Prepography
The Art & Study of Self-Reliance
Situational Awareness – An Introduction (1,347)
Don’t Be ‘That Prepper Guy’ (884)
Fan of the Ammo Can – Top 10 Uses (637)
Prepping with Garage Sales (576)
OCOKA – A Key Survival Acronym (536)
Snake Eater – How to Field Dress a Snake (515)
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Mineral Oil (514)
Top 10 Initial Steps to Preparation (510)
Prepper SALUTE Report – An Observation and Reporting Tool (337)
Jefferson’s Top 10 Commandments for Living (316)- Best Prepper Caliber? (314)
- Difference Between .223 Caliber & 5.56mm (312)
The Last Sane Man – Today’s Quote
Detective Del Spooner as played by Will Smith
Snake Eater – How to Field Dress a Snake
Snake Eater is a slang term for a tough guy, or a special operations soldier. It probably derives it’s origin from a practical exercise of the skill we’re going to be talking about today undertaken by trainees of the U.S. Army’s Jungle Warfare Training Center. Light Infantry and Special Operations graduates of ‘Jungle School’ had a reputation…and they earned it. Today’s lesson on how to field dress a snake is taken directly from the U.S. Army Ranger Handbook, SH 21-76 and is for informational purposes only. Don’t try this at home, or abroad!
CAUTION
Take extreme care in securing snakes–the bite of some poisonous snakes can be fatal. Even after a snake’s head is cut off, its reflex action can cause it to bite, injecting poison. The best time to capture snakes is in the early morning or late evening when temperatures are low and they move slow. Kill or use a long stick to pin down its head and capture it. To pick up a snake, place the index finger on the top rear of its head with your thumb and middle finger on either side of the head behind the jaws. Keep your index finger on top of snake’s head to prevent it from turning inside its skin and biting you.
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OCOKA – A Key Survival Acronym
Every infantryman and Army leader knows the acronym OCOKA, pronounced OH-coke-A. It’s a mnemonic that helps soldiers survive on the battlefield and dominate the enemy by evaluating their terrain. OCOKA is also a key survival acronym for preppers and survivalists. You should use OCOKA to evaluate the terrain around your workplace and home (and your retreat if you have one) but you should also use it to evaluate temporary locations or positions you occupy even for a few minutes if you live or are operating in a degraded security environment. Today’s article will introduce some concepts that we will return to in more detail in future articles.
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Drudge’s Warning – Today’s Quote
Warning to reporters and sources: Assume all your communications are being monitored. Time to move back to the parking garage.
Matt Drudge
Ashe on Preparation – Today’s Quote
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Arthur Ashe
King on Love – Today’s Quote
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Prepping with Garage Sales
It’s that time of year again when people turn their yards and garages into second hand stores for a day or a weekend. I hate looking at other people’s junk but I love some of the deals I get when I’m Prepping with Garage Sales.
In our neck of the woods garage sales generally start at about 8 a.m. on Thursdays and many of the towns and subdivisions set aside just one weekend a year or one weekend a month for garage sales. I don’t tend to do a lot of research ahead of times but the local paper and Craigslist will give you a good set of marching orders. I tend to stop at garage sales that are along my way as I’m driving except for the city garage sales which are worth going out of your way for.
Rawles on Knives and Bayonets – Today’s Quote
If your rifle has bayonet lug, then buy a bayonet for it. A bayonet can also be a useful knife, but a knife is not also a bayonet.
The Water is Calm – Today’s Quote
Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.
Malayan Proverb
A Hero’s Widow on Evil – Today’s Quote
I challenge anyone to tell me there isn’t evil in this world… from the days of Cain and Abel, we know all too well there will always be evil. But that evil shouldn’t take away our freedoms. In fact, the only way to defeat evil is by taking advantage of our freedoms.
Taya Kyle (widow of Navy S.E.A.L. Chris Kyle) via Must Watch: Wife of Slain Navy SEAL Chris Kyle Gives Heart-Wrenching Speech at NRA Event
Also Read Prepography’s Book Review: American Sniper by Chris Kyle
Physical Security and the Principles of Protection
In Part One of this two article series we introduced Physical Security and Protection by discussing Physical Security Challenges, the similarities and differences between threats and hazards and the five Forms of Protection (Prevention, Deterrence, Passive Defense, Active Security and Mitigation). This topic has been adapted from the U.S. Army’s doctrine on Physical Security for application by the prepper, prepper family or preparedness group. Today we’ll expand our discussion to include the Principals of Protection.
As we discussed in Part One our goal in this series is to help you develop a cognitive model for assessing your own Physical Security in a continuum of security environments from today’s Rule of Law (ROL) environment (at least here in the U.S.) through increasingly degraded security environments, short term WROL situations and all the way to a full, long term, WROL environment.
Army doctrine teaches that successful protection is characterized by the integration of the five principles of protection and these principles can be used to counter a myriad of physical security challenges. Although these principals of protection are applied differently depending on your resources and environment they do provide the prepper, along with the Forms of Protection from Part One…a way to approach protection and improve your Physical Security situation no matter the security environment. Remember that your plan should be tailored not only to the hazards and threats you face, but also to the legal and political environment you face…and might face. It’s a sad testament to our society that a man or woman isn’t judged just by their actions but are also, often judged by how their actions are perceived through racial, gender, political affiliation or economic (class) charged lenses.
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Freedom is Alive and Well – Today’s Quote
There is still a place for freedom that is very much alive and well… That place is called Texas.
Governor James ‘Rick’ Perry to Firearm Manufacturers Fleeing Anti-Firearm States
Prepper SALUTE Report – An Observation and Reporting Tool
The SALUTE Report, also known as the Spot Report is(as in ‘I spotted something’) is a U.S. Army Skill Level 1 Task (Skill Level 1 Tasks apply to everyone from the brand new recruit to the senior General Officer) that makes it easier for a soldier to observe and report information of intelligence value or information that can be used to immediate advantage. Essentially the SALUTE Report is an observation and reporting mnemonic and technique. The Prepper SALUTE Report is an easy skill to learn and it’s definitely worth learning whether you’re a prepper and just a concerned citizen.
SALUTE is actually an acronym and does use a little military jargon so I’ll interpret and help you apply this tool to situations as diverse as use in a Neighborhood Protection District (neighborhood watch on steroids when law enforcement can’t be relied upon) or by a concerned citizen who sees potential criminal or terror activity like the recent bombings in Boston.
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Congressman Amash on Government & Marriage – Today’s Quote
…government should not be engaged in marriage at all.
Andrew’s Note: Congressman Amash is right…the only equitable solution that promotes freedom, freedom of action and freedom of belief is to get government out of the marriage business altogether. In addition, this approach would let us avoid a multi-year political battle that, in the end won’t make anyone happy and allow us to expend our energies on more productive pursuits like getting our economy back on track. I also like his pun.
The Party’s Over? Does Immigration Reform Make Sense?
Pretend you’re in high school for a minute and let’s have a party. Let’s invite our friends and the kids our age in the neighborhood. We’re going to be careful though and just invite people we know are level headed and won’t make trouble because we don’t want any police calls to the house. Also, we have to limit the number of party goers so that we have enough bratwursts, beverages and party favors for everyone.
Unfortunately, because we’re having the party in our backyard it’s just too easy for party crashers to waltz in and help themselves to our limited number of bratwursts, beverages and party favors so let’s get together a group, oh let’s say a gang of eight of our friends to develop a plan for dealing with the party crashers.
Our little gang of eight friends that we’ll let all the party crashers stay in exchange for a promise that they won’t break any more rules in the future (just because they broke rules to crash the party doesn’t mean they won’t follow our other party rules now that they’re here, right?) and an agreement that we’ll really, truly secure the property to keep any additional party crashers from coming in at some point in the near future (at this point all the party crashers get on their cell phones and tell their buddies not to wait and crash the party before it’s too late).
A Battle But Not The War – Firearms Freedom
Yesterday those of us who value the right to self defense and believe that an armed public is the best defense against future tyranny won a battle but not the war for firearms freedom.
Although the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the gun control bill from consideration he’s indicated that the President intends to go around Congress (again) and take executive action to limit firearms freedoms. It must be a terrible burden to bear when you have to resort to executive decree to force regulations on a populace that’s failed to support your schemes willingly.
If you’re a freedom loving citizen then by all means, celebrate this victory…but remember that you’re celebrating the win of a battle, not of a war. The gun grabbers aren’t giving up, just taking time to reconstitute, resupply, and wait for the next crisis they can exploit.
Liberty is a Marathon – Today’s Quote
Nothing will be quite the same in Boston or in America after Monday’s terrorist attack. Psychologically, the bombings bring terrorism to the streets of an American city, on a sunny Patriot’s Day, during a road race, the Boston Marathon.
The bombings mean that any street corner, in any American City, is vulnerable — that terror need not come from the sky, nor target iconic skyscrapers and national landmarks. It can target people where they gather just for fun, on any given day.
…Here is the irony: We are vulnerable, because we are free and strong.
On Monday, Boston and America joined cities like Jerusalem and nations like Ireland, which have long known that safety is relative, that the danger that comes from asserting the values we hold dear is omnipresent, that life itself is a gift that can be taken not only by cancer and heart disease, but by the disease of terrorism.
We are no more vulnerable today than yesterday, but we will feel more vulnerable, because we had no known hint of what was to befall us.
…With all our TSA security, with the Homeland Security Act, with the government nosing around in our emails and deploying drones at home and abroad, with the (nonsensical) talk in Washington about banning assault rifles or restricting access to ammunition, an 8-year-old boy was blown up Monday, two adults were blown up on Monday, and more than a hundred others were injured, some losing limbs.
Here is the irony: We are vulnerable, because we are free and strong. These qualities attract the ire of those who would have us shackled and weak, who are consumed by hatred for individual possibilities, rather than love for what a free person can dream about and strive for and accomplish.
Please tell your children this: We are attacked in America because we speak about and believe in the power of people to guide themselves through life, to make their own decisions, to think their own thoughts, to speak freely and to pursue their own happiness.
Tell them that as long as the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial and the Statue of Liberty grace our great land that those opposed to equality and freedom will always see us as enemies. Tell them that we must always be vigilant, but never afraid.
Tell them that we cannot be defeated, because the truth wins, every time. And we, in America, hold great truths to be self-evident.
Tell them that liberty is a marathon.
Dr. Keith Ablow via The pursuit of liberty is a marathon | Fox News
Franklin on Preparedness – Today’s Quote
When the well’s dry we know the worth of water.
A Slave’s Take on Preparedness – Today’s Quote
We should lay up in peace what we shall need in war.
Property and Power – Today’s Quote
You cannot divorce property from power. You can only make them change hands.
Senator and Minister to Russia John Randolph of Roanoke
