Sad to see your news updates go Carlotta, but understandable. One has to take a break every now and again from the news. Thanks for all the time you put into this, although I live in south America I always found it useful and learned a thing or two.

Thanks so much Jose for posting this, it took some time to put the ebooks on my Kobo reader but it was 100% worth it.

Hello, City prepping has just posted a good video about different solar generators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJf6OP7bGU Good luck with it!

Hi Renata, Have you thought about something like a Spot messenger service that works through satellite? It seems a lot cheaper than a satellite phone . https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/products-services/spot-x  Here is a link to their site . I haven’t tried it myself but I have had customers ( I work as a tour guide in South America) who used it and they were happy with it. There are other brands out there like Garmin https://discover.garmin.com/en-US/inreach/personal/ Good luck with it, very interesting topic.

Excellent advice, especially to store money in a safe that is not fireproof.

Registered and looking forward to the course! As a freelance tour guide I have to take a physical first aid course every 2 years but this one looks like a useful addition to it

Excellent post and a topic where many preppers will recognize that even when you’re 100% prepared, there will be burnout. We are a family of 4 on a homestead with 170 acres of land and there has been no lack of food and money but for the kids it has been difficult to be schooled at home. My wife and I have definitely home school burnout. Luckily since 2 months the children  go to school 2 (half) days a week now. I think the Covid pandemic is only a very light version of shtf so I wonder what would happen if kids won’t be able to go to school for a long time if a real shtf situation occurs. Thanks Ubique for the insights and tips.

Hi neighbor, all well there? You need anything from the store, we’re going to town now. Ah, and by the way, can you cut your trees down because we want to install solar. In a text… I personally find it rude to ask something like that in a text. There is a pandemic and you have to keep distance but one can still communicate in a civilized manner from a safe distance. There must be another sunny spot on their property to install solar, it will be even cheaper and easier than on their roof. 

https://youtu.be/WVcFSClazjM Hi Marrah, there is a very good (and funny!) knife channel on YouTube that shows you many (survival) knife options, from cheap to very expensive. Check it out! I have learned a lot from this channel.

Hi pwocken, 9 years ago we installed a solar pump system (Lorentz is the brand name) and we have had a fairly good experience with it so far. We also use a normal electric AC pump. The normal AC pumps are 1) cheap 2) easy to repair 3) easy to install yourself 4) when shtf and the power goes off you’re in trouble what water concerns Solar DC pumps are 1) expensive 2) difficult to repair 3) difficult to install yourself, not the hydraulic part but the electronics involved in it 4) when there is a power grid failure you’re ok with water  Looking back now I would; install a decent solar power system and use only AC pumps, adjusting the pumping (in a 2000 liter tank) to the hours of most sunlight.  In winter it rains a lot here and we collect and store rainwater in a 5000 liter tank uphill. Good luck!

Excellent suggestion, I have been thinking for years where to place my fire extinguisher and this seems the best. Never thought about it. Thanks!

Hello Robert, We store our gas here in small 10 liter (2,5 gallon aprox) metal containers that are well sealed. The gas is constantly rotated and stored in a cool (locked) space. You can’t fill large containers here anyway. I make sure the containers are always filled up but never take more than 2 to the gas station. I always tip the guys who fill the car and gas tanks, that way when there are limits on how much gas you can buy, they fill mine up anyway. Yes, that’s part of South America… To buy a gun you can just walk into a gun store, choose the one you want and buy it. But then they keep your gun in the store until you have done your paperwork. 1) get a certificate of good behaviour, you can’t have a conviction of violence 2) visit a psychiatric and have you examined. They mainly look for suicidal and psychopath behaviour. If you have a history of that, no certificate. 3) pass a written exam at a specialised police department in your area, pay a fee and give them your medical and behaviour certificates. They also interview you to see if you have a genuine reason to obtain a firearm. 4) wait for about 2 months. 5) buy bullets, go to that specialised police department with the receipt and they give you an authorisation. 6) once you receive all your documentation, send it to the gun store and they will send your gun and bullets. 7) 5 years later, repeat step 1,2 and 3 We have a farm and animals so that is a reason to have a firearm. Someone from a city would have a harder time to obtain a gun license. The police can visit you at any time to see if your firearms are on the premise ( you cannot take them somewhere else unless you have a hunting license) and stored in a safe. So Robert, I hope it answered your questions, at least for 1 specific country in South America, Chile in this case. All the best!

I live on an island in southern South America the size of the state of Connecticut approximately. There are often smaller earthquakes and every few years a bigger one with the danger of a tsunami. In 2010 roughly 450 died in a tsunami because the warning system didn’t work. Most people here take these events very calmly and just seek higher ground after a tsunami warning. Life is very basic here anyway so most people don’t have many material things to lose in case of a major disaster. A lot of islanders are preppers without them knowing it. Most people have their own well, own animals and grow a wide variety of vegetables, fruit trees and nuts. Self sufficiency is pretty much the way of life here. Personally I store enough gas to last 2 months in case of a disaster or other event (once the island was blockaded for 6 weeks and no goods were coming in). We have a solar backup system, a solar water pump we always use and all the other typical prepper things. Few people are armed here with guns because it is extremely difficult to obtain a license to buy a firearm. We do have guns because we think it is an important part of prepping.  My advice to other preppers in different parts of the world would be; grow a garden, breed some animals and have plenty of water close by in the form of springs, wells, creeks etc. Greetings from the south!

My favorite is Selco’s SHTF School courses online (and he has physical courses as well in the Balkan and even US I think). The online course is slightly expensive but has a ton of information, very good graphics and most of all Selco’s experience of the Balkan war of the 90’s. 

Will Prowse has an excellent youtube channel on everything related to solar power, solar generators etc. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HjkYQZx2xd0 He is the only one I have found so far that does serious testing of ‘solar’ generators, inverters, solar panels, lithium and lead acid batteries.

The Australian brand Blundstone is my choice when I need something between smart, casual and sturdy. They used to be only brown but nowadays there are different colors (and black) to choose from.

Food like eggs, potatoes, meat and cheese from our neighboring farmer/homesteaders. The (South American) country I live in only gave us about 200$ but it was still enough for two months of extra food for a family of four. I would suggest everyone to buy as local as possible.

After 15 years homesteading in a temperate climate with a small family (a 6 year old child as well and my wife and I in our early forties) I would answer the 4 questions with 1 answer. Find a community with a diversity of people to live with. Much better than finding the right soil or climate is to be with a good group of like minded folks. Homesteading is an enormous task and it is much better shared. Get a feel for the place first, do some volunteering (wwoof, workaway,…) to see what you like or not. A school close by and a medical center are more important than anything. Keeping a paid (online) job is vital as living in the country is more expensive then in most smaller cities, at least from our personal experience. The benefits of homesteading eventually outweigh living in a city so my advice; go for it!

An extra freezer would have been helpful. They were one of the first items to be sold out here. A better electricity back up system as well as we already had 3 (short) power fails. Now we have only two 80W solar panels and a 100ah AMG battery with a 250V inverter which only charges small devices and batteries, especially as we live in a cold (cloudy) area.