Rural Lifestyle

Life in Rural America

Tag: survivalist

Disappointed In YouTube Video Views

Preparedness Articles, Random Ramblings, Videos
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Bushel of potatoes

Guys and gals, what gives in the number of views my YouTube videos are getting? Why do I have 38,878 subscribers (as of March 2018) but my videos only get a few hundred views? Why would someone subscribe to my YouTube channel if they are not going to watch my videos?

I suspect some of the subscribers may have been spam bots, but surely not all of them?

Out of all of the prepping channels on YouTube, mine covers the widest variety of topics, but no firearms. When I joined the google adsense program over a decade ago the writing was on the wall. Google YouTube would not tolerate hunting or gun videos.

Sometime around 2007 or 2008 I posted a video on how to skin a squirrel. The video was flagged as animal cruelty and my account received a warning. From that time forward I never posted another hunting video. Even when people posted request on skinning videos, I avoided the topic.

Survivalist: Living In The Boonies

Political Opinion, Random Ramblings
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Kevin Felts on a hiking trip

Is it possible to live too far in the boonies? Yes is it. There comes a point where it is not feasible to live in a rural area, and find gainful employment. There also comes a point where high speed internet ends. Believe it or not, not even dial-up is not available in all areas.

Let’s call this line, “Living on the edge of modern civilization.”

I may live in the sticks, but there are some who live further in the boonies than I do. If I drive several miles past my home, there are some people barely have access to electricity, much less internet. Water is from a well, while sewage is handled with a septic tank.

For the people who live past the edge of modern civilization, it takes them around hour to drive to work. This means the round trip is almost two hours. That is at least 10 hours a day dedicated to work.

As much as someone would love to live without money, it just is not possible. We all have to pay taxes, especially property taxes. Do not pay your taxes, and the county takes your property. This means having a job and distance to the job must be figured into our survival plans.

Paladin Press Closing Its Doors An Icon Fades Away

Book Reviews, Random Ramblings
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Kevin Felts, blogger and political commentator

Some of the people reading this post may not even know who Paladin Press is, much less care they are going out of business. This is truly a sad time, as independent publishers like Paladin Press kept information flowing into the survivalist community during the dark ages of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Let’s go back to the 1980s and 1990s.

After the end of the Cold War things were good. The Soviet Union had been defeated without ever firing a round, the economy was going good, and overall, life was grand. Being a survivalist was ok.

Then along came Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City incident. When it came out Timothy had been a member of a survivalist group, all of a sudden “survivalist” was a bad name. Main stream publications dropped certain advertisers who sold to the survivalist community.

Do we prepare in vain

Preparedness Articles
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Stockpiling survival gear, stockpiling food, stockpiling ammunition,,, are we prepping for something that will never happen? Has our time been squandered? Has everything we have done, been done in vain?

I consider myself to be active in the survivalist / prepping community for close to 20 years. In the late 1980s I became aware that I needed to be able to protect my family during times of civil unrest, so I started reloading and stockpiling ammunition.

In the 1990s I started stockpiling basic food groups, forming bug out plans, and started buying more firearms.

Kevin Felts, blogger and survivalistFrom the early 1990s – 2012, what has happened in the world to warrant living a survivalist lifestyle? Have we had an outbreak of a new plague, we had the swine flu but it fizzled out, no nuclear war,,,. Overall, besides the twin towers being brought down, and the conflict in the middle east, the world has been a pretty peaceful place.

The first part of the 21st century has been a lot more peaceful then the first part of the 20th century.

100 years ago tensions where rising in Europe. Unknown at the time there was a World War just around the corner.

Prepping is a never ending process

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In the 1990s my prepping plans included stockpiling rice, beans, ammunition and plans to bug out to the camp (my grandparents farm). From there my family and I were going to live off the land.

Times change, plans change.

My plans went from stockpiling mostly rice and beans, to stockpiling canned foods, #10 cans of freeze dried foods, planting fruit trees, food stored in mylar bags, stockpiling seeds, and having a chicken coop that can be loaded on a trailer and brought to the bug out location.

Without safe drinking water life as we know it can not exist. Because of that fact my family and I plan on driving a new water well.

Plans changed from cooking over an open fire, to building a bar-b-q pit large enough to cook a whole hog on. Hopefully the pit can act as a smoker, as well as a cooker.

Obsessed With Survivalism

Preparedness Articles
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Kevin Felts at the Angelina River

Have you ever met someone that is obsessed with prepping or survivalism? They keep their Get Home Bag ready to go, their Bug Out Bag is prepped and ready to go, keep a firearm in every room of the house,,, to the point where survivalism has consumed their lives. Would that be survivalism, an obsession or paranoia?

There is a fine line between a hobby and an obsession. If that is true, is there a line between a lifestyle and an obsession? What about a hobby and a lifestyle?

If we do the same thing everyday for 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years, would that be considered an obsession? If so, is work an obsession? Sometimes yea, work can be an obsession. Other times work is something we do to live.

If someone practices survivalism for 10, 20, 30,,, years, would that be a lifestyle or an obsession?

Maybe the deciding factor is how much survivalism affects our everyday life. Are we able to have normal relationships, are we able to live our lives as normal as possible while maintaining a dedicated survivalist lifestyle?

There needs to be a balance between prepping and living life as normal as possible.

Why Do People Get Into Prepping

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Kevin Felts, survivalist and bloggerWhy do people get into prepping?

I think it boils down to “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst”.

The question that begs to be answered is “what is the the worst?”. What is the worst case situation that we should prepare for?

For some people “the worst” might be losing their job. For others it might be a wildfire, for others it might be a hurricane or flood. Then there are the people that plan for a complete collapse of society.

Does being a survivalist mean you have to prep for a complete collapse? No, it does not.

To understand survivalism, we need to understand what drives a survivalist. One of the highest levels of human thought is to think about what we think about. Why do we do the things we do, why do we think about what we do, why do we act a certain way, why do we make certain decisions.

Nobody is born a survivalist. Joining the survival community is a conscious decision we make. As with everything else in life, our decisions are influenced by the way we were raised, culture, society, events in our life,,,.

Why do people get into coin collecting? Why do people get into stamp collecting? Why do people get into the hobbies they do? Do they find the hobbies challenging, maybe a way to occupy their free time?

Survivalism is a practical hobby. Grow your own food, preserve and store your own food, just like people used to do decades ago. Maybe survivalism should be considered as a return to basics?

There was once a time when people grew their food during the spring and summer. Then preserved the food to last the family through the winter.

Today, families keep just a few days of food on hand.

The Survivalist Monastery Theory

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Kevin Felts, blogger and survivalistWhile reading “The Civilization Of The Middle Ages” by Norman Cantor (which I do not recommend the book by the way), on pages 150, 151, 152, 153, 154,,, the author discusses how monasteries became a source of education in the middle ages. Monasteries were not well rounded education establishments, as they were only interested in teaching Latin and scripture. Creating literature outside of the Holy scripture was suppressed.

One thing that monasteries did do, they preserved scripture. One of the reasons why we have certain books in our modern Holy Bible, is because some scribe copied the books during the the middle ages.

Monasteries preserved scripture. The monks in the monasteries taught people how to read Latin, and thus how to read scripture.

How does this monk, monastery and scripture stuff tie in with survivalism?

As monks taught holy scripture, so should survivalist teach self-reliance.

As a survivalist, it is your duty to go forth and spread the knowledge of self-reliance.

When people hear the word “monk”, thoughts of living in silence, or roaming the country side preaching the gospel to peasants comes to mind. That is not how things were like. Monks lived in the monastery, some tried to isolate themselves from the outside world, they were educated, copied holy text (scribes), and tried to live a life separated from the outside world.

What preppers do on the weekend

Preparedness Articles, Random Ramblings
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Wire on end of chicken coop runWhat do preppers do with their spare time? Unless you are some kind of radical survivalist, we do not live in bunkers, nor do we hide in our homes in fear of a zombie invasion. For the most part, preppers (aka survivalist) are just like everyone else. Survivalism / Prepping is a way of life. While some people collect stamps, we check our food stocks. While some people collect coins for fun and profit, we collect silver and gold as a hedge against inflation.

Friday, May 18 was a day to relax after the work week. Friday evening is when my wife and I talk about what we need to do over the weekend.

Saturday, May 19 my wife and I like to get up early and get our shopping done. Breakfast is either a fried egg sandwich with bacon or sausage on the side, or something quick in the microwave. Regardless of what is fixed for breakfast, I like to have either strawberries or a banana on the side. I feel that its important to start the day off with something like yogurt, or some kind of fruit along with my main breakfast.

To wash breakfast down, I usually have a low carb energy drink, such as a rock star or monster.

After breakfast, my wife and I head to town to take care of the shopping. We like to get to get an early start before the stores get too crowded, and before the heat of the day sets in.

Part of the shopping list was put together a week beforehand. Over the past week I took inventory. What did I need to buy, what did I not need to buy? For Saturday I decided to pick up a box of Remington Core-Lokt in 308 Winchester 150 grain. My 30-30 stocks are just about where I want them to be. As usual the local Wal-mart was sold out of American Eagle in 223. the closer we get to hunting season, the more difficult it is to find ammunition. I like to buy my hunting ammo during the summer so when hunting season arrives I am ready to go.

The forest for the trees

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On the morning of Saturday, February 18, 2012, while eating breakfast I checked my facebook feed. On my feed was a youtube video a subscribed friend posted on his profile. The video in question was from Foxnews and was about the US Senate working to approve military action against Iran.

I took the video and reposted it to the Survivalist Boards Facebook page.

The youtube video had been posted by a person and not a news source. To backup the video from the authority site I did a couple of google searches for the title of the video. The only thing I found was from 2007.

The first thing that came to mind was that someone took a video from 2007 and reposted it to youtube as if it were a new video.

I went back to the Survivalist Boards Facebook page, deleted the post with the video with the intentions of reposting it when more information was available from an authority news service. One of the people taht comments often made a post that after the video of cooking squash, and then removing the youtube video, he was going to bow out.

I was setback that someone would make a comment that my video about cooking squash was not related to survival. During the video I talked about why squash and zucchini should be part of your long term survival garden.

The concept of stockpiling survival gear

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Angelina river Jasper TexasWith organizations like FEMA, and the preparedness divisions of the separate states telling people to stay prepared for a disaster, there is no reason not to listen. All families should have at least 7 days worth of food in their house, and a small stockpile of bottled water. Some people stockpile MREs, while others may stockpile canned goods, beans and rice, or even freeze dried foods.

By previous examples, the government is either inept, unable, or unwilling to protect its citizens during a disaster.

Lets take the outbreak of the swine flu for example. When the swine flu was first reported in mexico, President obama refused to close to borders with mexico, citing companies would lose too much money of the borders were closed. By that example, when it comes down to profit or protecting the citizens, the government will protect the profits of big business over the safety and welfare of the citizens.

With the government willing to sacrifice safety in the name of profits for big business, is their 3 – 5 days worth of food and water sound advice? I do not think so.

In some kind of disaster, the less prepared people are, the more dependent they will be on the government. This is where the concept of stockpiling survival gear comes from. Lets say that some kind of long lasting disaster happens – civil unrest (LA riots for example), hurricane, natural disasters, another world war,,,, I do not want my family standing in a food line to get something to eat. I would rather have a garden, and stockpiled food to help us get through what ever happens.

How about a random video about stockpiling survival gear.

Are You a Prepper Or a Survivalist

Preparedness Articles, Random Ramblings
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Kevin Felts, blogger and political commentator

What is the difference between a preppers and a survivalist? Some people may think the two names are interchangeable, but they are not.

According to wikipedia, the word survivalist dates back to the 1970s, while the word prepper dates to the 1990s. The name prepper came about from certain events that happened in the 1990s.

The 1990s was a bad time to be a survivalist. There was the Ruby Ridge incident and the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco.

After the Oklahoma City Bombing, it came out that Timothy McVeigh was associated with survivalist groups. Due to his association with the word “survivalist”, people associated survivalist as being possible terrorist.

The name “prepper” rolled off the tongue easier than survivalist. There was also less stigma with being a prepper, than being a survivalist who blows stuff up like Timothy McVeigh. I remember talking to people about prepping in the 1990s. When I used the word survivalist, the person responded as if I had used the word terrorist.

Over the decades prepping has morphed into a sub-set of survivalism. Today, preppers are not the same thing they were in the 1990s.

Preppers

Survivalism And The Obsession There Of

Random Ramblings
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Kevin Felts political commentator

A recent video I posted on youtube received this comment.

Kev…with so many bags are you gonna be able to find your bug out bag in emergency??

I dont know if the guy was just picking, or trying to make a joke – but either way I was not offended. The comment touches on an important subject that should be discussed. And that is people who are obsessed with survivalism.

These are the types of people that can not lead a normal life because of some “reason.” Whether that reason is nuclear war, outbreak of a new disease, new world order and martial law, the united nations coming to get your guns,,,, whatever the reason may be, these people go around in a constant state of readiness. All they can think about is being ready for some kind of event.

Here is the video that received the comment.

The Survivalist Lifestyle

Preparedness Articles, Random Ramblings
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Flooding from Hurricane Ike Recently I was asked “how long I have been prepping?” That set off a whirlwind of thoughts about my life. Everything from my grandparents farm, to my dad taking my brother and I hunting, to my 1st and 2nd grade teachers going over duck and cover drills and what a nuclear explosion looked like, to watching our jobs and factories move to China, to camping next to the marsh in Bridge City, Texas, to hurricane Andrew, to watching what happened with Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike,,, the list might be a mile long.

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