The Prepper Journal

This is the second part of my discussion about Survival Gear. These are the vital items you should ensure you have at your location to give you an advantage in austere times. The original article with tons of links is at 75 Item Survival Gear List – Protect Your Family With This Vital Checklist - The Prepper Journal Read more about Prepping and Survival at The Prepper Journal Blog.

The dictionary defines survival as “the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances.” As Preppers, this is our primary goal even though each person has a unique vision of what that looks like for their life. The Prepper Journal’s survival gear list is designed to help you “continue to live” in spite of “difficult circumstances”. But this equipment for survival is going to be general survival gear in a lot of respects. If you have most or all the items on this gear list, or some reasonable facsimile, you should be fine in a lot of emergency situations or “difficult circumstances”. Read the original article with links to other content here - 75 Item Survival Gear List – Protect Your Family With This Vital Checklist

Bartering is the key. This will be the solution to all our problems when the grid goes down and society devolves back to somewhere around the early 1900s,  or at least that is what everyone in the prepping community would have you believe. Everyone that is except for the 10% who are anxiously awaiting the collapse so they can finally live out their lawless fantasies to their fullest. Bartering, in theory, makes perfect sense. It is at its core, trading services or goods for other services or goods. An agreement between two people to exchange one thing for another. The assumption is that two people would have an honest contract implicit in nothing more than a firm handshake or “you have my word” statement. This will work for most people as I believe that most people are good and honest. However, some people are not honest and forthright and those are who you will need to be aware of when the subject of bartering comes up. Bartering has its good points and it's bad so today we will discuss the pros and cons of bartering as it relates to preppers. Read more Prepping articles at www.theprepperjournal.com

To the individual who is either interested in Prepping or already knee-deep into preparing for any number of potential emergencies or disasters, security has to be one of your primary concerns. This is not any truer if you have a family than if you are all alone. The simple fact of life is that when people are scared, hurting, or in some other way seriously under duress, the niceness of society disappears quickly. Someone who used to be your best friend will kill you if you are standing between food and their baby is starving. It should be clear from any number of recent disasters where looting happened within hours that you and your family need to plan for security wherever you are. Firearms are most commonly (and for good reason) associated with security. Are there other options? Sure, but I would rather have my trusty shotgun as opposed to a baseball bat and harsh language if there were a bunch of people trying to knock down my door any day. For more Prepper Articles - www.theprepperjournal.com Original Article - Top 5 Firearms You Need To Get Your Hands On NOW! - The Prepper Journal

From the fanatical doomsday prepper to people who are just trying to be more self-sufficient and everyone in between, each type of prepper has its strengths and weaknesses. Increasingly often though I keep hearing from self-described “Sensible preppers.” On the surface, the phrase is understandable, but I am starting to think that those who describe themselves as a sensible prepper could be leaving themselves open to problems at best. At worst, it could be minimizing the importance of prepping overall. When I refer to “sensible preppers” I specifically mean, self-identified preppers who view anything more than very cursory preparations as symptoms of lunacy and panic. I’ll give you an example. I was reading a social media thread a few days ago and a topic was brought up by a Sensible Prepper who quickly pointed out that they just have some food and water stored up for local power outages – I believe they even said protestors in their town asked people to honk. For a ton of Prepper Information – www.theprepperjournal.com Original Article on The Fallacy of the Sensible Prepper Mindset - https://theprepperjournal.com/2021/02/08/the-sensible-prepper/ Article on Bunker Basics - https://bunkerbasics.com/the-prepper-journal-pat-henry/

In thinking about preparing your family for survival after a disaster or emergency situation you can’t forget to consider their health. Your family’s health is affected by so much more than having adequate stores of food. Having the best gun for self-defense is great and important, but what if someone in your group comes down with an illness that could have been easily prevented with a proper survival sanitation plan?  What if the killer that attacks you is a sinister little microorganism you never saw coming? The Prepper Journal Blog – https://theprepperjournal.com/  The original article - https://theprepperjournal.com/2013/03/17/importance-of-survival-sanitation-after-shtf/ Luggable Loo – https://amzn.to/3v1nRlG Camping Toilet - https://amzn.to/3gnDLTD Camp Shower Enclosure for privacy - https://amzn.to/3vajMM3

In the world of Prepping, we group our topics that people want to learn about into just a few major categories when you think of it. The overarching goal of prepping or survival is to stay alive, but the disciplines that feed into Survival could be broken simply into food, water, shelter, self-defense, and first aid. There are many other branches but is a simplistic way of looking at priorities. Self Defense is one that has more urgency, and our home fortification plans are some of the most important parts of initial survival we can discuss. As a parent of small children when I first got into prepping, it was hard to say which item I cared about more, but I know home defense was near the top. The thought of someone breaking into my home and harming one of my loved ones was scarier than just about any hypothetical armed combat against mutant zombie biker gangs in a post-apocalyptic world. Break-ins happen every day so my goal as a father along with providing for the general welfare of my family was keeping them safe. Home fortification is a complex subject though for a couple of reasons. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. We can make certain assumptions though and understanding that the Prepper Journal’s audience is primarily located in the US, our collective home situations share similarities. For a ton of Prepper Information – www.theprepperjournal.com Original Article on Home Fortification - https://theprepperjournal.com/2021/01/09/home-fortification-tips Wyze Cam Outdoor - https://amzn.to/2XqzO5G Door Armor - https://amzn.to/3nml4iY Door Barricade Brackets - https://amzn.to/3nrPa4C Security Window Film - https://amzn.to/35quL9M Tripwire Alarms - https://amzn.to/3nrPUqt

Some situations in life do not give you time to think a lot. Sometimes you just must act in the interests of protecting your family. If you are ever faced with having to evacuate your home quickly, a packed go bag is your best bet of getting out of the house fast with the supplies you need to survive, potentially without anything else. There are few things that provide preppers with a sense of security like a well-thought-out go-bag. Go bags are the same thing as a Bug Out Bag. It is a bag personalized to you and your situation expressly designed to grab on your way out the door. Your go bag should be packed and ready to go when you need it. Today, we are going to break down what is needed for a go bag list and give you the information you need to set your own go bag up. Hopefully, you will never need a go-bag, but if you do let’s make sure you know the important items to consider when you build your go-bag. Read the original article on The Prepper Journal Download the Bug Out Bag Checklist

Our homes are supposed to be a safe place where we can find refuge and rest from the world outside. It’s where we are our most vulnerable, where we lay down and sleep. Our homes are where memories are made, family treasures are stored, and our children grow up. It’s sacred in a lot of ways. Our home should be secure, it should be a place where we have no fears or worries, and most of the time that is true. We watch TV in our pajamas. We play with our children or pets without looking out the window for strangers lurking outside. We let our guard down. One of the topics we inevitably discuss in preparedness circles is home defense. There are methods we can take to reinforce our doors and windows, we can add alarms and security cameras to alert us to someone outside, but what if those fail? What if someone gets into your home… If that sacred space is violated by someone intent on doing you harm? Do you have a plan for what you would do in that instance? For a lot of preppers, that last line of home defense is a firearm, but what is the best gun for home defense? The Prepper Journal Blog - www.theprepperjournal.com Shotgun Review - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqkeKwRmWFY

The Inauguration on January 20th went off without a hitch and we have a new President of the United States, Joe Biden. This is a fact that many still have a very hard time dealing with. There are some who remain anxious – waiting for a declaration of Martial Law or some violent action to kick-off, promised by a shadowy internet rumor gone amok. I fear that if these people and many others in the larger “Patriot Movement” do not use their heads, you and I could find ourselves labeled as a domestic terrorist in the near future. www.theprepperjournal.com - Blog

You have heard of the neighborhood watch before and some of you may even have this in your neighborhood. I remember that we had a home in our neighborhood that was broken into several years back and all of our neighbors got together at a meeting to discuss forming a neighborhood watch. We had a police officer come in and talk briefly about what we should and should not do and we all received small flimsy signs to put in our yard that said words to the effect of “This neighborhood is protected by neighborhood watch”. I think there was one lady who volunteered to roam the streets but that is about the last I heard of it and once the flimsy sign rusted and faded it found its way into my trash can. If you have a true collapse and you and your neighbors feel that they need to defend their homes it is better to join together and combine forces so that you can protect more homes at once. It is also more likely that several people watching over things will be more of a deterrent than a single older retiree walking her dog at night. This is another situation where it all depends on the disaster that has happened. If you are talking about a late summer storm that drops some trees on power lines and you have the resulting loss of power for a few days, the neighborhood watch on steroids probably doesn’t need to get activated. Visit us at theprepperjournal.com Full Gear List - Neighborhood Defense: People, Weapons and Supplies - The Prepper Journal Episode Links Motorola Radios - https://amzn.to/3kxHGxa Surveillance Headset with PTT - https://amzn.to/3sJIWQL FITH OPS Alarm Signaling Device Tactical Anti-Intruder Alert Trip Line - https://amzn.to/3rkE6ct Ammo Inventory Spreadsheet - https://theprepperjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Ammo_Inventory.xlsx

A frequent topic in Preparedness and Survival circles is the subject of Bugging Out and more specifically the question of whether you plan to Bug Out or will you Hunker Down. This simple question easily elicits all manner of responses and you will rarely find consensus on which is the better option. The only good thing about this question is there are only two options and one of those has to be the correct one in someone’s eyes. A 50/50 shot of getting this right isn’t too shabby if you are looking at odds, but there will be those who maintain an absolute position on one option or the other. To Bug out or not bug out, like most questions that we must ask ourselves as we prepare for emergencies is an individual question and there is no universal wrong or right. This question is probably only second in notoriety to “What caliber is the best defensive round”. If you can imagine going into a big underground bunker full of Preppers who are getting ready for the next Emergency and shouting that question; you will get as many answers as you have people.

Hello everyone, this is Pat Henry, creator, and editor of thePrepperJournal.com. Since 2013, I have been sharing information on the topics of preparedness, survival, and self-sufficiency will millions of readers and now we are bringing this information to a new platform. The Prepper Journal podcast will be a new adventure for me, and my goal with the podcast is to share the message of prepping, survival, and common sense with you each week – delivered on your favorite podcast service. In this new format, we will talk about all the prepping basics and teach you what you need to know if you want to get prepared for life’s unexpected events. You can be sure we will bring the same quality of content to this podcast as readers of The Prepper Journal have grown accustomed to for years, just delivered in a different way.