Updates...shelves and safety nets...ramblings...

Have a whole slew of entries to the E&E Image contest posting up over the next several days. Keep an eye out for them.

If you have not noticed, we've switched URLs. Gone is the old .blogspot address, in is the .com. The old link still works, so no need to update any bookmarks. You'll be directed here automatically.

We've have had some recent less-than-expected expenses hit recently, and it's been good to have the ol' emergency fund. We haven't needed to dip into it, but it gives some great peace of mind when life throws you the occasional financial curve ball.

Built up a pair of 1000lb per shelf shelving units from Costco...I've been lusting after Costco shelves for years, and I finally have them! They were on sale, too - $70 each I think? A bit finicky to set up, but pretty darn tough once they are done.

They are obviously in the process of being filled up at the moment..looks like I need some more water cans, too.

The crappy wire shelving in our pantry is up next. That's right crappy wire shelving, I'm coming for you!

Over the next several weeks, I will be easing up on my posting a bit to focus on the 'book' version of You Took Away Tomorrow, other blog related activities and real life.

No worries though - I will still post a couple of times a week, and the E&E contest entries will help fill in the gaps.

The Walking Dead - The Suicide King

The Walking Dead returns tonight, with Daryl and Merle being pushed into mortal combat while the angry citizens and the now even crazier Governor watch on. Here's the TV guide description:

Rick tries to save one of his group; Woodbury is in disarray; new guests at the prison raise concerns.

Rick & Co. are going back into the fire to pull Daryl out, and I'm going to guess that crazy big brother Merle gets brought along for the ride!

I'll be updating as the episode progresses!

And we're starting!

Spoilers after the jump!

10 Christmas Gift Ideas for Non-Survivalists

Every year for the past few years I've done a gift round up for survivalists. That's coming, no worries. But I figured most of you guys and gals might benefit more from a quick run down of affordable gift ideas for your non-survivalist, uninitiated friends and family. Most are under $30, because hey, we're all on a budget this time of year.

WaterBOB: You've probably seen these - a big, heavy plastic liner for your bathtub. In an emergency, you chuck it in your tub, fill it up, and then you can store that water under more sanitary conditions than leaving it in open air for days on end. Most people don't have much extra water stored at home, and one of these certainly takes up less room than a 55-gallon barrel or two. A great starter step.

Everyday Carry Flashlights: Quality LED flashlights make great gifts - both keychain size and larger. It's hard to have too many, and they tend to continue working for years and years. The Fenix E11 takes a single AA, fits nicely in a pocket and kicks out an advertised 105 lumens. The Fenix E01 comes in multiple colors, runs on a single AAA-sized battery and will stand up to the abuse of riding on a keychain. I had one on my key ring for close to 5 years before upgrading to a similar but slightly brighter model (the Fenix LD01). The E01 only costs around $13, so no big deal if you need to buy multiples. The LD01 is brighter, has multiple modes but doesn't come in funky colors and will set you back around $30.

Anyone else sick of the prepper label?

Before there were preppers, there were survivalists. Survivalist came into common usage in the 70s on into the 80s. Eventually, survivalists came to be associated with threatening anti-establishment types who wore camo, ran around with evil black guns and blew stuff up. Scary stuff to the average person.

So prepper came into the vernacular - I'm not sure who coined it, but it became the warmer, friendlier term for someone who put back food, water, medical supplies, and of course guns'n'ammo. But maybe without the camo and some of the extreme political views. Less scary to the average person, or at least a fresh start.

"Prepper" of course now has all of it's own new negative stigma associated with it. See the NatGeo TV show Doomsday Preppers. People made to look like loons. Today, if the average person knows what a prepper is, they're probably thinking the overweight, delusional white folks with guns they saw on cable. Yay! Big step up! Really, watch a couple episodes and tell me if you still want to be associated with the label.

And, if they haven't seen the NatGeo show, prepper is not a particularly clear label for the uninitiated. A prepper is what - one who preps? Preps for what? Going to college? Going on a cruise? Really, I've gotten feedback from average every day people who are interested in learning more but are confused by what the heck "prepping" is and what "preppers" are.

Why the confusion? Prepper is not a real word. Look it up in the dictionary - it's not there! It's a lame made up word. Seriously, it's quite lame sounding--prepper ranks up there with "Trekkie" and "Twihard". Action hero cool it will never be.

So, while I have used the prepper label occasionally in the past, it's not been with a lot of fondness for it. More like a feeling of "man, am I compromising in terms of being politically correct?". If you're really bored and want to go back and check, you'll see I usually associate prepper with survivalist or survival.

But, "prepper" been the common descriptor for what we do for the past several years, so I've used it, despite my mild distaste for it.

Screw that. I'm done with it.

Forget about political correctness or latent memories from the 80s--I'm a survivalist, not a prepper. If that gives liberals panic attacks, then oh well.

Survivalist is descriptive of what we do - a survivalist is one who survives. Pretty clear--no questions asked.

Survivalist is also actually a real word. It's even in the dictionary. See! Here's the copy paste:

Definition of SURVIVALIST

: a person who advocates or practices survivalism; especially: one who has prepared to survive in the anarchy of an anticipated breakdown of society

Hmm, that sounds a lot like what we do, doesn't it?

So, I'm done with "prepper"--you won't find me using it around here, and I encourage you to evaluate whether you think it's a label that suits you.

Me? I am a survivalist and proud of it. How about you?

Open Thread: Black Friday Deals

You want my Tickle-Me-Elmos? Come and take them!

Black Friday is fast approaching, for good and bad. I'm not a fan of braving the lines and masses of fanatical, zombie-like deal hunters. BUT, there are some deals out there, for Christmas presents and preps alike. And with online retailers, there's no lines to fight and no need to drag yourself out of the house, still hung over from tryptophan.

This first I will direct you to is Amazon.com. They have some "pre"-Black Friday deals up now - here's their outdoor/camping stuff, Hunting/tactical stuff and optics. They also have a save $10 on a $50 purchase for Kershaw knives. I'm not seeing any "must have" deals at the moment, but there's some solid savings to be had.

And, of course, Amazon has some great deals on non preps - toys for the kiddies, electronics, books, movies, you name it. We're an Amazon Associate and get a percentage whenever you click on one of our links and buy something off Amazon. It costs you nadda, and there's no form you need to fill out - Amazon does it automatically. If you enjoy what we do here at T-Blog, it's not a bad way of saying thanks. The vast majority of proceeds go towards supporting T-Blog, picking up products for review, and so on, so your purchases help us provide a better quality of content here, too.

The banner ad above will take you to Amazon's general Black Friday ads portal, where they're running early deals right now, and will have up more deals on Black Friday through Cyber Monday. Right now, they're cycling through Lighting Deals - they've got the Lord of the Rings movies on discount later today - under $4 on Blu-Ray! Check out the full calender for movie and TV deals right here.

Big Box & Outdoors Stores
Here's a few of my picks for good deals from the ads I've scanned. If you're looking for a shotgun, there are several good deals out there.

• Wal-Mart has a Savage/Arms Stevens 12-gauge Shotgun for $169.99 - 18.5 inch barrel and a pistol grip make it a good, budget friendly Home Defense scatter gun.
• Big 5 has a Mossberg combo 28" hunting barrel and 18.5 in defense barrel for $259.99 - with an extended 8 shot capacity.
• Bass Pro has a H&R Pardner Pump shotgun for $150 after in-store rebate.
• Dick's has Buy-One-Get-One-50% off on ALL ammo. There's no limit posted in the ad, so you could potentially get some really good deals here...
• Dick's has Remington 700 Varmints for $350 after rebate - with a scope! I think these come in .223, .243 and .308, which would make for a great budget hunting/long-range bolt gun.
• Dick's also has Mossberg Mavericks for $159 and flat savings on ALL of their regular priced firearms.
• Gander Mountain has the EAA Windicator snub-nose .357 for $279.99.
• Gander also has 1000-rounds of Remington UMC 9mm for $199.99
• Cabela's has Federal 525 round bricks of .22lr for $17.99, and a 500-round ammo can of Federal .223 for $159.99.
• Cabela's has the best price on a 10/22 takedown rifle that I've seen - $279.99
• Finally, Cabela's has $50 off Sig Sauer P250s; with the price on their website listed at $429.99, that brings you down to $379.99. Gander Mountain also has deals on the P250, but theirs comes with a laser and costs $399.99.
• Most of the big box stores are also showing moderate discounts on Smith & Wesson M&Ps and XDs, if you're in the market.

For around $500, you could pick up a 12 gauge shotgun and a snub-nosed .357 revolver, which would be a pretty decent baseline for survival, hunting and home defense. Or a takedown 10/22 and over 5000 rounds of ammo for right around $450. Lots of good choices.

I'm sure most of the big online retailers will runs sales, too - I'm going to check out SKD Tactical for sure. 

Those are the deals I've been able to find - but I'm only one guy with limited time. If you've found some screaming good Black Friday deals you'd like to share with the tribe, let us know in the comments section!

Edited to Add: LA Police Gear is having hourly deals right here - some really good stuff, up to 65% off. 

Reader Note on Hurricane Isaac

Thought this was an interesting look at the mentality of some out there. Something that makes you shake your head for sure: From reader J.P., emphasis is mine.

"I live in Northern Louisiana (rain and a little wind from Isaac) and thought I would share a surprisingly sad and disturbing thing I found out while at my local Walmart. I was checking out in the sporting goods department because the combined Labor day/first of the month crowd had made lines up front way too long. While talking to an employee and getting my stuff I remarked on the crowd saying "you'd think the next hurricane was on the way." 

The employee told me how much crazier the unprepared crowd was (we were forecasted to get 60mph winds) and that some of those people who had bought packs of water and didn't need them were trying to return them to the store. I was shocked and made the statement that they would just do the same thing next time if they don't have supplies, the employee agreed. I know that I personally do not have as much prepped as some, however I fail to see the reason for returning emergency items that you needed instead on putting them in a closet in preparation for next time. After realizing how overly unprepared even mentally the locals are, I plan to step up my preparations. Just a quick wake up call I thought I would share."

Some people never learn - even in "Hurricane Alley."

Tells ya some of what you're dealing with out there. So broke that the $20 they'll get from returning a few cases of water will make some sort of difference. So clueless that they don't realize they might just need that water at some point, or that there are cheaper ways to put back water for a storm.

Yikes. 

Contest in October, Facebook Invitation & Revolution Pilot Online Now!

Tribe -

Random smattering of stuff for you today.

Contest Coming...

First up, we're planning another photo contest for October--last year's Zombie Weaponry contest was epic, and we're hoping we can top that big a large margin this time around. Exact nature is to be determined, so stand by on that one. I can guarantee it will be something fun.

We're going to be doing a weekly update post, versus a daily update as we've done in the past, to allow the rest of the blog content to continue along uninterrupted.

If you have prizes that you would like to donate to the cause, please drop me a line @ teotwawki.blog@gmail.com. You will receive mention during our weekly update.

Join Us On Facebook...

Have you "Liked" us on Facebook yet? If not, please do. I'd like to reach a critical mass where the T-Blog FB page can become a place for us like-minded folks to share what we're working on, help each other out and share knowledge. If you've got a question for the tribe, want some opinions or whatever, this is your place to go. Click here to get there.

We're also planning on a random giveaway for our Facebook friends once we hit 1000 Likes. You've gotta be one of the 1000 to be eligible, so get in on it.

Full Pilot Episode of JJ Abrams End-of-the-World Show Revolution after the Jump!

Back to your regularly scheduled blogging...

Apologies for the low post count over the past several weeks and thanks for sticking with us! We've arrived, moved into the new place and are getting settled in. Things should be getting back to normal here at T-Blog over the next week. In fact, I'm going to try to organize a bit of the chaos a bit and put myself on some kind of schedule for topics. We'll see how it goes--big life changes for the T-Blog family.

Moving when you're young, single and can fit all your stuff in the back of a pickup isn't such a big deal, but moving a family and multiple years accumulation of furniture, books, toys, random stuff and preps is a major undertaking. Even after clearing out mountains of unused/unneeded stuff and my conscious efforts to try to keep things mobile, there's still just a bunch of stuff that needs to be moved around, re-assembled, and so on. Unavoidable and a ton o' work.

Having gone through a move and knowing there's a high likelihood we'll be moving again within a year or so, is increasing my desire for simplicity. But you've gotta have beds, dressers, couches, piles o' clothes and so on...still, something appealing about minimalism. Being able to pack your belongings into a vehicle (or backpack) and hit the road to set up a new life somewhere else.

Dick Proenneke is a real inspiration here. 'course, that kind of minimalism hard to do living an average life with a family, versus alone in a single room cabin in the Alaskan bush. But still, the themes of doing more with less and quality over quantity are attractive for me. The piles o' stuff that comes with being a prepper can drive be a bit nuts, and I've made a very conscious effort to keep our preps simple and mobile.

On an unrelated note, for anyone moving in the near future, we used ABF/U-Pack to move our stuff, and were thoroughly impressed by the quality of service and transit time. Friendly, professional and generally my kind of people. Thumbs up from us.

As always, if you have questions, if there's a topic you'd like me to cover off on, a product you'd like to have reviewed or whatever, drop me a line at teotwawki.blog@gmail.com.

Random Thoughts on Travelling & Updates

The end of the move is in sight, but we've still got a bunch ahead of us. Most of the driving is done--28 hours worth, but spaced out over 3 days; 3.5 year old and pregnant wife make long days tough. Now we're waiting on our new place to get moved out of, cleaned, and for our junk to arrive via the shipping company. We've been safe and had an uneventful trip save for a few tantrums and one throwing up at a restaurant incident from our 3.5 year old, so we've been blessed so far.

A few random preparedness-related tidbits that have popped into my mind over the past few days:

Trucks
Almost everything in the country does really travel in the back of a truck at some point. Our country is hugely dependent on diesel; without it, the trucks stop and much of the economy with it. While we've seen price increases in recent years, fuel has always been available, just at an increased cost, which in turn gets passed onto consumers.

We haven't seen a true shortage/supply problem in recent years, which is what I worry about, not increased prices, as painful as price increases may be. Fortunately, it would take some very major problems to really knock out the worldwide fuel supply.

Clothes
We tend to overload on clothes. Especially on a road trip, do you really need a completely new outfit every day? Clothes take up a lot of space and add up quickly in weight. If you can trim back on the amount of clothing you carry - do the laundry mid-trip, for example - that's a good thing. Three changes of clothes should be good for a week long trip. I'm still trying to convince my wife of this.

Most outdoors-y clothing companies sell clothes designed for travel - lighter weight, fast drying, easily compressible - that can also help solve size/weight problems.

Pit stops
I try not to let my gas tank get a whole lot below half-full before filling up. This allows for options in where you stop--you can avoid sketchy stops, over paying for gas--and keeps you well away from running on empty.

Bathroom breaks are probably actually a more frequent need than refueling stops...in a bug out situation, it may be wise to have some sort of wag bag, bottle or other contraption for solving the problem without having to stop.

Security
Being smart goes a long way. Pick your rest stops wisely - clean, busy and new-ish truck stop/travel centers are generally your best bet. Park your vehicle somewhere with good visibility - at gas stations, visible from the inside. At hotels, park where your vehicle is visible to the front desk (there's usually someone manning the front desk at all hours) and from your room, if possible. Don't leave any valuables openly displayed in your vehicle.

If you've got a concealed carry license, check to see which states honor it. Good luck carrying a full-sized handgun IWB (inside waistband) during a 12 hour car ride; shoulder or pocket carry are probably your best bet, or at least an IWB holster that can easily be taken off when needed. Don't leave firearms unattended and unsecured in your vehicle. Bring them into your hotel at night. A handgun is a bit of a hassle to travel with, but it can be a very comforting thing to have at some roadside stops.

Gearhog/Brownell's Deal
Totally unrelated, but Gearhog has a $20 for $40 deal up for Brownells right now. They've got ammo, gun parts, magazines...lots of good stuff. Pretty good deal. Check it out here.

Anyone got a Pyser SGI SAS Compass they want to sell?

Been trying to track down a Pyser SAS Compass aka the NATO Survival Compass for a bit now, but they're out-o-stock or overseas. Interested to see how these stack up with the cheapies...anyways, if you're got one you're willing to part with, shoot me an e-mail (teotwawki.blog@gmail.com).

Reminders

Few quick reminders.

• Randy Church is having a cleanout sale 'till tomorrow (Sunday) night. Lots of great stuff for bargain prices and Randy's a great guy to work with. Check it out right here.
• Last I heard, entrant #20 still has a couple KYAA kits he's willing to send out to T-Blog readers, free of charge. These are really well done wilderness survival-style kits that bases, and it's super generous to offer them up free-of-charge. Full details on how to get one are at the end of his entry, right here.
• Also, if you're not already, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We post up the occasional link and comment there that may not make it to a blog post.

Blog Updates

You'll notice a few little updates to T-Blog over the past couple days. In an effort to make blog content more accessible, we've added a "you might also like" gadget to posts and a better navigation to the overall site. I'm not done tinkering yet, so don't be surprised by any changes over the next little bit.

Thanks to all for your continued support and readership! We've got more PSK contests coming up and lots of other fun/interesting stuff in the pipeline. Stay tuned!

Attack of the Misc!

It's been a while since I've done an Attack of the Misc! post, which is basically a random, disconnected post of stuff that may be interesting but doesn't necessitate a full-fledged post.

First up, I decided it was time to graduate from the .blogspot and purchase a real domain name, teotwawkiblog.net. I'd have preferred the .com, but Papa Bear J.W. Rawles has that. The old URL still works perfectly fine--it's not going anywhere, so no need to update links and bookmarks--but I figured teotwawkiblog.net was a lil' easier to remember. I may just turn it into a redirect back to the .blogspot address...still figuring this out! Update: For the time being, I'm going to run teotwawkiblog.net as a redirect to the regular .blogspot address. Should be working within the next couple of hours.

Second, it's Valentine's Day. Spend some time with your S/O and try to avoid the doom/gloom talk if at all possible.

Who else is pumped for #TheGrey?

Kicks unholy ass sounds about right.Whoever came up with Liam Neeson versus a pack of man-eating wolves deserves a medal. The Grey looks great.

You guys and gals as excited as I am?

Heads Up: The Union Creek Journal

We all enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction, and free post-apocalyptic fiction is probably even better. The Union Creek Journal is an ongoing account of one community's struggle to survive in a post-collapse world. It's written in a journal/blog style, ala the Day by Day Armageddon series.

Definitely worth checking out--I've only read a few of the most recent entries and it looks pretty good. I've got it in my reading "queue" to start from the beginning and work my way forward. Just need to finish a couple books first!

If there's any fans of The Union Creek Journal out there, chime in with your thoughts in the comments section! 

Read the Union Creek Journal >

Who am I?

For personal and professional reasons, I plan to maintain a good amount of anonymity as I write this blog. OpSec and all that good stuff.

That said, I feel like I owe it to you, my readers, to have some idea of who I am and at least a pseudonym that you can call me by in e-mails, questions, etc.

So, first off, you can call me Alexander Wolf. Not my real name, but it is a name, and it has some meaning behind it.

Second, some about me:

• I'm under 30, married, with a toddler-age son. I have an awesome, supportive wife who occasional contributes to T-Blog.
• We're practicing Mormons (yes, we believe in Christ and no, we're not a cult!). I have not and will not use this blog as a platform for sermonizing or missionary work. We welcome all moral and decent people here at T-Blog--God loves everyone, and I don't want anyone to feel excluded over matters of doctrine. 
• Politically, I lean closest to the Libertarians and the Austrian School of economic thought. I only delve into politics when they relate to prepping, survival and possibilities for disaster/collapse.
• I'm currently pursuing an advanced degree. By the late summer, I will be done and working full time. Preps have generally been on the back burner while I've been in school, but we've been able to make some progress thanks to some side projects and T-Blog.
• My family has so far tended to move around about every 12 to 18 months, which has presented some challenges as far as prepping. That doesn't look to be changing in the near future, so our preps need to be semi-mobile.
• I am a normal, everyday citizen. I grew up in a suburban, non-outdoorsy, non-gun owning family. No special operations forces, high-speed/low-drag experience here. Good thing I like to learn.
• For professional reasons, we will probably need to live within ~30 minutes of a big city for the foreseeable future. You'll see that most of my writing reflects this living situation, which is what the majority of us find ourselves in anyways.
• Right now, we live in the desert Southwest, as you can probably guess by the lack of snow and desert landscape in my pictures.
• My family has several generations of "preppers," though they've mostly been limited to food and water storage.
• Nuclear warfare is the TEOTWAWKI scenario that concerns me the most. Even a few warheads could wreak serious havoc, and more and more wackos are going to get their hands on 'em as time progresses. However the cause, I believe that the world as we know it will eventually come to an end, and we don't know when that is going to happen.
• TEOTWAWKI Blog is, at present, a hobby/side project for me. It would be great if it could be a full-time thing, but we'll have to wait-and-see on that front. I've got some things in the works, but they're in the idea stage at this point.

There you go - a little bit about the TEOTWAWKI Blog family.

I have a lot of fun with this blog and am amazed at the interest and support that I get from ya'll. Thank you. Please keep reading, commenting, share with your friends and enjoy!

TEOTWAWKI Blog Amazon Store

Hey loyal readers,

I've put together an Amazon Store with TEOTWAWKI Blog-recommended Christmas gifts - ideas if you're looking for ideas or tired of having people complain about how hard you are to buy for. I'm going to be adding a couple other sections over the next couple days. Post-Christmas, I'll probably keep it around for recommended items.

You can get to the store here or by clicking on the big ol' festive banner ad. The great thing about Amazon is that they offer the best shipping in the business, so no worries about last-minute orders making it in time for the 25th.

We make a small commission whenever you purchase something from Amazon.com off of a referral link from our site. Click this link and then purchase from Amazon normally. Any profits in turn go towards doing fun things like buying preps for review, running contests and so on. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Reminders

Two reminders:

• Enter our Zombie Weaponry photo contest. Have some fun, have your pictures featured on T-Blog and enter in a chance to win some groovy prizes.
• Tomorrow is book bomb day for Papa Bear J.W. Rawles' new book, Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse. You may or may not be a great fan of Rawles' writing style -- his previous novel, Patriots, certainly has its flaws. However, Rawles has certainly had a professional editor help things out this time around. And despite some flaws, you will certainly learn something or have some interesting ideas to consider. I'll be picking up a copy tomorrow.

Cutting your crutches

This week I've made a decent sized habit change - I have given up caffeinated sodas/drinks. No more energy drinks or 32-ounce Diet Mountain Dews for me. No more Diet Coke. I've gone five days without and things are going well.

What motivated breaking the habit? Well, obviously drinking large quantities of diet soda is not a healthy thing. And I won't even go into energy drinks. But really, it was the question of whether I am addicted to the caffeine laden drinks and what the consequences would be if I went cold turkey--really, how hard would it be for me to stop?

Obviously, there's TEOTWAWKI and disaster scenarios at work here. I don't stockpile Diet Coke and Monster Energy drinks, so I'd be fresh out within, at best, a few days. How hard would the sudden switch to no-caffeine be on me?

Overall, it hasn't been that difficult. A few headaches and a nap Tuesday afternoon have been the real consequences. I've felt lower energy in general, but that's my "normal" state and one of the reasons why I drank the occasional Monster Energy. Nothing that I can't just suck up and plow through.

My method for breaking habits is a fairly simple one - find a substitute. My substitute for Diet Dew and energy drinks has been lo-carb Gatorade and drinking extra water. Nothing rocket-science like. Of course, Diet Dew and energy drinks aren't as addictive and hard to shake as many other things out there, so your mileage may vary.

If you have any "crutches", bad habits and addictions, I recommend evaluating them. They are a weakness and an additional dependency. Think through how your crutch is effecting you today--think cost, health and relationship consequences. And then think through the potential consequences if you were suddenly forced to go cold turkey. Would you be incapacitated with headaches? Distracted by cravings? Driven to foolish decision making?

A SHTF event is not when you want to figure out the consequences of having a crutch forcefully removed.
Try to rid yourself of any of these bad habits in normal times, when you can more easily cope with the consequences of laying them aside.

Standing Orders, Rogers' Rangers

These are from the current edition of the Ranger's handbook. Some interesting points to think over.

1. Don't forget nothing.
2. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute's warning.
3. When you're on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.
4. Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don't never lie to a Ranger or officer.
5. Don't never take a chance you don't have to.
6. When we're on the march we march single file, far enough apart so one shot can't go through two men.
7. If we strike swamps, or soft ground, we spread out abreast, so it's hard to track us.
8. When we march, we keep moving till dark, so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us.
9. When we camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps.
10. If we take prisoners, we keep' em separate till we have had time to examine them, so they can't cook up a story between' em.
11. Don't ever march home the same way. Take a different route so you won't be ambushed.
12. No matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party has to keep a scout 20 yards ahead, 20 yards on each flank, and 20 yards in the rear so the main body can't be surprised and wiped out.
13. Every night you'll be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior force.
14. Don't sit down to eat without posting sentries.
15. Don't sleep beyond dawn. Dawn's when the French and Indians attack.
16. Don't cross a river by a regular ford.
17. If somebody's trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you.
18. Don't stand up when the enemy's coming against you. Kneel down, lie down, hide behind a tree.
19. Let the enemy come till he's almost close enough to touch, then let him have it and jump out and finish him up with your hatchet.

--MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS, 175