I did inventory on my storage and discarded expired meds; worked on a new shopping priority list to fill in gaps where I've gotten low.

Added 100lbs of hard red winter wheat, 50lbs of oats, 25lbs of sugar and another 2 dozen canning jars. (jars were $4.00 at an auction) Also had 2 bushel of peaches dropped off by my "fruit guy". They will be canned and dehydrated this weekend.

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And To The Republic For Which It Used To Stand

Started building up a custom gun vise, because I'm too cheap to buy a $100 factory-made one, and I don't like the cheaper ones. This will allow me to do maintenance on my firearms much more easily and frequently.

I’ve been all over Dave Canterbury’s (dual survival) Pathfinder YouTube vids, which is lighting a fire under my butt. I’m rather new to all this, being more of an armchair survivalist watching some of the great TV shows and doing some reading.

Been getting my head around the basics of what I would actually need in the bush to survive. Shelter, fire, water, food and how to set up a B.O.B. for just such a need. Or even just the basics for a day hike that could somehow, at the end of the day, see me needing something from such a kit. So I’ve built an understanding of all that and started to built such a kit.

Went out back and started cleaning up an area in my woods. Built a fire pit and started my first fire with flint and steel. I’ll use the area to practice with bow drill and other forms of friction fire building, real minimalist like. Practice practice practice. I also used a baton and knife to make a frog gig out of a nice piece of wood I cut down. The area should be real nice for comfortable practice of a lot of skills before I actually try them in the bush.

I also had my two kids with me and one of my son’s friends. We talked about fire building and feeding the fire like a baby. They thought the fire was great and the frog gig really cool.

Mr. Canterbury has really inspired me. He is active on his facebook page and has built a great community. I’ll more than likely sign up for his virtual classes. The Pathfinder school sends you CDs, DVDs, books and an itinerary to complete. I believe you film yourself completing the *deliverables* and send them back to the Pathfinder school, on their viewing of your successful execution you can pass sections of their course.

Sorry if I sound like a commercial for them but I am inspired and impressed. I’ve not bought the course yet so I could be wrong.

I bought a new tent, sleeping bag, water purification tablets and fire starter. I was at Big 5 & they had a lot of thingd on sale so I went crazy, which I dont usually do I just went over the Pathfinder vids on Youtube and they rock. I have a few more things in my Bugout kid that I carry with me day to day but his Discount Bushcraft Kit vids are really informative. Peace!!:)

Got the following stuff this weekend:

5.56 and .30 Carbine ammo
Nikon ProStaff 4x32 scope for my stainless Ruger 10/22 survival rifle
.22 LR brick
2 more magazines for my .30 Carbine
Mosquito head net.
Two .50-cal ammo cans for miscellaneous storage

At home sick from work today, and not good for much except sitting at the computer. I decided it was the perfect time to print hardcopies of all my eBooks, and web resources that I've been saving for my 3-ring survival binder. I put this off for far too long. While I have back-ups of all my digital files, and back-ups of back-ups, I want the hardcopy too, in the event of a long-term power failure (especially since I'm not off-grid yet).

I made three loaves of zucchini bread and two loaves of banana bread to freeze. I bought a case of olives, not the best survival food but I like really them, and the shelf life is a little over three years. And at .88 cents a can, thats a good buy around here!

For starters, my wife just returned home from annual training after spending a month on an Army FOB in Wisconsin....so she is in the mindset of GOD. I continue to outfit our BOB's, update and add to our "Stay Put" inventory. Read as much as I can. Mentally challenge myself on What-If's. Practice survival skills whenever possible. Keep tabs on what the "close" and "far" population mindset is. Who to stay close to and who to stay away from.

Hey There Kain!

I'm new to this posting stuff.

Question: Need to upgrade my 5.56mm from the M193 ball 55-grain ball cartridge to M855A1 Enhanced Performance 62-grain (4 g) copper core with a 19-grain (1.2 g) green tipped steel “stacked-cone” penetrating tip. This is the new issue in Afghanistan. Any idea when and where this can be had? In the US....of course!

TB