous scenery, including this little bend in the river.
Survival Tip – Mistakes
Even those of us who should know better can screw up. Here’s what happened.
I looked at the weather forecast back on Friday and while it was going to be hot all weekend, Saturday was only going to be the low 80s. Sunday through Tuesday, we’re under heat advisories. We should have gone hiking Saturday, but honestly, I was feeling lazy and just wanted to bum around the house, so we didn’t go.
Mistake #1 – disregarding the weather when making plans for outdoor activities.
When I got up Sunday morning, I woke in a cranky mood. Probably because our A/C crapped the bed on Saturday and it was already getting warm in the house. Given a free choice, I’ll always take cold weather over hot weather. In any event, I wanted to get going on the hike because I knew it was only going to get hotter as the day went on. In my rush to get out of the house, I forgot to grab a bandana or one of my cooling towels. We’re still in the process of outfitting our new van, so it isn’t stocked with all the standard gear yet.
Mistake #2 – leaving the house unprepared for known threats.
The nature area we chose to tackle is about 30 minutes from our house. We’ve been there before, but it’s been a few years. There are numerous trails that run through the area. I snapped a photo of the map at the trailhead before we headed out. The plan was to follow Trail A until it intersected with Trail B, then take B back to the parking lot. All told, just a couple of miles. However, I misunderstood where we were on the map when we started out, so we ended up on an entirely different trail. We found our way eventually, but I was furious with myself, which didn’t add to the enjoyment of the hike by any means.
Mistake #3 – not paying attention to details.
About two-thirds of the way into our hike, we came upon a series of large hills. Now, we’d been to this nature area before, but we were taking new-to-us trails and hadn’t expected to come across these hills. I have no way to accurately judge the elevation gain, but I can tell you that one of the hills was steep enough and long enough that I had to stop twice to catch my breath and by the time I got to the top, I had serious concerns about my health and well-being. I mean, I obviously survived, but it took a bit to get my breath and pulse back under control. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was a little nervous and came within an ace of calling for help.
Mistake #4 – overestimating my physical condition.
On top of all of that, we didn’t bring water with us on the trail. This was just supposed to be a couple of miles, so we didn’t worry about it. By the time we finally got headed back to the parking lot, I was feeling some symptoms of heat exhaustion. I was a little faint and I felt nauseous and nearly vomited a couple of times. I was sweating profusely and my heart was pounding. I was exhausted and just wanted to sit and rest.
Mistake #5 – not bringing water.
When we got back to the van, I slowly drank some water and sat down for a bit before we headed for home with the A/C on full blast. As I write this, we’ve been home a couple of hours and other than feeling worn out, I’m okay. But, yeah, that could have gotten ugly quite easily, just due to stupid mistakes made by someone who for damn sure should know better.
Backwoods Survival Guide Magazine
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