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Could You Fend For Yourself After A Disaster?
Expert Shares Tips From Living 10 Years Off The Grid

Apocalypse - How to Survive a Global Crisis

USA --(Ammoland.com)- Some scoff at doomsday prophecies, but this year alone, millions of people have endured catastrophes of seeming apocalyptic proportions. Consider:

• March 11 — A 9.0 magnitude earthquake violently shakes Japan, unleashing a tsunami that triggers a nuclear crisis. As of Aug. 15, Japan’s National Police Agency reported 20,364 people dead or still missing.
• May 22 — A Category 5 tornado rips through Joplin, Mo., wreaking 14 miles of havoc, including 159 lives lost and 7,000 homes destroyed. By July 23, recovery was just beginning, according to a Huffington Post report.

Those spectacularly devastating events were just two of dozens this year that left stricken survivors without the essentials of modern life: water, shelter, electricity.

Could you manage for a few days? A few months?

Author Dan Martin is confident he could — and comfortably. He and his wife, Lucia, lived off the grid for 10 years on a self-sustaining Texas ranch they built themselves. They grew, raised or trapped their food; made their own ethanol fuel and solar panels; survived on rainwater they captured and purified. Martin’s newest book, Apocalypse: How to Survive a Global Crisis (www.ApocalypseTheBook.com), details lessons gleaned from the experience with illustrated instructions on everything from finding clean water sources to performing an emergency tracheotomy.

“We have a lot of backwards to go before we can even think about going forwards again,” Martin says. “We’ve become too comfortable; too secure; too complacent with our lifestyles. I’m not saying we should abandon everything, our air conditioning, our livelihoods, our technology, and go live in a cave. But when you’re 100 percent dependent on these systems and they fail for whatever reason, most people have no idea how to cope and continue.”

A Desert Shield/Storm veteran and former Boeing aerospace technician, Martin now works as a consultant on sustainable-living initiatives through his and Lucia’s company, Agua-Luna, Inc. He says people must first get back to the basics, and there are simple ways anyone can begin now. No matter what the future holds, they’ll gain valuable skills.

“Take some hunting and fishing trips with experienced hunters and insist on cleaning the carcass of your kill yourself, so that you know what to expect,” he advises.

While “Apocalypse” includes step-by-step instructions for gutting and skinning an animal, Martin notes that hunting involves complex variables, from tracking to using your senses, that can’t be taught in a book.

“If you don’t know how to work on cars, it’s essential you learn quickly,” he says. Take a class on basic repairs at your community college, and while you’re there, sign up for welding, first aid and food preservation.

Try sleeping without pillows and blankets; going for a day or two without food; taking a cold shower. Once you’ve experienced such deprivations, they won’t come as unnerving shocks following a disaster.

While Martin’s book hinges on predictions that the world as we know it will end Dec. 21, 2012, he acknowledges other doomsday dates have come and gone uneventfully. One has only to remember the devastation in New York City following Sept. 11, 2001, he says, or the 2004 tsunami that left millions of people in 11 countries homeless, to acknowledge that some of us may one day face surviving on a dramatically changed planet.

“Stop for a moment and take a look around,” Martin writes. “The quantity and size of today’s natural disasters are rising. It’s just a matter of time before we experience a major change, be it 2012 or beyond.”

“The end of this world isn’t necessarily a bad thing; in fact, in this day and age, it could only be better for humanity. … We start anew again – better, stronger, healthier.”

About Dan Martin
Dan Martin is the author of dozens of do-it-yourself guides to self-sufficiency projects. A graduate of the University of Hawaii with a degree in environmental sciences, he also studied physics and engineering at the University of Texas, and practical skills such as mechanics at San Antonio Community College. He and his wife live on a self-sustaining Mexican hacienda, where they host people interested in learning more about sustainable lifestyles.

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Off Grid Survival – Preparedness & Survival Training
A great resource for people who are interested in survival topics and Off Grid Living.

Off Grid Survival - Preparedness & Survival Training Blog

Off Grid Survival

South Western, USA - -(Ammoland.com)- AmmoLand.com’s featured Gun Blog is the Off Grid Survival found at (www.offgridsurvival.com )

The Off Grid Survival blog is resource for people who are interested in survival topics and Off Grid Living..

Off Grid Survival’s main goal is to provide readers with the knowledge they need to survive in any SHTF situation.

Robert Richardson is the owner and author of Off Grid Survival.

Robert provides a lot of great survival related gear reviews, but he belives the best thing you can have in any survival situation is knowledge.

“Knowledge is the key to survival, without it you don’t stand a chance!”

Off Grid Survival Blog Interview:

Q: What is your Blog’s Official Name?
A: Off Grid Survival

Q: What is your Name?
A: Robert Richardson

Q: Where are you located?
A: I live in the desert in the Southwestern United States

Q: What is the point of view or purpose of your blog?
A: The main purpose of my site is to give people the skills they need to survive in any situation. We encourage people to be prepared for whatever the future holds and we try to give them the survival skills that they need to survive in any environment.

Q: How long has your Blog been active?
A: I started the site back in 2007 and I have loved every minute of it. I have met some really great people and we have received a number of emails from people who have actually used some of the skills that they learned on our site in a real life survival situation.

Robert Richardson Off Grid Survival Blogger

Q: What do you do for a living or is your blog a full time job?
A:The site is starting to become a full time job, but I also own a small sign shop that takes up some of my time.

Q: Do you have a specific agenda or goal of your blog?
A: I guess the main goal of the website is to encourage people to be prepared for whatever the world has in store for them. While I talk a lot about survival and preparedness topics my other mission or goal is for people to fall in love with the outdoors. I’m an avid hiker, hunter, fisherman & backpacker so the site is really a labor of love.

Q: As a survival expert what is the hardest step or task for people to accomplish when prepping for a survival situation?
A: I think there are a couple of things. The biggest obstacle is usually a lack of urgency. People tend to put off prepping until it’s too late. They usually start thinking about it when their stuck up on their roof after a hurricane or some other disaster has taken place..

The second problem is actually the notion of prepping itself. Prepping without preparing yourself mentally and physically can actually become a big downfall in a survival situation. One of the most common things that I come across is people who stock up on thousands of dollars worth of gear and then somehow think they are prepared.

Having survival gear and other preparedness items sure makes life easier in an emergency but there’s nothing that can replace training and good old fashion knowledge.

Q: What is one thing that you want your readers to know about you?
A: That I practice what I preach. When I’m not blogging (or working) I can usually be found out on a trail somewhere hiking, hunting or fishing. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, I absolutely love the outdoors and have been living this lifestyle since I was a very young kid. Second, I realize the importance of training and staying fit. All of these outdoor activities keep my mind and body in peak physical condition and prepared for whatever may come.

Q: What was the best thing you did on your blog that got the most reaction from your readers?
A: I guess it would actually be something that you guys are doing by interviewing me and some of the other guests that you have on your site. I think people appreciate when bloggers expose their readers to other points of views or stories. People always seem to like when we have guest bloggers or recommend other survival related websites.

I think knowledge is power, especially in a survival situation, and the more information we can give to our readers the better our site becomes.

Q: What was the worst thing you did on your blog that got the most reaction from your readers?
A: Well I’m not sure if it’s the worst thing I ever did, but I did a post awhile back that was critical of certain so called survival T.V. shows. While some of these shows are entertaining to watch, they often give people a warped sense of what it really takes to survive.

I wrote an article that pointed this out and also talked about how dangerous some of the things presented on these shows would be in a real survival situation. I guess some fans of the show didn’t like the article and we got a lot of pretty nasty comments.

The thing about my site is I run it less as a business and more as a way to educate, inform and have fun. I’m going to say things that make some people mad from time to time, but if I worried about pleasing everyone I don’t think my site would be a fun or informative place to visit.

Q: Obviously since we are featuring you your blog is Pro gun? What do you think the outlook is for the future of gun rights in America?
A: Well I could probably rant on this subject for awhile but for the sake of this interview I will try to be brief.

Yes, OffGridSurvival.com is very pro gun. I think it’s one of our fundamental rights as Americans and in my opinion one of the most important right that we have. I think George Washington summed it up better than I can when he said” Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.” Without the second amendment the rest of our rights wouldn’t stand a chance.

That being said, I think our current political environment is very disconcerting. As a gun owner I’m very worried about what laws may be passed in the coming years. The laws that are currently on the books are confusing enough, especially if you travel or hike with your firearms. I think gun owners really need to pay attention to what is going on in Washington D.C..

Q: In general what is your favorite firearm and why?
A: Well I know I’m running the risk of seeming a little less than manly with this answer, and a few of the people who read this may fall off their chair in laughter, but my favorite gun is probably my Ruger 10/22. The reason why has a lot to do with survival (and the fact that I’m cheap and I like to shoot a lot). In general I think it’s probably one of the best all around guns in a survival situation.

Q: What would be your choice of firearm in a survival situation?
A: Now this is a question that can usually cause very heated debate among survival minded people but If I could only bring one gun it would probably be my Ruger 10/22. There are a couple of reasons that I really like it as a “survival gun.”

First, if you’re planning on carrying a rifle in your survival bag you have to think about how much ammo you can comfortably carry. I can easily carry my Ruger and a couple hundred rounds of ammo without adding an amount of weight that would make the gun a burden to carry. Second, the reliability and the ease in finding parts are both reasons that this gun is at the top of my list. Third, in a survival situation it’s often easier to find small game which makes this gun a winner in my mind.

Q: What hunting or shooting sports hobbies do you have?
A: I love to hunt and fish so I try to get out there as often as possible. When I can’t find the time for hunting I often head out into the desert to shoot at some targets. I had someone blog on my site about 3 Gun competitions so if I can find one I might check those out soon.

Q: Of the topics you cover what do you enjoy writing about the most?
A: I love to write about anything that has to do with survival or the outdoors, but lately I really like to write about the challenges of urban survival. I think it presents a number of challenges that often make for interesting and thought provoking articles.

Q: What things would you like to do or expand in your blog to in the future?
A: I just added a tactical section to our site. In the future I want to build out that section of the site to include more articles that are related to self defense in an urban environment.

Q: What would you like to say to those that are anti gun or maybe just unsure of the purpose of guns in our society today?
A: Well to those that are antigun I would tell them that nothing they do is going to prevent people from committing crimes. I often wonder what makes them think that passing more laws in going to stop one criminal from getting his hands on a gun? There called criminals for a reason, they have no respect for the law and passing more laws does nothing to help the situation. All it does is ensure that law abiding citizens will have a harder time protecting their homes and families from danger.

As for the purpose of guns in our society today, I still believe that it’s one of our most important rights that all other rights hinge upon. On a less political note, there are still a good number of people in this country that rely on their guns as a tool to help feed their families.

Q: What parting remarks or comments you would like to make or promote?
A: I would just like to thank everyone at AmmoLand for the opportunity to talk about the importance of preparedness and survival training. If you would like more information on what it takes to survive in any situation I invite you to check out my website at OffGridSurvival.com

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