With all the craziness going on in our world today, it’s good to know how to keep track of events as they go on. But where to start is one of the toughest things tasks in this endeavor.

The Pyramid

Here you see a simple segmented pyramid. At the top is your home. As a parent, keeping up to date on family events, drama, needs, and challenges is at the top of your need-to-know list. If your daughter is dating someone from MS-13, you probably should keep on top of that. Further down we see the areas getting broader until it ends with global events.

The Home

Our home is our castle. It is our refuge in times of crisis and the place where many of us may have to make our last stand against evil. Keeping tabs on this location is the hardest. Why? Because it requires you to hone a skill that seems to be forgotten: Listening.

We need to listen to our family. We need to pick through the noise of whining and drama to find out what really is going on. That is no simple task. There is no website, no cell phone app to make this happen. It requires time and patience.

The tool I find works best for this is a simple planner. Writing down appointments, events, phone numbers of friends, will go a very long way to keeping track of events at home.

The Neighborhood

Our neighbors are a fantastic resource for keeping up to date on local news. They will know about car break-ins, events going on in town, and most importantly, who or what is going on around your home when you are not home.

The tool that works best for this is friendship. Get to know your neighbors. Say Hi to them when you see them as you walk your dog, and show them that you care and appreciate them. This relationship will pay dividends in the long run.

Your Home Town

Knowing the events of your home town is very much key to survival in a grid down situation, so establishing ties right now would be very beneficial. Befriending Public Works crew members by providing water on a hot day may lead to information down the road – information such as road closures that could affect your bugging out.

Short of befriending everyone in the town’s payroll, the local paper is very helpful. Also helpful are Facebook groups that dedicated themselves to your town, Google Alerts set up now that will send you news articles “as they happen” will provide near instant information, and you can archive these in screen shot or printing them out.

Your State

State politics, weather, and news of unrest should be the forefront of what you should be concerned about when you look at the news channel or news paper. This information provides a glimpse into the future for what you and those closest to you will be dealing with in short order. Expanded pandemic lockdowns, efforts to end the lockdowns, riots and protests are just a few things to keep in mind as you review the news.

While the press provides a newspaper 12 hours or more after an event, the radio will give you a faster and updated information than you might expect. News stations are very plentiful and will be the tool that is best for your state.

The Nation

National news is enough to make someone throw up their hands in disgust and wish for an alien invasion. But, as people that care about others, we need to sift through the nonsense and finds the gems of information.

Given the scenario that there is a very good chance of continued and increased conflict leading upto and after the Nov 2020 election, spotting trends in the news is very important. For example, who is announcing what policy? What company just received what permission from what government to do what?

Tracking these in your day planner may seem like overkill but it will allow you to view a trend that may be developing. A very good example is when in March of 2007 I saw that McDonalds was having getting financing for payrol, which was a precursor to the economic collapse later that year.

The World

While the world is a big place, there’s no shortage of reasons to track the events going on. In just a matter of weeks, China has:

• Invaded the fishing beds of the Galapagos Islands with 300+ fishing boats
• Chinese farmers invaded Russia, and
• 20 Chinese deep sea trawlers have invaded Pakistani waters.

Knowing this we can see that China is in the process of ignoring treaties and borders. This is good information knowing that their people have a looming famine in the near future. Having a good grasp of international events can help you prepare you in forming your prepardness shopping lists.

Your best tool is to use international news sources. The American mainstream media isn’t set up to cope with the large amounts of reporting that has to be done at the scale a prepper would need. Seek out sources, test them – vet them, and then follow and watch faithfully to keep your eye on the movements of nations.

However you do it, remember that you are not alone. Find like minded people like the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia and team up. A lone wolf dies alone, but a pack fights together.