Author: Pat Henry

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The internet is a fascinating place and you never know what you will find if you go looking around long enough. As a prepper myself, I have to try to broaden my horizons from time to time because after a while of looking, you do start to see some repetition. I guess I am guilty of adding to this repetition somewhat myself obviously with the Prepper Journal. There is content that we post that has been covered before, but I hope we add a different viewpoint in some cases. I like to rationalize covering topics that have been well documented…

In my posts, I sometimes write about potential future scenarios. There are a lot of various potentials that can frame the settings for the conversations we have here around how to prepare. There are some potential scenarios we discuss like a full-blown revolution or EMP that don’t end with power coming back on, stores opening again, and life going back to normal. Most catastrophic events don’t seem to have happy endings. At least in theory, “the end” of some scenarios may be so far away and the road you may have to take toward that end may be more than…

Editors Note: I came across this post from ITS Tactical and it does an extremely excellent job of showcasing 5 knots for survival that every prepper needs to know. This is something I have personally wanted to master because there are no end to the situations where you will need to tie something off. Standard granny knots are not going to be the best option in 99% of the cases and you ideally have a knot suited for the purpose that doesn’t require you to cut your cordage and can be easily undone. The trick is practice and committing these…

You should be riding around with survival gear in your vehicle. Period. But just in case you get caught empty-handed, it doesn’t hurt to know how to scavenge a vehicle for the useful pieces to help you survive. Now I understand that most people usually don’t feel right about destroying their possessions, especially something as significant as a vehicle. But if you end up in an emergency situation, and you need to tear up your ride for the raw materials as a matter of survival, then it’s time to color outside the lines. After all, your vehicle (and the pieces…

Editors Note: Dogs offer so much in the way of security and companionship that I would advocate seriously considering adopting one for your own family if you have the temperament and lifestyle that would support a dog. In a survival situation having a dog could be a great advantage, but a fully trained and obedient dog is critical. The article below from Cari Schofield covers some important training considerations. There are millions of people out there who would never leave their dogs behind in any emergency situation if they can help it. That is wonderful and that sort of…

Most of us have family that lives in another town or another state from us. I have immediate family that lives over 1000 miles away and as luck would have it we are visiting with them now. We were sitting around having coffee the other day and the subject of a potential of a SHTF type of event came up. These members of my family share many of the same beliefs as I about what to plan for and the growing threats on the horizon so I asked them what they would do if everything went sideways. Their response was…

Are you afraid of the dark? Me either, but darkness brings about a whole new set of challenges you don’t need. When the power goes out and it happens at night-time, I can still get around my house just like most of you could as well, but not as quickly as I do with light. I can still make it out of my bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen, but navigating familiar paths isn’t really crucial. Lighting options are needed for a lot of things more important than walking down the hall and having a plan for light…

OK, I will admit right now that I like good zombie stories when done well in a movie. Call me what you will, but for escapism fun, not much tops a mindless horde of undead walking up on the unsuspecting good guy. As they shuffle slowly, arms outstretched, your body tenses as they get closer to him nearly reaching his back with dirty long fingernails. Naturally, our good guy realizes that a bunch of stinky, usually moaning, rotting corpses, with tattered clothes, are behind him just in time to whirl around with some form of a blunt weapon, nicely smashing…

There are a lot of ways to eat food if the grid goes down, but almost without fail the best way is hot. Oh, sure you can swallow a lot if you are on the run. MRE’s were designed to be eaten cold. Canned food is edible right from the can, but I haven’t met a meal yet that didn’t taste better with a little doctoring. Maybe its some spices or cheese, but heating almost anything up makes it taste better. The warmer your meal is, especially in colder months, the better you feel when you are eating it. A…

I have seen the advertisements for Rick Austin’s book, Secret Garden of Survival on a lot of blogs in the prepping community, but had not really considered it much. There wasn’t any reason that I passed it by, but I guess something didn’t trigger me to find out more about this book until last week when I stumbled on a glowing review from another source. Now, my curiosity was peaked so I went out to Amazon to check out the book further. The premise of this book is that it will teach you how to grow a camouflaged food forest…

You can make rope or natural cordage (rope and string) from many different fibers including (Bast) Dogbane, Milkweed, Nettles, Hemp, Flax; (Leaves) Cattail, Yucca, Agave, Douglas Iris; (Bark) Willow, Maple, Basswood, Cedar; (Root) Leather Root, Beach Lupine; (Whole stem) Tule, straw, Juncus. Each material has specific requirements for extracting and preparing the fibers, but there are only two basic ways for using the fibers to make rope or cord: braiding (or plaiting) and twining. Braiding was usually done with flat, split materials such as cattail or flattened straw. The instructions in this article will deal only with twining to make…

The Basics of Wound Care and Practical Plastic Surgery for Non-surgeons are two resources I came across on the web today. There was a link from another site, but I closed my browser and don’t remember who initially directed me to this resource. The Basics of Wound Care is a booklet that you can download that goes into pretty graphic detail about identifying and treating a wide variety of wounds. If pictures of really nasty wounds cause you to get sick, you better just download this one and let somebody else read it. Another really great book is Practical Plastic…

One item that can take up a lot of space and potentially the most weight in your bug out bag is a tent. That is unless of course you are spending a lot of money to get an ultra-light tent that folds up into the size of an Altoids tin and expands to sleep 20 people comfortably. Actually, when my family and I went camping in the great outdoors a while back, I had two tents in my pack because my children were too young at the time to handle the extra weight. Each tent was a two man tent…

Have you ever wondered what makes a person snap? What causes a normal, quiet, everyday citizen, loving mother, or doting father to lose it all and fight like a caged animal? What can cause a small village to rise up and rebel against an oppressive police force and start killing them? What is the switch that gets flipped that causes a city to pour two million people into the streets, chanting and demanding to be heard by their government? Lately it feels more and more as though we are on standing on the edge of some yawning precipice peering over…

If you have ever heard the term EDC or Every Day Carry and know what that means, there is almost without fail mention of a flashlight. Flashlights are one of those items that can be used for far more than you might expect and are sorely missed if you don’t have one at the right time. I started carrying a tactical flashlight daily over 3 years ago and was surprised at how often I found myself using this simple but important device. Most of us grew up with some concept of a flashlight. The flashlight in my home growing up…

This is the fifth in a series for the beginning prepper on how to get started Prepping. In part one of this series we covered defining your priorities and making sure you have a sufficient store of water. The second article covered planning for long-term food storage and selecting the best firearm for self-defense. In the third installment, we dealt with financial security and having appropriate medical supplies to treat basic injuries. The fourth installment begins to discuss backup power options and how your family can be ready with lifesaving power if the grid goes down. Step 8 – Home…

The news seems to always be a sober reminder of the importance of being prepared for any one of a number of scenarios. Here at the Prepper Journal we try to present information in a way that is informative and compelling on a wide variety of topics. Readers have to analyze for themselves the information we share. If it makes sense, your job is to then use your best judgment and formulate a plan for how you will take steps to prepare your family. The individual steps and plans might all be different from person to person, situation to situation.…

This is the fourth in a series for the beginning prepper on how to get started Prepping. In part one of this series we covered defining your priorities and making sure you have a sufficient store of water. The second article covered planning for long term food storage and selecting the best firearm for self-defense. In the third installment, we dealt with financial security and having appropriate medical supplies to treat basic injuries. The fourth installment went a little longer than I anticipated so I will deal with Home Security and Communications in the next one. Step 7 – Backup…

This is the third in a series for the beginning prepper on how to get started Prepping. In part one of this series, we covered defining your Priorities and making sure you have a sufficient store of water. The second article covered planning for long term food storage and selecting the best firearm for self-defense. Prepping 101 Read the entire series here: Prepping 101 – pt.1 (Setting Priorities and Water) Prepping 101 – pt.2 (Food Storage and Firearms) Prepping 101 – pt.3 (Financial and Medical) Prepping 101 – pt.4 (Backup Power) Prepping 101 – pt.5 (Home Security /Hygiene and Sanitation)…

Editors Note: Even though at this time most of us are worried about whether or not our gardens will thrive this year, I do think it is good to plan for the Winter too, and all of our abundance. Wishful thinking! I found this article on the Living the Rustic Life blog about how to make a simple root cellar for your vegetables if you aren’t fortunate enough to have a cool basement. It is a great and simple idea to store your foods for much longer. Squirrels may ravage my garden, but I do appreciate their ability to store…

This is the second in a series for the beginning prepper on how to get started Prepping. If you want to read part 1, you can view that article here. In the first article we covered defining your Priorities and making sure you have a sufficient store of water. Step 3 – Food Storage Now that you have water taken care of, the next thing you should take care of is food. Food is the number one thing that most people simply do not have enough of. In the not too distant past, most had their own gardens, canned their…

Hopefully, you are already in full swing on your own garden, but if you have been putting it off, or are still conducting research on how to start your own garden, this article is for you. If you’re a beginner vegetable gardener, here are the basics on vegetable garden planning: site selection, plot size, which vegetables to grow, and other gardening tips. Remember this: It’s better to be proud of a small garden than to be frustrated by a big one! One of the common errors for beginners is planting too much too soon and way more than anybody could…

If for some reason you have until now refused to believe that the Government has been planning for the potential of some form of armed confrontation with Americans; the events of just the last two weeks should have shattered that illusion. The hits just keep on coming with the IRS Scandal in which the Internal Revenue Service has targeted Patriot and Tea Party groups for harassment, The NSA scandal which only illustrated what has been whispered in terms of government intrusion into your personal communications and now, The Department of Homeland is purchasing Riot gear. What? Is that somewhat of…

I have been asked before by friends about how I got started with prepping. It seems the concept can be pretty daunting at first for some people. I can understand how it is when you start to think of the literally hundreds of important items that you need to consider for your family. My first list of “needs” took up an entire sheet of paper. At first glance, this undertaking can appear to be a giant behemoth and some people throw their hands up immediately and give in. I have heard excuses from not having enough money to not knowing…