Looking Back: Our 2015 Year End Survival Post Review

I’ve turned it into a bit of a tradition to do a year end post on More Than Just Surviving to serve as a recap for the past year. 2014 and 2013‘s Looking Back posts were pretty jam packed, but I am certain this year’s post will top them…

Before we get started, I wanted to do a little blurb about all the extra websites/projects we’ve either taken on to run ourselves or founded ourselves this year. Survival Pulse first – it’s a survival & prepper news site that we update daily. We welcomed Survival Pulse to the More Than Just Surviving family back in February, and couldn’t be happier to have adopted that site since.

In July, we invited you all to join us on our new community forum. For anyone who hasn’t yet taken a peep, that community forum (Survival Threads) can be found at SurvivalThreads.com, and it’s as true today as it was then that we’d be oh-so-happy if you joined us over there ;).

If you’re ever curious about which online websites/projects are run by us, take a quick look over at XavierSurvival.com. We are sure to keep that page updated with any survival and prepper related sites we have.

And now let’s begin the 2015 post recap!

MPOWERD Luci Inflatable Solar Lantern – Amazon

Since we’re such a review-heavy blog, and a lot of you actually come here almost exclusively for our reviews, let’s kick things off with those!

As usual, we got in a lot more knife reviews than anything else this year. Not sure if this will ever change considering our love (*cough*obsession*cough*) for ’em, but who knows! Maybe we will get really into multi-tools one year and that obsession will end up taking over the blog for a while ;). Could never fully be without all those knives, though.

Hey, at least we did a lot fewer Spydercos! ;) (Yeah, we’re a little hopeless).

Knife reviews by brand; Cold Steel: Recon 1, Kudu, Rajah 2, Talwar; Boker: CLB Microcom, Spyderco: Southard, Bug; Condor: Bushlore; Kershaw: Chill, Leek, Blur, Shuffle, Thermite, Link; ESEE: Izula, Candiru; Ontario: RAT-1; CRKT: M16, Drifter; Buck: Vantage.

Everything else we reviewed this year (besides the knives, I mean!) –

Illumination: MPOWERD Luci Inflatable Solar Lantern; Food: Valley Food Storage Mango Habanero Chili Dehydrated Food, SoPakCo Sure-Pak MRE; Apparel: Hazard 4 Officer Tactical M.O.L.L.E. Backpack; Misc Tools & Gear: Smith’s PP1 Pocket Pal Multifunction Knife Sharpener, Victorinox EvoGrip S18 Swiss Army Knife Multi-Tool, CRKT James Williams TPENWK Tactical Pen, Solo Stove Titan Wood Burning Camp Stove, goTenna Portable Off-Grid Communication Device.

Not too bad in the diversity department this year, at least in my opinion!

CRKT M16 Kit Carson Folding EDC Knife – Amazon

Thomas’ EDC’s for the 2015 year: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. And my EDC’s for the 2015 year: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

Knife Drops (knife photography posts) for the year: Thomas’ Favourite Folding Pocket Knives, Current Favourite Kershaws, Cold Steel Collection Beginnings, Thomas’ Favourite Outdoor Knives, Behind the Scenes of Knife Reviews, Best EDC Knives Image Outtakes, Blacked Out Fixed Blade Knives, Oversized Folders, Most Frequently Used Neck Knives, Best Bang for Buck Folders Image Outtakes, Blue, Orange, & White Handles, Hope You’re Having a Merry Christmas!

Now on to our articles! We kicked 2015 off with the post, “6 Wilderness Survival Resolutions for the New Year,” then quickly went on to answer a reader question: what keychain EDC gear would you recommend? Next up was a tutorial on how to sharpen ceramic blade knives, followed by one of my favourite articles of the year – “28 Benefits to Prepping Even if TEOTWAWKI Doesn’t Come.”

After that, we took a look at the pros and cons of ceramic blade knives (note, we are biased against them), Then wrote up a post listing the knives used on the TV show Dexter. Next, I did a personal finance prepper post, “Think You Can’t Afford to Prep? You Probably Can’t Afford Not To” followed by an article listing the best survival games.

“So When Will the Shit Finally Hit the Fan?” came next – an article specifically made for those who worry about this and spend time thinking about it on a regular basis. Thomas wrote up a first aid post after that, one detailing how to tell if your cut is infected. Next, he did a really great overview guide to paracord, followed by our April Fools joke of the year, “Kershaw Finally Concedes – Flippers Were a Bad Idea.”

Another first aid post was to come, “4 Tips to Help First Aiders Stay Out of Legal Trouble,” and then a crowd pleasing favourite, “Which Booze is Best for a Prepper Stockpile?” I next wrote up an article explaining why since you can’t prep to survive everything, you should really be prioritizing your preps properly as a prepper. I did a post on budget wilderness survival gear bundles, then Thomas gave 6 reasons why you shouldn’t get an electric knife sharpener. Then we did another TV gear post, racking up a list of knives used on the TV show Gotham.

Looking to be a better survivalist? The next article we published is for you – “The 13-Step Path to Becoming a Better Survivalist.” Thomas then did a post answering a reader question about how he would DIY his own Altoids Tin Survival Kit. After that, fed up with the prepper shaming going around, I wrote an article about who suffers most from prepper shaming and the “prepper stigma”. Then, to give some encouragement to preppers grinding away at making good preps, I published the article “The Reason You’re Going to Succeed at Prepping.”

Next, we published a massive list of the best everyday carry knives on the market, followed by another first aid article, “The Complete Guide to Using Super Glue for Cuts.” Discovering History Channel’s “Alone” made us pretty obsessed with the show, and so we ended up compiling a list of the survival gear used on season 1 of the show. Thomas then published a comprehensive guide to knife blade steels, and I wrote up an article explaining how the reason why any of us are preppers is because there’s no reset button on life.

Back in the first aid department, Thomas next published “The 3 Tiers of Triage When Dealing With Multiple Injuries,” after which I pushed out an intervie with Alan Kay & Sam Larson – the two final contestants of “Alone”. The next article was a prepper article – “47 Excuses for Not Taking Prepping Seriously” followed by a personal finance one – “Frugality as a Double-Edged Sword.”

Thomas next answered an outdoor/wilderness survival question about whether it’s possible to cook outside without attracting people and animals. This was followed up by an article about the best folding knives by pricepoint. I next published an article detailing my thoughts on pre-made emergency preparedness kits, essentially stating how I wasn’t a huge fan of them, but that they were fine so long as you tried and tested them, and added to them other things you would need to survive an emergency. Thomas talked about how it’s possible to purify contaminated water, and then we hit “publish” on a list of the best spyderco knives on and off the market.

We ended the year with three articles from me – “6 Steps to Re-Organizing Your Unruly Prepper To-Do List,” “Advice to Beginner Preppers,” and “Cheap Survival Gear: Best You Can Buy for Under $25.”

And that’s all!

It’s been one heck of a year, the most notable part, I’d say, being the growth of our community forum, Survival Threads. This website has quite literally turned into one of my favourite places to be on the net. It’s so much easier to have discussions about survival & preparedness on here than on social media – and it’s way better than the comments section of this blog. It’s amazing to have conversations that are not one-sided (when we publish on here, we set the tone and the topic with the post – when it’s the forum, it’s a free for all, where anyone can choose what to talk about).

Can’t say I could’ve asked for a better group of people to jump on board either. So happy with the way this year’s turned out.

Thanks for making 2015 a blast! :)