About this blog

Within the next week this blog will move to its new domain - www.soupsandwichsurvival.com.

My name is Darin. This blog begins behind the powercurve, as the interwebs are flooded with fantastic survival or prepper blogs. As I searched the net for good ideas, I was struck by the flood of blogs and sites geared to reviewing or promoting views of prepping or surviving completely oustide my scope of reality. 

Cover of my first big project:
Training plan on Basic Survival concepts

I am a working man. I put in my forty hours + per week struggling more than some, less than others, to provide for my Family. I cannot run out and 'start a homestead'. I cannot afford a seperate bug-out vehicle, towing a mobile command center equipped with solar and metal lathing equipment and heaters and all that. I am up to my eyeballs in credit debt, living only slightly better than pay check-to-pay check. I found a void for people like me. As I cannot afford to Prep for Doomsday, I will focus on prepping only for when society becomes ate-up like a Soup Sandwich. When life become annoying and frustrating. I am prepping not for a new age or a repeat of the 1800s. I am preparing for the next extended power outage. I am trying to prepare for the stuff that falls out of the sky on a random thursday and turns my world upside down for just a little bit.
In this blog you'll see me attempt to replicate the good ideas and instructions I find online. For instance, I will pick a good professional-type blog and decide to try and follow their instructions on building something, or a new way of preparing. I will chronical my attempts from a 'common-guy' perspective.

I am not - repeat NOT - a prepping or surival expert. I'm just a guy with a little free time, and two kids who depend on me to hold it together when times get difficult. I am a Veteran of the U.S. Army, but I'm not Special Forces, or Ranger, or even Airborne. I'm a guy who did six years in the Military, and the training I have comes from a few chances to play Opposing Force, or deploying to training areas for Force-on-Force manuevers. Throw in the every-thursday Sergeant's Time (a block of five hours dedicated for Noncommissioned Officers to train their troops on basic tasks common to all Soldiers - such as First Aid, Land Navigation, or basic patrolling) and you will have a solid summary of my training.

It is with the above I present the vision and mission of this website:

SoupSandwhichSurvival.com

Mission: Provide honest reviews and lessons-learned from Survival, Camping, Military Surplus, or other equipment and create unbiased evaluations of the ease and effectiveness of other people’s good ideas.

Vision: The trusted source for the ‘everyman’ – preparing not for the end of the world, but for when society becomes a soup-sandwich.

My first review is season-specific. I'm looking for good ways to make fire. Prior to recently I spent about $8 on a dozen or so? Maybe it was two dozen Prestone-type fire starters; little bricks wrapped in paper. I think I can do better. Today I tried. You will find the review of three methods of starting a fire at this link.

So - that's the rundown.