The Survivalist Blog has been a fixture in the survivalist community since 2007. During that time we’ve logger over 1,300 posts, most of which have been forever lost in the archives.
So today instead of posting our usual Lazy Friday Quick Links, I thought it would be a good idea to pull a few of those posts up from the archive graveyard.
My first post “Rice and Beans” was posted on 2007/01/08 – I talk about my experiment cooking pinto beans and rice that had been in storage since 1998.
My most enjoyable post and the one I had the most fun writing would have to be “I See Dumb People“.
Our recent post “Survivalist, What Are Your Biggest Frustrations?” had a great discussion, that I’ll expand into a number of other posts in the weeks ahead.
I wish I had thought of this “Wind Power Experiment” – haven’t tried it yet but it looks interesting.
“How To Stop Procrastinating and Start Prepping” I think is my most useful post since a lot of people have trouble getting started.
Of all the titles I’ve written for posts I’d have to say “How Cross-Dressing Makes You a Better Survivalist” is the most unusual and thought-provoking.
One post, I wish more people had read is “Don’t Join A Survival Group Without Reading This!” go over and read it now. 
Do you have a favorite Survivalist Blog post? What was it?
{ 12 comments }
Although I never read the Rice & Beans story originally, I enjoyed the post – probably because of its simplicity and focus on the basic things of preparation.
I do have 2 questions:
1. Did you add salt to the water when cooking the beans? Salt tends to tenderize the armor.
2. Looking back to the beginning days, what originally prompted you to write the blog in other words, your root motivation?
(#2 might make a pretty cool post & help clarify or re-establish a standard).
Jason,
1. Yes, I add salt to my beans but not a lot. I also add a pinch of ground turmeric.
2. Reading other blogs that gave survival advice costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. I knew 95% of those reading could not afford such an investment and needed help preparing on a budget.
Turmeric sounds like it would give it a nice zing, I might try that. It’s also a good herb to work in to your daily diet.
“Dumb People” is my favorite. I see it every day and your analysis couldn’t be more correct. Just the other day I was hauling a backhoe with a dump truck and two young girls turned 90 degrees right in front of me to go down a side street. It’s only a miracle that I didn’t t-bone them and kill them both. They probably have no idea how close to dying they came. To busy thinking about twitter or facebook. It’s all I can do to make sure my daughter follows a different path.
Wow. I was riding in a older dump truck that was loaded down with shingles one time… We topped a steep hill and there were a lot of cars sitting at a red light at the foot of the hill, brakes got too hot and we would have smeared everybody if we didn’t lay on the horn and force them off to the side.
After that happened I was clenched up so bad you probably couldn’t have pulled a needle out of my butt with a bulldozer.
Hey PND..
I know the feeling. I used to think that having a CDL was a great attribute. However, I now realize that i am driving a huge wrecking ball. For some reason
people don’t realize that heavy trucks don’t react the same as small cars. I
just hope it’s not me who thins out the gene pool.
I enjoyed reading (and re-reading, in the case of a couple of them) your previous posts. Your common sense approach to survival makes prepping accessible to more people. That’s commendable.
HOWEVER, I very much enjoy the Friday topic of what others did to prep this week, so with your indulgence I will proceed with listing my attempts to advance my survival stores since last Friday.
J.R. Guerra provided instructions last week for making a machete sheath from PVC pipe. I picked up some pipe (had to go to 2 hardware stores to find the correct size) and then bought a heat gun so I could melt the pipe enough to reform it into the desired configuration. What a fiasco. I’m not familiar with the heat gun and apparently didn’t spend equal time with each area of the pipe because the dang PVC wouldn’t flatten evenly. After messing with it for a couple hours, I gave up. I’ll try again in the morning when it’s not so hot and I’m not distracted by the flies buzzing around my sweaty brow. Strike #1.
Earlier this week, I tried to get my foot lockers to fit into a niche in the garage that used to house a natural gas heater. The footlockers are from the WWII era, so I want to keep them and use them as both a reminder of American can-do attitude and as gear storage containers. As luck would have it, they wouldn’t fit. They were 1/4 inch too wide. 1/4 inch!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. I had to stand them on end, stick shims under them to keep them stable, and then install an eye hook in the garage sheetrock so I could run a bungie cord around both lockers to get them to stay upright, even during a mild earthquake. Strike #2.
Early this morning was Strike #3 as far as this week’s prepping goes. I had planned on getting some big boulders delivered to go between my 2nd and 3rd fences. The boulders were to be spaced such that my own vehicle can get through them at 2 specific places, but a large truck or big SUV wouldn’t fit. Lo and behold, the truck that was to deliver them at 5:30am, in the coolness of a new dawn, broke down about 35 miles from here. The driver called to tell me his truck can’t be repaired for 10 days due to difficulty in finding parts.
After 3 strikes in my prepping plans this week, I’m out and spending the rest of the day on the bench. Hope others had better luck.
Under the biggest frustrations post…..I’m trying to figure out how to keep in touch with family and friends that are more than an hour away (by car) from my location. I’ve heard about proposed legislation that will allow the current administration to “pull the plug” on the internet in a time of crisis. If we were to lose internet access and cell phones became less reliable (we’ve already done away with our in-house phone after the last rate increase), that would only leave Ham radios for longer range communications. I wonder if even those would be allowed in a crisis. Who knows what the US Postal service will be doing in the next few years.
So I’m wondering if anyone else has given thought to technology zero communications.
For the old pinto beans, I have heard that they fair better if pressured cooked or possibly grind them up and use as bean flour. If any one knows anything more about this I would like to know.
As much as like whole grains, I have come to appreciate pearled barley.
Pearled barley does not have any bad fat, sodium, or cholesterol. It will provide a few carbs. On the other hand, there are no vitamins or minerals to speak of, few calories, and little protein.
Yet, pearled barley has some significant advantages for you:
-It is inexpensive. Unless you buy Bob’s Red Mill brand, it will be difficult to pay over 14 cents per serving. With good home care it will outlast you.
-It is filling. Feeling satiated is a blessing. Sure, it tastes ok, but it is not a main meal. There does not seem to be anything you can add to it (Spam, TVP, spices, mustard, etc) that does not taste good.
-Easy to cook. 1 cup of barley and two cups of boiling water in a thermos = win.
-Fiber. Excellent source of fiber. Check your preps and see what you have for fiber. You probably need barley.
When I cook beans .I rinse them then soak them for 24 hours.When I soak them I add spices to them usaly garlic powder ,ground cumin ,chili powder and sometimes tapatia sauce.I do not drain and rerinse them. Is there something wrong not rereinsing? Just curious they haven`t killed me yet. Steve
As far as prepping today I cleaned 2 of my 22 rifles.I discovered that I was out of bore solvent so I used auto trans fluid specificaly mercon 3.They came out pretty clean, they just smell like a transleak though.I just adapted and overcame lke any good survivalist would. Steve
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