It was 20 years ago today…

Posted on by

Well, today is the twentieth anniversary of me thinking “Hmm, maybe I’ll start a survivalist blog”. And, lo, it came to pass…….

The original incarnation of the blog was on LiveJournal (remember them?), and then I grabbed a copy of PageMaker and made up a website. That lasted for only a few weeks until I decided to go with WordPress. And, since then, that’s what I’ve used.

It’s been a fabulously interesting twenty years as far as blog-related stuff goes.

First and foremost, I like to needle ,Rawles about how my blog predates his by a few years. However, in all fairness, his blog is updated every day whereas mine is usually every three days or so. It’s a good-natured rivalry that is silly because, hands down, he has the more informative and useful blog. But…I was in the space first. ;0

See, my blog was never about telling people how to prepare, or why to prepare, it was simply to tell how and why *I* was preparing. I make mistakes, and sometimes I have brilliant insights….hit-n-miss is pretty much how the posting goes around here.

I’ve met a few people in the preparedness and gunblog world. I’ve also been ’email friends’ with a few people in the industry. I’m very grateful for those experiences and have enjoyed meeting all of them. I try very hard not to name drop in this blog because of privacy, but I’ve met some of the ‘big names’ in blogging. Fine folks, every one of them.

Over twenty years, I’ve seen a lot of blogs come and go. The most fascinating was our good friend Harry over at Self-Sufficient Living. He went dark and deleted his blog a number of years ago and eventually stopped replying in email. Maybe he died, maybe he went to ground. Dunno. But he was a great guy to read and I enjoyed our communications. I’d love to catch up with him sometime.

Over twenty years you can see trends change and fall in and out of favor. This blog is older than the iPhone that many of you are reading this post on. When this blog started we were still in the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban era. Can you imagine? Neutered rifles and 10-rd magazines…the horror!

And, of course, over twenty years we have had all sorts of ‘this is it!’ moments as told to us by the media and people who had their tinfoil on too tightly. Just off the top of my head….SARS, Bird Flu, Avian Flue, Kung Flu, 2012, Fukishima, Ebola, Peak Oil, assorted earthquakes, etc, etc. Yet…..we’re still here.

It doesn’t take twenty years of thought to come up with “Stay safe, live within your means, be ready for a rainy day, plan ahead.” So, why have I been re-hashing the same stuff over and over? Well, its not always the same stuff…technology and toys change over time, new goodies come to market, etc. But, mostly, I’ve come to enjoy the routine and structure of blogging. And most importantly, I like that my interactions with people who read the blog remind me that maybe I’m not some outlier with a weird camo fetish…there are plenty of people out there who think the same way. Its a nice reminder that Im not alone in my beliefs and practices. Don’t underestimate how important that is.

What does the future hold? Beats me. My life is completely different than it was on Day One of the blog. Back then I had lotsa time and no money. Now its the other way around. Back then it was a big deal to spend $20 on batteries or a MagLite. Nowadays I routinely drop several hundred bucks every couple weeks on preparedness acquisitions (and way too many Ruger P95Dc’s). I’ll probably keep blogging until either the apocalypse actually happens or until I finally get my beloved Middle O’ Nowhere heavily fortified house. And even then i might not stop. Just can’t really say.

In the meantime, I’ll use this moment to shamelessly shill for myself – if you’ve enjoyed the last twenty years or twenty minutes of my posting, feel free to head over to Patreon and throw a little something my way. I promise it will go to a cause that would make Schumer and Feinstein fall down with a case of the vapors.

Thanks to everyone who reads the blog and I hope you all continue your work on making yourselves more resilient against what the future holds, no matter what that might be. We’ll see how many more years we can keep cranking out these posts.

36 thoughts on “It was 20 years ago today…”

  1. ,Rawles’ site has long been churned out by lesser minions, and the long-former quality has notably dropped off since that change. I haven’t bothered to even give it a glance for a decade or more. It’s strip-mining his original reputation.
    That approach is the prepper version of the Biden administration, and the Horror Freight of blogs: You don’t know who’s running things, or what you’ll find inside, but you can count on it being second-rate, and third-hand.
    IMHO, that’s no way to run a railroad.
    (For but one example, look how that’s working out for Disney.)

    Business 101: When no one is in charge of quality, no one is in charge of quality.

    There’s a lot of us out here, and we learn from each other. Plus there’s always a new kid on the block who needs to hear the basics repeated.
    Best wishes on your next 20 years.

    • My problem with Rawles is that he has very defined views and he gets people to blindly follow his preferred approach without real discussion.
      I haven’t read it in years either; it’s not a bad place to start, but it’s a poor place to stay.

      • Feel free to write an article to start that discussion you are looking for. Who knows it maybe more productive than trashing him on someone else’s site. Looking forward to your article with your differences.

  6. I’ve always enjoyed and look forward to your posts. I appreciate your up-to-date notices on products and other items of interest.

  7. Big Congrats!
    You may find this hard to believe, I certainly do, but I know I have been reading your stuff for well over fifteen years myself.
    As a matter of fact, possibly longer than that because I started blogging in 2006 and I’m pretty sure I was reading here before that.
    I don’t always leave a comment here but I do read.
    You can also pat yourself on the back for helping me open my eyes as to just what the heck has been going on.
    Here’s looking forward to another twenty.

  8. CZ – you’re making me feel OLD! LOL! Twenty years already? The time flies doesn’t it!

    I’ve made strides in some areas, others not so much. One thing I really should have is a wood stove… and I don’t. A wood stove would allow us to heat the house without firing up the generator and that could be critical in winter. It doesn’t get below zero here very often – but for that one week a year a wood stove would be nice. It’s not like we have a shortage of fuel around.

    Congratulations on twenty years buddy!

  9. I respectfully disagree with Aesop on Rawles blog and I know you are friends with him. He very much respects and acknowledges your site as up there in terms of dedication to prepping and how you run put forth worthy information for all of us fellow survivalists.

    So yes congrats on 20 years at this. Impressive longevity in todays world. Although I admit I don’t quite totally get your fascination with putting back Ruger P85/89/90 ( or whatever the nomenclature) pistols I do agree with 95% of your well informed and well intended advice ( or rational for such survival related posts). Keep it up, as your subtle sarcasms often amuse and entertain me.

    • I have no problem with ,Rawles per se, in fact his philosophy and organization of the topic was singular and ground-breaking in many ways. I still regularly (just last week, in fact) hand out copies of his book HTSTEOTWAWKI to people interested in the topic, and actually doing something about it.

      But his blog has slipped a great deal since being farmed out and phoned in, as any comparison of editions “back then” to “lately” would make only too obvious.

  10. Thank you, CZ, for the years of insight, humor, ideas, and common sense. Hope they’ve been good ones for you, too. Carry on.

  13. I have learned a lot since I started stalking your blog.

    Keep up the good work.

    BTW – My email address although it seems to pay homage to your blog, it is actually a nickname I earned back in the 90s. 😀

  15. “Stay safe, live within your means, be ready for a rainy day, plan ahead.”

    You may think you sound like a broken record, but people need to hear it. How long has Dave Ramsey been telling people to avoid debt? Shakespeare wrote “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” four centuries ago. The bible spoke out against usury 2500 years ago. People still borrow tons of money at crazy interest rates and get themselves in trouble. Seems some things need to be said over and over.

    You help a lot of people, myself included. Sometimes people needed to be reminded that $5000 cash in the gun safe is not as sexy as a safe queen in .50 BMG, but is a lot more useful in a lot more situations.

    I am really glad I found your blog. On of the first things I did was go back and read every one of your old posts. Most of the links are broken, but there was still a few gems. Keep up the great work and here is hoping you can go another 20 years.

  16. Commander:
    Congrats! By the way, your heading for today’s post lets me know that if things had worked out differently, you would have a lesser rank – as in Sargent Pepper…
    It is a good thing that you occasionlly repeat yourself, as (hopefully) there will be a fresh crop of newbie preppers.
    I look forward to your continuing humor.

    Ceejay

  17. I know it’ll never happen, but I’d love to see a comparison of Rawles’ & your fire-stick collections. I’d bet yours blows his away.

  19. Wow – 20 years of continuous blogging is an amazing accomplishment. Thank you for your diligence. I haven’t been along for the entire time, but your blog often has very early news of ‘developing situations’. Some of these come out of the blue. The Gulf Oil Spill was one of those events – not many predicted that could happen. For a while there, there was fear we would have to evacuate the Gulf coastline for several hundred miles inland. Imagine the amount of humanity evacuating all at once.

    Your blog often has advice to enjoy Life while we have the opportunity. Prepping is insurance, not a guarantee of survival.

  21. Easily one of the top 2 remaining blogs on this topic. Thanks for all the insight and commentary.

  22. It’s amazing that it’s been twenty years, wow. I can’t even remember when I started following your exploits but it did start on LiveJournal I believe. You’ve posted so much common sense prepping ideas of what YOU are doing, not these other blogs who are just putting out garbage to links so they can get some extra revenue from a sale of a item they received for free to ‘review’ a few days before.
    You sir whether you feel it or not have taught people some things. I for one finally got it in my head that guns and ammo isn’t everything and keeping warm, eating, clean water and a couple grand in the safe will get you a lot further. Also, I’ve made several of those 12v lamps, showed a group how to make them and have used them during power outages. You’re one of the last old school survivalists who hasn’t turned into the modern day fair weather prepper.

  24. Congrats on 20 years CZ. Been reading probably for 10ish years. Don’t comment much but read everything. Thanks for all your work.

  25. Congrats on 20 years of helping others, CZ. I think you’re right on the verge of something that’s going to breathe lots of new life into the blog: Buying some remote land and developing it for SHTF. You’ll learn lots and you’ll make mistakes, all of which will benefit the rest of us as you pass it along. Even those of us who don’t anticipate making that move will learn new things to help us develop our own plan to bug in, not out. For what it’s worth, I enjoy your humor and I like the fact that you take breaks and don’t feel compelled to blog something new every single day. Carry on!

  27. Congratulations. I can still remember a friend of mine sending me a link to your blog, which had been up long enough for there to be a few dozen posts. My friend said something like ‘this guy has some good ideas, and is pretty entertaining’.

  28. Congratulations! Been stopping by here for a long time and very much appreciate your blog!

  29. Congrats on 20 years, I started reading back in 09, and I enjoy the posts, the good natured tone of the blog, and especially the Ruger pron! Here’s to 20 more!

Comments are closed.