Community Building

It’s been a minute, y’all. Between the WarLizard Tactical Course at Camp Ponderosa and Mountain Readiness, I’ve been too busy to get on here. Today, I want to talk about these events and how attending them can help you build your community of like-minded folks.

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
Matthew 18:20

One of the biggest success stories from the last few weeks was a woman who came to both events to learn. When she arrived, she lacked confidence and was worried about her ability to complete the courses she had signed up for, and she was worried that she had no real allies. By the end of a couple of weeks meeting with the fellow attendees, she rocked out all the courses and led during them, and she found a whole group of like-minded in her deeply divided state to train with. THAT, my friends, is what building community looks like.

During the WarLizard course (find them at: https://warlizardtactical.com/), the students all helped each other and worked together. Joel and his staff are great instructors and I saw shooting improve throughout the 2 day course. We began the course with a community dinner at a local restaurant (whom I won’t name, as they did me dirty on this event – sad, really), which set the tone of building relationships. We held a fire each night to bring everyone together for more relationship building.

Mountain Readiness West (https://www.mountainreadiness.com/?ref=WISDOM5) began the same way, with a community dinner. We used the Camp Ponderosa commercial kitchen and the great staff from Bear Track Pizza to serve a fantastic seafood boil. Bob and Anne cooked all weekend and did great, so if you ever find yourself in the Swan Valley, order pizza or steak from them.

While we had a ton of great vendors and amazing & informative classes, the best communiuty building was done as humans have done for millenia, sitting around the tables eating or sitting around the campfire. People linked up with folks from their home states that they had never met before. We linked up several folks from Alberta (behind enemy lines in the 51st state) whom had never met. Watching the connection be made and bloom into friendships is the best part of these events.

Folks, we have to get past our fears and come to events to meet face to face. I don’t care who won what election or what is going on halfway around the world, things are getting worse and you NEED to find a community. Stop thinking an election solved the deep-rooted problems of the last 60 years and prepare. Meet each other.

There are several opportunities to meet each other coming up that I’d like to highlight.

First, we are hosting a fall training event at Camp Ponderosa. NC Scout will be out here teaching RTO (RadioTelephone Operator), Advanced RTO, and SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), K from Combat Studies Group willbe teach CQB Level 2 and Hard Target Traveler, and Gene & Sara from Mobile Outdoor Skills Training will be teaching Wilderness First Aid. I’ll probably throw in a couple of short combatives classes in between. The dates are September 18-27.

1. Brushbeater RTO Sep 18-20: https://brushbeater.store/product/radio-telephone-operator-rto-3-day-course-12-14-june-2026-montana/?sca_ref=4405804.z7Z4UMPocd
2. MOST Wilderness First Aid Sep 19-20: https://site.corsizio.com/event/6a6bdb816905bd52ffdd6a65
3. Brushbeater Adv RTO Sep 21-23: https://brushbeater.store/product/advanced-radio-telephone-operator-rto-course-21-23-sep-2026-montana/?sca_ref=4405804.z7Z4UMPocd
4. Brushbeater SIGINT Sep 25-27: https://brushbeater.store/product/signals-intelligence-course-18-20-sep-2026-montana/?sca_ref=4405804.z7Z4UMPocd
5. CSG Hard Target: https://combatstudiesgroup.blogspot.com/2026/07/upcoming-training-dates.html
6. CGS CQB L2: https://combatstudiesgroup.blogspot.com/2026/07/upcoming-training-dates.html

After that, NC Scout and I will be holding a fall training week at his North Carolina facility. Those courses will be Oct 9-18th. We will begin with NC Scout’s outstanding Scout Course (9-11), followed immediately by his Recce Course (12-14). Then, I will hold my Community Security Operations course Oct 16-18. Also, I’ll be doing a 4-hour knife combatives course on the 11th, immediately after Scout ends, and a one day unarmed combatives and groundfighting course on the 15th.

1. Brushbeater Scout Course Oct 9-11: https://brushbeater.store/product/scout-course-9-11-oct-2026-north-carolina/?sca_ref=4405804.z7Z4UMPocd

2. Brushbeater Recce Course Oct 12-14: https://brushbeater.store/product/recce-course-12-14-oct-2026-north-carolina/?sca_ref=4405804.z7Z4UMPocd

3. My courses can be found on the Training page.

After that, Matt (NC Scout) and I will be at Mountain Readiness Fallout in Harmony, NC October 23-25, selling our wares and I’m sure Matt will be smoking a brisket.

Get out and meet your mutuals in real life. Build community and learn skills at the same time.

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