This isn’t going to be the answer your want and here’s why: We simply can’t know what will happen or when. That said, things like getting in touch with other people (especially over longs distances) may be difficult, if not impossible. Spare cells are good for BT comms (i.e., Briar); walkies are good for a very short distance; and hams are going to get you places, but maybe not nearly as far as you might need. Sat phones are great if you’re rich and can afford it -and if the stars haven’t fallen from the sky. While I’m here, if you’re facing a shtf situation, no one will care much about who’s authorized to use a ham.  In a grid down situation, you’re going to have to contend with the extent to which comms are out. Is it local? Is it city-wide? State? Is it nation-wide? Is it global? You may not know. You may never know! We might just have to do things the old-fashioned way. And that’s going to require tremendous patience on the part of any modern human. Preplan meetings points between you and out-of-town family members. You can start simply like whatever the halfway point might be, then talk about specific meeting places – like place just outside of town that burned down, a park, or a parking lot with a line of sight. Talk about what situations would force you to BO, discuss possible routes each party might take (general vicinity, direction, etc -in case roads are blocked), and preplan establishing comms for when you may be in range of each other (check your ham radio at 12noon every day or sunrise or sunset, whatever). Come up with a call and response, so both parties know you’re not compromised – kinda like a duress code. I know a lot of this seems kinda ridiculous, but consider how difficult things will be without technology, or even the transportation that depends on that technology. What if you have to ride a bike to your meeting point? What if you have to hoof it? How long will it take? What if roads and trails are blocked or unpassable? Consider that communicating with out-of-town family might not happen at all, or that it might take a very long time.

Good post! Just wanted to add that, if you have a vacuum sealer, you can throw seeds into a few small bags, seal them, and extend their time a little more, similar enough to your desiccant and oxygen absorber idea. I just thought about small packs for ease of transport, trade, etc.

I say you should go with whatever organization makes the most sense for you. My EDC/GHB has my IFAK, food, water, shelter, fire, compass, multitool, etc and those things can be dropped into my bob -which already contains extended rations, solar charger, a knife, poncho, respirator, work gloves, etc. If I happen to be fortunate to have my bob ready (and if the situation calls for it), I also have multiple color dry sacks at the ready so I can grab extras from stock, drop them into my bob and hit the door in under 10 mins. I’ve unpacked and packed the bob enough times that I know where just about everything goes. I think that’s what important here, that you know where stuff is and that you can get to your IFAK, food, water collection, whatever without unpacking the whole thing.

Create a VeraCrypt volume on a USB. Add non-important files to the outside (photos, music, etc., along with the Windows, Apple, and Linux files for installing VeraCrypt). Make sure your REALLY important files (scans of ID, passports, birth certificate, marriage, mortgage, vehicle deed, password manager files, etc) on the hidden inside volume.  Put the usb in a waterproof container. Personally, I think having cash, a map, etc may attract further attention from an adversary. If I saw other things of value, I might consider that the usb’s contents might also be valuable.

LGC has a FL chapter. Check them out.https://theliberalgunclub.com/

Hi, MrsPrep. Welcome. Where you’re going to start is a place called threat modeling. What scenario(s) are you preparing to survive? In the case of Winter, your best bet is to start at home and start with the basics. Home will be your base of operations, the place where you hunker down while the weather outside does its thing. You’re starting here because your home -whether a house or apartment or condo- can hold a lot more than a bag. Not to mention that home is a heck of a lot safer than exposure to the elements or getting lost and dying outdoors in a blizzard. There are quite a few posts here that focus on apartment-sized prepping. Seek them out and you’ll walk away with a lot of good ideas. And even if your scenarios potentially call for prepping a GO bad, you’ll want to start researching the kinds of bags, what to pack, etc. before you save enough to purchase. So, while you’re doing that and squirreling away funds for those things, you’re still preparing for the inevitable Winter. TIP: Here’s something I’ve done since I started prepping. Instead of actual gifts, I ask for gift cards, for all occasions. This is an excellent way to pool those resources and make that money work for you. So, while you tell your family and friends that you’d rather get a gift card, hop on Amazon (or wherever) and start your wishlists. As holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays roll around, you can check items off your prepping wishlist. In the meantime, use what you have available to you -until you can upgrade. The escalating climate crisis is going to be a challenge for all life on earth. Even if the current models turn out to be a little ‘off’, conditions will become more erratic over the next decades, worse than the changes you and I are already seeing. We’re not ‘there’ yet, so (for the time being), I think it’s wise to prepare for Winter as you normally would. Make sure you have stock of essentials for your home (water, food, first aid, sources of heat). Stock your vehicle with 3 day rations per person (and furry family member), a container for melting snow and a source of filtering water. You’ll want to pack the vehicle with extra blankets, snacks, and signals (LED flares or old school flares, strips of brightly-colored cloth), flashlights, batteries, extra hats, gloves; hand warmers, rain jacket (or poncho), etc. As the climate continues to shift wildly, you will want to consider the ways in which weather (and life!) will be shifting. For the west (the North American continent), it means more intense and longer drought and fire seasons. This also means fewer trees and vegetation holding hilly and mountainous soil in place, so, when it does rain, it will trigger mudslides. Just as we recently saw in Alberta and WA. Let’s not forget the toll of drought and fire on crops -food.  For the gulf and coastal regions, it means flooding due to increased storm activity in warming oceans, which are also rising because of glacial melt. In the NE US and Ontario/Quebec, winters will become wetter. For every place in between, it means mass migration from those fleeing vulnerable areas to safer, more stable, or more livable areas. This will lead to a competition for dwindling resources, like fresh water, food, land.  By the time you’ve reached this point in my response, you might find yourself a little overwhelmed. Everything will seem like a priority to you. It’s easy to spiral and feel like it all has to be done now -right now. It doesn’t because you’re going to be smart about it. Take it one step at a time. Start simple. Keep it simple. Simplicity leads to clarity and flexibility.

I have and will always mourn the loss of those I care about. Personally, I don’t believe in an afterlife, so, the absence and loss seems to cut more deeply because, for me, there is no afterlife in which we will reunite or whatever. Simply put, I will never see that person ever again. It is an immutable fact. I may catch myself acting out of habit (to reflexively call or visit that person) and will feel that sting of loss. Over time, the pain will diminish, but the loss will always be there. I have considered what it might be like for my loved ones if I predecease them and can understand their loss and grief. As for me, personally, I’m not too worried about dying. I mean, I don’t want to, but it’s a fact of life, isn’t it? I worry no more about the void at the end of my life than I do the void that existed before my birth.

@Bill, Just wondering if you have a link to this infographic or know of a higher resolution source. I’ll be distributing this to my prep team.

I was fortunate enough to hit the REI and EMS (Easter Mountain Sports) clearance racks recently and got a replacement for my old, slingback EDC. My mantra is to upgrade when it’s financially doable, as long as it is sane (read, a REAL and functional upgrade). @A2, when you have time, consider a portable battery backup for any electronics you plan to utilize (smartphone, GPS, walkie talkies, HAM radio) and/or a small, durable solar array to top-off the battery pack. While you’re at it, consider a Sawyer water filter (with bags). Like you, I don’t have a tent in my BOB, but I do have a tarp big enough to provide a barrier to the ground and enough paracord to create a small shelter.

I keep my handheld Baofeng stored a dry bag in the BOB. The battery is fully charged and separated to prevent discharge. The entire package is padded with sundry items to reduce potential for damage, including the whip antenna. Of course, all this means that in a BO situation, the priority is bugging out. Gathering intel/information is secondary to safety. Once safe, I can pop open the BOB and assemble the radio to establish comms. I actually do this with the family walkie talkies, too. I have regularly-scheduled battery checks and radio checks each month.

When we talk about prepping, we often talk about the need for flexibility, in our actual preps as well as our thinking. We often remind ourselves (and we) remind each other that situations will be fluid, that we can’t expect the phases of a given scenario to play out in a specific order or sequence. So, why should the roles we might don as a response to any number of fluid situations be static? As with our actual preps, our responses also must remain fluid. One situation might call for you to be the “grey man/woman”, if it means slipping through throngs of starving people unnoticed. Another situation might call for you to be the “hard target”, if it means defending you and yours against a gang bent on killing or robbing you of all you have to survive. It is with this thinking in mind that I say, be the chameleon. Adapt to your surroundings, be whomever you must be for the situation in which you find yourself if it keeps you on goal for survival.

This. I’d prefer to minimize my exposure by reading those articles here on the forums. PDFs pose security risks.

I had to laugh because I think “camping” is probably most preppers’ code word, even among those of us that go camping. And now that I reflect on my neighbor recently telling me that her sons went “camping” in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it just confirmed for me that they are preppers, too, based on how she described it. I get it, I like to go camping/testing prepping gear, too. LOL Maybe that insight is an opportunity for networking… Hmmm…

Dropped in to say that I, too, listened to this podcast. It was nice to put a voice to the face and name, John Ramey. This may be the result of the editing, but it seemed like you didn’t get enough time to delve into the sane prepper mantra. It seemed like the host was really pushing the emphasis on “doomsday”, despite stating how prepping has evolved over the decades. Also, a little less time could have been given to the fiction author. Yeah, there was some relevant personal experience there and I’m a fan of thinking about problems before encountering them… Totally dug the bit about how prepping can be done on a tight budget. People need to know that they can do it.

I like this idea. I like it better when you put the money inside a dry bag inside the fireproof bag. Store it in the house or just bury it on the property.

Provided you’ve done your research about the heat retaining- and water repelling capabilities of the materials and provided sufficient time and sewing machine skills, I can’t really find a solid argument against doing something that is within your budget to do, yourself.  It sounds like an opportunity for you to truly tailor this prep to your needs. You can control where zippers are placed, you can add a velcro storage pocket here; maybe a magazine pocket there, or a retaining strap there. Whatever you want. The possibilities are endless. Just be sure that when it comes time for you to depend on it -with your life-  it will live up to the task of helping you see another sunrise. I’d be interested in hearing more about your project and how it goes -along with the bad, ugly, and challenging parts, too.