Plan Three Times, Measure Twice, Cut Once

Hello Everybody, Frank here

I received an interesting email from the Frank & Fern site and I wanted to share it with you. This man is giving thought to relocating and has some good questions. I hope you will enjoy reading his questions and I hope you enjoy reading the response that I gave to his good questions. This is just the way that I saw it and the way that I still see it. You see, I love watching the movies Jeremiah Johnson and Never Cry Wolf. Yes, I have read both of the books associated with them, and they are very good books, which I would also recommend. Both of those stories influenced my wanting to go to Alaska, and explore and live that type of life style.

Well, Fern and I have been lucky. You see, I got to live a dream and I am still living a dream. Now, I'm not what you call a dreamer. These dreams have come from lots of study, research and hard work. I hope you get to live your dreams, too.

I use a saying which I'll share with you now, "Plan three times, measure twice, cut once." So for your dreams, Plan. Then plan again. Have a back up. Do what you need to do to be successful, but always plan for failure. Then live your dream. Someday I will tell you my whole story, but not today. 

If you don't believe in God, that is your choice. But I do and that's my choice. God has been good to me and I thank Him for it everyday.

I hope you enjoy the email I received and I hope you enjoy the response. Please tell me and this gentleman what you think. We're all in this ballgame together. So get off your hands and tell me what you think. Good or bad. Remember, we are ladies and gentlemen. Plan three time, measure twice, cut once.

We'll talk more later, Frank

Email received

Hello, My name is [omitted]. My wife of 40 yrs. and I have lived in Alaska 39 years. I see you also have lived here, so I thought you might have some insight for us.

We are 60 and done raising our children, and are entertaining ideas about moving south. We are Christians for 40 years too. We had a 40 ac. farm [omitted] [between Valdez and Glenn Allen] yrs. ago, and have learned the harsh realities of self-sufficient living here, and feel it is not really possible due to climate. We cannot grow grains for feed, nor fruits for ourselves, vegetables are limited, winters are so long and harsh our goats, pigs, chickens and rabbits all had difficulty. 8 mo. winter is simply too hard with firewood, water hauling, long, dark and cold, etc.

So I have a few questions.

In Okla. are summers too hot? We don’t mind 4 seasons, but 3 months to each would be fine. We have looked in west Montana, mid-Idaho, and east Washington. prices seem higher due to higher demand and scarcity, but 20 ac. is approx. what we’d like, ½ pasture for grazing & hay, ½ woodlot for ongoing firewood harvesting. Must have water of sorts, i.e. pond, creek, lake, etc. Definitely a rural forested area is our goal. A house is not necessary as I do construction, but cost is always a factor, so $50k or less is our price range for land as we need to develop the farm. Does this seem like a reasonable amount?

Also with all the instability in the country, dollar devalue etc. do you feel you are in a ‘safe’ place should civil unrest, depression etc. cause roving gangs from the city to seek nearby rural food sources? Or do you wish you had moved to  “the Redoubt” area? 

Thank you for an time or info you can provide. Also, I thoroughly enjoy your blog as I recognize experiential farming and all the added trials shared realistically.

Thanks again, and God bless.

[omitted]

Frank's response

Hello [omitted],

Congratulations on 40 years of marriage. 

Up front. Our time in Alaska was temporary every place we were, so we never gardened or raised any form of livestock, period. Here is a list of the places we lived, starting at the top and coming around and down. Barrow, the Kotzebue area, Nome, mouth of the Yukon River and Dillingham. We had a condominium in Anchorage for a few years, but it was only used a few days out of the year. So, again, we had no experience in gardening or livestock while in Alaska. We did have a church garden in one location, but it was really not very successful. That was in Dillingham, the lowest latitude that we lived.

Somewhere over the tundra about 500 miles from Anchorage

The reason we left Alaska, which was about 11 years ago, was my fear of the economy collapsing, which I still believe will happen. I did not want to be in remote, bush Alaska when the planes quit flying. We were there during 9/11 when the planes did quit flying, for 3 days I believe. That scared me then. Most people didn't have a clue what it meant, because all supplies there came in either by plane or barge during the warm months.

Nunam Iqua, Alaska 2006

We looked in the Redoubt area, western Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, just like you mentioned. At the time we left, I was about 57 or 58. At that time I had had several surgeries and after leaving Alaska, I had lower back surgery and open heart surgery. But one day it dawned on us that we were not getting younger, not trying to sound funny here, but I was really tired of shoveling snow. The places where we could have a car, I was tired of shoveling out the car. I was tired of ice, and dark, and cold, and I mean really cold. -50 is chilly. -20 was a good day. When it broke 0*, we celebrated. You should know what I'm talking about. And dark? I never realized how much I missed sunlight until it wasn't there. And light? I never realized how much I missed dark until the sun went in a circle for 24 hours in the sky. I take it you put foil paper or something on your windows in the summer.

Right now, I am 69. Two plus years back I had open heart surgery and about six years ago I had lower back surgery. I am as active now as I was then, if not more, but I don't think I could shovel snow if I really needed to. So, therefore, the Redoubt is out of the question.

 

The non-sunset, Barrow, Alaska, September 2000

Why Oklahoma? Lots of reasons. Fern's mother lived in southeastern Oklahoma. We went to school in Stillwater, Oklahoma which is where we met and were married 36 years ago. Fern is ten years younger than I am. For various reasons we bought a house and piece of property that joined her family's property. About 40 years ago, back in my Mother Earth News days, I researched property all over the country for survivability. Southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and north a couple hundred miles, and south a couple hundred miles is a survivable area. Lots of hills, some small mountains, creeks, rivers, forested areas, and not many people to speak of. Country folks for the most part, a higher unemployment rate, lots of churches, not many bars, and the issues of positive and negative that come with this type of area. 

A small example. The closest westerly nuclear power plant to us is Glen Rose, Texas. The closest easterly nuclear power plant is just west of Little Rock, Arkansas. Our prevailing winds are from the west. I am not concerned about a melt down at the Little Rock facility. Glen Rose, Texas, a melt down would not reach us here. Tinker Air Force Base, just southeast of Oklahoma City, if something nuclear were to occur there, it would not reach us.

Next topic. Neighbors are neighbors, and Bubba is Bubba. This is the same everywhere. 

The rolling hills of southeastern Oklahoma.

Summer heat. Well, it gets pretty hot in interior Alaska during the summer. I don't know where you live right now. We have mosquitos, but nothing like the ones we had in Alaska. We have no no-see-ums or white socks. Heat is relative. We get the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico that provides us with our thick forests, which allows us to grow just about any plant we want to. Fruit trees can be grown, but they struggle because they just don't have the same conditions they do in the southeastern Washington area. Because of the gulf stream, in the summer time there is high humidity and high heat and sharply fewer bugs than Alaska. Yes, the heat and humidity can be an issue. We never had air conditioning in Alaska. We had a pretty nice condo in Anchorage, but it didn't have air conditioning. In the summer here, we start much earlier in the day and much later in the evening. That's the way we do it, and we do have air conditioning. In the winter, if need be, we can use wood heat. And I truly pray to God, that if the electricity ever goes off, it's during the winter so we will have at least a little time to acclimate.

Land price and costs. It's this way everywhere, you get what you pay for. If you were to look around with various real estate agents, I think you could find what you're looking for, for around $50,000. Now there are places here that are covered with rocks. That's part of being in a mountainous, hilly area. Some places have good well water, some places have poor water. $50,000 depending on the quality of land, could get you a lot more than 20 acres, or a lot less. In Oklahoma, building codes in the rural areas are just about non-existent. I cannot speak for Texas, Arkansas or Missouri. We don't have silly laws taxing rain catchment, but there are laws about damming up creeks and streams and affecting your neighbor down stream. A competent real estate agent should be able to answer most of this type of related questions.

You addressed roving gangs. Civil unrest. The farther away you are from towns, I believe the less this will happen. As far as the instability of our country and the devaluation of the dollar, the dollar has been devalued before. And instability? Just look at Washington, D.C. Look at that circus. As Ol' Remus says, Avoid crowds.

Buckland, Alaska 1990

I'm about to wrap this thing up. You ask, do I wish I had moved to the Redoubt area? Outside of the romance of a few novels and films? No. It's not survivable unless you are very young, in excellent condition and have skills that very few people have. It has a lot of the same features Alaska does. People struggle with gardens there, they have hard water issues. You know, ice. It gets as cold in Montana as it does in most of Alaska. We have ice here for a few hours, or a few days a winter. I am more than happy with where I live. If I were to ever move again it would be 30-40 miles farther east, therefore, I am extremely happy with where I am.

If you would like a recommendation, and I do not live in that immediate area, but I am about 60 miles away from Mena, Arkansas. Or come right across the border into Oklahoma. I do hope this helps.

You know bad times are coming and we are going to have to do the unthinkable. I hope that you and yours have your heads screwed on right. I would gather food storage and a realistic way to protect myself. Some day this thing is going to break. Most people will move to the cities and the vast majority will succumb within a few months. This is a horrible thing to think. You will need to protect yourself. This is the part where it's important to have your head screwed on right. I don't believe that God wants us to put our hands up in the air and just give up. God made us fighters and He expects us to do so.

Peace be with you,

Frank Feral

Homestead Delusions

It takes a long time for a big ship to turn around, or even change course. So, let's look back at some thoughts we have posted before. What's coming is still coming. That ship is still coming. Here is an article we wrote a while back. Hope you enjoy.

Originally posted November 25, 2013

Hello Everybody, Frank here.

You think you're going to move out to the country and be totally self-sufficient? That is not going to happen. We do many things that decrease our reliance on the 'things from the world' but we cannot do it all. Here is a reality check.

So you're going to move out into the woods and build you a cabin. You're going to trap that fresh spring water. Hunt and live off of the land. What a great life! It is if you're on a Hollywood set somewhere. I'm sorry. Hate to burst anybody's bubble. But it's just not going to happen.

Most of us have seen the older movie, Jeremiah Johnson. It's a great movie about a man that is not happy with the way life was and, "It should have been different." Like I said, great movie, beautiful scenery, good story line, but that's the Hollywood version of it.

The book version, Mountain Man, by Vardis Fisher goes into more detail about the story. In the book, on occasion, he has contact with and trades with the Indians. He goes to a town for items like flour, tobacco, whiskey, black powder and the whole gamut of things that a person cannot make for themselves.




When I say cannot make for themselves, yes, most things can be made. An axe head, for example, can be manufactured. But it's one of those skills that takes years to acquire, and you're not going to carry the equipment necessary to forge

  an axe head on the back of a horse heading up the side of a mountain. Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to be totally self-sufficient, but man has been trading with other men since the times of Cain and Able. 

So. I think a person could do it for a couple of years. But it's still going to be real, real difficult. You have to have vegetables. What I mean by that is a lot of us tend

to think that man lives by meat alone, and I happen to be one of them. But I remember reading an account of Lewis and Clark when they were just shy of the Pacific Ocean and were holed up for a winter. The men complained about only having elk meat to eat. In our time right now, elk is considered one of the finer meats of the deer family. But can you imagine eating it for every meal for weeks and weeks? These guys weren't a bunch of little, sissy boys. The Lewis and Clark team were veteran, experienced outdoorsmen.

A number of years back, we were camping with another couple in an extremely remote part of Alaska. This guy was a biologist with the Federal Fish and Game in the area. I was about to drink from a fresh stream flowing from the melting snow when he advised me, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." It seems that most wild animals have been exposed to man and the viruses and parasites that he carries, and that there are very, very few safe streams to drink out of anywhere. So I took his advice and filtered my water.

Now what about that log cabin you're going to build? Do we even need to talk about nails, screws, windows, doors, flooring? So, let's say you don't build a cabin and you have a nice little homestead. Do you know how to garden? I know it seems that you stick a seed in the ground and when it grows up it will feed you. But did you know that rabbits like squash? And so do deer. And I'm not sure, but probably even elk like a nice, tasty squash. Not to mention the gazillion bugs that also like squash. Okay. So. Too much water. Too little water. Too hot. Too cold. Give it some

thought. What kind of fertilizer are you going to use? Are you going to buy it by the ton at the local co-op? Are you going to scrape it out of your chicken house? Oh, by the way, chicken manure has a very high nitrogen content and you can't apply it directly to your future squash plant, it will burn it. That's assuming you have a chicken house and you have chickens and you have chicken feed. 

Yesterday I doctored a chicken's hiney. There is a gland right at the top of the tail of a chicken's hiney. And for some reason, I don't know why, chickens like to peck

this area. Occasionally, when pulling out a feather there will be a little blood spot. The color red to a chicken is similar to a matador's cape to a bull. Which is the reason you don't see ranchers wearing red shirts, but that's a different story. I just made that up about the rancher. But the chicken blood, is real. Chickens will obsessively peck at the color red until they eat that chicken. So, do you have Pick No More in your pocket to treat that chicken's hiney? Didn't think so. What are you going to do?

Okay, but, back to the chicken manure that you can't put in the garden because it will burn the seed. What are you going to use? Compost? Yep, compost will work.

 I'll just get me one of those little green barrels and fill it up with organic matter and twirl it around once a week. Through the magic of mother nature and decomposition, you have compost. But you open up your little plastic barrel and it looks just like it did when you put it in there. Well, gee willickers! I guess mother nature is smarter than I am. I have tried to compost unsuccessfully for decades. I know the guy on the TV gardening show makes it looks easy, but remember they have the ability to edit, I don't. Could I learn how to compost? Probably. Have I ever been successful? No. 

That squash looks a little tougher to grow all the time, doesn't it? When I'm spending all day long trying to forge that ax head, I'm probably not going to have a lot of time for that squash seed. And I'm getting real tired of eating elk meat, but by golly, I'm going to get that ax head made if it's the last thing I ever do. And it might be the last thing you ever do.

Okay. So we decide to give up and we're going to drive down the hill in the car where the gasoline came from the Middle East, transported in a super tanker

made somewhere in Greece, with an electronics navigation system made by a Japanese company outsourced to China. And what about the tires on that car? The good Lord only knows where the tires were manufactured, but the rubber for the tire came from somewhere in some jungle that I can't say. Gettin' hungry yet? By the way, the Lewis and Clark expedition was complaining about eating boiled elk, not barbecued. So, how is that squash seed doing?

You want to be self-sufficient? Are you going to develop a photovoltaic cell for your solar panel? Okay. So you don't have a photovoltaic cell for your solar panel, and you're going to eat off of a wood burning stove. Where are you going to get the wood? I know, I know! You're going to chop the tree down with that imaginary ax head that you never got forged. Then you're going to cook boiled elk and squash for dinner.

Now what I've done here is taken two items, a squash seed and an axe head. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of items that are in our houses and cars everyday that we take for granted? Nuts, bolts, thread, wires, metal, plastic, wood, and the list is endless. If you want to read a good series, read Laura Ingalls Wilder - about seven or eight little books. It will give you a pretty good idea and perspective about a self-sustaining type of living. These were tough, tough people.

Okay. So. Let's say you have a house, a chicken pen, you've got some goats, your garden's growing, you've had some water wells dug and they're producing. Now you've got a chicken pen for your chickens. For your goats you've got a barn, corral and adequate fencing. And you're good at repairing your fence that your neighbors cut during deer season. Life is good. 

Then one day here comes walking up the tax man. You will never, ever be totally self-sufficient. Not to mention all of the items that you use every day of your life. At some time or another, most will need to be replaced. And that is if you have good health, no problems, you never need to go to a dentist or doctor or a psychiatrist. Okay.

But I want to let you know that it is fun trying to be self-sufficient. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

We'll talk more later. Frank

So You're Prepared....Really?? A Re-Post

Here is another older post that was written about a year ago. Frank and I have been re-posting some of these older pieces that were originally published when our readership was much smaller. It's odd sometimes to go back and read what you have written. There are times it seems like the words were written by someone else, someone familiar, but not quite me. This is one of those pieces. I am grateful for the inspiration we are given, to guide us what we are to share. I hope this article will give you something to think about.

Until next time - Fern


Originally published January 1, 2014

So You're Prepared.....Really??

It's one thing to buy a couple of extra cans or cases of green beans or bullets. It's another thing to prepare for a crisis or disaster. It's another thing to know that something bad this way comes and try to get a mind set to deal with it. It's another thing to have a garden and learn how to grow and preserve your own food. It's a whole different situation to live in a manner that will allow you to survive and hopefully thrive regardless of the machinations of the world about you.

So, you're a prepper. You have your bandaids, green beans and bullets. You have your ramming vehicle. You have the camo paint to put on your face so you can be invisible to incoming bad guys. You read all the right things, know the lingo and can comment with the best of them. You can talk the talk.

My question is: Do you walk the walk? If you truly believe that major changes are coming into the lives of each and everyone of us, what are you doing on an every day basis to be able to live with that change? Happy New Year! Time is wasting and the changes that are coming may be here sooner than you think.




We recently had an ice storm. We didn't leave the house for five days. When I went back to work the vast majority of the people I work with talked

about how hard it was to be 'trapped' at home. They couldn't stand it. They just HAD TO GO SOMEWHERE! Anywhere. And see somebody, anybody, even if it was a stranger. Some of them went to the big box store just to have somewhere to go. We don't understand. Why does everyone have to go just to be going even if there is really no where to go to or nothing to do when you get there? What are all of these people going to do when they cannot ever go again? Will they go crazy? Are you one of these people?

If you think you have read enough and stocked up enough to be fine when the SHTF that's great. But do you have enough experience and hands on knowledge to put it to effective use when the time comes? Because the time is coming, and if you aren't truly prepared with proven skills you will need, then it will be too late. 

There is no way we can learn, master and do everything. It is humanly impossible. That is why man was not intended to live alone. But, guess what? If you are not able to survive, and you don't have any necessary

skills and/or knowledge, you will be of no use to anyone. In fact, you will be a burden to be discarded or run off, because you will be just another useless mouth to feed. Sound harsh? How will you feel if there are people that expect you to take care of them? Not only provide for their necessities, but for their wants as well in a collapse scenario? How would it feel to listen to them whine about being hungry, dirty, tired or bored when it is all you can do to hold it together mentally and physically? How long would you allow that person to remain in your presence eating up precious food that could be used to feed someone that was productive, instead of destructive, in a life and death situation? Not long, I think. Are you ready for that?

So. Are you really prepared? Do some serious soul searching. It's one thing to join a 'fad' that sounds really cool and gets attention from your

friends. It's a whole different life style to really live in such a manner that you are as self-reliant as possible. For example. We have yet to have our cheddar cheese turn out the same way twice. Most of them still have a little of that strong after taste. Edible, but not totally delicious. We have made about 25 wheels over two years. Experience makes the difference and we are still working at it.

Another example. Gardening. Some years things make and some years they don't. This year we had a lot of aphids. Last year we didn't. There is always something to deal with that takes knowledge and experience. This past summer as we evaluated our garden, there seemed to be a lot of food out there. But as we really looked at it and tried to picture surviving on it alone, we knew we would be starving. That is a real reality check. It's one thing to think we know and can do what is necessary, but do we really know enough? I seriously doubt it. This evaluation comes after 25 years of the same survival mindset. There are so many things that take time and trial and error to really learn and understand. 

One more example. One of our top producing does just had her kids early and they all died. I never would have thought she would have any difficulty. She has been here since she was five months old, and has had five sets of strong healthy kids. Why? We only have a few theories, nothing conclusive. What if that was the meat we were depending on for the coming year? Would we be able to make it? Would we be able to find an alternate source of meat? Maybe. Maybe not.

There are always going to be things thrown in your path that you did not expect and may not have the knowledge or skills to deal with effectively.

Waiting to really learn and do many of the things that will be necessary in a survival situation, when the time comes, will be way too late. It is not enough to 'play' at being a prepper. It is not enough to say, "I have my food storage." Do you eat it? Do you rotate it? Is it food that your body is accustomed to, or when the time comes that you have to eat it because it is all you have, will it make you sick because you're not used to it? And if it does, do you know how to treat and counter that sickness without outside medical attention or running down to the store for some anti-diarrhea medicine?

In our day and age of movies, television, video games and a plethora of electronic fictional media, we come to accept and expect the outlandish, fantasy games, stories, and situational excerpts as 'normal'. This is where the good guy always wins, or the 20 people you shoot and kill in the

game get up and show up in the next game. All that blood wasn't real. The problem of the day in the 30 minute sitcom gets solved in under 15 minutes, subtracting time for all of those realistic morphed commercials. Then you can always go to the store to get out of the house and be with all of those strangers you love and buy more chemicalized dead food to eat that is killing you and yours. How in the world will people that live these lives be able to deal with, let alone survive in a collapse situation? I fear for them. Greatly. Man has become too distracted by the world. People fill their lives with meaningless activities; going here, going there, always busy doing something. The person that is always busy is the modern way to be. Staying home is something to be loathed and looked down upon. You mean you didn't go....see....do.....get.....show off......???? How could you? The distractions of the world are there for a reason, to hypnotize and trap you into doing things that don't and will never matter. We all have them; those distractions we waste our time on.

The self-reliant life is not a thing you do, it is who you are. It is your life. That doesn't mean the comforts and amazing luxuries of the world are not utilized and appreciated. I love air conditioning in the summer here when

it is 100 degrees and the humidity is 90%. I have long prayed if we were to lose electricity forever that it would happen in the winter so our bodies will have a chance to adjust to the heat gradually instead of suddenly. But I doubt I will get to choose when that moment arrives. And arrive it will, either from a continued long, slow decline or with a bang. One way or another, we all know there are major, life-altering changes headed our way. Even if you only know it on a gut level, if you are here, reading this, you know it's coming. So, what are you doing about it?

We have entered a New Year, 2014. There are many times that we didn't think we would still be sitting here, fat and happy, enjoying the internet and talking with you by now. We are truly grateful we are. I challenge you to sit down and pray about your situation. Seek the guidance of the Lord on what your real priorities should be. Then listen. Really take the time to listen and ponder. We have no doubt the only reason we have started and continue this blog is because, for some strange reason, God wants us to. There is someone, somewhere, that He wants to read or see something that will help them be more prepared in some form or fashion. So here we are. God is calling you and giving you this precious time. We pray you take full advantage of it. The time is short.

Until next time - Fern

Survival Reading

We like to read, and the books we like to read are the kind we can learn from, even if they are novels. For the past few years we have read many novels that fall into the collapse, apocalyptic, survival, self-sufficiency genre. Even though these books are fiction, we find in each of them something that broadens our view and/or points out some facet of living without the benefits of our current civilization, that we can incorporate into our scheme of future living. We also have many, many reference books that we use as the need arises. But this article will focus on books that help us prepare for the collapse of society that we see coming. They are presented roughly in the order in which we discovered and read them.

• James Howard Kunstler is the author of The Long Emergency and World Made By Hand.  We first read The Long Emergency which is not a novel, but a basic outline of
  
  what happens as the oil supply continues to gradually diminish. This book was one of the first that helped us to begin to formulate our plans for a future without electricity or modern conveniences. Kunstler puts together years of research from respected scientists and engineers in the petroleum field. Some of the data at this particular time, is five or six years old. But the concept that oil is going to, or has peaked, is real. His novel World Made By Hand is centered around an upstate New York community. This little town exhibits the effects of how life will be when the gears grind to a halt. He also has a few other books following World Made By Hand that are the same general theme and with some of the same characters. We enjoyed his books. They have an adult theme.
  
  
  
  
  

• William R. Forstchen is the author of One Second After. It was one of the first collapse type books that we read, maybe not the first, but one of them. It's basic concept is that there is a collapse that is the after effects of an EMP, electromagnetic pulse, which is the results of an explosion from a high level
  
  nuclear device that disables most, if not all, electronic components. EMP scenarios are easy to define, one second everything is good, one second after, things are not. I guess it being one of our first, I enjoyed it the most. It's story line was based on a small community, what they needed to do to survive and how they did it. It's good reading. It's written on a higher quality level than a lot of the mass produced spin offs that occurred afterwards. It is an adult book, though. But then, I guess all of these books that we are getting ready to talk about are adult books with adult themes. 

• James Wesley Rawles is the author of How to Survive the End of The World As We Know It which we would
  
  recommend that everyone have on their shelf. It is not a novel, but it is a well defined list of items that you will need to survive the end of the world as we know it. We have given this book as a gift many times. It is an excellent reference manual. To the best of my knowledge, Patriots is the first in his series of novels that supports this same general theme. He has published three or four good novels, well worth the read, about different scenarios where a handful of individuals try to get home or to their retreat. Again, well worth the read. Like the others mentioned above, his books are adult themed, but there is no language or sexual references. Jim Rawles is also the author of the highly successful SurvialBlog.
  
  

• Laura Ingalls Wilder is the author of the Little House on the Prairie series. Her books are a collection of experiences about life as she and her family experienced. Most folks will remember the TV series named Little House on the Prairie. Her
  
  books are fun and easy to read, with multiple experiences about how her family survived, sometimes in extremely harsh and hostile conditions. You can learn a lot from these books, and you can also read these to your children, grandchildren and husband. These books can be read and enjoyed by even the youngest reader. I would recommend this set of books be on every homestead's bookshelf. These books are not apocalyptic, they're about life's experiences that occurred during her life growing up. There is a chance many of us will experience these same conditions again. Appropriate for any age level.

• Cormac McCarthy is the author of The Road. Most folks will think of The Road as a video, and it is, and it is a very good video, too. It is one of the few we have watched in the last six years. But if you like the video, read the book. This book is
  
  about collapse and how a father and son deal with day to day hardships. This is not a bright, sunshiny type novel or video for that matter. It deals with some of the darker sides of life, that, as a general rule, most of us don't like to think about. I'm not talking about the devil or zombies, here. Just things that the human being is capable of doing to another. This book is unquestionably adult themed, as is the video. But, if you have the time, I would recommend you read it. It is very well written, but it deals with some very dark subjects.

 

•  A. American is the author of Going Home and three more books in this series, and maybe more to come. The main character is traveling on business and is stranded away from home. This first book, Going Home, is about the encounters he
  
  has in his endeavors to get home. He meets some very interesting people along the way, and some of these characters carry through into his other books. These are easy to read, they are all adult themed. But his books are about how he, his family and friends survive. Having said that, we found his books to be some of the most realistic of the collapse type series that we have read. The reason the main character is walking home is because of an EMP. One second good, everything after that, not.

• Glen Tate is the author of the 299 Days series. His series of books are based on how he, his family, friends and community survive a collapse. This collapse is not sudden and abrupt. He
  
  can see the changes occurring in society and the books discuss his preparations to deal with the collapse he sees coming. His is a very realistic type series also. His biggest issue is his wife who is not on board to the idea at all. We found this to be an easy read, enjoyable. It deals a lot with community, and I hope he comes out with more in his series. These books are adult themed. If you have the time, I would recommend this reading series.

• Colonel Oliver North is the author of a series of books, including his newest book, Counterfeit Lies, which is the first one we read, but not the first in this series. He had a series of books before this, which we are reading now. As you can imagine, his books are military based, dealing with conflicts around the world. If
  
  you don't remember Colonel Oliver North, but the name sounds familiar, he was the non-fiction character in the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration. We are finding his books to be very enjoyable, highly interesting, and the excitement just never seems to stop coming. His books are not based on collapse, or survivalism, or preparedness. But his novels certainly provide you with food for thought about what could happen in our world at a moments notice. I'm surprised, but he is a very good writer. His books for the most part are adult themed, dealing with military type situations. If this is your forte, they are well worth the read. Not surprisingly, he writes with a feeling of authority and knowledge. This series is the first we have read entirely as ebooks on a Kindle.

• Thomas A. Lewis is the author of Brace for Impact, Surviving
  
  the Crash of the Industrial Age. We found this book thanks to an email from one of our readers. So far we have only read the introduction, but it appears to be a promising read. This book is not a novel, but based on the author's experiences over many years.

There are some other books we have read along the way that we just can't recommend. Sometimes it's hard to pick out a new author. You can't help but wonder if it will be just another shoot em' up zombie thriller, or something you can walk away from pondering. We hope you enjoy some of the titles we have recommended. If you have read some books and you think the audience here would enjoy them, please give the title, author and a brief description. We are always looking for new books to read.

Take care.

Frank and Fern