Live Ready Now!

In the process of moving to this temporary place in town a few months ago, our Bug Out Bags (B.O.B.s) became rather discombobulated.  These 72-hour packs for each family member contain the essentials each person needs for three days if we would have to suddenly leave our home because of a disaster or emergency. It [...]

Water is necessary for survival.  To stay healthy, it must be pure.  In the wilderness dehydration is a great risk because of additional exertion required.  Plenty of pure water is of primary importance.  On our recent wilderness adventure we were much more prepared to handle water needs for eight than we were previously.  Last time [...]

Here I sit in the wilderness with my laptop!  Isn’t it interesting what modern technology allows you to do?  I think what I miss the most out here is a nice place to sit.  This old stump is better than the ground, but after a while, things start getting a little sore.  Oh, for a [...]

We are out here by ourselves this time.  Our friend was planning to come again, but sadly a close friend of his passed away last night unexpectedly.  Now we’ll see how well we’ve learned… It’s a fairly warm day out here in the woods in Central FL.  A beautiful breeze rustles through the trees.  We [...]

Are you prepared to leave home at a moment’s notice?  No place in the world is completely immune to natural disasters, and with the current unstable situation, we are also not immune to man-made disasters, including terrorism, civil war, and enemy attack by nuclear or chemical weapons.  There is no use shuddering in fear at [...]

It’s much easier to prepare for the things we WANT to happen than for things that we hope DON’T happen.  When we did our wilderness camping last week rain was in the forecast.  Sure enough, sitting around on our big palm leaves near the fire after dinner, we started feeling little drops of water.  We [...]

Shelter needs for a family with young children are different than those for grown individuals.  One can easily take a hammock in their pack, or make a simple lean-to to crawl into.  But we needed larger shelter, as well as ample time to secure one well before dark. Silver Oak (Hubby) and our friend selected two trees [...]

Are you getting the news?  What would it take to throw us suddenly into a civil war, or rioting out of control?  We have a generation of people in America who don’t know how to think rationally.  They will believe any nutty lie they hear, and jump on the bandwagon blaming someone who has nothing [...]

Last night some of the children said they wish we would still be out in the woods!  I enjoyed our wilderness camping (read posts from the past few days) because I enjoy doing special things with my family, but it is NOT my dream activity.  I have made this a priority and enjoy it because [...]

First I must tell you about our night!  I had a hunch sleep would be a challenge, so I decided no matter what, I was going to be cheerful.  It was a good resolve, but didn’t always pan out.  We had finally tucked everyone into our cozy little shelter and I was ready to crawl out [...]

Tomorrow we’re heading out onto the huge ranch behind us to experience some wilderness camping!  The weather is finally mild enough that we won’t freeze.  We’ll have no running water, electricity, bathrooms, or tents (unless we cheat and use the water and power at a pavilion nearby). Our first job will be to build an [...]

Wishing you a Happy New Year!  We had a family slumber party on the living room floor last night.  First we watched a slide show of all of our pictures from 2010.  It was fun to hear everyone’s thoughts about the year.  After playing Uno and Pig & Donkey, we had a snack and then [...]

When was the first time I thought about being prepared for something that I wasn’t sure was going to happen?  When we first got married 18 years ago I wasn’t even sure I knew how to prepare for things I knew would happen.  I am naturally good at procrastinating, preferring rather to remain engrossed in [...]