Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2016

Book Review: Aftermath II- The Struggle for Independence

I was recently sent an early copy of Leann Edmondson's new book "Aftermath: A Struggle for Independence" to review and I was able to get it finished a few days ago. Now that the book is available for sale on Amazon to the masses I thought I would provide my review of the book for your consideration. You can find my review of Leann's first book here: LINK.

Excerpt From The Rear Of The Book:
"We fight for our independence in total. Not just from a government or some other authority. This time, it's for being a free human being."

A world-changing event has taken place and with seventy percent of the world’s population believed to be dead, the first winter after IT happened will prove to be a bigger challenge to survive than the disaster itself. 

Jimmy Walker has banded together with other survivors in what was formerly known as Michigan. After meeting the threats from the local criminal element and avoiding being rounded up by the United Nations, the focus changed to gathering enough resources to survive the coming winter. But the U. N. is not resting. 

Not only will the survivors have to deal with people fleeing the cities, they will have to face all that Mother Nature can throw at them without any modern conveniences. Even if they manage to survive the weather, the lack of things to do leaves a lot of time for getting lost in the magnitude of what has happened to humanity.
Get Your Copy HERE:
   
The story picks up where Aftermath left off. Aftermath II delves into the community banding together in their fight for survival.  The engaging style and fast paced story that I enjoyed in the first book continues to engage the reader.  Although it can be read as a standalone since it does a good job of recapping what has happened, I recommend you read Aftermath first.  If you are looking for a book that will keep you turning the pages, pick up Aftermath II.

So what are a few preparedness takeaways from this book that I believe could help anyone on their preparedness journey when thinking toward a collapse type of event:  
  1. Government and governmental agencies are non-existent and no help: So what does that mean? No first responders, no military, no road maintenance, hospitals, power plants, etc. So if you're not self reliant for those things you better get that way soon. So get security in-line, practice alternative medicine, and be prepared for anything. Get an alternative power supply that is not reliant on fuel such as solar, wind or hydro.
  2. Food production is at a local level, if you are not a farmer, hunter, trapper or have a solid knowledge of wild edibles or medicinal plants there is no time like the present to learn. If you don't have a stash of heirloom seeds you may want to stock up now.
  3. Have a bug-out location and several backups and be able to live out of a backpack long-term if needed while on the move.
  4. Outdoor cooking skills are essential, so if you haven't baked on a fire or cooked a full meal while camping you need to get out there and practice that skill now. 
  5. Clothing choices are key! Don't buy cheap clothes, get items that will last and will be good long-term clothing and remember wool is your friend! Also never skimp on boots, if you can't walk you can't survive. 
  6. Bartering will become an essential part of society. Get onto those Facebook trade group pages, go to swap meets and practice your bartering skills. Get your hands on some extra gear, silver, Alcohol, etc. and be prepared to trade goods or your services for things you need.   
  7. As an add on to the previous point develop skills that are valuable now and post-collapse such as blacksmithing, hunting/fishing/trapping, sewing,cooking/food preservation, farming, fermentation/distilling, etc.
  8. Keep your group small and manageable and be sure you can trust everyone in the group with your life, if you cant then there is a good chance it could cost you big in the future.
Other Preparedness Fiction Related Books:
 

Conclusions:
This book makes you think about self reliance and the skill set needed to survive in both a wilderness environment and also a post-collapse type environment. The book made me think of what my kit would be for a long-term self-reliance on the road and I would normally go with my haversack, but needing to carry clothing and bedding for the winter months. Ideally I would use my largest dry bag as a winter cache and be able to travel light with just my haversack and items on my person if I'm assuming more of a nomadic hunter-gather life style. If I settled in a place life would be a lot different but would still need to have all those essentials in a pack for a rapid escape. At any rate, this book makes you think a great deal like the One Second After book did for me originally. 

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Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:
 
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Sunday, March 20, 2016

Friday Free For All (03/18/16)

A month ago I started sharing the prepping/survival/self-reliance/bushcraft/homesteading ebooks that I downloaded for free from Amazon and thought I would continue that again this week. I;m a little late this week and I apologize for the delay. I will be posting free books each Friday that I find through the week (If you miss a post just check the store's reference section as I will add them there each week as well). Be sure to check the price before you hit buy as amazon can change prices on a whim but as of last night they were all free downloads! I hope you're able to get some use out of this weeks books and I will post a comment here if I find one I really like while reading this weekend! If you have AdBlocker you will need to turn it off to get the free books to load below. Just remember to refresh your browser to after you turn it off.

Previous Free For All Friday Articles: 02/12/16; 02/19/16; 02/26/16; 03/04/16; 03/11/16;

You can Join Kindle Unlimited for free for 30 days by clicking the link below and can essentially read any book on Amazon for free that month!

You Can Also Join Amazon Prime for free for 30 days and get access to almost all of the books on their website for free, you also get free shipping on purchases and free video streaming:

Here are your free Ebooks that I found this week:


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Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:

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Friday, February 12, 2016

Free For All Friday!

While I was loading up my Kindle application on my phone earlier for my normal weekend survival reading during down time at work I thought as follows..... Self, each week I look for free ebooks in the survival/prepping/self-reliance/off-grid/homesteading genre why are you not sharing these with everyone else since you already are doing half the work anyway? Well my subconscious self had a good point so while I was downloading the books below last night I added them to my online store's reference section  (find it HERE-LINK) to save them until I could gain access to a laptop today. Thus a new weekly post is born and I will be posting free books each Friday that I find through the week (If you miss a post just check the store's reference section as I will add them there each week as well). Be sure to check the price before you hit buy as amazon can change prices on a whim but as of last night they were all free downloads! I hope you're able to get some use out of this weeks books and I will post a comment here if I find one I really like while reading this weekend! If you have AdBlocker you will need to turn it off to get the free books to load below. Just remember to refresh your browser to after you turn it off.




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Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:
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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Book Review: The Penny-Pinching Prepper & Interview With The Author!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having Bernie Carr on my live show over at prepperbroadcasting.com to talk about her new book The Penny-Pinching Prepper (Buy It Here-LINK) along with a few tips and tricks shared from the book.You can listen to the full show by clicking on the player below and be sure to keep scrolling to see my personal review of the book.



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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Book Review: The Neighborhood Emergency Response Handbook

Last week I had Scott Finazzo, author of "The Neighborhood Emergency Response Handbook" on the 7 P's Of Survival Radio Show (Listen to that show HERE- LINK). I thought I would follow that conversation up with a little additional information about the book and why I think it is a great book for anyone to add to their library, especially anyone involved in a Civilian Emergency Response Team (CERT). I taught one of the first CERT team classes hear in West Virginia and have been a proponent of the concept ever since, Although CERT went to the wayside here in WV it was replaced by WV REDI which is a state wide initiative that is quite impressive. So why do I live this book? After reading this book I dug out my CERT Instructor manual and compared the two and found that this book contains most of the same information in a more user friendly format. I instantly thought that this book should have been the student manual for a CERT class with a supplemental work book that has a few additional pictures and setup like a field guide. So lets go through this book and review a few lessons learned from each chapter! If you haven't picked up a copy of this book you can get one by clicking the link below for less than $12.

Chapter 1-When Disaster Strikes: If you take nothing else away from this book take away what each first responders incident priorities should be: 1) Life Safety, 2) Incident Stabilization, and 3) Property Conservation. So what does that mean? Life safety first and foremost refers to you and all other potential first responders and then those you're trying to rescue. Incident Stabilization is quite simple, keep the incident from spreading beyond it initial destruction if reasonably safe to do so. Property Conservation refers to saving as much personal property as you can safely (i,e, if there was a tornado that blew a roof off a house, try to move all the savable property to a central location and cover with a tarp to preserve it until the owners can recover it.  This chapter also explores the incident command system and how to work within when responding along side first responders.
Chapter 2- Basic Disaster Procedures: This chapter talks more about personal preparedness and preparing your home for disaster as opposed to responding to help others after an incident. This is particularly important as you can't help anyone else without knowing your family is safe and your home is OK. Just think back to Katrina when so many fire/ems/police officers didn't report to work simply because they needed to ensure that their family's were safe before they took care of others. Working in an area torn by a natural disaster/terrorism/war/etc. isn't child's play and is extremely dangerous, compound that with being distracted thinking about your family and you are more likely to become injured as opposed to helping anyone.
Chapter 3- Fire: If you have any experience with firefighting this chapter will take you back to memories of Firefighter 1 or your first day at the Fire Academy. On the show Scott and I (both second generation firefighters) reflected on a few memories that this chapter evoked for us from the start of our careers. This chapter introduces you to the fire tetrahedron (formerly fire triangle), basic firefighting principals, fire extinguishers and hazardous materials. If you didn't listen to the show yet check it out as during this section of the show I share a few applications for you phone (Wiser and DOT Guidebook) that can help you identify hazardous materials and a fun game you can play to learn how to identify these hazardous materials.
Chapter 4- Light Search & Rescue: As a member of WV-TF1 (State Structural Collapse Team) this chapter made me smile. My favorite part of teaching CERT classes was showing how hand tools could be used to effect light structural collapse rescue (closely followed by fire extinguisher training). This chapters explains where you can find potential patients in need of rescue following a structural collapse, how to get to them and various ways to carry them out of danger. During the live show I talked about the utility tool we gave to all CERT team members (You can buy one HERE-LINK *** Now less than $6.00)
Chapter 5- Disaster Medical Operations: This chapter deals with the difficult topic of triage. When conducting triage you are often deciding who will live and who will die. Whenever resources are short and you simply can't help everyone the START Triage matrix will help you make those life and death decisions based on the current condition of all of your patients.
Chapter 6-  Disaster First Aid: First Aid/CPR is without a doubt one of the most in-demand skills post major disaster. There simply are not enough doctors/nurses/first responders to go around to care for thousands of patients at a time. Unfortunately, the emergency response system in this country is met to meet the regular demand of calls, when a major incident occurs more help must be called in which can delay care, sometime for hours or days. While this chapter will help you build a good first aid kit and deal with the life threatening Airway, Breathing and Circulation issues which are most likely to result in immediate death if not dealt with immediately. So read the chapter, build a kit and follow that up with taking a first aid/cpr class one weekend!


Chapter 7- Disaster Psychology: This chapter is dedicated to recognizing post-traumatic stress disorder signs and symptoms. While PTSD has been talked a lot more in the media post 9/11, there are still many who don't understand what it is or what to look for and this chapter could help you not only save a life but it could be someone who is close to you and not in a disaster. This book does a great job of looking into dealing with the stress of a major incident and preventing PTSD in many cases.

Chapter 8- Disaster Preparedness Networks: This chapter is dedicated to starting up your own preparedness group or CERT Team. The best advise I can give is to start by talking to your local emergency management agency, fire department, police department, EMS agency or search and rescue team as they can guide you to volunteer opportunities in your community. If you hit a road block there contact your state department of emergency management to see if there are any state sponsored programs available.


Need To Add To Your Survival Library? Try One Of These:



Conclusions:
If you are interested in giving back to your community and volunteering post disaster or major incident I highly recommend you check out this as it provides the foundation for a civilian to operate with first responders. If you are a long-time first responder this may not be the book for you, but if you are planning to start a CERT team in your community you may want to look into using this book as a supplement to the FEMA CERT textbook.
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Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:
 
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The 7 P's Of Survival Radio Show: Goats, Axes & Fire Ohhh My! (10/13/2015)

In-case you missed last nights live show, here is the player so you can listen to the recording. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them below and I will gladly answer them.



 

Goats, Axes & Fire Ohhh My!
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This week on the 7 P’s Of Survival Show we will have Chris Gustafson on the show and will be talking all about the life of a Michigan Outdoorsman. We plan to talk about using goats for all things self reliance, collecting fire tinder material and what works best, his two businesses, some axe junkie recommendations for the everyday woodsman and we will talk a little bit about what in my opinion is the best barter/trading page on Social Media “Bushcraft Outdoors/BUY SELL TRADE!!!!!.” Chris runs the Gustafson Hobby Farm (https://facebook.com/gustafson.hobbyfarm), Michigan Wild Fire (https://facebook.com/michiganwildfire) and is one of the few remaining practicing packgoating in Michigan.
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A lot of people look at goats as annoying animals that are not worth their trouble on the homestead. Chris turns that notion on its head and uses those same goats to clean several trails in Northern Michigan that so many couldn’t get out and enjoy without their help.

His goats are used for trail cleanup as pack goats that pack out all the garbage those who don’t know what leave no trace truly means. Aside from this great use goats can provide entertainment (they are quite funny to watch and listen to at times), milk, cheese, leather, soap, landscaping assistance, security, companionship and wool fiber. We will explore several of the benefits of having a goat on the homestead during the show and hopefully hear a few of your stories.
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Once we tackle the age old question of to add goats or not to add goat we will move on to fire craft and the Michigan Wildfire Kit. Chris puts out one of the most well rounded tinder kits with some beautifully hand crafted ferro rods. We will talk tinder, fire starting mediums and the best place to procure those items in the wild. We may even venture into the wild world of Chaga and a few other wild medicinal that can be easily procured and used while out in the woods. Speaking of procurement we will talk about axes in this segment and what we both recommend for taking into the woods for the beginner woodsman.

Rounding out the show we will talk buying/selling/trading and bartering for gear. Over the last two years or so I have been part of the Facebook group Bushcraft Outdoors/BUY SELL TRADE!!!!! (https://www.facebook.com/groups/677268429026035/) and have had countless great dealings and trades for excellent kit items. We will talk about safe trading practices, what is often available and how working on this trading skill now could be one of the best skills you could acquire for a society of olden days.
This should be a fun show and we hope to her from you during the show!

Listen & Chat Here “LIVE” on Tuesdays 6:00pm/Pacific

About The 7 P’s Of Survival show!
Join Josh of the 7 P’s Survival Blog in the studio every Tuesday night at 9pm Eastern Time. This is a live show where you can interact and engage with Josh and His guests (Josh often invites his friends from the preparedness community to dig into pertinent topics). You can interact via chat room or by calling into the show (we would love to hear from you!). Each week regardless of whether there is a guest for the show Josh will dig into current events and legal issues which relate to preparedness, update you on what is going on with his blog/survival school and review the happenings of various survival related television programming.
Josh runs the 7p’s Survival Blog, JPS Consulting LLC (Oil & Gas Law, Business Strategy, Emergency Response, Etc.), A Survival School (Coming fall of 2015) and is working on his first survival related book (he has published several books on incident command and legal issues for emergency response agencies). Josh has worked in emergency response since 1999 serving as a fire chief and a variety of other capacities throughout his career. Josh holds a Doctor of Juris Prudence degree from the West Virginia University College of Law along with a BSBAd’s in Marketing and Management from West Virginia University College of Business and Economics. He also holds hundreds of emergency response related certifications many at the national level. He has taught at a wide variety of emergency response conferences and for various state and federal agencies mostly in the area of incident management, technical rescue and hazardous materials mitigation.

This show will explore a wide variety of topics including: legal issues in preparedness, wilderness skills (including a weekly skill challenge- A youtube video will be shared each week demonstrating a skill for listeners to review and post their responses), self reliant skills, gear reviews and interviews with manufactures, current events, Q & A with fellow bloggers and YouTuber’s, emergency response and disaster preparedness and recovery.

So what are the 7 P’s? The 7 P’s concept is derived from the military and emergency response where the pneumonic stands for the following: Prior, Proper, Planning, Prevents, Piss, Poor, Performance. This old adage stuck with Josh since his early days in the fire service and resonated with him so much it became his approach to preparedness and wilderness survival right along with his emergency response career.

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 Archived show listed below!

10/13/2015 Goats, Axes & Fire!
10/6/2015 Civilian Emergency Response Team Training In A Nutshell!
9/29/2015 DIY Mentality For Self Reliance
9/15/2015 Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life!
9/8/2015 What Does It Mean To Bugout? with special guest Jim Cobb
9/1/15 Natural Medicine with Herbal Prepper!
8/11/2015 Canning, Increasing Self Sufficiency
8/4/2015 Preparedness From A Law Enforcement Perspective
7/28/2015 Todd Walker “The Survival Sherpa”
7/21/2015 Obtaining suitable water!
7/14/2015 The quality of knives an excellent show with James Wahls from Indy Hammered Knives
7/7/2015 The 7 P’s of Survival first live radio show!

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Book Review: Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life!

Before I left town Jason Hanson the Author of Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life was on the 7 P's of survival radio show (Listen to that show here- LINK) where we talked about spy safety and survival techniques that can save your life all while keeping you and those you love protected from danger. Jason Hanson is a former CIA officer, security specialist and recent successful contestant on ABC’s Shark Tank. Jason teaches everyday citizens to protect themselves at his Spy Escape & Evasion School. He has been interviewed by major media outlets for security expertise, including the Today show, the Rachel Ray Show, Dateline, NPR, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post and took time out of his day to speak with the 7 P’s of Survival Blog/ Radio Show! Jason runs www.spyescape.com, www.spysecretsbook.com in addition to his Spy Escape & Evasion School and recently wrote a book titled: “Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life” the book I'm reviewing below.


In his book Jason discusses several skills that he covers in his E&E School including: 1) How to become a human lie detector and simple ways to tell is someone is trying to deceive you; 2) Escape zip ties, duct tape, rope, even handcuffs in 30 seconds or less without a sharp object; 3) Disappear without a trace; 4) Create an escape and evasion kit and the critical items to include in it; 4) Pick almost any lock quickly; 5) Use social engineering to get almost anything you want; 6) Prevent home invasions, carjackings, and other violent crimes; 7) Know you’re being followed; and much more.

So what better way to review a book that to share my favorite tip from each chapter... Just at the onset I will say this is one of the few book I will say that everyone should read if you are at all interested in preparedness.

My Favorite Tips From Each Chapter
Chapter 1: Survival Intelligence- Practice Situational Awareness At All Times! This is something that I really need to work on, while I'm one of the more situational aware than nearly everyone I know that doesn't cut it. I have become a part of smartphone nation and need to learn to sever the ties from connectivity when not in the comfort of my home or an area I've deem to be safe from hazards or threats. One Facebook check and I may find myself in the middle of an active shooter situation/robbery/animal attack/etc. that I could have prevented or avoided just by being aware of my surroundings.

Chapter 2: Situational Awareness- Three Pre-Incident Indicators: 1) Staring; 2) Pacing; and 3) Distraction. While I was very familiar with these habits for an individual attack I was glad it was included in the book to show others pre-attack indicators to look for, particularly women.

Chapter 3: Your Spy Escape and Evasion Kit- His EDC kit mirrors a lot of what I keep in mine and thus why I like it. His kit include the following: Pocket knife, gun, cell phone, bobby pins, monkey fist key chain, handcuff key, USD, Tactical pen, lock pick kit set and credit card knife.

Chapter 4: Become An Escape Artist-This chapter gives you a ton of useful tip for escaping unlawful restraint in handcuffs or duct tape using what you carry on your person. While these tips are great they are a little long to put here, but this chapter is well worth buying the book to read.

Chapter 5: The Impenetrable Home- Home security sign, weather you have a full security system or not at least have the perception of a system by having a home security system sign in your front yard.

Chapter 6: Travel Safety- Stay between floors three and six.Criminals target the first two floors for easy robberies and most fire department ladder trucks will only reach the sixth floor. Statistically if there is a major fire and you're not able to get out that would be your only chance at escape (look up the Las Vegas MGM fire for all the convincing you will ever need on this fact).

Chapter 7: How To Run Counter Surveillance Like A Pro- A person who is tailing you or intends to do you harm will start matching your pace. This generally holds true for foot and vehicle traffic so keep that in the back of your mind while you're practicing situational awareness.

Chapter 8: Social Engineering Secrets- Borrow a baby, this works for a man to get nearly anything he could possibly ask for.

Chapter 9: How To Be A Human Lie Detector- What to look for in someone lying- 1) Tapping a foot, 2) Tossing hair, 3) Biting fingernails, 4) Unusual facial expressions, 5) Lowering the eyes, 6) Sighing, 7) Throat clearing, and 8) Playing with clothes.

Chapter 10: How To Disappear Without A Trace- Burner phones, breaking habits and use only cash. If you want to use a phone use the cheapest prepaid phone you can get from a store that has no camera and buy with cash. Break old habits before you try to disappear, you have to cut all ties with your old life. Cash is king and many a criminal has disappeared with gobs of it in tow.

Chapter 11: The Art Of Survival Driving- How to ram a car.... may I say just Google PIT maneuver and you're golden. If you are trying to go through a road block then try to hit the vehicle at or behind the rear axle where there is less weight.

Chapter 12: Defending Yourself- There are several tips in this chapter about basic movement and use of a tactical pen, but I would highly suggest researching Krav Maga it is by far the best self defense method to learn if you are going to carry an EDC like the one listed above.

Check Out These Additional Survival Books:


Conclusions:
This was one of the better preparedness books I have read in the last several years. This book talks about things that anyone who carries a self-defense weapon (not just firearm) should read and practice to avoid the need to use said self-defense weapon. The book provides countless tips and tricks that you can implement in your daily life and isn't all Jason Bourne or James Bond movie theater rubbish, it is things you can use on a daily basis. This book is well worth the read and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to improve their skills with their EDC kit.

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Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:
 
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