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Which Go Bag backpack(s) do you like and why?

Lowell - August 2, 2021

A couple months ago, I bought myself a 5.11 RUSH72 so that I could get started on my GB. I had spent a couple hours looking through the recommendations in the 45-55L premium section of this article, but gave up after feeling overwhelmed by a combination of the lack of reviews, the prices, and the lack of off-the-shelf internal organization compared to the RUSH72.

Although an OK stop-gap, the RUSH72 doesn’t seem like the right fit for me. I went on a 9 mile hike yesterday, and my back/shoulders were killing me. I originally had attachments set up like in the photo below, and then my partner advised me to move these to the sides of the backpack which was a big help!

However, even after that, I couldn’t get the back to fit right. I think a big part of this is that I cant cinch the waist straps down tightly enough; I’ve got a ~35″ waist, and the tightest these straps went still left some room. Somewhat relatedly, my buddy has the same pack, and the buckle broke just from tightening it! Also, the straps are notably less smooth than my Osprey Atmos AG.

The Best bug out bag survival backpack article isn’t quite as sharply opinionated as others on this site in terms of *exactly* which options people prefer and for what reasons, so I’m opening it up to y’all: Which Go Bag backpack(s) do like and why?

Thought I’d post two articles I had published by FMG several years back. “Knives for the Field” and BMBG “Bare Minimum Go Bag”

Kakuli470 - July 29, 2021

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:e616883e-223e-4a36-bd67-27afc18bc07d

AdviceGearScenarios

How to prevent and treat heat exhaustion

Gideon ParkerStaff - July 18, 2021

Yesterday I attended an outdoor graduation ceremony and was outside in 80+ (27C)degree weather for 2-3 hours. I sunblocked up, wore long jeans, a cotton t shirt, and a baseball cap. I had brought plenty of snacks and drank so much water during those few hours and it wasn’t until I went to the bathroom and got out of the direct sunlight that I realized how hot I was. I hung out in the shade for about 30 minutes to cool down before heading back out there.

Now I am more prone to heat exhaustion because of my spinal cord injury. I guess when ½ of your body isn’t functioning properly, it can’t regulate temperature as well as an able bodied person. If you are younger than 4, older than 65, obese, or are on certain medications you can be more prone to heat exhaustion as well.

I felt fine all day and came home and felt fine when I went to bed. It’s during the night that the heat exhaustion finally kicked in. I wore a hoodie, slept under the sheets and comforter, and was still freezing cold. I woke up around 4:30am and felt like I had a fever of 105! My entire body was so hot, I could have cooked an egg on my leg. I stripped down to just a sheet and after a while was able to get to bed again once my body wasn’t cooking itself.

This morning I feel achy, cold, shivering, dizzy, fatigued, and have a headache.

Here’s what I’m going to be doing today to try and feel better:

Took some ibuprofen to lower my fever and help with the aches Drinking a ton of water Drinking coconut water (not as processed as Gatorade, natural sugars, tons of electrolytes) Apples are so delicious with how juicy they are and the sugars inside Taking some magnesium supplements to replenish those electrolytes. Wearing cool and loose clothes. Although I am shivering pretty badly so I am wearing a hoodie again.

Here’s what I am going to do next time to be more prepared and prevent this from happening:

Wear white or lighter colored clothing Bring a small umbrella for shade Wear a better hat with 360 degree protection instead of just protecting the front like a baseball hat does Bring a bandanna and wet it and apply that to my skin to promote evaporation Wear shorts and some sandals

In Argentina they have a tradition of taking a siesta during the hottest part of the day. All businesses shut down from like 12:00-2:00 or 3:00pm and everyone goes home and they take a nap, watch TV, and just conserve their energy. They then go back to work and reopen for a couple more hours. They have things down and understand to take it easy during the hottest parts of the day.

Be careful out there with the temperatures increasing as summer comes.

Did I miss anything? What do you do to stay cool during the summer?

AdviceScenariosSkills

How I became a newbie ham radio operator (during a pandemic)

Jonnie PekelnyContributor - July 14, 2021

I want to tell you what it’s been like over the last few months becoming a ham radio operator, which I did mainly for prepping purposes and with no previous background in engineering or other related subjects. I didn’t have a lot of money to throw at this project, and I wasn’t interested in a new, time consuming hobby, so my approach has been a minimalist one. In fact, for a long time I assumed that ham radio would inevitably become an expensive rabbit hole and so ruled it out for myself, concentrating instead on getting a simple NOAA radio. But then some of you on this site clued me in to the fact that it was possible to get by with a relatively cheap handheld ham radio and that there were courses and materials to help people prepare for the FCC amateur radio license tests.

Studying for the Exam

If I was going to own a ham radio, I definitely wanted to get licensed with the FCC. Currently, the lowest level of license for amateur radio operation in the US is the technician’s license. This is the minimum qualification necessary to transmit on amateur radio. (Unlicensed operators can only listen).

Passing the technician’s exam involves taking a test comprised of 35 questions on which you have to score a minimum of 75%. The questions concern various subjects such as basic electromagnetic theory (Ohm’s Law), safety, amateur radio etiquette, etc. I used two main sets tools to study for the test.

The first was the HAM CRAM course offered by outdoorcore.com for $49. It promises that students can go from zero to license in six hours using the course. (A blog post from the creator explains how to study for the ham radio exam.) The course took me longer, primarily because it uses a lot of mnemonics to memorize information that might be on the test, but I’m a person who learns best by getting some understanding of what I’m studying, so I frequently delved into various subjects more than the course would encourage me. The other tools, which work in tandem with the ham cram, are the flashcards and practice quizzes at hamstudy.org/tech2018.

All in all, I spent several weeks (maybe three?) doing a little studying on most days. The studying was comprised of going through the ham cram modules and doing a lot of practice exams, as well as occasionally looking up terms and explanations on the internet. I also had one or two Zoom calls with Joe Bassett (W1WCN), the creator of the course. It certainly took me far longer than six hours, but I never felt overwhelmed or inundated.

Call me obsessive, but one of the things that helped me most to get my practice test scores up was going through every single flashcard in the total pool of 400 and something and reviewing every answer I got wrong. After doing that, my test scores went up dramatically until, by the end, I was routinely getting scores in the mid to high 90s.

I must say that getting up to speed with the test did not make me feel that I had learned electromagnetic theory or that I would immediately be able to sit down and operate a ham radio. Apparently, that’s okay. Joe says that the test doesn’t measure aptitude for operation, so much as it does aptitude for learning.

Taking the Technician’s Exam (During the Pandemic)

After the studying comes the exam itself. First you have to find a radio club or other organization that administers the exam and sign up for one of their sessions. (The club charges some money for this — I believe $10 in my case and the FCC also charges $15 for issuing the license). I found my session through hamstudy.org. My test was administered by GLAARG (Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group), about which I had read positive reviews.

Taking the exam during the pandemic is a surreal and painstaking experience. I can’t speak to how it was done in the “before times,” but apparently it was usually in a large classroom. During covid though, people have to take the exam remotely and all manner of mechanisms are put in place to make sure that nobody cheats. The clubs display a plethora of rules for test takers on their pages, some of them in bold and red, looking rather intimidating. The rules try to exert as much control as possible over the remote test environment. There are rules about cameras, calculators, mouse devices and room setup — and the rules are not the same for every club!

To begin with, you have to take the exam in a space with no pets and no other people and one with a closing door. The space also has to be free of clutter. All these requirements together immediately ruled out most spaces in my house, as they do for a lot of people. (I considered doing the test in the kitchen, but it has no door.) Many of the organizations that hold these exam sessions helpfully suggested doing the test in the bathroom, which I actually did!

Many organizations administering the exam require the use of two cameras — one pointing at your head and the other at your hands, to make sure you don’t cheat. I did set up two cameras (by attaching my cell phone to the back of a chair with a rubber band!), but it turned out that GLAARG was a little less paranoid than most clubs and only required one camera.

Exam takers are let into the general Zoom session in the order they asked to be admitted, so it’s good to come to the session early to avoid a long wait. First stop after being admitted is the breakout room where an officer of the club explains how the test will proceed and then does a preliminary inspection of the space with each applicant, one at a time. We had to point our camera at the ceiling and swivel it all around the room (bathroom, in my case) to let the examiners see that there are no papers hanging around with answers to test questions. The examiner looked at our computer and our mouse. We were also told earlier not to look away from the screen in any manner that would suggest that we are looking somewhere or to someone for answers.

After this introduction we were let in one by one, each to our private exam room. Three examiner observers were present there for each one of us. They performed a second inspection of the space, much like the first. After this, the test itself was straightforward and proceeded in the same format as the study quizzes, which were familiar to me by then. The examiners are there to monitor the test takers and give them instructions. The actual test, once you start it, is administered by the software itself and looks very much like the practice quizzes with exactly the same wording of the questions. The online test is also graded immediately by the software, so you know right away if you passed and how many answers you got wrong. I was happy to pass with a pretty high score. From there all I had to do was wait a few days for the FCC to issue me my license and call sign. That was exciting.

These Are Not Your Childhood Walkie Talkies

I got my technician’s license in January. By this time I had two handheld radios in my possession (the Yaesu FT-60R and the BaoFeng BF-F8HP) which I had been asked to review, so I had to learn how to use them first. Here’s one thing to consider if you’re thinking about getting a ham radio: these are not your childhood walkie talkies, or even a CB radio your parents may have had in their car if you’re of a certain age. If you are getting a ham radio for use in emergencies, don’t think that you’ll be able to pull it out with minimal skills and training and start using it on the spot. You don’t need to become an expert at ham radio, but you do need to learn at least basic use of your equipment and practice with it with actual people.

Having to write a review of my handhelds had its pluses and minuses for me. On one hand it meant that I really had to learn the ins and outs of these two radios, which I might not have done to quite such an extent if I was just learning to use them for myself. On the other hand, I learned a lot. Mainly, I read the manuals for both radios, played with the knobs and buttons and asked Joe Bassett lots of questions, some over email and some over Zoom. Having him to mentor me has been extremely helpful.

At the end of the day I will be keeping the Yaesu FT-60R. I have also been playing with the Echolink app on my smartphone. Echolink software allows licensed ham radio operators to communicate over the internet. I was initially skeptical about the value of this. Don’t we have email and chat and social media for that now, not to mention Zoom? But it turns out it has its uses.

On a purely frivolous note it’s kind of fun to tune into stations across the globe and hear ham operators talking to each other in Afrikaans or listen in on a meeting of hams in Australia. It’s a different slice of life than you might find on websites or on social media. Also, however, Echolink allows me to connect to remote stations and participate in activities with groups which my little handheld radio could never reach on its own.

Finding Fellow Hams and Training

It turns out that, once you get your license and learn to use your radio, no delegation from the local ham radio community shows up at your doorstep to welcome you to the club and offer training. Far from it!

My interest in ham is primarily from the angle of emergency preparedness. In my area I had to dig around the local resources to find who coordinates the local ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) group. This turned out not to be so easy. The local clubs have not been forthcoming with that information. In fact the local clubs have been haphazard (to put it generously) in their responses of any sort to me. If I ask several questions, they sometimes respond with enthusiasm, but no answers and sometimes not at all.

The gist of what I’ve gotten from the main ham radio club in my area is that I should join it before I get any information about what it offers or how it’s connected to ARES. To be honest this does not make me want to cough up $40/year to join! Apparently, this kind of lack of communication and followthrough is not uncommon.

With the help of my mentor I eventually did find the weekly ARES net (meeting of ham radio operators on the radio) and have been participating in it as time allows — without joining any clubs. The level of training offered by the local ARES is disappointing, however. It essentially consists of roll call over the local repeater (an amateur radio repeater is a station that amplifies and retransmits signals, allowing radios with weak signals a much wider radius of communication). The same roll call is then performed on a simplex frequency (simplex refers to direct communication on a radio frequency, not using a repeater). It’s good for a raw beginner, but doesn’t seem terribly useful for learning how to handle myself on the radio in an emergency.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to join an ARES group in Florida that IS doing some training. (This is where Echolink has been most useful.) Now, you might think, Florida? Don’t you live in California, Jonnie? I do. But training is training on a certain level. If I can learn how to follow protocol in an emergency, I might be of some use to my local hams when one comes.

In Conclusion

To sum it all up: is it possible for a person with no special previous training to become minimally proficient as a ham without spending a huge amount of money or time? Yes. Is it going to be as easy as the pros say it will be? Probably not. At least for me, ham radio did for a while take up most of my prepping time and energy, but now I think I’m coming to the end of that. Should you just get a radio and not worry about licensing or training? DEFINITELY NOT. At the very least, get your technician’s license and learn the basics of how to use your radio before an emergency strikes. Also, be aware that ham radio is a social activity and requires entry into a different culture. You will have to scope out the new turf and learn the rules, even if you do it very part time. Is it worth it? You will have to decide for yourself. For me it has been, and it’s stretched my mind.

Jonnie

KN6NHL

AdviceSkills

Airline travel, what carry on preps do you all include?

CR - July 14, 2021

Hi All! With travel resuming (I traveled throughout last year domestically too, fun, creepy, empty airports) I thought I’d ask the question of what all you travel with on an airplane, specifically carry on. Usually due to space & weight constraints my preps don’t go much beyond proper clothing, etc. for the journey & destination, but I kinda always feel exposed without some goodies that are prohibited on the plane, so what do you all do? Also I’m a little gal, so can’t load up too heavily or I’d look like a turtle.

Stocking a pet first aid kit with meds

pnwsarahContributor - July 8, 2021

Hi Prepping Friends,

I have a tiny bit of spare time to give to prepping today, and I decided to go through my dog’s first aid kit and make a “DFAK” kit in kit builder. (Inspiration: I got a tick a couple of weeks ago, which my friend successfully removed with her intense survival knife, and while her ability to do that without leaving any tick head parts in my leg or making me bleed was impressive, it was pretty stressful for both of us, and I felt dumb when I realized later that I had a purpose-built item in my DFAK… and when you don’t remember what preps you have, odds are good your memory isn’t the only thing that needs to be refreshed.) Turns out, lots of things had expired, the Vaseline had leaked everywhere, I had two bottles of eye wash in there for some reason, and all the vet contact info I had was for animal hospitals in a state where I no longer live. Good dog, bad prepper!

The real bummer is the several expired prescription pain medications I had left over from various veterinary procedures and mishaps— which in turn has made me realize that, short of hanging onto these until they expire, I don’t really know what pain medications I should (or even could) be keeping in my DFAK. Certain OTC drugs for people are safe for dogs, like Pepcid AC and Benadryl, but those are for GI upset and allergies, and most household anti-inflammatories are actually lethal to pets. So… what happens if SHTF and you need a canine painkiller?

As it happens, my dog is getting a check-up next week, so I can ask our vet what suite of medications she would recommend keeping on hand for emergencies, and if there is any way to get them without a prescription— or if one can just get a prescription for as-needed use, or if there is even any point, since a safe-to-use painkiller will not address the pain from a serious injury, and/or because in the absence of definitive care, we need the evidence of pain to asses whether the patient’s condition is improving or not (sounds terrible, I know, but field medicine is probably really different when your patients are non-verbal). I will post what I learn on this thread. In the meantime, though, I’m betting that there are some folks out there who are as hardcore about pet parenting as they are about prepping— and/or some vets or techs— who may have given these questions and tradeoffs some thought. So… what meds do you keep for your dogs? What should I ask my vet about?

Looking forward to receiving your collective thoughts and wisdom, as always!

🔥 Is it heat exhaustion or heat stroke? 🔥

Jay ValenciaContributor - July 5, 2021

I’ve read a few articles about the heat wave some of us are currently living with. It’s not super bad where I am, but it’s definitely not fun. I found this while looking for warning signs since I’ve been wearing a mask so often.

Got any hot weather tips?

I’ve heard spicy food is actually a good idea to stay cool?

NRG-5 Emergency Rations: What do you think?

César López - June 29, 2021

Some time ago I was talking to a friend of mine who had recently bought a box of BP-ER Emergency Food.

https://www.amazon.es/Emergency-Exteriores-campamentos-Supervivencia-situaciones/dp/B07NPWBN1V

By this time I was doing my research on emergency food as well, but I thought that NRG-5 Emergency Rations where better:

https://www.amazon.es/Tactical-OPS-Alimentos-Emergencia-Emergency/dp/B08WCQ8MGV/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1&keywords=nrg-5&qid=1617536159&sr=8-12

My friend got the BP-ER because he had read that they tasted better and had better long-life (Althought the lot of NRG-5 I bought lasted even more than him’s). I bet for the NRG-5 because they had better nutritional values that other rations (I mean, minerals and vitamins).

We could met and tasted them. My friend was right, BP-ER are tastier (as long as emergency food could be) and they had better looking than NRG-5. We tried to feed the ducks at the park we were meeting and they seemed to dislike both of them. On the other hand, my 2-year-old girl, love them.

I’m still with the NRG-5 because of the nutritional values. The only thing that really bothers me about the NRG-5 is that they are not Coast Guard approved. I checked this using the instructions you gave in this post:

https://theprepared.com/gear/reviews/ration-bars/

Resuming: Does anybody tried NRG-5 and, if you do, what do you think about them?

Thank you very much.

Heat wave vs my food/water stores

Lowell - June 27, 2021

It’s gonna be real darn warm in Seattle/Puget Sound. The water storage article says that heat is one of the main enemies of water storage, and I can’t find the spec right now but remember reading that upgrade pick for food supply is best stored between something like 50 and 65 degrees F.

My home, like many in Seattle, has no A/C — should I expect my food & water stores to go bad? The water I can change out post-heatwave (a hassle, but possible), but the food stores can only be replaced by re-purchasing. As climate change continues, I expect temperature changes to become more extreme, and I don’t know how to mitigate the effect of these temperature changes against my food/water stores without a full HVAC system.

Fun ways to teach kids outdoor/survival skills

Jay ValenciaContributor - June 27, 2021

I have three kids ages 7(female), 10(male), and 12(female). I grew up in boy scouts and loved learning different skills such as tying knots, camping, starting fires, cooking, etc…

What are some fun activities that I can do to get these kids off the couch and teach them a skill that can maybe save their life someday, create memories, and get their little brains working?

Survival, prepping and ageing (and we are all ageing)

UbiqueContributor - June 21, 2021

I keep a running list of prep related topics on my desk, beside my computer. Ideas and thoughts are jotted down and crossed off as they are written about.

This topic has been on my list for a while now. I tried ignoring it and even regretted noting it. I didn’t want to write about survival, prepping and ageing as the sole domain of a 55 plus topic.

I added “and we are all ageing” to the topic title, because this topic is for all of you, regardless of your age. Every day, we all age.

I wanted this post to be for everyone because every day if you are alive, you are ageing. The issue of ageing is one that must be considered by preppers. There will be needs and priorities that change with age and this will affect how you prep.

None of us know how long we are going to live nor how we are going to age as time passes.

We hope to remain vital and independent, until one day, when we are really old, they roll us out of our home feet first and straight to a funeral home. Instead of a long drawn out death in a care home or hospital, our bodies had the good sense to pack it in while we slept, thereby avoiding any pain or awareness of our death.

Some days when I feel much younger than my years, I think my final, feisty words to the ambulance attendant will be “not without my BOB.”

It is necessary to understand how ageing affects us from without and within in order to prepare and cope with the changes that happen as we age.

Age is relative, like money, power and beauty. The similarity among all of them ends there.

Age marches steadily on from the time of our birth. Regardless of our place in society, power, beauty, wealth or lack of thereof, age is the great leveller on the playing field we call “life.”

There is also the issue of ageism to contend with. One day life is normal but one birthday too many, and people are treating you like the village idiot.

Ageism is usually accompanied by its nasty buddy, patronization. For those who haven’t had the joy of this experience, just wait. The first time someone calls you “ma’am” or “sir,” your head will spin around to look for whom they are talking to.

One day you will hear the words “at your age” or “you’re doing well for your age” directed at you. Those words aren’t compliments. You have just been categorized and neatly filed away into someone’s mental “cabinet of preconceived notions.”

At that moment, you will realize that people are making judgements about you because of how you look. It will hurt because you know they will go no further to actually get to know you. You have just lost a part of your identity and entered a shadow world, where the aged are treated differently and often barely tolerated.

You also realize that it is happening sooner than you thought it would.

There is a part of you that worries about how you will now be regarded in a disaster by preppers and non-preppers alike. It is what I call the “ice flow” moment, where you see yourself gently floating down the water on a chunk of ice because the tribe of survivors no longer considers you of any value.

Age does not necessarily bring wisdom any more than youth experiences the best years of their lives. But age can bring experience, depending on the life one has lived. The history of the person, their experience, is the greatest teacher. If they happen to be wise and can offer insight about their experience, consider it a bonus. Not everyone learns from their experiences.

It’s amazing how age can assert itself when you least expect it.

When my husband and I work on projects outdoors, people notice. This time I actually had a neighbor from the senior’s apartment across the street comment: “I don’t know how you do it. I could never care for a property the way you do.”

It was nice to hear the compliment, but he doesn’t realize how conscious we are that everything we are able to do today could be gone tomorrow. One stroke, or other health issue could change everything. That is true for all of us regardless of our current age.

In the last several days, I planted annuals and we put in a 7-foot garden fence. It was a long, nonstop push to “get ‘er done” before the forecasted high heat arrives. We lugged heavy weight, shovelled and drove posts in with a post pounder.

As I drove the post pounder down, I wondered should I be doing this at my age? It’s a ridiculous question. Instead, I chose to focus the sheer joy of physical labor in the fresh air.

“Should I be doing this at my age” is a question that you will find yourself asking throughout your life. It originates from the “committee in your head.” They are an opinionated, judgmental little group consisting of every negative comment ever directed at us or that we have directed toward ourselves. It is criticism and judgement personified.

As I worked outside the years fell away, and I felt like I could do this forever, that is until I stopped working for the day. That’s when the pain and reality set in. Then I rested and went out and did it all over again the next day. The alternative is to give up the pieces of myself that function because of muscle soreness and a cranky back.

One of the hard parts about ageing is observing how your peers are ageing. I look at people in my peer group and it isn’t so much about how they look. It is more about how old they act. It’s like they have given up on living and are just waiting around to die. They are teaching me because of how they are choosing to live through their experience of ageing.

Prepping as we age is about adaptation. It is knowing when to adapt in our youth in order to avoid injury that can cause problems like osteoarthritis later in life.

In the garden, I realized that the raised beds need to be raised much higher, like trug style planters for salad type crops. I need to alleviate the strain on a prematurely arthritic back. (Note, you can acquire physical conditions that are normally considered age related at a much earlier stage of life.)

I use positional changes as I work to avoid straining certain parts of my body. Walking it out intermittently as I work helps to prevent strain and injury.

My future plans are to raise certain items, like the refrigerator, for easier maintenance. I plan to avoid falls and minimize stair climbing by revamping storage upstairs. Moving items to and from the basement to the main floor will be handled with a simple basket and pulley system.

Some days I wonder if there will come a time when I make a conscious choice to stop prepping.

I don’t like being vulnerable. Prepping has represented independence and strength to me. I hope to stay prepared and vital to the end and adaptation is the best chance for me, and you, to do so.

How are you adapting and changing your prepping as you age?

How would an EMP affect a solar electricity set-up?

John Chamberlain - June 15, 2021

Can solar electricity survive a EMP?

Minimizing bug out bag weight

CamilleContributor - June 6, 2021

I’m interested in any tips or advice others would like to share about minimizing bug out bag pack-weight without sacrificing the quality and usefulness of gear. While I really appreciate the gear reviews, basic no-nonsense information and the kit builder feature on this website I also know that the pack-weight of 41.7lbs listed for a bug out bag on this site isn’t realistic for me to carry. I’m a farmer and very active but carrying something that weighs a quarter of my body weight over any distance more than 5-10 miles would most likely result in some type of soft tissue damage or other complications that would be disadvantageous in an emergency situation where I would have to bug out farther than that distance to be safe (and I like to play on the safe side and assume I would have to bug out at least part-way if not all the way on foot). Currently my bug-out bag which contains the essentials I feel I need weighs about 27lbs (not including a full 2L water reservoir) because I look mainly at ultra-light camping gear for traditionally heavy items (ultra-light gear can be pricier to obtain the same high quality but it is worth it for me in the weight savings category).

There is a lot of discourse on how to reduce pack-weight for long distance hikers that I read before building my kit since I knew pack-weight would be a concern but only some of that can translate to a bug out bag because the expectations for the kits are incredibly different. I have never seen any discourse by preppers about reducing pack weight despite the fact that if you can’t actually carry it-you aren’t getting out of an emergency situation anytime soon with the things you need to bug out with the most. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or tips!

How to overcome differences in opinion with your partner on food storage

Pops - June 2, 2021

Usually the title of this thread is “How do I get my spouse on board?” or similar. I wanted to go at the topic a little differently this time and talk a little about how my wife and I over years have learned to complement each other WRT food storage and hear how you all do it.

We are a “traditional” one income family. I’ve been working from home for 25 years or so and she’s been mopping around me. Our kids are raised and gone. Temperamentally I worry about things and the future and she worries about people and the present. I’m a ‘buy one good thing’ type and she is a budget-minded, needs-based, lowest-price shopper. I’m also of a “stock-up” mindset while she is more of a “just-in-time” shopper. It isn’t that we have philosophical differences as much as she is a creature of habits and schedules and I’m a little less ‘structured’ shall we say.

Take our groceries. I could harp and carp endlessly about stock what you use and first in – first out and believe me I did in the younger days, but it just doesn’t stick because that just isn’t how she thinks. She doesn’t reject the premise of having a pantry, she in fact likes the benefits: fewer trips, cheaper in bulk, and of course, in the past year bragged that our shelves have what the store doesn’t— but, it just isn’t her natural mode to buy three cans of peaches if we’re only going to use one before she goes to the store again on Monday.

So I just do my thing and she does hers. She shops once every couple of weeks just like clockwork and every so often I tag along. When she puts in a can of peaches I add 2 more. When we get home I do the shelf stocking, rotating, etc. No biggie, in fact it is as soothing to me as hay in the barn.

Long term food storage is my thing alone. We have a good amount of canned foods and staples good for a few months to a year. But because we eat a lot of fresh food there is only so much one can reasonably stock and still rotate. My wife is an awesome baker but the bakery is pretty convenient so we just don’t use as much flour for example as we might if baked goods were not available. In a long term situation we’d run low within months using up regularly rotated staples. So we have some long term storage.

We store seeds, sugar, pasta, dehydrated milk, potato flakes (yuck) and various “chemical” things like salt, soda, pickling lime, etc for long term emergency. I have used several different means over the years but now mostly use mylar zip-locs with O2 absorbers heat sealed with an iron. I have some amount in ‘one gallon’ sizes and a larger amount in 5 gallon size I call the Deep Bunker. The smaller bags are in small aluminum garbage cans and the plastic pails are well guarded by cats, traps and poison. I’ve been happy with these people on Amazon (I’m not affiliated) for heavy bags and O2 absorbers.

I use an outfit called Azure Standard (not affiliated with them either) who sell all manner of bulk food. They specialize in non-GMO organics but I use them because of price. They have a nationwide truck delivery system (not sure about Canada) that delivers orders to hundreds of location monthly. You can probably find one nearby, it is usually in a public parking lot at a park or church near the highway. I can buy and bag bulk foods for half what the “survival” stores sell it for—before they ship it.

The LDS church (I’m not affiliated with any religion or denomination, BTW) are the past masters of food storage. Their FAQ and pamphlet are simple, direct, budget conscious and not overly proselytizing.

I got a little sidetracked there. But it kind shows that with both of us doing what we do we get it done. Without her being willing and able to learn how to cook from scratch—from seeds actually, all my squirreling would be worthless.

So how do you and the significant other work your plan?

Your prepping time line and other dimensions in prepping

UbiqueContributor - June 1, 2021

I wanted to become as prepared as circumstances would allow.

Self-sufficiency was another goal, although I understood that the same circumstances would influence the degree of self sufficiency that would be realistically achievable.

Gardening and seeds are part of that self-sufficiency, but I learned quickly that it is necessary to have food stored. Food storage is a part of self-sufficiency for me.

I assembled resources like timeless, solid reference books. The items included in my preps were meant to cover obscure, but important possibilities that could occur in a disaster, like eyeglass repair kits.

Disaster duration was another factor that influenced the way I prepared. How long could I survive for?

History and current events, both of which exist on entirely different time lines equally impacted how I prepared.

The Covid-19 pandemic taught me much about how other people can react in a crisis, and further, how their reactions can impact my preparedness.

Certain items became very hard to get and even today the supply chain can be erratic. Prices skyrocketed as well which affected the ability to purchase, as did limits placed on various items during the pandemic.

Shopping became a high risk venture. Pick and pay grocery shopping had it’s limitations. I would pick up my order, check it, run into the store for missing items that weren’t there when the order picker assembled my order.

There was a time long ago when I was elated to finally have three months of key nutritional foods in storage. Three months became six months, then a year. Today, I store three years of key foods and am working on expanding this to five years or longer.

A freeze dryer is on my priority list. I want long term food storage.

My prepping time line is progressively increasing as the world changes and evolves in ways that worry me.

Circumstances change over time. How has the affected your preparedness?

As your preparedness has evolved, how has this impacted your prepping time line?

When the crisis becomes prolonged, how do you survive?

UbiqueContributor - May 30, 2021

Come with me again and let’s look at a different scene. It is late September 2023. The trees are wrapped in warm golds, oranges and browns. Leaves are beginning to reach for the earth. The air is scented with a spicy decay.

The world is a different place in September 2023.

Covid-19 never went away because transmission between humans continued. Each time the virus transmitted from person to person, it copied itself between 10,000 and 1,000,000 times. Each time, those copies carried a risk of variant creation.

The emerging variants became the wild cards in a new and deadly game of survival.

In 2021, during the third wave, everyone saw how younger people were now being infected. No one could have imagined what life in 2023, less than two years away, would become.

Vaccines had been developed and at one point, people relaxed and thought it was over and that life as they had known it would soon get back to normal.

That was before two variants quietly merged to form the first recorded ‘recombinant’ virus. The event was reported in the media on February 17, 2021. Two variants, B.1.1.7 from the U.K. and B.1.429 from California combined.

B.1.1.7 was more transmissible and B.1.429 was able to resist some antibodies. It had researchers worried but not panicking. They felt that the future might focus on booster shots to workaround any pesky new variants.

But, the last paragraph was one that contained the warning that was buried at the end of the article:

“There are a variety of factors that impact the transmissibility of a virus, including human behavior, population structure and immunity levels, if some deadlier recombinant strain spreads or not.”

The world played the wrong hand by not changing the one thing they had control over: their behavior.

Two more variants again quietly merged in the winter of 2022, only this time both variants were highly transmissible and both antibody resistant. The event was a biological marriage made in hell.

Their union unleashed a variant that was highly lethal and easily transmitted upon a world that was exhausted from coping with a pandemic since 2019.

Leaders from the civic through to the national level all struggled to find solutions and ways of navigating through a situation that had become much worse and more taxing of their already strained resources.

Researchers, who had so quickly developed vaccines in 2020 for SARS-Cov-2 now labored fruitlessly to arrive at an effective vaccine.

Control of the new variant was just beyond their reach, and more variants were occurring because a pandemic fatigued world had tired of mask wearing and social distancing.

Those who had been doing what they could do to stop the spread of Covid grew tired and fatalistic. Those who refused to do anything to help stop the spread, said “I told you what you were doing wouldn’t work.”

Many people were beginning to show signs of mental instability from the ongoing and worsening stress. Homelessness was increasing. Murder suicide, domestic violence, addiction and child neglect skyrocketed.

Theft, vandalism and acts of violence further drove the crime statistics up.

People wanted to wake up from the nightmare or escape it. It was a groundhog day, endlessly repeating and from which there was no escape.

As the death rate climbed, health care was over run. People died alone and suffering badly for a lack of drugs and other supplies that would have helped them have an easier passing. Mass graves became commonplace as they had in the Spanish flu and other disasters.

Those who could still work, worked from home. Children were home schooled. Still others lost their jobs and relied on their wits. Start up businesses failed for the most part because no one had any money.

Gardens became gold. People tilled their entire yard and planted everything. Elaborate security systems were devised to protect these precious crops. Hungry people were shot at for reaching into a yard to pick a tomato. The lucky gardeners could electrify their fences.

Hunters hoping to use venison as a food source discovered a chronic wasting disease in deer that also affected other animals such as bovine and sheep, a form of mad cow disease. Eating the meat was not recommended.

People began to fish instead, but instead of setting up fish farms, most of them over fished and soon the fish populations were decimated.

People who didn’t understand safe stewardship of rabbits contracted diseases that required treatment and medical intervention such as pasteurellosis, ringworm, mycobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis and external parasites through scratches and bites.

Unfortunately, medical intervention and treatment now consisted of field hospitals where the ill and dying are laid on cots and administered what little medications are now available. There isn’t enough equipment to go around.

The factories that produced ppe’s, sanitizer and other items fell to the economic tsunami caused by the prolonged and worsening effect of Covid and the new variant. There weren’t enough people to run the factories, or to supply them with raw materials, or to ship and transport what they needed.

Many people adopted a vegetarian diet and sought protein in increased legume crops.

We are preppers. We were ready for this, at least in the beginning we were, or so we believed. Were we as prepared as we thought?

Now, we are all only one bad gardening season away from starvation.

It feels like the world we knew is being de-constructed.

Look around you. This is our world as we stand here on a crisp autumn day in September 2023. There is no one outside. Many are ill, some are too afraid to come out even if they have a mask. In the distance we can hear coughing, crying and death rattles.

We look at the road ahead of us on the street where we are standing. Where do we go from here? Do we bug out and go back to nature and throw ourselves on her mercy?

What do we do now to survive?

Here are the links for factual references in this scenario:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/two-variants-merge-to-form-first-recorded-recombinant-virus-1.5312679

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/plants-animals-ecosystems/wildlife/wildlife-health/wildlife-diseases/chronic-wasting-disease#:~:text=Chronic%20Wasting%20Disease%20(CWD)%20is,and%20even%20plants%20and%20soil

https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/distribution-chronic-wasting-disease-north-america-0

Prepping and risk

UbiqueContributor - May 29, 2021

Dad was a Canadian soldier who had planned to stay in The Netherlands after the war ended. He knew the Dutch would rebuild and he was going to start a taxi service with old army vehicles.

Dad had spent seven years slogging his way through Europe in the war. He liked Europe and imagined he would like it much more in peacetime.

He didn’t want to take Mom away from her family. He was willing to give up his country so she would be happy. While Dad was dreaming of the life he was going to build for them in The Netherlands, Mom had other ideas.

My Mother wanted out of The Netherlands, and it couldn’t be fast enough for her. She recognized how vulnerable they actually were in a disaster. Canada represented safety and abundance to her.

The war had been the final straw. Her young life had been pretty tough before the war started. She had been removed from school in Grade 4 so she could help care for her rapidly growing brood of siblings.

Her father was an alcoholic, unpredictable and violent when drunk. Her mother had neither wanted nor expected the life that unfolded with him.

Mom decided that she was never going to end up like her mother. She would be the Captain of her ship and she was sailing it straight out of Europe.

Mom and Dad had some language issues to contend with early in their relationship, which could have accounted for some of the confusion about their future plans. However, they sorted it out and Mom made it to Canada.

My Mom said when she got off the ship as a war bride, she expected Gene Autry to come riding along any minute. She wondered where all the cowboys and Indians were. Movies were her escape and had influenced her expectations as a child.

To the Dutch of that era, Canada was “cowboys and Indians.” Apart from that, most Dutch people didn’t have a clue as to what was in store for them here.

The long ship ride across the Atlantic was a chaotic journey full of vomiting pregnant war brides, vomiting sea sick war brides and screaming infants in need of a diaper change.

The Red Cross nurses ran from one room to the next caring for the women and their infants. Mom who had given birth to my brother in The Netherlands, was sea sick and caring for her roommate, who also had an infant.

She refused to ever set foot on another ship or boat again. Forty years later, we still couldn’t get her off dry land for a paddlewheel dinner cruise on a river.

After the ship docked, she had to get on a train and travel from Atlantic Canada to Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was another challenge for the exhausted and still nauseous war brides.

The expanse of the Canadian landscape was highlighted on the long train journey west. The infamous Canadian winter weather was also emphasized after the train landed in Winnipeg. My Mom, who was holding my brother in her arms, descended the train and was greeted by the icy blast of a Winnipeg winter.

It was a quick, awkward hug because Dad’s arms were full of winter gear. He was trying to get parkas, hats, mittens and footwear on both of them. Mom recalled that she had no idea that anywhere on Earth could be that cold.

Yet, here she was, after her recent war experience and Atlantic crossing, wondering what fresh Hell this was as they travelled across the frozen Manitoba prairie to their temporary home with my Aunt Grace on the farm.

She accepted the cold and embraced Canada as her new home. The cold was a small price to pay for the safety she felt in this immense new land.

My Dad had tried to explain how large Canada is by telling her you could put The Netherlands into Lake Manitoba and still have plenty of room left over.

She didn’t really understand the vastness of Canada until they began to travel across it later in their lives.

This brings us to another young couple who decided to embark upon a self-sufficient lifestyle in the Canadian wilderness.

In the early 1970’s a young couple decided to join the “back to the land” movement. We’ll call them “Charlie” and “Susie” (not their real names).

Charlie and Susie had emigrated to Canada from The Netherlands. Like many of their countrymen, the young couple had wildly unrealistic ideas of what Canada is really like to live in.

They decided to purchase a cabin unseen in a place and a country they had never visited.

Charlie and Susie arrived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia with a suitcase full of dreams and some clothing geared for Dutch weather.

They prepared for their GREAT CANADIAN HOMESTEADING ADVENTURE by purchasing canned goods, a couple of axes and some hand tools. They were so excited! Guess what? That was all they bought! Whoo Hoo! Let the homesteading begin!

Not to put the cart before the horse (they didn’t have either one), you can begin to see where this is going.

The young and exuberant couple hired a truck and travelled as far as they could go Inland from the North Coast of British Columbia.

When they arrived at the cabin, they discovered it was indeed, remote. They also discovered they were the proud new owners of a very old and ramshackle cabin.

Charlie and Susie had a great time until their canned food ran out and winter set in. They decided to walk out.

Five months later a man found the young couple, lost, starving and stark raving mad. They were approximately two hundred and fifty miles from where they had been attempting to homestead.

They spent many months in hospital recovering physically and mentally from their adventure. Susie returned to The Netherlands after she recovered.

Charlie decided to stay in Canada and returned to live near where they had attempted to homestead. This time, he chose a less risky path to wilderness living. He became a logger and learned how to live in the wild without killing himself.

He built a beautiful chalet style home and remarried. Indigenous land claims forced Charlie and his wife out of their home and off their land. The stress ended his marriage with his second wife.

Charlie had spent thirty years as a logger in The Queen Charlotte Islands (now Haida Gwaii). He had survived an incredible lesson in unpreparedness with his first wife, Susie. He had gone on to find a way to have the lifestyle he dreamed of, only to lose it all again thirty years later.

This time, Charlie returned to The Netherlands. He had reached his limit and refused to start over again.

Frankly, with this much time invested in Canada and a lifestyle he loved, I don’t understand why he quit when he did. There are so many other beautiful places in British Columbia (and in Canada) that he could have lived.

Risk aversion and risk tolerance are two sides of a very important coin. It can take time and experience to understand the risk of each choice and decision we make. Impulse can lead us to a good result as easily as the best laid plans can go awry.

A wise prepper understands that this coin can test one’s mettle and resourcefulness, regardless of which side it lands upon.

We can turn our prepping dreams into a realistic, practical lifestyle if we know our limits, skills and abilities.

Complete preparedness and the importance of inspection, maintenance, repair and replacement of items

UbiqueContributor - May 26, 2021

Here’s a few examples of what can happen if preppers don’t practice routine inspection, maintenance, repair and replacement of their items.

An emergency alert is issued. You and your family, which includes two young children under seven years of age and a six month old infant are ordered to evacuate immediately.

You are prepared and grab your BOB’s and other gear and load the family into the vehicle in record time. You don’t make it out of the driveway because you have a flat tire. When you attempt to change your flat tire, you discover that your spare is also flat.

A spare tire should be checked for inflation at least twice a year.

I do the “trucker’s walk” around my vehicle each and every time I drive it. I walk around my vehicle and check for fluid leaks, anything hanging down or situated below the vehicle, the tires and their condition.

I also visually check for small animals or children crouched down behind the vehicle who may be playing or hurt. This happened to someone I knew. There was a child behind his truck and he didn’t check. The two year old boy died when he backed over him. The child was in his blind spot.

Lights and their function are checked regularly, at least once per month. It would be more often, once a week, if I drove more frequently.

If you are alone, you can check the lights yourself by aiming them at night against your house or other building. You should be able to see if your head lights are on or off, the high beams work, and if the turn signals, hazard lights and brake lights function properly.

I keep a couple of spare headlights in case one burns out and fuses for other vehicle function.

Here’s another example of not paying attention to routine maintenance.

You go to work one day in late August and find out that your company is downsizing. You are now unemployed. You have a mortgage and other bills to pay.

When you relay the news to your family, you discover that all your children have dental problems, require dental appointments and will need dental work done. You are also told that the children require footwear before school starts in a few weeks. Additionally, your oldest needs a new winter coat and glasses.

All of this happens just after you bought new living room furniture. You have less than three hundred dollars in a savings account and no emergency fund to handle these urgent family expenses in a time of reduced income.

Preparedness can seem like the pursuit and acquisition of a long list of items.

Becoming prepared is much more than acquiring the items. It is about how you look after them once you get them and how you manage the replacement of them.

It extends further into the care of possessions that we don’t consider as prep items, but are items we need or want as part of our quality of life.

In order to care properly for your possessions, it helps to have a routine for inspection. It helps more if you develop the habit of noticing signs of wear or need for repair or replacement of your items.

You need to know what to look for that could be sign of a problem and that takes all your senses.

Visually, it can be icicles hanging off your roof, signalling an ice dam that needs to be addressed. It can be something dripping beneath your vehicle’s front end that needs to be checked.

I routinely check my canned goods for signs of bulging cans or rusting cans.

Sometimes, it can be a sound of a fridge motor not running right or the noise your brake pads make when they begin to wear.

I check the plumbing under my kitchen sink and bathroom vanity every time I open the cabinet doors.

You also check by touch. If the walls in the house feel tacky or damp, then you need a dehumidifier to prevent mould.

If you run your hands along the inside of your tires and feel a bulge, then you know the tire is failing, can blow out and needs to be replaced immediately.

Smell can tell us if there is mould in the house or a gas leak. Certain smells can indicate failing electrical wiring.

I have a routine for repair and maintenance and a trained eye that notices issues outside of my routine inspections.

I also plan for the replacement of items by understanding the usual life span of each of them.

This part of preparedness is applicable to everyone who preps regardless of whether you live in an apartment or own a home on an acreage.

Recently, I made another list of things in and around my home and property that need to be addressed. This list includes clothing and footwear. Those items were put on the list as I noticed them while I worked on chores in and around the house.

Some of the items that made the list weren’t that old, but they were what I refer to as “bad buys.” For example, I purchased an expensive pair of winter boots for my husband. They are a very well known brand and had excellent reviews. A good fit in footwear is a challenge for his feet and these boots fit great and were comfortable.

The boots started to fail after the first year he wore them. The boots failed just after the warranty ended. When I searched for information, I was shocked to find that this company had customers with similar complaints. Of more concern, was the poor response from the company. So much for relying on glowing reviews.

Their product was failing due to shoddy third party outsourcing. The chance to fix the problem failed at the front lines of their customer service and their poorly designed software.

Complaints containing certain key words or with time lines indicating an early failure of their product should have triggered a referral and further action higher up the corporate ladder. They could have dealt swiftly with a supplier issue and salvaged their reputation and customer base.

I used Shoo-goo to repair them, and he can wear them as a pair of chore boots. But now, I have to research and replace them with a new pair of winter boots suitable for our extreme climate, his size 15 feet and our budget.

What if the SHTF and that was all he had for a long period of time? He would be entering a crisis without sound footwear and perhaps no chance of replacing the boots for some time. Many of our parts or actual products in North America are outsourced. It doesn’t take much to throttle that supply chain.

Footwear is a major necessity and an equally important prep item. This is an example of how we may think we have a certain amount of time before the new item will need to be replaced, but in reality the time frame is much shorter.

I have had the same experience with a brand new washer and dryer set. I still have the dryer, but the washer failed just after the one year warranty expired.

I knew someone who worked in an agricultural machine production plant. The parts on those very expensive pieces of equipment were engineered to fail after a certain time, often in three years.

Deliberately engineering the premature failure of items, in whole or in part, is unfair considering what we pay for these items. It is now a part of life that we need to be aware of, especially as preppers who organize and put items away for future need.

It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when items were built to last.

My parent’s were strict about the care and maintenance of our property, possessions and personal items. I was raised to understand that everything would last longer if you treated it properly and with care.

I was also taught the importance of organization and to be aware of items would be outgrown or worn out. I grew up in a household where certain items were stored in anticipation of replacement.

We were able to farm with old equipment because Dad practised routine inspection and maintenance of his equipment.

As in the fable of the ants and the grasshopper, other farmers played the role of the grasshopper at the end of harvest as they lingered over coffee and pie at the local coffee shop.

Dad played the role of ant, and continued to labor long after harvest to ensure that the equipment was maintained, in good repair and ready for next spring. Even in winter, he repaired anything that wasn’t working correctly.

His care extended to every part of our farm and home. He examined the house and outbuildings to see if something needed repair. He walked endless miles on our land to check fence lines. This was in addition to twice daily milking and care and cleaning of our cows, barn and dairy equipment.

Routine repair and maintenance can seem like boring chores and mundane tasks. Let’s face it, checking, cleaning and repairing things aren’t generally considered fun. Now, with early failure to consider, this aspect of prepping has become even more important.

New living room furniture doesn’t happen without an emergency fund. Throw a blanket or a slip cover on the sofa and teach your family to treat items more gently.

Dental, optical and any other medical needs should be written out and organized. If you know that the family has dental checks done in August, then you also know that is a month for potential dental expenses.

If you are putting money away each month to cover possible dental expenses, then you are prepared for them.

Expenses such as clothing and footwear for children should never be a “surprise.” It is understood children need footwear and clothing replaced more rapidly due to their growth.

A smart shopper and prepper recognizes the opportunity for thrift store shopping. You can find clothing and footwear in excellent condition for all ages.

I have seen teens happily shop at thrift stores. There is always some kind of retro fad happening. They also seem to enjoy the originality of thrift store shopping, as well as the social and environmental contribution that comes with it. Good causes are supported and perfectly good clothing doesn’t end up in landfill.

In a financial crisis such as job loss, pride is a vulnerability. When the tags are off the garment who really knows how old a garment is or where you bought it from unless you tell them?

A budget binder is a must for routine financial management and maintenance. For privacy and security reasons, there is no way I will ever rely on computerized record keeping again.

A binder is tangible and can’t be ignored. I see it on my desk as I write. I can grab it for a family finance meeting if there is something that needs to be addressed.

I write out budget sheets for two future years and I keep two years of past monthly financial data. The loose leaf sheets are enclosed in page protectors for longevity and also hold additional information that is relevant to future expenses.

The monthly budget sheets itemize income, savings and regular monthly expenses. Amounts that are variable like utility bills are forecast in pencil and then entered in ink once the amounts are confirmed.

Based on forecasted income and expenses, I have a reasonable understanding of our disposable income. Annual expenses can easily be repeated in the future year sheets. I can slot projects or swap them on the fly if necessary because the budget information is well organized and accessible.

Beneath the financial information is a record of medical appointments and vehicle or home repair and maintenance and any associated costs.

A budget is a guide. On the back of each monthly budget sheet, I record every cent spent in this household. I balance to the penny because hackers will test bank accounts by taking small amounts to see if you pay attention.

I note the amount, where it was purchased, a short list of the item(s) and any important sale information for future reference when planning future shopping. I can look back at each month and see exactly where our money went for groceries, clothing, personal items and spot trends or problems.

This process may seem involved and time consuming. It isn’t. It takes little time to keep an ongoing record. I refer to these records frequently for a variety of reasons. They are invaluable to the inspection, repair, replacement and maintenance of a huge number of items in my household and property.

Other items must be factored for replacement. What about shingles? Roofs must be re-shingled every so many years. That includes underlay, ice guard (if you are in a cold climate) and installation.

Most communities only allow a certain number of shingle layers before the roof has to be stripped completely of shingles before it can be re-shingled. This makes sense because after a while the roof would not be sound if shingles just continued to pile up in layers.

When I did my roof five years ago, I paid extra to have it stripped clean of shingles. I didn’t need to do it that way. I wasn’t at the limit for layers. But I chose to do the best maintenance by having the roof done from the base up.

The roofers checked for any pieces of plywood that need to be replaced. There was one small piece. Then they re-shingled with the latest materials to prevent water infiltration and also ice-guard. I chose excellent quality shingles and made sure the roofers were certified to install that type of shingle. They did an excellent job and now, I have a roof that will last much longer before needing more maintenance.

I could have gone a cheaper route, but a roof is a huge part of the protection of a home. There is no way I will skimp on that cost or the quality of materials and workmanship.

I find it amazing that people see their roofs every day and tolerate the condition of them. Imagine a shoddy roof in a major storm. How long might it last in a natural or financial disaster? There could be a chain reaction of damage done that will cost more than if the roof was properly done in the first place.

A fully prepared household doesn’t just buy preparedness related items and stash them away. They routinely inspect, maintain, replace and repair the items that they will need to count on in a disaster.

They do the same thing for their home, property and other items that are not prep specific, but are also part of their ability to survive.

It can be overwhelming for those who don’t currently practice this, but with a bit of organization and time invested, it can become easy to do and just another aspect of prepping.

When was the last time you checked your tires for wear or if they were properly inflated? Did you get the brakes fixed when you heard the sound of brake shoes starting to squeal as you braked?

Have you organized regular replacement of your children’s clothing and footwear?

How old is the food and water in your bug out bag?

What about those loose boards in the fence or the unreliable security camera that needs replacement?

The time to notice and do something about it is now and like other aspects of prepping, it is time well invested.

AdviceScenariosSkills

Prepping for economic collapse

UbiqueContributor - May 26, 2021

What does economic collapse mean to you?

To me, economic collapse isn’t the stock exchange disaster of the 1930’s. It is the slow decay and crumbling of our independence and self-sufficiency.

I used to move money. It could be a fifty-dollar transaction bound for Vietnam or a boat in Indonesia or a fifty million settlement heading to another bank. It was a very high stress position with zero margin for error.

There was a bank of clocks on the wall that represented cities like San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, London, Paris and New York, who were all part of a routing system to move money globally. The clocks acted as a reminder of international cut off times for payment traffic.

I processed telexed and trader payments that landed in my in basket, took payments from branches and other banks over the phone, and ensured that what I processed was delivered correctly and on time.

This involved a series of intricate fail safes and verifications. It was an area of banking that was a target for fraud and required high degrees of vigilance.

I used to wake up with nightmares from the stress of my job. The first thing I did when I left that job was to take off the watch I wore as part of the time critical component of my work. To this day, I don’t wear a watch.

My time in that position came on the heels of three years spent in the letters of credit department. The orders were shipped to other countries because of their less expensive labor costs.

The point of telling you about this experience as the lead in for prepping for economic collapse is simple. Everything money related is moving around you all the time, quietly in the background. Deals are made. Money is bought and sold. Trade happens.

Meanwhile, you go to work, earn a pay check and live your life. You spend money and contribute to the trade and commerce around you. If you save money your bank gets the use of your money and pays interest to you for that use.

Everything is interconnected now because of trade and international lending. This is not a case of you have something and I have something and let’s trade. It is a case of competition, trade quotas and trade sanctions, and of maintaining a complex balance.

International trade is not symbiotic, meaning that the relationship is not mutually beneficial.

We trade now because we have to do it. We are not sustainable. We gutted our jobs in North America.

My Dad and I used to spend hours in debate and discourse. This subject was one of them.

Dad’s position was that we had priced ourselves out of the labor market due to unions and that manufacturers went for the cheap labor elsewhere.

My position was that our labor costs were being undercut by countries with an entirely different standard and cost of living. How were we ever going to compete with that?

The end result is that container after container of manufacturing equipment, some hundreds of years old and highly specialized were disassembled, and shipped elsewhere, and our jobs left with it.

The finished product was shipped back to the company who then sold it to us at the same price as if it had been made here. It was a version of enterprise that destroyed jobs, manufacturing and charged us more to shop while they did it.

I remember some companies hung on as did some consumers who refused to buy anything not “made in Canada” or “made in the USA.” Now, those labels are deceptive because they aren’t entirely made in either country. Parts come from elsewhere or something is partially assembled elsewhere.

Which brings me to economic collapse. Have any of you ever wondered about how easily this whole thing could go off the rails? I do and probably not for the reasons that other people do. I don’t get caught up in economic jargon or theory. It’s simple and straightforward.

I look at our countries as preppers who were capable of self-sufficiency. We joined with a group of other prepper countries to trade and barter. We made a bad choice and put ourselves in a bad position.

We can’t make the items we used to make and are now dependent upon other countries for items we need. We are no longer self-sufficient.

If there is a disaster in the other preppers’ country or we have a dispute with the other preppers or one of their friends’ countries, then we get cut off from the items we need.

That doesn’t sound like solid preparedness to me.

Our goods used to be closer to home.

To make our arrangement work, we need to ship goods over long and sometimes difficult routes. The grounded container ship in the Suez Canal was a good example of how easily the arrangement can grind to a halt.

The current pandemic could easily run us aground in a different way. We have no idea when this pandemic will be over or if it will ever be over. The mutations carry the possibility of antibody resistance which is a big concern.

India is being overwhelmed by the pandemic. They, like China, may have a huge population, but their workers dying or unable to work will impact their production.

We also can’t forget the long term effects of Covid-19 upon people who survive it. Some are dead six months later. Others are left with permanent lung or other debilitation.

I can’t change history. I have no control over other people. What I can do is adjust how I prepare in the face of the potential for economic collapse.

I have started researching which items such as medicines are made in other countries. I am also researching which items are made entirely in North America and making a list of suppliers and manufacturers.

Part of my search is for local and regional suppliers because in an economic collapse, shipping long distances may not be viable. It is also a way to foster mutually beneficial relationships for long term survival.

I am making a list for stocking more of certain items that could be impossible to get if a supplier country halts or reduces production.

I am also looking at what skills or items I could make if necessary and getting the knowledge or instructions hard copied and in place now.

What do you think economic collapse will look like? What are you doing to prepare for it?

Easy raised bed trellis

Josh CentersContributor - May 24, 2021

Trellises are essential when growing vining plants like indeterminate tomatoes and pole beans. And they can help you maximize limited garden space. Here’s how to make an easy trellis for your raised beds.

For each eight-foot long raised bed you’ll need:

Three ten-foot lengths of 3/4-inch PVC Two 3/4″ elbow connectors and one t connector Three 18-inch lengths of 1/2-inch rebar String Screws or sticks (thin bamboo works great)

Note: You can use PVC or CPVC, but just make sure you don’t mix them, because they’re measured in different ways. CPVC couplings won’t fit on PVC and vice versa. PVC is also an endocrine disruptor, so if you’re worried about that, you can use metal electrical conduit instead.

You’ll also need a hammer or mallet to drive in the rebar.

You want to keep your trellises on the north side of your bed to keep from shading out other crops. Start by pounding in two pieces of rebar on each end of the north side of your bed. I drive in the rebar so it doesn’t stick out above the garden bed, so I can sit on the edge without getting poked.

Take the three lengths of PVC and cut off four-foot lengths from each one. You should end up with three six-foot lengths and three four-foot lengths. You can set one of the four-foot lengths aside.

Place two of the six-foot lengths over the rebar. They should stand upright. Put the elbow connectors on top, insert the four-foot lengths, and connect them with a t-connector. Then insert the third six-foot length in the bottom of the t-connector.

You need to drive in one last piece of rebar. Figure out where the middle posts sits, drive a piece of rebar there, and slip the piece of PVC over it.

Now you just need to tie some strings for plants to climb. If the bed is wood, put a screw in front of each plant to support, tie a string to it with a simple double knot, and then attach it to the top of the trellis with an adjustable hitch knot. Tighten it up to add some tension to the line. This is a good opportunity to practice your knot tying.

For metal beds, I just take foot-long lengths of bamboo, shove them into the ground by the plant, and tie to that. If the string slips off, I use the saw on my Leatherman to cut a notch in the bamboo to hold the string in place.

Pros: Cheap, quick to set up, you can reach between the strings for weeding and watering, nothing for the wind to catch

Cons: PVC is nasty, tying the knots can be time-consuming

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Selecting water purification strategies, method and equipment for bug out and bug in scenario

LNMOt - May 24, 2021

Hello!

I’ve spent the better part of the last 10 months working hard on getting a 8-12 month food supply in place – I’m pretty much there. I’ve got the beginnings of a decent first aid kit / medicine stock, etc – more work to do here but I have a good base to build on. We have a solid plan for home and property defense. But when I take a good hard look at my preps, I realize my water prep situation is in need of some serious improvement. And since, without water safe drinking water, my 8-12 month supply of food will be pretty useless, I figure I should go ahead and get things corrected as soon as possible.

I read the fantastic Prepared review / guides on Best Portable Survival Water Filters and Best Home Water Filters. Great information, but I must admit I am still quite overwhelmed as there are so many different options and set ups! I believe I am stuck in an “analysis paralysis” situation. So I thought I would post asking for some guidance in making a decision on what gear to buy.

First, let me outline my current water situation and also what I’m trying to prepare for:

Current Water Situation and Set Up:

I have about 1.5 weeks worth of drinking water (store-bought bottled water) in my prepper pantry. I am going to try to add a bit more bottled water but there isn’t much more space for it. We own our own house – we live in a smaller resort town in New England, but the area where our house is located is relatively rural. On our property, we have a good sized pond with a small natural fresh water stream feeding the pond. We are going to be adding trout to our pond in the next few weeks. Our pond water is not clear and there is a large amount of muck and silt on the bottom of the pond – we have been working hard to clean it up. Needless to say we don’t swim in the pond. This will take some time to clean up. I do have a biomass emergency stove that I bought several years ago that I could use to boil water (for dried food pouches, etc). But boiling for water purification just doesn’t seem like a good long term option, as pointed out in some of the excellent guides on this website.

What I Would Like to Prepare For:

Get Home Situation – surviving on foot getting back to my house from my work. On foot it would be probably a two day walk if on the highway / paved roads, probably a day or more longer if I had to go through rough terrain like the woods. While it’s possible I would encounter water sources on the journey, I haven’t really spent much time planning a route back home from my work, nor have I spent any time looking at potential water sources that I could find on the way. However, it’s safe to assume that in Northern New England in the woods I would encounter some fresh water on my way. Also, if we had to bug out, I would imagine my water preps for the get home situation would also work for a bug out situation? Bug In Situation – most scenarios I am preparing for center around a bug in situation that would last months, perhaps up to a year. I am not at the point in my preparedness where my family and I could survive long term (gardening, chickens, livestock, etc). At this point my goal is to ensure myself, my two small children and my husband could survive without having to leave our property for up to one year.

A Few Other Things For Consideration:

For all of my water preps, I am concerned about filtering out viruses as well as bacteria and protozoa. Chemicals if possible. I have a two year old and a 4 year old, so hard to suck from water filtration bottles aren’t an option for them, nor is the survival straw option really. I am willing to invest in the best, most durable water filtration / treatment options. Even if it takes multiple months I’ll save up the money. Buy once, cry once? One thing that I am quite confused about is finding a filtration option that will last reliably for a year? I know there are so many options and there are limits on how long the filters will last.

I appreciate everybody’s help in advance with helping me make these decisions and providing guidance and feedback!

Re-purposing items like radiant heated floor systems to create better gardens and for other prepping needs

UbiqueContributor - May 21, 2021

I woke up this morning with radiant heated floors on my mind.

I wondered if it could be possible to use this kind of heated floor system in the base of a raised bed garden to warm the soil for germination, and later turn if off so that the germinated seeds can develop properly at a cooler temperature.

Water doesn’t bother heater floor systems. They last 100 years according to the info I read this morning and they use about 300 watts which are less than the average space heater.

The vegetable roots shouldn’t be an issue for the network of pipes that form the framework of the heated floor.

I thought it might be a way to cope with fluctuations in temperatures that seem to be more common. In a crisis, more reliable germination could also save seed from being wasted.

From that idea, I began to consider dual use items or re-purposing items for prepping.

My husband knew a person who used a hot water tank and and the heated water to heat his house. He just kept it circulating throughout the house and this was before heated floors became popular.

Do you re-purpose items in prepping? For anyone who gardens, does the underfloor heating sound viable?

Adventures in survival gardening: planting, sunstroke and flea beetle apocalypse – Edited to add frost and snow

UbiqueContributor - May 20, 2021

Edit May 18: Pest now correctly identified as a flea beetle

Edit May 17: To add frost and snow – please refer bottom of post

Have you ever planned something to the very last detail and then had your project go completely sideways once you actually began executing the plan?

All winter I had poured over gardening information. I made lists. I made more lists. Then I organized my lists and began buying supplies. There has been increased interest in gardening due to Covid and I wanted to be ahead of potential shortages.

This was to be the year that I tested some of my ideas about survival gardening. How much food could I grow? Could I create a kind of secret survival garden in my yard? Would the idea of growing food plants among my flowers work?

I had spent last Friday and Saturday driving to two cities to collect bedding plants, six more 60 lb bags of soil and seven bags of assorted compost. My steel drive in posts and deer fencing had arrived. There were other garden supplies and all of it was neatly arranged inside my house. I managed to carve a path from my living room and the den to the rest of the house.

Did I mention that my husband is tearing apart the garden shed this year? He is redoing the shed storage he constructed last year. The shed was originally purchased for outdoor maintenance and tool storage. He now seems to consider it his workshop.

Last year it was below freezing before he finished his shed storage projects.

This means that this year everything is torn apart again and there is no room for garden supplies. I am also slowly inheriting odd automotive parts and snow shovels that were supposed to be housed inside that garden shed.

Despite the inside of my home looking like a retail garden centre, I was determined to learn and enjoy every moment of the gardening to come.

I had pre-arranged my bedding plants into groups for the planters and pots. They were lined up on foil pans ready to grab and go.

This past Wednesday, the weather finally turned and out I went to plant the three foot wide new planters on the North side. It was a slightly overcast day and nice for working outside.

I transplanted the bedding plants in the first and second North side planters without a problem. Then I hit the third planter and noticed these tiny bugs on my nice new white planters and trellis.

They were tiny, dark, fast, and jumped about very quickly. And, there were a lot of them. On the other side of my new planters is the neighbor’s brick outlined crushed rock bed with a few low evergreen shrubs planted in it. I had no idea where these bugs had come from or what they were.

I called my husband to look and he hadn’t seen anything like them either. He ran to the store to buy bug spray just in case. I kept planting and finished the seven planters, watered them and hosed off the bugs. I sprayed them all with bug spray to be on the safe side.

From there I went over to plant the thirteen front stoop planters and discovered that these tiny bugs were there as well. The bricks and lawn furniture were black with them.

Every planter had multiple marigolds as a deterrent for aphids. I also planted a lot of geraniums. Keeping ants away from the house and flowers usually keeps aphids at bay. These bugs didn’t look like aphids I had seen.

I finished planting, repeated the watering, hosing and bug spray and discovered I had been outside for seven hours straight.

The next day, I had to take my dog to the vet and pick up her heartworm medication for the year.

In the morning I checked my security cameras and discovered that my front stoop plants didn’t look right. I rolled back the footage and found the culprit. A single doe, very pregnant, had daintily nibbled her way through six geraniums, alyssum and lobelia. She actually climbed my brick stairs to do it.

Luckily, I had fencing stakes on hand for fast barriers and created a six strand deer fence with fishing line before I left for the vet.

While my dog was at the vet, I managed to pick up replacement plants and headed back home.

As the day went on, I was feeling more unwell. There was no fever, but I was in a cold sweat and really dehydrated. My husband has his industrial first aid and other training. My hair was up and he noticed the back of my neck. “You’re sunburned.” I told him I was wearing sun screen. “Did you wear a hat?”

Um. No. I planned to wear a hat, but my big sun hat wouldn’t fit over the hair comb that was holding up my hair. It was overcast and I was excited to get outside and start work, and yes I’m the idiot who didn’t wear a hat.

My husband got two cold towels for my head and back of my neck. “You have minor sunstroke because you didn’t wear a hat.” “Overcast days are the worst for sunstroke.” “Next time wear a hat.”

Note to all prepping gardeners: wear a hat. Sunstroke really creeps up on you.

The next morning I felt a bit better than the night before and decided to work in the shade by my back door. I planted five ten gallon pails of assorted kinds of tomato seed and three smaller pails of Genovese basil seed. These pails were neatly lined up on the rock around the sunny South side of my house.

I covered the pails with plastic wrap to create a greenhouse effect and hopefully sprout them faster. I left a bit of a gap for air flow.

The raised beds couldn’t be planted until I finished my garden tags for the seeds. I still wasn’t feeling all that great, so I decided to work indoors on that project and do a last minute check and revision on companion planting for the vegetables and herbs.

I took a break to check the front yard plants and discovered that they were swarming with those little tiny bugs. They were so thick, that they now looked like moving black sand. I sprayed everything again. There were more dead plants.

Now I was really concerned about the vegetables that were going to be growing in the raised beds.

Saturday morning came and I checked again and the bugs were everywhere. I moved supplies around in my den so I could get to the computer and searched.

I found a photo that could have been one of my plants. Sure enough, they are aphids. I had never seen newly hatched aphids before. I checked the front stoop and there were dead bugs all over the stoop. This meant that the insecticide my husband brought home had worked, but there were more of them. I sent him back to the store for more of it. They only had one bottle left, so we weren’t the only ones with a problem.

I don’t like using insecticides, but this is way beyond what hosing them off can control. I used a fine textured garlic powder and sprinkled that over the planter soil and plants. I couldn’t get it underneath the leaves very well, but I am hoping it will help to save what is left of my bedding plants.

I have never seen aphids in this number before, here or anywhere else. It is frightening considering the damage that they can do. It is one thing to lose flowers, but my real concern is their effect upon the food crops I plan to grow.

I have ornamental bedding plants, but the gardening is mainly about food production for survival and prepping. In the years I lived on a farm and gardened, we never had anything like this happen.

There is a difference in geography. When I lived on a farm, in an area near Lake Manitoba, there was pasture, bush and trees and some smaller fields. There was a mix of agriculture, such as dairy, mixed farming, and beef producers. Where I currently live, there are massive open treeless tracts of fields for the huge grain farms.

Trees and bush hold moisture. We had more snow and more rainfall where I used to live.

I have been racking my brain since yesterday trying to figure out what is happening.

This is a very dry year for us here. We didn’t have much snow pack last winter. The local agriculture is in trouble and they are talking drought. One community about an hour away has no potable water and is on water rationing. Their water comes from a man made lake.

Our natural lake is about five feet down and I could smell algae on the lake yesterday.

There doesn’t seem to be more ants, but I noticed that there aren’t any ladybugs.

Several years ago, Southern Manitoba had a problem with imported Asian ladybugs that had been brought in to control aphids. These ladybugs are not like our native ladybugs. The Asian ones bite. They became very invasive, swarming and intruding inside homes.

I am wondering if they are displacing the native ladybugs and plan to do some reading to find out more. I want native ladybugs and won’t order imported ones.

This is a huge infestation of aphids and they are killing plants rapidly. The way they are killing the plants doesn’t look like normal aphid damage. The plant is swarmed and literally collapses, shrivelled up and dead with some holes in the leaves.

Usually aphids will suck the leaves, which turn yellow and sometimes leave a black mould. Perhaps it is the life cycle that the aphids are at that is causing this different kind of damage?

As of this writing, I plan to go ahead with seeding, but am now scrambling to figure out how to protect the food crops first.

I am also concerned about how our climate is changing and the effects upon our food crops by predator insects. If a single winter of reduced snow pack and one dry spring can produce drought conditions that can impact predator insects this quickly, then there are some new things to consider in survival gardening.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, or has ever encountered this type of situation with aphids, please help.

Also, has anyone else noticed such a dramatic change in their gardening or environment after one season of reduced snow or rainfall?

I am going to continue searching for information and will check back later after I get some sleep.

May 17, 2021: I am typing this with one eye on the horizon and listening for the sound of thundering hooves. Another horseman comes riding, this one bears frost and snow.

Nope. There is no way to make what I have to communicate sound any better – I cannot **sassafrass**scoobie-do##double hockey sticks** believe this!!!

We are getting a low of 0 Friday and a low just above freezing the next day! Accompanied by, you guessed it: Rain! 15 mm of Rain! Plus some snow. It’s 30 degrees right now!

Do you know when I found this out? When I came indoors to get more seed. I planted more seed this morning and came in to find this out.

*Deep breath* I have had some time with a spoon and some ice cream to reflect and regroup.

This is a good lesson for preparedness. Usually people here don’t plant until after May long weekend, which is this coming weekend for us. Sometimes, people wait until the end of May.

This is on me. I made the decision to plant and seed now instead of waiting. I got taken in by the heat. Beware of fluke fluctuations in temperature.

My action plan to counter this news:

I have lots of plastic on a roll as part of my preps, so I am going to tent my flowers on the stoop and the flowers in 21′ of new planters, south side tomato and basil seeded pails, and the 4’x16′ planter that is seeded with lettuce, radishes, carrots, chives, peas and beans. It’s a long shot because seed needs a certain temperature to germinate. The plastic might give it a bit of a greenhouse effect.

I have starter soil and plenty of containers so I am going to start a bunch of plants inside, beans, tomatoes, etc. This will give me a chance to germinate the older vegetable seed to see if it is viable. I had planned to do this anyway as a survival garden experiment. If it works, I can keep some and give some to others who may have lost their vegetable seeds or plants in the frost.

The positive side:

I learned a really good lesson about gardening too early. I was too eager because last year I did wait until just after the traditional end of May planting and got nailed by low temperatures. I had to replant all my seed.

I learned not to get caught up in a stampeding herd of gardners. This year, stores were selling out of certain items. I had most of what I needed, but I got caught up in garden fever and started stampeding with the rest of the herd right out to the planters with my kneeling pad and bucket of seed.

This freezing spell may kill off those sassafrassing aphids.

I learned again to value having a huge roll of plastic on hand. I can’t count the times it has come in handy for emergencies.

Biggest lesson: Redneck is right: You can’t have enough seed. So many things can go wrong and today is a prime example of it. Even after our traditional planting times here, we have had snap freezing spells. Even one night is enough to kill plants and germinating seed.

What saved my neck is that I have extra vegetable seed on hand and plan to get more if it is available.

Thank you Redneck and please keep telling people to get extra seed, because nothing grows without seed.

I am going to catch up on the board, then get my supplies to start germinating seed indoors.

I think some Tom Petty is in order. “I won’t back down.” “You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.”

Yeah, horseman, I can ride, too. Bring it.