It's all about tools

The old joke goes, "he who dies with the most toys wins"...  Well, its also he who goes into a crisis with the most tools wins, or better yet survives.  Now in all honesty, tools without skills or knowledge may as well be badminton racquets.  but after 30 years in the construction industry i know for sure, I KNOW how to use this equipment. And while learning bushcraft to deal with the "natural" environment is important, the cities and buildings won't just disappear leaving you in the woods.  You will have to deal with damaged structures, you will want and need to salvage supplies, you may need to rescue people.  And the time to prepare for that is now.

Now a lot of these are fairly common hand tools, so why have them separated in my evac gear?  Well, two reasons.  First, they are cheap and in an emergency i don't want to scramble around looking for stuff.  If time is short, pry bars and axes are not going to be my priority, so I'm time shifting.  Second, if i had to evacuate, having a small stash of repair, salvage, and access tools could be invaluable for rescuing other survivors,  unforeseen situations, or returning home.  If the crisis is weather, these tools would be on hand to safely get in my house, or salvage things, since my main tools would be buried deep within the damaged structure.

I have a larger crow bar in the bottom of my trailer, but these there are my go to access/wrecking tools. After my CERT class, I took a good hard look at what the most effective tools my selective demolition subcontractor used on the last reno job and asked him about them.  Both of these leverage tools offer maximum strength, but are light enough to carry all day if needed. These small bolt cutters are hardened and can cut almost any padlock or chain, and make light work of fences and concrete reinforcing wire that could be a big factor in a structural building collapse.

My big ropes that are stashed in my trailer, but I keep a multitude of pulleys, eyebolts and anchors that can be used for rescue, but also with my tarps to create temporary shelters.  I also keep a hardened cable to use with padlock to secure may trailer or a generator on site.

There are some other things that I also carry from electrical wire, to wrenches and drivers,  that i'm not listing, but are standard gear for the type of repairs that i may run into.

These axes really need no explanation, but obviously firewood and site clearing.  This mini shovel was a great find. Its small and light so it fits my space and weight requirements, but sturdy enough to handle any task that may come up in the field.

A lot of this is geared toward reacting temporary shelter in an evacuation, but the other key use is gaining access to possible secured but abandoned shelter oppertunities that may arise.  While i would hate to think about the possibility that there could be a situation where I was foraging through structures after a massive loss of life event,  having these tools on hand could be the difference between shelter and surviving the night, and freezing to death.

Maintain the balance between dark clouds and the rainbow

Prepping is a weight....

There is no question that thinking about the worst situations in order to realistically prepare for them is a burden, and can be depressing.  That weight actually increases as you get deeper into prepping, because you become aware of threats you didn't even know existed.

Until movies like Outbreak and Contagion, I would be willing to bet the average person had no clue what a pandemic was.  In fact, I bet most still don't.

Ask a guy on the street what a coronal mass ejection is, or how easy it would be for an Electro Magnetic Pulse or cyber attack to shut down the national power grid.  Then ask him how long it would take for the power to come back.  You would be amazed to find how many people think a day or two.

Simply put, you know too much for your own good.  In one of my favorite movies, Men in Black, agent K says the following...

"There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!" 

But this is the life preppers have chosen.  It is the path we walk, and after you start, guess what, you can't unlearn something, and try as you might, you can't go back.  There is no reset button, no do over so you can take the blue pill.   You know what you are facing...

So how do I do it?  How do I maintain a balance? How do i manage to live a happy and relatively content life while maintaining a watchful eye on the dark clouds on the horizon?  I "force" breaks in my thought pattern.  I make myself enjoy the rainbows.   Sure I watch the news, but i force myself to turn off my brain and play catch or play xbox with my son.  I ask my daughter to cook dinner WITH me and enjoy the time together.  I'll go roller-skating, not as a family (we do that too), but just my wife and I on adults only night.  Where we can have fun together just the two of us.  We cook a big breakfast as a family Sunday mornings with everything we all like.  Pancakes, cheese eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, fruit, you name it... and then we go to church and pray, together.

My point is, don't burn out, don't get frustrated.  Work hard at prepping, work efficiently at prepping, but equally as important is that you put it all down, and carve out time to mentally recharge and decompress.   Make sure the life you are living is worthy of the effort you spend prepping so you can continue to live it.

Off the shelf food storage

TV, always depicts Preppers with cases of MREs, and the big sponsors of any prepping show are the freeze dried food companies.   All thats nice, and has a place, but the majority of what i have in inventory is off the shelf food.  I apply the "store what you eat,eat what you store" philosophy, and rotate food by First in First out (FIFO), but i don't just sit stuff on the shelf.


Here are some off the shelf side dish packages i was packing away recently.  I use this method for pasta, rice, and a number of dry food types.  some of this is to extend the shelf life, but some is just to protect the food from dampness, bugs, mice, or any unforeseen pest or hazard.


After sealing small groups in foodsaver bags, i keep the packs in food grade buckets outfitted with the Gamma lid system.  Gamma lids are air tight, but resealable with a twist off lid that has a rubber seal.  Perfect for storing something for a long time, but you can open and repack them on a inventory rotation schedule  I typically toss a few bay leaves in the bucket before i seal it just for good measure.

A quick label that says what and the date packed, and these buckets are all set for my deep storage space.  This is different from a well stocked pantry, in that I don't plan to use this for months if not years.  A pantry, i may access on a weekly or daily basis while making meals, or just to fill the kitchen cabinets. While deep storage can be a closet, buckets stack under a guest bed, or anywhere that can hold my inventory.  It doesn't need to easily accessible, and this would be how i would store food at a cabin or remote evacuation location.

The most valuable prep I have is..

A good partner.  My wife doesn't always understand my concerns.  She doesn't always agree with me.  She will on occasion, grill me before or after a prepping gear purchase.  Not in a "we don't need it you are wasting money" way, but a probing "explain why this is the best solution, stay on your toes" way.

She isn't an "outdoor" girl.  She isn't ready to go off camping in the woods and rough it.  But she is smart, resourceful, she can shoot better then me, and agrees with my one simple philosophy on marriage.

Marriage is not a 50/50 deal. it is 100% all or nothing proposition.  If you go into it thinking 50/50, then you are expecting your wife or husband to meet you in the middle.  But there are going to be days when all you have is 25% to give and so will your partner.  You have to be ready to meet then where they are. To carry them AND the ball to the end zone. to deliver 100% when they have nothing, and know that when you have run your last mile and fall on your knees, they will be there to pick you up and carry you.

And so here is my wife, sitting in a tent, not complaining about bugs, not complaining about the heat, not complaining about eating camp food, not complaining about no indoor plumbing.  Here she is humoring me while I test my outdoor gear.

So what the heck does any of this diatribe have to do with prepping?  I don't know, but when the discussion comes of prepping groups, and survival teams, and all that stuff as they always do, I know I am never alone.  You can't do this alone. That doesn't mean you need to be married to Bear Grylls.  but you need a partner to support you emotionally.  Because prepping for the worst, means mentally taking on the stress of and facing the worst possible situation ever in your head at this moment, and trying to solve a future problem now.  Prepping means facing the beast, and the reality that darkness, death, and a crisis will come one day.  It is a weight and responsibility non preppers can not fathom. And even if your partner never buys a single can of beans, if they support you emotionally, and that allows you to move ahead and prepare, they have contributed more then the gold in fort knox.

Don't know where to start with a city kid? Try the Boy Scouts of America

Prepping in a urban environment has presented numerous challenges, not the least of these is children.  Getting kids interested in, and learning survival skills and critical thinking in this MTV video game infused world can be difficult. Adding to this complication is peer pressure and hopping your children find the right crowd.  Well here is my solution, and endorsement for the Boy Scouts of America.  IMHO Its a safe place for like minded kids, all learning valuable survival and problem solving skills together so there is no peer pressure.

Let me give you a little example.  I recently spent a whole week with our troop at one of the BSA canoe base camps.  Scoutmasters and volunteers only act in a support roll, the BSA troop & patrols are run by the boys.  They take responsibility for all their own needs in-between their training and activities.  Unlike a normal summer camp where meals are provided, this how Boy Scouts get their meals.  Each patrol gets a cooler full of ingredients 3 times a day.  They have directions and menus and set up their own kitchen.

Now this doesn't sound like much sitting at a computer in the comfort of your house, but to watch at a distance while 4 patrols of 11 year old new Boy Scouts make all their own meals for a week is impressive.  I watched them learn their own capabilities, trust themselves, and grow into a team through the course of a week.

There was a base menu for each meal, but they made a lot of their own decisions.  Sometimes they would get a container of peaches or something like that, and could at their choice could come to base camp storage and get a pie crust for a pie, a cake mix and make a crumbler, or they could just dish out peaches for desert to each patrol member.   Do we make eggs and toast for breakfast, or combine ingredients and make french toast?  Here are your potatoes boys... then they could fry them, mash them, boil them, wrap em in tin foil an "camp bake" them.  Their decision, their execution.

Now having seen the patrols in action on weekends is one thing, but over the course of 7 days, things real start to fall in to place. lessons get learned, leaders step up, but everybody grows.  Could you teach these skills to your child?  I guess so.  But its not like learning on your own, with your team.  And all this is between 5 mile hikes, canoe trips, archery, target shooting, fire building, rope knot classes, and other bushcraft skills classes.

Oh, did I mention the flag ceremony twice daily, oaths, pledge of allegiance, prayer of reverence before meals, and responsibility?   To me, BSA brings what is sorely missing in today's society, a code of honor.

Oh, and girls are no longer left out.  While they are not integrated into the boy scout program, the BSA has created the "Venture Scouts" program.  its co-ed and parallel to the regular scouts, so they do everything the regular scouts do and more including some high adventure activities. So if young ladies want more adventure then what the girl scouts offer, and some tougher leadership challenges, the BSA has a solution.

The bugout/camp kitchen "Mark II"

So if you have look around my blog before you may have seen my tote with all my emergency cooking gear in it.  Well, after a week of camping at the Boy Scouts of America Canoe base, I decide to adapted their trusty and time proven "patrol chuck box" concept and upgrade my camp kitchen.




I saw this interesting Stanley Fat Max tool box in home depot a few weeks ago and it caught my eye.  I didn't have an application for it, but i filed it away in the back of my brain and moved on. As I watched these groups of 12 year old boys busily going about their tasks in setting up camp, their tents, and their cook stations, it came to me.  That tool box would make the perfect camp kitchen storage system.

The tool box is wheeled and has three major compartments that slide out from the wheels to support themselves.  You can roll it right into a campsite and open it so everything is visible and easily accessible.

My nested camp cookware as well as all my cast iron pans and dutch oven fit perfect in the bottom section. The middle section has 8 compartments with removable dividers and is just the right height for spice shakers.    

 I also keep my cutlery, knives, and other small items there.  I also have one of the sections I use to keep camping items close.  A flash light, some Coleman lantern mantels, bug repellant, paracord, and other miscellaneous small items that I have a bigger inventory of in another tote, but might want at hand.

The top section is about the size of a traditional small tool box.  Its a full open compartment, and is perfect for long cooking utensil storage. Everything from Can opener to tin foil to turners and tong.

This system is a little bigger then the tote i was previously using, but the wheels and operation make it the perfect solution for my camp kitchen, and keeps everything organized, ready, and mobile if I ever am forced to evacuate.