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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 ………………..
Read MoreUnnatural 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 MoreUseful 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 MoreLearn 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
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 MoreUN’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 MoreTexas 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
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 MoreHow to stay safe when traveling at home or abroad
UbiqueContributor - April 21, 2021 Long or short journeys, domestic or abroad require preparedness.
Despite the current situation, it is worthwhile to understand how to stay safe when we do travel away from home. It is another aspect of preparedness.
I would like to begin with a story about a former co-worker. Jane back packed her way across Europe with a friend in the 1960’s.
The journey was going well until they arrived in Spain. At the time Spain was under the control of the notorious dictator, Franco.
The train on which they traveled was stopped by the Spanish military. The heavily armed soldiers boarded the train and demanded to see passports. Jane got out her information and although she was afraid, calmly sat and waited.
When the soldiers arrived at their seat, her friend decided to tell the soldiers in very colorful and easily translated expletives what they could do to themselves. They weren’t going to order her around and actually started to rise in her seat as she ranted at them.
Jane had the presence of mind to grab her friend and pull her back down into her seat. She told her “shut up, you’re going to get us killed, give them your passport and not another word.” Then Jane apologized to the soldiers in Spanish for her friend who had misunderstood and to please forgive her.
This regime was ruthless. They could have been dragged off the train and shot. After the train incident, Jane split from traveling with her friend and completed the rest of her journey alone.
Know the person you are traveling with and discuss reactions to situations such as this in advance. You are a guest in someone’s Country and an understanding of the cultural and social mores there will make you a welcome guest who is less likely to get into trouble. You don’t want to get into trouble or land in jail because of someone else.
These are the basics for safe international travel:
Do your research and understand the cultural differences. For example, in Egypt an unmarried female who travels alone is considered a prostitute.
Learn about any hand gestures that may be considered offensive. I believe it is in Thailand or Indonesia where crossing one’s legs and exposing the soles of the shoe or foot is considered very offensive. In Singapore littering can land you a punishment by caning.
Never consume drugs in a foreign Country and watch the rules regarding alcohol. Never get intoxicated. You want to be lucid at all times.
Find out if there is civil unrest in the Country or if tourists are being targeted as was the case in Egypt.
Never leave your luggage unattended. Never agree to carry someone else’s luggage.
Ensure your family or friends back home have a full itinerary of where you will be staying and a copy of your passport, and other identification, including recent photos and bank information.
If something happens to you, they will be able to work with authorities using recent information. If you need help financially, they can deposit money to your bank account. Ensure that they are authorized to handle any banking needs, such as bill payment while you are away. International cell rates can be very high.
Set up agreed upon contact points and times and keep them. This way your family will know if something has gone wrong sooner and what your whereabouts where when you disappeared.
Practice situational awareness especially when traveling.
Women are frequently targeted at airports and kidnaped. Human trafficking is a very real danger. Ensure that the people you interact with, including taxi drivers are who they purport to be. It is safer to use your hotel shuttle service as transport from the airport to your hotel.
In your hotel, ensure that the door is locked and bolted with security lock while in your room. Check the room thoroughly upon possession of it to ensure no on is lurking and also to ensure that nothing illegal was left behind. Never open the door to anyone who is not expected. It takes seconds to call the main desk and confirm who is at your door and why.
If you intend to visit tourist areas, be aware that is also the place where criminals will congregate. Predators go where the prey is located.
If you choose to go to Amsterdam’s red light district, be aware that tourists can have very bad experiences there. There are people who are criminals who have immigrated to The Netherlands. The problem is that as a tourist, you might think they are tourists. They are not. You may be dealing with one at an ATM and suddenly find yourself surrounded by fifteen more men.
These gangs of thieves rig the ATM so that your cash won’t dispense properly. Then they come behind after you give up and fish your money out. Pick pockets are especially bad in tourist areas. They can work alone or in a tandem. One bumps into you and the other steals your wallet while you are distracted.
Deal with the banks in the daytime in the branch. Ensure you wear a hidden money and passport carrier. A zippered money and passport carrier that sits flat under the waistband of your pants is not easily accessible and stay out of sight. Forget purses. Try to blend in with the locals as much as possible.
Look like you mean business, don’t look like a victim. Tourists very often have a distracted and vague look on their faces because they are preoccupied with the new environment. That is a giveaway and makes you a target.
Jane, the woman in the story who carried on traveling alone finally landed in a small village in Greece only to discover that her American Express traveler’s checks were lost.
She spoke no Greek, but was able to use the telephone of a kindly Greek couple. Jane called her Dad who arranged the Am Ex check replacement which would be there in about two weeks. Meanwhile, she had no money. The check replacement wasn’t as rapid as she believed.
The kindly Greek couple took pity on Jane and gave her a free room and food in their small room to let hotel while she waited for the money.
Jane was alone and unable to communicate with anyone. She was sitting on her bed, feeling very dejected and then she heard it. It was English! Someone, a male voice was singing “Some Enchanted Evening” quite loudly.
Jane flew through the door overjoyed to have someone to talk with and met the man. She said to him “Oh. You speak English?”
He shook his head and began to sing the song again. It was the only English he knew.
Read MoreGarden planner software
RedneckContributor - April 21, 2021 I’ve found that planning my garden each growing season is easier if I can actually see it to scale. For years I’ve been using Garden Planner 3, which has more features than I could ever use. It is not limited to gardens and can be used to layout most anything. I’ll just bring up a saved plan, do a save as command & then modify that plan. No need to start from scratch each time. Here is my garden plan for this summer.
Read More
FEMA link with loads of available prepper material
Bob - April 21, 2021 https://www.ready.gov/be-informed
Good afternoon,
Spend some time surfing around the above “be-informed” link.
Note the linked Hazard Information sheets eg Flood, Nuclear Explosion.
Note the Family Emergency Communication Plan.
Note the Alerts and Warnings.
You can order their no-cost pubs by working the included link. Haven’t looked at the pub site for some time but this is where you’ll find the studies eg “Hurricane Ike”, “Hurricane Sandy”.
Read MoreA good article for your non-prepper relatives, colleagues, acquaintances, …
Bob - April 20, 2021 https://modernworldsurvivalists.com/2021/04/19/preppers-have-their-day-over-virus-fears/
Good morning,
With the public health saturation of news, above link is a decent, clearly-written article on preparedness and those labeled “preppers”.
Link is ideal to provide your non-prepper contacts with.
If you note any specific names and web sites in article, will reward you with a cyber Clif bar or a bag of baker’s chocolate.
The mentioned VOA Learning English needed for our many public agency PIOs providing public health information.
Read MoreHow far will you go to improve your safety and self reliance?
Bill Masen - April 19, 2021 I’m curious as to just how far or how much effort and sacrifice people will make to improve their prepper quality of life. Just exactly WHAT are YOU willing to do to improve your safety, security and quality of life.
For years my wife and I have been into survivalism and prepping going as far back as the 1980s. We did all the normal things that most people who become preppers do. We realised there was clearly identifiable threats, hazards and risks to us as a family. So we learned skills, cached, stockpiled and developed plans.
BUT we also changed professions to equally increase our quality of life and also to improve our level of readiness. My wife became a Nurse Practitioner, I left the military for the Security industry, Our income rose as did our skills and levels of readiness. YET we were still uncomfortable / unsettled/ unsure .
We invested in skills, we invested in kit and supplies, we changed vehicles, we moved house within our communities, we developed relationships with other preppers. but still the underlying concerns lingered.
We stopped doing conventional social and leisure things like dining out, clubbing, holidaying on beaches etc and started using our free time to develop our skills and knowledge further, learning useful skills and attending convensions in prepping, survival skills, overlanding events, off gridding and homesteading events etc but STILL those fears festered away in the background.
Then we had kids and thats when things started hitting home like a manic jackhammer.
First we realised the overall quality of standard supermarket food was POOR, to much salt, chemicals, preservatives, processing etc especially when it came to feeding the family. We ended up having to source ORGANIC or UNPROCESSED foods to replace what came from the four local supermarkets.
Then we discovered that our kids occasional wheezy chests, chest infections, runny noses, etc was only happening at home, when we went camping the kids were 100% healthy, enlightenment it was AIR POLLUTION in the city ( Mainly vehicular emmissions)
At the same time we were told our kids were INTROVERTED and WITHDRAWN at school and were not learning fast enough. That was odd because when they were not at school they were extroverted, happy, inquisitive, curious and VERY sociable. We discovered that it was not the kids but the SCHOOL (s) they attended (500 primary school kids in one complex) .
Then a neighbour informed us our kids were often bullied verbally and occasionally physically by SOME not all of their schoolmates.
We also could not let them play out unsupervised because of the local trouble making street gangs of feral teens (and preteens) and a total lack of intetrest by the police or council to deal with the non stop vandalism, petty theft, criminal damage, noise and general anti social behaviour found in most urban areas.
Then it finally dawned on us, ALL OF OUR PREPS were for nought when all of us were being ground down by living in a city. Our air and food was a problem as was WHERE we lived, it was a problem with air pollution, crime, poor facilities, overcrowding and a totally ineffective local government and law enforcement system.
This is where I reach the crux of the matter, We finally realised that WHERE we lived was as important as HOW we lived.
We are both only working class people with modest incomes but we had clearly identified that the city was slowly killing ALL of us one tiny bit at a time.
We immediately looked for a quiet more rural community, we found one with a wonderful close knit village school of only 200 primary and junior school kids, who welcomed our kids.
Within 6 week the kids were transformed they LOVED school, they LOVED learning, they absolutely thrived, We found a house we could just about afford it needed loads doing to it but the kids and ourselves loved it. No sirens at night, no gangs, no vandalism. Neighbours looked out for each other, The kids health improved massively.
We found locally produced foods ( both normal and organic) our STRESS levels collapsed.
It took SACRIFICE, My wife had to take a Nursing job on much less money nearer our new home. I had to completely give up my urban security work as I could no longer respond to clients in minutes, I took up a couple of very menial part time jobs to bring in money whilst I also took over running the house. We used up ALL of our savings just to pay the deposit on the house.
Do I have regrets? YES absolutely. I 100% regret that we did not identify it was our ENVIRONMENT that was as much as issue as the global issues that turned us into preppers in the first place.
We gave up just about EVERYTHING to escape the city, careers, money, savings, friends, social groups etc but it was absolutely worth the sacrifice and effort.
If YOU are thinking about escaping the city then I say to you that we believe the LONG TERM BENEFITS far outweigh any negatives and hope you manage to escape to greener prepper friendlier pastures.
Now 20 years on and I see riots, looting, arson, division, hatred, violence etc consuming not only the US but much of Europe, Africa, south America, Middle East, UK etc as well. Compounded by POLICE/ COURTS and Governments paralised by political correctness and fear of offending assorted sections of society who are simply allowed to get away with mass civil unrest and violent crimes. Many cities are becoming NO GO AREAS not just for decent people but also for Law Enforcement as well.
How much sacrifice are YOU willing to make to protect YOUR families and quality of life?
Read MoreHow to survive and avoid incidents of civil unrest
UbiqueContributor - April 19, 2021 Three friends were hanging out at an amusement park in Vancouver, BC. They decided to leave the park and drive over to the Sea Festival about ten miles away.
They had to park and walk about a mile to get to the festival. As the three of them walked toward the festival, they heard yelling and laughter. They thought that what they had heard was true and that people were having a lot of fun at this festival.
The yelling and laughter drew closer and finally a stream of youths ran past them. Then they saw riot police coming toward them.
Two of them wanted to turn and run away because they were afraid. The other friend told them, “No, don’t move, face toward the police and put your hands in the air.”
The three friends stood facing police, hands in the air.
A riot policeman approached them and before he could say anything, the young man who told his friends to stand still, told the police officer, “We just got here. We don’t know what’s going on.”
The policeman then summoned fellow officers who helped escort the three young men back to their vehicle. They were told what route to take to get out of the area.
They found out that a riot had broken out at the Sea Festival. The laughing and yelling youths who had ran past them were actually rioters who had smashed storefronts and caused a lot of damage.
If the three unsuspecting friends had turned and ran, they would have considered part of the rioting group.
How you react when suddenly confronted with a situation like this can make or break your survival of it.
This was a relatively benign example from an actual incident that took place in Canada in the 1970’s. However, we are not all fluffy little teddy bears up here. In Vancouver BC, the riots after a hockey game are legendary.
Civil unrest and encounters with mobs are a more common threat today, so it is worthwhile to understand the risk and how to prepare for it.
The term “mob mentality” conveys the single minded and unpredictable mind set of a mob. When it overtakes a group of people for any reason, the situation devolves and becomes dangerous rapidly.
The first consideration is not to become exposed to such a threat. Avoidance is the first and most important practice for managing risk.
Don’t go where the trouble is located and that includes online sites.
There are some preparedness people who advocate following the social media of groups who engage in civil unrest. This is a bad suggestion.
You are known by your associations. These groups are heavily monitored by government security and law enforcement agencies.
Your electronic footprint does not want to be stepping anywhere near these kinds of groups. In other words, don’t go dancing in the barnyard, if you don’t want to end up with cow manure on your boots.
It makes better sense to monitor and set an alert through legitimate news media or local civic alert systems.
If you are caught in a mob unawares as the three men in the opening story, then take measures to get out of it as fast as you can.
Don’t resemble the people in the mob. Remove anything that is similar to their clothing, if possible and within reason. For example, if they are all wearing hats, remove your hat or ball cap. You will be less likely to be identified as one of them on security cameras or by law enforcement.
Don’t talk to people in the mob and watch your nonverbal communication.
Stay calm, head down and keep moving at a steady pace. Don’t run or draw attention to yourself. Spawning salmon behavior will be counterproductive and can get you noticed.
Go with the flow and calmly move toward the outer edges of the mob at a steady pace. Avoid any areas or bottlenecks where you could be crushed.
This is where situational awareness can’t be stressed enough. Always know the area that you are in and how to navigate it. You need to know how to exit the mob at the first safe and accessible place.
That could be a side street or an alley. There may be a safe building or even a safe doorway that you can take shelter in. If you take shelter in a building, know where the exits are located in case it becomes an unsafe place in which to shelter.
If you are concerned that you could be crushed or thrown off balance because of a crowd surge, lock your elbows in a bent position and use them to push down on the crowd so that they propel you forward. Stay on your feet.
If you are in your vehicle, you have options. You can turn around if possible and get out of there or make your way to a safer street.
Some advocate to drive forward if there are only a few people in the situation and your vehicle is not a target. I would still turn around and avoid the situation. How do you know hundreds of people aren’t going to come pouring around a corner?
Regardless of the number of people involved, your vehicle could be targeted in an instant. Then you will be faced with the possibility of hitting someone with your vehicle. You may also find your vehicle rendered inoperable because it is suddenly surrounded and damaged. It’s your choice.
If at home during periods of civil unrest, stay away from windows, keep your doors locked. Do not go outside to see what’s going on. Use your security cameras to monitor the situation outside.
Move away from walls where bullets or rocks could penetrate and injure you.
Watch for fires and the smell of smoke. Fires can begin in riots, so keep watch until it is over.
Continue to monitor the situation at home to ensure you are certain that it is over.
Read MoreHow to synthesize/prioritize preparing for scenarios based on likelihood, severity, and other factors?
Lowell - April 18, 2021 Some scenarios must happen, in general, more often than others. I imagine people use CPR more often than they evacuate their home and survive out of their GB/BOB. I imagine people restart their car battery more often than they use a firearm.
Does anyone know of a ranking of preparedness scenarios, ordered by how statistically likely they are to happen?
An additional level would be to factor in eventuality and severity. For example, saving enough funds for when you can no longer work for pay is important, but the “average” person has several years to work towards this. Being able to stop severe bleeding is something you may never need, but is extremely important if you do need it, and doesn’t take as much time or money to prepare for as other things.
And of course there’s the community aspect as well. If I’m built out enough to survive a multi year emergency, but all of my neighbors are food insecure week-to-week and I don’t even have their phone numbers, that seems like a bad prep.
Read MoreHere comes the sun – When a massive solar flare, grid loss and overheated nuclear reactors change the world. [Edited to include what the prepper in the story did wrong.]
UbiqueContributor - April 18, 2021 Solution for what the prepper did wrong at the end of the post.
This morning, you watch as the sun shoves the sky aside and plants itself in your line of vision. Sunrise. No one cares much for sunrise these days.
Thirteen months have passed since your world went silent and dark.
The massive solar storm stopped the world dead in its tracks. It destroyed the vulnerable electric power grid transformers. There had been a committee back in 2011 that had examined the risks and warned action was needed. It was too late now.
You listen. Nothing. At one time the sound of traffic and horns honking was an annoyance. Now, you would give today’s ration of food to hear a car or sip a warm beverage, or linger with a good book while sitting on a gleaming white porcelain toilet that actually flushed. When the grid was destroyed, it took sewage, sanitation and potable water along with it.
At first, they said restoration would happen in months, then months became “foreseeable future.” There was some irony for you in that phrase. No one was seeing much of anything these nights. It was pitch black at night now.
You try to remember the smell of coffee in the morning. You haven’t made coffee for three months since your supply of fuel ran out. You should have stocked more fuel or searched for better alternatives while you had the chance to do so.
Has it only been 13 months? It feels like an eternity has passed since the sun threw a massive solar tantrum larger than the Carrington Event of 1859.
The event was the solar flare equivalent of the big earthquake on the San Andreas fault predicted by seismologists.
Some reports said a solar storm wouldn’t have the deleterious effects upon communications and electronics that everyone feared.
The misinformation about solar flares and the electro magnetic pulses were fed partly by the entertainment industry.
People mocked those who doggedly prepared for a solar storm event because they didn’t understand how a solar storm would affect the power grid.
Severe solar storms only produce an E3 element that takes out the power grid transformers, and initiates DC like currents in extremely long electrical conductors.
Solar storms don’t produce the rapid E1 element that damages electronics. It was the loss of power that rendered electronics useless.
No one considered the threat that would result from long term power loss and it’s effect upon nuclear power plants. When those effects became apparent, everyone suddenly remembered Chernobyl and Fukashima.
The early days of blackout conditions and the subsequent looting and rioting was nothing compared to the long term effects of grid loss and the reactions of the nuclear power plants.
Then the psychological illness started, people who hadn’t prepared couldn’t cope with the utter devastation of their electronic world. They were overwhelmed by the disruption to all the modern conveniences integrated into their lives. You could see it in their eyes. They were not just hungry and dirty. They were lost also. Some of them became fatalistic and murderous in their insanity and very dangerous.
You need to forage. Maybe someone missed something in the mosaic of abandoned cars that litter the roadways and streets. But, you need to go further away from home to do so. It’s a big risk taking the bicycle out. Bicycles are like gold now and people have been killed for them.
You lace your boots up and whisper “thank you” to a prepper on The Prepared who taught you about FLC: feet, leather, covered.
You made sure to have the best boots you could afford. After testing them, you bought two extra pairs of those boots plus repair materials and learned how to repair them to extend their life. It wasn’t just a prep for a long duration event. You knew that sometimes really good quality items stopped being made or began to be made with inferior materials or workmanship.
Footwear was an important prep and the limping, poorly shod people roaming about were grim reminders. Some people with bad footwear were getting infected feet. Gangrene was nothing to fool with.
Save the bicycle for when it’s time to bug out. On The Prepared, you learned about The Monowalker from a UK prepper. It was carefully stored and ready to be used for bug out. Another “thank you.”
You wondered if the people from The Prepared were alive, if they and their families were okay. You hoped that however they prepared, that it was enough. You hoped that an experimental gardener with the dogs and gardens was picking ju-jubes and that there was a pound cake on their table.
It had become tougher to forage as more and more desperate people scavenged, while predator survivors waited in the shadows to take what they found.
Gun fights were common and avoiding stray bullets was a new pastime. When bullets hit your home, you moved your bed away from the outer walls and slept in a room lined with bookcases for protection.
Today, you could assemble a travois to carry larger or heavier items as close as possible, then “cache and carry” under cover of darkness. You needed to assemble more barter items to get the supplies you lacked for the long bug out journey ahead.
It was almost “bug-out o’clock.” Your personal doomsday clock was ticking louder. Bug out was your last resort, but survival is and always will be your first resort.
The bug out option became more complicated after the reactors overheated. It was a part of prepping that many preppers hadn’t factored.
There were now fewer options unless you wanted to glow in the dark. You had heard the radiation wasn’t as bad at the West Coast. “Heard!” How could you have forgotten to print the map for predicted reactor drift? You printed all your other important prep info!
The chorus of regret began to rise and flow toward your amygdala where it would soon become panic. NO!
Focus. Stay focused and aware. Get through today. Do it thirty seconds at a time if necessary, but get through today alive. You can do this. You can make it.
Internal pep talk concluded, you sling your dummy pack over one shoulder and do a final pat down and run a mental check list from head to feet of everything stashed on your person. The dummy pack was just some crumpled paper, empty tin cans, and a couple of rocks in a bag, but it was a way to blend in, foil robbers and useful as an improvised weapon.
What’s left of your guns and ammo is reserved for the long road ahead.
You think of The Prepared and everyone there who became an online community of preppers. You whisper the words into the air, “wherever you are, I hope you survived and if I make it, it will be because of all of you.”
Go time. You step out into the sun and begin to walk.
How could you become better prepared for a severe solar storm, long term loss of the power grid and the potential impact upon the nuclear power plants?
https://www.futurescience.com/emp.html
https://phys.org/news/2011-03-nuclear-meltdown-video.html
https://www.sustainabilitytelevision.com/blog/400-chernobyls-solar-flares-emp-and-nuclear
https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/flare-up_how_the_sun_could_put_an_end_to_nuclear_power/
https://earthsky.org/space/how-likely-space-super-storms-solar-flares-carrington-event
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-studies-warn-of-cataclysmic-solar-superstorms/
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-112hhrg80856/html/CHRG-112hhrg80856.htm
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.tra.038 travois
Here’s what the prepper in the story did wrong.
This scenario was meant to illustrate the power grid loss and reactor issues, but there was another message left in clues throughout the story.
The story is set thirteen months after the event in an urban area based on the number of people roaming about.
The person in the story is alone without any community established either before or after the event occurred. We’ll call this person the prepper.
The prepper claims to have not made coffee for three months which would place their last coffee ten months after the event happened. Making coffee with its distinct aroma was a mistake from the beginning.
The coffee should have been saved to drink cold if in need of caffeine to stay alert. This prepper was low on fuel, yet they still wasted fuel on a cup of coffee. That fuel might have been needed to boil water and sterilized equipment for first aid purposes.
Next, the prepper admits not prepping enough fuel or alternates which are part of needs, not wants in prepping. Water, food, shelter, defense, clothing, warmth, and first aid are needs, not “nice to haves.”
The prepper clearly describes the psychological condition of the population, yet is still sheltering in place without adequate community or resources.
The prepper describes needing to forage and having to go further away because vehicles in close proximity have been picked clean. This is now done on foot and without the bicycle. How does he plan to get that bicycle and Monowalker out of there without being noticed at this late stage?
Bicycles may be considered gold in the scenario, but so are boots according to the story with people needing them. He should have been “public” in an old pair that he could afford to lose.
The pepper refers to The Prepared and people that he learned from, yet has failed to see that the need for bug out happened long ago. Would this have happened with other people/family around? Is the isolation affecting this person’s judgement? Is there a lesson for all of us regarding isolation?
The prepper refers to “predator survivors” stealing from other survivors. No one should remain in that environment, nor in an environment with “gun fights” that are “common.” “Avoiding stray bullets” should not be a preppers “pastime.”
The prepper in the story wants to scavenge and possibly “cache and carry” items with which to barter to get supplies he “lacks” for the long bug out journey ahead. If he was prepared, why is he lacking important items?
Whom does he plan to barter with? It doesn’t sound like people around him are doing very well and barely surviving. If they did have what he needed, he could have bartered the boots he was wearing and worn his brand new back up pair without risking a foraging trip.
There are survivor predators and he thinks that he can just breeze past them with his foraged items? They would be out a night also and he will have trouble seeing them until it is too late.
The prepper is wasting more time and energy and running more risk in this fruitless exercise that he is mistaking for survival.
It no longer matters that bug out was a “last resort.” Now it should be his first resort if he wants to survive.
The prepper doesn’t have any maps.
The reference at the end to “what’s left of your guns and ammo” is troubling. How much shooting was this prepper doing? If you are alone and have to shoot that much, you shouldn’t be there. Why waste ammo when the solution is to exit a no win situation.
We assemble items, information, plan and prepare, but in an actual disaster we need to be careful of our judgement.
Hanging onto preconceived ideas that are clearly no longer working for us in a disaster, is a dangerous strategy, especially if we are alone and there is no one else to challenge our thinking.
Sometimes, our judgement can be faulty. We may, like the person in the story, remain far too long SIP, when we should have been long gone.
We may also place priority on having items that are not necessary or wasting resources in order to have “the comforts of home.”
Bugging out is not a camping trip. It is becoming a refugee to save your life, so take with you what will actually help you to survive.
One final note on the cars, the prepper in the story did not check the mass of vehicles for one made in an era (80’s) which from my newly formed understanding, would not have sustained damage during the solar flare. A bit of siphoning, stash bug out items, and if no keys, hot wire and go.
Read MoreLiberator Rocket heaters for your home
Jordi44 - April 18, 2021 Does anyone have/know about rocket heaters for your home? Liberator is the only one l’ve found any info on that is certified. Does anyone have one? Know if they really work? Any info? Thanks. Have a totally electric house and hoping to find an alternative heat source.
Read MoreWhy I wrote: The year the crops failed and famine began in North America
UbiqueContributor - April 17, 2021 Please see the bottom of this original post for an edit which explains why I wrote this scenario:
It is early evening and you have settled in to relax after this evening’s rations.
Rations. No one used the words “meal” or “breakfast” any more. “Lunch” and “supper” were long gone out of everyone’s vocabulary as well.
The word “snack” was considered vulgar and unthinkable considering the situation. People were hungry all the time now. Some people were even starving.
No one in North America ever envisioned the lands of big sky and bountiful prairie fields to become massive tracts of unproductive wastelands. They were now ugly reminders of a time when bellies were full, so full in fact, that people had to exercise and diet.
No one said the “diet” word anymore either.
Food security was assumed, expected, like a tap that delivered when it was turned on. There was food in the fields, food in the store and food in the cupboard. Then in 2024, a series of events pushed most of the world’s nations into famine.
Climate oscillations triggered climate variability which triggered yield variability.
Climate change had become the tortoise of the fable and it was slowly crossing the finish line first in the battle against environmental disaster.
Bees were on their knees in the fight for their survival and the world had the low yields and harvest failures to prove it. Many countries followed China’s methods and were now reliant upon hand pollination.
Developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America were homes to the vast tracts of monocultures grown to feed the global market, including soy for livestock.
It was an unprecedented alignment of events that became the dominos that fell, one by one, colliding into each other and finally ended with a massive global famine.
You are one of the prepared who accounted for this risk in your planning and preparations.
You learned to garden and save seeds many years before this event. You also created indoor garden space in your garage and home and practiced growing in those conditions in case it wasn’t safe to grow outdoors.
You created a secret garden to supplement your meager food supply. You venture into the parks and back country to forage for food.
The rations supplied by the government provide some nutrition, but your stored food items, plus the indoor and secret gardens give you hope that you and your family can survive this disaster.
Your reverie is interrupted by the commotion outside. You grab your gun and check the security cameras.
There is a man, roughly late 20’s who has breached your fence. He is agitated and yelling something about food. Another desperate one, you think. Were we sloppy with ration handling? Did this guy smell something?
You key the mic. “You are trespassing. Get off this property now.” Your voice booms through the air.
It has no effect on the man who continues yelling. He is saying “Help, please help me. I need a bit of food. Anything, please, I’m begging you.”
Again, you key the mic. “I’m not telling you again. Get off this property now or I will shoot you.
This agitates the man even more and he moves closer to your back door. “No, no, no. Please, you don’t understand, I need help, please, just a bit of food.”
You take aim through your gun port and squeeze the trigger. The man crumples to the ground. You didn’t want to do it, but there are so many of them roaming and looking for food. They are becoming more aggressive and there have been reports of increased violence.
You are getting ready go out and drag the body off your property, when suddenly, there is a shrill cry and a little girl around five years old comes running into the yard. She runs straight toward the man’s body and throws herself upon him. She is crying and wailing.
“Daddy?” “Daddy, wake up!” “Wake up, Daddy.” “Daddy?”
Then little girl suddenly stops and sits silent, still and in shock.
What do you do now?
How would you have handled the situation?
References:
Crop failure risks
Monocropping and harvest failures
Secret garden – growing food in plain sight
The reason for writing this scenario is buried in a response and I would like to clarify that this was not intended in any way for shock value. It is to outline a very real aspect of prepping under conditions when we have prepared and others have not prepared.
It was also written as a commentary on the fragility of our food security. Here is the piece extracted from the replies:
“I posed a similar scenario to some people many years ago, but did it in two stages and under different conditions. It took place in a pandemic. I was truly surprised back then by the answers I received. I did do it a bit differently.
In the first part, I didn’t disclose the child, only the adult male. Some people shot the guy. A few people social distanced and threw him a takeaway bag of food.
Then I posted the second part about the child. I had made reference to increasing violence in that scenario as well as this one. Now this vulnerable child appears and she is at risk of violence.
In the pandemic scenario, some people were prepared to shoot her also.
Others said they would just go out in ppe’s and take the child in, put her in quarantine in case she was a carrier, and then have her stay with them until things could be sorted out.
Back then, I responded, “You just shot her Dad in front of her. Do you think she will want to go with you?”
The responses that were the most chilling, were from people who stated that they would leave her out there to fend for herself alone, amidst the violence.
Those responses came from people who didn’t seem like the kind of folks who would ever respond that way. It was an eye opener.
It got me thinking about building prepping community. When we build prepper community, we are looking at a criteria. I realized back then, that we have to look deeper into how people will react under various conditions.”
In the replies is a link about my friend’s father who was a Hong Kong Vet. The long term starvation aspect was the reason I mentioned it in the replies and then decided to include his story from the Hong Kong Vets Association. It is a riveting account of how a group of young men used guts and ingenuity to survive as POW’s in the notorious Chinese and Japanese POW camps.
These men were starving and maltreated and yet they found ways to eat, improvise medical equipment and endure the brutality of the camps. Ultimately, you will see an incredible story of survival and courage with lessons relevant to this day for anyone who prepares. May we all be as strong.
William Bell Hong Kong Vet POW and Survivor
Read MoreWhat is your favorite thing about being prepared?
Robert LarsonContributor - April 17, 2021 Why do you prep?
What do you get out of being prepared?
Why should others be prepared?
I love the feeling of having stored up food and water so that I could bunker down for a week or two and be fine if needed. It is so comforting.
While this isn’t my picture, I have it saved on my computer as a goal of what I want to accomplish someday. I’m slowly growing my food storage, and hope to make some awesome shelves like this in the future.
Then just as a reminder:
Read More
Neat vine growing robot with potential emergency preparedness applications
JB - April 17, 2021 I watched a cool video on YouTube today about a new robot design that has many potential benefits to emergency preparedness.
The robot is made of a soft plastic or rip resistant nylon and can traverse many different obstacles. I can see this being used in search and rescue operations, emergency surgeries, surveillance, gardening, helping assist people with moving heavy objects, and more.
What are some of the possibilities that you can see with it?
Read MoreHome Invasion – Preparation that could have prevented or changed the outcome
UbiqueContributor - April 15, 2021 Re first post: https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/home-invasion
Let’s look now at what could have been done to prevent or change the outcome of this scene.
The home did not have a security system to alert that four men had approached the property and split into two groups, each heading for an exterior door.
Security cameras wrapped around the house, set with perimeter alarms, infrared and enabled with facial recognition would have alerted the wife who was in the kitchen and possibly the sleeping husband.
She then could have pressed a 911 panic button while simultaneously alerting her husband. He would have been on his feet with a side arm drawn. His wife would have her side arm drawn and ready to defend instead of leaving it upstairs in her purse.
The husband would not have weak core muscles. The family would be healthy, fit and ready to defend with good cardiovascular conditioning.
The front and back doors and their respective door jambs were easily breached. It isn’t difficult to use a pry bar on a wooden door jamb, bypass poor door locks and make entrance through a wood door. Window inserts and sidelight panels that are installed into doors make it that much easier.
Steel door jambs bolted properly into the house with solid steel doors secured by properly fitted and installed dead bolt locks would have been a major deterrent.
Four unmasked men entering your home when it is obvious that the inhabitants of the home are present is a huge red flag that you have now entered a life and death experience.
Thieves usually go out of their way to avoid the inhabitants of a place that they rob. A home invasion may have robbery as part of the motive, but it also implies violence.
The German Shepherd is a protective breed, however, no dog is ever immune to harm. A dog can be a wonderful companion animal or early warning alarm. Any breed can try to defend their human pack, but they are too easily killed. Don’t rely on it as a source of protection.
The husband can hear commotion in the kitchen while he is being overcome. He should know by now that there have been multiple breaches and his wife is also in trouble.
He also knows that there are no guns used to control him, only a knife, gag and zip ties.
As his wife is dragged past him, he notes that she is injured, but lucid and restrained in the same way.
There is only one man watching the two of them. Immediately, he and his wife enact their prepared home invasion response.
She distracts the male guarding them with a fit of coughing while he removes a bobby pin from the waistband of his pants. He removes the coated tip from the bobby pin and wedges it between the interlocking teeth and ratchet of the zip tie.
He learned this technique and others by reading Clint Emerson’s books “100 Deadly Skills” and “100 Deadly Skills The Survival Edition.”
Because they have prepared, his wife can reasonably anticipate what her husband will do and jumps up to further distract the man who is watching them. This allows her husband time to respond and disable the intruder from behind and neutralize him.
There are three men upstairs who are able to attack the unsuspecting children because both children used noise cancelling headphones. Anything that disables part of your senses creates an opportunity for an intruder or assailant to attack you. If worn, headphones need to allow for hearing.
In a prepared family, the children would not be wearing headphones, they would have both heard their mother yelling “Dave,” their family code word for intruder in the house, get out now, no questions asked, leave your BOB, get to the neighbors and call for help. They would have had a chance to open their bedroom windows selected for a rapid open and egress design and exit the upstairs via their individual fire escape ladders.
The children would have known to escape at the first sound of trouble even without the family code word for an intruder because they were prepared.
The wallet and purse were easy to find and should have been put away out of sight. It could have bought them more time to react.
In the scenario, the unprepared husband and wife know their children have been harmed because of the commotion upstairs. The children are not with the three men who come downstairs.
The husband was given a pen to write down his info. His hands were zip tied in front of him. He could have used a ploy of saying something in a very low tone to encourage the man closest to him to bend lower. They were gagged so it would involve removing the gag to understand him.
Once the man was positioned, the husband had the option of stabbing him in the throat at the soft part above the v notch that marks the windpipe or in the eye with the pen. A swift upper cut to the jaw with his elbow or double palm strike upwards below the nose would neutralize that one long enough to go for the next man.
Zip tied arms in front of him could become a weapon simply by capturing the next man over the head from behind. A choke would take too long, but rapidly sawing back and forth, with a focus on the carotid artery would ensure a five minute departure for the second man as he bled out.
Once his wife saw him attacking the second man and using him as a barrier against the third man, she could go after the fourth man.
When he moved to restrain her, she jumped on his feet and threw her body weight against him, knocking him on the ground. Once down, she reverted to a feral response and used her teeth as a weapon and tore into the soft tissue of his carotid artery in order to stop him. The fourth man must now keep pressure on his artery or he dies faster.
She runs to the fireplace and rubs the zip tie back and forth across the sharp stone in order to free her hands. Then she grabs a heavy dining room chair and bashes it over the head of the third man who is fighting with her husband. Together they overpower him and run out of the house to find their children at the pre-arranged safe houses with their neighbors.
In the distance, the sound of sirens draw closer.
A prepared family avoids trouble through good interior and exterior security enhancements. They have a code word and plan for trouble in the home. The know how to overcome restraints. They have weapons throughout the house that can be deployed if they are caught unawares. Their preparedness allows them to always work as a team. The children know what to do and do it according to the plan. They know that in a matter of life or death, feral action is warranted.
They knew to recognize the severity of unmasked intruders who entered their home while they were at home. The unmasked aren’t trying to hide their identity, which means they intend to kill you.
Read MoreWhat a cat burglar learned about preparedness
UbiqueContributor - April 14, 2021 In the early 1970’s in North Vancouver BC, the Vancouver Province newspaper published an edition with a special section that was dedicated to Bruce, a local man who was a well known and an accomplished martial artist.
Bruce lived on the fifth storey of a luxury apartment building.
One night Bruce awoke to unfamiliar sounds in his living room. He grabbed his training katana (sword) which was made of bamboo.
There was no need for Bruce to get dressed because he slept in his Gi (martial artist uniform).
Bruce peered into the living room and discovered a cat burglar on his knees rifling through the entertainment center cabinet.
Bruce sprang into action. The cat burglar, who was unaware that anyone was up, startled so badly at the sound of Bruce’s kiyup (loud yell) and the sight of a man in full martial arts dress swinging a bamboo sword down on him, that he soiled himself. His bowel and bladder both had the good sense to get out of there.
Bruce’s movements were rapid. Smack! Smack, smack, smack! The blows were meant to hurt, but not knock out the burglar.
Bruce told the burglar not to move while he exchanged his training katana for one of his actual Samurai swords. He now held that sword over the burglar.
There was a telephone on the entertainment center cabinet.
“Call the police and tell them what you have done and for them to come and get you,” Bruce ordered the burglar.
There was no argument from the burglar. He wanted out of that apartment. So he called the local police station (this was in pre 911 days). The conversation went something like this:
Burglar: “I’m at ____________. I tried to rob the place. There’s a man with a sword standing over me. He told me to call you. Please come and get me!”
Police: “Yeah, right buddy. Go sleep it off.” Click. That was the sound of the phone hanging up.
Burglar to Bruce: “They hung up on me!”
Bruce: Smack. “Call them back.”
Again, the terrified cat burglar called the police station.
Burglar: “I’m not drunk. Please pick me up.”
Police: “Stop calling here or we’ll charge you for making crank calls to us.”
Click. Smack.
The cat burglar didn’t wait for Bruce to tell him. He dialed the police station again.
Burglar: “Please, come and arrest me. This isn’t a crank call.”
By now the cat burglar was openly weeping into the phone. He wanted out of that apartment and away from Bruce, who was standing over him like a big avenging white clad statue. He also wanted to get away from the very sharp and shiny Samurai sword held by the angry statue. He had seen what he could do with the wooden sword. He didn’t want to find out what he could do with the metal one now in his hands.
This time, the policeman who answered was fed up with the burglar’s calls. The police traced the call despite being given the address because they were convinced it was a crank call.
An officer arrived and knocked on the door.
“Come in.” Bruce’s girlfriend, who had remained out of sight in the bedroom, opened the door.
The officer entered a bizarre scene in a nicely appointed suite that smelled like a toilet due to the burglar who was on his knees and sobbing into an entertainment center while a man in a white gi stood over him with a big sword.
The hapless cat burglar was arrested. Finally.
I wonder if he was scared straight by his encounter with Bruce?
Bruce took preparedness to a whole other level.
Read MoreWhere do precious metals fit in with your preps?
Paulino Martin - April 13, 2021 I’ve been considering buying some gold or silver to protect myself a little against the collapse of the dollar and other economical downturns.
Do any of you have physical gold or silver as part of your preps? How much and in what sizes do you recommend? When and how do you think gold and silver will be used as a type of currency?
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Germinating seeds with an Instant Pot. Has anyone tried this?
Josh CentersContributor - April 13, 2021 Smithsonian Magazine ran this short article on germinating seeds with an Instant Pot. I believe I’ve tracked the original source to this YouTube video.
I’m wondering if anyone on the forum has tried this? Basically, you moisten a paper towel, lay on seeds, fold it over, shove it in a zip bag, and then use the yogurt setting of the Instant Pot to deliver low, steady heat to make heat-loving seeds germinate faster.
I’m planning to try this with basil and maybe bean seeds.
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