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Visual guide to bug bites

This is oversimplified but I thought it was a useful graphic if you’re spending time outside right now.

Does it seem right to you?

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bug bites

Portable solar and power banks best practices?

I admit, I’m starting this thread to highlight a comment I made here (hoping to get it noticed and get answers.)

https://theprepared.com/gear/reviews/portable-solar-chargers/

I wound up getting the Big Blue but for my home, to charge small devices. I have a few questions on this topic.

1) If we’re not supposed to fry our phone battery by putting it in direct sunlight, why is it okay to fry the battery… Read More

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Handheld ultraviolet light sanitizers

I recently read a review on these sanitizers and I was curious if anyone knows if these are any good for cleaning bacteria and Protozoa from water?

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Requests for research?

Hi, I’ve lurked the site for a while after discovering it on a subreddit some time ago, and I’ve since found it to be the most unbiased, fact-based resource on preparation, like, anywhere. In fact some of the advice here helped me and several friends and their families to ride out the rough early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in relative ease, so thanks for that as well.

On to my question: Is there a way to request research/articles about certain topics that might not have been covered yet but could be useful for the… Read More

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If you have checklists, do you have triggers for using them?

I’m a huge proponent of checklists.  As the Texas coast may experience some tropical weather later this week, I pulled out mine and made sure I was comfortable with my pre-set trigger for the Level A checks in the list.

Do you use pre-determined triggers for your… Read More

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Thinking ahead: second order impacts?

With the realization that there is still a lot of uncertainty (both with the trajectory of the virus and people’s behaviors towards it) I’m curious what types of second order impacts (or third/fourth order impacts, at this point) might be in store for us.

For example: if stay at home orders persist, or people’s choices leave them at home (voluntary telework, etc.) more this summer – presumably everyone will be running their A/C on hot days, rather than leaving it off while at work.  Would that increase the strain on the electrical grid as compared to “normal” conditions and thereby increase the odds of rolling brownouts,… Read More

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About that IFAK tourniquet

Does your kit have one? I’m a bit mystified by the emphasis on this piece of equipment, perhaps because neither firearms nor big hikes are part of my life. My Red Cross and NOLS courses haven’t emphasized a tourniquet — even kind of discouraged it. But the perfectionist in me is conflicted. Why should a suburbanite like me consider investing in a tourniquet?

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Family planning or avoiding pregnancy in a pandemic

Howdy, I’m Catnip and I teach couples how to chart their fertility naturally to avoid or assist in achieve in getting pregnant. As pretty much all of us know if the power goes out or the stores are empty getting to an app or a pharmacy becomes an issue very fast. Even getting into the doctor’s office as we have seen the last 5 months can be an issue.

So what do you do when you can’t access condoms, hormonal birth control or you want to get an IUD or copper coil? You learn to chart. Some folks use an app, but that’s not reliable for reasons including the above power issue, but more importantly 90% of apps are calender based methods – counting or rhythm… Read More

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What do you think about “news” roundups on the TP blog?

I’m Jon, editor of the TP blog. We try to keep general news off of The Prepared. But there were times, like with COVID (where we were one of the first in the West to ring the alarm bells about it), where it seems worthy to talk about news in a prepping context.

We’re trying to figure out where the balance is. How much “news” do you want?

We’re planning to reduce the COVID “Key Developments” posts to about twice a week, but I wanted to take the forum’s temperature on this. We don’t (yet) have polling support in here, but if we did I’d post a poll with the following… Read More

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Do you think the media should be showing more visual imagery of the medical consequences of COVID?

I’d love to hear if you disagree, but it seems like the mainstream media has been holding back on showing sensitive medical images/videos of what it’s like with COVID and how nuts things are in certain hospitals.

(This is not a political/tribal discussion, eg. Fox News vs. Mother Jones.)

It’s understandable in normal times that this would be distasteful, but these aint normal times and a major problem in society is a culture of people who seem to not comprehend all of the… Read More

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Air Purifier for Small Office/Home

Any recommendations for air purifiers/filters that are effective in ‘vacuuming’ the coronavirus? Aware that it may only be a small percent if any at all in filtering out a room. But friends and family are returning to work, and anything would be considered if it helps. Any experience with these?

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What the media didn’t understand about toilet paper hoarding

Not only was it aggravating that some media referred to the people panic buying as “preppers”… but they all seem baffled by why people were stocking up on toilet paper.

Here’s my theory. I poop in my home less often than I poop at my work or other places. So does my wife and our kids mostly do their business at school. I did not yet have a stock of toilet paper in my preps. So when this all started going down, I knew I wanted to go stock up… but I honestly had no idea just how much my family would use when we are all at home 24/7 for… Read More

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Contact-free grocery shopping and prepping

I know that many items have limits, say 2 of this, or one of that. I was going to the store physically less than once a month and getting as much of any item that I could get or needed, except toilet paper, which I have alternatives for, mostly. I try to not take things that other people might need more. That being said, for anyone who does InstaCart, do you notice differences in limits on how much you can purchase at once, or are your purchases being tracked so that if you do it once a week, it becomes obvious that you are trying to stockpile for shtf? Does it even matter? New-to-Instacart question. My question is not “how to do InstaCart” but “how to do InstaCart when one is prepping for more than a week’s worth of stuff”?

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Masking little kids

Will your smallest children wear masks? Have you found particular products (either masks or faceshields) that work best for little kids? How about motivational techniques to help kids want to wear masks?

In many places, mask mandates apply to kids over age 2. When schools try to reopen in the fall, they are also likely to require masks, but it’s unclear which products are best for kids or how to get them to… Read More

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Preps of shame?

So, I was loading three empty 5 gallon gasoline jerry cans into the back of my Toyo last night, strategically pre-placed so that, should I need to GTFOH, I can quickly double my range with 15 gallons of extra fuel from the corner station before we slip away towards the horizon as NYC goes all Snake Plissken in my rearview. Amaze-balls, right?

But then I had this thought, “Um, maybe this is overkill? Or even misguided? Am I killing too much gear space for potentially unneeded fuel? Am I just… Read More

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Recommendations for Worksheets or Planning Sheets?

I admit it, I’m a list person. I like writing everything down and having it neatly organized in a binder. Logically, I know that apps and spreadsheets (which are totally my work life) are more efficient and more easily updated, but still, I get a thrill from actually checking a box or writing out a plan. Before I go all Type A and recreate the wheel – does anybody have recommendations for good preppier printables? Checklists are easy to find, but also looking for scenario evaluation and threat assessment. Something along the lines of “I live in this area, my threats are xyz, threat y has the highest probability, threat x is less probable, but also requires less prep, threat z has low probability, but requires high prep effort.”

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How to help normalize general preparedness?

I find myself circling around the topic of “what can I do” to help educate and/or convert others as this global pandemic is a sort of a near perfect case study in why it’s not “crazy” to prepare at least a little.

To share my personal time-line:

I started paying attention to the “new virus” around January 17 when it showed up on The Prepared on a couple of blog… Read More

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Advice/suggestions on tents?

Hi everyone,

I am about to start researching tents for a camping trip. I would like it to be dual purpose so I can include it as part of my “prep supplies”. Anyone have any advice on specific brands, what I should consider as I look at tents, etc?

Thanks in… Read More

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Concealed carry while wearing a backpack?

I’m just about done with my level 3 BOB, and as I’ve been thinking things through I realized I have no idea how I would carry a concealed pistol while wearing a pack with a hip belt. The only thing I can think of that seems practical would be to carry it in a pouch attached to the hip belt itself, though presumably that would severely limit my ability to draw the gun quickly, even with a pouch designed for concealed carry. Stowing the pistol in the pack itself strikes me as a no-go. What do you guys think? Does anyone have experience with a situation like this? I’m curious to hear whatever solutions the rest of you in the community have come up with.

FWIW, my carry gun for a bug out scenario is a Glock 19, for which I have both IWB and OWB… Read More

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How do you (safely) access the water in your water heater in case of outage?

When talking about water preparedness I always hear that we should take into account the 30 or 40 or however many gallons of water stored in our water heater. I mean that if the water goes out we can drain the water heater for drinking, washing, and whatever other vital uses. But for a person like me, who’s not very handy or knowledgeable about repairs, I have no idea how to drain my water heater except in the normal way, by running the hot water in my faucet. Can anybody provide any guides or links to guides where I might learn?

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Emergency radio

I looked through the gear recs and didn’t see one specifically for an NOAA radio/charger.  I did see the information on Ham radio. But if someone’s not there yet and would like an emergency radio in their kit, any specifics ones people like?

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Turns out an old wives tale about magic soil from an Irish church was real

Found this while looking for positive stories, haha. Since the early 1800s, the people in a town in Northern Ireland called Boho thought the soil from a nearby church had healing powers. They would put some dirt under their pillow when they were sick, and the folklore was that it would heal you.

A scientist tested the soil a few years back and it turns out to have strong antibacterial properties. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-46651702

It got me wondering if there are other examples of survival folklore actually being… Read More

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If you just started gardening or raising chickens/rabbits, how has it gone?

It’s been on my prepper wish list for a long time, but I haven’t done it yet. I saw the news stories about how covid caused a lot of people to suddenly jump into growing or raising their own food. I’m guessing it’s not as easy as people might have thought when they rushed into it in a panic.

So I’m curious… if this was you, how is it going?

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