"In case of zombies, or yard work" ...

I think this exemplifies my philosophy to prepping.  Its not something you do in a vacuum. Its not putting a bunch of freeze dried food hyped by a celebrity spokes person in the closet.  Prepping is something you integrate into your life.   We eat what we store, we rotate both our food and household staples inventory by using them in our daily lives.  When I do things, I make my choices with both prepping and everyday life in mind.

A typical example is diversifying my exercise program.  last spring I decide to add more cardiovascular work into my weekly exercise program.  So, at 50 my knees aren't what they use to be, that meant adding more then a day or 2 of serious running was impractical.  Well, I though maybe I'll get a bike and ride. Better yet with the right bike can invest in exercise now, AND have an alternative mode of transportation that does not require fossil fuels.

After a fair amount of research I settled on a trail bike. While not the fastest or lightest, it allowed me to exercise and is rugged enough to truly service as alternative transportation in any terrain.  In fact, I also bought my son one too so I get an opportunity for some of that all important father son bonding time.  I see my bike choice as a prepping compromise where I gained several times more then I gave up by not choosing a traditional street bike.

Prepping for "bugs"

is something I have focused on for years.  No, not bugs as in

Rather, Bugs as in 

Our world is populated by billions of microorganisms that are lethal to humans. We fight a continuous war in laboratories around the world against them. But one day they may win, or at least win a battle or two.

I saw this up close a some years ago.  My wife's god brother spent a few weeks in Europe. His first stop was to come see my wife and I. He brought back this amazing natural wool sweater and wanted to show us. Of course he had all his required vaccinations so he was protected by whatever was on the sweater, but within 6 hours my wife couldn't stop coughing.  We went to the movies to see Forest Gump and had to leave because she couldn't catch her breath. I took her straight from the theater to emergency.

The next evening while she lay on the sofa barely able to lift a spoon of soup, my best friend came by.  24 hours later both he and I were sick.  I tried to finish a full day at work but left early to go to the doctor.  After a week on all kinds of meds we both finally felt good enough to get up and out.  Returning back to work I found that 4 people in the office were now out with this same strange flu like virus.  I went back for my check up and guess what? The doctor is out sick.  When i finally saw him 2 weeks later he says "What the heck did you bring in my office? that was a rough bug! It took out half my staff."  My best friends step father got sick, one or his co workers got sick, god only knows how may people that tried to see Forset Gump despite my wife's incessant coughing that night got sick.

We have talked and joked about that incident, and my best friend sometimes jokingly refers to my wife's god brother as patient zero, but in the back of my mind i have asked myself, what if that virus had been fatal in half the cases?   Just one more tick of some genetic sequence and mother nature could have changed the world as I know it.

Now i  know I can't go fighting microscopic organisms.  But i can think through what supplies I would need to stay quarantined in my house and ride out a contagious and lethal flu epidemic. And after thinking it through, I have adjusted what i keep accordingly.

Find your weak spots...

and after you find them actively and diligently work to solve them.  Now this should apply to everything, but i had a great example of this recently.  Don't ask me where it came from, but my 11 year old has asthma.  Now, its not the "dust, pollen, and smoke", i cant breathe, or daily meds asthma like on TV.  But according to the doctor he has a mild "illness induced asthma".  Meaning if he catches a real bad cold or flu it can bring on asthma like symptoms and respiratory issues.

Now this would be easy to ignore and say "well, if and if and if, we'll just take him to the doctor". Now sure its a rare occurrence, but the environment that would bring about an attack is exactly the environment we would be in if we had no power or had to evacuate this time of year.   How do i know this? Well, we had to take him to the doctor a week after the Boyscout camp outing weekend where we spent 3 days in tents in November. So, i say to myself "I've got to solve this".

Well, Asthmanefrin has now introduced small battery powered vaporizers that administer the same breathing treatment as the doctor or hospital.  If fact it was the doctor that told me about them.  I search every drug store in the area, and at 50 dollars, its not the cheapest thing, but this could be priceless in a crisis when no doctors are available.


Keeping your eyes open for common small problems that could be magnified into big problems in a crisis, then ACT!

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised...

My question is what do you prep for?  Thats a question that gets asked a lot. The truth is none of us know.  There is no certainty.  The crisis may be a complete societal collapse, a solar flare, EMP, pandemic, or just the loss of a job.  But a broken water main can leave you without water for a week, or a glitch in a computer system can leave you without a paycheck. A storm can knock out power for day. Someone my steal your Identity and empty all your bank accounts leaving you penniless for months until the bank decides to benevolently give you proper credit for the misdeeds.  A crisis doesn't have to be the end of the world to have a devastating impact on you.

But a crisis will not be a typhoon that hits the Philippines, or some terrorist attack in a far off land. These are no more real to us then an episode of Law and Order, or NCIS. Our hyper-connected media insures we see all these events in glorious high definition but they do not "touch" us. 

The one thing i do know is whatever crisis comes and when it comes, it will be personal. It will be on your front porch. It will be in your face... and THAT is the crisis you prep for.

..."the Revolution will not be televised".

An Emergency Food Strategy...

Developing a food strategy is a key factor for emergency preparedness.  What food? How long am I planning to be without stores to buy from? How can I cook?How long is the shelf file? Will i even like it enough to choke it down? Since food is second only to water in the hierarchy, you can't just toss a couple of cans in a bag and say "i'm good".  Well you can, but it will not be very effective.   Also with prepping becoming more commercialized you see ads for MREs and all types of dehydrated food buckets that are nice "feel good" things to have in the closet, but are they really the best solution?  To me food is a layered strategy and i want to share my plan and philosophy.

First "Store what you eat, and eat what you store".  Do I have some dehydrated food and MREs?  Of course, but they are a small part of my food solution and are for a specific reason or event.  The bulk of my food is normal everyday grocery store can goods.  Beans, rice, carrots, soup, the stuff we eat every day are the mainstay.  I have built over time an inventory of what we normally consume, and using stilltasty.com, and a handy dandy grease pencil to write on cans, I keep track of when and what I buy and store.  I know the I can be snowed in, locked in, shelter in place for whatever reason for X months without any outside food source.

The layering comes in as availability is impacted,  for example fresh meats and vegetables first, then frozen.  If refrigeration is still available my frozen meats would well outlast frozen vegetables, so they are "replaced" with canned goods.   When frozen meats are gone, by use or lack of power, I have specific canned meats (i like werlingandsons.com in Ohio the best) and i have developed and tried meals that surround using a 14.5 oz can of meat and traditional grocery items like Zataran's gumbo to feed my family of 4 with no waste.  I can also make stew and soups using the canned meat and freeze dried vegetables using a thermal cooker to minimized the use of cooking fuel which may be scarce at that time.

Breads are a key part of the food system so i took specific steps to resolve this (see my october 31st post). Since fresh bread would run out in a few weeks, I have off the shelf flour and bread/muffin mixes. Their limitation is they have a useful shelf life of a year or 2. The third "layer" is I also have a supply of Augason farms bread mixes.  Their extremely long shelf life makes them perfect for this. I keep the MRE's specifically for "on the road" or "low signature" meals if i needed to be mobile.

To get here i have cooked all of the different foods multiple times. I've tried the canned meats vs the dehydrated meats, used the small test cans of Augason and others in taste test before ordering cases of #10 cans. And after finding what works "off the shelf" but is in short supply, i've ordered bulk cases from the manufacture through Walmart and Costco. Key is i am not compromising taste, quality, or  nutrition anywhere along the way. Like any system, its work to develop. But after its running, its second nature.

More equipment reviews from Webelo-fest...

So I owe you some reviews on some other gear I put through its paces at Webelo-fest.   First, let me set the stage.  Out in the woods its dark.  No, I mean really REALLY dark.  OK, so if you camp already, you already know, but if you are a "city kid" you become so use to light pollution that you may not have ever seen a moonless night with no reflective light coming from clouds.

Of course everyone had flashlights, and a few had lanterns and head lamps.  Well, we had two pieces of gear we wanted to try.  First was our Goal Zero Lighthouse lantern, second was a Rayovac indestructible flashlight.

As to the Goal Zero lighthouse, at first it appears to be standard lantern, but its considerably better built then several others i've owned. Its truly top quality from the handle on down its solid.  Even better its charge or crank powered. (we fully charged it before going, but in a grid down situation a tough crank powered light would be invaluable.) AND it has a USB outlet to charge a cell phone or tablet. (I tried it for grins, worked like a charm)  Best part is its got the latest LED tech so it was a bunch brighter and gave off much whiter light compared to the other lanterns that people had.  Bright enough where I kept getting asked what brand and where i got it.  After dark I could spot our Webelo pac from the other boys clear as day at 100 yards just because my son was holding the GZ lighthouse.

The Second was the Rayovac indestructible LED flashlight.  We had both the 100 lumen 2 AA model and the 140 lumen 3C model.  both were the brightest lights on the campout by far, and talk about range.  WOW, the big one lit up the trail ahead of us so bright you couldn't see anyone else's beam. Now you can spend a lot more for a high end CREE tactical light, but I caught these on sale at under 20 dollars from Home Depot.  And after surviving watching my son drop his 5 or 6 times without so much as scratch, I'm getting one for the whole family, They are now my new standard.

Old tech is better then No tech...

I have an ongoing debate with one of my friends about this little philosophy of mine.  Whenever I pick up some "new to me" gear for camping, survival, or just general preparedness, he says "i'm not going to risk my life on some previous generation equipment in an emergency!".  And my response is always "old tech is better then no tech".  Seriously, now when I hit the lottery and have 10 million dollars to spend on a off grid retreat and all the latest equipment, thats what i'll have.  But until that day, its a guns or butter decision.  Simple economics.  The allocation of scarce resources.

I don't have to be the fastest, just faster then the next guy.  A classic example is what if the lights go out. I mean really out!  For security's sake you may want to stand watch for your family, group, whatever. The way I figure it how many people will have night vision, 1 in 100, 1 in 1000, 1 in 10,000?  So maybe 1 in 5 with night vision actually have the latest gen 3 night vision equipment.

So when it comes to securing my families surroundings i'm way ahead or the average person with minimal investment. good solid used Gen 1 and Gen 2 sets are available at attractive prices and are far superior to squinting in the dark. Both of mine are Night Owl Optics Products. The Monocular is a Gen 1, and the Binoculars are Gen 2. Night Owl is a trusted company that makes quality products, so i feel comfortable relining on their products.  Both run on AA batteries and i can use my rechargeable ones with my Goal Zero power system.

Now, i'm only using night vision equipment as an example, but this holds true for a lot of the more advanced support tools.  Anyway, My advice is to do your research first, keep an open mind, and don't be afraid to look for deals. But there are ways to gain a substantial advantage reasonably, but ONLY if you act.

GPS systems

caught my attention as a survival tool a couple of years ago.  Now if you're an Eagle Scout or a Bear Grylls type and can put your ear to a tree, look at the moon, and know exactly where you are, great!  If you grew up a "city kid" like me, the idea of being off in an unfamiliar wooded area is more then a bit daunting.   So i'm thinking, i want to get some use out of this and not just sit it in a box in the basement, but its also an investment as a part of my Preps.  In fact, my strategy when buying "prepping" gear is to also be able to use it for camping, or recreation, or something, anything.  Just not to hoard it and create a bunch of stuff that sits in the corner.

Besides, even though i am actively pursuing a better knowledge of the skills and techniques of outdoorsmanship (if thats a word).  I can read, research, and just going out and do, and yes i have come back with my fair share of poison ivy.  But I figure there is no need to abandon technology.  Tech can be a tool just like a hatchet or a knife, and if applied correctly it can support and augment existing skills.

Anyway, these are two GPS units I picked up.  Now my "Philosophy of Use" (to steal Nutnfancy's term*) was that if in unfamiliar territory, I could get back to my camp from a hike and just not be lost. Now paper maps have their place and you should definitely have them. I have several.  But if you get lost in the woods with a map, you'er still lost. My POU was to set a destinations or locations and be able to get back there. And i wanted something simple enough for my kids to use. And it didn't need to be the latest tech because I wanted multiple for our group to use to coordinate with.

Well last year I picked up 2 of the Megellan Tritons on the left.  No bones about it, they were a complete waste of money. Other then knowing i'm in the Michigan, its useless for my purposes.  It never zoomed in close enough to be useful,  and you cant upgrade or download maps to make it better on a large scale. I could go on, but why?  you get the point.  I guess they make good products, but this is not one of them. 

I was very disappointed, but I trudged on in my search for a solution.  Eventually I came across the Bushnell backtrack on the right. I could not have dreamed of a better tool for what i actually want to do. Its more a digital compass then a GPS unit, but you can set 3 destination points like camp, the lake, the car. and it will lead you right back to which ever you select.  Tag "base camp" and go off on a hike, or to hunt, or get water.  If you all get separated everyone can find there way back to base.  A kid can use it, which is EXACTLY what I wanted. And they are cheap!  Bushnell has come out with 2 upgraded models, the Backtrack 2 and the D-tour.  Both have slight improvements which has made the original very cheap on the secondary market.  You can find them on Ebay for 25 dollars. At that price you can get a few for the family.  

I sent one off for the day with a bunch of Webelos and I was impressed with how quickly they were comfortable with exploring and using it to get back to camp. I will also send on off with my wife to the mall for Christmas shopping to tag the car location.  

* The Nutnfancy Project 

Outside...

I was talking so much about having to "Bug out" i wanted to talk about what "Outside" really is.  To a lot of us this is outside.  We have the illusion that our back yard actually is outside. I know I did. That being the case, when shows like Doomsday Preppers shows people grabbing their backpack and headed off to the woods, we're like "cool, I can do that".

Well, THAT is not outside. THIS is outside.  And to be completely honest this is STILL a sanitized and tamed representation.   Outside is cold, wet, harsh, and unforgiving, and you can die of dehydration and exposure just like the chaos you may be bugging out to avoid.  And its populated by people who own the land, and might not take to kindly to you coming out to their farm because your little suburban utopia has gone to crap. 

OK, so how do we fix this?  I have no clue.  But I do know if you're serious about adding bugging out as a possible option, I have one word.  TRAIN.  Go camping, get use to doing it. And not just on the sunny weekends too.  Go when it's raining.  Dig a fire pit and make a bond fire, then cook over it. You will quickly learn what you really need to cook a meal without the aid of a comfy stove and kitchen.  Then write a list of what you need and check things off as you get them. Better yet if you camp, invest in a second set and pack them with your camping gear so you don't have to search. Pitch your tent in your yard until you can do it with your eyes closed in the dark while shivering.  The more you do these tasks better you will get, and the better prepared you will be to do them under the stress of an emergency.

So, do my neighbors think i'm nuts for putting up my tent in my yard 3 times on Sunday afternoon? Maybe.  But I can do it the dark of night in a rain storm? absolutely!

A quick word about organization...

Like I have said before, to me "prepping is about time shifting".  Thats doing a task, learning a skill, or acquiring resources at a time of your choosing.  Now, putting tasks and skills aside, i want to spend a little time on organization.    In the prepping community you hear a lot about a "bug out bag".  I don't have one.  I just don't believe i could ever need to leave in that big a rush.  I tried to make one and ended up with a big pile of stuff in the center of the floor twice the size of my back pack. 

So I decided I'm basically a "bug in" kind of guy (thats "Shelter in place" if you want to use the official homeland security terminology).   Meaning in the event of an emergency or crisis I am prepared to stay within my house for weeks or months without any outside assistance.  I have food, water, personal necessities, and various emergency supplies so i do not have to expose myself to whatever dangers may be present.  That being said, there are some events that by their very nature would necessitate an evacuation. Both Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina are classic examples, but wildfires and others also exist.  With this in mind I choose to store many of emergency preparation supplies in a manner that I can readily get to, but are organized for rapid transport if necessary.

I could easily keep my supplies on shelves in a closets, or with there counterparts that we use daily, but this would mean I would have to scramble around the house gathering items in the midst of the most chaotic of times. Heck, in my 50 years I have never gone on vacation and not forgot something.   A razor, toothpaste, dark socks, the right tie, it never fails.  So with out question, while the county's emergency siren blaring of eminent danger, and lives on the line, i'm sure to.   

My solution has been to create "bug out kits".  Basically, to use storage bins to hold and pre-stage all my gear, safe and out of the way of daily life.  IF i am forced to bug out i can exist safely for an extended period of time by taking pre-organized necessities. I get to pack, check, and double check under no time pressure.  Getting here, I went through the all phases from cardboard boxes, to run of the mill storage bins, and eventually finding these Greene Horizon boxes at Home Depot.  While not the cheapest, they are tough as nails, have a piano hinge system, and a place for a pad lock (important to keep kids from stealing your batteries for their video games).  I found these to exactly what you need if you are tossing these in the back of a pick up with a storm breathing down your neck.  They do make a larger size then the 20 gallon ones I standardized on, but i can lift and move these alone no matter what is in packed in them.

While I have about 10, here are 3 examples of how I have packed my kits

This one is predominately a "med kit".  There are several antibiotics vacuum sealed, 5 quick clot packs, field surgical kit, some OTC meds like Motrin and Advil, and bandages.  I also keep an Asthmanefrin starter kit and a refill.

This is a "support kit" with some Goal Zero crank lanterns, and a number of other GZ lights. Lazerbright battery operated glow sticks, hand warmers, and a number of other items

This "support kit" holds my Katadyn Vario water filters, respirators and filters, First aid kit, antibacterial wipes and other miscellaneous items like chapstick and Vaseline

Also since I was packing all this stuff in multiple bins, it also gave me another opportunity to plan and think ahead.  So what happens if i forget one, or lose it, or its stolen or falls of the truck.  Oh well, there goes all the medical supplies, or the flash light batteries.  Thats just not good prepping.  Multiple units offers redundancy, if you organize right.  So I "spread my items across" the bins in a way that makes sure that even if one or two are lost, I have not lost all of one particular supply type.   Each bin no matter what the purpose, also contains a vacuum sealed emergency ammunition pack made up of two boxes of 20 gauge shells, 2 boxes of 9mm, 200 22lr rounds, and 120 223 rounds.  If i'm at home I can access what i need just as easily as if it were on a shelf.

  

Webelos-fest 2013 at D-Bar-A Scout Ranch

After spending a 3 day weekend at the Boy Scouts D bar A Ranch I'm back.  I got a chance to do
additional field test on a bunch of my camping gear and equipment while my boy was off throwing axes, starting campfires, orientating parts of the 1500 acre ranch, and lashing branches into useful things like stretchers & shelters.   I also spent time with a bunch of dads including some Eagle Scouts, survivalist, and avid hunters swapping stories, tips, and advice.  In typical Michigan weather fashion it went from cold to sun to wind to rain to frost, and back again, all in one weekend.

I'll be doing some in depth reviews of some of the things we used in the following weeks.

And a big thanks to Boy Scout Troop 179 for sponsoring the weekend event.