Author: Pat Henry

Freedom-loving American doing what I can to help prepare and inform others. Editor and creator of The Prepper Journal 2013-2017, 2020 -

It’s that time of year again folks! Time to break out the winter gloves, warm coats, toboggans and scarfs because old man winter is coming. I have been waiting for the weather to get colder myself but I am in a small minority apparently. Everyone I talk to would rather be on the beach somewhere soaking up the sun. I like beach vacations as much as the next person, but I like some really cold weather every year to make me appreciate the warm days of summer. I don’t feel right unless there has been some form of winter snow…

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Don’t Fool Yourself into Thinking You Have Nothing to Worry About Preppers can fairly quickly find themselves at the mercy of our own minds. We create the need and the solution in our lives by analyzing threats and weighing the likelihood of various disasters – natural and man-made and then craft plans for how we will deal with those disasters when they come. The problem comes when we analyze the disasters and settle upon a strategy that we think will either protect us completely or mitigate all of the undesirable effects of that crisis we are planning for. This is…

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I was talking to someone who is still learning about the Prepper Movement and she asked me what I thought about Open Carry. She specifically asked me for my opinion on should you open carry or not. I have heard a lot of positions both for and against Open Carry and I wanted to discuss them on the Prepper Journal. As with everything else I have my opinions and hopefully you will share yours as well in the comments section below. Before I get too deep into this article, I have to state the obvious and that is regardless of…

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Many of us who value our 2nd Amendment rights have heard and perhaps even shouted the phrase Charlton Heston seems to be responsible for making famous “From My Cold Dead Hands”. He may not have been the first to say this and he will most certainly not be the last, but it is a powerful statement that many people like me choose to say whenever we are confronted with the threat of some form of Gun Confiscation. The clear vision of someone having to kill you in order to disarm you is visceral and matches the fervor that most of…

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One of the concerns of anyone who is preparing for a SHTF scenario if you are being honest is the dark side of human nature. You can have all of the supplies you ever need; you could have a fully stocked pantry with enough food to feed your family for 10 years, enough ammo to conduct a 21 gun salute every minute of the day for the next 5 years and it could all be taken from you in a minute by desperate individuals who care nothing for you or your family. When hard times come, the true survival instinct…

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I love reading books about post-apocalyptic situations, seeing how the author envisions everything going down and how people in the story cope during times of trials. When I was new to Prepping, I read several books for different perspectives and imagined myself in the same scenarios as the protagonists. I was the humble leader who quietly assumed the responsibility for protecting my family against a wide array of obstacles, threats and challenges. It is fiction, but with a dose of reality because in most of these books we have history to fall back on for a lot of the nastier…

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A ghillie suit is something I have been meaning to buy forever. When it comes to camouflage for hunting or sneaking up on people, there isn’t much better if you are using this the right way, but I never pulled the trigger so to speak on any of the pre-made varieties I have come across. I was watching Doomsday Preppers last night and one of the small nuggets of usefulness I was able to pull out of last night’s show was how to make a ghillie suit yourself. The steps below are fairly easy and we even found a video…

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Editors Note: This post as well as a few others have been delayed because of a server migration effort here at the Prepper Journal and the car trip mentioned below. I hope to get back on schedule finally and return to our daily posts, but it might be a little bumpy for a couple of days. Thanks for sticking in there with us. I returned from our Thanksgiving trip Sunday amid millions of other people on the same highways it seems. Funny how bumper to bumper traffic can give you time to think. We had spent several days with my…

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The news is buzzing recently about the “knockout game”. This is the latest dangerous fad for stupid people to get their kicks at the expense of others. The goal of this “game” is to hit someone so hard you knock them out. Drudge Report has several headlines on his site; the latest is of three knockout cases in Philadelphia. The MO seems to be in most cases to sucker punch someone when they aren’t suspecting it. The victims do not appear to be robbed of anything in most cases, just injured physically although some have died. I could get into…

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When we are planning for our family’s safety, preppers employ a wide spectrum of ideas, plans and approaches to getting their family out of danger or protect them from danger in the first place. This is a noble goal and one that I myself strive to achieve in some way daily. When you are planning on surviving though, it is important to take a minute or two and consider the people you are trying to protect. If your grand prepper plans for keeping the family safe or healthy are for whatever reason abhorrent to the same members you are trying…

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If you have as one of your concerns a total collapse in society – regardless of the reason, there are people out there who will tell you that you need to have knowledge or survival skills you can sell. Why is this? Let’s take the example scenario of an economic collapse? If there are no jobs as a customer service representative or a social media consultant; what will you do to make money? What will the people who traded stock on wall street do? What about people who sell cars? If we ever live through a true economic collapse, the…

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As often as possible, I sit down on Tuesday nights to watch Doomsday Preppers. I do this for a lot of reasons, but I think the biggest reason is to learn lessons and gain information from other people who are out there prepping too. I also watched American Blackout for the same reasons and felt that show was presented in a way that anyone could learn something from watching imaginary people going through an imaginary nationwide power outage that lasted 10 days. The most recent episode of Doomsday Preppers is called “We Are the Marauders” and believe it or not,…

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I have discussed potential risks with bartering in the past that I still feel would be valid, but assuming that barter was the only form of commerce you could use I wanted to write down my thoughts on what I felt would be the best bartering items to have on hand. If you could stock up on prepping items now with an eye toward a future without money, what would be the best items to have on hand for barter with someone else? If we have an event similar to the nationwide power outage portrayed in American Blackout, there is…

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Preppers come from all walks of life. There is no common demographic, ethnicity, country or religion that is owned by people who call themselves Preppers. Preppers range from the working class poor to ultra-wealthy and everyone in between. People who are on their own in college to multi-generational families call themselves preppers so there is a high probability that what you are looking at within your own prepping sphere of influence is not going to be what all others are dealing with. Each person, family or group that is concerned about the future, or the possibility that they may have…

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Last week on National Geographic’s American Blackout we got to see a lot of common problems presented as the result of a power grid collapse that lasted 10 days. One problem that everyone faced, but didn’t receive a lot of air time was the lack of drinking water. National Geographic did not demonstrate any methods for obtaining water other than going to the store, or as in the case of the people trapped in the elevator and eventually the roof of a building, collecting some from a bucket that had been left in the rain. Since water is one of…

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When we start talking about prepping, or Preppers, the root of that word or concept is prepare. All prepare means and Prepping by extension, is to get ready. The obvious question that follows is to get ready “for what”? The what, in that question determines the activity that you choose to take part in and determining “what” to prepare for has already been done by most of you out there or you wouldn’t be reading this article most likely. If your “what” is a power outage like they demonstrated in American Blackout, you would prepare (get ready) for that situation…

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As a prepper, I find a lot of inspiration from watching movies that have some element of doomsday survival. Not so much the fantastical aspects, but the more mundane like any blind spots I might have in the food storage department. If you haven’t watched, National Geographic’s American Blackout, I highly recommend it. One of the many opportunities to learn something from this survival movie was the scene that inspired me to learn how to open a can without a can opener. Actually, this post when it first came out resonated with a lot of people on Facebook who had…

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The headlines are predicting doom on November 1st  when the USDA projects that the average monthly food stamp payment of approximately $272 per household will be cut by $36 dollars. Experts are saying to expect food riots as people all over the country suddenly learn that either they aren’t able to feed their family anymore or become angry with the news that this entitlement has been taken away from them. Is it really possible that people will riot over this news? I think it could happen, but usually when experts in the media are forecasting riots and pinning a date…

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In our family, I am the Prepper with a capital P. I am mainly responsible for acquiring the gear, skills and knowledge and I have an interest in the subject of prepping and survival that most of the rest of my family does not. My family, to a much lesser extent is aware of my plans and supplies and general knowledge of the way I have been preparing for various scenarios but the main job of prepping falls on my shoulders. This isn’t because nobody in my family is capable, but I think there is still very much a “that’s…

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Like millions of others on Sunday night, I plopped down in front of the TV to watch National Geographic’s American Blackout. I was curious to see how the hypothetical scenario of a 10 day nationwide power outage caused by terrorism would be portrayed. I was also watching this as I do with each episode of Doomsday Preppers to gain new insight or ideas from the other people on the show. While there are some silly moments and outlandish situations on some of the more notorious prepping shows, there are always nuggets of information if you know where to find them…

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In preparation for National Geographic’s debut of American Blackout this coming Sunday; I wanted to create my own power outage checklist for preppers. The premise of the show from the website is “the story of a national power failure in the United States caused by a cyber-attack — told in real-time, over 10 days, by those who kept filming on cameras and phones.” I have high hopes for this show and genuinely hope to learn new things and gain fresh insights from the portrayal of these events. If nothing else, I hope the situations they present inspire and motivate others…

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One of the wisest things you can do with any aspect of prepping is to have direct first-hand knowledge of how to use whatever skill, tool or gear you are counting on to save your life. This applies to so many things, but it bears repeating. If you purchase a generator to keep the lights on for your family, you should start that puppy up once a year at least. Make sure you know that it works first of all, that you have the proper fuels and lubricants and know how to make it run. If you don’t know all…

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I wanted to give away this free ammo inventory spreadsheet. Hopefully, it helps some of you out there keep track of how much ammo you have on hand and what’s left to acquire to meet your prepping goals. As we Preppers do our thing of planning, prioritizing, and eventually acquiring supplies, skills, and knowledge at some point you might need a hand organizing everything you have. There might be one or two of you out there with a set up as they have in the picture for this post, but the rest of us need some help. For most people…

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I remember cruising around some of the blogs I frequent last year I believe and ran into one YouTube channel from a prepper who said he refused to get his HAM license for anything. I can’t swear by it, but I think I remember who he was, but that isn’t important. In this video, he proceeded to show how you could look up any Ham radio license holder’s address from several different websites. He did this in response to someone who left very incendiary comments on his blog if memory serves, and used this as a lesson in both OPSEC…

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I had this thought as I was walking around the other day and wanted to jot down some answers to common questions I see asked and answered out there regarding the Prepper Movement. I do this in an effort to share my understanding of what we are, what we are doing and have some fun at the same time. What are Preppers? Preppers are normal everyday people just like you. Well, most of you. They go to work every day, pay the bills, have families and concerns and are somewhat in tune with current events but perhaps more so, historical…

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OK, from the title you might think I am a cruel psychopath monster who doesn’t care about children and that could not be further from the truth. I am a parent myself with 3 children whom I love dearly. I have also worked with young kids for the last decade in various volunteer capacities so I have experience with not only my own children, but others in my care. I never want to see any child hurt and my heart breaks along with millions of other parents when there is a tragedy where a child is injured. This post is…

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Oh, if I only had a million dollars I could purchase everything I think I could need if the grid went down for good. I tell myself that sometimes when I am driving around thinking about everything still to be done and I guess that I use that as an excuse for any shortcomings in my plan. Taking steps to be more prepared when you start to plan for a lot of contingencies can quickly start hitting the wallet and if you aren’t careful your new found hobby of urgent acquisition of survival gear and supplies can hurt your finances…

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The other night my wife and I watched World War Z. I had been putting off seeing this movie primarily due to some reviews I had heard that painted this movie as a giant piece of propaganda for the UN. I had up until that time, wanted to see this movie when I first saw the trailer because I love movies like this (zombies, c’mon!) and was a little bummed that I shouldn’t because of “bad stuff”. Going solely on this one review, I quickly got over my excitement at seeing zombies get wasted and  forgot the movie existed. I…

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