Lessons from the Antioch TN Church Shooting

On Sunday Sept. 24^th, 2017 Emanuel Kidega Samson, a 25-year-old black immigrant from Sudan, pulled into the parking lot of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ and immediately shot a woman dead as she left the church. Samson, wearing a ski mask and carrying two pistols then proceeded into the church and opened fire. A young 22-year-old usher named Robert ‘Caleb’ Engle confronted the gunman, but suffered ‘significant head injuries’ when the gunman pistol whipped him then continued on to shoot others. Some details are still unclear, but it’s believed that the perpetrator accidentally shot himself in the face during the confrontation with Engle. Engle then went to his car to retrieve his Continue reading “Lessons from the Antioch TN Church Shooting” →

Charlottesville: You’re Missing the Big Picture

Unless you live in a media vacuum I have to assume you’ve seen the stories coming out of Charlottesville VA about the “Unite the Right Rally” that turned violent. The media, as you would expect them to, is placing the blame on the ‘right wing’ protesters and ignoring what actually happened here. First of all, I am not defending the protesters or what they stand for, fact is it doesn’t matter WHO the protesters were; they had a permit, they were attacked, police did nothing to stop it and the media and corrupt State and local politicians blame the protesters – wow. The left and it’s media lapdog clearly are supporting the violent attack by Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other left wing groups because they didn’t like who the protesters were – again, protesters with a permit. The organizer of the rally was later physically attacked at a press conference by a man proclaiming “free speech doesn’t protect hate speech.” Really? Think about that for a minute. Now Continue reading “Charlottesville: You’re Missing the Big Picture” →

Can You Have Too Many Guns?

Well of course not! Guns and Preppers go together like peanut butter and chocolate, or maybe beans and rice would be more appropriate, but I digress. Guns, yes, lots of guns; and I include myself in this fold as I have accumulated quite a few over the last couple of years and each with their own purpose. The problem we run into is which caliber or calibers of ammunition do you stockpile? Note: I recently purchased a little Ruger LCP2 .380 to carry on the trails when hiking, great little gun that fits the need, but certainly not the caliber I would choose to stockpile. No, unless you have an endless supply of money to spend on ammo, you must somehow narrow your focus down to just a couple of calibers. Now, if you want to create a firestorm of opinions, just ask what gun or guns would be best for a SHTF scenario – you will likely get 100 different opinions none of which might be appropriate for you. I have recently been faced with this dilemma and I wanted to take a few moments to share how we came to our decision and why (and yes yours will probably be different). Continue reading “Can You Have Too Many Guns?” →

Be a Better YOU than You Were Yesterday

With the current ‘crisis’ with N Korea, I’ve noticed quite a few people rushing to get their preps back in order (or least they say they are) but the need to rush out to buy supplies NOW means you’re probably not all that prepared. Now I imagine we have all been guilty from time to time (I know I have) of getting a little lax in our prepping routine. I know I have not been getting enough range time for sure, but I recently realized just how physically unprepared I really was. Being physically prepared is one of the most difficult Continue reading “Be a Better YOU than You Were Yesterday” →

What is the Weakest Link in Your Prep?

First of all, preparedness in not a race or a competition, nor is it the simple act of hoarding food, ammo or equipment. I participate in several online forums on the subject and all too often I see members bashing other members for their choices of supplies, lack of knowledge or where they are in their journey. Everyone has their own pace and their own priorities and that’s OK! Balance and steady progress are really the keys to truly being prepared. If you have 3 days worth of supplies in your home you’re better off than 95% of the country! Continue reading “What is the Weakest Link in Your Prep?” →

Practicing Your Preps

All the guns, ammo and equipment in the world won’t do you much good if you aren’t practiced and prepared to use it. I ran into this many years ago when we were transitioning into our current home. A strong thunderstorm rumbled through knocking out power across the area, no problem I thought as I had already brought the generator, but to my dismay the heavy duty extension cord that I would normally have used to power the refrigerator was not long enough to reach – fail. I thought I was prepared; generator, fuel, cord – but I had not tested the plan. If YOU have a generator, when was the last time you started it? Does it have gas; did you use a fuel stabilizer? The point is you need to test your preps periodically to make sure they will work in a crisis. Continue reading “Practicing Your Preps” →

Off-Grid Solar Project Update 5-08-17

Our little solar project just got a little bit bigger, ok, a lot bigger. We’ve been a little slow getting this latest update in place as the Solar Controller we ordered from Amazon literally took 6 weeks to arrive (slow boat from China?).

New Charge Controller

So here it is: 4 new solar panels for a total of 8, another 12v 100ah GEL battery for a total of 3 (yes we need more) and a new 80 amp solar charge controller.

8 panels

3 batteries

Yesterday was bright and sunny and gave us a pretty good picture of how well the system was performing. The (8) 100 watt panels (4 monocrystalline, 4 polycrystalline) produced about 677 watts during peak sunlight for an efficiency of about 85%. We ran our modem, router, PC, fan, and several lights for a full 24 hours as well as the dehumidifier for about 3 hours without draining the batteries below 70%. Today we will see if the system can run our 15 cubic foot freezer for the day under partly cloudy conditions.

If you are prepping for a bug-in situation, off-grid solar might just be for you. I’ll be posting a review of the individual panels as I have purchased from 3 different companies so stay tuned!

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Happy prepping!