The truth is out there.
But, “they” don’t want you to find it.
Those two sentences sum up the Fox hit show, The X-Files. Mulder and Scully, out there in a search for the truth. There were always hidden truths and inside men protecting that truth from average folks on the outside.
It seems to be human nature to suspect hidden truths or that we are being kept out of the loop or inner circle. That human nature also bleeds over into the field of survival planning. How do I know?
Recently, I’ve gotten several emails from readers asking me for the secret to being prepared for any disaster. They assume something more complicated is going on than there is. That I’m keeping secrets or hidden truths for myself.
They assume that survival planning or prepping is more complicated than it really is. And they want me to reveal my secrets – well the truth is I don’t have any. Perhaps, the “secret” is to actually do something.
When I started preparing, I didn’t know anymore than anyone else just starting out – I was a prepping newb. And I made many mistakes along the way.
I’m still learning new stuff all the time. No one knows everything or has all the answers to every conceivable situation or skill. It is a continuing learning process.
We need to stop wasting time looking for secrets and instead put what we know to use, before it is too late. And another thing, don’t just read about survival, actually learn the skills being illustrated.
Just because you read it once in a book, doesn’t mean you have mastered that survival skill or that it will a work in a real life situation.
Reads ask me for ways to ensure their survival, build a supply of survival food, and to “tell me stuff that hasn’t been said by everybody else already.” We’ve all heard the saying “There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know” this is true also for survival planning.
While there are new products and new techniques being introduced, the core needs of survival stay the same. Air, water, food and shelter. We may all have different approaches, but it all basically comes down to the same stuff.
No secrets. No smoking man. It’s just a matter of applying the basics and hard work.
It seems everyone is looking for the easy button, when in fact it does not exist. The truth isn’t out there yet hidden… it is everywhere and in plain view. The problem is that you’re not applying what you already know.
Perhaps that is the biggest secret of all. :-D
29 comments
M.D. wrote; “We’ve all heard the saying “There is nothing new under the sun …………..
It’s in Ecclesiastes in the Bible.
Ecclesiastes 1:9
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
It seems there will always be a segment of the population that will look for the easy way out – doesn’t matter what the task at hand is, either. Whether seeking the easy way out for earning money (turning to burglary, for example) or taking the easy way out for survival (stealing the supplies from those who gathered them beforehand) or taking the easy way out by asking for “the secrets to survival” when there are no secrets – just hard work, some expense, and lots of research.
If people don’t realize what got us into the fix we’re in now, they will never learn to prepare adequately because they just don’t get it. The current financial situation was not caused solely by politicians or solely by big banks or solely by unqualified borrowers or solely by any person or group. It was a culmination of things that came together – the “perfect storm” of financial disaster, so to speak. And one facet of that “perfect financial storm” was the laziness of the people. WE THE PEOPLE didn’t do our civic duty – we didn’t keep a close watch on the big banks and the politicians and the other folks who contributed to the demise of the America we knew. We The People were guilty of being asleep at the wheel. We must never be that lazy again. So when somebody wants to know “the secrets” to anything without doing the work for themselves, I suggest you run as far and as fast from those people as possible. Why? Because they will eventually bring down the new system, just as they contributed to bringing down the current one.
Just my 2 cents.
The secret is work…and more work…and when you get tired, then work some more. Prepping is like anything else worth doing, it’s hard, but the satisfaction you get when you look at your supplies, and the confidence you feel when you know you’ve prepared to the best of your ability, make it worthwhile. And it is the duty of the head of a family to provide for that family, so prepping is required if one is to be truly responsible. The worst mistake anyone can make is to rely on the government in an emergency.
The concept of easy preparation is what motivated me to start my store/site. While I know from personal field experience the difficulties and unpredictablity of emergency situations, I also know that 1. people are very reluctant to prepare for anything, and 2. people are more likely to prepare when a “one-stop-shop” purchase is available. This is why, for beginner or novice preppers, I recommend a ready-made kit (I happen to think the ones I carry are pretty good, but there are certainly many decent options out there).
It certainly isn’t an expert-grade solution, or able to prepare someone for every eventuality, but it does provide some level of all-hazard preparedness, and most importantly, helps people overcome the intitial trepidation of preparation. For those who arn’t as versed in the nuances of emergency preparedness, sometimes starting simple is a lot better than not starting at all.
PRepping is like security. Security is not an end state, it is a constant ongoing system of checks and balances. You as an individual Lock your doors to keep out thieves etc. Thief, brings a croow bar and prys the door open. You add locks to the door to distribute presure and thus make it more dificult to pry open. Maybe you add a storm door(layered security) and the list goes on. Security is thus a constant state of one up manship. Prepping is the same way, the threat comes various places or situations that change from time to time over time and thus we must prepare for what threats present themselves. Prepping, as a paradigm, is a constant state of oneup manship. AS for the NWO crowd, everytime we make headway and wake people up, they cook up some new set of lies or other scheme to get people to go along with the forfeiture of thier rights. Weather changes and we change with it, the seasons come and go and the heat and air goes on and off. Why should our day to day preps be any different? I was here for the ice storm in 1993/94. We were without electricity for ten days. We live in the country, we have a wood stove and we keep plenty of wood. For ten days we heated, cooked and wrmed bath water on the top of an Ashley wood heater. No it wasnt easy, no we didnt liike it, but the siuation demanded it and we had no other choice. Today I am better prepared, and although it would be inconvienient, we would be far more comfortable in that situation to day. The preparations must reflect that changes as they happen, changes in Govt, changes in Immigration, changes in Climate/ or weather and changes in everyday life. Simply put, PREPPING is not an endstate, after all your preparations are your security when the normal gives way to the catastrophic. One must prepare to meet any threat on THIER terms. Dont be “in the situation” CONTROL the situation and choose your battle grounds. Be Prepared and adjust with the wind to stay up to date. After a while you learn that it is a choice of lifestyle not a whim or an occasion. The piece of mind that come with good preparation is PRICELESS.
Very well said Spook
Your remark about practicing the skills you read are so true. Gardening is a great example, you get one (or maybe two) chances every year to take a swing at it. There IS a big learning curve and if you are not successful this year then you continue eating like you always have and try again next year.
Gardening is NOT just putting the seeds in the ground and eating 4 months later.
If we had to live on what I grew that first year we all would have died.
Agree Rob and Creekmore I posted this earlier today.
I always teach/preach use your equipment don’t just buy it and expect it to work.
So that being said let me say a word on my fire starting event while hunting this weekend. I had given my daughter a ferous rod attached to a boat key floater filled with lint/cotton balls soaked in vasoline. We had practiced the lighting technique several times so I was confident she could make fire until I had her make one on her own when we arrived. She showed up to the fire pit with 6 leaves, 2 piece of green grass and about 4 twigs to make a “sustainable fire” that I requested. Things that make you go hmmm
I learned to practice everything with EVERYONE. I hope I never quit being a “newbee”
Top nine mistakes of prepping newbs
First one I make: Not eating what they store. I like rice but not the greatest cook, I read how to cook it and figured I could do when I needed to.
Second one I make: Not storing enough salt. I don’t add salt to anything. So in one sense it doesn’t make sense to buy something I don’t use but with all that rice maybe I should.
Mistake 3: Relying on bugging out. Well yes I prefer heading to the hills than remaining in a city close to Dallas. Sorry the sheeple will be rioting looting and shooting. My gun is a 22 and hubby’s is a 9mm. Why my house is fine and close to a small pond I much rather be on land paid off that my father owns. I rather travel the dirt roads to get there and have a lake front view and watch nature and fish and attempt to farm/garden several acreas.
4, Storing one type of food. Well yes the bulk of my food is in rice I do have 30 cans of meat, cereal, oatmeal, canned goods. Why I prefer a larger inventory I am going on budget and think having at least a year’s worth of rice is headed in the right direction. I highly doubt my family will eat beans but I may be able to get them to eat pumpkin seeds that do provide protein. While my oldest might starve from here stubbornness to eat veggies I think if it was between life and death she will eat what is given to her. And anything I try to stock comfort foods my pantry gets raided by a 4 year old with climbing power (That’s where a 30 day supply of pop tarts went and many more lollipops)
I do think that me and my husband combined have the skills to survive. Me with rationing, and medical care, and a strong work ethnic and hubby with misc. skills like being a roofer helper, plumper help, son of a carpeter, Me the granddaughter of a farmer and hunter and fishermen.
I think survival is a lot about brain power and will. No matter how prepared you are you can lose everything in a blink of an eye. I have been researching what type of foods you can eat like dandylions. They are extremely healthy even if I don’t like the taste. Has all the iron, vitamin A, K, a good amount of C and potassium. I at least know what the super foods are and what seeds I should be buying.
I know for those with depression should eat fish for the omega 3s to treat depression ie why I need to be by the lake. I have been learning about composting and fertilizers. I also have to delay my plans to build anything on my dad’s property until I get written documentation that I am getting 5 acreas to do as I please.
30 day supply of pop tarts? You’ve read how to cook rice but don’t? You think you should probably buy salt to go with all that rice you don’t eat? You need to live by a lake so you can catch fish to treat depression? You prefer to bug out so you can enjoy a lake front view, nature and an attempt to farm several acres?
Sorry Allie, but YOU and your family ARE GOING TO DIE in a major crisis.
Rice is easy to cook. Try it out. You say you are a bad cook, but everybody is a bad cook when they first start! Like anything else, the key is to keep practicing.
Salt can be traded or used to preserve among many, many other things. Do a search on it’s uses.
Beans can be mashed and put into soups, stews and muffins. No one will even realize they’re in there and they’ll still get the nourishment.
Do you know how to identify real dandelions and their non-medicinal similar type? The real dandelions have a straight stem with a single flower-head atop, the similar ones have a multi-branched, curvy stem. By the way, how many dandelions do you have to eat to feel satisfied?
When you bug out, do you have any tools to farm this land? Have you used them before? Intensively? Do many of your wild foods grow on this land? How hard is the ground there? What is the soil like? Will you need to enrich it much? Farming is hard work! Go out there one weekend and dig up some garden beds. You may not want to do anything until you have written permission but I promise that doing a little gardening won’t be a waste of time. At the very least you’ll realize just what sort of tools you’ll need and what sort of energy levels you’ll need.
I’m sorry to be mean but I see people like yourself all too often. In a small crisis you will be fine, so long as everything is back to normal soon. In an extended crisis you are in a world of pain.
For your children’s sake, start practicing things now. Start cooking, gardening and eating what you’re storing. Because it’s not easy, wouldn’t you rather learn how now? If you are relying on wild plants as a diet suppliment then start eating them regularly. By eating them now you will find out how fast they grow back, how to make them taste better, how they affect your guts and how many you’ll need growing around you.
Start weaning the kids off junk foods like pop tarts. Like cigaretts and alcohol, sugar is an addiction – nice to have occasionally but if you are suddenly denied it when you are used to having quite alot all hell will break loose. Plus the money you’ll save on pop tarts can go towards other things.
For everyone else who is relying on something they’ve read about but never tried – TRY IT!
I am 100% sure it is red clay dirt, that I will benefit greatly from having a gas tiller. I will be going to the lake for the next several to practice fishing and hiking and exploring the land. I know that in my back yard I have clay dirt. I will still need a tiller to garden here. My brother in law says we need to mix in a little sand and a lot of mulch.
If it means so much I will pull out a pound of rice and cook it with tonights dinner. But I highly doubt my family would die in major crisis. I have to much time invested in woods and eating wild berries and honey suckles as a child to die in my 20s. I can easily go without eating for a month or live on 300 calories a day for years. How do I know because I lived it from age 13 to 16 living on a slice of bread for breakfast, and ramen noodles for lunch and dinner and often skipping meals from lack of appetite.
My children tend to eat more during colder months during growth spurts. I am hoping to buy fruit trees before shtf. And my cabin will be about 9 acreas away from the lake. It is a nice hike and my asthma acts up coming back up the trail should I forget my water bottle.
And I have attempted growing beans in the back yard. At first they were growing the first month and after I got to busy to water them daily they died. I planted 12 plants and 11 were growing. I do have potted soil and other soil to bring with us. We do have a shovel, axes, and rake to start gardening. Yes we need to get a hoe we still need a lot of items to farm in todays standards.
We have plenty of work we will have to do starting with tree removal and roots. To mulching and fertilizing the land, planting seeds, removing weeds which I can’t tell the difference between the weed and plant.
Yes I do enjoy the cliff view of the lake but no I don’t prefer the lake. I feel prepared for the most part. I am slowly prepping every week adding things to my stash. I know how to take blood pressure and other vitals, I know how to drain an infection, I have epipen jr, and mupirocin for infection, and other medications. I know how to sew. I know how to teach, and I learn best from written material.
So long as you start doing things and not just thinking about them :)
For weed identification why not look for a book about it in the library? If you find a good one you could buy it but libraries are great ‘try before you buy’ places. There is also a youtube channel called ‘eat the weeds’ which isn’t bad. Another great book to have is John Seymore’s Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency or even just his The New Self-Sufficient Gardener. If you can’t afford it outright look for it in the library and keep your eyes peeled at garage sales – you never know.
I know from hard experiance that a good hoe is essential. I’ve had a few different types and some just don’t last. A garden fork is really handy too. You’ll probably want a stone to sharpen your axe too.
You might find that machinery will compact your soil but it is good for large areas. In a small area I would do it by hand.
Another handy thing to do would be to put up a small shed or lean-to with a water tank of some type asap. 9 acres is a long way to haul water.
You may not have eaten much as a teen but ask yourself how much energy you were using at the time. Working the land really builds up an appetite! But you’ll probably realize this when you do start the work. You’ll also get sick easier and have alot less energy.
Keep cooking too! Once you feel you’ve mastered one thing, move on to something new. Knowing how to cook a yummy meal from scratch is a wonderful feeling for us preppers. A good meal is a great moral booster too.
Ok, good luck and enjoy the ride!
Don’t worry I have been practicing cooking at least once a week. 2 weeks ago I learned how to cook corn on the cob. And yes it is extremely easy to do. Yes I know how to cook potatoes, baked, fried, and stirfried. I can cook meat and fish. I can chop veggies. Last month I cooked pumpkin, a few days ago I cooked pumpkin seeds with cajun seasoning. I even baked a roast for the first time on Saturday, last time I cooked it in a pot on the stove years ago and it didn’t turn out right. My family is happy with me cooking more often even if it just for practice.
I plan on drilling a hand well next to the cabin if we have enough time and funds. Your right as a teen I didn’t use much physical energy as a teen except when I did the orange picking and factory work and the first thing I bought was little debbies.
I have several book I plan on buying on Friday. Thanks for the tips :)
“I can easily go without eating for a month or live on 300 calories a day for years. How do I know because I lived it from age 13 to 16 living on a slice of bread for breakfast, and ramen noodles for lunch and dinner and often skipping meals from lack of appetite.”
Anorexia is not a survival strategy darling! You’ll be doing alot more than writing your boyfriends name on a pencil-case post SHTF.
This has to be someone having a joke on us.
No Joke. It’s why I moved out at 16. But I’m not surprised by your comment, apparently your parents were NOT drug addicts. And no I wasn’t anorexic in the sense of trying to lose weight and I didn’t have a boyfriend, I was ‘anorexic’ medically because of loss of appetite. Big difference. But I am sure you grew up in a fluffy home with cats and dogs, health insurance and drug and disease free parents. You most likely didn’t have any health issues caused by living in 100 years old house and most likely have never been abused in any shape or form.
Look into St. Johns Wort, but do not mix with seratonin reuptake inhibitor. There are many foods and herbs that can help with depression. The Green Pharmacy by Duke is a good book on herbs
Top nine mistakes of prepping newbs
First one I make: Not eating what they store. I like rice but not the greatest cook, I read how to cook it and figured I could do when I needed to.
Second one I make: Not storing enough salt. I don’t add salt to anything. So in one sense it doesn’t make sense to buy something I don’t use but with all that rice maybe I should.
Mistake 3: Relying on bugging out. Well yes I prefer heading to the hills than remaining in a city close to Dallas. Sorry the sheeple will be rioting looting and shooting. My gun is a 22 and hubby’s is a 9mm. Why my house is fine and close to a small pond I much rather be on land paid off that my father owns. I rather travel the dirt roads to get there and have a lake front view and watch nature and fish and attempt to farm/garden several acreas.
4, Storing one type of food. Well yes the bulk of my food is in rice I do have 30 cans of meat, cereal, oatmeal, canned goods. Why I prefer a larger inventory I am going on budget and think having at least a year’s worth of rice is headed in the right direction. I highly doubt my family will eat beans but I may be able to get them to eat pumpkin seeds that do provide protein. While my oldest might starve from here stubbornness to eat veggies I think if it was between life and death she will eat what is given to her. And anything I try to stock comfort foods my pantry gets raided by a 4 year old with climbing power (That’s where a 30 day supply of pop tarts went and many more lollipops)
I do think that me and my husband combined have the skills to survive. Me with rationing, and medical care, and a strong work ethnic and hubby with misc. skills like being a roofer helper, plumper help, son of a carpeter, Me the granddaughter of a farmer and hunter and fishermen.
I think survival is a lot about brain power and will. No matter how prepared you are you can lose everything in a blink of an eye. I have been researching what type of foods you can eat like dandylions. They are extremely healthy even if I don’t like the taste. Has all the iron, vitamin A, K, a good amount of C and potassium. I at least know what the super foods are and what seeds I should be buying.
I know for those with depression should eat fish for the omega 3s to treat depression ie why I need to be by the lake. I have been learning about composting and fertilizers. I also have to delay my plans to build anything on my dad’s property until I get written documentation that I am getting 5 acreas to do as I please.
I guess I was very lucky. I had tuned into Coast to Coast sometime in 1998 and the show was about being prepared for Y2K. It was interesting, and just plain woke me up. My mom lived through the depression and thought we would likely have another one, so she brought me up to have extra everything in the house. Between the two, I ended up building a Y2K house, and got at least 1 yr supply of “mormon food”, a 2400 gal water tank, gravity flow septic system, an above ground pool for more water, along with everything else I though we might need. After Y2K did not happen, I continued to prep and now have at least 2 yrs worth of food and cannot get one more thing into this little house. If it happens tomorrow, I will survive, if it is God’s will.
Excellent post MD. When all fails, go back to the basics – that is the secret.
Another poster gave the best advice on prepping food a while back. Their suggestion was to write down every meal eaten over the course of six weeks. Figure out the ingredients needed and then buy from that list. That way you are storing foods you will eat. No point in storing beans if it is going to take a gun to the head to make you eat them. Thanks again to that poster for the really great advice. MDC you are so right in saying that there is no secret. Its just good planning.
Prepping/survival is not phd level thinking or work. Common sense and thinking like investing.Dollar cost averaging your preps so they are nothing insurmountable.The average person cannot pull a wad of cash for a years supply of food and misc that you need.So you start slow and build up.Heck I have bought preps on the money that I make just redeeming my recycling.I usaly buy ammo with that money.You need to use your equipment and pratice.I did not buy a tireplug kit and just put it under my seat to wait for the time that I have a flat.I used it on a old tire to see how it works.anyway that is my drivel for the evening. Steve
I really like your use of the X Files. I agree that we should just get right in there and use what we learn about. I believe that it is never too late to start but that we have to get up and just get started. Maybe it would help those readers if you sent them a reminder that they need to visit (your) certain page where you define survival, what they will be faced with which are the main elements, and include a photo of a good pack that will help them to weather the situation be it a short or a long-term survival situation. Pack it all together for them. Items in the photo could include a p-38, a pocket knife, a bit of rope, one or two fire starters, a long-burning candle, a vial of cayenne or other herbs that stop bleeding or the commerical bleed stop powder, a manual for medical situations, one of the silver survival blankets, some blister patches, a rubberized poncho, some heat-sealed packages of beans, salt and other foods, military MREs or a 3600-cal. bar which is heavy but keeps you alive for three days, some hard sugar candies, a small canteen with water, a cooking cup, a spoon or stirring stick, etc. You know, you did so well with that chart that had the cartoon with a sword-wielding cartoon character, muscle-bound Ah-nold, the little old lady that would rip your throat out, etc. that either a photo of a survival pack that you already have or even a new and improved one would help to get the message across. Maybe you could get some pictures of “after” various disasters and show how things can or are dealt with and incorporate the survival bag or pack. You could even incorporate pictures of you in the great outdoors doing what a survivalist actually does complete with bandana, holster with gun, sheath with a knife attached to your leg, etc. You, step by step, setting up various sorts of shelters, building a fire, concealing a night fire, collecting water in various ways using plastic to gather moisture at night and via daytime or nighttime rain, setting up a line across a creek for fishing, etc., may bring others closer to the main idea. You could always show what the home front situation would be like during a survival scenario (for you) and how they can pour a 5-gallon bucket of water with a few drops of bleach or white vinegar (for odor control and sanitation purposes) down the tube to flush it if they are able to pump water some way without electricity or how to compost their own toilet ‘stuff’ properly with wood chips or dirt, how to stoke a fire for the night in their wood stove and how to do everything else that they will need to do to survive and live their lives. Maybe they need to “see the picture” to be better prepared. Every good survival book needs a few color pictures of the vitals because they help make things more real for the readers but even simple black and white drawings or photos can be useful. You could relate what and how ‘you’ would do things even if you have said it before in some way. You could also pose a question to all of us (I hope that you will, I think it would be interesting to hear what others have to say) as to “What would (you) do if (this or that) happened” being specific about the scenario(s) which would make people have to decide what and how they are going to do things-and we might all get some great ideas. No longer would they be resolved to relying on everyone else to solve their problems because that could tell them that they really will be on their own. They are going to have to know what they are going to do and how to do it when the time comes because if the electric grid is out then they are not going to be able to contact anyone for anything, especially for how to take care of things. Once they start addressing survival more on the level of where ‘they’ will begin, they will be forced, like many of us are, to think about it.
Never short on words, are we SrvivlSally?
I disagree Sally. The best way for people to learn is not by looking at step by step pictures of someone else doing it, but by actually trying it out themselves. Even if they ‘camp’ in their own backyard as a start and try to pretend there is nothing but wilderness around. That way they start using some things from their BOB. They get a feeling of what works for them and what dosen’t, what they need to improve on, what they forgot they needed. If they take notes, even better.
So true. If anything, it seems like we’re going WAY back…early survivors had to know the skills most have forgotten.
Great site!
Thats for sure! Kids today are so DUMB! If its not electronic or on the internet, they can do it! If we had a nEMP from solar or other, they would be totaly lost stumbling around like ferrall lil zombies. I teach young people outdoor stuff just to try to keep some of them going. Eventually, the electronic crap is gonna fail and they are all gonna starve!
I found out one thing last night. I was more than prepared for a super cell thunder storm with flash flooding. I was wearing my headlamp when it hit. I knew it was coming by watching the sky. One thing I hadn’t tested out that didn’t work was my alert radio. It didn’t alert me.LOL Hey everyone. I Love my headlamp. It also has a strobe light on it in case you want to blind someone in the dark or need to be rescued. Add one to your preps if you don’t have one already. I bought mine at Cabelas.
People really have it easy today.
When I started as a prepper/survivalist 40 years ago there were precious few publication on the subject, no blogs, no computers or internet to guide me, no companies like Emergency Essentials or Ready Made Resources and long-storage food was unheard of. I think that coming up “the hard way” has been a blessing. All of what I have learned required research, practice, some failures, time and patience.
There is definitely nothing magic about it.
The one insight that people shouldn’t miss here is that they don’t need to prepare specifically for each contingency – preparing for a layoff is not much different from preparing for a winter storm. The food you store for one contingency can be eaten if something else happens; the water you stored for nuclear holocaust will be just as drinkable if there is a tornado.
The basics are basic because they are basic. Air, Food, Water Shelter, are universal for every person, every locale.
Specifics matter too – Shelter means one thing in Alaska and another in Miami, and defense contingencies vary from grizzlies to drug cartels and snakes. However, people in extreme climates ALREADY HAVE most of the gear they need to cope with what nature throws at them every year. The extra food and water is just more of the same.
Preparing for an earthquake is a bit different from preparing for a hurricane, but most of the preparations overlap.
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