XD Talk

**nmduke** · 04-07-2012, 01:04 PM

****April's XDTalk.com Monthly Contest****

For this months contest, we are asking that you give us your input on Prepping. This has been an active topic recently and we want to know your thoughts, views, methods, what you are prepping for, and any other information that you feel would be helpful to your fellow members to help them begin or improve their prepping methods.

We will be judging on the quality of your prepperations, helpful suggestions to others, and response as to why you are prepping? Any photos that you include will be a bonus in judging. The deadline for your entry will be on April 30th. Post your review/article in this thread. The winner will be picked and announced as soon as possible after the 1st of May.

The winner will receive a $100 credit to use at one of our vendors along with an XDTalk.com T-shirt and hat. Thank you for participation in advance.

Also, for more information and discussion on survival and prepping, visit our newest edition to our firearm network, www.prepperlog.com

**4Nines** · 04-09-2012, 09:46 AM

Cool idea! I know a lot of people that are "prepping" right now.

ibwaldo · 04-10-2012, 12:42 AM

When it comes to prepping the first step is to figure out what you think you need to be prepared for. Once you have figured out what you need to prep for you need to start researching what tools you will need to help you cope with the perceived threat. The next step is to set some short and long term goals for acquiring the tools and or training that you need. One of the most important things to do is to go out and put your knowledge and tools to the test so that you can learn what works and what doesn't’t. Then you can reevaluate your skills and tools to see what you need to change. I will fill you in on a little secret, your mind and you’re survival instincts are the best tools you have.

I live in Utah and we are due for a large earthquake. According to the USGS the fault line here is capable of a 7.0 to 7.5 sized earthquake every 350 to 400 years or so and the last one was 350 years ago… I also live in the US and we are facing some pretty glum economic times and even federal jobs (like the one I have) are no longer a sure bet. Even if we do not have a total economic collapse I do feel as though we are facing an unsure future. The latest threat that I see is the possibility of racial riots flaring up around the country. Then there is always the threat of WW III which even if we come out on top would likely lead to even more unsustainable dept.

You Tube

I will need the correct mindset, water, food, shelter and protection to see me through my perceived threats. I will break down my short and long term goals for each of these topics:

Mindset: You have to keep a positive attitude or no matter how much gear you have or how much you've trained you'll never make it. This is why it is important to actually have a game plan. Make checklists and have printed hard copies of the things that you need to keep your head on straight. Have games to keep your spirits high and keep some personal items with you for your kids if you have to bug out. A couple of their favorite toys will go a long way to keeping the peace. Books are great references for medical needs and for looking for edible plants. The Internet and your 200 GB "emergency" file that you keep on you computer may no longer be available. The point of this topic is to make sure you can hold your self together and have the tools you need to give you the confidence to lead your family through whatever you are facing.

Water- short term: I plan on getting one 250 gallon bulk water storage tank in my basement. I have a spot in what will become my utility room that I can run a hard line to fill the tank and a floor drain within 3 feet to drain the tank and rotate the water every year.

Water Storage Tank 250 Gallons

Water– Long term: I will add a second 250 gallon bulk tank next to the first one. I also plan on getting a Crown Berkey water filter with 4 filters and add the other 4 filters as money becomes available. I have a small stream across the road from my house that I can use as a source of water. I will grab some water and rough filter it through some bed sheets and then into the Berkey. I will also get a 55 gallon water drum to drain the Berkey into. Since most suppliers of water container come in different color choices I will color coordinate my containers with blue being used for safe drinking water (my 250 gallon bulk tanks, my 55 gallon Berkey overflow tank and several 5 gallon portable tanks) and clear or white containers for unfiltered water. This may sound like overkill, but I plan on being the neighborhood water boy for bartering. Remember, I’m in Mormon country and they are serious about food storage out here. They tend to overlook water though and that is where my plan comes into play, my water for your food.

Crown Berkey - Water Filter Systems - Berkey Filters
Black Berkey water filter technical specifications
55 Gallon Water Barrel Emergency Water Storage
Siphon Pump
Water Barrel 5 Gallon Sampson Stacker Emergency Water Storage
Spigot Flow-Rite Valve

Food– short term: I have a small cold storage in my basement that is under my front porch. It is on the North side of my house and stays out of direct sunlight for most of the day. It stays about 50 degrees in there in the winter months and about 65 in the summer months. It’s only about 5 feet deep and 7 feet wide but I have already invested in some food rotation systems by Shelf Reliance. I have two of the 72 inch tall Harvest series. One of them is configured for three shelve of small cans (soup size cans), one shelf of medium sized cans (think family sized cans) and one shelf of large (#10 sized cans) and the other is set up with four shelves of large cans. The multi sized rack is full of fruit and veggies with canned chicken and tuna. It also contains chili and 24 jars of peanut butter. I have a 25 cubic foot chest freezer that is full of 80 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, 75 pounds of pork loin, 40 pounds of ham, 50 pounds of ground turkey, 40 pounds of bacon and 25 pounds of fruit. The pantry gets restocked from the cold storage and the fresh stuff goes into cold storage. In other words, buy what you will eat. You are going to need to be able to cook your food and I have some options here as well. I have my Colman stove, my Camp Chief 3 burner stove and grill (I love this thing) and a sun oven. The sun oven uses sunlight to cook (no fuel to store) and will get up to 360 degrees in my yard on a sunny day. I have a Wonder Mill Jr. hand crank grain mil. Some of you might say I’m missing some basics here and I would agree with you, but my wife and kids have the following allergies: gluten, rice, corn, nut and lactose…

The Harvest 72" Food Rotation System
The Harvest 72" #10
Kenmore
Coleman - Dual Fuel™ 2-Burner Stove
Big Gas Grill 3 - Camp Chef - The Way to Cook Outdoors
Sun Oven International | The Solar Cooking Appliance » GLOBAL SUN OVEN
Grain Mills by Wonder Mill, The Official site for the Wonder Mill electric grain mill and Wonder Junior hand grain mill

Food– long term: I need to start gardening and plan on getting 5 of the raised beds (see link below) so I can also start canning and dehydrating. I need to get some dehydrated and freeze dried food in #10 cans and fill up my other food rotation shelf. I need a generator and enough fuel so my food I have in my freezer does not go to waste. I could also use a hand meat grinder. I will need to get some snow shoes and cross country skies to get around in the winter to help with fresh meat.

Self-Watering Raised Beds | Buy from Gardener's Supply
Honda EU2000i Super Quiet Generator
Hand Grinders - #10 STAINLESS STEEL CLAMP ON HAND GRINDER

Shelter- short term: I plan to stay put if at all possible. My basement will keep a decent temperature year round and all of my stuff will be here. Next year we will finish the last part of the basement that will include my man cave. This is where the utility room is located, my reloading bench, gun safe, freezer and entry into the cold storage. I plan to have reinforced entrance to this area and use it as a safe room / war room. My HAM radio equipment and any future security upgrades will be placed in here as well. Make sure to have a sanitation plan. I plan to have several hundred rolls of TP, 5 gallons of bleach, 5 gallons of vinegar and a couple of extra boxes of trash bags. I also have 1800 baby wipes to use for cleaning and barter.

Porta Potty Snap-on Toilet Seat with Cover
5 Gallon Storage Bucket
Texsport Solar Camp Shower, 5 Gallon Jumbo
Washing Machine, Hand Mobile Washer
Washboard 18" x 9"

Shelter– long term: I want to be able to purchase 10 to 20 acres in the next 10 years that needs to be at least 75 miles away from any town with a population of 50,000 people and 150 miles away from a town with a population of 100,000 people. If that means it will be off grid, even better! I have plans on building a rammed earth house with a nice southern exposure. This will become my bug out location and if all goes well my retirement home.

Zero Energy Four Plan

Protection– before the "event": I have covered this in another post that I will link below, but the important thing to remember is to think of your family's protection as an onion. How many layers do you need to feel safe? Let me break this into sub categories:

Gun(s): This is a gun forum so most of us should have this covered already, but this is the way I see it. You should have a pistol for every adult in your family. If at all possible, keep them all the same caliber and ideally keep them the same model so that they can be interchanged and used instinctively. Have at least one shot gun as a main shelter defense tool and only use lethal loads. It would be awesome to have a "battle" rifle that is semi-automatic like an AR-15 type weapon. You can fling a lot of lead down range in a hurry with one of these. My preferred would be Springfield M1A SOCOM 16 which is chambered in .308 and could also be used for putting some dinner in the table. You should at least have a traditional hunting rifle to supply fresh game. The caliber is what ever you feel you would need for your location and game options that you have avaliable. You should also have a .22 LR as this can be used for every thing already listed even though it might not the best option it can get the job done and the ammo is cheep and light to Cary. I think one over looked option is a higher end air rifle as they are almost completely silent and will not give away your location.

Early warning: This is anything that will alert you to danger is coming your way. This could be any of the following: neighbors, dogs, cameras, alarms, motion sensitive lighting, ect...

Delaying tactics: This would be anything that will buy you some time to get physically and mentally prepared like: locked doors and windows, door jam reinforcement kits, planting under windows like holly bushes or roses, ect...

The REBAR DSD - Door Jamb Frame Reinforcement Plate - Stops Door Kick-in

Scenario plan: Please read my link below to learn more about this idea and why it is so vitally important!

ibwaldos one year update and "survivor guide"

Protection after the "event": Have plans and materials to fortify you shelter for what you are prepping for. For me that would include being able to board up the basement windows. I would all but abandon the main living area and completely move into the basement. This would protect me us from stray bullets and keep us out of sight. Try to talk to your neighbors and see if you can come up this a neighborhood wide defensive plan as there is safety in numbers.

**nmduke** · 04-13-2012, 09:28 AM

Nice write up ibwaldo. Looks like you might not have too much competition this month?

Mist · 04-13-2012, 10:04 AM

Whoa man hold the phone I'm in just trying to find the time to write it all out with links ! We ( the wife and I agree with most of what has been said so far we just have a different approach ! Post upcoming

Survival · 04-14-2012, 09:11 AM

Thoughts:

My thoughts about prepping are very strong. After realizing that a global pandemic,global finical collapse, EMP, Solar induced grid outage, earthquake, tornados,nuclear disaster, terrorist attack, floods, and manmade Power Grid outage, 9/11events, Asia’s Tsunami and flu outbreak, Japans 2011 earthquake, HurricaneKatrina, Gulf Oil Spill, Eastern US tornado outbreak are a reality from ourmass media I decided that I'm long overdue to have emergency preparations inplace for my family. I've always seen mygrandparents who have endured hard times during the great depression and WorldWar II, have a pantry full of canned beans, pickled garden foods, corn, meal,and other commodities and always thought that’s what "old" folks do,well, I'm old now, and it’s time for me to do the same.

Although mainstream media has painted some preppers as being"crazy" or "hoarders", that is not the case. In fact, if you do some digging and researchabout the shows produced and from the actual people on the shows, they willclearly state that some of the parts of the show were scripted. Check out YouTube and dig deep into thesearch with the actual people on the show. Hopefully this will clear up some confusion of if the people were just"crazy” or if they were told to act that way. For people that consider preppers ashoarders: Hoarders have a persistentbehavior with discarding items, and they have emotional distress when theirstored item is taken away from them. Researchhas usually seen this type of personality with people that have secondarydisorders like OCD or Schizophrenia. Ifpreppers are hoarders, then all of my family tree had OCD and Schizophreniasince they all stored food that would last months. Little Red Hen and Noah with his mighty Arkhad OCD and Schizophrenia if this is the case. And those that still consider prepping being hoarding or crazy, thenplease next time do not prep for a night on the town, prep to go to work, prepto fill your gas tank up to go on a long trip so you won't run out of gas, or nexttime your wife packs and preps a bag for your newborn child to be admitted tothe hospital for delivery, don’t do so, because you don't want to be consideredbeing crazy, hoarding or having a case of Schizophrenia, right? You don’t have to buy a million dollarbunker, have a 50 cal in layaway, have enough ammo to start a small war, or rigtrip wires with flares around your house. Just have enough “preps” to sustain you and your family, and a possiblya few friends and neighbors to get you buy for at least a week during emergencysituations. Nuf said.

When I first started prepping, I was embarrassed when I wouldactually tell someone why I had extra stuff lying around the homestead withfear they would laugh, think I'm crazy, or lost my mind. I had a few family members that would laughand say "Are you going to wear a sign that it’s the end of theworld"? I brushed this off with thethought of they would not be included in any type of salvation if theshtf. This is no longer an issue andfamily is asking my advice and thanking me now for my efforts. I will explain on how I got everyone onboardin the methods below.

Prepping if that’s what everyone wants to call it nowadays,should have been a staple for all world humans since the beginning oftime. Bees store honey for wintermonths, and other animals stock up on foods for hard winter months (squirrels,bears etc.). If everyone wouldn't worryabout the latest cell phone or what they are going to get/buy for Christmas,then when a natural or manmade disaster occurs, they would be able to cope alittle better than with widespread panic. Take a look at how humanity was in Japan last year, did anyone noticehow civil and helpful they were to their fellow victims of the earthquake? Is a first world country more inclined to becivil instead of a third world country creating civil unrest all aroundthem? Are we still the barbarian typeanimals that still lives in medieval times? As one prepper once said, “The local Thugs were tearing down buildings,burning cars, looting, just because the local football team won the nationalchampionships”.

What I'm preppingfor:

This of course, is a personal one, depending on what keepsyou up at night. It can be as simple asa loss of a job or can be as complex as a nuclear disaster or polar shift.

Nuclear disaster South and Military DMZ North of me:

For me, it’s a combination of a few things that are in myimmediate threat. I live 100 miles northof a nuclear power reactor and a military dmz that is 60 miles north of me,thus I am prepared with gas masks for my family along with extra non expiredfilters and chemical suites. I also haverolls upon rolls of duct tape to seal off any windows and doors inside my houseif I have to bug in. During the year, Ifix any type of crack or anywhere air can come into the home so that any typeof harmful isotopes doesn’t enter into my immediate area. I have potassium ioDIDE (not potassiumioDINE, big difference) tablets for my family to take as well. I have laminated bug out maps that arehighlighted to take the least traveled roads north in case something happens.I'm careful to know that these mass produced gas masks that are militarysurplus has chemicals in the filters that have sat over time or expired canhave cancer related chemicals in them, so I purchase new filters. Also, instead of buying a $300 mask for eachfamily member, I do purchase the army surplus that is in good condition, withones that were purchased in "ok" condition thrown in the back of mycars bug out bags and one at work.

Tornados:

For tornados that are prone in my area and since I live at1700 feet above sea level, I'm highly likely to experience this type ofdisaster. Thus, I have NOAA weather bandradios in both of my vehicles and a portable one to carry with me. I currently do not have a basement, so theinner part of my home is the quick shelter place for my family. It is cleared out so we can quickly go tothat area. In that area I have radios,flashlights, bottled water and jerky, along with an old no contract cell phonethat is plugged in that can dial 911 in case we get trapped under thehouse. The safe haven though is myfather’s basement, which has the same items, but is a half a mile away. At the present time of this writing, I havecontacted a construction company that sells conduits to put underground whichis on my list of things to purchase for a storm shelter that can also double asa food/water/gear prep area. To preventany type of finical disaster that can be secondary to a tornado, I have home,car, life, medical insurance that is a MUST and NEED, not a "want"item. A interesting note was that duringthe Eastern United States tornado outbreak that happened last month, which startedon a Friday, it took FEMA until Tuesday to get to our area for assistance. Five days in a devastated town that destroyedhomes, power, food and water supplies is not enough to keep a town going.

Floods:

In my attic, I have the following, in case I have to gethigh (as in high ground) if water infiltrated my home; A four man inflatableraft with a put together paddle, water tablets, a small axe to cut through theroof, water and wind proof matches, jerky, and a small .22 handgun. This is all due to the large lake that is 5miles from my home. Although I live highup in elevation, this is my least concern, unless there is a massive tsunamithat comes into the area.

Personal Financial disaster and Global economic meltdown:

I have no expenses except for my monthly electric, water,trash, tv, phone, inet bills. My home ispaid for, credit cards are not a part of my vocabulary anymore since at onepoint in my life I had over $110,000 in credit card debt! I pay for things in cash, I have stock marketfunds, 401s, Roth’s, ESA’s, but I'm very cautious about how much I put intothese funds since I'm depending on someone else’s "trading" with mymoney. I have gold, silver, beans andbullets to trade for in case of an emergency in small trading amounts. I am learning on how to grow gardens, raiserabbits and learn skills that will help me survive and provide batter for inthe future in case a global economic disaster happens. I’m on my second wind turbine made fromtreadmill alternators and old tv antennas. Solar panels are going up this year. I have a lot of 55 gallon water barrels around my land for waterstorage. If something happens to my job,then I have been learning skills that will help me gain a job in other parts ofmy city. I am teaching my children andgrandchildren to learn how to budget their money as well. They are learning about "needs" andnot "wants", which is what got this world in the shape it’s in.

Views:

Ask yourself these question fellow XDTalk members.... Whatwould you do if a natural or manmade disaster happened in your area thataffected a radius of 1000 miles around you? For example, let’s say a Madrid fault earthquake happened, or a nucleardisaster meltdown of one of your local power plants, leaving any type ofassistance (via Government, FEMA, Red Cross etc) out of the picture due toputting their own safety at risk. Youmight have enough food and water, if you’re lucky to survive at least three dayswith no prepping done prior to this disaster. What would you do after three days though? After three days, you would run out of foodand clean water and start foraging outside your home area. After a week of desperate foraging, you wouldstart hearing gun shots in distances from looting, robberies, and widespreadpanic is what you would hear. What willyou do at that point? If you had specialmedication that you depended on like a heart pill or if your family was slowlydying of thirst, what would you do? Natural instinct and reality would set in and you would do one of twothings, which is foraging for your family or just letting everything go theeasy way out. As hard and as brutal asall this might sound, this is hopefully a wakeup thread so you can start atleast getting the necessary preparations in place at least for a week worth ofwater, food, shelter, protection and medical supplies. I'm not here to scare, convince, convertanyone by no means, I'm just putting words in front of you for you to form yourown opinions, methods and plans. People,or rather “Sheeple” can laugh, joke, roll your eyes all they want, but frankly,I don’t care, this is my lifestyle just as they have your own lifestyle. I would be the one that would give them foodand water and come to their aid in an emergency regardless of what they thinkabout prepping. Prepping should not befactored in with fear. Fear will causepanic, which can lead to overspending in buying your preps and create fear infamily members.

SHTF scenarios as described by Mel Tappan and James Wesley,Rawles are highly possible, but very unlikely to happen, so why not be preparedin case they do?

Methods:

Water and Food:

You can live up to three days without water, and up to twoweeks without food. These two staplesare "needs" is what you should focus on first if you decide that youneed to at least have something in place. Start by planning out a few things at first. Ask yourself what type of budget you have,where can I store these items, what types of items do I want to store, and howlong do you need in order to have a certain number of days/weeks/months/yearsof food and water. One might say thatthey do not need to store water and food since they live on a farm that hasthree ponds stocked with bass and bluegill. Do some deep thinking though that if there is a nuclear reactor meltdownin your area, then it would take only a few days for the water and fish to becontaminated. If this is the case, andyou decided to "bug out" of the area, then how will you carry yourwater and food? Do you have enough roomin the family car to carry that amount? Do you have enough gas to go at least a few hundred miles upwind fromthe reactor? How will you carry yourfood and water when the Interstates become flooded with stalled vehicles? Howwill you protect your family if someone points a gun at them demanding yourpreps be turned over to them? Are youready to face this type of scenario?

Portable WaterFilters:

A method here for your food and water storage supplies isdepending on your situation and what disaster occurs. You should have multiple backup contingencyplans for each disaster that could happen in your area. Depending on your budget, you can purchase awater filter device (not going to name any names), but there are a slew ofvendors out there that tell you exactly what it filters out down to themicrobe. Costs range anywhere from $5 to$1000. These types of portable systemsare ideal if you are traveling and have to bug out of your location. Just remember to buy extra filters or devicesdepending on how many gallons of water it treats.

Another source that is light to carry is water tablets thatyou can purchase at any camping, army surplus store. Be sure to check the dates though to see ifthey are expired. If you go this route,then be sure to carry extra coffee filters, cheesecloth, metal strainer, orladies stockings so that you can filter any dirt and debris from the waterbefore using it.

Fire: Always boil anytype of water that you are not familiar with. This should be a rule to anyone in your prepping group. You can get deathly sick or at least causingvomiting and diarrhea which can further lead to dehydration if you get a sourceof contaminated water that is untreated.

Non-Portable WaterFilters:

(2 Liter Bottles, 55 Gal Food grade Drums, Ponds, Streams,Water-Bobs, Limestone/Sand).

For larger storage of water and "bugging-in"folks, you will want to consider some storage of water where you are planningon bugging in. If your city permits it(which some cities you need a permit code for whatever crazy reason), you canstore large gallon drums or wells for your water storage. Be sure to keep in mind that if yourgathering water from your rooftop, that bird droppings can be washed down intothe drums that could cause diseases. Also, keep a screen over top of the drums so that insects and mosquitoesdo not populate and lay eggs in the water. Put a tap on the bottom of the drums for easy access, and from time totime rotate moving the water out of the drums to water your garden or plants sothat you always have a constant fresh water supply. I personally like to store my water in 2 litersoda bottles just in case I need to hand them out to neighbors or friends. A lot of people will try to store water inmilk jugs, but it has been found out that this method is not as good as themore rigid 2 liters whereas milk jugs tend to leak and sweat over a period oftime. There are talks about putting aset amount of chlorine bleach into any stored water container, which is fine,but make sure it is the non-scented kind and just pure bleach. Also make sure to use the correct amount ofbleach per gallon of water. For mymethod, I will store the water and boil it later without using the bleach. Another method is to buy chlorine pool shockat the end of summer to stock up, which can be used to treat water.

Food:

Did you know that you could eat the inner part of treebark? Not much calories, and yourdigestive system will not be happy, but you can do this if you had to. Little things like this fact can possiblysave your life someday if you get "into" prepping. A rule of thumb is to store what you will eatnormally and eat what you store method. For instance, I eat a lot of canned oysters and tuna. Therefore with my food prep buying, Ipurchase a lot of these items. To do therotation in my home, I have a pantry with the newest items in the back of theshelf and push the old ones forward. Forlong term food storage, I have rice and beans that is sealed in mylar bags andone oxygen absorber on the bottom and one on the top, sealed up with my foodvac sealer. This is technically supposedto last up to twenty years with this method. I then throw the bags into a food grade 35 gallon drum and put it in mypantry where it is in a cool and dry environment. If you are out searching for mylar bags topurchase, check the everyday food that you have already to see if the bag ismylar. Mylar does NOT have to be silverin color by the way, it can be in the form of clear material. Some examples are: Capri suns, imitationbacon bits packages, bisquick packages and such. You don't have to go out and buy a vac sealeralso. Just have a clothes iron andpractice resealing bags of food that you already ate, this method basicallyworks the same way. Make sure that youpurchase high caloric foods as well like spam, chunky soup, olives, peanuts,chili with meat and sweetened condensed milk. A good meat alternative that can be carried with you without refrigerationis TVP (textured vegetable protein). Ittriples in size when cooked and has the same texture and somewhat the sameflavor if seasoned right (remember the hamburgers in grade school?). Make sure to stock up on some cajun seasoningjust in case your down on your luck and the only thing you come across is athree day old dead rabbit! Just cook itall the way through, season the heck out of it and bon appetite! You'll live another day!

Those that think on going out to Sams club and buying casesof frozen pork ribs and steaks, you need to also consider that if something takesout the power grid in your area (EMP, Earthquake, Hurricane, Terrorist cyber-attack),then your frozen steaks and ribs will begin to spoil. They do make solar power refrigerators, butthey are quite pricey. If you are in asituation where you have a lot of food stored in the refrigerator and freezer,and the power goes out, make it a priority to eat and salvage your unfrozenfoods first, then your frozen foods.

Mental:

A lot of people do not know how to “start” prepping with themain fear of bringing home a few AR’s, 20lb bags of beans and rice and buyingpotassium iodide tablets. Your spouseand children will think you have gone mad and create a fear/panic inside that cancause to you accelerate your prepping ability. I have been there, and was buying gun after gun (although this was thefun part), I scared the heck out of my family. The approach I suggest is to take things slow. Watch tv with your spouse (mainly the news)and I guarantee something will come on about some type of disaster. At that point say “Wow, I guess we should getan extra flashlight for the car”. Or “Ibetter get us some bottled water in case the water company has a pipeburst”. This approach works well andespecially if you get them involved on a topic pertaining to them. For instance you can say “You know, yourfamily lives about five miles from here, do you think it would be wise for usto create a meeting place in case there is a tornado or earthquake in the area?” That makes it personal to your spouseinvolving them and their side of the family.

For smaller children, I have seen people say that it ismental abuse to them to get them prepping. I personally don’t want to go into that subject because I might have astroke on how mad I get even thinking about someone saying that. The best thing for younger children is againto start slow, get them involved by showing, treating and talking to them likean adult. Teach them where the meetingplace is outside your home in case of a fire. Have them pack a “care bag” for the household puppy or cat. Teach them how to manage money, how to helptheir fellow humans, how to give instead of always receive. If they see something on the news that getsthem scared, use that as an opportunity to go over why and how that eventoccurred and what they can do to help overcome that type of disaster. Develop your children to be part of thesolution, instead of part of the problem that you see with many of today’syouth.

For other family members, start slow, don’t be defensivewhen a rude comment or smirk is made at your direction. For Christmas, I gave 20 members of my family“starter” bug out bag backpacks, that had maps, flashlights, matches,powerbars, bottled water, water tablets, chemsticks, emergency solarblankets, small knife, emergency numbersetc. I took each bag, threw it in theircar when I was visiting and said that their Christmas present was in their carand they need to go over the list of recommended items and start gatheringthem. 5 out of the 20 have personallycame back and said thanks and that they have used some of the items in semiemergency situations. After my familydinner with them, I told them they are getting gas masks next year forChristmas!

Foods: If you have troubleeating asparagus, then you might have real trouble eating a three day oldrabbit! Start learning new foods, watchshows like Andrew Zimmerman (Bizarre Foods) on the stuff that other countrieseat so you won’t feel so bad if you had to eat maggots to stay alive. This is survival folks, not McDonalds! There have been reports that people foundlost, had died because they could not overcome eating grubs or a carcass leftby another animals and that they had plenty of water with them. Remember, you can stay alive two weekswithout food, and up to three days without water.

Security:

Yes, guns guns guns, we all love guns, but more so ofpersonal protection to your home to defend it in case looters and riots breakout. Even before a shtf scenario, youneed to keep your home secure in many ways. Some ideas are to have rose bushes setup around all the lower levelwindows. Have security cameras thatcover all corners of your home that can still operate with a backup batter incase the power is cut. Also if it’s aDVR system, make sure your base recording unit is in a securely locked (metaldoor type) area so that the people robbing you cannot get into it and steal theDVR, or have a recording system remote. Have night lights at all four corners of your home that are motionsensor. Have a large barking dog thatonly barks when someone is on your land. Gates, and perimeter alarms placed in your area is a good idea to alertyou of incoming intruders. Good neighborsproviding neighborhood watches for strange cars in your area are a goodsolution, and be the one that goes door to door to collect contact numbers ofyour neighbors to distribute in case the SHTF. Carry your CCW with you at all times, have a backup as well on yourankle or at least a neck knife of some sort. Have a gun in each room of your home, loaded, on safety and everyoneknows where it’s located. Teach yourfamily how to use multiple guns, the safety of them, and make sure to practicewith them as much as possible.

Stay prepped my friends!
~Survival