If you, or someone you are regularly in contact with, is susceptible to an anaphylactic reaction then YES. If that is the situation, be sure and get appropriate training (too many assume they’ll ’just figure it out’ when needed).  Otherwise probably not. I’d be very hesitant—again based on your level of training—to inject someone with an epi pen when you don’t know them and/or their medical history. I have a couple epi pens (I’m a former paramedic), I don’t choose to carry them in any of my FAKs.

I finally got RDS (actually green but whatever) a few months ago for my two primary Glocks. Like you said, it’s a game changer. It feels like cheating I can shoot so accurate. Thanks for the push in that direction. 💯

Incubator recommendations? We’ve been raising chickens for years. We get chicks from the feed store, and also seek out and encourage broody breeds. But we’ve decided to try an incubator and see if we can keep the process completely in house.  Ideas? Advice?

You’re not wrong, though gun laws have been swinging back and forth on the judicial pendulum many places in the last few years. We’ll stay. Family is here. We’ve got the homestead and it’s in a great place, the weather is still moderate, bugs and humidity are low, and you can grow almost anything. The new gun laws suck, but who knows if they’ll last. 

Great write up John! I especially liked it coming from a prepper perspective. I’ll probably never be cool enough to go to SHOT show, but it’s nice to know what’s going on there. The Flux Raider for Sig 365 seemed very interesting — I’m going to look into it more (though I’m not sure it’s legal to buy something like that anymore in WA state <sigh>).

Our next door neighbor’s home was burglarized a couple weeks ago. We live rurally, on a dead end street with about 12 homes (5 acre lots). It was done in the middle of the day (between 1000 – 1200), no one was home. They took medications, tools, a safe, some antiques, and small electronics.  It shook me—it’s easy to feel safe when you live far from urban areas—and I spent some time reviewing our home security measures. Our house sits a ways off the street, and it’s not very visible from the street. Our 5 acres are fully fenced, with an electronic locking gate at the entrance. We have cameras at most of the choke points. Plus we have 3 dogs who have access to our entire property.  I think the people who broke into the neighbors house considered ours first. We saw a suspicious looking car (no license plates) on camera pull into the driveway to the locked gate then leave — about the time their house was broken into. 

Ok. I finished the book (audio version) last week. I really enjoyed it. The premise of an economic meltdown is valid and easily foreseeable. The author uses “informative fiction” to teach the reader throughout the story about the economy, the weak points of it, why things failed, and why we should have seen it coming. She further develops many of the unforeseen circumstances that could come from a failed dollar and subsequent failed economy. I learned a lot through conversations of the wealthy great grandfather (patriarch) and the 14 y/o almost savantic younger family member. The book concludes with a somewhat lazy happily ever after as the family migrates to the Free State of Nevada, a NON-utopia / pseudo libertarian world with all it’s predictable, almost cliched, struggles.  The writing isn’t amazing, but there’s some good drama, dark parts, things that really make you think, insights into the non-prepared urban/NYC dwellers (especially the more well off ones), genuine humor, and her world building of a collapsing world is consistent and believable.  I’ve ordered 3 copies to give to friends. There are only so many post-apocalyptic/collapse books about zombies, EMPs, or pandemics—with people struggling to get from one place to another—that you can read before they all start to sound the same. This one definitely doesn’t sound the same and it really made me think.  I’d give the book a 4/5 overall. But to a prepper audience that is striving to be mentally/emotionally prepared and to think outside the box I’d call this a must read. 

Based on your post, I looked into it — it looks very promising. I bought the Audible version and I’ll let you know in a week or so what I think. 

Great and appropriate answers. I even took notes on a couple of your recommendations. And maybe it is time for me to get a red dot. I’ve debated it for a couple years and the eyes aren’t getting any better. 

Natural gas is nice because you have an almost infinite amount of fuel to draw from (it just keeps getting pumped into your house), while propane has to be delivered and stored. We live rurally and don’t have the option of NG, but I wish we did.

We all keep our animals/livestock for a variety of different reasons and you mentioned a few. But, if I many ask, specifically why are you keeping the Nigerian Dwarf Goats? We tried them several years ago and they were ok. My wife milked them for a while with success, but you don’t get much from each one and because of their size it was harder. They were cute and full of personality and we decided we didn’t want to kill them for the meat (we do slaughter chickens, rabbits, and Katahdin sheep). Also we chose to keep a male, because I don’t like the idea of outside animals possibly contaminating the herd/property with outside bacteria. But the male was an asshole. I’m not opposed to livestock for pets if that’s realized, but we found them unsustainable for those reasons.  After a couple years we chose to sell them all off. 

I just finished reading this post and I really appreciate—and heartily agree with—what @Caliber Caprpenter and @Redneck have to say. Striker fire guns are reliable and in a prepping scenario they are superior. Training to proficiency, then continued regular training is a must. Again that doesn’t just mean shooting at a range, it means being pushed and trained by someone knowledgeable. Is there a place for revolvers? Sure? I own a couple and appreciate them for what they are. But they’re not as much fun to shoot, they’re harder to reload (does anyone develop proficiency with speed loaders anymore??) and thus I just don’t shoot them as much. But it’d take a lot of practice for me to be able to shoot my 2” .38 as quickly and accurately as my P365 9mm. There are some, not as many as we assume, but some preparedness items that you can buy—never practice or train with—and forget about until the SHTF, ie shovels, maybe water filters, sleeping bags, warm clothes, etc. But firearms are not one of these things.

Working in conjunction with a Nalgene, or other wide mouthed bottle, it can be a valuable tool. Is there better? Sure. Do you have said better with you? How much space does it take? All considerations. There is very rarely only one best. LifeStraws also provide an easy way to build redundancy into your preps — what if your top of the line pump filter breaks or gets left behind? That being said I have a couple in my car kits, in addition to a high quality pump filter. I throw them in our packs when we’re camping away from the car (in addition to having a good pump). And I did buy the 4 pack from Costco to have extras on hand.

I was at the hardware store yesterday and looked at lumber prices. Yea, they’ve come “down” but they’re still too high. At least they’re going down, that’s the right direction. Maybe by next summer when it’s time to start up on outside projects again?

& I’m thrilled to see lumber prices coming down — finally. They got to such ridiculous prices that anything, other than the most modest home improvement, was financially impractical. 

The Nord Stream sabotage diagram was interesting. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but it’s scary that our underwater pipelines—and I’d assume telecommunication cables—are that vulnerable. They’re so long and extensive they’d be impossible to defend.  

. . . and who had ‘cyborg, hybrid, invasive giant cockroaches’ on their apocalyptic bingo card? No, no they won’t be any threat — we’re designing them only to do good, to help people… (haven’t we all seen these movies??) https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/meet-japans-cyborg-cockroach-coming-disaster-area-near-you-

I just shake my head with all that is going on right now: Hurricanes/Typhoons, economic upheavals, war, religious oppression, energy crises, drought/floods — it really is crazy out there…