Self Reliance

The Joys of Composting, or Start a Damn Compost Pile!

December 22, 2020October 1, 2019

I totally lucked into composting. When I bought my first house, I had a huge pile of leaves in the woods. Since I moved in in summer, I had a ton of grass clippings that had to get dealt with, so they went on the leaf pile. For some reason I turned the grass into the leaves, and some interesting things started happening. I began to see worms out there. The pile would steam sometimes. I probably didn’t know it but I was making compost.

Pictorial Post: Building a Hearth Pad

December 22, 2020September 24, 2019

A few weeks ago I wrote about sustainable, long-term heating and cooling considerations. In the interest of practicing what I preach, I recently had a wood stove installed in our home. I built the hearth and hearth pad for the stove. For the hearth, I used a product called AirStone. Using this stuff requires very little skill. The hearth pad was a bit more involved, however. Below is a more or less step-by-step photo series of my creation.

Building Rapport With Your Outer Cordon (aka Neighbors)

January 26, 2021September 17, 2019

A human support system is important in day-to-day life and absolutely imperative for surviving any sort of adverse, long-term event. When we first moved into our house, we didn’t know a single person in town. We worked really hard initially to fix that, and we’ve continued to work to maintain it. I think you should, too. This post is going to talk about how to get your neighbors on board with you, and quickly. First, I’ll talk about why you’ll want to do that.

An Introduction to Every Day Carry (EDC) Flashlights

January 17, 2021August 20, 2019

I am a big advocate of the Every Day Carry (EDC) flashlight. I have carried a flashlight on my person in some form or fashion for over a dozen years. There are a number of reasons to recommend the practice of carrying an EDC flashlight. This post will explore some of these reasons, and open a series of upcoming reviews of popular EDC flashlights.

The Mul-T-Lock High Security Lock

December 22, 2020April 2, 2018

This post will examine and explain the Mul-T-Lock high security lock. Besides the Medeco, this is one of the most popular high-security locks on the US market. If you live in a major metropolitan area in North American, you probably walk by these on a daily basis. If you’re looking to improve the lock on your home, you could do a lot worse than one of these.

(Nearly) Useless OPSEC Measure: Route Variation

December 22, 2020October 26, 2016

The practice of varying your routes between home and work is sometimes touted as an OPSEC measure. This is sometimes advocated by law enforcement or military organizations as a measure their members should take, and in some instances it may actually be a good idea. I began to think seriously about this, however, when I read a few articles that explicity or implicitly seemed to recommended the practice to average citizens in the prepping or “tactical lifestyle” communities.

Ten OPSEC Principles

December 22, 2020July 24, 2016

There are several lists of OPSEC rules and commandments our there on the internet. Some of them are quite good but I wanted to write my own set of Ten OPSEC Principles.

International Travel Security Tips

December 22, 2020June 1, 2016

Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to do a bit of international travel. I’m also fascinated with personal security. The following are some minor “best practices” for international travel security. If you have any suggestions, post them so we can all benefit. Additionally, If I’m being foolish, please call me out.

Threat Modeling: Profile Elevation

December 22, 2020May 11, 2016

A couple of weeks ago I posted my introduction to threat modeling. Several times in that post I mentioned the concept of profile elevation, and it will certainly be coming up more as I flesh out my thoughts on threat modeling. It has occurred to me that this topic should be explored more fully.

Swift | Silent | Deadly