The Nightmares that are yet to come…
When we started the Woodsmaster video series years ago, I had this strange feeling that I was putting into motion a project that would have value far beyond it’s goal of teaching basic wilderness survival skills. Within a few months of releasing our first volume, I began to get the first hints of the larger problem in which these tapes and their information might play a role.
As time passed and new topics were discussed in our videos, Karen and I began to realize that we had an odd demographic growing in our customer base, computer programmers, business executives, families, and run of the mill indoors kinds of folk. . I had never really thought that these types of folk might have an interest in wilderness stuff… Hell, I probably never had more than a handful of the type among the 6000 or so folks I’ve taken into the woods. Weird… So we started asking the question, "Why?"
At first the "why" was slow in coming. They’d buy the latest video and reveal a bit more information to us. Soon we knew some of those folks by name and came to enjoy our chats with them. It was during this time that the blinders came off our eyes. The main reason they were buying the videos was so they could be prepared for emergencies They’d seen the writing on the wall, watched the events of 9/11, saw the economic problems our country was facing and they were scared. They were scared enough to do something about it. "Knowledge," one of them said, "can’t be taken from you. And by the time you need it, it’s too late!"
I agree.
Karen and I live survival. We also love it. We agreed that the thing WE needed to do was to get Knowledge about the issues that disturbed our clients. I love research so I dug in. I used the common sources and odd ones. I talked to engineers, programmers, authors and weirdo’s (my definition is private) read and searched. I spoke with folks in government and friends who know "things". When I finished with all I needed to know, Karen and I made a decision. We picked up all we owned, and moved to Idaho. We left behind much that we loved and knew for many years. I left the mountains I’ve come to think of as my friends and friends who have been mountains during tough times. It was a rough decision but we made it… based on the evidence.
I have a lot of good preparedness information but it is not my intention to present it all here on this site. There are many better sites with great information. I strongly suggest that you go to these sites, read the material, get the citations, check out the sources and make a decision for yourself and your family. I’ve included a list of a few links at the end of this page and will be updating it as time permits.
Just so you know. We have thousands of video students now. We’ve learned a lot about the coming hard times from them. We hope that they never need the information we have presented, but we also know that should they ever need the skills, they will have the knowledge. There is something else they will have, confidence.
Years ago, as a member of the faculty at a University in California, I developed and managed a special grant based program for college students. As part of the program I administered a series of tests designed to measure self-esteem and performance in a variety of areas. What I discovered in the nearly 1000 students who took my courses is that wilderness survival knowledge and skills have a direct positive correlation with self-esteem which manifested in an increased ability to cope with emergencies of all kinds. Our tapes have given a sense of that ability to our video students.
During the next few months we will be working on an outline for a couple of videos dealing with the preparedness problem and preparations for it. Karen and I created a survival plan that works for us based on what we believe to be the most likely scenarios. We know that you may have an interest in certain skills and we would like to hear from you regarding these interests. If you have some area of interest, please let us know.
There is much more I can say… and I will. I have some strong opinions about the lawyers and politicians whose self serving interests may have brought us all to what may be, and indeed has the power to become, the end of the world as we know it.
The articles listed on this page are intended to give you a “Leg up” in preparing yourself and your family for a potential future. We hope you’ll take advantage of the information if for no other reason than to give your self the sense of security you deserve.
Ron
