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 -

This may be a short post but the news yesterday of collusion between the Speaker of the House, John Boehner and Senator Harry Reid’s office on Congress’ ability to dodge some of the pleasantries offered to the rest of us from Obamacare prompted me to try and reach out to those who may still hold out hope of saving the world politically. If you seriously still believe that either party is fighting for your best interests, you are delusional. This isn’t surprising to me really; actually I am more surprised that they leaked this news, but it is a small…

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As preppers, we routinely discuss the need to have firearms for home security. Logically, one of the next questions revolves around how to select the best handgun for home defense. You may know that you need a handgun or someone is telling you that you need to get a handgun to defend your home, but if you have never even held a handgun, how are you supposed to know what to purchase? This issue isn’t constrained to little old ladies or fearful women; men have a lot of questions too. In each case, it is easy to make purchase decisions…

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There is so much knowledge and information in the preparedness community. I love listening to experts speak from their experiences because I never want to stop learning myself. I enjoy reading novels that cater to the survivalist or prepping community because imagination is a skill everyone should have and could help you when you think there are no other options. I am inspired continually as I get the opportunity to take part in a daily dialog with the readers of the Prepper Journal. Like most of you I would imagine, I started reading other blogs and watching YouTube videos to…

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Far too long ago I was given a copy of the book  “More food from small spaces” by Margaret Clark to review. At that time I told Margaret that I wasn’t the fastest reader so not to expect a super speedy response time on her review, but I never meant to drag it out this long. Her book has been staring at me for well over a month even though I have been reading it off and on I kept delaying her the review I promised. Finally I was able to sit down and put my thoughts to word document…

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The other week I stopped and stared at my pantry. Looking in on all of the cans of food, bags of rice, beans and jugs of water gives me a sense of accomplishment and a certain satisfaction in all of our prepping efforts to date. For some reason I got it into my head to arrange things because the pantry had gotten a little disorganized over time. I started by pulling every item out of the pantry and staging them in the kitchen. There were bottles all over the place of dressing –  cans of beans and tomatoes took over…

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As preppers or people who are trying to be more prepared for events in life I imagine that everyone has some of the same thoughts that go through my head whenever I see events like the Colorado floods in the news. I usually go through several emotions based upon whether my family or people I know would be affected, and then I am relieved if we aren’t. Lastly, as the reports of damage and recovery occupy most of the news I begin to wonder if our family could have survived the way millions were forced to do in the Colorado…

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I like my survival knife. Actually, there aren’t many knives out there that I can’t respect on a certain level for their utility and in some cases beauty. Survival knives come in all shapes and sizes and have various compositions and specialties. They have different configurations and nomenclature and if you take a look around carefully you will see a high percentage of guys carry at least one clipped to a pocket. I must not like them as much as some people though because I don’t have that many of them. Apparently, I am an oddball too because if you…

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Axes can be used for so many tasks in a survival or camping situation. Like any tool, especially one with a sharp edge it is important to know how to properly use this piece of equipment if you don’t want to end up with a trip to the ER or worse. Knowing how to use an axe could reduce the amount of work you need to do and keep you safe at the same time. In the two videos below, Survival expert, Ray Mears explains how to use a typical medium sized axe to chop wood safely and efficiently. He…

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Everyone reading this has experienced some level of a skin burn in your life. If you haven’t, you are sheltered and you need to get out in the world! Seriously, from simple sun burns to touching that hot item on the stove, or reaching into the over too quickly most of us have been burned to varying degrees. In their most minor form, burns seldom require much attention, the pain is brief and we go on with our lives. Everything changes if we have a survival situation or disaster for two main reasons. First is that the likelihood you could…

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I am frequently asked questions around the subject of Bug Out Bags. There is certainly a lot of interest and for good reason. Seeing as how we are in the middle of Hurricane season (regardless of whether we have seen a significant one yet) it makes sense especially for those living near coastal areas to have a plan to evacuate. That plan will undoubtedly require packing supplies that you may be forced to live on for an extended amount of time. Even if you live in the middle of the country and the closest coast is a thousand miles away,…

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As preppers we can easily see the value of stocking up on extra food, water and medicines. Having a backup power source like a small solar array or a generator with a supply of treated gasoline is a no brainer, but there is a world of prepping supplies the average prepper either doesn’t consider or else these fall to the bottom of the list. I am talking about higher-end items including but not limited to Night Vision Goggles, Long Range Sniper Rifles, Expensive Rifle scopes, Gas Masks, NBC protection, and Ballistic protection in the form of bulletproof vests. There aren’t…

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The other day I was in my semi-least favorite store, Wal-Mart. I say least favorite only because every time I go there I get the experience I deserve for the price point I am willing to pay.  Part of this is my fault though and it would help if I didn’t pick ridiculously busy days to try and go shopping. As luck would have it I had a day off last week and foolish me thought that shopping on Labor Day would be a good idea. This turned out to be the very opposite of a good idea; a swift…

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When I first got into prepping I listened to a lot of sources. I read a lot of literature, perused websites galore and read books on everything from Survival skills and tactic to prepper fiction. I think the first actual website I came across was Captain Dave’s Survival Center. His blog doesn’t appear to have been updated since January 2010 but at the time I started digging into this topic it was probably late 2008. This time period in my life oddly enough coincided with the stock market crisis in September when my meager 401K lost over half of its…

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In our recent contest, I asked a question of the people who entered and it was, “What aspect of prepping would you like to learn more about?” The answers were all across the spectrum of prepping but quickly one topic rose to the top in terms of the number of requests and that was Food Storage. It was clear that a lot of people are worried about whether or not they have enough food stored up, if they have chosen the right food or maybe have questions about how much food will they need. Why is that? I believe there…

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Yesterday I started with an overview of some security questions I had about our own house from the perspective of a total breakdown (Without Rule Of Law) societal event. In that post we discussed the importance of gathering intelligence, of actually knowing what is going on around you. Now that we know what type of scenario we may have to defend our homes and families from and have a general understanding of knowledge that can help us, I want to talk about some options. Again, just to be clear that anything we plan for can be undone by a wide…

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I have been thinking about security and how it ties into protecting your family a lot lately. I am not sure why, but this is the latest thing that has been an ever-present thought as I go through my daily activities. I suppose it is a logical extension of prepping after food and water sources are shored up that your mind would turn to security. I started to analyze our defensive options at our home since we have chosen to shelter in place should any type of disaster scenario happen. This carried me down several paths that I hope to…

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Editors Note: I don’t know what the future holds, but history has a funny way of repeating itself. I would be lying if I said that I have an optimistic outlook for our near term future. For a myriad of reasons, I and others like me are preparing for a time when the stupid antics of a messed up 20-year-old starlet at an award show aren’t worthy of news attention because the world will really have more important things to worry about. My fear is going through something worse than our grandparents did in the great depression. What I am…

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According to the CDC the prevalence of food and skin allergies has increased at an alarming rate in children under the age of 18 from the year 1997 to 2011. Additionally, they say that Allergic conditions are the most common medical conditions affecting children in the US so it is highly likely that you will have to plan for dealing with allergies in one form or another if the grid goes down. Your plan may involve members of your own family or if you are working within a larger group, chances are that one of the members will have some…

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What would you get if you only had one chance to beat everyone to the stores – if you were faced with the last shopping trip ever… The news on Wednesday mentioned closed-door meetings with the President and the heads of several agencies and organizations dealing with finances. It included members of the Federal Reserve (which is not a government agency) the FDIC, the CFTC, and the SEC as well as the Federal Housing Agency.  This meeting has a lot of people spooked and you can read some reasons why on the SHTFPlan blog. Actually, by the time this post…

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The moments after a crisis or disaster can be incredibly chaotic. In today’s world, we receive near instantaneous feedback from news outlets, images on TV and the internet of destruction and rumors. The fog of any major event like this can leave us confused and in some cases panicked. If you are involved in the actual disaster yourself, you may be injured or scared. When you are faced with this type of scenario most people are usually quick to contact loved ones to discuss what happened and to touch base. If you are in the middle of an event like…

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Everybody loves a good deal and when I see one I try not to pass it up. If I do, I am usually reminded of that great opportunity that I wasted at some point in the near future and have a Homer Simpson “Doh!” moment where I slap my head in disgust. Fortunately for me, I was able to take advantage of what I considered to be an excellent opportunity to get a piece of very high-quality survival gear for a ridiculous price. I was at a gun show recently and as I was scanning the tables I noticed a…

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If the world goes to hell in a handbasket you may wish at some point that you had hidden supplies or a survival cache filled with items that you don’t want to be found. What if there are confiscations of gold like there were back in the ’30s when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102? What if you have a simple home robbery? What if you are forced to evacuate without enough time or the ability to take all of your valuables with you? What if there is a relatively normal “Natural Disaster” that blows your house away with all…

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As you work through your list of preparedness items to consider for a disaster or emergency, you inevitably arrive at cooking. Having a good quantity of stored foods is the primary concern so that you can feed your family and stay healthy. Assuming you have checked the box on your food storage plans, the next item in the same vein is how to cook that food you have stocked up in your pantry. What will you do if the electricity is not working due to a black out? What if the natural gas has been shut off because of an…

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In a high percentage of survival situations; you might argue all of them, clothing is a major component. For your Bug Out Bag we generally see recommendations of a change of clothing, or clothing to protect you from the elements, should you be stranded. Clothing is a part of a larger area of concern and that is shelter because clothing can help protect you from the elements. It is not the same as having a building to go into, but the proper clothing can save your life. We talked about this in our article on controlling your core body temperature…

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You have probably heard of seed saving, where you save a plant’s seeds or tubers at the end of a growing season to serve as the seed source for the following year. This is great because choosing the proper plants and practicing proper seed-saving methods gives you to a free, self-perpetuating garden year after year. Saving seed also means you can share seeds with friends and neighbors, so everyone can start growing their own. Many people, however, are not as familiar with the concept of a survival seed bank. A survival seed bank is like seed saving on steroids. You…

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By: Rick Mansfield Slow cookers are wonderful things. Of course, where I grew up, we simply called them “Crock Pots.” But since that’s a trademarked brand name, they are usually referred to as “slow cookers” when speaking of the devices generically. Crock Pot cooking is great for preparing an entire meal by planning a few hours ahead. Just throw in the ingredients, set the temperature, and let it go. However, as any cast iron aficionado will understand, sometimes you just prefer to break out the black iron. And as any experienced cast iron cook knows, you don’t really need special…

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We have home schooled two of our children since the age of 3. My wife and I feel that homeschooling is the best option for a child, all things being equal. Of course, this requires a loving, caring, extremely patient, disciplined, creative, passionate parent. Fortunately, my children have that in their mother. Assuming you have most of those qualities and are game for the challenge and sacrifice (single working parent income in some cases), I can’t think of a single downside to homeschooling. Let me restate that. I can’t think of a single downside to homeschooling that matters. There are…

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Editors Note: As Preppers we normally consider medical injuries in our plans. The “Band-Aid” piece of the whole puzzle is a little easier to follow than other subjects because we have more experience with treating wounds like this. If you have a cut, you know you have to stop the bleeding and keep the wound clean so it can heal. In some cases, stitches or a tourniquet or a sling may be required but a lot of us have played doctor before and these concepts aren’t so foreign. Dental emergencies, on the other hand, require very specialized treatment in a…

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I was approached via email back in June of this year by a reporter in New York State who was covering a local story about a man who had been killed in a gun accident. Apparently, the man was cleaning a shotgun and it was loaded. The shotgun went off and he died from a wound to the chest. What does that have to do with me you ask? The reporter said that this man along with many other things was a Prepper and he wanted to get some background about the Prepping Movement to accompany the other article about the…

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When we got our chickens back in March I was looking forward to so many things about having them in our yard. From the eggs we would be eating to the benefits of having them scrounge through our garden to the simple things like hearing them cluck as they scratched around their pen. Having Chickens brings a whole wealth of advantages to just about anyone and they are for the most part ridiculously easy to care for. As we were building the pen and purchasing the additional supplies needed, the subject of water came into focus. Chickens are very simple…

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