A lot of you chimed in on my review of PULSE, the post-apocalyptic novel by L.R. Burkard.

Thanks very much for your comments. If you didn’t win, I hope you’ll go on to get a copy of PULSE. It’s available in both print and Kindle versions.

But we do have TWO WINNERS!: 

GATOR GEEK

and CINDI!

Congratulations! L.R. will be in touch to get you your free copies of the book.

If you didn’t win, you can still get a taste of what the book is like: Linore put together a PDF that you can get by visiting her site, and you don’t have to leave your email to get it. Just go to http://www.LRBurkard.com and on the right you’ll see a PDF Icon with the Reader Excerpt.

(If you want updates on other giveaways, I recommend joining her email list, even though you don’t have to, to get the excerpt.)

I was recently sent a bag of goodies from Survival Frog.com that I want to tell you about. They have also really stepped up and are giving away ten Paracord Grenades,! See below for details on how to enter.

Paracord Grenade

I thought this was a clever idea! It’s a mini-kit, containing a knife blade, fire striker, tin foil, cotton tinder, a carabiner, swivels, sinkers, fishing line, hooks and floats. If you look at the images on their site, the blade that came with mine is the one shown in images, not the saw posted on their site.

All of the above mentioned items are wrapped in Paracord goodness, nine feet of it! Paracord is a nylon rope that first saw use in parachutes in World War II. It is made from seven two-ply threads shielded in an outer nylon jacket. Paracord has a tensile strength of 550 lbs., hence the name 550-cord. If needed, you can put two sections together, doubling the weight limit. Its diameter is only 1/8”. Paracord is also mildew and rot resistant, aiding to its versatility.

Nine feet of Paracord might not seem like a lot, but if you find yourself in a survival situation where you need to use these supplies to live, it could be separated into strands and used for fishing line, fishing nets, snares and many other uses.

I would have to say that if I had the option, I would pick a couple different items. The blade is like a scalpel without the handle, which is a little difficult to manipulate. This can be mitigated by placing the handle portion in tinfoil to give you something extra to hold on to. The floats are not big enough to be useful with the sinkers (weights) attached. I did a little test and it pulled them right under. Again, if you’re in a survival situation, you could use a little piece of wood for a float (bobber), or use both hooks in a small trot line to increase your odds of catching something.

Be forewarned; I tried to reassemble the grenade and could not. I think I loosened the paracord too much, and then forgot how I untied it. However, this allowed me to do a little testing. I undid a section of the paracord, revealing the strands, and unwound one of them. I then took one of those sections and was able to use it as fishing line. It’s a little thicker than fishing line, but it would work. If you added some more sinkers and a few hooks, and carefully added them to the inside of the grenade, you could make a very nice trot line. If you’re not sure what a trot line is, see my article on Survival Fishing.

The weight of the Paracord Grenade is so minimal, I would not think twice about attaching it to the outside of a BOB.

The Paracord Grenade Retails for $17.97.
 
 
Paracord Cobra Survival Belt

I was sent a Paracord Cobra Survival Belt as well, so I thought I would give you my thoughts on it while I’m at it. My first impression is that it has a chemical smell to it. Some might not notice, but I am pretty sensitive to smells. That shouldn’t be a problem though, since paracord is rot and resistant. Washing it won’t be a problem.
 
 
The belt is nicely built and attractive looking. It’s not something I would wear every day, but if I was heading for some dirt time, I wouldn’t hesitate.

I mentioned above that paracord can hold up to 550 pounds. When you double or weave the lengths together, you increase the weight capacity. Because of how the belt is made, it will easily have the capacity to withstand far more than 550 pounds. In fact, the buckle would give before the paracord will.

The belt contains over 120’ of paracord. This would allow for far more uses than I can brainstorm!

Paracord Cobra Survival Belt retails for $59.99.
 
 
“Would You Survive If…” Survival Playing Cards

I was also sent a deck of the “Would You Survive If…” Survival Playing Cards. This is like a deck of cards and a 52 page “Worst Case Scenario)” book. Some of the items they briefly outline how to survive are: escape a car submerged in water, survive being struck by lightning, survive hypothermia, survive a cruise line disaster, survive catching on fire and survive an active shooter.
 
 
The price seems a bit high to me. I can get a deck of cards for under a buck, and The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook 500 page, 11 volume series from Amazon for $20.

Where I could see this being a useful preparedness tool, is giving them as gifts to preppers that are into this stuff and to people who aren’t into preparedness, but with whom you want to plant that seed.

“Would You Survive If…” Survival Playing Cards retails for $19.97.
 
 
Survival Frog.com

I want to thank the folks at Survival Frog.com; both for the items they sent me and for the opportunity to give away 10 Paracord Grenades.

To enter, simply send an email to contest (AT) preparedchristian [dot} net. Only one entry per person please. A note to Yahoo users, Yahoo blocks all email traffic from Prepared Christian. If you win, I will send you an email from another account they don’t block.

Contest ends at 11:59pm CST Friday, February 13th. (oooh spooky).

 
Please click here to vote for Prepared Christian as a top Prepper site!

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If you’re not familiar with the Prepper Pete books, let me tell you a little about them! The Prepper Pete books are children’s books that explore preparedness related topics in ways that are easy for children to understand.

Gun of a Son is the third installment of the Prepper Pete books. It is the story of Prepper Pete buying his son Charlie his first firearm and how Pete teaches his son to use the firearm safely and correctly. Going through a gun safety class, and later spending time at the range, and hunting together.

Gun of a Son teaches all of the safety rules as you would expect, as well as what kids should do if they find a firearm.

The book also shows the mistakes made by the grasshopper to show the dangers of making mistakes. This is probably my favorite aspect of the book, as I believe the visual example of why we don’t do things will help some children learn the concept better.

If you have young kids, this would be a great way to introduce these concepts to them. The same goes for all of the Prepper Pete books, which you can find by visiting the See the Books Page.. There are currently three, with more in the works! If you have a good idea for a topic, you can submit it on the See the books link above.

Author Kermit Jones Jr. contributes a free eBook version of Prepper Pete Prepares to one winner every month, and offers all members a free companion eBook with proof of purchase to all Preparedness Club members.

 
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Quite some time ago, I was approached by The Survival Key and asked if I would be interested in writing a review. Before I go any further, I need to apologize to them for the length of time it’s taken to do this review. Looking at the product then and again recently has given me some insight that I wouldn’t have had if I’d written the review right away.

The Survival Key is a software program unlike any other. If you’re preparedness minded, you know the vast amount of topics there are to research. The Survival Key went out and found some great articles, videos and documents from preparedness and survival websites and organized them by type of information. Think of it as a huge collection of bookmarks, organized by topic and presented in a graphical interface.

Here is a video they play on their site, though at the time of this writing, only the audio is playing.

 
 
While this software has a huge amount of potential, I have some problems with it; below is a pro and con list.

 

Pros

Provides you with the ability of downloading the information to your hard drive, making it available should the net go down. Just because you view the information, does not mean you have downloaded it and saved it. There is a button that must be clicked to download the document.

Wide variety of categories covered.

Each category has subcategories, many of those have multiple documents available.

The documents that the Survival Key created, called “Essentials” in the program, are very well done.

 
Cons

When I evaluate something, I tend to do it the first time without reading the manual because I want to see how intuitive it is. Be it a new handgun, a fire starter or piece of software. I had a few problems with the software until I read the manual. If you purchase it, do yourself a favor and read the documentation first.

When I first looked at the software and again the second time, I would say that 15%-20% of the links I went to were dead. Either the site had removed the information or the site had been shut down. There is a button provided to report broken links, and they say in the manual that they will find a replacement document when one is reported. If people are using this product and reporting the bad links, I would not expect to find as many broken as I did; so I don’t know how actively they monitor this.

Several of the documents they provide links to, are copyrighted documents that someone created a .pdf file of. By downloading the file you are stealing.

While they provide a means of downloading any and all of the information presented, if you downloaded everything, you would need a large hard drive to devote to it. With the size of modern hard drives, this may or may not be a problem for you. However, if you have an inexpensive computer and limited hard drive space, you will want to pick and choose what you download.

Some of the articles linked to aren’t very good.
 

My Take

The software has a huge amount of potential, and with a few tweaks like providing a means to add documents to the library yourself from sources you trust, fast removal of broken links, and replacement of a new one, to name just two, would increase the value in my eyes.

They have three price points; $14.95, $69.95 and $99.95. (For full info check the site.) In my opinion at this time, there isn’t enough value to warrant the price. If they created a fourth option that had all of the features of the cheapest option, but added a means to add your own library, I would feel comfortable paying $25-$30 for it.

I have made hundreds of documents available in the Link Library. Simply look on the main toolbar (it was previously in the general preparedness dropdown). I found non-copyrighted documents on a huge amount of topics. All of the links worked when I made them. Some might be broken now, but, hey, it’s a free service! LOL (if you find a broken one, let me know and I’ll fix it ASAP).

If you have the money to spare and want a large collection of data presented in a graphical interface, this product is worth buying. If money is a concern, you can create your own directory structure, find articles that are worthwhile, and save them as a .pdf on your hard drive.

 
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I have recently finished a novel called American Exit Strategy, written by Mark Goodwin. Mark is also the owner of the Prepper Recon blog and podcast.

American Exit Strategy is a Prepper fiction novel that depicts an America that has become an unsustainable nanny state, and the broken economy begins to fracture. Throughout the book you get a behind the scenes look as the American economy is in its death throes.

Early on in the book, the federal government is faced with not having enough funds to pay all of the EBT on the first of the month and has declared that it will issue another payment later in the month. This leads to looting and rioting in heavy population centers.

The book follows a very popular politician that reminds me of Ron Paul, whose name is Paul Randall. He is in the midst of a Presidential race and, along the way, makes some compelling arguments about what the American people will face and what he believes they should do to prepare for it. The claims he makes come at a cost, as the current President, who is very Obama’esk, who is at the end of his second term, and the political opponent he faces, try to place the blame for what is happening to the economy at his feet.

One couple that the story follows lives in a suburb in Florida that had seen rising crime before the riots. The couple are prepper’s, and you get to watch as they increase their preparation and follow their decisions. Do they stay in an area with rising crime, with poor economic prospects, or do they make their own American Exit Strategy?

American Exit Strategy isn’t about making a plan to leave America. It is about making a self-sustaining life, not dependent on the country America has turned into.

My Take

At the beginning of every chapter there is a quote, many taken from the Founding Fathers, the Bible and other sources. I enjoyed each one, and it fit well with the chapter.

I think that the events that unfold as the economy falls apart are quite realistic and possible. It’s not TEOTWAWKI overnight. There is a steady decline, with all signs pointing to worse things on the horizon, giving warning to those who are paying attention.

The only negative thing I would say, is that there is some dialogue that is a little clumsy. This is common in books of this genre, as the author attempts to educate the reader on topics like the economy, preparedness, survival and so on.

This, however, doesn’t take away from my overall opinion of the book, which I enjoyed and do recommend. I am looking forward to book two, to see how the story continues.