Second hand prepping is key...

After looking at all my gear someone asked me how can I afford all this.   Well, first, to quote my friend Myakka (its his screen name) "Skills beats stuff"!  And I agree with him 1,000%.  In fact, if you look at my second blog entry where I establish my definition of prepping I focus on time shifting and said "Prepping is about performing tasks, acquiring goods, products, resources, and or tools, and gaining or learning skills at a time of convenience, low cost, or availability".  But you have to get stuff, right?  and of course stuff is expensive, right? So what do we do?   Now there are a few independently wealthy preppers. Most of which are featured on Nat Geo's Doomsday Preppers, buying bunkers, and tanks, and all kinds of gadgets, but that isn't practical for most of us.  Then to top it off, we all have these things called "lives", where washing machines break, and cars need transmissions, and kids need collage tuition and all of that needs to fit in somewhere.

Well, i'm going to let you in on a little secret of how I afford all this gear...  ok, don't tell anyone,  you ready?  I buy it used.  Yeah, you heard me USED.  Ebay, Craigslist, and yard sales are my best friend. Now, I do my research on the products I want first.  I work out my plan first, and I only buy quality brands.   I have a list of things I'm looking to add as part of my load out, and I know enough about the different models to see if what i'm looking at has been abused, or is still fresh.  Then I patiently wait until I can win a bid cheap, or run across it somewhere when Grandpa has to clean out his garage.

Since most of my survival gear comes from the camping and outdoor arena, thats where I focus.  Thats not to say my plan is to go live in the woods in a crisis, but camping life means no stove, no fridge, no store, no running water, and alternative sources of heat, light, power.    And basically all those things parallel surviving at home in a crisis that impacts the grid in a major way.  Anyway,  you would be amazed how may guys buy the latest greatest gear and have the pervious year or twos model sitting around with no milage.  I figure why pay retail and all that mark up for something that is designed for heavy use but may have seen outdoors once or twice.  I've picked up an 80 dollar lantern for 10 bucks and it never had fuel put in it, fishing gear that got used once,  a 300 dollar tent that saw one weekend of use for 45 dollars, because the guys wife didn't like camping.

Secondly, a lot of recreational gear double as prepps.  Throw fashion out the window and shop the end of season sales.  Buying winter hiking gear in April may look funny but guess what, I guarantee we have another winter coming around again.  Winters are funny like that.  And i'm sure those 135 dollar Columbia mountain boots and 20 dollar wool socks will feel so much better on the trails in November when you only paid 48 and 5 for them on clearance.

Fighting the darkness... With a Coleman

One of the most troubling parts of a crisis is the lost of light.  Darkness is naturally unsettling because we are deprived of one of our critical senses, sight.   As with other concerns, I looked for systems and redundancy in creating a solution.  Of course i have batteries and flash lights,  I also have a solar power generation system as part of my trailer that can provide light at either my home or a camp/evacuation site.  But looking for cost effective implementable and flexible solutions is key.

To that end I have also invested in lanterns to provide alternative lighting.  Now the one on the right is propane powered and I use it camping regularly, and using either 1 pound tanks, or on a 20 pound tank from a propane tree that also fuels my camp stove.  It is reliable and bright, and a great light source in camp.  In a short term crisis it would be find, but the major constraint is fuel.  Propane is very bulky in small tanks and may not function in cold temps.

Now the two on the left are the ones I want to focus on.  Since flexibility is key in my prepping, there was no better solution then the Coleman Dual Fuel lantern.  Not only do they run Coleman white gas, they also run on gasoline.    While it is flammable, it requires the same precautions as to store as propane tanks, but has a shelf life thats almost unlimited for my purposes, and works in the coldest temps. Also, Coleman white gas being a liquid is far denser then propane gas, a single gallon can replace up to 8 single tanks. so from a storage perspective its a far better solution. I have friends who have found and used 20 year old white gas that their father stored away, and it burned just like new.

Even better, the convenience of propane has made these lanterns very affordable on the secondary market.  New (old stock), and slightly or unused ones can be found cheaper then it will cost to ship.  I personally spent just a bit more to get ones with the protective case, but the protective cases alone are 15 to 25 dollars, so if you factor in that as a separate purchase, my actual lantern cost was cheaper then what many others cost.

A small inventory of mantels and fuel, and for under 100 dollars total, I have greatly increased my ability to light a campsite if need be.

Bug out / Camp trailer upgrades

I started working on my bug out / camp trailer in the fall, and you can see in some earlier post the initial set up.  Well, over the winter and spring i have made several improvements to increase capacity and flexibility in the system.

First I added the 4" PVC pipes on each side to hold 1# propane tanks.  I did a detailed post about the tubes earlier, and they now are in place.  They are low and far enough apart where they actually seemed to increased the stability on the trailer because they sit right over the tires.

The next big change was the addition of a roof top travel bag.  I was able to get a slightly used Rola Platypus Expandable Rooftop Bag.  I installed metal mounting hardware to the trailer lid and using the straps attached the bag.  This gives me up to 15 additional cubic feet of soft goods storage space, and frees up space lower inside the trailer for heavy gear that will lower the center of gravity for the total load.  

i'm going to store light bulky items in the bag like sleeping bags and clothes.  I recently added a cast iron Dutch oven and some other cast iron cookware to my camping gear, because of their weight and density, the center of the trailer right over the axel should be the perfect location to place them. That will efficiently use the reclaimed space and increase stability and weight distribution at the same time.