Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

Tomato Ketchup

Tomato Ketchup « Wood Ridge Homestead in the Shenandoah Valley

I See Red

I See Red « Wood Ridge Homestead in the Shenandoah Valley

Canning This, Canning That

Canning This, Canning That « Wood Ridge Homestead in the Shenandoah Valley

bttt

Homestead Survival

Make Guacamole & Turn The Avocado Pit Into An Avocado Tree

The next time you make guacamole, take the avocado pit (often called the stone) and push the flat end into a six-inch pot of moist, multi-purpose soil. Leave the pointy end exposed.

Make sure to keep the plant at about 65° F until the first leaf shoots appear. Aftet that, it likes normal room temperatures with slightly cooler temperatures (60° F) in winter.

To encourage upward growth, pinch off new buds when they appear below the top leaves on the plant stalk. With proper care, in three years your Avocado will grow to an elegant, large-leaved houseplant about 3 feet tall.


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The Homestead Survival: Make Guacamole & Turn The Avocado Pit Into An Avocado Plant ...Then A Tree

Multivitamins Reduce Cancer Risk

October 18, 2012 by Sam Rolley

A new study shows that daily use of a multivitamin by middle-age and older men could result in a modest decrease in cancer risk.

In a randomized trial that included nearly 15,000 male physicians, daily multivitamin use resulted in a modest but statistically significant reduction in cancer after more than a decade of treatment and follow-up, according to a study appearing in JAMA.

The researchers say that given the inconsistency of previous studies regarding multivitamin intake and cancer reduction, the new results are surprising. In the new study, multivitamins cut the chance of developing cancer by 8 percent.

According to background information from the study: “The combination of essential vitamins and minerals contained in multivitamins may mirror healthier dietary patterns such as fruit and vegetable intake, which have been modestly and inversely associated with cancer risk in some, but not all, epidemiologic studies.”

Cancer experts say the benefit of taking a multivitamin in cancer prevention, however, is far less than sticking to a good diet, exercising and not smoking.

Each of those can lower cancer risk by 20 percent, according to research.

Multivitamins Reduce Cancer Risk : Personal Liberty Digest™

Martial Arts For The Survivalist

October 16, 2012 by Brandon Smith

PHOTOS.COM

Physical strength, endurance, flexibility, adaptability and mental discipline are all attributes of a true survivor. Unfortunately, they are also attributes that are often neglected by the average survivalist.

The popular assumption is that if you have sizable food storage and can shoot straight, you are ready to rock and roll. But the first and most important weapon in any prepper’s arsenal is his own strong, healthy body. If a person is weak and unhealthy, no amount of gear is going to save him in the middle of a crisis situation.

Preppers who have spent all their lives enraptured in the world of firearms sometimes view hand-to-hand combat training with cynicism. The common retort is “Why use my hands when I have my Glock?” Indeed. Why should we?

Perhaps because one day we may not have a weapon in our possession during a dangerous circumstance. Should a survivalist simply give up because he loses his gun or runs out of ammunition? I think not.

Survival in the midst of collapse and calamity does not necessarily depend on having all the right tools at all the right times. Sometimes, you have to improvise; and the only tools you can always count on are your hands and your brain. Martial arts training hones and refines these assets to perfection and teaches the mind to deal with the stresses and fears associated with combat. In fact, 95 percent of success in martial arts revolves around learning to accept the idea of someone trying to kill you so that you can move past the terror of the scenario and deal with it calmly and logically. Adrenaline, tunnel vision and unchecked emotion are the true enemies in any fight. We defeat ourselves long before our assailants ever touch us.

Another concept within martial arts that I find fascinating is the philosophy of Bushido, which is often mistaken as a brand of Eastern religion. Instead, it is a kind of warrior’s code, a way of dealing with adversity in one’s life. Struggling with obstacles — whether self-created or created by others — requires balance and the ability to take control of the problem and apply one’s own terms instead of the terms other people try to set for you. It is about leading the battle, instead of being led, while staying true to your conscience. In the end, we should feel no need to prove anything to anyone but ourselves. Traditional martial arts still contain elements of Bushido within their methodology, and I believe such practitioners are some of the few people left in the world who operate on a legitimate warrior’s code — something we desperately need in our culture today.

I have studied multiple forms of martial arts for more than 26 years, and I have found many methods that would work well for the worst survival situations and plenty that would be utterly useless. When I started my training classes for liberty movement individuals and families in Northwest Montana, my idea was to combine all the strategies that I felt were intuitive, easy to learn and quick to use. My goal was to help students to become physically capable of self-defense within a very short period of time, without running slapdash over important factors like mental strength and intelligent application. The program has done very well so far, and I would like to share some of the styles and strategies I now use in my classes with the rest of the liberty movement.

Shotokan Karate: Shotokan is a Japanese martial art using movements derived from defense methods common in Okinawa and streamlined for easier application. At first glance, Shotokan seems stiff and impractical, but that is not the case. Shotokan training is extremely intense, and the sparring matches can be brutal. Deep stances and sharp strikes train the body to hold ground even against a larger opponent. Shotokan practitioners can take physical damage unlike any other style I have seen beyond perhaps Thai Kickboxing. As the student advances, the stiffness disappears, and their strikes become coldly logical and precise. Shotokan is a perfect foundation art for beginners in self-defense. If they can handle this style, they can handle anything.

Thai Kickboxing: Thai is world-famous for its fast, devastating steamroller-type strikes and the ability of its practitioners to take a hit and keep on going. For a crisis situation, it is imperative that the survivalist be capable of absorbing and moving past the pain of a fight. In a SHTF scenario, it will always be a matter of life and death. There is no such thing as a hand-to-hand fighter who can avoid every attack and come out unscathed. Plan on getting hit. With the heavy arm-to-leg blocks of Thai Kickboxing that act as a kind of self-made brick wall, along with devastating leg sweeps and knee breaks, this art form is perfect for the dangerous possibilities of collapse.

Western Boxing: It’s not an Eastern martial art, but Western boxing teaches incredible punching power. Eastern martial arts focus on speed in order to inflict damage, but Western boxers hit harder because they assert more body weight behind their punches. Of course, it is more important to learn speed and timing before learning to hit hard. The most powerful punches in the world are useless if all they do is sweep the air. Western boxing is an incomplete fighting style, but a fantastic addition to the survival martial artist’s repertoire.

Jiu Jitsu: Jiu Jitsu is a grappling martial art from Japan, though you wouldn’t know it by the way the Brazilians have commercialized and franchised it. Jiu Jitsu is indeed the flavor of the decade for self-defense; and, though I feel it has been way overhyped, it is an incredibly effective style for ground situations.

That said, let’s be clear: Jiu Jitsu is actually a very limited fighting style, especially when you’re not in a cage and you are confronted with more than one attacker. Survivalists should learn grappling techniques so that they know how to defend against takedowns and return to their feet. In a real combat situation, you never try to go to the ground on purpose. Multiple opponents will decimate you within seconds while you are trying to put a choke hold on the guy in front of you. Add a knife into the picture, and purposely jumping into close quarters with the intent to “grapple” will be a death sentence. Successful fighters will always combine Jiu Jitsu with other art forms in order to round out their abilities.

Hapkido: Hapkido in my view is the perfect antithesis to Jiu Jitsu and any other grappling art. It should be at the top of every survivalist’s list of fighting methods. Hapkido focuses on joint locks, joint breaks, using centrifugal force, pressure points, eye gouges, throat attacks, etc. Generally, it is very difficult for someone to grapple with you if you break his fingers or wrists, hyperextend his kneecaps, or crush his windpipe. One twisted wrist could put a dedicated grappler or wrestler completely out of commission. Knowing how to counter grappling using grappling is fine, but knowing how to utterly disable a grappler is better. As a survivalist, it is important to learn both.

Taekwondo: A Korean style, Taekwondo has received a bad rap over the past few years as an “ineffective” martial art, but usually this comes from people who have never actually practiced it. Like Jiu Jitsu, it is a style limited to a very particular range of attacks and scenarios. Taekwondo focuses on kicks to the extreme. Sport Taekwondo is not a practical measure of the style’s use, and this is where its tainted reputation comes from. In truth, Taekwondo has the fastest and, in many cases, the most devastating kicks in the world. The use of kicks depends on the mastery of the fighter. If he is fast and precise, then his strikes will make his opponents feel like they’ve just been hit by an oversized utility van. If he is slow and unfocused, he will be tackled to the ground like a rag doll and pummeled in an embarrassing manner. That said, one well-placed kick can crush ribs, crack skulls and knock an opponent into dreamland before he ever knew what hit him.

Jeet Kune Do: Created by the venerable Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do’s philosophy is to adopt what works and set the rest aside. It is essentially a combination of the short-range tactics of Wing Chun combined with the long-range tactics of Japanese and Korean styles. Jeet Kune Do’s goal is to be a truly complete martial art; so far, it has proven itself in this regard. If you can practice only one style of self-defense, this should be it.

Ninjitsu: The brilliance of ninjitsu really dwells in its “think outside the box” mentality. There is a sort of cleverness and unpredictability to it that makes it so dangerous. Ninjas in feudal Japan were assassins, but they were also the guerilla fighters of their age. The combat methods of ninjitsu revolve around surprise and misdirection, which are factors that always work in the survivalist’s favor.

There is no way around it. The Martial arts make a survivalist better at his job, which is to thrive in the very worst possible conditions. It’s not just about fighting; it is also about developing a fighting spirit. Beyond the utility of self-defense, we survivalists must strengthen our inner world as much as our outer shells. It takes time, patience and a willingness to struggle. Any person who masters a martial art has not only shown a dedication to his own physical prowess, but he has also proven he has a mental toughness that will carry him through any catastrophe. That kind of toughness is a rare commodity in America today and, when found, should be greatly valued and encouraged — especially by the liberty movement.

–Brandon Smith

Martial Arts For The Survivalist : Personal Liberty Digest™

Rawforbeauty

great info..

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Rawforbeauty

www.rawforbeauty.com

The Good Old Days are Over

Norse Prepper
October 19th, 2012
www.SHTFplan.com
Comments (28
Read by 12,383 people


This article has been generously contributed by Norse Prepper.

Do you remember “the good old days”? It’s a simple question, but a question that induces different images to different people. I have found myself spending a lot of time lately thinking of the way things used to be and hoping that someday our country can somehow get back to those days again. Looking at our current state of affairs in this nation and around the world, there is only one conclusion that can be made…the good old days are over.

I wrote this article because children being born today, in my opinion, will not be able to look back and remember the near future as “the good old days”. As I write this, the US national debt is at $16.2 trillion with unfunded liabilities of $123.3 trillion. With Uncle Ben’s QE3 promising to print fiat money perpetually can there be any doubt that the days of the US dollar being the world currency are numbered. Everyone reading this article has a share of $442,881 of the nation’s debt and liabilities. If your children or grandchildren can’t read yet, please tell them that they also owe $442,881 as well and thank them for supporting our wasteful spending that got us to this point.

Source: Real Time US National Debt Clock | USA Debt Clock.com

But don’t worry, there are elections coming. Surely the American public can see the dire straits our nation is in and elect leaders who can recognize and deal with the nation’s problems and bring us back to becoming a nation of producers instead of consumers, right? Leaders will be elected who will make the extreme sacrifices necessary to bring forth a United States where the outstretched hands of the masses will be filled with charitable donations from a robust society instead of being empty, waiting for them to be stuffed with their entitlement from the government, all the while feeling as though they earned it because they stand unproductively on dirt within our border.

I have to apologize for the last paragraph; I have always wondered what it would feel like to write fiction. The hard cold reality is that there is no possible orderly way out of the financial mess our society is in and the above mentioned dirt was probably the last thing made in the USA.

To break it down simply, here are some simple and easy to understand economical facts:

1. You need to produce more than you consume or you are broke.
2. You cannot pay off a credit card with a credit card without consequences.
3. There is no possible way the nation’s debts and unfunded liabilities will ever be paid.

Currently, the Federal Reserve purchases the vast majority of the US Debt. There simply aren’t many buyers left who believe it to be a sound investment anymore. In 2011, congress waited until the last minute to raise the debt ceiling after much political wrangling back and forth. Was there ever any doubt by anyone that it would happen? Is there any doubt that it will happen again? What happens when it hits $50 trillion?

As long as we have the ability to continue to print more money to fund our yearly deficit and make payments on the interest of existing debt, it will continue. As it continues, the US dollar will continue to be worth less and less. Commodities such as food, gas and all physical goods purchased will get more and more expensive, leaving less and less purchasing power for the American people.

You don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that we are on the cusp of a major financial collapse. I’m not only talking about the United States, I’m talking about the world. The can has been kicked down the road almost as far as it can be kicked and we just passed a dead end sign. We will soon see massive inflation or hyperinflation, riots in the streets as we have seen around the world and as I have heard stated many times, people with nothing left to lose will lose it.

So what can we do? The answer can be summed up in one word. Prepare. Prepare as though it may happen tomorrow. Prepare as though your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it, because it does and they do. Start exercising and working out to prepare your body for the tough times coming. Prepare yourself mentally so that when it hits the fan you don’t find yourself in the panicked state that 95% of the public will be in. Prepare to be warm when it is cold outside or cool when it is hot outside. Prepare a plan of what you and your family will do at different levels of collapse. Prepare to eat when grocery store shelves are bare. Prepare to drink when the tap fails to deliver water. Prepare for what to do when your neighbors or family or friends show up at your doorstep because they were too busy watching television. Prepare to defend what needs to be defended. Prepare prepare prepare.

Realize that at this point there is nothing you can do about the debt of this nation. There is nothing you can do to change what is coming in the Middle East. Regardless of the result of the upcoming election, neither candidate has dared utter the words broke or sacrifice. Your only job at this point is to get yourself and your loved ones you choose to help through what is coming, whatever it may be. This isn’t being selfish. This, my friends…is survival.

I truly believe that when the dust settles, we will emerge as a great and free nation. Life will be hard, but there will be more meaning to the tasks of the day. Communities will be stronger. People will be healthier. Families will be closer. To get from this point to that, there will be much misery, but the greater the struggle, the greater the victory. It is up to us in the prepping community to get our families and loved ones through the upcoming collapse. I pray that someday, my children and grandchildren will be able to look back and say “Those were the good old days.” because I chose to prepare.

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

Take refuge my friends.

God Bless,
Norse Prepper

The Good Old Days are Over