Feel free to drop and debate your best prepping advice for a single family of 4. What you believe should be prioritized over mistakes youve made in your preps.
PLEASE, for the love of god, do not go out and buy 30 1 gallon water jugs, or 20 cases of bottled water. The plastic will degrade before you ever use it all, its terrible for the body, and its likely to leak out all over the floor..
Sardines are the most protein and nutrient dense canned food you can buy... Taste like shit, but make it work.
Do not build fires or use generators in your home, I feel like this is common sense, but after the last ice storm, im not so sure.
Brush up on any skills you can right now... Welding, carpentry, fencing, fortifying, weapons management, botany.
Have enough medical supplies for your family. 3 packs of great value bandaids will not suffice. You need guaze, anti parasites, anti inflammitory, ibeprofin, asprin. More advanced items like tourniquettes, quick klot, splints will do nothing but increase your preparedness. Be familiar with how each item works.
Some people recommend HAM radios, its great to have but will likely be useless if there aren't major communicators there to bounce comms off of.
Alcohol is a commodity, Weed is a commodity, illicit drugs can have medicinal purposes. Some people can use raw opium for pain and wound management.
Appearance is 98% of someones perception as per AR 670-1. In the event of a catastophic event, knowing FEMA paint symbols, and how to board up your shelter/home is absolutely imparative. Keep plywood on hand specifically for these purposes. People will often find the easiest targets first. Adding barriers that take an immense amount of time to remove will only help your fortification. Think Hurricane Katrina....
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER QUIT. 10 more feet, 10 more seconds... always keep putting distance and time between you, and whatever it is you're escaping from. Your body can give our and rest when youre dead, not a second sooner...
Many of you will be pushed farther than you've ever been pushed before, welcome to your awakening..
Some of you may not experience anything at all, you will be the spared, but it is likely almost everyone will face some sort of tribulation during this transition.
I wish each and every single one of you the very best of luck. Hopefully this is a mild transition, but plan for the worst.
If nothing happens and the world keeps spinning then great, at least your prepared if it doesnt.....
Keep in mind that the civil unrest we are likely to see is NOT a complete SHTF scenario. It will be a few weeks of disruption.
The government will NOT allow the electrical system to go down, nor water treatment. You can store water if you want, but it's not critically necessary.
Think food and commodities. Think grocery stores being disrupted, trucking stopped for a few days, transportation shut down except for critical needs.
Plan to have what you need in case martial law is declared, there are hour long lines at the few stores that still have merchandise... and you can't get anything more for 2 to 3 weeks.
You can freeze a few gallons of milk. You can buy and freeze bread... or get frozen loaves that you can unthaw and bake yourself. Think about foods that you can keep ready and prepare at home.
Don't worry about eating canned beans for months on end, while seriously considering the neighborhood cats as a possible food source. This is not an end-of-world scenario. This is about storing gasoline and basic things NOW, so if there is a disruption, you are ready.
I thought that, too. Till I got hosed by the ice storm.
Basically, they cut power to some of the pumping stations. A few froze, and the system ended up losing enough pressure to push water to houses. When things warmed up there as potential for some backflow, which meant potential for crud to get pulled back into the mains, so the water company put out a boil water notice for 2 days (4 for some areas) even after service was restored.
Since I'd kind of written off water as a priority, I had only put away about 4 gallons of bottled spring water. Being miserly with it for drinking, cooking, and hobo bathing, I ran through about 1/3 to 1/2 a gallon a day while power (and thus water) was out. I'm sure consumption would have been much higher during the summer time.
Where I got hosed was when it came back on... I only had a saucepan to boil water in. It was ok if you're boiling as you go, but it was about a 7-8 minute process per pot. Second purchase I made after we got power back was a 2 gallon aluminum pot... first was a bunch of 7 gallon stackable water jugs.
The lesson I took from that is don't assume the infrastructure is going to be operational. If a few key points in the system go down, everyone is hosed (or at least inconvenienced).
Past the lips and over the gums, watch out stomach, here it comes! It isn't meant to be a hobby, just get it down!! HAHAHA
I am learnin' about ham radio now, gonna start with cb, and 10 meter. Moved to an amish community a few years ago who all peddle their veggies and garden stuff frequently. Am amazed at the amount of community stores that are right on the farms. The wife can't stand it when the amish treat their horses utilitarian...They don't respect them like we do our domestic dog. And they trade em' like baseball cards and used cars...
I grew up beside a mennonite/amish community. Everything and everyone has their purpose. You can help your wife rest easy by knowing that yes, they work their horses, but their horses also receive the same level of care that a trackhorse often would. Their feet are kept trimmed and shod. Their diets and living quarters are optimal, they always have fresh grass. I have saw "pet horses" that never step on a blade of real grass in their life and it makes me absolutely sick.
You’re not buying the right sardines then.
I suggest you look at the "rule of 3s" to prioritize your preps - you can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours in harsh conditions without shelter, 3 days without water and three weeks without food. Wrap in hygiene and medical care and whatever you believe you require for defense. Keep some cash on hand for when the cards don't work.
Start with 3 days of preps then build slowly with standard boxed and canned food to 30 days. This is the stuff that you make supper out of every night. Rotate thru your holdings and replace weekly. Then add longer shelf life food (most canned goods now are good for a lot longer than is printed due to upgraded manufacturing processes). When you get to 3 months you will be good for a short to intermediate incident.
A word about comms - HAM requires an FCC license - not hard to get must requires time to study. Equipment is pretty expensive. UHF and vhf comms are pretty much line of site and rely on repeaters that are dependent on electricity. HF provides long haul communications, depending on atmospheric conditions. For a short term incident, all you need is a commercial "emergency" radio that includes NOAA and a relatively inexpensive hand held capability in either FRS or GMRS for family and neighborhood comms.
Last point - skills are paramount. All the gear in the world will be of no use if you don't have the right mental prep and skills that you have practiced to the point of rote.
Solid post! I agree with all your points and would add that it doesn't hurt to keep one of those large rodent traps on hand. You can catch a couple rabbits in your back yard and either eat them as you catch them or breed them for a sustainable meat source (long term).
I prepared with water jugs - just in case - and people guess what happened? They froze and broke open - and were absolutely useless.
My neighbor gets free food and drops off anything they do not want or need so they always get some kind of meal out of the deal - the last 3 months, they have been given out dried nuts & fruits (food with long shelf life and easy to eat in catastrophe) and dried beans, lentils and peas (goes along way and long shelf life). I was thinking do they know something??? I take the food and jar/seal it. Will last years in the fruit cellar.
Don't forget about those fruit bags - I have had apples, oranges, onions and potatoes last MONTHS in those bags in the fruit cellar.
May there be Peace on Earth for all Mankind and we share with our neighbors when they are without.
I have one of those carbon water filters like a Big Berkey. If you get one you can use all that bottled water you stored with the phthalates in it, or run-off water.
I have always wondered what those were called, thanks for putting a name to the device for me!
I want to build a 500 gallon version of this. I am getting ready to build a new ICF home, and plan on collecting my rainwater through a gutter system, and filtering a to backup/grey water system for "plant watering" if anyone has any questions to ask about it.
I have been reading a ton about using your wood coals, on top of grated small rock and sand. Even if its not a perfect system, at least having the ability to self filter water is a tremendous milestone. We also have an on site spring that flows pretty heavily. I do not forsee it slowing down or drying up anytime soon.
The one I have has screw in elements that panel mount. You could use them in any flat panel tank base.
http://www.britishberkefeld.com/ceramic.html
The filter is made out of stainless steel with a tap at the bottom. I guess the stainless steel is antibacterial.
Maybe a copper heating tank would be a large scale alternative.
I have a waterbob for water and tablets to make water potable.
So absent of generators and fire, how would folks suggest generating heat in a situation like that?
We use our own bodies to generate heat! Minimizing your sleep/lounge space and insulating it will tremendously help you out! In my pup tent, its so well insulated that I have to vent it or it will get steamy hot and wet from body heat and breath alone..
LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS. wearing 2 tshirts, a long sleeve shirt and a sweater will insulate you 10x better than a simple layer or two. In the cold I often wear 2-3 layers at all times.
Razors
Are those package deals worth it? Or is it better to go to a store and buy the dried and dehydrated foods you like? I just can’t see eating half the food in a Patriot container.
Don’t forget the animals.
I wouldnt buy those dehydrated foods like Patriot Containers. You optimally should only be eating one of those a day.. They will clog your digestive system up like nothing else. Second hand to an MRE..
We make our own dog food! They even have their own deep freeze. Their favorite meal is Salmon, Tripe and Wild Berry.
We just buy additional items of the food we use on a daily basis. All of the canned and dry goods. We also have an extra freezer full of meat. This way we eat stuff we are already accustomed to which is especially easy when you have kids.