What people suffered and what we learned. (But there’s been worse than these — far worse — when nobody was around to record the history.) Article is from 2006, but timeless.
Category: Preparedness
A Widow’s Walk Off-Grid to Self-Reliance:
An inspiring, true story of courage and determination
Mason Marshall Press, 2014
$12.95 paperback
$8.95 Kindle
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Photos show a normal, though elderly, little house. But Annie Dodds quickly discovered why she was able to lease the place sight-unseen for just $500 per year. It had no electrical service, no plumbing (not even an outhouse), rats in the attic, a tree staving in one wall, and a host of other cold, hot, wet, dry, dirty, inconvenient problems.
It was the kind of place where, on a bad day, you might open your sock drawer, briefly think, “I don’t have any socks that color,” then realize you were looking at a rattlesnake coiled atop your footwear.
But Annie loved it.
A Widow’s Walk tells the story of how she — recently widowed, emotionally devastated, dead broke, middle-aged, and equipped only with her own resourcefulness — followed her Backwoods Home-inspired dream of living independently and off-grid.
I’ve told you before that a longtime friend of this blog is dying. Cancer. And the disease is taking its own long, harrowing time. When I’ve etalked with him, he’s seemed in good spirits, though tired. It’s much harder on his wife, he says. And in my few contacts with her, I see. Yesterday she sent me the following and gave permission to post it. The following words are hers: —– I have been introspective for the past few days. I am rambling here so please forgive me. F. and I have spent a good part of our youth preparing…
Lovely subject line, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t describe where the political world stands (no surprise). But it does describe a cool new website and a beautifully laid-out and informative digital magazine.
Brink of Freedom is a great place. It combines a freedomista attitude, high energy, and useful self-sufficiency how-tos.
Michael W. Dean of Freedom Feens turned me on to the site and introduced me to its founder, Josiah Wallingford. (Don’t you love that name?)
Go check it out for yourself. It’s the kind of place you could spend hours. But while you’re here, here’s a little background Q&A with Josiah, as well as links to pdfs of BoF’s January and February editions:
Oh yeah. Absolutely nothing could go wrong with this “smart” gun. And I’m sure there’s just lots and lots of consumer bureaucrat demand. (H/T PT) Question finally answered: Is Ted Nugent an interestingly loud-mouthed a**hole? Or just a loud-mouthed a**hole? (Hey, Ted. That’s how genocides get justified.) But it would have been perfectly okay — and the truth, too! — to call Obama and his minions lying creepazoid tyrant wannabes who, among other things are getting even creepazoidier in their cravings to control speech and the press. Yep, that would be just a-okay and probably even a service to the…
Speaking of “To Serve Man” … Americanmercenary and his family test their food preparations using Augason Farms survival packs and the regular contents of their pantry. So far not bad. Augason Farms is the company that’s helped turn my local Walmart into a prepper haven. They definitely make a good quality product that’s still selling strongly here two years after I discovered it disappearing healthily from Mr. Walton’s shelves. (Walmart, however, still seems unable to decide whether #10 cans of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods belong in the grocery section, the outdoor area, or someplace else altogether. It’s a hunt every…
Ten reasons to quit working so hard. Does the new CBO report put the final nail in the Obamacare coffin? That might be a tad optimistic. But the report just ain’t pretty, no matter how Big O’s flappers try to spin it. MWD, who sent this development thinks it’s a world-altering change. Welllll … In any case, it’s a hopeful sign for privacy. “I am sending a bag of these to every member of Congress to show my deepest gratitude.” (Hilariously scatological reviews from Amazon customers on a product that may just be slightly defective. Courtesy of MamaLiberty.) Also from…
How we can kill Obamacare and legalize pot. Glenn Harlan Reynolds muses on the power of nullification. Less playground nannying = happier, more alert, and safer kids. No surprise to anybody hereabouts, of course. Rand Paul: If there was a war on women … women won it. Rand may not be Ron, but he’s a pretty sharp politician. (Which may be a good or a bad thing, depending.) Erin Palette has a new blog, Blue Collar Prepping. Being of blue collar (rather than blue blood or silver spoon) heritage myself, I look forward to learning how our prepping differs from…
I took the dogs for a walk downtown yesterday afternoon. Passing a vacant house, I noticed an awful lot of water on its patio. Normally, that’s not unusual, this being the NorthWET, but it hasn’t done more than sprinkle the last couple of days. I poked around and sure enough, not only was the house sitting in a lake; I could hear ominous gushing noises inside the walls. I went up on the back porch to knock just in case. Water rushed under the door and over the dogs’ toes. City Hall is just a few blocks away, so I…
… or the hope-to-be prepared. If you have friends or relatives who talk about preparedness but who either don’t have the money or the oomph to move ahead, this is a good time to get them started. It’s also not a bad time to gift yourself with some special item that you’ve been wanting. So here are some preparedness favorites. 1. The Big Berkey water purification system. Which comes in several configurations. Yes, they’re pricy. Yes, people buy them regularly and love them despite that. 2. Boxes of MREs. Or those nice Mountain House freeze-dried foods, which come in a…