Swift | Silent | Deadly


Self Reliance


Preparedness Part I: Preparing Your Body

I may have mentioned that I have some plans to write a series of articles on preparedness. It has been difficult to decide where to start. Yesterday I was reading Sherman House’s Civilian Defender blog and saw an article about personal health. It really resonated with me, and immediately I knew where to start this series. This series will proceed in a logical fashion, beginning to the most important, most urgent priorities. Let’s begin with preparing your body.

Read More

A Brief Introduction to Rechargeable Batteries

I decided to adopt rechargeable AA batteries only recently. I admit that I’ve always having sort of a bias against rechargeables. After having worked with them for a few months I’ve gained a whole new perspective and confidence and in them. Let’s talk about why.

Read More

A Primer on Raising Chicks

Chickens are one of the quintessential preparedness food sources, and for good reason. While it is still fresh in my mind, I’m going to offer some after-action information for those of you who may be thinking of raising chicks. It’s a little late in the season for this, so maybe I’ll repost it early next spring, as well.

Read More

Security Sunday: Weekly Gear Maintenance

All of us have a lot of crap to do. Aside from getting dinner on the table every night, there are all these periodic tasks, like changing smoke detector batteries, paying taxes, backing up our computers, getting oil changes, etc. Most of us are probably tracking most of that stuff mentally. I have been looking for a way to make some of this stuff easier to track, and I’ve found a pretty decent solution: “Security Sunday” (you don’t have to call it that – I just needed a title for this article).

Read More

My Favorite Books Part 2

At the time of writing restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic are easing in many areas. Still, I hope many of you are finding some time to read some books. If you’re looking for something to read, I am going to offer some of my favorite books, and I’ll keep this series going, hopefully well into the future.

Read More

Know a Knot! The Retrace Figure 8

In this installment of Know-a-Knot we are going to build on a knot we already know: the Figure Eight Loop. The Figure Eight has many variations, and this isn’t the last version of the Figure Eight that I will show you. This week is kind of special because we are actually going to learn two knots: the Figure of Eight, and the Retrace Figure Eight.

Read More