As far as tools go, some common advice has been to buy cheap versions of it and then replace whatever breaks.

There's good and bad to this.

The good part is after getting some tool experience under your belt, you'll know what you want out of a tool. Also you may find that whatever tool you bought doesn't really get as much use as you thought it would and the heavy duty pro edition wasn't really necessary.

The downside is that worst case scenario you may be buying the tool twice in the end, and also cheaper tools sometimes lack ergonomics.

Loyalists love to preach the virtues of whatever their favorite brand is. They're all just the same variations of the same designs with Chinese materials in the end, with some exceptions.

However, the one constant I've found that is pretty much a solid rule at this point is that you'll always get quality out of Japanese or American made tools. I'm not talking the brands like big yellow or even makita (although you can get made in japan JDM if you go to amazon.co.jp) that pretend to be from these countries, yet make their shit in China. Even tool truck brands like Snap-on pretend to be American made and yet just slap their sticker on Chinese crap and have been caught doing it.

What you want is REAL USA and Japanese tools made in those countries with MATERIALS from those countries.

There are a few companies that still produce domestically (mostly hand tools), but you'll be paying $50 instead of $15. The decision is up to you whether that's worth it or not.

Some things simply can't be bought new anymore domestically produced. For those, I'd suggest hitting up estate sales and garage sales. Personally I've picked up some really nice 1970s era stuff this way. If it's really worth it to you to get ahold of some quality shit, bearings can be swapped on worn USDM tools as well as electrical contacts.

All this just depends on how far you're willing to go or what your needs are, but just bear in mind chinese produced tools will always have lower quality materials than the tool company requested as Chinese like to lie about material quality or ship metal with a few good pieces on top and the rest shit in order to trick people.

The Telegram ban waves are becoming increasingly common.

If you find yourself concerned with the censorship of right wing views on the internet, why? Why concern ourselves with a medium that has served little purpose other than to pacify and demoralize our people? Sure, the internet is a fantastic medium to share information and self educate, but I think its true use is something much darker. Social media is strangulating our cause by hijacking emotions and the social ladder. 30 years ago, you had to test your beliefs and ideas against real people face to face. If you said something offensive, you had to be able to back it up with force or facts. Now, we have found ourselves unmotivated and unwilling to face reality, instead substituting the social ladder with social media. It has allowed our trust to deteriorate, our groups infiltrated and false gods constructed. We must start building communities through real-world hard-work and socializing. Using the internet alone to fight our battles will leave us fractured and weak, on their terms. Instead of focusing on social media, I challenge all of you to focus on making yourself physically fit, buying land and starting a family. Dont let life slip by because the internet was easier.

Starter routine 1 for fighting conditioning:

AM: 12/9/6 rounds of 3min jumping rope, if you rest take no more than 1min of rest in between rounds.(or 3 - 5 mile run if you don’t have a jump rope).

PM: 500 - 200 Burpees, and 500 - 200 Jumping Jacks.

#Fitness

I’m riding through the countryside today and looking at farms and small homesteads. Opsec is the word. From the perspective of a hungry person walking down the highway, how much of your stuff is visible? Can you even know if someone cuts the fence by the road and leads a calf away? Is you garden closer to the road than your house? How much attention will your ATV parked on the side of the house attract?

Food for thought. Walk down the road in front of your house and see what it looks like from a “different” perspective.

One of our fav permie YT channels is Edible Acres, enjoy the tour of their 1/2 acre farm! So much abundance!! You don’t need much land people! https://youtu.be/G6zJtTKoxoQ

Not much compares to raw milk. Buying local meat & produce will ensure your food is fresh and healthy, milk is no different. If you dont know where to find any, you can check your state here:

https://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/

An EMP seems to be the go-to choice in a lot of disaster scenarios. There are several types of EMP from lightning-nuclear EMPs, so it makes sense why you might want to protect some of your electronics or home solar setups.

This is a good short guide on protecting equipment and electronics from an EMP

Something to think about... cold storage. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a way to freeze food (ie a large animal you can’t eat in one sitting) with no grid power?
Growatt makes a SPF3000 inverter that runs with or without batteries. This means that with 6,8,10,12 solar panels you can make 3kw of 120v power to run a chest freezer. Their inverter with the “ES” suffix has an equalization cycle which is necessary for lead acid batteries but NOT for lithium. These inverters are interesting because they run even if you don’t have a battery. Another more expensive unit that also runs with or without batteries is the Sol-Ark 12kw. But it is 10x the price... but it will run your whole house. But the gist of what I’m writing today is that the batteries are the most expensive part and you don’t need them.

Without batteries your freezer won’t run at night but freezers are very well insulated and will certainly hold their temperature until the sun comes up again. Just don’ put warm meat in it near the end of the day.

Used solar panels can be had by asking around at your local solar installers. Often they order by the pallet for a price break and can’t use the one or two odd panels that they didn’t need for a job. Be aware that most installers today are using 400w panels which are HUGE... 3’3” (1m) x 6’8” (2m). 250watt panels are in the range of 3’3” x 5’6”.

Another source for solar panels is a place in facebook marketplace in Ft Meyers FL. A friend of mine ordered from them and the panels were exactly as described and promptly shipped. He got 36 250w panels from them.

Maybe your and your neighbors can split the cost of the inverter and panels? Maybe each of you can have your own freezer attached to the inverter? Food for thought.

Check your local paper mills for dryer fabrics. They have to be replaced about twice a year. The ones for my local mill are 30’ wide and 180’ long. Here I have lengths to go under the rabbit cages to catch poop and let urine pass thru. Also good for shade cloth and also good in horse stalls.

Ammo, how much to buy?

Lots of people ask themselves this question when getting in to prepping. The most common answer being "You can never have too much". While this is true, it doesn't help much and isn't always practical. Now with ammo shortages, the question is more relevant than ever.

A good starting point is chosing the right calibers. Scavenging wont be a good thing to depend on, but it is a viable backup plan. So chosing calibers that your local law enforcement and military use is a good idea. You will want at least one rifle (preferably one mag fed, useful as both a hunting and self defense weapon), one shotgun (with mag tube preferrably) and one handgun for personal defense. Obviously, you cant have too many guns or ammo, but for the purpose of this post we will stick with those three basic weapons.

Your rifle should take standard capacity mags (30rnd). A common practice is to have around 10 working and ready mags for your kit, minimum. I usually recommend you have some extra 20rnd mags as well, but for the purpose of this post, consider it optional. You will want 3-5 mags on your person 5-7 ready to go. You should also be able to reload these 10 mags 3 times after empty. That puts us at 4 sets of 10 - 30rnd mags, or 1200 rounds of ammo.

Your shotgun will hopefully have at least 4-6 shots in the mag tube +1 in the chamber. Lets say you have 7 total in the gun when fully loaded. The nature of a shotgun makes it about a 100 yard or less range weapon. You should be able to fully reload the shotgun at least 20 times for each type of load you expect to use. We can round up and say 200 rounds minimum for each load. If you use slugs, buck and bird shot, that is 600rnds combined. If a shotgun is your primary weapon, double this number.

Your handgun could have a wide range of capacities, we will assume a capacity of 15 for a semiauto. Handguns are easily concealed and in a SHTF scenario, its a safe bet you will have it on your person at all times. I recommend a minimum of 6 mags for a semi auto, 3 on your person, 3 more ready to go. Since handguns see less use than a rifle for a typical survival scenario, I recommend having enough ammo to load all your mags, 3 times total. We can round up and call it 300 rounds of handgun loads. For revolver shooters, I recommend the same 300 rounds, but double the amount of speedloaders, a minimum of 12.

These are all personal recommendations based on the research I've done over my years as a responsible prepper. Happy to hear your thoughts in the comments

And what admin would add to this, is for prepping persons, do not own guns in odd calibers (45-70, .338 450 bushmaster etc) for a survival, goto, boogaloo situation. Make sure your guns for prepping are in calibers like: .223, 5.56 7.62NATO/.308, 9mm, .45, etc.

Final point, it doesn't do you any good to have 10,000 rounds, 12 guns, but only 2 mags each. Make sure to have at least 10 extra AR15/sporting rifle mags, and at least 5 extra pistol mags per gun