For the sake of discussion lets say that some kind of SHTF / TEOTWAWKI event has happened.  What essential survival skills may you and your family need to know in order to ensure their long term survival?

Survivalist should know the basics, such as beans, bullets, band-aids, shooting skills, water purification,,, etc.  Lets think outside the box.  During a long term complete collapse of society what skills will people need to know?

Lets assume that you and your family have a source of safe drinking water.  This should be some kind of water well with a pitcher pump, or maybe a solar powered water well.  For this article lets say that water is a given.  Saying we need safe drinking water is like reminding people to breath, access to safe drinking water should be that important.

Now that water is out of the way lets move forward.

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I have come to the conclusion living life is like watching water pass under a bridge.  One side of the bridge is when we were born, the other side is when we die.  As we walk along the bridge of life we look around, and look down at the water.  The water is our memories.  The potholes on the bridge are the problems we run into.

It seems like only a few months ago my kids were born and brought home from the hospital.

My youngest son is 19 years old, got married a few weeks ago and is in the navy.

My oldest son is 26 years old.

My daughter turned 17 years old in 2013.

Where has the time gone?

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After its release in 1990 the 40 Smith & Wesson quickly shot to fame.

For survivalist the 40 S&W was like a gift from GOD. The 40 S&W was effective, just about every gun maker had something listed in 40 S&W, ammunition was widely available, there are even some carbines offered in 40 S&W. What is there not to like?

What niche did the 40 S&W fill

The 40 S&W offered a viable option for law enforcement who wanted a heavier bullet than the 9mm, or more rounds than the 45 acp, and without the slow reload of the revolver in 357 magnum.

The cartridge also offered a middle ground between 15 rounds of 9mm and the 7 rounds of 45acp 230 grain bullet.

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The Ergo 4255 is an affordable vertical forearm pistol grip solution for just about anything with a picatinny rail. For this review the test platform was a Palmetto State Armory M4 carbine with pink Magpul and Egro furniture.

There is an old saying, Keep It Simple Stupid, otherwise known as KISS. The Ergo 4255 does just that, it keeps the forearm vertical grip simple.

The Ergo 4255 does not include a built-in light or laser, which makes it an excellent choice for someone who wants just a vertical forearm AR-15 grip.

Excluding a light and laser does two things – it keeps the grip in an affordable price range, and reduces the weight.

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After building the rabbit hutch, my wife and I built a couple of hide-away boxes for the rabbits to get into.  The box also acts as a birthing box, a place to get out of the cold winter wind, and a place to get off the wire of the cage.

The problem is, the rabbits have been urinating in the box.

The floor, the walls and the bedding material are soaking up the urine.  This is creating an unsanitary situation for the rabbits.  Something has to be done to fix the problem.  So what I did was remove part of the floor of the box.

From what I am observing the rabbits tend to urinate and poop in the corners of the box and cage.

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First there was the James Byrd jr murder, then the chief of police was fired (which was called an act of racism), and now a couple of cops were fired for what happened to a lady while in custody.

How can one little town in southeast Texas get so much attention? Its not like we are “trying” to make the news.

During the recent ammunition shortage several calibers have been in steady supply.  Some of those calibers were 204 Ruger, 22-250, 300 WSM, 270 Winchester, 280 Remington and 30-06 Springfield.

Out of all of those calibers, which ones are chambered in a wide variety of rifles?  I think it would be a tie between the 270 Winchester and the 30-06 Springfield.  The 30-06 being developed in 1906 had a 19 year head start over the 270 Winchester which was revealed to the public in 1925.  So its not like either caliber were developed over the past few months.

Why should you pick the 270 Winchester over the 30-06 Springfield?

All things aside, the main reason to go with the 270 Winchester over the 30-06 Springfield is recoil.  Unless the shooter has received professional training, as recoil increases, accuracy deceases; studies show the 30-06 is the largest caliber most people can shoot accurately.

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On the Best Buy webpage there is a price matching guarantee.  However, it seems that even though Best Buy promises to price match, the promise is nothing more than smoke in mirrors.

On May 31 my wife and I went to the Best Buy in Port Arthur, found a tablet my wife wanted and showed the sales rep the price at amazon.

The sales rep contacted a manager about the price match.  My wife and I were instructed that Best Buy would not price match amazon.

My wife and I left the store feeling rather disgusted and betrayed. Why have a page saying Best Buy will price match if price matching will be allowed in the stores?

On Black Friday November 2012 I bought my wife an ASUS Transformer tablet. At the time of purchase I bought her an extended warranty.

May 2013 the tablet developed a crack in the screen. The ASUS Transformer was not dropped, it was not stepped on,,,, nothing. Just out of the blue the screen developed a crack.

I contacted the insurance company and was instructed to send the tablet in for service. Upon review the insurance company said the tablet was beyond repair. A refund for the full purchase price was refunded to my wife.

On May 31 my wife and I went to Beaumont Texas to watch Star Trek Into Darkness. After leaving the movie my wife and I went to Best Buy in Port Arthur (across the highway from Central mall) to buy her a replacement tablet. The tablet we had in mind was the ASUS Transformer Infinity TF700.

Upon finding the tablet at Best Buy my wife and I asked a sale associate about price matching the price at Amazon. We were told “no” that Best Buy would not match the price at Amazon.

My new adversary and I came face-to-face this morning, and it was not a pretty sight.

On the morning of May 27, 2013 I went out to check on the chickens and rabbits. Before the chickens were let out of the coop I walked to the end of the run to make sure it was closed. Took a couple of steps over to the rabbit hutch, looked up, and within arms length on top of the hutch was a chicken snake looking straight at me. The rabbit hutch is 8 feet long, the snake was almost the length of the hutch.

The first thing I did was take a couple of steps backwards, reminded myself that cotton mouths do not climb, then went into the house to get a camera. What good is a story without pictures.

My wife grabbed her camera and started taking pictures.

The snake seemed to be looking for a way to get into the rabbit hutch. The rabbits seem a little big for the snake to eat, but you never know.

Before I could get a rake to get the snake off the hutch, it had retreated to the safety of some brush.

If being face-to-face with a chicken snake was not bad enough, I found a second snake just a few minutes later.

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Clearing timber sounds boring.  Some of my readers may be wondering why I posting a video about this, much less an article.   I went out and cut some trees, so what?

In the prepping / survivalist community there is this common misconception that if SHTF there is a farm in the family that has not been used in 40 (or more years) that the family is going to use as a bug out location. With a few days of hard work the farm can be up and running in a matter of days.

To bring this common survivalist plan to reality I am documenting what it takes to bring a farm that has not been used in 40 years up to speed.

If all you want to do is breakup the soil and plant some seeds, then yea, it may only take a few days. But if you want to rebuild the fences, have boards to build a chicken coop out of, have fence post, firewood,,, have a working farm with livestock, then you will need to cut timber.

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Holy crap, did yall hear about that guy who was beheaded in London? What is the world coming to?

Before we get too far along, awhile back I told a buddy of mine that I would tone the political topics down a little bit. I think this beheading in London is part of a rising tide, a tide of radical Islam on our streets.

For the most part, the United States and western Europe have been insulated from the violent prone middle east and other Islamic nations.

We hear about gays being executed in Iran, or some blogger put in jail, a woman lashed because she drove a car in saudi arabia, a Christian church being burned down in Egypt,,, but as long as the violence is “over there” we pay little attention to it.

As the rate of violence increases, we will no longer be able to ignore the radical Islam in our backyard.

Soldier is beheaded in suspected London terrorist attack

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Lets play a game – chickens or ammunition. You can pick one or the other, but not both.

Chickens – 5 laying hens that are one year old and in good health. The 5 hens would include a mixture of barred rock, rhode island red, buff orpington and australorp.

You can probably expect around 200 eggs a year from each hen, for a total of around 1,000 eggs.

No roosters are included with the hen package.

Or

Ammunition – A box of your most needed (or favorite) rifle caliber. This is a box of 20, and not a case or brick of 500 or more.

This can be any caliber you may need – 22 long rifle, 223 Remington, 7.62×39, 30-30 Winchester, 270, 280, 30-06, 7mm magnum, 300 Winchester magnum,,, any caliber you want.

Forum thread – Lets play a game, chickens or ammunition

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I knew this day would arrive, and here it is. The hunting lease my family and I have been a part of for the past 15 years has gotten so expensive I can no longer afford to be a member.

1970s – To be on a hunting lease in the 1970s you had to know someone who was a member of the lease. Then that member had to put in a good word for you. A lot of leases had a waiting list of people who wanted to be a member.

2000s – Hunting leases are begging for members.

In the past 30 years we have seen a shift of people who live in rural areas, timber companies have gobbled up land, parents are not introducing their children to hunting, and most importantly, timber companies are being bought up by invest firms.

The great depression of the 1930s saw a shift of people living in rural areas to living in urban areas. The reason for this shift was simple, and that was to find a job.

As the people who were left in rural areas started to die, their property was left to the children who had moved to rural areas. The children who had moved away had no use for the land, so they did not pay the property taxes. Various counties across the nation seized the land for overdue taxes. As the land was auctioned off guess who bought it, the timber companies.

In essence, we allowed timber companies to buy up unwanted land, then charge us for access.

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Here we are approaching the half-way mark of the year (we are not there yet), and the ammunition shortage is showing no signs of letting up.

22 Long Rifle – I have not seen 22 long rifle in about 6 or 7 months. The last time I can remember seeing 22 long rifle in stock was back around November,,, maybe even October 2012.

Even before Sandy Hook 22 long rifle was difficult to find.

223 Remington – Is hit sand miss. Places like Palmetto State Armory have been getting bulk 223 Remington in stock, but my local wal-mart has not.

I have not seen American Eagle or Federal at my local wal-mart in months. The local wal-mart here in Jasper Texas has been getting Tula in every few weeks, so that is what I have been buying. In this type of situation you buy what you can find.

Online stores that are lucky enough to 223/5.56mm in stock are sold out in a matter of minutes.

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Man oh man, what a weekend.  My wife and I left Jasper Texas around 6 am Friday morning, got breakfast at Jack in the box in Woodville Texas, and arrived at the NRA show at the 9 am.  Traffic was not that bad.  thank goodness there were no wrecks on HWY 59.

We found a parking lot directly in front of Minute Maid park, which is across from the George R Brown convention center.  Holy crap was parking expensive, we had to pay $30, but the location was perfect.

My wife and I entered the show, obtained our media badges, then started walking around.

This was my wifes first real gun show.  She never showed any interest in gun shows, that was until I built her a pink M4.  Now that she has something she can relate to she is showing more interest.

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