Active New Top (30 days) Compact Card Why a preventable mishap led to “is my tetanus shot up to date?” UbiqueContributor - May 3, 2021 The weather has been cantankerous. It just won’t give in to the arrival of Spring. On Saturday, the weather finally improved. I raced around the yard like a calf just out of the barn, with 60 lb bales of soil to top up my raised beds. Everything was going great until I stopped being mindful of what I was doing. I turned my focus toward calculating how many more bales I would need for the last five planters that are back ordered. That was when I mis-stepped, tripped and did a three point landing onto a piece of rusty rebar. The rebar is part of what pins my 4×16′ pre-fabbed planters. It was supposed to be countersunk and the caps placed on the connections. But I wanted to get that soil distributed so I could get a list together for the next round of soil and other garden supplies. That short cut is why I am writing this with my leg propped up. I’m okay and lucky it wasn’t worse. My right knee is wrenched and it will heal. However, the side of my right knee got sliced on the rusty and very sharp rebar that had been cut to fit the planters, which brings me to why I am writing this post. I cleaned and dressed my knee, but for my life, I couldn’t remember when my last tetanus shot had happened. Lock jaw isn’t fun. I have medical files for both of us, but my budget binder contains a fast referral section on key medical info. At a glance, I can tell when the next colonoscopy or blood work is due. For some reason, I had no information on tetanus shots for either of us. I found out this morning it was 2018, so in 9 years I will make the arrangement to have another before the 10 year expiry on it. We need to know this information and keep it current and in print format because if the SHTF something as simple as falling could end up in lock jaw for the lack of a simple tetanus shot. Medical conditions, recurring tests and blood work, vaccine record and current medications, including any and all allergies and adverse reactions need to be on hard printed copy. Don’t forget any anaesthetic problems or prior surgeries. My haste and carelessness were a reminder of what an infection and an expired tetanus shot could become in a crisis. Even without the wrenched knee, I plan to move more thoughtfully in the future. Read More 7 9 AdviceScenarios Watch for bulk food container spoilage UbiqueContributor - May 3, 2021 I had purchased a large plastic container of regular mustard and stored it in my preps. It was opened once to put mustard into my working supply upstairs, then the lid was closed properly and stored in a cool dry environment with the rest of the preps. I went to refill the working supply and happened to notice something about the lid from the corner of my eye. I looked and there was mould growing in the lid. That’s when I realized that the cardboard liner inside of the lid had become a spot for mould to grow. The entire container had to be discarded. I also had this happen with a maple syrup that was stored in my fridge. I am careful now to not let the maple syrup touch the cap of the glass container. I now watch the underside of any lids for mould growth and note opening dates in a marker on the label of any fridge items, like jams, ketchup or other condiments. The experience has changed how I view bulk items that are “wet” as a working supply. Although it is more costly, I have switched to smaller containers to be opened and used. A large container of a spoiled prep item is worthless. Read More 6 2 Advice Trail runners: What do you carry? Gourdo - May 2, 2021 Fairly new to prepping and while I have been a runner for years, I have only recently moved to the PNW where glorious trails are everywhere and wonderful to run on for hours. I have thought about what I should carry with me on trail runs below and am curious to anyone’s thoughts & suggestions on this. I would feel like I am mostly concerned about wounds, bugs, & leg injuries than anything else, at least while in areas with cell service. Weight is an important factor as I need to keep good balance and form. Definitely want to ensure I am thinking about this the right way. Most of my runs are near town and while those closest to town are fairly well traveled, I can easily go some distance and not see another person for miles. I also prefer to run in the late afternoon/evenings so need to be ready to sit around for some time if I become immobilized while waiting for help. I see this in two situations since most of my running is near town with cell service while I could always drive an hour or two out to find trails in the wilderness where I am happy to add a few pounds of gear for piece of mind. In both situations, I have a trail running vest with several pockets and a water bladder with 1.5L capacity Also, I haven’t yet gone for a remote trail run yet with this planned bag, not sure about total weight With cell service/near town: ~4-5 lbs. Phone GPS watch (garmin forerunner) – on wrist water filled to the situation (temperature, length of run) ~400-500 calories (gels, typically, which fuel the run, I always over pack this) Emergency blanket Whistle Flashlight IFAK – Very light with wound dressings, bug bite things, compression wrap, pair of gloves Tourniquet No cell service/remote areas: Phone GPS watch (garmin forerunner) – on wrist Water fully filled ~800-1k calories E-blanket Whistle Flashlight IFAK – same as above Tourniquet Mirror Folding knife Ferro rod Map + Small/basic compass Wilderness wipes Depending on the area, may bring a jacket wrapped around waist even if it is warm Thanks! *note on the GPS watch, I love this even when hiking/backpacking/camping as I can save locations on it and have it point back to those locations with direction & distance. Its just an every day thing that could be useful for non-runners. Read More 17 22 Building, stocking a safe room in house Bob - May 1, 2021 https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_taking-shelter-from-the-storm_p-320.pdf Good evening, Above FEMA link is hot off the presses. It’s the updated version. I’m posting this for 2 reasons: good info on subject AND just the exposure to FEMA stuff. Not only for a house, the concepts in doc can be used in an apartment, condo, etc. Be careful re the page 9 definition of hurricane categories. Our US system has “cat 5” as the worst … heaviest winds in the series of 5 categories. Yet, a lower number hurricane can be more dangerous because of the flooding. It is the flooding … especially infected waters … that causes the most hurricane deaths. Page 58 has an email address and a phone number for additional info and publication. There’s a web-seminar or one of those national conference calls pending. I omitted this but if really interested, inquire via the page 58 contacts. Read More 6 6 Are you a prepper or are you practicing prepper? UbiqueContributor - May 1, 2021 Have you actually done “it” yet? Practiced that skill you’ve read about, but have never actually done. Half-measure prepping is like running a race and not crossing the finish line. It is one thing to read, research, debate and buy items. It is another aspect of prepping to learn and ingrain new skills Untried and untested items in a prepper storehouse could be a dangerous discovery when the SHTF and you need to rely upon them. That isn’t the time to find out you have forgotten a key part needed for another item to work, or that the item in storage isn’t appropriate for your climate or location. There is a lot to learn and it can be overwhelming. But, what you learn today and every day before some disaster strikes can help you. You can learn by reading to a point, but actual experience is needed for many prepping skills. A day or two course is great, but you need to practice in order to retain those skills. The practice component of prepping is important in that it also helps us to keep our preps simple and not get overblown on items that are unnecessary. Let’s take hunting for an example. Once the stored food runs out, hunting is going to be a fact of life. Those who survived The Great Depression and other long term disasters quickly found that out. Back then, there were more people who knew how to hunt properly because we had more smaller family farms and a denser rural population with those skills. You have a gun and bullets. Great, but have you actually hunted and if so, for how many seasons? One season is not enough to learn everything. In any crisis, but especially a long term crisis, it is important to know how to practice good animal stewardship. You don’t kill the pregnant does or the does with fawns. Fawns stay with the mother for two years. Be honorable in your hunt and grateful for the animal who gives its life to feed you. Night hunters are not honorable nor are those who take more than what they will use. Animal populations can be decimated very quickly and those who do this will starve in the end. If you wound it, track it. Hunting is not about letting any animal suffer because you missed the shot. Do you know how to track an animal? Do you know how to dress for a hunt? Do you know how to stay safe around an animal that you think is dead? A kick from a not quite dead deer can cost you a limb if they break the skin and you get infected without antibiotics in a disaster. Hunting is a skill that must be mastered over time and preferably taught to you by an excellent hunter so that you learn the right way to hunt and harvest your kill in the environment you will be hunting in. Have you learned how to properly and safely harvest your kill? Did you buy the proper saws and knives need to butcher the animal? Do you have freezer wrap and freezer tape or some other method of preserving the kill? Do you know how to use the entire animal including the hide? Do you know to trim all the fat off a deer because it affects the taste of the meat and makes it gamey tasting? Do you know how to properly cook venison so that it tastes really good? I could have substituted so many other skills: fishing, baking with a solar oven, repair and maintenance of your home and property, gardening, repair and sewing of clothes, evacuation drills, op/sec drills in and out of the home. The list goes on and on for a reason. It is because each of us comes here with a different background and different skills. Some will have a longer list to learn, while others may want to reconsider their prepping plans. It is only through careful consideration of what you will need to actually do in a crisis that you will know if it is for you or if you need to do something else. For example, if hunting seems like too much to take on, then learn to fish. Harvesting a fish isn’t difficult. For pickerel (walleye) we cut off the head behind the gills, slit the belly and eviscerate. Take the split fish and very carefully take your sharp boning knife and run it between the skin and flesh of the fish. Carefully cut out the flesh from the spine area. Feel with your fingers for any bones you missed. I haven’t cleaned a fish for years but my “hands remembered” the skill as I typed this. I might have missed a point but if I had a fish in front of me, I am confident that it would come back to me. The Indigenous people in Northern Canada make a fish head soup that is a delicacy. Also, get a good boning knife. Mine was from a fish processing plant and designed to be extremely well made. A final point about practicing, you will also find out what you are physically and mentally capable of doing. Knowing our limitations is a very important part of prepping. Read More 14 13 AdviceScenariosSkills This non-powered passive dish focuses cell phone signals to the nearest tower Jay ValenciaContributor - May 1, 2021 Was researching ways to communicate when cells don’t work. (Lots of prepping uses, but I was particularly thinking about the recent unrest where gov shuts down signal to protestors.) Found this and thought it was cool. You put your phone inside of the cradle and that turns it into a hotspot in the middle of nowhere. The tool itself uses no power. So I’m guessing it’s just a signal amplifier. Anyone knowledgeable know how valid this is? Is it or something like it a possible communications prep? Here’s where I found it Cell phone hotspot in Australia. Set your phone on the post, dish focuses the signal to the nearest tower. 100% passive, tool itself uses no power. byu/Monster133768 inThatsInsane Read More 16 5 Gear Home Depot offering some preparedness resources Bob - April 30, 2021 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-home-depot-announces-new-and-enhanced-disaster-preparedness-resources-847832640.html Good evening, This news release type of notice tells of Home Depot program going beyond just selling stuff needed for disaster preps. Mentioned are on-demand classes / workshops and web access to their collected info. Note the mentioned Home Depot program to “fortify warehouses” … with relief supplies. Also mentioned is their volunteer force. Read More 6 1 And Then What? Preparing for the Long Emergency Lowell - April 30, 2021 What if instead of a brief emergency, you and your neighbors are in one that lasts months or years? Without reliable access to food, water, electricity? Couldn’t leave your home without risking it being ransacked while you were gone? This is already a constant reality for homeless folks. In Seattle where I live, there’s on the order of 10,000 folks currently experiencing homelessness. How does our approach to preparedness change for an emergency that is both (a) long and (b) already happening for lots of people? Having the right gear for your household, and having the right skills, is a great starting point. “Put on your own mask before assisting others.” But if lots of neighbors are already in a continuous state of emergency, I think this becomes an imbalanced approach very quickly, because it doesn’t tap into the opportunity for people power, and I also just don’t want to live in a world where I’m personally getting by OK but my neighbors are struggling *hard*. For the past year+, I’ve been trying to “prepare for the already continuous emergency” by working with my neighbors to support my unhoused neighbors. My buddy and I created the Homeless Organizing Community Seattle Facebook group so that folks interested in this work could get connected and join forces. We created this Patreon to fund supply purchases, such as ice packs so folks without electricity can keep their food cold, and propane so folks can cook and stay warm, and batteries so folks can still see when the sun goes down. Lately, I’ve been trying to transition from focusing on buying supplies myself to supporting folks with my labor, such as helping to build a community food garden next to my buddies who live in an RV, and helping to build a home beneath a freeway. I figure labor is more sustainable/scalable than funds (lots of folks don’t have spare cash, but do have spare time) and also working together contributes a lot to creating a prepared community. We’ve been collection some of the lessons we learn into a document called Practical Advice For Addressing Needs With Your Neighbors. Read More 5 4 How to barter UbiqueContributor - April 29, 2021 The word barter is thought to have it’s origin from an Old French word barater which means ‘deceive’. The origin of the word should have been my first clue as to why I am terrible at bartering. I mean I am really, really bad at it. Deception is not in my repertory. I found an item online one time and called the seller. The conversation went something like this: Seller: “Hello.” Me: “Hi, you have a tea pot for sale?” Seller: “Yes, it’s still for sale.” Me: “Great. I don’t want to buy it. I just called to tell you that I have one like it and you are not charging enough for it. You’ve underpriced it by about a hundred dollars. It’s a collector’s item. I thought you should know.” Seller: “Thank you.” On another day, in an antique store I begged my friend to barter on my behalf. He told me no and that I must learn. I tried to tell him I have no aptitude for bartering, but he stood his ground. I approached the store owner. “Would you accept eighty dollars for that picture over there?” The store owner was stone faced as he said “No.” It was a hard, flat “no” without even the hint of maybe you could try again in his tone. I paid full price for my picture and watched in awe as my friend put his items on the counter and then proceeded to coax a smile from the stone faced owner and a reduction on every single item he bought. Dejected, I consoled myself by thinking of all the things I am good at, but as a highly competitive person, that wasn’t good enough. I resolved that some day, I too, would be able to barter like a pro. Meanwhile, on the other side of Canada, my “not yet met” husband was the King of garage sale wheeling and dealing. Do you know that he was actually paid to take an item? All he said was “who would pay a dollar to buy this thing?” The lady running the sale said “I’ll give you two dollars to take it with you.” He found out later that she would have gone as high as five dollars. He walked away with a taxidermy frog. The frog had it’s hands tacked to a bongo drum and sported a sombrero emblazoned with Tijuana perched jauntily on it’s head. He was posed behind the bongo drum as if he would burst into song if the taxidermist hadn’t sewn his mouth shut. Although Senor Frog is long gone, he spoke wistfully of it tonight when we discussed the concept of bartering. “It was such a great conversation piece.” I swear there was a tear in his eye. Ay Caramba! He is also the only person I know who jacked up the price on every item at his garage sale because sales were slow. He figured, people aren’t buying because my prices are too low and they aren’t perceiving value or quality. So, he doubled the price of everything! He sold everything and made out like a bandit. Barater, indeed. Most preppers at some point bring up barter. We want to have the skills or goods to barter for other items we might need. I think it is an important skill to have. So, I wanted to learn how does one barter effectively? The first article I found was titled “6 Major Disadvantages of the Barter System.” I was hopeful, perhaps I wouldn’t have barter, after all. The article is about microeconomics and how it’s hard find someone who has a cow to barter with your horse. It really becomes a problem when you only want to pay four sheep for someone’s horse. They want five sheep. If only you could divide a sheep, you could have made a deal at four and one half sheep for that horse. I read through it but still didn’t know how to barter and I had a major headache. Here’s the link for it if anyone likes microeconomics served with a side of order of headache. https://www.microeconomicsnotes.com/barter-system/6-major-disadvantages-of-the-barter-system/1198 Then I found this website and thought I might just have a chance of learning how to do this properly. https://homesteadhow-to.com/bartering-effectively/ I am still not there yet. The last article gave me hope but I wondered if anyone here could share about how they learned to barter successfully? Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for successful bartering? I have a feeling I’m going to need all the help I can get and there is no way I’m sending my husband to barter. One Senor Frog is enough. Read More 11 11 AdviceSkills Best/lightest body armor & carrier Cady - April 28, 2021 Suggestions based on personal experience? I found this article https://theprepared.com/self-defense/reviews/best-bulletproof-body-armor/ but some of the links are broken. For context, I’m a relatively small woman with a physical disability so I’d prefer to carry as little weight as possible while being as safe as possible (yeah I know there’s a tradeoff). And for more context, I’m planning to participate in street actions this fall/winter and am worried about shooters. So bonus points for helmet recs, too! Otherwise I’m going out there in my bike helmet. Thanks! Read More 18 3 Philosophical approaches to chronic pain management for medical prepping Bob - April 27, 2021 https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210423/Researchers-investigate-how-philosophical-approaches-can-change-the-understanding-of-pain.aspx Good afternoon, Above article is focused on professional health care providers treating patients. It is realistic enough for a serious prepper to review the mentioned principles in the article with the view of personally approaching them. For example, reflect on your personal: – “experience, concerns, expectations,..” – “socio-cultural priorities” – “stigmatization in society” How one perceives oneself determines much. Working on chronic pain, like much else, takes time. It has been accomplished. I’ve had enough changed expectations that it’s just a routine matter. It’s the same with my changed – and abily to continue changing – socio-cultural priorities. Philosophical approaches got a “bad rap” for some time. There’s a reason they are returning. They can work and already have for some to include this scribe here. Read More 7 16 Municipal blackouts; Factor this into preparations Bob - April 25, 2021 https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/japan-says-seek-short-powerful-state-emergency-tokyo-osaka-elsewhere-2021-04-22/ Good morning, The article’s title is clear enough. Contemplate the narratives: “We will be asking for illuminations and neon signs to be turned off,” … “It will be dark at night … … the initiative would discourage people from going out at night”. One benefit of studying WWII history – reading and talking with WWII era folks – allows for understanding blackouts and consequences. Definitely factor this blackout scenerio into preparedness. My area is the opposite of Tokyo and other huge cities but we’ve had experience with power faulures. A certain traffic light going out of service at night is a common crash scene. My area is a 24/7 work schedule type of social environment. Some will stay at workplace until daylight. Safety governs. Read More 9 10 What do you carry with you every day? and how? matthew.Contributor - April 25, 2021 Something I’ve always struggled with is every-day carry of preps. Sure I have a few key items that live in my pockets, and a few more that live in my computer bag/briefcase, but beyond that I struggle to bring myself to carry more. This is largely because I just don’t like the burden of an off-body carry bag or pack, and sometimes when I do carry a pack I forget it places. I’d love to know what people carry with them every day, and how they carry it. My list includes: On body (in pockets): Full size multi-tool. Micro multi-tool and micro flashlight attached to key ring. Cash, cards, and ID in wallet. Leatherman Croc in wallet. Burta Beeswax (never without!). And of course my phone. In laptop bag (which is always with me while I’m work): Water bottle. Basic might-need meds (ibuprofen, cold meds, etc). Mini flashlight. Phone charger. Protein bar. Hand Sanitizer. KN-95 mask. Folding knife. A few assorted band-aids. (This is all in addition to my computer and work-related items that need to be in there). I see lots of room for improvement, so I’d love to hear others’ thoughts and ideas. And perhaps more importantly, how you are carrying every day! Read More 20 77 Gear The use of our senses in survival and preparedness UbiqueContributor - April 25, 2021 Rene Descartes wrote: “The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.” A careful hunter knows to double check what he sees in his sights before he pulls the trigger. His vision relays movement, form, and color to a buck fevered brain. Moose! He takes a breath and double checks what he thinks he has seen and discovers it is actually another person walking in the woods. “Better to miss the shot, then kill a person,” he thinks. This happened to someone I know who used to guide and teach people to hunt. He used it as an example of how even a seasoned hunter is capable of making a mistake and that mistakes are not an option when you could kill a person and not what you are hunting. This incident is an example of what Descartes wrote about our senses and deception. Our senses work both ways. They help us perceive the present while also being capable of misinforming us at the same time. We have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch that gather information about our environment. This information is then interpreted by our brain. Our understanding of this information is based on the lessons from our previous experience and information that comes from a combination of each of our senses. This process produces information to which we respond almost automatically. Like other animals, this sensory information is significant to our survival. Sense dominance varies between animals. Hunters recognize this in their prey. Each sense provides different information, with our dominant sense being sight. Hearing is our most sensitive sense because of the range upon which it operates. Smell and taste are the oldest of our senses and are needed for avoiding danger, mating and feeding. Age and illness can blunt taste and smell. Loss of smell affects appetite rendering food less appealing. This is a contributing factor to poor nutrition in the aged. When we prepare for emergencies or disasters, our senses and how they work to protect us should be considered. For example, is it better to use scented products for personal care over unscented during an emergency? If you are trapped, perhaps the smell of your deodorant or cologne might reach the olfactory senses of the rescuers faster? Or is it dangerous to use scented products if you are hiding from a predator during a crisis and he can smell you? Smell alerts us to the presence of others, tells us if food is bad or if food is cooking on some campfire miles away or simmering on the stove of the house next door. In a disaster the smell of our food or the food next door can draw a human or animal predator to our position. Our garbage can also leave a smell that might attract unwanted visitors including rodents. It is a big issue in surviving long term disasters especially in an urban area. It is better to plan for this problem before a disaster happens. Consider the food debris left inside a can or which foods smell up the garbage the fastest. How do you rinse a can if water is being rationed? Do you use a can crusher to compact garbage and then seal the remains before disposal? How do you eliminate garbage when there may not be services and discretion is necessary? Sight is critical for nonverbal communication. If you are approached by someone, what they communicate can guide your decision to trust them or not. Think of how that can apply to navigating a long duration crisis. Sight is how we navigate, hunt and survey the world around us. We can see the sky take on a greenish cast before a tornado. We can see that our vegetables are ready to harvest. If our vision is or became impaired during a crisis, how can we plan ahead for that when constructing our preparedness? Are night vision tools something to include in our preps to help us see in the dark? Does our security preparedness include the ability to black out our home? Have we checked in the evening to see how far away a single candle or light can illuminate our home? Can we reduce our visibility or disappear from the sight and attention of predators in a crisis? Taste is a digestive aid and is part of the way we can determine if something is good to eat. Consider the SAS instructions for all the steps used to determine if something is safe to eat in the wild. Hearing is part of how we communicate with other people and our environment, especially at night when our vision doesn’t work as well. A twig snapping can signal the presence of another human at night. Bird song that suddenly stops can also signal the same presence during the day. Hearing can inform us that someone is in distress. It can warn us of an impending disaster as in the thundering sound of a storm or tornado. Touch can tell us if someone is ill with a fever. It warns us if our environment is too hot or too cold and protects us from overheating and from freezing. It prevents us from picking up a hot pan and burning ourselves. We are alerted to pain through our sense of touch. If we are examining ourselves or another person for injury during a disaster, think of how touch plays a major role in correct assessment. I use touch to feel when a cake is done or if my bread dough is kneaded enough. This is a small sampling of examples of how our five senses become critical components to consider when planning or organizing our preparedness. A final point about our five senses is to consider the power of our senses to elevate our mood and well being. How might a crisis impact our psychological well being? Why not prepare and construct a “five sense first aid kit” to bolster well being during a disaster? Read More 6 11 AdviceSkills The Get Home Bag Guide (GHB, Car Kit) Lowell - April 24, 2021 Here’s a link to what is currently in my EDC & GHB/CarKit (one tab for each). There’s also a Behaviors tab, and a To-Do tab with finds from the links Gideon shared. Relevant threads, thanks Gideon! Car supplies What’s the best get home bag to keep in your car? Winter survival kits, extreme cold weather gear, and winterizing your home and car What preparedness items do you keep in your vehicle? Get home bag for harsh winter conditions BOB plus Get Home Bag? Original title: “Where’s the Get Home Bag / Car Kit article?” Original post body: Is there a main article or forum post for this? I’ve seen bits and pieces mentioned in other articles, but not centralized place for this. For example, I’ve got a NOCO Boost so that I can jump start my car without another car nearby, and I’ve got resqme window breaker / seat belt cutters zip-tied to each of the four “grab handles”. (The *sheath* is zip tied, so you just pull the tool out of the sheath without having to cut the tie.) Other stuff: “roadside emergency kit“, bivy, “emergency radio“, poncho, wool socks, liner socks, headlamp, tire inflator, snow scraper What all do you carry? Read More 8 8 AdviceGearScenarios Prepping around the world – How other cultures use their natural resources UbiqueContributor - April 24, 2021 I like learning about people. I am especially fascinated by how they utilize their natural resources, sometimes in the harshest of environments, in order to survive. Have you ever wondered how other cultures around the world practice their version of preparedness? I ask it because, really, that is what is at the very heart of preparedness: our survival wherever we find ourselves. I’m inviting anyone who wants to join in, to pick a place on the Earth and do a search for how the people who live there use their natural resources to feed, clothe, shelter or defend themselves. How do they survive? A couple of links and a bit of info about the survival item and resources that are used by the people you researched. It doesn’t have to be a thesis, just quick and fun exploration. I’m kicking this off with the Eskimo (referred to as Inuit in Canada) folks. How about the waterproof gut parka made of seal intestines and sewn with dried grass that becomes a waterproof thread. That same grass is used to make socks! How cool is that? In their culture, wastefulness is considered being disrespectful and their elders use every scrap of their wildlife harvest. This was something my family also practised for the same reason, so I paused to consider how a culture so far away could be so similar to mine. It would be very easy to hunt or fish with them. I love how they use their natural resources and I will be considering how I can adapt that thinking to my own environment. Here are the links, and I really hope you join in. This prepper project could be a lot of fun. Waterproof Gut Parka with Photos Clothing made from their natural resources Okay, who is next? Read More 14 52 “Natural Disaster Preparedness Resources” Bob - April 24, 2021 https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/538710871/natural-disaster-preparedness-resources Good morning, The info in above link provided by the Food Marketing Institute. It’s focus is mostly to business and industry – but not exclusively. There is much info in this link that’s useful to the sophisticated prepper. This link has some good sub-links eg “Food Safety in a Disaster or Emergency”. What is worthwhile to the prepper is knowing that a full freezer provides much longer temperature control than a half-full freezer. This can be called the “win-win” situation. Look for items on sale and get. Already-purchased stuff for when adverse conditions hit, yields lower frozen food costs – along with the safety aspect. For avid readers that hyperlinked pocket guide … yes, it’s mostly business/industry focused … provides good background info for the private citizen prepper. The page 5 quote got my attention: “Well Begun Is Half Done.” Aristotle. …… Not mentioned in this link but one of the best restaurant food safety programs I’ve read about is that of Waffle House. I am now in the mood for a triple hashbrowns smothered in ……………….. Read More 6 2 Unnatural disaster: Methamphetamine violence and crime UbiqueContributor - April 23, 2021 A family of seven that I knew was on vacation and traveling by car. A semi tractor and trailer came up behind them at a high rate of speed and he wasn’t slowing down. He bore down upon their station wagon. There was no way that the driver of that semi couldn’t have seen the children in the back of that vehicle. The terrified family was forced to speed through a very dangerous stretch of winding Ontario highway that had been built through the rocky terrain. An accident there was usually bad. The driver finally managed to find a way to egress the highway and got his family out of harms way. Some years later, I had an opportunity to listen to a former trucker who told me about how he used to carry an attache case full of pills, mostly speed that kept him awake and hurtling down the highway. As I listened to him, I thought of the family who had almost been run off the highway. It all made sense. That driver had to have been high to do what he did to them. Fast forward again, a person I know is murdered. I worked with him through an organization where I was his sponsor and helped to guide him. The last time we spoke, he was going back to school. I never heard from him after that and thought it was because he was busy with school and a new chapter in his life. This was not an uncommon event when sponsoring people. I read the regional news one day and there was a sentencing report briefly noted. For some reason, I thought of my sponsee and ran a search on his name. Around sixteen months earlier, he had been murdered by a couple of meth heads. Because of how I knew him and the anonymity involved, no one knew to call me. I read the account of his death and cried for days. He had survived a beating as a youth that left him near dead and with permanent disability. He was brain injured. One side of his body was severely impaired. He walked with a pronounced limp. He was also determined to be better. He was known by his smile and positive nature. What he survived as a youth didn’t beat the goodness out of him. He lived independently in a rooming house. He opened his door that day because he still trusted the world. His teacher had to call the police and tell them that the body they found was of a disabled man. He had been beaten so badly that they couldn’t recognize his condition prior to the attack. A male and a female inflicted those injuries. I remember biker crank in the 60’s. We used to shake our heads at the fools who used that garbage. We called them “tweakers.” Today, meth has become the new “zombie apocalypse.” Heroin addicts will try to steal your purse. One of my aunts was accosted and beaten about the head in Vancouver, BC by a couple of heroin addicts, but not so severely that she couldn’t gain control the situation and tell them, “I will give you some money, but you may not have my hand bag.” This is not the case with meth users. There was a case in Winnipeg MB where a man was abducted off the street at 9:00 p.m., held and tortured for twelve hours. He managed to escape the house where he was being held when his kidnappers left him alone in order to raid his bank account using his information. There is an extreme level of violence associated with meth use. Meth users will attack you because they are in a state of psychoses. Their thoughts and emotions have become so impaired that they have lost touch with reality. Psychosis is characterized by hallucinations and paranoia. This state of mind can be present in paranoid schizophrenia. However, a meth psychosis co-occurs with meth usage and usually abates once the user is withdrawn off the drug. That process can take hours or up to a week, unless there are other underlying conditions involved that have been triggered by the meth usage. Meth users can become psychotic if they have used a lot of meth or if they are in a withdrawal stage and just about anything in between. They are unstable and unpredictable. There is no way for any of us to know when a meth user is going to break with reality and become psychotic. As with other reasons for being prepared, I wanted to stay prepared and safe in view of this new threat and that meant educating myself about the threat. To do that, I first wanted to understand why meth use had become popular again. I read a six-part series in The Oregonian which was a very thorough investigative report on the methamphetamine crisis. I reviewed Faces of Meth which was started by a member of the Multnomah Country Sheriffs’ office so that I could recognize the physical characteristics of meth users. I read medical information on how meth affects people so that I could recognize a meth addict faster. There is not one singular demographic that applies. Meth users can be educated, young or old and from any walk of life. A person in a meth induced state of psychosis can speak rapidly and ramble from one topic to the next. Their conversation may be very hard to follow. They may be restless, agitated and very jumpy. They may be up for days and then crash hard. When they are coming down off a meth binge, meth users can be particularly dangerous. Their beliefs may be very odd or unusual with a paranoid belief that others are out to get them. They like to take things apart and their yards may be scattered with disassembled items. Inside their homes, they may have dug through walls to “trace” the electrical or to follow some other bizarre train of thought. Meth users may pick at or scratch at their skin because they feel like there are bugs crawling on them. Many but not all meth users are thin. They may have sores on their faces or limbs from picking at the skin. They may have plucked their eyebrows and eyelashes out or sections of their hair. They may have shaved parts of their head or done other bizarre things to their appearance. Their facial skin becomes prematurely lined and aged in appearance and their eyes take on a “crazed” appearance. Dental issues are common with many users missing teeth or displaying rotted teeth. It is unknown why jaw deterioration continues in some users long after they have ceased using this drug. Meth users are extremely hard to take down. Police can deploy their tasers multiple times while grappling with a meth user and it has little to no effect. It takes multiple officers to restrain and control the psychotic meth user and often police are injured in the process. Medical personnel who must cope with them are also often injured and it is a real problem in hospital emergency wards. I looked into the existence of meth users in my small town and found that we were not immune. We had them living among us and I wanted to be proactive about protecting myself. My home security was bumped up to prevent home invasion by fortifying my doors. My husband and I ran drills over how to react in various situations inside and outside our home, as well as at various times of day, including being awakened. We use each other’s second name as a code word that means 911 now, no questions asked. I ensured that I had access to items that could be rapidly deployed to inflict a knock out strike. This is one situation where there is no way I am getting in close to someone in combat. I am keeping something between me and them. Aside from carrying knives, meth users have a preternatural strength borne of their altered state. This meant I had to mentally prepare to use extreme force on someone of any age or gender who might outwardly appear to be physically frail and thin. I am working on arranging legal access to a gun for protection. In the case of the man who was abducted at 9:00 p.m. referenced above, Constable Tammy Skrabek, a spokesperson for the Winnipeg police “called the case unique and said the “regular safety messages” police give, like being aware of your surroundings, wouldn’t have made a difference for the victim.” “In this case, he was paying attention; it was just not expected that these people were going to grab him,” she said.” I respectfully disagree with Constable Skrabek’s conclusion. I lived in Winnipeg for many years and no one wanders around certain areas on foot and alone at 9:00 p.m. if they possess any situational awareness or common sense. Winnipeg was called “murder capital of Canada” for a reason. Secondly, situational awareness would have prevented those two men getting anywhere near the victim. The abductors had to pull up and then pull him in off the street. That meant parking their vehicle and both of them exiting the vehicle. This wasn’t a six person abduction. A person with street smarts who was paying attention to his environment would have been gone as soon as that vehicle angled towards him and before they had a chance to park. I ramped up my situational awareness whether in my small town or in an urban area over and above my regular vigilance. I watch closely for signs of meth users around me by their appearance and behavior. I check my yard for any drug paraphernalia. Meth users were paid to piece shredded documents together so the data could be used or sold in the criminal marketplace. They have the ability to fixate and do this under the influence of meth. I purchased a new shredder. Now any paper with any information including shipping and receiving is shredded on a high quality shredder that prevents the pieces from being restored. I also shred any medication labels or any prescription bags or information. I put new protocols in place for picking up medication after my husband was almost assaulted in the drug store parking lot. They two people involved are confirmed meth users. I also hold the local police accountable and have used my security cameras to report meth distribution activity at a house in my neighborhood. They are aware of it, but it is being handled through their drug enforcement channels. Drug enforcement operates on a work your way up the ladder methodology. They catch the small time addicts, get three names, and keep climbing until they get the big fish higher up. This is understandable, but it does take time, sometime years, for change to trickle back down to the community level. Some drug houses are left to operate for that reason. In the interim, all of us need to approach the threats associated with meth usage as we do any other threat: we educate and prepare ourselves. Read More 5 16 AdviceScenariosSkills Useful prepper gardening book CR - April 23, 2021 Hi all! Not sure if this is the proper place, but would like to recommend a book I, as a lifelong gardener, have found very handy and prep related. Steve Solomon’s Gardening When It Counts, Growing Food in Hard Times has lots of good tips for food cultivation & for when the garden center isn’t available. I enjoy his slightly grumpy, but very knowledgeable style. It’s a great edition to the prepping library. I included the link for info only. FYI, storing your seeds in the deep freeze in a mason jar keeps them viable years longer. https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X/ Read More 4 11 Advice Learn about scissors and why they are important prepping tools UbiqueContributor - April 23, 2021 Scissors are an important cutting tool, yet they do not have the appeal that their glamourous cousin, the knife has for people who practice preparedness. Preppers want the knife or the cutting multi-tool that may have a pair of scissors included somewhere in it as an afterthought. There are many different kinds of scissors and shears which could be very helpful in an emergency or disaster. Most people have a pair of household scissors or child friendly blunt nose scissors for crafts. There are many different types of scissors, and each are designed for different tasks. So, let’s take a look at them and why they are important for prepping purposes. First, dressmaking shears that are made to cut cloth. They usually have a blade between seven and ten inches long. They are a heavier construction, with one end blunted or rounded to avoid snagging the cloth. They are designed to glide flush across the table as you cut the fabric. If you were in a prolonged crisis, the ability to repair and patch your clothing is going to become very important. You will also need to be able to conserve precious patching materials. They are not a frou-frou item. Try cutting a precision patch with a knife. Not only will you waste material, but you also run the risk of cutting yourself with a knife that was not designed for the task. What if the crisis was so prolonged that you actually had to alter, make or remake clothing? This was a real part of survival years ago in hard times. Fabric shears should only be used for cutting cloth or you will dull the blade and damage the tool. There are pinking shears that cut a zig zag edge to help prevent cloth from fraying. It is an optional item and might be useful if one were conserving thread. It would be better to learn how to hand sew various stitches including a simple overcast stitch to prevent fraying of the fabric. If you want to cut paper, then craft scissors will do the task. Household shears may have a built in bottle opener, fish scaler or other functions that are designed to be used for kitchen tasks. These are not to be confused with poultry shears which are used for trimming poultry. Want to cut hair in a crisis? Then you want hair cutting shears to trim hair. There are also moustache scissors, nail scissors, hair clippers and thinning shears designed to tame thick hair. There are nose hair trimming scissors, but please be careful with them. If you nick that area, you can get a bad infection in the dreaded T-Zone where infections can kill really quickly. There are battery operated nose trimmers also. I use a good pair of hair cutting shears to cut my husband’s hair and to trim my long hair. You cannot get a good cut or trim without them. I use thinning shears on my bangs, although I wouldn’t call thinning shears a prepping necessity. They are a nice to have item and I won’t look like I have a horse’s forelock in a disaster. There are also different kinds of medical scissors. Because realistically none of us will be doing ophthalmic or other kinds of surgery, we can skip over those types of medical scissors and focus on what is going to be more realistic for us as lay people. Trauma shears are designed to cut off clothing rapidly and without snagging the underlying skin of the person in a similar way as fabric shears are constructed. This is a necessary item for medical first aid. Bandage scissors are used to cut bandages. You can’t use fabric or household shears for this task without losing time and patience in the process, plus the damage to the fabric shears. Let’s step outside the home and look at the humble scissor and how it is used there. There are loppers which are a type of shear used to cut large branches. Pruning shears can handle the smaller branches. Loppers be hand held or be a pole lopper for dealing with heights. This type of shear could become very important to a prepper during a clean up after a storm. They can also be used to trim branches back away from the roof to keep squirrels and other critters out of the attic. Think of the problems that could occur if animals get into your attic during a crisis or disaster. Hedge trimmers might be very important for the prepper who wants to maintain security during a crisis. What about metal snips and the importance of them to a prepper? Metal snips can cut sheet metal and tin snips can cut soft metals like copper and aluminum. The blades can be straight or curved for cutting curves and circles. Think of the usefulness of metal snips for emergency repairs to a gutter or metal roofing during a crisis. There are also pipe and duct snips or compound action snips used to cut metal. There are other types of scissors, but those listed above would be the most likely to be used by most preppers. Consider what kinds of materials and uses you might have for various types of scissors and shears. For certain kinds of repairs and maintenance, a knife just won’t cut it. For photos and more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scissors Read More 6 16 AdviceGear Post-Disaster Family Financial Planning Bob - April 22, 2021 https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/financial-planning-for-families/ Good evening, “After the fact” can produce more stress and worries than inventory loses during a disaster. Above link has some good info. Evaluate whether all those Trader Joe products really necessary. Are there lower cost stores than Bed Bath And Beyond for the sleeping bag pillow ? Think out this stuff now and put away some of the folding stuff before the beer resupply. Even thought link is focused to family planning, others can use the same principles. Read More 8 0 UN’s disaster prevention website Bob - April 22, 2021 https://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/maps/v.php?id=67333&cid=185 Good evening, Prevention Web is a UN website. It is packed with info for preparedness matters. I’ve got the above link to open (I hope !) on the “US Communities With Limited Evacuation Routes”. It was a site hyperlink. Do note that these charts are for planning, prevention and preparedness. It is obligatory to confirm specifics for what you’re working on. At top horizontal bar are the functional and geographic sections to click on. One good aspect of site is that they welcome organizational feedback for their chart/report updates. Read More 3 0 Texas Tax Holiday for Prepping Josh CentersContributor - April 22, 2021 Texas will be having a sales tax holiday on emergency preparedness supplies from April 24-26. I had never heard of such a thing before, but it’s apparently a thing in Alabama and Florida. The tax holiday applies to both in-store and online sales, though the state encourages shopping at local retailers. The list of included and excluded items is kind of random. For instance, axes and hatchets are included but chainsaws are not. We have tax holidays in Tennessee, and I’ve found them to be a mixed blessing. It’s nice not paying our high sales tax, but crowds are usually bad and retailers jack up their prices so you don’t really save money. However, there are some big-ticket items you could save on. Generators and two-way radios are included in the holiday and those are two items that almost never go on sale, so that might be a good time to invest in those. Read More 8 2 News Why personal locator beacon not listed in an EDC prep on this site? Lowell - April 21, 2021 hi! do y’all know why a personal locator beacon (like this one) isn’t listed on some “EDC prep” on this site? I recognize that at $300 this is cost prohibitive, but it seems crucial for any situation where I’d need medics but don’t have cell service. The most “common” example I can think of is that I get into a car accident and need a medic but have no cell service because I’m on some swath of highway without it. Read More 12 28 AdviceGear < Prev 1 2 3 … 44 45 46 … 60 61 62 Next > Recently Active Fun ways to teach kids outdoor/survival skills - 5 days agoNews for the week of 2025-06-30 - 6 days agoNews for the week of 2025-06-23 - 2 weeks agoNews for the week of 2025-06-16 - 2 weeks agoNews for the week of 2025-06-09 - 4 weeks ago RULES This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics: 1. Be nice to each other. 2. Stay focused on prepping. 3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments. 4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc. 5. Debate ideas, not people. FILTER Show all Advice Gear Meta News Scenarios Skills

Why a preventable mishap led to “is my tetanus shot up to date?”

UbiqueContributor - May 3, 2021

The weather has been cantankerous. It just won’t give in to the arrival of Spring.

On Saturday, the weather finally improved. I raced around the yard like a calf just out of the barn, with 60 lb bales of soil to top up my raised beds. Everything was going great until I stopped being mindful of what I was doing. 

I turned my focus toward calculating how many more bales I would need for the last five planters that are back ordered. That was when I mis-stepped, tripped and did a three point landing onto a piece of rusty rebar.

The rebar is part of what pins my 4×16′ pre-fabbed planters. It was supposed to be countersunk and the caps placed on the connections. But I wanted to get that soil distributed so I could get a list together for the next round of soil and other garden supplies. 

That short cut is why I am writing this with my leg propped up. I’m okay and lucky it wasn’t worse. My right knee is wrenched and it will heal. 

However, the side of my right knee got sliced on the rusty and very sharp rebar that had been cut to fit the planters, which brings me to why I am writing this post.

I cleaned and dressed my knee, but for my life, I couldn’t remember when my last tetanus shot had happened. Lock jaw isn’t fun.

I have medical files for both of us, but my budget binder contains a fast referral section on key medical info. At a glance, I can tell when the next colonoscopy or blood work is due. For some reason, I had no information on tetanus shots for either of us. I found out this morning it was 2018, so in 9 years I will make the arrangement to have another before the 10 year expiry on it.

We need to know this information and keep it current and in print format because if the SHTF something as simple as falling could end up in lock jaw for the lack of a simple tetanus shot.

Medical conditions, recurring tests and blood work, vaccine record and current medications, including any and all allergies and adverse reactions need to be on hard printed copy. Don’t forget any anaesthetic problems or prior surgeries.

My haste and carelessness were a reminder of what an infection and an expired tetanus shot could become in a crisis. Even without the wrenched knee, I plan to move more thoughtfully in the future.

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AdviceScenarios

Watch for bulk food container spoilage

UbiqueContributor - May 3, 2021

I had purchased a large plastic container of regular mustard and stored it in my preps. 

It was opened once to put mustard into my working supply upstairs, then the lid was closed properly and stored in a cool dry environment with the rest of the preps.

I went to refill the working supply and happened to notice something about the lid from the corner of my eye. I looked and there was mould growing in the lid.

That’s when I realized that the cardboard liner inside of the lid had become a spot for mould to grow. The entire container had to be discarded.

I also had this happen with a maple syrup that was stored in my fridge. I am careful now to not let the maple syrup touch the cap of the glass container.

I now watch the underside of any lids for mould growth and note opening dates in a marker on the label of any fridge items, like jams, ketchup or other condiments.

The experience has changed how I view bulk items that are “wet” as a working supply. Although it is more costly, I have switched to smaller containers to be opened and used. A large container of a spoiled prep item is worthless.

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Advice

Trail runners: What do you carry?

Gourdo - May 2, 2021

Fairly new to prepping and while I have been a runner for years, I have only recently moved to the PNW where glorious trails are everywhere and wonderful to run on for hours. I have thought about what I should carry with me on trail runs below and am curious to anyone’s thoughts & suggestions on this. I would feel like I am mostly  concerned about wounds, bugs, & leg injuries than anything else, at least while in areas with cell service. Weight is an important factor as I need to keep good balance and form. Definitely want to ensure I am thinking about this the right way.

Most of my runs are near town and while those closest to town are fairly well traveled, I can easily go some distance and not see another person for miles. I also prefer to run in the late afternoon/evenings so need to be ready to sit around for some time if I become immobilized while waiting for help. I see this in two situations since most of my running is near town with cell service while I could always drive an hour or two out to find trails in the wilderness where I am happy to add a few pounds of gear for piece of mind.

In both situations, I have a trail running vest with several pockets and a water bladder with 1.5L capacity
Also, I haven’t yet gone for a remote trail run yet with this planned bag, not sure about total weight

With cell service/near town: ~4-5 lbs.
Phone
GPS watch (garmin forerunner) – on wrist
water filled to the situation (temperature, length of run)
~400-500 calories (gels, typically, which fuel the run, I always over pack this)
Emergency blanket
Whistle
Flashlight
IFAK – Very light with wound dressings, bug bite things, compression wrap, pair of gloves
Tourniquet

No cell service/remote areas:
Phone
GPS watch (garmin forerunner) – on wrist
Water fully filled
~800-1k calories
E-blanket
Whistle
Flashlight
IFAK – same as above
Tourniquet
Mirror
Folding knife
Ferro rod
Map + Small/basic compass
Wilderness wipes
Depending on the area, may bring a jacket wrapped around waist even if it is warm

Thanks!

*note on the GPS watch, I love this even when hiking/backpacking/camping as I can save locations on it and have it point back to those locations with direction & distance. Its just an every day thing that could be useful for non-runners.

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Building, stocking a safe room in house

Bob - May 1, 2021

https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_taking-shelter-from-the-storm_p-320.pdf

Good evening,

Above FEMA link is hot off the presses. It’s the updated version.  

I’m posting this for 2 reasons: good info on subject AND just the exposure to FEMA stuff. Not only for a house, the concepts in doc can be used in an apartment, condo, etc.

Be careful re the page 9 definition of hurricane categories.  Our US system has “cat 5” as the worst … heaviest winds in the series of 5 categories.  Yet, a lower number hurricane can be more dangerous because of the flooding. It is the flooding … especially infected waters … that causes the most hurricane deaths.

Page 58 has an email address and a phone number for additional info and publication.

There’s a web-seminar or one of those national conference calls pending.  I omitted this but if really interested, inquire via the page 58 contacts.

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Are you a prepper or are you practicing prepper?

UbiqueContributor - May 1, 2021

Have you actually done “it” yet? Practiced that skill you’ve read about, but have never actually done.

Half-measure prepping is like running a race and not crossing the finish line.

It is one thing to read, research, debate and buy items. It is another aspect of prepping to learn and ingrain new skills

Untried and untested items in a prepper storehouse could be a dangerous discovery when the SHTF and you need to rely upon them. That isn’t the time to find out you have forgotten a key part needed for another item to work, or that the item in storage isn’t appropriate for your climate or location.

There is a lot to learn and it can be overwhelming. But, what you learn today and every day before some disaster strikes can help you.

You can learn by reading to a point, but actual experience is needed for many prepping skills. A day or two course is great, but you need to practice in order to retain those skills.

The practice component of prepping is important in that it also helps us to keep our preps simple and not get overblown on items that are unnecessary. 

Let’s take hunting for an example. Once the stored food runs out, hunting is going to be a fact of life. Those who survived The Great Depression and other long term disasters quickly found that out. Back then, there were more people who knew how to hunt properly because we had more smaller family farms and a denser rural population with those skills.

You have a gun and bullets. Great, but have you actually hunted and if so, for how many seasons? One season is not enough to learn everything.

In any crisis, but especially a long term crisis, it is important to know how to practice good animal stewardship. You don’t kill the pregnant does or the does with fawns. Fawns stay with the mother for two years.

Be honorable in your hunt and grateful for the animal who gives its life to feed you. Night hunters are not honorable nor are those who take more than what they will use. Animal populations can be decimated very quickly and those who do this will starve in the end. 

If you wound it, track it. Hunting is not about letting any animal suffer because you missed the shot. Do you know how to track an animal?

Do you know how to dress for a hunt? Do you know how to stay safe around an animal that you think is dead? A kick from a not quite dead deer can cost you a limb if they break the skin and you get infected without antibiotics in a disaster.

Hunting is a skill that must be mastered over time and preferably taught to you by an excellent hunter so that you learn the right way to hunt and harvest your kill in the environment you will be hunting in.

Have you learned how to properly and safely harvest your kill? Did you buy the proper saws and knives need to butcher the animal? Do you have freezer wrap and freezer tape or some other method of preserving the kill? Do you know how to use the entire animal including the hide? 

Do you know to trim all the fat off a deer because it affects the taste of the meat and makes it gamey tasting? Do you know how to properly cook venison so that it tastes really good?

I could have substituted so many other skills: fishing, baking with a solar oven, repair and maintenance of your home and property, gardening, repair and sewing of clothes, evacuation drills, op/sec drills in and out of the home.

The list goes on and on for a reason. It is because each of us comes here with a different background and different skills. Some will have a longer list to learn, while others may want to reconsider their prepping plans.

It is only through careful consideration of what you will need to actually do in a crisis that you will know if it is for you or if you need to do something else.

For example, if hunting seems like too much to take on, then learn to fish.

Harvesting a fish isn’t difficult. For pickerel (walleye) we cut off the head behind the gills, slit the belly and eviscerate. Take the split fish and very carefully take your sharp boning knife and run it between the skin and flesh of the fish. Carefully cut out the flesh from the spine area. Feel with your fingers for any bones you missed.

I haven’t cleaned a fish for years but my “hands remembered” the skill as I typed this. I might have missed a point but if I had a fish in front of me, I am confident that it would come back to me.

The Indigenous people in Northern Canada make a fish head soup that is a delicacy. Also, get a good boning knife. Mine was from a fish processing plant and designed to be extremely well made.

A final point about practicing, you will also find out what you are physically and mentally capable of doing. Knowing our limitations is a very important part of prepping.

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AdviceScenariosSkills

This non-powered passive dish focuses cell phone signals to the nearest tower

Jay ValenciaContributor - May 1, 2021

Was researching ways to communicate when cells don’t work. (Lots of prepping uses, but I was particularly thinking about the recent unrest where gov shuts down signal to protestors.)

Found this and thought it was cool. You put your phone inside of the cradle and that turns it into a hotspot in the middle of nowhere. The tool itself uses no power. So I’m guessing it’s just a signal amplifier. Anyone knowledgeable know how valid this is? Is it or something like it a possible communications prep?

Here’s where I found it

Cell phone hotspot in Australia. Set your phone on the post, dish focuses the signal to the nearest tower. 100% passive, tool itself uses no power.
byu/Monster133768 inThatsInsane

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Gear

Home Depot offering some preparedness resources

Bob - April 30, 2021

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-home-depot-announces-new-and-enhanced-disaster-preparedness-resources-847832640.html

Good evening,

This news release type of notice tells of Home Depot program going beyond just selling stuff needed for disaster preps.

Mentioned are on-demand classes / workshops and web access to their collected info.

Note the mentioned Home Depot program to “fortify warehouses” … with relief supplies.

Also mentioned is their volunteer force.

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And Then What? Preparing for the Long Emergency

Lowell - April 30, 2021

What if instead of a brief emergency, you and your neighbors are in one that lasts months or years? 

Without reliable access to food, water, electricity? Couldn’t leave your home without risking it being ransacked while you were gone?

This is already a constant reality for homeless folks. In Seattle where I live, there’s on the order of 10,000 folks currently experiencing homelessness. 

How does our approach to preparedness change for an emergency that is both (a) long and (b) already happening for lots of people? 

Having the right gear for your household, and having the right skills, is a great starting point. “Put on your own mask before assisting others.” But if lots of neighbors are already in a continuous state of emergency, I think this becomes an imbalanced approach very quickly, because it doesn’t tap into the opportunity for people power, and I also just don’t want to live in a world where I’m personally getting by OK but my neighbors are struggling *hard*. 

For the past year+, I’ve been trying to “prepare for the already continuous emergency” by working with my neighbors to support my unhoused neighbors. My buddy and I created the Homeless Organizing Community Seattle Facebook group so that folks interested in this work could get connected and join forces. We created this Patreon to fund supply purchases, such as ice packs so folks without electricity can keep their food cold, and propane so folks can cook and stay warm, and batteries so folks can still see when the sun goes down. 

Lately, I’ve been trying to transition from focusing on buying supplies myself to supporting folks with my labor, such as helping to build a community food garden next to my buddies who live in an RV, and helping to build a home beneath a freeway. I figure labor is more sustainable/scalable than funds (lots of folks don’t have spare cash, but do have spare time) and also working together contributes a lot to creating a prepared community. 

We’ve been collection some of the lessons we learn into a document called Practical Advice For Addressing Needs With Your Neighbors. 

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How to barter

UbiqueContributor - April 29, 2021

The word barter is thought to have it’s origin from an Old French word barater which means ‘deceive’.

The origin of the word should have been my first clue as to why I am terrible at bartering. I mean I am really, really bad at it.

Deception is not in my repertory. I found an item online one time and called the seller. The conversation went something like this:

Seller: “Hello.”

Me: “Hi, you have a tea pot for sale?”

Seller: “Yes, it’s still for sale.” 

Me: “Great. I don’t want to buy it. I just called to tell you that I have one like it and you are not charging enough for it. You’ve underpriced it by about a hundred dollars. It’s a collector’s item. I thought you should know.”

Seller: “Thank you.”

On another day, in an antique store I begged my friend to barter on my behalf. He told me no and that I must learn. I tried to tell him I have no aptitude for bartering, but he stood his ground.

I approached the store owner. “Would you accept eighty dollars for that picture over there?”

The store owner was stone faced as he said “No.” It was a hard, flat “no” without even the hint of maybe you could try again in his tone.

I paid full price for my picture and watched in awe as my friend put his items on the counter and then proceeded to coax a smile from the stone faced owner and a reduction on every single item he bought.

Dejected, I consoled myself by thinking of all the things I am good at, but as a highly competitive person, that wasn’t good enough. I resolved that some day, I too, would be able to barter like a pro.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Canada, my “not yet met” husband was the King of garage sale wheeling and dealing.

Do you know that he was actually  paid to take an item? All he said was “who would pay a dollar to buy this thing?” The lady running the sale said “I’ll give you two dollars to take it with you.” He found out later that she would have gone as high as five dollars.

He walked away with a taxidermy frog. The frog had it’s hands tacked to a bongo drum and sported a sombrero emblazoned with Tijuana perched jauntily on it’s head. He was posed behind the bongo drum as if he would burst into song if the taxidermist hadn’t sewn his mouth shut.

Although Senor Frog is long gone, he spoke wistfully of it tonight when we discussed the concept of bartering. “It was such a great conversation piece.” I swear there was a tear in his eye.

Ay Caramba!

He is also the only person I know who jacked up the price on every item at his garage sale because sales were slow. He figured, people aren’t buying because my prices are too low and they aren’t perceiving value or quality. So, he doubled the price of everything!

He sold everything and made out like a bandit. Barater, indeed.
 
Most preppers at some point bring up barter. We want to have the skills or goods to barter for other items we might need. 

I think it is an important skill to have. So, I wanted to learn how does one barter effectively?

The first article I found was titled “6 Major Disadvantages of the Barter System.” I was hopeful, perhaps I wouldn’t have barter, after all. 

The article is about microeconomics and how it’s hard find someone who has a cow to barter with your horse. It really becomes a problem when you only want to pay four sheep for someone’s horse. They want five sheep. If only you could divide a sheep, you could have made a deal at four and one half sheep for that horse.

I read through it but still didn’t know how to barter and I had a major headache.

Here’s the link for it if anyone likes microeconomics served with a side of order of headache.

https://www.microeconomicsnotes.com/barter-system/6-major-disadvantages-of-the-barter-system/1198

Then I found this website and thought I might just have a chance of learning how to do this properly.

https://homesteadhow-to.com/bartering-effectively/

I am still not there yet. The last article gave me hope but I wondered if anyone here could share about how they learned to barter successfully?

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for successful bartering?

I have a feeling I’m going to need all the help I can get and there is no way I’m sending my husband to barter. One Senor Frog is enough.

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AdviceSkills

Best/lightest body armor & carrier

Cady - April 28, 2021

Suggestions based on personal experience? I found this article https://theprepared.com/self-defense/reviews/best-bulletproof-body-armor/ but some of the links are broken. For context, I’m a relatively small woman with a physical disability so I’d prefer to carry as little weight as possible while being as safe as possible (yeah I know there’s a tradeoff). And for more context, I’m planning to participate in street actions this fall/winter and am worried about shooters. So bonus points for helmet recs, too! Otherwise I’m going out there in my bike helmet. Thanks!

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Philosophical approaches to chronic pain management for medical prepping

Bob - April 27, 2021

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210423/Researchers-investigate-how-philosophical-approaches-can-change-the-understanding-of-pain.aspx

Good afternoon,

Above article is focused on professional health care providers treating patients.

It is realistic enough for a serious prepper to review the mentioned principles in the article with the view of personally approaching them.

For example, reflect on your personal:

–  “experience, concerns, expectations,..”

–  “socio-cultural priorities”

–  “stigmatization in society”

How one perceives oneself determines much. Working on chronic pain, like much else, takes time. It has been accomplished. I’ve had enough changed expectations that it’s just a routine matter. It’s the same with my changed – and abily to continue changing – socio-cultural priorities.

Philosophical approaches got a “bad rap” for some time. There’s a reason they are returning.  They can work and already have for some to include this scribe here.

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Municipal blackouts; Factor this into preparations

Bob - April 25, 2021

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/japan-says-seek-short-powerful-state-emergency-tokyo-osaka-elsewhere-2021-04-22/

Good morning,

The article’s title is clear enough.  Contemplate the narratives:

“We will be asking for illuminations and neon signs to be turned off,” … “It will be dark at night … … the initiative would discourage people from going out at night”. One benefit of studying WWII history – reading and talking with WWII era folks – allows for understanding blackouts and consequences.

Definitely factor this blackout scenerio into preparedness.  

My area is the opposite of Tokyo and other huge cities but we’ve had experience with power faulures.  A certain traffic light going out of service at night is a common crash scene.

My area is a 24/7 work schedule type of social environment.  Some will stay at workplace until daylight.  Safety governs.

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What do you carry with you every day? and how?

matthew.Contributor - April 25, 2021

Something I’ve always struggled with is every-day carry of preps.  Sure I have a few key items that live in my pockets, and a few more that live in my computer bag/briefcase, but beyond that I struggle to bring myself to carry more.  This is largely because I just don’t like the burden of an off-body carry bag or pack, and sometimes when I do carry a pack I forget it places.

I’d love to know what people carry with them every day, and how they carry it.  My list includes:

On body (in pockets): Full size multi-tool.  Micro multi-tool and micro flashlight attached to key ring. Cash, cards, and ID in wallet.  Leatherman Croc in wallet.  Burta Beeswax (never without!). And of course my phone. In laptop bag (which is always with me while I’m work): Water bottle. Basic might-need meds (ibuprofen, cold meds, etc). Mini flashlight. Phone charger. Protein bar. Hand Sanitizer.  KN-95 mask.  Folding knife.  A few assorted band-aids.  (This is all in addition to my computer and work-related items that need to be in there).

I see lots of room for improvement, so I’d love to hear others’ thoughts and ideas.  And perhaps more importantly, how you are carrying every day!

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Gear

The use of our senses in survival and preparedness

UbiqueContributor - April 25, 2021

Rene Descartes wrote: “The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.”

A careful hunter knows to double check what he sees in his sights before he pulls the trigger. His vision relays movement, form, and color to a buck fevered brain. Moose! He takes a breath and double checks what he thinks he has seen and discovers it is actually another person walking in the woods.

“Better to miss the shot, then kill a person,” he thinks.

This happened to someone I know who used to guide and teach people to hunt. He used it as an example of how even a seasoned hunter is capable of making a mistake and that mistakes are not an option when you could kill a person and not what you are hunting.

This incident is an example of what Descartes wrote about our senses and deception. Our senses work both ways. They help us perceive the present while also being capable of misinforming us at the same time.

We have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch that gather information about our environment. This information is then interpreted by our brain.

Our understanding of this information is based on the lessons from our previous experience and information that comes from a combination of each of our senses.

This process produces information to which we respond almost automatically. Like other animals, this sensory information is significant to our survival. 

Sense dominance varies between animals. Hunters recognize this in their prey.

Each sense provides different information, with our dominant sense being sight. Hearing is our most sensitive sense because of the range upon which it operates.

Smell and taste are the oldest of our senses and are needed for avoiding danger, mating and feeding.

Age and illness can blunt taste and smell. Loss of smell affects appetite rendering food less appealing. This is a contributing factor to poor nutrition in the aged.

When we prepare for emergencies or disasters, our senses and how they work to protect us should be considered.

For example, is it better to use scented products for personal care over unscented during an emergency?

If you are trapped, perhaps the smell of your deodorant or cologne might reach the olfactory senses of the rescuers faster?

Or is it dangerous to use scented products if you are hiding from a predator during a crisis and he can smell you?

Smell alerts us to the presence of others, tells us if food is bad or if food is cooking on some campfire miles away or simmering on the stove of the house next door.

In a disaster the smell of our food or the food next door can draw a human or animal predator to our position. 

Our garbage can also leave a smell that might attract unwanted visitors including rodents. It is a big issue in surviving long term disasters especially in an urban area. 

It is better to plan for this problem before a disaster happens. Consider the food debris left inside a can or which foods smell up the garbage the fastest.

How do you rinse a can if water is being rationed?

Do you use a can crusher to compact garbage and then seal the remains before disposal? How do you eliminate garbage when there may not be services and discretion is necessary? 

Sight is critical for nonverbal communication. If you are approached by someone, what they communicate can guide your decision to trust them or not. Think of how that can apply to navigating a long duration crisis.

Sight is how we navigate, hunt and survey the world around us. We can see the sky take on a greenish cast before a tornado. We can see that our vegetables are ready to harvest.

If our vision is or became impaired during a crisis, how can we plan ahead for that when constructing our preparedness? Are night vision tools something to include in our preps to help us see in the dark?

Does our security preparedness include the ability to black out our home? Have we checked in the evening to see how far away a single candle or light can illuminate our home? Can we reduce our visibility or disappear from the sight and attention of predators in a crisis?

Taste is a digestive aid and is part of the way we can determine if something is good to eat. Consider the SAS instructions for all the steps used to determine if something is safe to eat in the wild.

Hearing is part of how we communicate with other people and our environment, especially at night when our vision doesn’t work as well.

A twig snapping can signal the presence of another human at night. Bird song that suddenly stops can also signal the same presence during the day.

Hearing can inform us that someone is in distress. It can warn us of an impending disaster as in the thundering sound of a storm or tornado.

Touch can tell us if someone is ill with a fever. It warns us if our environment is too hot or too cold and protects us from overheating and from freezing. It prevents us from picking up a hot pan and burning ourselves.

We are alerted to pain through our sense of touch. If we are examining ourselves or another person for injury during a disaster, think of how touch plays a major role in correct assessment.

I use touch to feel when a cake is done or if my bread dough is kneaded enough.

This is a small sampling of examples of how our five senses become critical components to consider when planning or organizing our preparedness.

A final point about our five senses is to consider the power of our senses to elevate our mood and well being.

How might a crisis impact our psychological well being? Why not prepare and construct a “five sense first aid kit” to bolster well being during a disaster?

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AdviceSkills

The Get Home Bag Guide (GHB, Car Kit)

Lowell - April 24, 2021

Here’s a link to what is currently in my EDC & GHB/CarKit (one tab for each). There’s also a Behaviors tab, and a To-Do tab with finds from the links Gideon shared.

Relevant threads, thanks Gideon!

Car supplies What’s the best get home bag to keep in your car? Winter survival kits, extreme cold weather gear, and winterizing your home and car What preparedness items do you keep in your vehicle? Get home bag for harsh winter conditions BOB plus Get Home Bag?

Original title: “Where’s the Get Home Bag / Car Kit article?”

Original post body:

Is there a main article or forum post for this?

I’ve seen bits and pieces mentioned in other articles, but not centralized place for this.

For example, I’ve got a NOCO Boost so that I can jump start my car without another car nearby, and I’ve got resqme window breaker / seat belt cutters zip-tied to each of the four “grab handles”. (The *sheath* is zip tied, so you just pull the tool out of the sheath without having to cut the tie.)

Other stuff: “roadside emergency kit“, bivy, “emergency radio“, poncho, wool socks, liner socks, headlamp, tire inflator, snow scraper

What all do you carry?

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AdviceGearScenarios

Prepping around the world – How other cultures use their natural resources

UbiqueContributor - April 24, 2021

I like learning about people. I am especially fascinated by how they utilize their natural resources, sometimes in the harshest of environments, in order to survive.

Have you ever wondered how other cultures around the world practice their version of preparedness?

I ask it because, really, that is what is at the very heart of preparedness: our survival wherever we find ourselves.

I’m inviting anyone who wants to join in, to pick a place on the Earth and do a search for how the people who live there use their natural resources to feed, clothe, shelter or defend themselves. How do they survive? 

A couple of links and a bit of info about the survival item and resources that are used by the people you researched. It doesn’t have to be a thesis, just quick and fun exploration.

I’m kicking this off with the Eskimo (referred to as Inuit in Canada) folks.

How about the waterproof gut parka made of seal intestines and sewn with dried grass that becomes a waterproof thread. That same grass is used to make socks! How cool is that?

In their culture, wastefulness is considered being disrespectful and their elders use every scrap of their wildlife harvest.

This was something my family also practised for the same reason, so I paused to consider how a culture so far away could be so similar to mine. It would be very easy to hunt or fish with them.

I love how they use their natural resources and I will be considering how I can adapt that thinking to my own environment.

Here are the links, and I really hope you join in. This prepper project could be a lot of fun.

Waterproof Gut Parka with Photos

Clothing made from their natural resources

Okay, who is next?

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“Natural Disaster Preparedness Resources”

Bob - April 24, 2021

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/538710871/natural-disaster-preparedness-resources

Good morning,

The info in above link provided by the Food Marketing Institute. It’s focus is mostly to business and industry – but not exclusively. There is much info in this link that’s useful to the sophisticated prepper. This link has some good sub-links eg “Food Safety in a Disaster or Emergency”.

What is worthwhile to the prepper is knowing that a full freezer provides much longer temperature control than a half-full freezer.  This can be called the “win-win” situation. Look for items on sale and get. Already-purchased stuff for when adverse conditions hit, yields lower frozen food costs – along with the safety aspect.

For avid readers that hyperlinked pocket guide … yes, it’s mostly business/industry focused … provides good background info for the private citizen prepper. The page 5 quote got my attention: “Well Begun Is Half Done.” Aristotle.

……

Not mentioned in this link but one of the best restaurant food safety programs I’ve read about is that of Waffle House.

I am now in the mood for a triple hashbrowns smothered in ………………..

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Unnatural disaster: Methamphetamine violence and crime

UbiqueContributor - April 23, 2021

A family of seven that I knew was on vacation and traveling by car. A semi tractor and trailer came up behind them at a high rate of speed and he wasn’t slowing down. He bore down upon their station wagon. There was no way that the driver of that semi couldn’t have seen the children in the back of that vehicle.

The terrified family was forced to speed through a very dangerous stretch of winding Ontario highway that had been built through the rocky terrain. An accident there was usually bad. The driver finally managed to find a way to egress the highway and got his family out of harms way.

Some years later, I had an opportunity to listen to a former trucker who told me about how he used to carry an attache case full of pills, mostly speed that kept him awake and hurtling down the highway.

As I listened to him, I thought of the family who had almost been run off the highway. It all made sense. That driver had to have been high to do what he did to them.

Fast forward again, a person I know is murdered. I worked with him through an organization where I was his sponsor and helped to guide him. The last time we spoke, he was going back to school. I never heard from him after that and thought it was because he was busy with school and a new chapter in his life. This was not an uncommon event when sponsoring people.

I read the regional news one day and there was a sentencing report briefly noted. For some reason, I thought of my sponsee and ran a search on his name.

Around sixteen months earlier, he had been murdered by a couple of meth heads. Because of how I knew him and the anonymity involved, no one knew to call me. I read the account of his death and cried for days.

He had survived a beating as a youth that left him near dead and with permanent disability. He was brain injured. One side of his body was severely impaired. He walked with a pronounced limp.

He was also determined to be better. He was known by his smile and positive nature. What he survived as a youth didn’t beat the goodness out of him.

He lived independently in a rooming house. He opened his door that day because he still trusted the world.

His teacher had to call the police and tell them that the body they found was of a disabled man. He had been beaten so badly that they couldn’t recognize his condition prior to the attack. A male and a female inflicted those injuries.

I remember biker crank in the 60’s. We used to shake our heads at the fools who used that garbage. We called them “tweakers.”

Today, meth has become the new “zombie apocalypse.” 

Heroin addicts will try to steal your purse. One of my aunts was accosted and beaten about the head in Vancouver, BC by a couple of heroin addicts, but not so severely that she couldn’t gain control the situation and tell them, “I will give you some money, but you may not have my hand bag.”

This is not the case with meth users. There was a case in Winnipeg MB where a man was abducted off the street at 9:00 p.m., held and tortured for twelve hours. He managed to escape the house where he was being held when his kidnappers left him alone in order to raid his bank account using his information.

There is an extreme level of violence associated with meth use.

Meth users will attack you because they are in a state of psychoses. Their thoughts and emotions have become so impaired that they have lost touch with reality. 

Psychosis is characterized by hallucinations and paranoia. This state of mind can be present in paranoid schizophrenia.  However, a meth psychosis co-occurs with meth usage and usually abates once the user is withdrawn off the drug. That process can take hours or up to a week, unless there are other underlying conditions involved that have been triggered by the meth usage.

Meth users can become psychotic if they have used a lot of meth or if they are in a withdrawal stage and just about anything in between. They are unstable and unpredictable. There is no way for any of us to know when a meth user is going to break with reality and become psychotic.

As with other reasons for being prepared, I wanted to stay prepared and safe in view of this new threat and that meant educating myself about the threat.

To do that, I first wanted to understand why meth use had become popular again. I read a six-part series in The Oregonian which was a very thorough investigative report on the methamphetamine crisis.

I reviewed Faces of Meth which was started by a member of the Multnomah Country Sheriffs’ office so that I could recognize the physical characteristics of meth users. 

I read medical information on how meth affects people so that I could recognize a meth addict faster.

There is not one singular demographic that applies. Meth users can be educated, young or old and from any walk of life.

A person in a meth induced state of psychosis can speak rapidly and ramble from one topic to the next. Their conversation may be very hard to follow. They may be restless, agitated and very jumpy.

They may be up for days and then crash hard. When they are coming down off a meth binge, meth users can be particularly dangerous.

Their beliefs may be very odd or unusual with a paranoid belief that others are out to get them.

They like to take things apart and their yards may be scattered with disassembled items. Inside their homes, they may have dug through walls to “trace” the electrical or to follow some other bizarre train of thought.

Meth users may pick at or scratch at their skin because they feel like there are bugs crawling on them.

Many but not all meth users are thin. They may have sores on their faces or limbs from picking at the skin.

They may have plucked their eyebrows and eyelashes out or sections of their hair. They may have shaved parts of their head or done other bizarre things to their appearance.

Their facial skin becomes prematurely lined and aged in appearance and their eyes take on a “crazed” appearance.

Dental issues are common with many users missing teeth or displaying rotted teeth. It is unknown why jaw deterioration continues in some users long after they have ceased using this drug.

Meth users are extremely hard to take down. Police can deploy their tasers multiple times while grappling with a meth user and it has little to no effect. It takes multiple officers to restrain and control the psychotic meth user and often police are injured in the process.

Medical personnel who must cope with them are also often injured and it is a real problem in hospital emergency wards.

I looked into the existence of meth users in my small town and found that we were not immune. We had them living among us and I wanted to be proactive about protecting myself.

My home security was bumped up to prevent home invasion by fortifying my doors.

My husband and I ran drills over how to react in various situations inside and outside our home, as well as at various times of day, including being awakened. We use each other’s second name as a code word that means 911 now, no questions asked. 

I ensured that I had access to items that could be rapidly deployed to inflict a knock out strike. This is one situation where there is no way I am getting in close to someone in combat. I am keeping something between me and them.

Aside from carrying knives, meth users have a preternatural strength borne of their altered state. This meant I had to mentally prepare to use extreme force on someone of any age or gender who might outwardly appear to be physically frail and thin.

I am working on arranging legal access to a gun for protection.

In the case of the man who was abducted at 9:00 p.m. referenced above, Constable Tammy Skrabek, a spokesperson for the Winnipeg police “called the case unique and said the “regular safety messages” police give, like being aware of your surroundings, wouldn’t have made a difference for the victim.”

“In this case, he was paying attention; it was just not expected that these people were going to grab him,” she said.”

I respectfully disagree with Constable Skrabek’s conclusion. I lived in Winnipeg for many years and no one wanders around certain areas on foot and alone at 9:00 p.m. if they possess any situational awareness or common sense. Winnipeg was called “murder capital of Canada” for a reason.

Secondly, situational awareness would have prevented those two men getting anywhere near the victim. 

The abductors had to pull up and then pull him in off the street. That meant parking their vehicle and both of them exiting the vehicle. This wasn’t a six person abduction. A person with street smarts who was paying attention to his environment would have been gone as soon as that vehicle angled towards him and before they had a chance to park.

I ramped up my situational awareness whether in my small town or in an urban area over and above my regular vigilance. I watch closely for signs of meth users around me by their appearance and behavior.

I check my yard for any drug paraphernalia. 

Meth users were paid to piece shredded documents together so the data could be used or sold in the criminal marketplace. They have the ability to fixate and do this under the influence of meth.

I purchased a new shredder. Now any paper with any information including shipping and receiving is shredded on a high quality shredder that prevents the pieces from being restored. I also shred any medication labels or any prescription bags or information.

I put new protocols in place for picking up medication after my husband was almost assaulted in the drug store parking lot. They two people involved are confirmed meth users.

I also hold the local police accountable and have used my security cameras to report meth distribution activity at a house in my neighborhood. They are aware of it, but it is being handled through their drug enforcement channels.

Drug enforcement operates on a work your way up the ladder methodology. They catch the small time addicts, get three names, and keep climbing until they get the big fish higher up.

This is understandable, but it does take time, sometime years, for change to trickle back down to the community level. Some drug houses are left to operate for that reason.

In the interim, all of us need to approach the threats associated with meth usage as we do any other threat: we educate and prepare ourselves.

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AdviceScenariosSkills

Useful prepper gardening book

CR - April 23, 2021

Hi all! Not sure if this is the proper place, but would like to recommend a book I, as a lifelong gardener, have found very handy and prep related. Steve Solomon’s  Gardening When It Counts, Growing Food in Hard Times has lots of good tips for food cultivation & for when the garden center isn’t available. I enjoy his slightly grumpy, but very knowledgeable style. It’s a great edition to the prepping library. I included the link for info only. FYI, storing your seeds in the deep freeze in a mason jar keeps them viable years longer. https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X/

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Advice

Learn about scissors and why they are important prepping tools

UbiqueContributor - April 23, 2021

Scissors are an important cutting tool, yet they do not have the appeal that their glamourous cousin, the knife has for people who practice preparedness. 

Preppers want the knife or the cutting multi-tool that may have a pair of scissors included somewhere in it as an afterthought.

There are many different kinds of scissors and shears which could be very helpful in an emergency or disaster.

Most people have a pair of household scissors or child friendly blunt nose scissors for crafts. There are many different types of scissors, and each are designed for different tasks. So, let’s take a look at them and why they are important for prepping purposes.

First, dressmaking shears that are made to cut cloth. They usually have a blade between seven and ten inches long. They are a heavier construction, with one end blunted or rounded to avoid snagging the cloth. They are designed to glide flush across the table as you cut the fabric.

If you were in a prolonged crisis, the ability to repair and patch your clothing is going to become very important. You will also need to be able to conserve precious patching materials. They are not a frou-frou item.

Try cutting a precision patch with a knife. Not only will you waste material, but you also run the risk of cutting yourself with a knife that was not designed for the task. 

What if the crisis was so prolonged that you actually had to alter, make or remake clothing? This was a real part of survival years ago in hard times.

Fabric shears should only be used for cutting cloth or you will dull the blade and damage the tool. 

There are pinking shears that cut a zig zag edge to help prevent cloth from fraying. It is an optional item and might be useful if one were conserving thread. It would be better to learn how to hand sew various stitches including a simple overcast stitch to prevent fraying of the fabric.

If you want to cut paper, then craft scissors will do the task.

Household shears may have a built in bottle opener, fish scaler or other functions that are designed to be used for kitchen tasks.

These are not to be confused with poultry shears which are used for trimming poultry.

Want to cut hair in a crisis? Then you want hair cutting shears to trim hair. There are also moustache scissors, nail scissors, hair clippers and thinning shears designed to tame thick hair. 

There are nose hair trimming scissors, but please be careful with them. If you nick that area, you can get a bad infection in the dreaded T-Zone where infections can kill really quickly. There are battery operated nose trimmers also.

I use a good pair of hair cutting shears to cut my husband’s hair and to trim my long hair. You cannot get a good cut or trim without them. I use thinning shears on my bangs, although I wouldn’t call thinning shears a prepping necessity. They are a nice to have item and I won’t look like I have a horse’s forelock in a disaster.

There are also different kinds of medical scissors. Because realistically none of us will be doing ophthalmic or other kinds of surgery, we can skip over those types of medical scissors and focus on what is going to be more realistic for us as lay people.

Trauma shears are designed to cut off clothing rapidly and without snagging the underlying skin of the person in a similar way as fabric shears are constructed. This is a necessary item for medical first aid.

Bandage scissors are used to cut bandages. You can’t use fabric or household shears for this task without losing time and patience in the process, plus the damage to the fabric shears.

Let’s step outside the home and look at the humble scissor and how it is used there.

There are loppers which are a type of shear used to cut large branches. Pruning shears can handle the smaller branches.

Loppers be hand held or be a pole lopper for dealing with heights. This type of shear could become very important to a prepper during a clean up after a storm. They can also be used to trim branches back away from the roof to keep squirrels and other critters out of the attic. Think of the problems that could occur if animals get into your attic during a crisis or disaster.

Hedge trimmers might be very important for the prepper who wants to maintain security during a crisis.

What about metal snips and the importance of them to a prepper?

Metal snips can cut sheet metal and tin snips can cut soft metals like copper and aluminum. The blades can be straight or curved for cutting curves and circles.

Think of the usefulness of metal snips for emergency repairs to a gutter or metal roofing during a crisis.

There are also pipe and duct snips or compound action snips used to cut metal.

There are other types of scissors, but those listed above would be the most likely to be used by most preppers.

Consider what kinds of materials and uses you might have for various types of scissors and shears.

For certain kinds of repairs and maintenance, a knife just won’t cut it.

For photos and more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scissors

 

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AdviceGear

Post-Disaster Family Financial Planning

Bob - April 22, 2021

https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/financial-planning-for-families/

Good evening,

“After the fact” can produce more stress and worries than inventory loses during a disaster.

Above link has some good info. Evaluate whether all those Trader Joe products really necessary.  Are there lower cost stores than Bed Bath And Beyond for the sleeping bag pillow ?

Think out this stuff now and put away some of the folding stuff before the beer resupply.

Even thought link is focused to family planning, others can use the same principles.

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UN’s disaster prevention website

Bob - April 22, 2021

https://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/maps/v.php?id=67333&cid=185

Good evening,

Prevention Web is a UN website. It is packed with info for preparedness matters.

I’ve got the above link to open (I hope !) on the “US Communities With Limited Evacuation Routes”.  It was a site hyperlink. Do note that these charts are for planning, prevention and preparedness. It is obligatory to confirm specifics for what you’re working on.

At top horizontal bar are the functional and geographic sections to click on.  

One good aspect of site is that they welcome organizational feedback for their chart/report updates. 

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Texas Tax Holiday for Prepping

Josh CentersContributor - April 22, 2021

Texas will be having a sales tax holiday on emergency preparedness supplies from April 24-26. I had never heard of such a thing before, but it’s apparently a thing in Alabama and Florida.

The tax holiday applies to both in-store and online sales, though the state encourages shopping at local retailers. The list of included and excluded items is kind of random. For instance, axes and hatchets are included but chainsaws are not.

We have tax holidays in Tennessee, and I’ve found them to be a mixed blessing. It’s nice not paying our high sales tax, but crowds are usually bad and retailers jack up their prices so you don’t really save money.

However, there are some big-ticket items you could save on. Generators and two-way radios are included in the holiday and those are two items that almost never go on sale, so that might be a good time to invest in those.

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News

Why personal locator beacon not listed in an EDC prep on this site?

Lowell - April 21, 2021

hi! do y’all know why a personal locator beacon (like this one) isn’t listed on some “EDC prep” on this site?

I recognize that at $300 this is cost prohibitive, but it seems crucial for any situation where I’d need medics but don’t have cell service.

The most “common” example I can think of is that I get into a car accident and need a medic but have no cell service because I’m on some swath of highway without it.

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