The Preparedness and Survival Site

Part 7 in a series contributed by forum member Cutter.

Communications are vital in emergencies of all kinds.  Whether it is just your immediate family or your Mutual Assistance Group (MAG), you all will want and need to be able to talk to one another.  Even a lone prepper will need, at the very least, to be able to get information about the situation from the outside world.  That last is especially true of a group.  A group will have all the same needs as a loner plus several more and all in greater quantities.

The first, best, and most important component to your communications preps is a multi-band, wind up radio.  Truthfully, this is such an important part of prepping that it should be acquired in the very beginning of any prep program, but is best discussed here in the comms section.

I currently own two.  The better unit has am/fm/ TV channels 2-13 (audio only) and can receive all 7 bands of the National Weather Service NOAA weather radio.  The lesser radio has only FM/AM/Weather bands, but will still pick up all 7 weather bands.  I got a deal on the better one, but each cost me $50 apiece.  I know that is kind of pricey, but so is not knowing about a tornado warning or other dangerous situation.  In my opinion, knowing when to take cover takes priority even over food stores.  As far as I know, all weather radios will receive all 7 bands, but mentioned it just in case.

After you have the ability to receive information from the outside, it is time to address communications between members of your group and between you and other groups associated with you.

Shortwave radio is the best option for this, but is expensive to get into and comes with a few regulatory hurdles.  I neither own a shortwave radio nor am I a licensed or unlicensed operator of same.  I will add the capability if my finances and time ever permit.  Until then, I will rely on other means.

So on to the other means.  Citizens Band (CB) radios are a much less expensive alternative for longer range comms.  They also come with limitations.  On a good day with near perfect atmospheric conditions and a good CB setup, you have a realistic range of 5-10 miles.  I have personally talked to people over 20 miles distant on a portable CB but not reliably.  I just happened to be in just the right place, at just the right elevation, at just the right time, with just the right weather.  This is never, ever normal.  The norm is 1-3 miles between sender and receiver.  What I can say is that I know of several CB comm. trees in rural areas.  It consists of operators a few miles apart over a wide area.  These groups use it to pass messages or schedule such things as doctor appointments by relaying between operators where the only other option is a long distance phone call.  Such a set up might serve you well if you have the need and means.

CB’s are available in both base station configuration and portables.  Base stations have a significantly longer range because they can be built to have much more power to push the signal.  Bear in mind that just because you can hear a base station operator does not mean that they can hear you on a portable.  Portable units range from vehicle mounted units that can also be used for limited range base stations to hand held, battery units.  Smaller units generally mean less weight but also generally mean less power and therefore, less range.  Licenses have not been required for many years to operate any kind of CB radio.

Walkie-talkies are the next step down in comm options.  This is not to say that they are not useful.  The cheapest are versions that use only one channel and are good for a few hundred yards to maybe a half mile.  There are slightly better versions available at the big box stores that have effective ranges of a mile or slightly more and usually have at least 2 channels.  These do not require licenses to operate either but some have optional bands available that do require licenses.

Akin to walkie-talkies are business band radios.  These radios have an effective range of many miles but rely on repeater stations to relay their signal over long distances.  If the repeater goes down, so does your ability to communicate.  Without the repeater stations, they work very similarly to walkie-talkies.  To add, these are expensive units on dedicated bands that require expensive licenses to operate and expensive leases for the bands on which they transmit.  They might be a viable option for the prepper with a business that would have a use for such radios in normal times, but are beyond the financial reach of most private individuals.  I mention them only because they do exist as an option and are occasionally mentioned in the preparedness community.

Military surplus field phones are an option.  They are wireless, can be powered with batteries or hand cranked, and are fairly secure.  They are available in some surplus stores as well as over the internet (E-bay usually has several up for auction).  They come in a variety of makes and models from several nations and time periods.  A word of caution, make sure that the field phones you buy will communicate with each other.  I have not had much experience with these and am not certain that phones of different countries’ militaries will talk to one another.  To my knowledge, no licenses are required but these units can be a little on the expensive side.  They are not a commonly used comm item outside the militaries of the world,  so I wouldn’t expect to have the world opened up to me with one.

There is always the option of relying on cell and land line phones.  We use these every day in normal times, but they should not be relied upon too heavily.  Even in normal times, they are known to fail.  Along the same lines is the Internet.  They make a good primary option for communications so long as you have some sort of dependable contingency plan in place for when they fail to work.

Next are hard wired communications.  These are similar to land line phones but do not depend on the established communications grid.  They are an almost totally reliable option if you have fixed locations and the ability to legally string buried wires between those locations and the ability to power the system.  Such systems require no licenses but are limited to fixed positions.  They are what is commonly known as an intercom.  These are not terribly expensive to construct but do require a fair amount of work related to how far you have to run the wires and how deep you have to bury them.  Overhead wiring will work just as well but is not as secure from damage.

The last comm method involves people directly.  A courier system is slow and not always reliable or safe, but can be used to convey information.  It can also be used to deliver hard goods where other methods cannot.  We use this method every day when we physically go to someone else and tell or ask them something.  It can also be used to convey written communications.  The downside is that it is a slow method and the courier will be faced with all kinds of potential hazards and obstacles in times of trouble.  In my opinion, this system should only be used as a last ditch effort when all others have failed or it is deemed too important or too dangerous to transmit the information over the airwaves.

Bear in mind with any communication system other than face to face communications that no transmission is totally secure.  Hard wired systems can be tapped.  Systems that transmit over the airwaves can be intercepted.  Even if codes are used, they are only as secure as the best hacker that can’t crack the code.  There is always at least one hacker that is better.  Couriers can be captured by people who would do them harm to have the information they possess.  Anything you don’t want the world to be able to know, like where you are, what you have in the way of supplies, or your defenses should not be transmitted except when and if the benefit greatly outweighs the risk.  I’m not trying to get cloak and dagger here.  It is simply that in situations where resources are in low supply and high demand, there will always be people who have not that will want what you have.  Some of those people will inevitably be willing to do horrible things to get what they want.  It is best to keep information on your resources as quiet as possible.  As they said in WWII, “Loose lips sink ships.”

Good luck and happy chatting!

Part 6 in a series contributed by forum member Cutter.

Tools are a force multiplier. They allow more work to be done with fewer people at a faster pace. In many cases, they are what allow work to be done at all. Tools are our friends in times of trouble. A few good, well selected tools can make all the difference in your ability to survive, cope, and even prosper when bad turns to worse.

As with everything else discussed in these articles, tools cost money. Also like everything else, my best advice is to start small. A handful of well made, well chosen tools will do a lot, and I do mean a LOT, of work. Once you have your basic toolbox, you can add to it as you need or are able.

Now let’s get down to some suggestions for what makes for a good, basic toolkit. Bear in mind that this tool list won’t satisfy anybody (including me) for a complete set of tools. It isn’t meant to. It is a list of tools that are commonly needed by everyday do-it-yourselfers for repairs as well as most all the building trades. It will only satisfy the most novice of do-it-yourselfers and then not for long. It is a starting point for a larger collection.

The most basic core tools are a hammer, set of straight and Phillips screwdrivers in various sizes, a couple pairs of slip jaw pliers (channellocks), a hacksaw, a carpenter’s saw (wood saw), and a small shovel or entrenching tool. A toolbox or tool bag to hold your tools is a good idea too but a drawer will work fine. I almost forgot to mention that a pair of safety glasses or goggles are a must. This is a safety item but it belongs with your tools. Use them! If they get broken in a work incident, so what! That is what they are there for. Replace them immediately and go on. You can buy more safety glasses; you only have 2 eyes and replacements are hard to come by

You get what you pay for and I recommend you buy professional grade tools if you can. The pro grade tools are designed to take the abuse that professional trades people put them through in making their living on a daily basis. That translates to a longer service life between buying replacements. That said, the cheap, off brands will do a fair job of satisfying your needs for a while or longer with care. You can always upgrade when you get the chance and relegate the cheap tools to backup status in case you do break something.

After the basic set is in place, I would suggest adding a good axe, hatchet, pickaxe or mattock, full sized shovels in both flat and bull nose varieties, post hole diggers, tanker bar (long pry bar to help excavate rocks and hard soil) bow saw, sledge hammer (8 pounders take more swings but are easier on the body), 2 splitting wedges or a splitting maul, and a set of flat and round files.

At this point, you have a good, basic, all around tool set. To be sure, there are dozens of tools that you still lack and will probably find useful, but you have the basics to tackle an impressive array of expedient projects.

Now I know that there are quite a few tools listed above. I know they all cost money and a fair bit of it all together. This is why I am constantly saying start small. If you need a tool, buy only that tool. Every chance your prep budget allows it, buy one more. Try to add one tool a month. If one or more of the tools will cost more than you can allocate in a month, save up for it. You don’t have it anyway so saving up for it won’t put you any worse off than you are and will eventually put you in a position to buy the tool.

In this way, you make progress and become a little better prepared as you go along. Over the course of months or a year, you will be a lot better prepared. What’s more, as you acquire the tools, you will inevitably learn how to use them to best effect. As you take on projects yourself and hone your do-it-yourself skills, you will be saving yourself money by not paying someone else to do it for you. You will also gain confidence and develop skills that will help you feel and be better prepared. You may even find yourself a pleasant hobby. It may even turn into a profitable hobby or full-fledged business.

No matter if you use them only for your own needs or for hobby or business, the skills you learn will stay with you for the rest of your life. What you learn cannot be taken away from you. You will be better for it and so will your preps.

Good luck and happy tinkering!

Part 5 in a series contributed by forum member Cutter

If you have cruised the prep sites for long, you have certainly read about the chemical toilet.  They are great to have.  They also cost a fair amount of money.  It seems to me that the best price I have found on one is around $60.  That isn’t terrible unless you are struggling to make ends meet.  There is a work around that I use on occasion.  The infamous 5 gallon bucket when lined with a trash bag is adequate to hold human waste.  I carry one in my work van with a lid for this purpose.  In the bucket are a roll of trash bags and 2 rolls of toilet paper.  A can of Lysol rounds out the collection of items nicely.  It doesn’t smell too nice when in use and the thin rim of the bucket does not make for a good place to sit and read, but it serves the purpose you need served.

The next concern is what to do with the contents of either a chemical toilet or a bucket toilet when they get full.  In the case of the bucket, when use is only the occasional, single emergency pit stop like mine serves, you can tie up the bag and toss it in the trash.  The authorities and other people in general tend to frown on this so use caution.  For chemical toilets and higher use of the bucket toilet, you have three options.  You can burn it, bury it, or transport it to suitable dumping facilities.  Review local laws and use your best judgment on this one.  Have a plan in place before you need it.  In a real, long term emergency, a pit latrine or outhouse might be the better option.  To the best of my knowledge, new outhouses are not legal anywhere in the United States at this time.  Of course, I know of at least one that was built in the last 5 years.  He just hasn’t been caught and isn’t likely to be.  In a major emergency event, I suspect that those particular laws might be bent with near impunity.  Again, use your best judgment.

Disposal of human waste isn’t the only consideration.  There will be food waste. The safest way to do this in short order when trash service isn’t available is by burning.  Most jurisdictions allow contained burning for food preparation; those that don’t probably ban all burning of every kind.  Even there, indoor fireplaces and wood stoves are legal as well as barbeque grills.  Burn it if you can.  The other route is to compost it.  If you garden or even have ornamental plants, compost is useful.  This can be done in normal times just as easily as in an emergency.  Rotten food draws flies and other, larger critters that you don’t want to meet.  There is no sense in courting disease by tossing food waste out in the open.  The only exception I can think of would be a food scrap pile in a specific place to draw wildlife to harvest for food.

Washing, bathing, toilet, and food preparation areas must be kept clean.  Dirt, waste, and food scraps are not your friends.  They breed all kinds of organisms that are hard on the human body, some miserable, some fatal.

Cleaning isn’t that hard to do.  You just need the right tools for the job.  Stock dish soap, towels dedicated for cleaning, a few sponges, scrub pads, a sanitizing spray like Lysol, and some bleach.  Most people use these items as a matter of course so it is just a matter of stocking more of what you already buy.  An extra broom and mop, along with a good bucket and a pair of rubber gloves, will round out your cleaning supplies nicely.

Now we move on to clothing.  If you want your clothes to last, and you don’t want to experience skin irritation and infections, you will really want to wash your clothes.  There are such things as gasoline washing machines and you could modify a modern machine to gas engine powered, but why would you want to? A 2500 watt generator will run a modern washing machine, but will cost $400 dollars or more for the generator.  Besides, if you have a generator, you will have better uses for it and the fuel it takes to run it than a load of laundry.  Dish soap or laundry detergent, a bucket, and some manual labor will do the job just fine.  You don’t need a washboard.  Truth be told, they are hard on clothing and will wear them out.  Cold water will do just as well as warm to clean the clothes.  Washing in cold water in normal times will also save you money in that you will not have to use electricity or gas to heat the water.  Tie a rope between two points and drape your wash over it to dry.  This method of drying takes longer but will save you money in normal times too.  You can even dry clothes on the line indoors.  I have done it, both ways.

House cleaning is important too.  Living in a dirty house gets old quick, saps your morale, and makes respiratory problems like asthma and allergies worse.  You keep cleaning supplies now, just stock more of them.  If you run out, you can use a wet cloth.  Just make sure to dry behind you to keep wood from getting water stained or damaged.

Living clean isn’t that hard; it just takes a little work and attention.  The costs are not high and yield real benefits.

Good luck and stay clean!

Part 4 in a series contributed by forum member Cutter.

The ability to treat injury and illness is essential in any preparedness program. If you are sick or hurt, your ability to cope with problems will be diminished. If you are sick or hurt and untreated, you are in REAL TROUBLE! Prepare to safeguard your health like your life depends on it because, well, it just might.

The ideal scenario would be for your rich, long lost uncle to leave you a fully stocked, manned, and functional hospital in his will, but that isn’t a realistic expectation. Start small. I recommend a commercially sold first aid kit geared to construction sites. They are a long way from an ideal trauma kit, but the ones geared to serve a construction crew are designed to provide for the treatment of a wide variety of injuries and minor medical problems. They can also generally be had for less than $50. They give you a good start and you can add to them as you go along.

My old field trauma kit from my BSA days included dressings for everything from minor scrapes to arterial bleeds and broken bones. I carried triple antibiotic ointment, eyewash, peroxide, alcohol, betadine, and some stuff called water gel for burn treatment. Dressings included band aids, eye dressings, two triangular bandages, surgical sponges, tampons (for the obvious reason and for stopping bleeding from deep puncture wounds, feminine pads (again for the obvious and for large open wounds), steri-strips for use in place of stitches, two US Army surplus wool blankets for shock treatment and for use as an improvised stretcher, and six 12” tent pole sections for use as splints for broken bones.

I carried a couple of tourniquets as a last resort for massive bleeding. I kept supplies of aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen, Benadryl, and at least 4 doses of any prescription meds my boys or fellow leaders might be on. The prescriptions were added when we left home base for an outing and returned to their owners upon our return home. This was in addition to their meds they kept themselves. Dosing instructions and contact info were enclosed in the same Ziploc baggie as the meds. I also kept sting relief wipes and 2 chemical ice packs. When it became available, I carried some stuff called water gel. It is a burn treatment that a firefighter put me onto.

There was always a notebook and pencil, not a pen, in my kit. A record was made of any and all treatments rendered. I kept water and salt tablets. I kept a few bite sized chocolate bars for energy and to treat diabetic attacks. Orange juice is better, but doesn’t keep well in a trauma kit.

The kit I just described would serve well in almost any emergency. Back in the late 90’s, it would have cost around $500 to assemble from scratch. I put it together for around $225 in the mid 80’s. I did not do it all at once. It took almost 2 years for me to get it all together. It weighed 16 pounds and packed into a teardrop daypack without an inch to spare. With it, our troop was equipped to pack a seriously injured kid out of the wilds even if it took days on foot for the evac. I carried 3 marine signal flares too, but that was with an eye toward getting the undivided attention of a pilot in a medivac helicopter in woodland or mountainous terrain who would already know we were there and to look for us.

A first rate med kit takes time and money to fully assemble. The point is that if you wait until you have the money to buy it all at once, you are liable to find yourself in the middle of an emergency in a world of hurt and no way to treat it. A box of band-aids and a bottle of peroxide beats a blank. Start with the basics and buy upgraded supplies as your budget permits. I listed some of the particulars of my trauma kit to give some idea of what a field grade med kit looks like and what it is capable of treating. Still, the best kit in the world, even a fully stocked hospital, does no one any good without a user skilled in the use of the items. Spend your first money on a good first aid and CPR course. Check with your employer or any civic or religious organizations you may be a part of. They might offer such training at a reduced fee or free. They are worth the money at any price, but save your money if you can get a good training course free or cheap. If you already have the certifications, keep them up. New treatments and techniques come along all the time.

Pick up a book or two on the subject. The BSA first aid, safety, emergency preparedness merit badge books and the Scout Handbook have a huge amount of information in them. They are a good start and should cost less than $20 to purchase all four. Build your library from there. Check with the American Red Cross. They offer publications too. I do not know if there is any cost for their publications.

If anyone you might be responsible for has any special medical needs or uses any medical equipment like oxygen, get them to teach you how to use their equipment. In an emergency, they may need the help. If you don’t know how, you can’t help. Changing oxygen bottles and setting flow rate or cleaning a CPAP machine isn’t rocket science, but does require a very small bit of training. It took me about 5 minutes each to learn these tasks.

Again, start small. Get the knowledge, training, and basic gear. Upgrade all three as you can afford, but make steady progress. Over a few years, you might just find that you are nearly a walking MASH unit. That kind of capability would be worth something now and would be priceless if the balloon ever goes up.

Good luck and happy prepping!

Part 3 of a series contributed by forum member Cutter.

We have covered food and water so now it is time to turn our attention to shelter.

Our first and best shelter is our home in most circumstances.  However, there are certain emergencies that make our homes unviable as a shelter resource.  These include flood, fire, weather damage, and possible nuclear, biological, and chemical events whether they be intentionally man made or occurring by accident.  In those cases, we may have to bug out.  I will talk about this eventuality first and cover some of the things we can do to our homes at the end.

Being as we are working on a limited budget, we will start simple.  Pick up a good all purpose, 10’X10’ tarp, some ¼” or 3/8” rope or 550 cord (the old equipment paracord is best but almost impossible to find anymore), and a roll of duct tape.  The tarp is versatile.  It can be tied and staked in a manner to provide a simple, open air fly for shelter from sun and rain.  It can be laid across a rope tied between 2 trees or other fixed points and rolled under in a triangle to do the same as well as to provide a wind break and shelter from snow.  In this configuration, it can be made small enough to hold in a fair amount of warmth.  It can be wrapped around a tree or post and you have a teepee.

These items are good to have in any event even if you have better shelter, so the money spent on them will not be wasted.  You can upgrade your gear and still have a use for these items.  Barring even the resources to acquire all these items right away, check this link out: http://tpass.org/forums/index.php?topic=1018.0 .  It shows how to construct an expedient shelter against weather out of trash bags and duct tape.  A couple of sticks, tennis balls, and welding rods for stakes were also used.  The sticks can be found wherever there are trees and the balls and rods could be substituted with duct tape and more sticks..

OK, there are the real cheap expedients.  The next step up would be an actual tent.  You should never scrimp on shelter you might have to depend on for an extended period of time, but you don’t have to take a second mortgage out on your house to buy one either.  Wal-mart and similar stores, as well as the outdoor stores like Bass Pro and Cabela’s carry a good selection of tents at prices ranging from reasonable to ridiculously expensive.  Of course that is a subjective statement.  You get what you pay for.  Nevertheless, a relatively inexpensive tent can give years of good service with a reasonable amount of care.  There is also the army surplus route.  This is good, time and battle tested equipment that usually comes with an inordinately low price tag.  It will last, and with minimal care.

When shopping for tents, keep in mind that all weather is the way to go.  Summer tents with those screen panels sewn in the top and no way to close them are nice in 90 degree heat, but are the pits when the temps are anywhere near freezing.  Don’t buy one the size of a folding house either.  Their purpose is to keep you dry and out of the weather.  If you need that much room, buy a smaller tent and more than one of them.  The smaller ones are easier to heat and stand up to wind better.  Also, if you lose the use of one, you will be cramped but will still have shelter.

That keeps you under roof if you have to bug out.  Bear in mind that living in a tent for an extended period gets old fast.  I have called a 7’X9’ tent home for two straight months in the Boy Scouts, so trust me.  I know what I am talking about.  The best idea is to have a place to bug out to.  Hotels, motels, campgrounds, and rented housing are expensive.  They also might not be available in an emergency because everybody else has the same idea and might be commandeered by the Government for refugee operations.  A retreat is a long and expensive project if it isn’t your primary residence.  Most preppers have a fairly low opinion of Government refugee housing and refugee camps, and with good reason.  So what is the financially challenged prepper to do in the way of a bug out destination?  Call on the help of family or friend.  Here is a link to explain what I mean: http://tpass.org/forums/index.php?topic=1083.0 .

Having agreements with others to offer shelter to one another in time of need is not an expensive proposition.  The most you will be out if you ever need to take advantage of the agreement is the cost of getting there and the cost of replacing consumables that for whatever reason you need and don’t have.  On the other side of the coin, you would be out a small amount of cost for the extra utilities used by others in your home and whatever consumables you provide them until they can replace those consumables.  Either way, it is a good deal for both parties if for no other reason than the peace of mind and concrete plan it provides.  By the way, using one another’s homes as a home base for a vacation saves a lot of money on the vacation and provides a great dry run to see how things might actually work out in an emergency when it is done so that both groups are under one roof and then both under the other roof.

As mentioned earlier, a retreat is a long and expensive process to put together and meld into a viable bug out location.  It is still a fantastic idea.  A retreat is a near perfect, long term goal.  In my case, the retreat will become my primary residence when and if I ever manage to complete my plans.  If that becomes the case, the necessity of bugging out will be very unlikely.  Having said that, I estimate that it will be 15 years before I have any chance whatsoever of having a retreat that is even viable as a destination, much less a primary residence.

Last of all it is time to discuss home as shelter.  Most people will have their greatest investment and concentration of resources in their lives wound up in their home.  You already have it.  It is where you and yours are most comfortable.  It makes sense to develop it into the most secure and comfortable place to shelter.  Keep a toolbox with basic tools handy.  Stock a few tarps of various sizes, a box of roofing nails, some drywall screws of various lengths, a roll of heavy duty contractor’s plastic sheeting, a sheet or two of plywood, duct tape, and a dozen or so shingles to match your roof.  Next, add a piece of pipe for each size of water and waste line in your home, a few miscellaneous valves for replacements of those in your home, a handful of appropriately sized fittings, and a good do-it-yourself book of general home repairs.  Add insulation.  It goes a long way toward keeping both the inside temperature and outside temperature where they belong.

Don’t forget safety.  A few good, well placed fire extinguishers are a must.  Spend the money and get the steel cased ones that can be recharged.  If you can’t put out a fire, at least the thing can be used to break out a window for escape.  Smoke detectors are a find addition too, as is a good CO2 detector.  Together, these things might just save your life and your home.

If you rent, be cautious that you don’t cross your landlord.  Any upgrades to their property should be discussed and approved by them.  Also bear in mind that you are spending money to improve their property.  Unless you buy the place, those upgrades will always belong to them.  In an apartment, many of the above measures don’t apply.  In either case, your preparedness would probably be better served in the long term by saving up the money to buy a home as a first priority.  You can always sell and upgrade because what you pay today, you own tomorrow.  This might put a crimp on all the other things to do in a prep program, but you can still do them at a slower pace.  In my opinion, the increased risk in the beginning is more than offset by the security (in more ways than one) gained in the latter part of the program.

Think hard about the kinds of things that you might face.  Make a threat assessment that lists all the disasters and troubles you think are at all possible, no matter how unlikely or outlandish you may think them to be.  List them all in order according to how likely you think they are to come to pass.  From there, figure out what you will need to overcome those problems.  That should give you a good idea of what you will need to spend your money on and in what order.  From there, make your budget and stick with it.  A little at a time, you will build up what you need.  In the mean time, you will become better prepared, day by day.  Each step forward will make you better able to face whatever may come.  It will make you better able to bug in and more capable of successfully bugging out if you must.

Good luck and happy prepping!

Part 2 in a series of posts contributed by forum member Cutter.

As Jesus said, “Man cannot live by bread alone…” He was talking about Spiritual things, but it is true here too.  Man also needs water.

Water is fairly easy and inexpensive to stock.  There are a few tricks to make it less expensive yet.

One person needs at least 2 quarts of water a day to survive and stay healthy.  This assumes only drinking water and little to no exertion.  It also assumes moderate temperatures.  In my experience, 2 gallons of water per day per person is a good minimum rule.  This allows a full gallon for drinking if necessary and another full gallon for cooking and occasional bathing.  A person can get by on less, but it is less fun to do so.

So on to the storage.  Your home provides you with a fair amount of water storage as built.  Assuming a normally sized tank type water heater, you have around 30 gallons of water stored right there, perhaps as much as 50 gallons.  At 30 gallons, it is enough for 2 people for a week at the 2 gallon / person / day rate.  With careful use, combined cooking, and shared water for the occasional sponge bath, it could be stretched to 2 weeks.  That is just the water heater.

Now consider the water lines.  The combined water lines in the average home will contain enough water to add maybe 1-2 days to your water supply.  The trick is to shut the house water system off from the municipal supply lines.  If you do not, you could get contamination from the municipal supply or worse yet, an opening in the line could drain your entire system, including the water heater contents, back into the system.

Now let’s discuss dedicated hard storage.  There is the option of commercially purchased water tanks.  These range from 5 and 7 gallon containers to thousands of gallons in above ground, buried, or vehicle or trailer mounted tanks.  Prices for these vary according to size and quality.   There is also the option of using a food grade, 5 gallon bucket.  They must be food grade.  Drywall and paint buckets are made with plastic compounds that can leech chemicals into your water.  This is not a good thing.  Pickle and icing buckets are the most common.  They can also be used to safely store foodstuffs.

All of the above choices are good ones but have drawbacks.  Food grade buckets can be had from restaurants or saved from bulk food purchases.  They can also be bought new.  Sometimes they are hard to come by used.  The other containers mentioned above can be purchased, but they do cost money.  This is not exactly in keeping with the shoestring budget idea of these articles.  There is also a question of portability if you have to bug out.  Even 5 gallons of water is really, really heavy if you have to travel on foot while carrying a 5 gallon container.

There is another option.  I use 2-litre bottles.  If you buy soft drinks (and most people do), buy them in 2-litres.  When the soft drink is gone, wash them and refill with water.  Full, they provide 2.1 quarts each.  Therefore, 3 of them will hold enough water for drinking and cooking even with moderate exertion.  Four will cover just over the 2 gallon per person per day guideline.

They also transport and store well.  Tie two together and sling them over your neck or the top of your pack.  You are now carrying enough drinking water for one day of hard walking.  You can stack them on their sides in a closet and easily have two weeks to one month of water on hand.  Throw a board across the top of the stack and you have a shoe shelf (no sense in wasting space).  They freeze well even if filled all the way to the top, so you can keep some of your water as ice.  This comes in especially handy in power outage situations as it can extend the storage life of frozen and refrigerated foods.

Not all of your water has to be safe to drink.  No matter how bad things get, you will want and need to wash both your clothes and yourself regularly.  You will have to keep your cooking and eating utensils clean.  Regular washing keeps clothing serviceable longer.  Clean bodies and cooking and eating utensils are absolutely necessary for good health.  Eating out of dirty dishes is a good way to come down with a terrible case of food poisoning (as if there is such a thing as a good case of food poisoning).  An unwashed body is a certain way to contract infection.  Pets do not have as much vulnerability with regard to food or water as humans.

Rainwater and melted snow and ice in their seasons are a source of water that can be useful and is free.  You only have to catch and contain it.  Again, there are many options in containers.  The inexpensive options are trash cans, trash bags, tarps and plastic sheeting.  Trash cans are self explanatory.  Keep the lids on unless it is raining (or snowing) or when you are actively harvesting water from them.  This keeps things like leaves out of them and keeps down mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes carry disease, will come to and reproduce in standing water (making it unsafe for any purpose), and at best will make your life miserable.  Always use trash cans that have been purchased and reserved for this purpose only.

Trash bags can be set up on a framework to catch and hold water in much the same way as cans.  When not catching or dispensing water, they should be tied closed for the same reasons as covering cans.  They can also be used to transport and store water from sources away from your home base.  They can also be used to line trash cans that have been used for trash in order to contain the water and still be safe for use.  This is not a perfect solution and should be used only if absolutely necessary.

Tarps and plastic sheeting can be laid out on the ground to catch water.  By raising the edges all around with anything available, you create a kind of temporary pond that can catch and hold a great deal of water.  Draped in the open bed of a standard 8 foot pickup bed, they can hold between 350 and 500 gallons of water, if the suspension can hold it.  Three hundred fifty gallons of water weighs almost 2 tons!  Five hundred weighs almost 3 tons.  Bear it in mind when making arrangements to catch and store large quantities of water.  These containment ponds too should be covered when not in use.

If you have warning of impending need of stored water, these techniques can be used to stockpile water from municipal sources while it is still safe.  In long term situations, they give the ability to acquire additional water.  Boiling or filtering can make this water safe for consumption if need be.

Another way of producing safe drinking water for long term situations or when stored water is for some reason unavailable is the solar still.  Dig a hole about 2 feet wide by around a foot deep where it will be in full, direct sun for as much of the day as possible.  In the bottom center of the hole, place a container such as a bowl.  Put the end of a piece of tubing into the bottom of the container (surgical tubing works best, but aquarium tubing will work safely).  Run the other end of the tube a few feet outside of the hole.  Lay a clear piece of plastic loosely over the hole with the tubing extending a few feet beyond it.  Place some of the dirt from the hole all around the edges of the plastic.  Do not cover any part of the plastic directly over the hole with dirt.  Place a stone or some sort of small weight on the plastic over the center of the container in the hole.  This should cause the center of the plastic to drop an inch or two into the hole.  The dip should be higher than the rim of the container.

As the sun shines, water will condense on the inside of the plastic from the earth.  It will run to the lowest point and drip into the hole.  This water is at least marginally safe to drink.  It is distilled by the sun’s heat.  Draw the water out through the tube so you don’t have to dismantle and rebuild the thing every time you draw water from it.  To extend its service life, uncover and lift one corner of the plastic enough to expose the edge of the hole.  Pour your used wash water into the hole.  Then replace he plastic and dirt.  The sun’s heat will draw the water out of the earth while leaving contaminates behind.  I have even heard that urine can be added to the hole in the same way and the water in it recovered.  I do not recommend this.  In addition to finding it disgusting, I am not convinced of the safety of this practice.  If you have to resort to distilling urine for sufficient water, it is time and past time to bug out to a better water source.

One of these stills will not produce a lot of water, but will produce some.  Nothing says that you can’t build more than one if you have the material.  The siphon tube is optional and is included for convenience.  Without it, you will have to tear down the still and rebuild it each time you harvest water.

One more note on stored water.  It should be rotated at least every six months or filtered before use.  Any water drained from a water heater or boiler should be filtered.  It ensures safety and improves taste.  For people who don’t like water (like me), drink mixes, coffee, tea, or whatever flavoring you prefer will help the taste and keep you drinking like you should.

Good luck and stay thirsty (but not too thirsty) my friends.

Part 1 of a series of articles contributed by forum member Cutter.

In this section, we will talk about food.  All those LTS foods are great and handy but people have been surviving problems large and small for millennia without them.  Something else to consider is that it can be a real shock to the system to abruptly change your diet.  The last thing you need is for your body to rebel against dinner in the middle of a crisis.

What is the work around?  The stuff you eat every day.  Canned goods are heavy but they keep well with minimal care and are much less expensive.  Make out your grocery list and then double the quantities.  The catch is that you must make sure that you buy your list first.  After your grocery list is filled, start over in the store and start buying the double portion.  Stop when you get close to or hit your money limit.  Anything you can’t buy that trip, be sure to carry over to your next shopping list.  You will run out of room before you run out of groceries to put away in an amazingly short period of time.  Watch the sales.  If something you normally pay $.69 a can for is on sale at 3 for $1, you end up getting an extra unit and still saving $.38.  This kind of buying puts you ahead of your progress curve in a hurry while at the same time stretching your prep budget.

Plant a garden even if it is only a couple of buckets of dirt on the patio with a couple of tomato plants.  When they start putting food on your table, take the money you would have spent to buy that produce and purchase other, storable foods.  Speaking from experience, your garden will grow in size from year to year.  You just won’t be able to resist planting “just one more thing.”

With the gardening, another opportunity presents itself.  If you plant enough, it should produce more than you can eat.  Process and store it.  Freezing is good.  Canning and dehydrating is better.  I am expanding into the canning and dehydrating this year myself.  If you freeze foods, try freezing them in water.  It keeps freezer burn from developing.  Nothing is more irritating than to find out the 2 bushels of green beans you froze in perfect quart bags are so freezer burned that they are almost inedible.  Now imagine it is 20 pounds of beef.  Freezing in water works great for fish.  I have eaten fish that was frozen up to seven years earlier.  It tasted almost as good as if it were caught that morning.

You could also get bitten by the flea market bug and sell your excess at a farmer’s market or flea market.  Shoot, set up a table in your yard on Saturday and have a garden yard sale.  You could also trade with neighbors that grow things you don’t.  That arrangement works out well for everybody if you can pull it together.  I grow corn.  I am the only one in the neighborhood that grows it.  For some reason, I seem to be the only one that can get it to produce.  None of us can figure out why.  Everybody around here likes corn, so I grow a lot of it.  For my trouble, I don’t have to grow the cucumbers and squash I like but still get them.

Try hunting and fishing.  If you don’t like it, stop doing it.  On the other hand, if you do like it, you can add a goodly amount of meat and fish to your diet and stores at a bargain price.  The real bonus is two-fold.  You have a new hobby or hobbies you enjoy and the meat and fish you harvest are generally lean and free of all the chemicals that store bought meats have added to them whose names you probably can’t pronounce.

Buy in bulk.  Generally, bulk packed foods cost less per a given unit than convenience sizes.  This is due to less packaging and processing cost.  Bulk buying works especially well for meats.  You pay for a butcher or meatpacking plant to make those nice steaks in the cute Styrofoam packaging.  Instead of that, buy a roast and cut it to your liking.  This works even better if you buy on sale.  I do all our beef and pork this way.  We have very little waste from servings that are too big and we get good cuts of meat.  I do buy processed chicken breasts just because I’m the only one in the house that likes dark meat.  I even buy these in family packs.

If you want or need to break down bulk buys into smaller lots, save some of the containers.  Five gallon, food grade buckets are perfect for caching if you do that sort of thing and are safe for storing drinking water.  They come in handy in the garden as both carriers and planters.  Plastic grocery bags are great to have on hand if you sell or trade your excess produce.  People buy more when they can easily carry more to the car.  As a bonus, you are being green by recycling the bags in a non-conventional way.

Don’t forget to rotate your stocks.  Long Term Storage (LTS) food is just that.  It is designed and packaged to sit on a shelf for years on end with little or no care.  The foods we have talked about here, with the exception of unprocessed fresh foods, will keep for a long time but will go bad.  Use it from the oldest to the newest and continue to do so when you reach the levels you want to maintain.  I have found that marking the date when it was put into storage in a conspicuous place on the container helps greatly.  I use my stores from top to bottom, front to back.  I add to my stores from bottom to top, back to front.  It requires some moving and re stacking of goods as I use and restock but is worth the time and effort.

With all of this, there is one thing you must remember.  Save up enough money to go out to a restaurant at least once a month.  Let somebody else do the cooking and cleaning up once in a while.  Or at least do something just for fun.  It is a good reward for all the hard work you do to save money and helps you to avoid getting discouraged.

Good luck and good eating!

This is the prelude to a series of posts contributed by forum member Cutter. The remaining parts of this series will be posted in the coming days.

OK, you’re here, so you must know that you really should prepare for difficult times, but all those goodies and nifty gadgets you read about on all the forums and websites are expensive!  This collection of articles will discuss some ideas to help you get around some of that expense and absorb what you can’t work around without a second mortgage.  Hopefully, they will help you prioritize your plans and acquisitions in such a way that you will avoid frustration, make steady progress, and not break the bank.

Let’s start with an overview of the sort of things that need to be provided for.  The most basic needs for life are food & water, shelter (including clothing), and safety…in that order.  These should be the first things addressed in any preparedness program.  That is not to say that other needs and wants cannot be addressed at the same time.  It is only to say that these three things are the most basic and most necessary.  These should receive priority in the early stages of a preparedness plan.  As it happens, these are often among the easiest things to address.

The second part of preparedness is as cheap as free can be.  It is tied into the plans involving all the other things and can be the hardest part of any preparedness program.  This is the part where you decide what you want your life to look like after the balloon goes up, what you want your future to develop into, and what you must, can’t, will, and won’t do to achieve it.

From there, we progress to those things that we need to enhance and augment our ability to satisfy our basic needs and our wants.  These are the items that will allow us to not only survive, but to thrive.  There are some tangibles like tools and materials, but also some intangible ones like skills, training, and knowledge.  This part of a preparedness program includes things that vary from the cheap or free to the relatively expensive, from the easy to the difficult to obtain.  Even if the price is high, these items and abilities are worth the money, at any price.

The fourth part of preparedness is our wants.  These are the things we would like to have, the things that make surviving easier and more bearable.  These are the “toys”, if you will, that will make the aftermath something like enjoyable every now and then.  These things are not always necessary.  Their necessity depends upon your plans.  Even then, some of these considerations are nice in normal times and would be considered real luxuries when and after the balloon goes up.  These are the things that will help keep you sane and remember why you wanted to survive in the first place.  In other cases, they will help you achieve the life you want in the aftermath.

The last part of a preparedness program is maintenance.  The best plan and most complete preparations will do you no good if you don’t keep them current.  Many things do have a shelf life.  Food is only one of those things.  Equipment must be maintained if you want it to work when you need it.  Skills need to be practiced if you are to keep them sharp.  Knowledge can always be increased.  No matter how much you know, it won’t be enough.  More is always, always better.  Training, simply put, is the repetition and improvement of skills.  The more you train, the more likely you are to be able to put your skills to use without the need to think consciously about those skills.  Correctly executed actions that essentially bypass conscious thought can make all the difference.  In a couple of areas, it can literally mean the difference between life and death.

It is my hope that with the help of these articles, you will have a good idea of what needs to be done in your program and how to go about doing it.  I know what it is to work with limited funds.  I know the financial hardships even a simple preparedness program can impose upon those working with limited funds.  I also have a thorough understanding of the rewards a well executed preparedness plan can provide.  Even early on, when your plan is far from done, it can make all the difference if bad turns to worse.  It is my goal in these articles to help all I can to minimize the hardships and maximize the rewards for you by explaining some of the things that have worked for me and others.

Good luck and happy prepping!

More and more articles are coming out in the press about people that are making the change and deciding that they should take direct responsibility for the well-being of themselves and their families.  Newsweek is the latest to feature an article on what they are calling “preppers”, and they have a very interesting take on the movement that has been steadily growing.

And while they may not envision themselves as Kevin Costner in Waterworld—in fact, many preppers go out of their way to avoid the stereotypes that come along with the “survivalist” label—they’ve made a clear-eyed calculation about the risks at hand and aren’t waiting around for anybody else to fix them.

This is goodness, this is what this site and others like it have been promoting all along. It does not have to be full on nuclear warfare, biological warfare, or a 2km asteroid hitting the earth, most of what should be focused on are the immediate threats to you and your family. These days that means being unemployed, natural disasters, economic disruptions, etc. There is a long list of things that can go wrong that have nothing to do with the end of the world.

Some preppers fear the complete breakdown of society, while others simply want to stock up on extra granola bars and lighter fluid in case of a blackout or a storm. Hard-core survivalists might think of preppers as soft; “Eventually, the Chef Boyardee is going to run out,” jokes Cody Lundin, the founder of the Aboriginal Living Skills School, a survival camp based out of his home in Prescott, Az. But prepping, says Martin, is just a new word for a very old way of life. “You don’t have to have a survival retreat loaded with guns secluded in the wilderness to be a prepper,” adds David Hill Sr., 54, a former jet mechanic who runs the Web site WhatisaPrepper from his home in rural West Virginia. “There are many people who live in urban and suburban areas who don’t own guns who also identify themselves as preppers.“

The last sentence is one to note, this is important. This means that the mentality of taking care of you and yours is starting to sink in. Yes, the entitlement crowd will always be out there, TV raised them to expect everything to be neatly wrapped and delivered at their beck and call. But, the fact that more “average” people are changing their perceptions to align with the known fact that  “you need to be able to take care of yourself” is a very heartening thing to see.

FEMA’s new head under Obama, Craig Fugate, has encouraged Americans to get in touch with their inner survivalist. “I encourage all Americans to take some simple steps to make their families more prepared, such as developing a family communications plan,” he tells NEWSWEEK. His organization recently launched a “Resolve to be Ready” campaign suggesting that Americans to make preparedness part of their New Year’s resolutions. “I think what people have come to realize is that [organizations like ours] can’t always be everywhere we need to be as quickly as we need to be,” says Jonathan Aiken, a spokesman for the American Red Cross. “So I think the messaging has changed, from FEMA on down, that in the event of an emergency, people need to be prepared to take care of themselves for a couple of days until the rest of us can come out and get to you.”

This is good, trends like this need to continue. One of the things that helped to get the US through the Great Depression was the fact that the US Government encouraged the population to do everything that they could to ensure that everything was used as efficiently as possible, to plant gardens, and do many other things to be self supporting. It was considered a Patriotic Duty to help yourselves and thus help your country. We need that mentality again, Katrina was a perfect example of how things should not be. While there is no single point that can be assigned, rather blame needs to be equally distributed amongst all parties. None were prepared for something like that, the few that lived in the area that were did rather well, those that were not, and did not evacuate as instructed, suffered horribly.

In the end, what it all boils down to, at least for the preppers, is self-reliance—a concept as old as the human race itself. As survival blogger Joe Solomon pointed out in a recent column, during the Victory Gardens of WWII, Americans managed to grow 40 percent of all the vegetables they needed to survive. “My mother’s parents had a 10-acre garden, and my grandfather worked at the dairy farm next door,” says Hill, the former jet mechanic. “They worked by raising their own food, they had their own chickens, they canned vegetables, and my grandfather fed a family of 12 like that.” But in the modern world, he says, many of those skills are easily forgotten. Today, our food comes from dozens of different sources. Most of us aren’t quite sure how electricity gets from the wires to our stoves. We use debit cards to buy a can of tuna and we wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to filter contaminated water. We are residents of the new millennium; we simply haven’t needed to prepare.

The skills referenced above are not just “easily” forgotten, they have been forgotten in most cases. This is a scary reality, modern society has done an excellent job of un-teaching some of the most important skills that one can have individually. The “just in time” infrastructure that almost everybody relies on only reinforces that there is not a need for the core skills that built this country, it’s dead wrong. If we don’t need those core skills now, we will sooner or later.

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The original Newsweek article that the quotes were taken from can be found here: Newsweek – Survivalism Lite

Video that accompanied this article: Survivalism 101

This article is courtesy of Cutter, one of our forum members:

For better or worse, I am the de facto leader of my unofficial, informal Mutual Assistance Group (MAG). I say unofficial and informal because that is what it is. For all of my efforts, my extended family, including my in-laws and the couple of friends involved simply won’t get fully involved. I say de facto because I am the “go to guy” for answers and help when there are questions or problems they can’t answer or solve themselves. I say for better or worse because while I have the skills and knowledge to pull them through, I never asked for or wanted the position. However, the responsibility has been thrust upon me and I will do my utmost to wear the mantle of leadership well, out of simple love and loyalty.

My wife is a believer in the prepper lifestyle and becoming more so every day. She is of great help to me now and will be indispensable if the big balloon ever goes up. We have talked often of our extended families and what will become of them in that event. I worry less about my side because, while they don’t embrace the prepper lifestyle, they do exhibit certain qualities inherent in preppers. They do plan ahead for some of the eventualities associated with really bad times. It is my wife’s family that gives us both pause. They are very much the “trust somebody else to take care of me” sort.

When we were talking about our preps and rules of engagement, for lack of a better way of stating it, she actually asked me, “But what about my family?”. She knows, as I do, that they will bring little or nothing to the table but will expect to be taken in…and taken care of. She was afraid (and rightfully so) that I would turn them away, by force if necessary. So, here we were, talking about preparing for bad times and we found ourselves in a real dilemma. Do we take them in or turn them out? Will it drive a wedge between us if things go wrong with them either way.

In the end, we hit upon a compromise. I agreed that the only right thing to do would be to take them in and give them some time to adjust and prove themselves. I agreed to this with the provision that on Day 1, they would be told what was expected of them, what the consequences would be, and how much time they had to play with. It fell out that each one of the group has exactly 30 days from the day they show up to pitch in with anything that needs to be done that is within their ability. After that, if they don’t contribute in a meaningful way to the benefit of the group and themselves, they are out, by force if necessary.

It was difficult for me to hold such a hard line on this. I did not want to. You see, family is everything to my way of thinking. On the other hand, I have other family to think about if bad ever goes to worse. I cannot unduly risk the well being of my wife or the other members of our MAG for the benefit of a few who won’t ever earn their place. It took me a long time to come to grips with my stand on the issue. It took even longer for my wife. In the end, after many heartfelt and difficult discussions, she realized and accepted that it would be as emotionally difficult for me to turn these loved ones away as it would be for her to allow it. She came to understand that if it ever comes to pass, they will have done it to themselves after wasting every opportunity to avoid it. Lastly, she came to understand that I would move Heaven and Earth to find any possible way to avoid turning them out to their fate, so long as it did not endanger the rest.

As preppers, we are obliged to give great consideration to what becomes of those we care about. Inevitably, some of those we care about will not have given any thought to caring for themselves. What’s more, as preppers we will inevitably be thrust into leadership positions if ever bad turns to worse. Those leadership positions come with truly hellish choices and responsibilities. Our decisions could make the difference between suffering and lack of it, between life and death. Those decisions will inevitably test our loyalties and try our souls. We will find ourselves forced to choose between any number of equal options…and all equally bad.

For now, we have the luxury of time. We can do the soul searching now to make an informed choice. We can put by the resources to provide for our loved ones who won’t do it themselves in order to give them a fighting chance. We cannot however, make limitless provision. At some point, those whom we help must help themselves. If they don’t, they will endanger us and everyone else relying on our leadership to pull them through. Unless you have nearly unlimited wealth, you cannot afford to provide everything forever. If things stay bad enough for long enough, you are going to have to re-supply. When that time comes, you are going to need all the help you can get to do it.

Now, before an emergency arises, is the time to make those difficult decisions and set those conditions. If you make a decision out of the blue, in the moment of crisis, you are probably going to make the wrong decision. Unfortunately, you will probably not be the only one paying the price for your mistake.