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Writer's pictureButch Erskine

Patriot Express Newsletter Edition #121

Fellow Patriots,


Greetings and welcome to the Patriot Express Newsletter Edition #121-. Thanks for stopping by to share your time with the Hope for Survival family. Before I get to far in to the PENL for this week I must give a big birthday shout out to my Patriot brother Festus. Thank you for being Festus. There is no doubt in my mind the thrill on blueberry hill probably stood on a ladder picking blueberries to celebrate his big day. Another original HFS Patriot from Huntsville, AL tried to sneak a birthday through on us as well. Hardrock, blessings to you brother. You are a true testimony with your walk in faith and preparedness. Happy birthday and blessings to both of you.


Ms. Lucy and I enjoyed a nice week away at North Myrtle Beach with family and lots of sunshine. It was a nice time to share together as well as time to give thoughts to some preparedness topics we often discuss in books, articles and zoom group rallies. I will share more in the PENL Thoughts for Week section. Anyone who doesn't address their preparedness plans at least annually I do believe could be making a big mistake. Things change. People change. We change. Our abilities change as we age. Location changes should drive us to readdress our plans. Do you?


The month of August is here and we continue our move through a future of the unknown. Craziness has taken over the mainstage. Mandatory vaccinations. Local and national passports. Threats from communist leaders who wish to lock down the unvaccinated while the same leaders celebrate in large groups while unmasked. How much of this nonsense will continue being pushed upon our society before a loud speaker will vibrate across this land shouting "enough is enough, stick your passports where Covid does not shine." Just a thought.


As we roll in to the unknown going forward I hear suggestions, comments, and demands by the many patriots around us. "I will not do this and I will not do that. They can knock on my door and I will give them an ear full and a boot in the behind." It goes on and on. I agree, it is maybe the challenge of a lifetime for many. The system is moving forward like an unchallenged bulldozer pushing, moving, scraping, and relocating anything in the path with no resistance. Folks this is a global movement and objective out to achieve a massive change to society.


A sister Patriot in North Carolina sent this to me and it is appropriate to share with you as something to consider when you are being challenged. Give it some thought.

Folks, we can either be a part of the problem or part of the solution. Join in to the Take Back America tour and become part of the solution. Business Coach | Business Conferences | Business Podcasts (thrivetimeshow.com) If you want to know more about the great awakening listen to Clay Clark about Team America and the growing movement taking place. Learn more here: MUST SEE: COVID, the Vaccine & More | Clay Clark & Steve Quayle | The Hagmann Report (FULL SHOW) 8/5/2021 » The Hagmann Report Folks, you don't want to miss this. Now keep in mind these are national voices and movements and its great. But, you better be ready and be firm in your decision and response when the knock is at your door.


Thursday Zoom Rallies – There was no zoom rally this week. Zoom will be back on schedule next week or Thursday, August 12, 2021, with a special guest from San Antonio, Texas, discussing 401K Survival.


Hope for Survival YouTube - HFS is one subscriber away from hitting 100. A house is built one brick at a time, right? If you haven't already subscribed to the page, please consider doing so. This informs you when HFS post a new video. Spend some time going through the videos. You will find many helpful videos on canning, food preparedness, security and defense in depth, firearm safety discussions with Festus and Jager, another with Dewey Weaver from American Pride Firearms, as well as many other podcast. Thanks for your consideration. Share the link with family and friends. Thanks to everyone who subscribed in the past week few weeks.


HFS Mobile Schedule:

Aug 15 - Crossville, TN

Aug 22 - Preparedness Training - Black Mountain, NC

August 27/28 - Monticello, KY - 2nd Annual Preparedness Training Day

Cannon Memorial Baptist Church, Central S.C. - Rescheduled to January 2022


The 2nd Annual Preparedness Training Day being held in Monticello, KY on August 28th will include a full day of training and opportunities to get better prepared and also participate in the Hope for Survival Preparedness Challenge Event. This will be the first time the Preparedness Challenge will be conducted and the host of this event accepted the challenge and is reaching out to fellow preparers to participate in this three to four hour interactive training class where teams will build all preparedness plans for the given situation. Participants will take part as groups in urban, suburban, and rural settings. For more information email me at Preparedness101@protonmail.com


Communications: You can now follow HFS social media on the following outlets:


Facebook – Hope for Survival

YouTube Channel – Hope for Survival

MeWe: - //mewe.com/p/hopeforsurvival2


Connect and give me a shout. Share with family and friends.


Moving along …

If you are a guest or newcomer to the HFS journey, please check out this link for additional information offered through HFS. https://www.hopeforsurvival.com/post/guest-and-newcomers-information-page


We must make this brief public announcement to protect the innocent.


Ding, Ding, Ding....Attention HFS readers..... Opinions shared in this newsletter are just that, opinions, and nothing more. Read at your own risk. The owner and author of this site is not responsible for hurt feelings or thin-skinned readers. I do my best to show restraint and respect to the best extent possible. I take as many precautions as possible and try to remain as nonpolitical as possible, however, there are times when I just can't help but point certain things out. Occasionally I use words only Patriots recognize and understand. It's not personal against any non-Patriot. It's just the truth. Sometimes we must pull up our spenders and suck it up. Just saying. Stay the course, read what you want, and avoid the rest. Avoid fear porn as much as possible and the day will be okay. When all else fails… Keep the faith and always have Hope.

Let’s move along and get to some thoughts...


Thoughts for the week


Over the years and many conversations with other preparers we often discuss family plans. Do you realize how many preparers are grandparents planning for their unprepared children and grandchildren to join them at location X when things turn very bad. Or, parents doing the same for their unprepared adult children. Most often if is grandparents spending thousands of dollars to set aside enough resources to care for their loved ones through a short or long term disaster. This makes perfect sense, right? We all do it to some degree. Some of us even put resources aside for strangers who can't or won't prepare to some degree. That is a different story for another day.


While enjoying family this week at a rental condo with ample space for four adults and three children ages 11, 8, and 3, some realities occurred to me. Do you realize how many thoughts and theories on bringing the family together to endure a disaster together is currently in a families plans? In theory it all sounds great. It will work, right? Two people today, and ten tomorrow. We get together over holiday weekends and get along great. What's the problem? Just remember, in this mental plan we often forget we are the common denominator. We will rally up and sing "We are family" and high five one another in to the evening. Dad is happy he can protect his family. Mom is happy because she is the momma hen and she and the rooster can protect the family. Beautiful plan. Really.


Remember, you are bringing in blood kin and spouses to a single dwelling to live as one under a roof. They didn't agree with your theory of the world or being prepared then, so how do you plan to change their minds now? Oh, because it's happening? Okay. So while the world is collapsing around you and you are trying to run your plans as you had imagined for months. You have everything in place and it should all be easy from this point. Then.......you start to hear the magic word "why?"


Do you remember when your children went through the "why" stage to everything? Well remember, you are now surrounded by family who never believed in you preparing from the start and even though they are with you now, that doesn't mean it is hook line and sinker now because everyone now agrees "mom and dad are geniuses" to have envisioned things so far in advance. Do you remember back when you first started in to preparedness and you asked all the why questions? Guess what? Pay back time. Oh, and while you are being bombarded with the "why" questions the ongoing threats and disaster are surrounding you possibly.


Do you have toddlers as part of your contingent now? Have you considered how you will handle melt downs and fits of crying and screaming? At the moment when you need everyone to remain quiet or go in to your secure room for a period of time, what is your plan for the melt down when you are trying to think logically and all you hear is screams from a toddler. What is your plan to keep a child quiet? It will happen and you must have a plan to deal with it. Children do not understand what is going on and changes to their secure environment will upset them. You will be dealing with events surrounding your home and family and you must have a plan to keep a child quiet. Have you thought about it?


Being on vacation this week and sharing a dwelling with family, five members, reminded me of things to consider under different circumstances. When our three year old grandson encountered a melt down or our eight year old granddaughter suffered a periodic meltdown, I witnessed nothing working to quieten them down and the crying reaching the highest volume my ear drums could register. I was asking myself "what would we do to quieten the child under different circumstances?


Another thing I thought about is the adults you bring in to your household who may continue visioning a different thought process or theory on what was happening around you. You may have a security plan that requires you to stop unauthorized personnel from coming near your home and the guest family member is on duty and doesn't believe anyone and everyone could be a threat to your way of life or your plan. How are you going to deal with it beforehand to ensure they stop everyone according to your plan? Your method of addressing same could create tension between family within your home. Now you have another problem to deal with. If you can't come to agreement before you bring them in to your home are you going to turn them away from the start? Does your spouse agree with your plan and approach? Just because you have enough food to feed everyone for a year does not mean all your family agrees with your approach and plan. How will you deal with it?


Another area to consider addressing if you have not already, plan for entertaining the children during every hour they are awake. Games, cards, board games, videos, food, snacks, and anything else you can identify to help pass time. Yes, I realize chores should be a part of the daily schedule. I totally agree. Just in the few days I have been with grandchildren under the same roof it is clearly apparent children dominate attention and time. If your plan and schedule requires 12 hours per day of adult attention, what and who will occupy the time of the children? What if you are in a 1500 sq foot structure with four adults and three children and you must keep children inside. Have you thought about how you will handle it?


Even though it is wonderful spending time with family on vacation or anytime for that matter, this particular vacation left me thinking how it could possibly be under events more stressful or a disaster of some sort. Through simple conversations on the woke agenda, protest during the Olympics, politics, and other day to day news, we simply do not agree on some things. Okay, on very much at all. How we hear news and process it is different. We see how humans react to events and the feelings and attention afforded to the person is not viewed the same, even within a family. It's not a bad thing because I do believe people must enjoy the rights afforded them to think and process events, even when I don't agree with them. But my point is when this occurs during a disaster and everyone lives under the same roof. How will you handle it?


I realize each and every family may be different. Needs are different. Relationships are different. My point in these thoughts are simply to ask, have you really thought about it? Don't wait until the witching hour to have it placed before you to resolve. It could be to late. I pray this is not the case for anyone.


Next .....


On my first morning at the beach I was up early and on the beach to appreciate my surroundings and have some personal Sunday morning thoughts. I do this often day to day but it was special on this Sunday morning because I was on the sandy beach alone with my thoughts.


I wanted to share something that really stood out to me. Yes, very simple yet to me, very powerful. I was saying some prayers for family, friends, and our nation and all the wickedness moving through the world. Then, like a grain of sand on the massive beach, I was reminded how perfect God's creation really is. I watched wave after wave of millions upon millions of gallons of water so equally balanced and flat before my eyes. One after another washing ashore. A sound off each wave reminded me it was there. Man occupies the sand and it is wavy, bumpy, and moves around when pushed by the waves. Man can dig holes and make castles on the sand but the power of the waves will wash it away and wipe it out to its original form. No matter how or what man can build, good or bad, God's creation is bigger and more powerful every moment of the day and night. It is the same for humans. You and me.


Later in the evening, after dark, I was standing on the balcony of the condo looking towards the ocean. I could hear the waves, one by one coming ashore. A constant reminder to me of God's word and promise to mankind of eternal life upon acceptance of His promise and repentance of our worldly ways. A few minutes later the skies started to light up with flashes of lightening. It was beautiful to see. God was shining his light down on what I had witnessed earlier in the morning. His waves, one by one, washing ashore to reshape the beach of man's earthly ways and leaving the beach cleansed for the next sunrise. It was a simple, yet powerful to me, reminder of no matter how sinful we may be, God's promise to wash away our sins is not just words, it appears before our eyes if we are watching and focused on Him, not our earthly ways.


I hope this makes sense. Sometimes what we see and feel is hard to translate to others. Thanks for letting me express myself to you here.


Okay, lets move along to the news…

Preparedness News


1. From Tracy Nawara - Ask a Prepper - 7 Mistakes You Are Making When Buying Canned Foods - Ask a Prepper - The author makes some interesting points to be considered. Personally, a portion of our food plan includes store purchased canned food. It is easy to manage, inventory, and include in a mixed diet. Oh, you can also consider consuming it after the expiration date if the can remains favorable.


2. From Tara Dodrill - New Life on a Homestead - How To Make Jewelweed and Plantain Salve In a Crockpot • New Life On A Homestead - This is another excellent recipe to add to your paper library.


3. From Tom Marlow - Survival Sullivan -A Prepper’s Guide to Batteries | Survival Sullivan - I believe this is one area often overlooked by preparers. I learned a valuable lesson from Festus years ago when he was getting in to preparedness. When I purchased an item requiring batteries I would ensure I had stock in the required batteries for the item. Festus would research items of the same type but worked to find items requiring the same type batteries as other items he had in his resource stock. He may have ten items requiring the same type of batteries vs myself which had ten items requiring five types of batteries. Just something to think about.


4. From Old World Garden Farms - What To Do With Cherry Tomatoes - 6 Great Ways To Use A Big Harvest (oldworldgardenfarms.com) - This is an excellent article of recommendations to use for your extra cherry tomatoes. I often hear about tomato juice and salsa being made with extra tomatoes. Both are great items to stock. How about homemade spaghetti sauce?


5. From the Premiere Podcast - Surviving in a Bartering System Economy | The Prepper Website Podcast - Here is an excellent podcast discussing how to survive in a bartering system type of economy. Many folks do not think beyond silver and gold as bartering components. Have you considered items outside silver and gold? Maybe you can offer a skill resources. Or, maybe you have beef or chicken you can offer another community for labor to tend to your garden? Or security? These steps should all be part of protecting your five mile radius.


6. From a Year Without the Grocery Store - The Herb Garden - A Year Without the Grocery Store - Good information regarding herbs. Do you include herbs as part of your preparedness planning?


Other News


1. From Warren Beatty - The American Thinker - The Biden Military Witch-hunt - American Thinker - I don't know how much attention you have give to what is going on in the U.S. Military and the woke movement. Just when you wonder how many leaders are bucking the system against the woke tide you read or see pictures of our leaders lined up to kiss the behind of the ones at the top. We hear this huge sucking sound coming from the Pentagon. You bet, great examples of love for oneself vs love for country. Desiring respect from subordinates vs demanding others to get aboard on critical race theory, transgender warriors, and equality vs promotion on merit and ability. Losing the military to the woke movement is like the final leg of stability falling from the three legged stool.


2. From Disco Bear - Peak Prosperity - Dr. Mercola will remove ALL articles within 48 hrs of posting | Peak Prosperity - What do you mean the 1st Amendment will never fail the people? It is a guarantee by our forefathers. Right? You better take note and not be hesitant when you see something in writing and want to reference it because soon much of what is posted electronically will vanish shortly after.


3. From Mr. Zipph - Survival Blog -Prepper Investing: Money, Finances and Preparedness, by Mr. Zipph (survivalblog.com) - Many who prepare will learn and believe if they have food, water, beans and bullets they will survive most disasters they face. They are never told or else they ignore the fact a major step and one of great importance is becoming debt free. Controlling your choices and opportunities based on being debt free makes a stronger position and survival capability in most cases.


4. From Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge - 'For $1/Day'... Double-Blind Ivermectin Study Reveals COVID Patients Recover More Quickly, Are Less Infectious | ZeroHedge - One can simply look back to India when Covid-19 swept through the country and what the Indian government prescribed to get over the Covid hump. If a government and it's top medical voices opt to ignore this example or advice it should alert the populace to a cause. Why are so many in America missing this key point in the Covid-19 battle?


5. From Jim Rickards - Jim Ricards Blog - Jim Rickards Blog: James Rickards: It’s Starting to Feel Like Last March - If you don't have Jim's site marked for regular reading you should consider it. He offers a economic view and voice one should listen to regular. Just a suggestion.


6. From Martin Armstrong - Armstrong Economics - End Private Donations to FDA & CDC – NOW! | Armstrong Economics - I believe most Americans do not realize the power and destruction to our nation that comes from the FDA and CDC. How does the CDC obtain patents on medications and then a mysterious virus starts spreading in some region of the world. Imagine how lucky we are to then have the CDC pop up and already have the magic medicine to use for vaccinations. Cha-ching. All the way to the bank.


Drum roll...........

That's all my Patriot brothers and sisters.

Thanks for your continued support to HFS, your emails, messages, and prayers to the HFS family. We appreciate each of you.


Prayers - Please keep our great nation, our elected leaders, military and first responders in your thoughts and prayers. We pray for good health and wisdom. Please pray for our leadership to find answers and guidance to the problems facing our great nation. May your faith remain strong and answers to the unknown provided. God is good and may our prayers blanket and protect you and your circumstances. I pray for each, and every one of our Patriots.


May we pray for all the blessings and things in life to be thankful about and continued hope for revival around the world. We must continually pray for the unsaved, our family and friends who live each day without the protection for eternal life and salvation.


We have Patriots with personal prayer needs and/or family members with prayer needs as well. Please keep our Patriot sister in Western, NC in our prayers for a complete recovery from health issues she suffered from over the past week. Prayers also to her husband and doctors going forward. As we have prayer needs for answers to health and family matters we also have prayers of thanks for recent health answers and recoveries.


We all must pray strong and often for the citizens of our great nation. Many of our sisters and brothers are struggling daily with things they witness, encounter, and are surprised with out of the norm. Many times we are in unchartered areas, however, we still must keep our faith and focus on the big picture. Our prayers and faithful strength together will be required often to battle the evils being thrown upon all of us minute by minute.


As Patriots we must stay strong and never give up. Our home, community and nation needs us now more than ever. Stay focused on your local community and things that will impact you around the nation. Don't allow the events around you to create fear in your life. Build your own self-reliance and focus on hope. Remember we are a blessed nation and we must continue to be great people today and make a better tomorrow. Keep charging."

Blessings,

Bravo Echo Out,







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