Well hell Christmas is over; Damn it came so quick and now its over. I hope every one had a safe Christmas time and are happy with yourself for all that you have achieved.We did good at the homestead here with a great honey ham supper then lunch then supper then a snack then-well you get the point the 15 lb ham goes a long way toward lots of meals the following days which is good for us to make the little bit of money we have go a long way. As far as presents go nick made out with some headphones and a new alarm clock some clothes and a few odd things in his stocking, my lovely wife got a new day pack with a Bladder, a new fire start rod and a new compass and headlight light. also I stocked up on more foods for storage closet cause foods are also on the cheap side for the holidays so it makes since. That's about all from Santa cause we are the type that if we need something we get it then so when Christmas comes around we really don't need much.

 Ok, so I have a question that me and my wife have a different opinion on: do you take your Christmas stuff down before or after the new year; you see my mom always took down our stuff down before the new year and said its because you don't want to have any unfinished work from the old year to be finished in the new year. My wife says that the decorations are a way to bring in the new year and to take it down the second week of the new year. So what do YOU do as far as decorations go ???

Now that I think about it would you decorate for a hoilday if SHTF has happend, would you want to or would it be that by celebrating it would give your location away! That would be sad to go thru a holiday without celebrating it. I know that it seems like the holidays are thought of  most for spending money but during the holidays its the kids that would miss out the most, especialy during Halloween when free candy is just the greatest thing in the world and Christmas is fun for presents that the really did not need in the first place but its the fun we have Christmas morning opening them all up, for me hell I could not sleep much anyway so I was up two hours before nick got. But to see his face and my wifes as they opened up there presents were PRICELESS..Did anyone else get any good prepping equipment? Til next time!!

                                        MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, thanks for stopping by and looking at our blogs. I hope everyone has a great christmas and I hope we all enjoy a great NEW YEAR.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone. well we are prep'd and ready for our camping trip to Osceola National forest for the week. Trailer is packed and wow do we really need this much stuff for a week? when we have to bug out we will not be able to take this much stuff so how do you cut back. The B.O.B. bag i have is so heavy I joke to my wife I need to hire a person to tote it for me,hahahah. But for real its so heavy i could not walk from my home to hell the front yard and not be able to do much else like if I had to cut my way thru a jungle or well you get the point; ITS HEAVY. All this has me wondering what to keep and what to cut out of our things cause I feel like I only put what we would need to the trip.

 I remember my elders talking about not having a lot of stuff to drag along with them on their travels from place to place but for my family it seems like we have so much stuff but that that stuff is things we want not so much need and to get rid of it seems to make the kids feel like they have less then others. This is what TV does to a kid and adults for that matter, telling us we need to spend more, have more, get more, so we can build the economy up and help store's make their profits so this country is in better shape. Now when we get all this stuff now i need a bigger place to house it all and spend more money for lights and well it just goes on and on and on.
 One of the things we have done is to work on unplugging everything the uses power. All TV's computers anything that uses phantom power is unplugged we even shut off the water heater when not in use and we have seen a $50.00 decrease in our bill, yep sense it keeps the water at a current temp its always on and uses a lot of  power. Along with that I turned our refrigerator temp up for the fridge side and only a little on freezer side  so all of it together and not keeping the outside lights on all night we have saved $ 65.00 on our power bill this time.Very Cool Huh..
 All right will I've jumped all over the board again, promise I'll try to keep it all on the same page once I get better at this blog.

 Wa-do; thanks for stopping by.  BAMA

Happy Veterans day . I meant to post this Friday but forgot to finish it. Just to let everyone know Julz and I are both Veterans. In fact I meet my wife in the Army over in Germany where we were both stationed . She came in just as the first deployment of soldiers were sent to Iraq for "Desert Storm" and I had been their for three years already; all thou we were not selected to go to Iraq we did do our part in Germany guarding the main post where we were stationed as well as serving as a main stay over for troops that were coming and going to their post. I have all ways believed in what this country stands for but it seems that our country is moving in a different way and I don't think that its moving in the right direction. Now I have seen and was told stories from my gramps and uncles about our past; just so you know I am 1/2 cherokee and some blackfoot and a little mutt hahaha. I am in the ECHOTA cherokee tribe of alabama in the DEER clan where my uncle in our trible leader and when we were young he would tell us stories of how our family had to hide in the mountains of alabama, tennesse and georgia so they were not made to travel the trail of tears. There were some that did get caught and were taken to Oklahoma but once there they made the trip back to alabama. He would tell us of how they had to live off the land and how hard it was in the winter time as well as them not being able to grow crops because the WHITES would take what they had for themselves and kill us in the name of american rights.

 Now that seems like a long time ago but too me it seems like the government is still going about doing as they seem fit to do and tell us what we need to be doing and not doing and taking from us what we have and keeping it. I hope to see they day that we as people can come together and live a life of real freedom whith out all this bullshit government taking and taking and who does not give a damn about  "for the people". 

 I'm still getting use to putting down what i want to say and how to use blogger post but i hope to get it someday soon.

Thanksgiving is in two weeks and we are going camping again. I have been working on our BOB bags and on a trailer we own getting it set up to live off of plus setting up boxes that will stay on the trailer at all times. I wish it was a covered trailer but we got it at a great price for what it is so I will make it work for us.

If anyone has any tips for setting up our trailer let me know.

thanks to all our soldiers for everything they do and put up with. Bless you all.

The Brand New Intel News Network 24/7 Radio Stream! :

The Brand New Intel News Network 24/7 Radio Stream! :

wow, this is really sad and funny at the same time. It does just go to prove that lots of city people have no idea about the real world outside of the city. Just in case you can not see the picture its a opossum and this person has no idea what they have or how dangerous it can be..holy smokes..

Back from Ocean Pond

Well, we had a fantastic weekend.  It was cold the first night, in fact it was really cold.  Since we had gotten a late start, by the time we got the tent up and everything in it, it was already dark.  The temperature dropped really quickly.  My son started the fire and he did a great job doing so.  He used the cotton balls w/vaseline on them to get it started with a very small amount of tinder and he kept it going until we were ready for bed!

 My son starting the fire.  Great job!

 Campsite, we had water no electricity.

 Me and my wonderful Hubby and his machete.  He had to have one, although we didn't have a need for it on this trip, it's always nice to have.

My new knife!  6 inch blade w/gut hook and sheath.  It worked perfect, I named her Bessie, but my son named her Killer.  LOL

The sun was perfect, thought this was a cool pic.

 He really did split all the wood we need for our second night.  We cooked steaks, potatoes w/onions and baked beans.  We didn't use the pot for the beans, we put the can right on the fire.  Worked great.

 Rotten log.  Couldn't really use it for anything, but he had fun cutting it up.......with BESSIE

 We have fire!

 Surprise!

 Having fun after dinner.

 Skipbo anyone?  My husband won, every time.  Sucks

 Us

 Ocean Pond, boy the sun was really shining!  Perfect weekend.

 Working together.  Was a beautiful sight.

We were able to use the wild plant recognition book and found a water hyacinth.  Perfectly edible, and can be dried and ground into flour!

So, having been a really long time since a noon lunch, i got the iron skillet and the boston butt and got cooking on the fire.  We cooked entirely on the fire the entire weekend.  Even COFFEE!  I actually think coffee tastes better percolated than in an electric maker.  I think because it gets to a higher temperature, not sure......but it was wonderful Saturday morning when the temp. was 44.  Warmed up a lil and got breakfast started.  Bacon, eggs and biscuits.  I wasn't sure how the biscuits would turn out, I used a pot and some oil in the bottom, we put it at the back of the fire and covered it, checking it often.  Man did they turn out good.
 
Second day was awesome.  Since I recently had knee surgery we had to keep the walking to a minimum this time, but we were able to walk quite a bit more than I thought I could.  Was nice out there.  We did some compass reading, my son kept us in the correct direction, we did a little fishing with giant red hook worms.  My son was squeemish about baiting the hook so we helped him out, but a big fish kept hitting the rod hard and we were unable to catch anything except for mosquito bites.  Good lord, the bugs, no seeums, mosquitoes, bees, and one really big spider (YUK).  Bug spray with Deet was a necessity, but don't lick your lips afterwards.....ewwwwww, tongue went numb and tasted like ^&*(.  Once you're sprayed down the bugs are a non-issue.

Plant recognition is harder than we thought it would be.  You have to read everything and pay attention to minute details in the description and the actual plant!  Could mean the difference between a meal and the ER.  Until we get more comfortable, we will not be eating the wild plants, period!

We took a nice walk around the camp ground, it is wild boar season and there were a bunch of hunters, there was a group of them skinning a huge pig, bet that was really good!  Lots of dogs around, we did take our dog and he really seemed to like being in the woods once he was used to his surroundings.  There was even a man with a cat!  Yes a CAT.   The second night we had to make sure all of our food and necessities were secure because of raccoons, a lot of them!  In the dark it almost seems like they surrounded us, well hell they could have been surrounding us and we would have never known.  Thats a scary thought, we had an experience last year camping in the keys with the local raccoons.  They seemed ok from a distance almost cute and cuddly, but at night they would fight and make so much noise, it was crazy.  I would not want to get up close.

All in all, everything turned out great!  We didn't do everything we had intended but at the same time accomplished a few things we set out to do, compass reading, making fire without the use of a lighter, cooking over the camp fire the entire trip and some plant recognition.

I am looking forward to our next trip, hoping we can take a hike with our day packs and spend the night in the woods without the necessities.  We think it is important to get these things set to memory and educate our sons how to survive.  Some people may think it's silly, but we do not.  In fact when TSHTF, we will be ready!

Hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did. 

Bye, Bye for now,
Julz

First camping trip w/Gear

First Camping Trip



So, this weekend, we will be going camping for the first time since my husband has gotten interested in all of this survivor stuff.  I have to admit, the more I get into it the better it seems to be.  We find out little tricks like for starting fire and collecting water.  We get to actually go rustic camping and try them out.  I used one method in the backyard.  I just had a hard time wrapping my mind around it.  I have to actually do and see myself.  So, steel wool (fine grade) a 9 volt battery and toilet paper (very small amount)  you make a small nest and then you simply touch the battery to the steel wool, haha sparks and then FIRE!  Very cool.  We have a couple of other methods to try, the most important thing will be to use these new ideas and sustain the fire because this trip we will be cooking on it.
We will be taking our Alice packs.  We got them at the Army/Navy Outdoor store.  They had been gently used, but a lil wash and some care and they aren't bad at all.  They are only 25.00.  Then you can buy the frame, the LBE and belt to add to the bag, (of which my survivor man has done).  I have a few items in the bag so far.  A rain suit, change of underwear, warm socks, flashlight, bottle/can opener, knife-------which reminds me, a knife is very individual.  I did not realize this at all until my husband went through all of his and I didn't like any but 1, and it will do for now, but I look forward to buying my own brand new knife.  We have fire starting equipment, first aid, emergency water (this is a very small amount otherwise it would get really heavy), I haven't found a day pack I like yet, but I keep looking.  We also have water purification tablets and a sewing kit.
Like I said, this camping trip will be exciting opening and trying out the things we have been collecting.  My youngest son, (14) will be in tow and we are looking forward to a nice hike and some compass reading, plant recognition and rustic fire starting.  I plan to journal the weekend and fill everybody in on what works and what didn't this time around.  We of course will make mistakes, maybe those will be the funniest stories.  I still will spill everything good and bad, well......about the camping itself.  LOL  See you next Monday.

Your friendly beginner SURVIVAL WIFE!

Teaching my wife and kids to look back instead of forward.

Well its the close to the end of 2011 and things seem to be worst then last year so as a 50 year old man who grows up always trying to move forward in life it seems that what I was told as a young man is not how things seem to be at 50. I was told to learn the ways of THE MAN and to grow up wanting all the things they had and now that i'm there it seems my elders were wrong and I need to get back to Basics and learn and teach my kids and wife the ways of my ancestors and learn to live off the land and not by the governments hand. So this is my blog on how I'm going about clearing my mind and relearning the ways of the land; how to grow my own food source and getting a sound plan for when SHTF or worse! It seems that after 9/11 the internet has flourished with sites about self sustained people teaching and giving their take on how to live in the coming years and what to look for and when you look around at the way things are going I can't help but think they my be right. So follow me as I take a take my family down the road to a new way of living with the land instead of taking from the land.
Wa-do // thanks for stopping by.