First off, for context, let me link to a five year old post: Last Blogger Standing
I’ve gotten a couple messages in the last few days from people noting that it seems like the number of preparedness blogs (or related material) seem to be dwindling.
Off the top of my head, I can think of a handful that are no longer around. The most sorely missed, by me anyway, was Self Sufficient Mountain Living which was my favorite. Claire Wolf has stepped back and semi-retired from her blog, Dakin shuffled off the non-corporeal plane as did a couple other folks. And some folks just up and disappeared, leaving their blog up with their last post being years ago.
At this point, and please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, I think the longevity title is between me and ,Rawles. As I’ve said before, I am most definitely not in this for the money, its more of a passion/vanity project for me. A little Amazon affiliate money shows up once in a while, and Patreon kicks in a few bucks a month, but other than that….nada. And that’s fine. I will say, however, that if you ever do think “Dang, he really nailed it on the head with that last post” please feel free to send me something in the mail or Patreon. I;ve even had people email me gift cards in the past. I’m not proud, I’ll happily take whatever renumeration you want to give.
In the last few years, I feel like my motivation has changed when it comes to this blog. More and more, I feel like my mission, such as it is, is to encourage and motivate the people who think like me, and to help bring people over to ‘my side’. Sort of a combination of morale officer and recruitment officer. To make sure that you know you’re not being ‘crazy’ or ‘weird’ when you buy three cases of TP at CostCo, bury a 10/22 in the woods, or map out ‘bug out routes’ from your AO. The world is on fire and people are telling you everything is fine. Anyone who doesn’t increase their resilience in the face of what we see on the news today is the crazy one.
I’ve no intention of leaving the blogosphere any time soon. Especially how, year after year, it seems we are getting into those ‘interesting times’. Why would I?
Of course, some things are out of my hands. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, have a widowmaker heart attack tonight, or die in another home invasion….who can say? Maybe one day I’ll wake up and just want to re-invent my whole life and that’ll include leaving the blog behind. Could happen. But, for now, I’m not planning on going anywhere.
So, yes…it does seem like the number of preparedness blogs is going down. But one other reason for that, and this might be a good thing, is that perparedness is becoming more mainstream and less niche…therefore it doesn’t need the ‘underground’ of blogs and websites (or, gong back really far,BBS’s and Usenet groups) that supported it back in the day.
Perhaps preparedness/survivalism is finally ‘out of the closet’ enough that the need for a handful of standard-bearers has passed. Certainly, it seems like its less fringe and more mainstream these days.
Regardless, I agree…it does seem that the presence of active preparedness blogs (that aren’t just shills for ad revenue) seems to be on the downward trend. But, your buddy Zero is here for now.
I’m glad to hear you plan to continue for the forseeable future. Self-Sufficient Mountain Living and Yer Old Woodpile are both missed. ERJ’s current Fine Art Tuesday reminds me of Remus efforts to show us fine culture now long gone.
Many of the defunct blogs were military veterans teaching tactics which our government takes a dim view of. Not wanting to become a nail in need of a hammer – I understand that. Headlines often are against the preparedness crowds and paint them as paranoid kooks bent on government insurrection. But no mention of their success when weather disasters hit their area.
The Old Woodpile, now that brings back good memories.
God, I miss Ol Remus. He could take a subject and teach you things you had never thought about. He could make you laugh your ass off one second or make you want to go get a rope and hang the bastards right fucking now.
He was the King of Blogs, sorry CZ.
And one day we will hear you broadcasting as:
This is Commander Zero broadcasting the truth after the End of the World on Radio Free Montana. From our bunker deep in the Montana Rocky Mountains with valuable assistance from my Swedish Bikini team helpers…..
Reminds me of way back when I was working 24/7/365 I used to listen to Art Bell. Now I read CZ everyday for my fix of what I should doing.
Remuneration, not renumeration. Look it up.
Autocorrect is not my friend
CZ, everyone shares that pain.:-)
Autocorrect has become my worst enema
The great thing is this gives us a viable source of information and we can discuss topics.
I grew up in this type of life. Always canning and freezing what the garden produced. Hunting and fishing to augment the meat supply. My grandparents burned wood for years and I learned a great deal from them. But you never stop learning and web sites like this give us access to the experiences of many others who are are of the same upbringing I had. And thank you very much for your effort. It is appreciated more then you might know.
This is great blog along with Rawles. Miss having Old Reamus and Woodpile in the.mix.
Commander:
So glad to hear you plan to keep going for the long haul.
Your blog is the best I’ve found. I used to enjoy JWR until he became much too fond of his brand of cool-aid.
May you continue until SHTF and long after!
Ceejay
One could say that SHTF has already happened with the communist takeover of our government, schools, churches and most corporations.
I stopped reading Rawles many years ago. His way is the only way, even when it’s demonstrably wrong.
Much of his information is also very dated and he is at best slow to update it.
I prefer to read those who are more practical and flexible in applying what they know.
I’m another who hasn’t read Rawles in many years. The prejudice (autocorrect failed me) again everyone who doesn’t completely agree with all their beliefs was deeper than my tolerance could handle.
Steelheart
An additional concern beyond the disappearing preparedness blogs is the fact that some of the remaining blogs–blogs that formerly posted a new article every day–now post a new article only every two or three days or so.
I realize that there are only so many preparedness subjects to write about. Sooner or later, writer’s block may set in or a resistance develops to re-addressing an issue previously covered because of “been there, done that.” (With gun magazines, I expect that an writer is completely out of ideas when a publishing deadline is approaching fast and he writes articles like “Is The .45 Better Than The 9 mm For Self-Defense?” Almost always, in the article’s conclusion, the author says, “It depends.”)
Yet, the reality in the preparedness field is that there are new readers who have become interested in preparedness (or, as I call it, Self-Reliance) coming along all of the time. These readers never saw the original story, so the subject is new and helpful to them.
Just to throw in my 2 cents again, I also miss The Other Ryan and his TSLR site. I know he’s on here from time to time with valuable comments but I miss his insight on things on the regular. Commander and TOR were always my top two go to sites each day.
Aww thanks!
Life is good. There have been some big transitions but I have managed to build a pleasant and viable life for myself.
Hi cz read your blog everyday , starting to think about one of my own oriented toward older handicapped people , (me) , also practical gardening to supplement trips to the grocery store. (something I’ve always done) , I tried patreon for artwork but got no results … thanks for your advice , Patrick
If you need artwork, try any of the onlne AI image generators.
Hi cz I meant tried to let people know about my artwork (as an income) as I get older!
,Rawles doesn’t count.
I stopped bothering to read him years back when he delegated the blogging to staff and guest posts from randoms, and phones in (metaphorically or literally) any contributions or content that are actually his.
What he puts out may occasionally still be useful to some people, as his first two books are, but whatever it is he’s doing now, it isn’t blogging.
IMHO, it’s the blogging equivalent of lip-synching your pop hits. Using somebody else’s voices.
So it’s all you, man.
Another issue that bugs me is when a blog carries three articles about a specific folding knife each month. For crying out loud, “Is this all ya got?” It seems symptomatic of a lack of more useful ideas.
I also believe the reason for doing this is the same reason that causes a newspaper to fill column space each day, so it finds some fluffy feature article (that it keeps in a file on standby) to fill the empty page.
As soon as I see a knife photo as the lead photo on an internet site each morning, I go to the next blog.
Well I guess it’s a shade over 5 years since I pulled the ripcord on the blog.
No regrets. Life these days is better balanced for sure. In some ways I am probably less prepared. In other ways (maybe more realistic ones) I am better prepared. It’s been a long strange trip but I’ve built a rather pleasant life for myself.
“or die in another home invasion…” So stop doing that!
Really enjoy what you write. Yours, SB and Eaton Rapids Joe are about all I read. I miss Remus sorely. Facebook even has a prepared group. (trap) Full of jerks and clueless people. Keep it up. Roger