Final Prepper

What I Learned from Baghdad to Chicago (and All Points in Between)

I live in Chicago, the most dangerous city in America.

Not only is it the most dangerous city in America, but it is obnoxiously difficult to get out of even in the best of times. Geographically, it is three-sided (lake Michigan prevents egress to the east) and the only high-speed avenues of approach run North/South. Dismounted movement in any direction is not a viable option, as you would most likely become prey even in a situation where society has not collapsed. Most of the antagonists (see: gang members) in the city are already well armed, and if not well-trained they are nonetheless combat-hardened and more than audacious enough to be a serious threat. To make matters more complicated, I have two children under the age of 7.

I know… why on earth would any preparedness-minded individual choose to live in such an indefensible position? There are many reasons why a family might find themselves in such a survival nightmare, ours is very simple and, unfortunately, equally inexorable: I am in the United States Military and I am stationed here. I won’t go in to what I do here other than it is very routine and far from glamorous, and I am here for a three-year tour.

So hopefully that should put to rest all of the obvious questions. Suffice to say I now understand that there are reasons why NOT living in the city isn’t necessarily a viable option, at least not in the short-term. Not everyone can just uproot to the rural redoubt property, plant some corn and put up a solar array.

I have several combat tours as an Infantryman in the middle east. Through these experiences and the balance of my 20 some odd years in the military, I can easily make the mental leap between what a metropolis like Chicago is today and what it could be after a societal collapse, in fact I have experienced it firsthand in Baghdad circa 2005 or so. In central Iraq, we were not the primary danger to the average Iraqi citizen. Most dangerous to them were the rape gangs, terrorist cells that used murder and extortion to raise funds to fight coalition forces, and regular members of the criminal element present in every place in the world. AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) was the dominant terrorist network that rose out of the ashes of Baghdad in the years following the invasion. They were notorious for their strong-arm tactics to wring funds out of the indigenous population. They kidnapped young girls from families with means to pay ransoms. These girls were subjected to the most unspeakable captivity, raped many times a day, and had little chance of being returned to their families alive, no matter how much those families paid. Citizens were tortured and maimed in order to instill in them enough fear that the terrorists would reliably be provided materiel support and the victims would be far too afraid to speak to us or tell us who they were. Our patrols lasted 12 hours…. The terrorists lived among them and controlled them through fear and intimidation.

I don’t think most preppers realize how hellish the collapse of our society would be. I don’t think most reasonable people can imagine the magnitude of violence that people will readily visit on their neighbor when propelled by ideology, hunger, or sometimes simple profit. Can you imagine living in a place where your wife and your daughters were commodities? Where your sons are either killed or kidnapped or forced to fight for and perform suicidal tasks for evil men? Preppers talk about bugging out, and getting their families to safety… but I’m not sure most realize that the concept of safety is an illusion if you are alone. Much like the United States, Iraq is a large country, and most people lived in cities, but rural areas of Iraq were terrorized just as much as the urban areas. In many places it was more so due to proximity to resources and opportunities for the terrorist networks to conceal their own activities.

A family alone was prey. Nothing more.

I would like to dispel some myths about the way preppers in America think about how we will survive the coming collapse. Here are my top three:

1. I will bug out with my family to our cabin in the woods and we will grow a garden, raise chickens, and wait out the worst effects of the collapse.

Maybe, if you’re lucky…. but if you are alone in the woods you will most likely be found and be raped, killed, and looted. We know that the 240,000,000 plus people who live in our American cities will run out of resources and begin the process of starvation after about 72 hours or so. They are going to go somewhere. The strongest will have already preyed on the weak, sick, and stupid. The ones who find you will be strong, they will be motivated, and they will be ruthless. If they weren’t they would never have survived the urban exodus. They aren’t going to knock on your cabin door in broad daylight. Your chances as a family alone are very low.

Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival

2. I am safe because I have the 5 best SHTF guns that I saw in a cool online survivalist forum and a zillion rounds.

Congratulations. If you have no or very little training, you’ll be lucky to make it to your first magazine change. Smart bad guys will back off after you shoot at them and simply wait for the opportunity to kill you and take your awesome weapons and free fodder. And they will be smart… or they would be one of the dead dumb ones who didn’t make it out of the city

3. I have enough food and resources to survive indefinitely, and I have a foolproof plan of egress and evasion, and I have thought through all the variables.

I hope you do. Have you done several complete rehearsals of every aspect of your plan? A wise old NCO once told me “don’t expect what you don’t inspect”. You don’t know what you don’t know unless you have run through the plan on the ground to shake out the bugs. It is very likely that there are fatal flaws that could be easily corrected given an honest rehearsal. This rehearsal must include your entire family or group, it must include all the physical movement and labor that the real thing would include. You must use the gear and resources that you would be using were the worst to occur. If you do not regularly train on your plan, then what you have is not a plan… it’s called a theory.

Pulling yourself and your family through is far more about physical conditioning and mental toughness, confidence in your training and in your plan, and good old-fashioned luck. I survived over 500 combat patrols with a single weapon, my issued M4 with a good weapon light, and the seven loaded steel magazines I kept with me on my body armor. I didn’t carry huge knives or tomahawks or pounds and pounds of the newest and coolest “tacticool” useless crap… just a multitool and an expandable baton. Sometimes we were out for 12 hours, sometimes up to 36 hours. The point is that it’s way more about the gear between your ears than the gear hanging off of every molle loop or picatinny rail.

Along with my training and a solid plan, I had my brothers on my left and right. They were my survival community. The truth of the matter is that in order to survive a collapse, we must build communities. In a community we have sentinels on guard 24 hours a day. We have a person on duty monitoring communications equipment to stay in contact with neighboring communities 24 hours a day. Our community has guards that patrol for resources and interdict incursions. In a community there is a division of labor where we can teach our children, grow our food, mend our shoes, and stand watch over our fences simultaneously. In a community we are strong enough to live in peace. Whether that community is our extended family, or a network of like-minded citizens who prepare and TRAIN together, it is precisely hanging together that will keep us from hanging separately.

That’s how the people survived after we destroyed Iraq. They relied on the members of their communities and their tribe, and they rebuilt. If the worst happens, we can learn much from them.

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I live in Chicago, the most dangerous city in America. Not only is it the most dangerous city in America, but it is obnoxiously difficult to get out of even in

A Look at Bullet Proof Vest Protection for Survivalists

Why do you need protection?

If you’re going to prepare for the worst case scenario, a bullet proof vest needs to be part of your plan. When SHTF, personal protection is really your number one priority– even food and water can wait if you’re not safe from the danger of other people.

Aside from getting a weapon to defend yourself, you’ll need something to defend yourself from other weapons. Since smart shooters will be aiming for your torso above all else, this is the first area you want to protect, and the best way to do so is with a body proof vest.

Of course no vest will protect against absolutely every weapon, so you will have some decisions to make. There are tradeoffs between level of ballistic protection and comfort/conceal-ability that need to be considered when choosing a bullet resistant vest. Generally, vests that protect from high caliber rounds are bulky, cumbersome and their presence is obvious. Covert bullet proof vests are far more concealable and comfortable to wear, but don’t provide optimal protection.

What’s the best choice?

So what’s best for a survivalist? In almost all cases, you will want to procure covert, wearable body armor. Wearability and concealability are supremely important. You have no idea how long you’ll need to wear it, so preparing for long periods of time is wisest– there’s no telling when you’ll be safe enough to take it off.

Covert bullet proof vests are worn under clothing and have comfortable linings. Many are made with CoolMAX lining, which is designed to regulate your core temperature by letting excess heat out of the vest. For those who are irritated by synthetic fiber, cotton-based alternatives are also available.

Soft body armor won’t stop rifle rounds but could be useful in many other scenarios.

Concealability is equally important. OPSEC for preppers is a must-know, and avoiding “indicators” — things that signal to people that you’re well prepared — is very important. If people know how well prepared you are, this makes you a clear target. If you’re seen parading around in an overt body proof vest, people will know that you have your act together, and likely have some other useful stuff to take.

For this reason, it’s recommended that you don’t get anything higher than level IIIa– upwards of that level, you’re getting into ceramic plates which can’t be concealed. One thing to consider is that the lower the level, the easier it is to conceal. Level IIIa soft armor may still “print”, or show its outline underneath clothing.

Of course sacrificing bulk also sacrifices protection. Level IIIa will protect against most common weapons and also minimize blunt force trauma, an often overlooked benefit. If you go lower than that, you’ll have some vulnerabilities, but on the other hand you’ll be more stealthy.

Heavy Weapons and Blades

The only other thing to consider is the possibility of heavy weaponry. As you may already know, getting to know your neighborhood is a very important factor in planning. If it looks like you might actually be threatened by heavy weapons, get some small arms protective insert (SAPI) plates and store them in a safe place. Only put them on when you need them– no need to go traipsing around with an extra 15 pounds of weight for no reason.

Also consider getting vests rated for stab and spike protection. Blades and points are different than bullets, and bullet proof only vests will not protect against them. Overall, it’s key to know that no body armor will protect against everything. The best defense is preparation and staying calm in the face of danger. Even then, having the right bullet proof vest may save your life.

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Why do you need protection? If you’re going to prepare for the worst case scenario, a bullet proof vest needs to be part of your plan. When SHTF, personal protection is

MREs: Best Prepper Food or Waste of Money?

If you are reading this article, I would imagine that you have never eaten an MRE before. Why do I say that? Well, for anyone who has eaten MREs you probably already have a strong opinion about them or at the very least, your experience might be based upon military service years ago. I had eaten more than my fair share of MREs when I was in the Army, but things have changed as you would expect with the passage of more years than I want to think about so I decided to take them up on the offer and while I was at it, share my opinion on what if any place MREs have in the food storage plan for preppers.

My military experience was let’s just say in the last century and MREs have gone through some pretty decent changes and updates since the time I was chowing down. For those who don’t know what an MRE is, the Acronym stands for Meal Ready to Eat and this is what is given to our soldiers when they aren’t near a mess hall. When I was in the field we would usually get an MRE for lunch. Breakfast and dinners would be a hot meal, or it started out as hot when we crowded around the mess tent or the insulated containers they drove out to us on the back of a jeep. By the time you got somewhere to eat your meal it was usually cold. We would only go to the field in the winter time naturally.

MREs at the time were pretty much like they are now, but the menus have improved and some minor details have made this meal in a bag much more palatable if you can believe that. I served before they had things like M&M’s or skittles for dessert and hot sauce to flavor your food. We also didn’t have a built-in heater like they do now. If you wanted your MRE warm you were limited only by your creativity. MRE food packets are foil so they are both waterproof and allow you to heat them on almost anything. We would use the heater vents in our trucks, lay them on our stoves in the tent or on the block of our engines.

MREs come in boxes of 12 and each MRE is a different meal. You quickly learn which meals you like and which ones you don’t. If you were unfortunate enough to be the last one to the box you got what everyone else passed over. When I was in the service I think the worst meal was the beef patty. There are some similarities between the meals. They all come with an entrée, some side and a dessert. You get crackers and peanut butter or cheese, a condiment packet and usually a drink mix. We would even come up with our own names for meals that displayed our disdain for the contents. One meal, Meatballs with barbecue sauce was affectionately called ‘Meat nuts with Barf A Shoe’ sauce by myself and the guys in my unit. I am sure there are millions of other creative renames. I actually liked that MRE and I think it was pretty much my go-to meal as long as I could beat everyone to the box.

I opened up a box looking for some differences in the contents on the bag and searching for my old favorites because I was definitely getting the best MRE and I wouldn’t be stuck with the Beef patty. I was surprised at the options. For starters we didn’t have anything vegetarian when I was in the service, but this box had Vegetarian Ratatouille, Vegetarian Lasagna and Apple Maple Rolled Oats. Breakfast?? They also had the old standbys of Pork Sausage Patty and it looked like my Meatballs with Barbecue sauce was changed to Meatballs in Marinara sauce. That is what I decided to taste first.

What do MREs taste like?

Before I get into what the MREs from Meal Kit Supply tasted like, I wanted to set expectations here. When you tear open a bag like this, you aren’t getting fresh ingredients from the garden prepared by a classically trained French chef. You are getting food that was designed for the military to pack enough calories in there to keep them alive, be waterproof, tolerate being mistreated and last for 5 years sitting in a warehouse most likely. If you are expecting Ruth’s Chris here or maybe even Golden Corral, you might be in for a surprise.

Everything in the bag.

I opened my MRE and noticed that everything was still pretty much the same. You have food in foil packets although my packets weren’t in separate boxes. They did include the nutritional insert though and I never understood why they had the extra boxes anyway. Another thing we didn’t have when I was in was the handy ration heater. The ration heater is activated by placing a little water in a bag. The water mixes with an element and causes a chemical reaction that generates heat. You wrap your entrée in the bag, and in 10 minutes you are supposed to have a hot meal. It didn’t work that way for me.

Everything you need plus a big long spoon to reach the bottom of the bag.

I followed the instructions or so I thought but my heater didn’t warm up. I waited the 10 minutes but finally decided to eat my meatballs cold. They weren’t bad at all, but I know they would have been so much better warm. My survival dog certainly loved the taste too when I gave her one of the small meatballs to taste. When I finished eating, I noticed that the warmer was finally getting warm so I placed my Au gratin potatoes in there. Yes, they had Au gratin potatoes and although they didn’t have the slightly burnt edges from being in the oven but they were cheesy and filling. They only needed a little salt and pepper to doctor them up. The heater worked just fine after-all.

The Ration Heater instructions say that it works best if you place a heavy object on the packet.

So far so good. I broke out the crackers; literally because they came apart in my hands. This wasn’t the fault of the manufacturer I don’t think. I was just clumsy. Regardless, once I had my peanut butter on them they were great. I finished up with the dessert, Vanilla pudding which to prepare you needed to mix a little water in the bag and shake the bag for 60 seconds before it was ready. This was definitely good!

How do MRE’s fit into a Prepper Plan?

Any prepper plan has to take into consideration what food options will be best in various situations. Usually we recommend different types of food for different scenarios. If the power goes out you look for food that doesn’t need to be cooked. Canned tuna, MRE’s and snack bars fall into this category of course so do a lot of other foods. You want to store foods that your family will eat but there is also a need to have long-term storable food that you can take with you in a bug out bag. Frequently I will recommend freeze-dried foods for bug out bags, but those do require some preparation. For starters they need hot water or else you are eating rocks. MREs do not need water (except the pudding) and you don’t even need to heat them up.

My dog was a big fan of the Meatballs.

There are some weight considerations in that MREs weigh more than freeze dried food but they do have their advantages. I have a few boxes stored as part of my food storage plan because they are an easy way to get the calories you need for survival. I also have food stored in buckets, canned food and freeze-dried food. I am an equal opportunity food storage person and there is something to be said for having variety. Are MREs the the best prepper food? I don’t think there is ever a single best food for all prepper situations, but MREs are proven reliable. If our military uses them you can bet that you could find reasons to use them too. They are more expensive than other options but you don’t have to prepare anything, they even throw in the salt, pepper and a little moist towelette to wipe your face and hands when you are done. They used to come with toilet paper and chewing gum but apparently that is not part of these MREs.

You can get a box of 12 MRE’s yourself and try them out or just place them aside for an emergency. MRE’s are another good food option that will store for a long time and could save your life.

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If you are reading this article, I would imagine that you have never eaten an MRE before. Why do I say that? Well, for anyone who has eaten MREs you

Diseases That Will Be Making a Comeback – and What You Can Do To Prepare

When our society collapses, so too will unlimited access to clean water, quality food, and medical care. Most diseases that have long been eradicated in the developed world will once again rear their ugly heads, and many will die. Preparing now will ensure that we and our loved ones have a better chance of surviving.

WATER

One of the first things to go, regardless of the cause of collapse, may be access to clean water. Bacterial infections (such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid), protozoan infections (such as giardia and cryptosporidiosis), parasitic infections (such as schistosomiasis), and viral infections (such as polio and hepatitis A) will arise primarily due to fecal matter in the water, and even water from the most pristine high-altitude streams will not be safe to drink without treatment. In the emergency preparedness classes that I taught, I collected water from a scummy pond. With an abundance of algae, it was very green and contained a lot of solid matter. I made for samples for demonstration purposes: 1) passed only through a coffee filter; 2) boiled; 3) distilled; 4) treated with bleach. Without revealing the treatment methods used, I asked the class which water looked best and safest to drink. Hands down, everyone chose the clearest, cleanest, purest looking sample—the water that was only passed through a coffee filter. The boiled, distilled, and bleach-treated samples were all off in color. It was at that point I realized that once the collapse begins, we need to be prepared to purify all of our water ourselves, and not rely on anyone else.

Platypus GravityWorks 4.0L Filter System can make 4 liters of water safe to drink in minutes.

FOOD

While illnesses arising from impure water will start quickly after collapse beings, increases in cases of food poisoning won’t be far behind. There is a wide variety of bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses. Some will only cause vomiting and/or diarrhea; others can be fatal. Of course, that is the case even now, when all is apparently well in our world. However, when people become desperate due to dwindling food supplies, they will also start eating food they normally would have tossed out. And they may become less cautious about the hygiene standards for those preparing the food. The pathways for potential contamination are numerous:

contaminated water used for washing or cooking;
under-cooked meat;
infected people handling food;
food held too long at improper temperatures;
botulism, not only from improperly canned foods—commercial or home canned, but also from baked potatoes baked in aluminum foil and then left at room temperature;
poor hygiene among food handlers.

To prevent illness, use only purified water for food preparation, cooking, and washing dishes. Carefully wash all produce. Cook all foods thoroughly. Enforce rigid hygiene practices for all food handlers. Practice strict observance of all guidelines for home canning. Don’t permit strangers to prepare your food. And don’t save leftovers—practice cooking what will be eaten in one meal.

MOSQUITOES

The incidence of malaria and yellow fever will definitely surge, as also will in all likelihood cases of zika, chikungunya, and dengue

Mosquitoes can carry bacteria, viruses, and parasites, making them an efficient vector for the transmission of dozens of diseases. While they pose a much greater threat in tropic and subtropical climates, mosquitoes range throughout North America. The most serious diseases spread by mosquitoes in North America at this time are western equine encephalitis and eastern equine encephalitis. However, in a grid-down situation, where municipalities are no longer actively combating mosquitoes and when filters and chemicals for backyard swimming pools are no longer being used, the mosquito population will increase astronomically—as will the number of diseases and cases. The incidence of malaria and yellow fever will definitely surge, as also will in all likelihood cases of zika, chikungunya, and dengue. To reduce chances for mosquito bites, wear clothing that fully covers the skin, eliminate open sources of water, utilize window screens and mosquito netting where possible, and apply mosquito repellents to exposed skin.

ACCIDENTAL INJURIES

As the society we have been raised in regresses to the 1800’s, as access to unlimited amounts of clean water and quality food decreases, and as people start working more physically, the number of accidental wounds and injuries will increase. As good nutrition decreases, the ability of the body to fight minor infections will also decrease. Simple scratches, even hangnails, will have the potential to become life-threatening. The first line of defense is to maintain strict personal hygiene—keep your skin clean. Second, make sure your tetanus vaccine is current.

Third, wear protective clothing always. This includes sturdy shoes and socks and gloves appropriate to whatever task you are performing. Fourth, whenever there is even the most minor of scratches, cuts, or wounds, practice thorough cleansing of the affected area, apply antibiotic ointment, bandage carefully, and change the dressing frequently. And get into these habits now.

COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

Careful hand-washing and avoiding crowds will go a long ways towards avoiding infection, as will keeping current on vaccinations. For those illnesses that breach your defenses, make sure you have an area that can be used for quarantine. Have a generous supply of plastic sheeting for sealing windows and doors, as well as medical gloves and N-95 masks. In addition, store antibiotics commonly used for treating strep throat, scarlet fever, and pneumonia, in addition to others routinely used for conditions to which you are susceptible.

VERMIN

While lice and bedbugs don’t necessarily transmit disease (they may), they do make people uncomfortable with either the itching or the mere thought of their possible presence. Don’t share personal items such as combs, brushes, sheets, or towels. As with most diseases, prevention is easier than treatment. However, consider adding some lice treatment supplies to your storeroom, just in case.

As society collapses, so does the government’s ability to provide services such as garbage collection. Mice and rats will be living the high life. So that they do not enjoy their newfound prosperity at your expense, have plenty of bait and traps for them.

MALNUTRITION

As the new normal lingers, malnutrition will become increasingly common. As a group, we have a reputation for having gathered and stored food to see us through to the other side. However, we can’t store food for everyone and we need to be prepared to improvise if for whatever reason our supplies run out.

Most nutritionists agree that a ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fats is healthy. However, what we actually consume varies widely, with women more likely to consume more carbohydrates and less protein, and the opposite for men. When the grid goes down, we’re going to be spending more time in physical labor, and our caloric and nutritional demands will change, sometimes drastically. And sometimes, people will have to make do with what they can find for food. So here we’ll address what various deficiencies in the diet look like and what can be done to remedy them.

The symptoms of protein deficiency are varied and non-specific and include weakness, fatigue, and reduced immune system function. Symptoms of carbohydrate deficiency are similar to those for protein deficiency but also include depression and mood swings. Symptoms of fat deficiency (which can occur even on overweight individuals) are similar to those of carbohydrate deficiency but also include reduced brain function and an increase in skin problems. And fats are essential for the body to be able to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E.
In the developed world we have been blessed for so long to have ready access to a widely varied diet that we have not seen manifest the effects of vitamin deficiencies for the most part, or at least those deficiencies due entirely to diet alone. Even when things fall apart, it will be a long time before we see problems with vitamin A and B deficiencies. When we run out of fresh or preserved fruits, problems with vitamin C deficiencies will likely arise. Teas can be made from pine needles or rose hips, or juice can be made from wheat grass to provide this essential vitamin. Vitamin D occurs naturally in only a few foods—generally fish and eggs. Most vitamin D in a North American diet comes from fortified milk and grains. When these dietary options become limited, just make sure to get at least a few minutes of sun each day, exposing as much of the skin as reasonably possible, and without sunscreen.

As variety in the diet and as food in general become restricted, conditions caused by dietary mineral deficiencies will present themselves. The best prevention will be raising your own vegetables and fruits and including whole grains and beans in your diet. Add in some eggs from your flock of chickens and use iodized salt and you’ll be well covered. For times when growing vegetables due to the season or due to having to leave your home is not possible, stock a generous supply of vitamin and mineral supplements for everyone in your family.

MEDICATIONS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES

MegaFood – Men’s One Daily, Supports Energy Levels & a Healthy Stress Response

The aforementioned diseases will be making a comeback. That’s just what happens when societies collapse. While we are pretty powerless to stop that collapse, we can dramatically increase our chances of making it to the other side by ensuring a clean water supply and ready access to good food, and by observing strict personal hygiene and sanitation.

However, some illnesses and injuries are still bound to occur. It is important to stock a variety of OTC pain relievers including ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin, and naproxen sodium. These will effectively help with most of our minor ailments. For those killer headaches that come on hard and strong, have some children’s chewable versions of these pain relievers. They are more expensive, but they begin acting in about half the time. Benadryl is useful not only for allergies, but more importantly for insect bites or stings.

Despite medical and governmental counsel to the contrary, don’t throw out unused prescriptions. Of course, they can only legally be used by the person for whom they are prescribed, but you never know when they may come in handy again. Long-term studies have shown that most medications, providing that they are stored in a cool, dark place, retain their efficacy long past the posted “best by” date. The most notable exception to this is the tetracycline antibiotics, which should never be used past the date given on the package.

As people experience changes in their normal diet, stomach and intestinal upsets are bound to occur. Peppermint tea has been used for centuries to calm upset stomachs. Anti-diarrhea remedies should be available for mild cases of intestinal upset, but in severe cases of diarrhea, as will happen with cholera and dysentery, more will be needed. Electrolyte replacement solutions like Gatorade or Pedialyte take a lot of shelf space and storing an adequate supply gets expensive. Make your own using the following recipe:

1 quart water
1-1.5 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon of salt substitute (potassium salt)
1 pack of sugar-free drink flavoring (Kool-Aid packet, or something similar—it’s not necessary, but especially helpful when trying to get someone to drink as much as possible)

In addition to the masks and gloves already mentioned, also stockpile a generous supply of:

Bandages in all types and sizes;
Topical creams such as triple antibiotic, hydrocortisone, Benadryl, and silver nitrate;
Betadine or iodine;
Mineral oil;
Epsom salts;
A wide variety of medical tapes;
Alcohol wipes;
Cotton balls;
Your favorite cold, cough, and flu remedies;
Essential oils you have found useful.

Also obtain a few medical books such as Physician’s Desk Reference and The Ship’s Medicine Chest and Medical Aid at Sea (get an older copy from the 1980’s or earlier—with the advent of satellite and cell phones, a lot of advice in later editions has been to “call the mainland” for help).

Cleaning supplies will be critical in maintaining safe environments post-collapse. Unfortunately, bleach doesn’t have a long shelf life, and neither does peroxide. If you are among those thinking you’ll be able to make “one last run,” include these items on that list. Rubbing alcohol, soap, and vinegar last forever. What many people don’t realize is that white vinegar is a great disinfectant for almost all hard surfaces, and true apple cider vinegar (with the mother) has numerous medicinal uses. Storing several gallons of each (depending on the size of your group or family) would not be excessive.

The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way

And finally, antibiotics. While sanitation and clean water were rated number one in a survey concerning the greatest medical advances in history, the discovery and development of antibiotics were a close second. When the collapse is in full swing, it may well be easier to find a doctor who knows how to prescribe antibiotics than it will be to find the antibiotics themselves. They may become worth their weight in gold.

However, it is very difficult to find a physician who will prescribe antibiotics for you “just in case.” Federal regulations make this a very risky activity for the doctor. Fortunately, there are two ways to work around this problem. There are several companies online that sell a wide variety of fish antibiotics. While there is some debate about whether “fish” antibiotics are safe for humans, it is generally acknowledged that the “fish” antibiotics and “human” antibiotics are coming from the same manufacturer. They look the same because they are the same. Unfortunately, the “fish” antibiotics can be a little pricey.

The other option is ordering “human” antibiotics from an overseas pharmacy. These are much less expensive than the “fish” antibiotics available in the United States, even after you factor in the shipping. I can’t compare companies, as I have only used alldaychemist.com. I have ordered from them several times and have always been pleased with the service. However, they have a nasty habit of calling you frequently to remind you to place another order. So when you have to provide a phone number, make sure you give them a number for a phone you rarely use. (FYI: When you are asked if you have a prescription for the medication you are ordering, just say “yes.”)

Based on my family’s history and recommendations online for what to store, the list of antibiotics in our storeroom includes the following:

Amoxicillin (strep throat, pneumonia)
Erythromycin (same uses as amoxicillin, but safer for pregnant women and children, and safe for those allergic to penicillin)
Doxycycline (same uses as amoxicillin, but for those allergic to penicillin/amoxicillin, cholera)
Ciprofloxacin (anthrax, urinary tract and prostate infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, diverticulitis, dysentery, typhoid)
Metronidazole (diverticulitis—when combined with ciprofloxacin, some STDs, giardia)
Cephalexin (strep throat, pneumonia, staph infections—but not MRSA)
Azithromycin (respiratory infections, skin infections, ear infections, STDs, cholera, cryptosporidiosis)
SMZ-TMP (some respiratory and urinary tract infections, especially useful for MRSA)

Again, these antibiotics should not be acquired with the intent of self-diagnosing and self-treating our illnesses. They really should only be utilized with a licensed physician’s recommendations.

We all know a collapse is coming. History teaches us that all these diseases will be making a comeback. Being prepared won’t guarantee survival, but it will greatly improve our chances.

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When our society collapses, so too will unlimited access to clean water, quality food, and medical care. Most diseases that have long been eradicated in the developed world will once

Bug out Bags and Survival Vests

A Bug Out Bag, Survival Vest or Both

As preppers we all spend a lot of time looking at, revamping and assessing our bug out bags (BOBs). Even once you think you have a great setup a new idea comes along and gives you a whole new perspective.

So why do we use bags, granted they can carry a lot of our gear and supplies and can be very comfortable but do they offer the best option for both urban and wilderness preppers?

In this article we will be looking at the pros and cons of using a combined tactical vest and bug out bag system to offer maximum comfort, optimization, safety and conserve the maximum amount of energy possible when on the move.

So, first things first, why have a survival vest at all? Wearing a vest can give you better personal protection from knives, gunshots and physical trauma. They can also aid in distributing the weight of your gear over your body and allowing you to carry more (if you need/want to) and have instant access to certain pieces of kit.

On the other hand a vest will add additional weight to your setup and can be difficult to move around in / wear with a pack. The next thing you will need to think about it what are you using it for?

Here are some points that you should consider before buying a vest:

Does the maximum storage allow you to carry more gear in weight than the vest itself?
Have you optimized access to important gear in your pack already? Once you have, will moving that equipment to a vest make things easier?
What are you putting in it?
Is it worth it compared to just storing everything in your bag?
Are you carrying weapons? Where will you be storing munitions? Do you need quick access to shells, magazines or loose rounds?

So You Decided To Suit Up

So, you are getting a vest. Which one do you want? There are many different types of tactical vest available designed for a range of climates, objectives and load outs. If you are going to buy a vest make sure you try it on first with your pack, check that it is breathable and adaptable. By adaptable I mean, can the pockets be removed, replaced or upgraded? Can the vest have a tactical belt attached or detached? Does the vest have additional webbing or facilities for attaching

UTG 547 Law Enforcement Tactical Vest

further gear? Do you want a built-in pistol holster or will you be using a hip or drop leg holster?

A good vest to start out with for maximum customization would be a basic Molle web vest. This allows you to attach your own pockets and facilities where ever you want and what ever size you want. The downside here is the webbing itself. The pockets can detach, be ripped off or the webbing itself tear and come loose.

To avoid this a basic commando vest could be a better way to go. This kind of vest allows the best of both worlds by having built-in pockets around the midsection about the size of an AR-15 single stack magazine, a medium sized dump pocket on one side of the chest and pistol magazine sized pockets on the other side. This type of vest can also come with a pistol holster and radio pocket depending on the brand. These vests usually also have molly webbing along the sides and back for carrying additional gear when not wearing your pack. Certain grenadier vests will also have a tactical belt laden with pockets that could be used for a variety of gear. A kind of prepper Bat-belt. Just remember what is in each compartment.

The down side to these vests is that they can limit maneuverability and get very hot when fully stocked with equipment. Finding one with mesh padding as opposed to leather or thick material is preferred.

The last type of vest we will look at is a heavy protection vest such as the U.S. army`s Interceptor body armor. These usually have a crotch guard and padded shoulder and arm plates that come down to the elbow joints. These vests have limited storage space and a significantly heavier and hotter than other types of vest. As they are built for heavy combat they can withstand gunfire and knife blows so they do offer the most protection of the three. The Interceptor vest, for example, was tested to stop a 9×19mm 124-grain FMJ bullet at 1,400 ft/s with minimal back face deformation, and it has a V-50 of roughly 1,525 ft/s. This means that the bullet in question must travel faster than 1,525 ft/s for it to have more than a 50% chance of penetration. (An unlikely prospect, given the muzzle velocity of a typical 9mm handgun or sub-machine gun) This vest weighs up to 33.1 pounds (15kgs) unloaded.

What are you packing?

A flashlight or headlamp. The contents of every prepper’s BOB will be different, so it makes perfect sense that the contents of the vest would also be different. But what do you choose to keep on your person at all times? A simple and easy way to decide what gear you should choose is to play out a survival scenario and what ever gear you will need as a bare minimum is. Here is a basic example of items you could store in your vest.

Glow sticks
A road flare
A knife
A Water bottle
A Fire steel
A Lighter
A Bandana
A Basic medical kit
A Mylar blanket
A Water filter
Paracord
Food (energy bars or something of that size)
Fishing or trapping gear
Munitions

Keeping a miniaturized survival kit on your person at all times may also be worth putting together or spreading over the space of the vest compartments.

In conclusion…

A vest can be either a great help or a great hindrance. The best way to find out if it is going to help you or not is to test out a range of configurations and scenarios. Above all, remember that your setup will have to be suited to all the yearly conditions that you will be faced with.

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A Bug Out Bag, Survival Vest or Both As preppers we all spend a lot of time looking at, revamping and assessing our bug out bags (BOBs). Even once you think

The Benefits of Raised Garden Beds – Infographic

Raised garden beds are one option for providing a source of fresh food to your family that are preferred by some people for a lot of very valid reasons. Some of the reasons raised beds are preferred are:

Less weeds
Better water retention in areas that have super-sandy soil
Better drainage in areas with clay soils
More growing space
No soil compaction from human feet
Warmer soil earlier in the season
Warmer soil for a longer season
Soil that has basically a neutral pH unless you add something to change it (because you’re filling it)
Less soil erosion (especially, if the bed is framed)

A great visual to give you some ideas on how to create your own raised beds for your garden:

Click to Enlarge Image

Raised Garden Beds Infographic

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Raised garden beds are one option for providing a source of fresh food to your family that are preferred by some people for a lot of very valid reasons. Some

Fire Craft: The Best of the Best of the Modern Age

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This article will look at a range of modern tools for creating fire, also known as fire craft, as well as a few old ones, and look at the issues with each. It will also cover ways to help prevent them and look at age-old advice and tips from bush-craft masters such as Dave Canterbury, Cody Lundin and several others.

What is Fire Craft?

Fire craft refers to the ancient art of building, creating and maintaining a fire. It is not just sparking a lighter or striking a match. True fire craft requires a great deal of time collecting resources and skill when generating an ember or spark. It should always be at the back of your mind when on the trail in the form of collecting resources and at the very front of your mind when engaged in the act of attempting it.

As many experienced survivalists know fire craft can easily be explained by the Fire Triangle. This is well explained in Dave Canterbury’s Bushcraft 101. The triangle consists of three main elements: fuel, oxygen(air) and heat. For the purposes of this article we will be looking at the heat element.

What does modern man have to offer?

Modern methods of fire craft date back to as far as 27BC when the flint and steel were used by the Roman Empire, and most likely before then. This man-made method relied on a simple piece of flint rock and a piece of iron pyrite, later on steel, to achieve a spark. Char Cloth is also used here to aid in the process by holding an ember within the charred fibers of the cloth. This is also known as percussion fire lighting.

Since then we have come up with several new ways to get a fire going. Aside from the obvious match or lighter, many bushmen use one or more of the following tools in fire craft:

The Ferrocerium Rod

Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

The ferrocerium rod is at the heart of most bushmen’s and survivalist’s fire starting kit. The rod itself is made up of a mix of iron, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium and magnesium. However the composition of the metal may vary depending on the manufacturer.

Most rods on the market today are about 0.5cm thick and 6cm long. However, more high-end rods will exceed these measurements. The sparks themselves burn at an excess of 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a substantial increase over the sparks thrown from a traditional flint and steel which are about 800F. While we all want more bang for our buck we still need to know what we want in the first place and why we want it. Here are some key points, issues and solutions concerning the ferrocerium rod:

A common issue is the grip or handle, coming off of the rod. This is due to the action of the knife or striker on the rod. You can fix this with a strong glue around the grip socket.
If you are improperly striking you rod you will find it getting grooves and dents along it. To remove these you will have to adjust your grip and the angle in which you strike it. You should be aiming to expose the rod to as must of the striker as possible in one long, smooth action.
This will happen over time to rods that have had a lot of use. You can use a simple layer of spray paint to cover the rod and prevent further damage. Any and all oxidation should be ground off right away before spraying.
The rod requires a striker or knife to make a spark. If you lose that you are in trouble. However, there are some one-handed models on the market that will eliminate this problem.

The Magnesium Block

The magnesium block works as both source of ignition and tinder all in one. This piece of kit has all the advantages of the ferrocerium rod and does not have the disadvantage of the grip issue. By using the striker or a knife to grind off small slithers of magnesium from the main block into a small pile, you create an extremely flammable and ready for use tinder source. These shavings can be used as they are or to enhance an already existing tinder bundle or birds nest. While these shavings are finite an average block will give you dozens, if not more, of sets of shavings for tinder before it is worn out.

The block itself is composed of magnesium, but depending on the brand other metals may be present. Magnesium will ignite at a temperature of around 1000 degrees Fahrenheit and burn at a temperature of 5610 degrees Fahrenheit.

The ferrocerium rod is at the heart of most bushmen’s and survivalist’s fire starting kit.

While this tool requires very little maintenance it is susceptible to oxidation and should be cared for by oiling the block when not in use and spraying the rod if left unused for long periods of time. While I find this to be a great method for lighting a fire it does have one flaw. As the rod is built into the block the surface area of the exposed rod is cut by about half. This means that the life of the rod is also cut, unless you can separate it from the block.

To get the most out of your block keep it well oiled, shave it carefully and keep it in your pack or pocket to avoid unwanted chipping of the block.

The Spark Wheel

Simply put the spark wheel is a lighter without the gas. It is small, light weight and able to create a spark strong enough to light fine tinder. While the simplicity of the wheel is in its favor it is a distance second to a ferrocerium rod or magnesium block due to the heat that the spark puts out. This being similar to that of a piece of flint. The main advantage is the size, weight and the ability to work without a striker. It is an all in one piece of kit that can fit on your keys for any occasion. The downside here is the need to replace the flint inside. However, in this modern age flints can be found everywhere. A discarded lighter will act as a spark wheel in a cinch, but if you prefer your own you can always harvest the flint from the lighter when yours blunts.

The Fire Piston

The fire piston or fire syringe as it is also called has been around for longer than all of the previously discussed methods of making fire. European explorers in 1865 found evidence that the fire piston was a well established way of making fire in the jungles of Indonesia, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, French-Indo China and Borneo. This leads us to believe at it was invented well before that. It works around a basic principle. When air is compressed under high pressure it raises in temperature very fast, causing the tinder at the end of the rod to ignite. The internal heat of the rod gets up to around 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover the end of your bike pump and see for yourself. Place your finger over the end and you will find the metal thread gets hot, fast when you pump it suddenly.

Creating a fire takes some finesse with the right elements of tinder, ignition and fuel.

Traditionally fire pistons were made entirely of wood and required a lot of craftsmanship to achieve the airtight seal required for ignition of the tinder. However, modern pistons are made of steel, aluminum, bass or even plastic. Rubber o-rings make the seal and modern materials such as cotton or char cloth are used for tinder.

While the science is sound, in a real situation using the piston is not as simple as it seems. Like all things it takes a lot of practice and experimentation.

The big advantage of the piston is that the outside conditions play less of a factor and it does not require a great deal of time to get an ember if don’t right. However, there are several things to be aware of when using it as your main fire making tool. First of all, like all machines it requires maintenance. The o-ring must be lubricated and if you do not push down as a straight angle the rod may bend or break, making the piston useless. Also, it does require very small and highly combustible tinder. The tinder that you can light with a ferrocerium rod may not light with a piston. You should look into what types of tinder work best and keep a good stock of them in your pack or on your person.

The Magnifying Glass / Sun Glass

Everyone has heard of frying ants with a magnifying glass or seen a desert island show where someone has made fire with a mirror or a pair of glasses. The truth is that it is not so easy. It can take minutes to hours to ignite even the best tinder via this method. The lens should be at least X5 magnification and at large as is practical for you. The biggest draw back is the dependency on the weather. Also, this method is only useful during the day. To create enough concentrated sunlight to cause ignition you will need a highly polished surface or a decent, clean lens to focus the light. The light itself must also be consistent and focused on a single point. This will mean adjusting your position as the sun passes and keeping very still. A clear container filled with water can also achieve fire if the same principles are applied.

Other Modern Methods

There are countless chemical combinations and electrical devices that you can use to make fire. Fire example a battery and some wire wool or aluminum foil. However, these methods are usually only suited to work once or twice before they are done.

Oldies but Goodies

Three tried and tested methods of making fire out of nothing but what nature provides are the hand drill, bow drill and the fire plough. This is known as friction fire. While these methods can be extremely difficult at first and require a lot of knowledge about different types of trees and tinder sources they have been around since before the modern-day survivalist tools and gear began to make its make on survival.

So when it comes down to it what is the best tool for the job?

This question could be answered by every single survivalist or prepper in the world and you still wouldn’t get a solid answer. The truth is, a good outdoors-man learns to be proficient in all means of fire craft. All of the tools above have their pros and cons but ultimately it is the user and not the tool that is at fault if you can’t get a fire going.

That said, in my opinion, I find the combination of the Swedish Ferrocerium rod, due to its superior grip and striker and a separate magnesium block to be a winning combination. The reason for this is that the issue of the surface area of the blocks rod is solved via the addition of a second rod. This setup gives you two ready sources of ignition and a tinder source that is not water sensitive. Even losing one of these tools still leaves you with a working method for creating fire.

If you do have the chance, it is always best to try to practice the primitive methods. By doing so you prepare yourself for loss of gear or simply being in a bad situation that you hadn’t planned for.

Tips and Tricks

When using a rod or magnesium block, pull the rod towards you while keeping the striker stationary. This will prevent you from accidentally hitting and destroying your tinder bundle or heap or shavings and allow you more control when directing the sparks.
Use Vaseline as a lubricant for your fire piston. The Vaseline can also be spread on the tinder to help with ignition or lengthen its burn time.
Keep your arm (which ever is used to hold the bearing block or socket, not the bow) pinned to your knee or shin when attempting the bow drill. This will give you more stability and a more controlled spin on the drill. Also, don’t make the mistake of going to fast too soon. If you do you will generate a lot of heat without having ground off the wood fibres needed to create the coal.
Making a solar fire is easiest between the hour of 10am and 2pm and will always be easier in the summer rather than the winter.
You can buy ferrocerium rods that don’t have a handle. Longer thicker rods can be taped at one end for grip and will last much longer than the standard store-bought ones.

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Forward This article will look at a range of modern tools for creating fire, also known as fire craft, as well as a few old ones, and look at the issues

The Case for Homesteading

Preppers stockpile water, food, security, and health care items for TEOTWAKI or even a lesser SHTF event. This is wise, but it does nothing to address the angst in the hearts of those seeking meaning in their lives. The argument could be made the meaning preppers are searching for is the ability to satisfactorily provide for their families, to which I say is only one side of the coin for people such as myself. What’s missing is a sense of genuine accomplishment in day-to-day living – a sense what I do matters in the grand scheme of things. This is not ego in a grandiose way such as building the pyramids or being wealthy or famous; rather I have been a productive human being, have not squandered my time here, and have improved the lives of those around me. I seek to feel and to be useful and to be in charge of my own life by living deliberately.

(Originally in this part of the article I wrote about 800 words detailing my disdain for the rat race aspect of my job, my frustration with the economy, and my revulsion towards the decay of American society and government overreach [reasons to wish for societal reset] but no matter how I edited it I sounded like a whiny Communist angry at “the man”. My thoughts are much more complex, but suffice to say, I hate the way our country has made it quite difficult for a person to be his own master. I have thus omitted it in order to better focus on the benefits of homesteading.)

Above I cited the Wikipedia reference for Walden by Henry David Thoreau which also succinctly summarizes the chapter “Baker Farm” thusly:

While on an afternoon ramble in the woods, Thoreau gets caught in a rainstorm and takes shelter in the dirty, dismal hut of John Field, a penniless but hard-working Irish farmhand, and his wife and children. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple but independent and fulfilling life in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and creditors. But the Irishman won’t give up his aspirations of luxury and the quest for the American dream.

I agree with Thoreau and see most of us as John Field caught in the rat race because we’ve been promised that piece of cheese. I would choose to do with less if I could start over; yes, I would choose to work smarter, not harder. As I have entered my thirties I have realized what key element is missing from my life: the lack of real, tangible freedom to be my own master. You see, the regular work-a-day world is like slot cars. You keep going, don’t rock the boat, and eventually you’ll reach the end. SOSDD as we used to say in the military. We’re pretty much expected to toil away to make other people rich (help them fulfill their dreams) while they toss us paltry wages to keep us appeased. If you can save enough from the tax man to eke out a little fun here and there, the tax man will be sure to reap the remainder from your heirs when you die.

I don’t believe this is the way we’re supposed to live for several reasons. First and foremost as a Christian, I believe the Bible shows us God’s intended plan: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” Gen. 3:19. I believe this means we’re supposed to physically toil for our daily bread. Does your job require toiling? If it doesn’t, I bet you have a desk job like mine – one which is entirely unhealthy and killing us as we spend 1/3 of each day doing it. We abuse caffeine, get bathed in electromagnetic fields, sit, snack mindlessly, stare at computer screens (I have five), take work home / don’t leave work at work, use mobile devices, and wear ear buds (a double whammy). I don’t believe God intends for us to get cancer from the work which He commanded us to do, yet I can sure believe it’s a consequence for us deciding yet again to do things our own (“easier”) way.

Secondly, even if there is no God or no mandate to till the earth, our western way of life is not sustainable. Most preppers acknowledge this and see a complete collapse as a real possibility because of it. Going back to the articles which inspired me to write this one the discussion of “bug-in vs. bug-out” was breached and I’m throwing my hat into the ring on behalf of team homesteading. It’s sort of the best of both worlds in that: a) it’s your home so you don’t have to go anywhere unless under direct threat because; b) you’re probably somewhat removed from urban centers right from the get-go.

My third consideration is both providing for my family and for my own personal fulfillment as a human being – not ego, mind you, but the peace one finds in doing what he knows is right and good in life. Living the homestead life is work. Not work like you go to work, living is your work. You work all day from sun up to sun down so that you can eat for that day or the next. I’m not talking about hand-to-mouth, per se, but there’s not much room for error unless you’ve got a good root cellar full of wonderful meat and vegetables you’ve canned after you hunted, fished, or farmed. One might ask what’s so fulfilling about that, to which I say if I am going to work all day it might as well be for my family’s direct benefit, rather than to help someone else attain their dream in exchange for after-tax fiat currency.

It is for these reasons that I see homesteading as a viable method to rediscover purpose without a massive die-off related to a reset event. I’m also not talking about going back to the middle ages (though I do have a great desire to do so myself and would in a heartbeat via living history museum if I could). I’m not above using a gas chainsaw over an axe. Modern amenities can make life easier and even speed your progress towards your prepping goals. Three years ago I caught a stomach bug and was out of commission for three days. After unrelenting bouts of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, sweating, fever, and all the other pleasantries I wanted to do nothing else but die. I had the conveniences of modern hydration, medicine, a warm and safe place to sleep, television and a loving wife who nursed me with all the kindness of an annoyed porcupine, but I was ready to end it all to escape the misery. I don’t want to be without modern medicine and have to cauterize a wound with a red hot knife, a biting stick, and some whiskey. But what I wouldn’t mind is knowing how to sew up a small wound and have the peace of mind that I could do those things if I really had to – whether to save my own life or that of someone in my family.

Many TV shows show us (often contrived) homesteading scenarios. One of the better ones, in my opinion, is Alaska: The Last Frontier. It follows the 2^nd – 4^th generations of the Kilcher family on their land in Alaska. What I like about this show is the constant work the families are shown doing from mucking chicken coops, to thawing frozen tundra to dig a new outhouse hole in the middle of winter because they slacked in the summer, to smoking fish, to making soap. Yes, it’s TV and designed to entertain, but there is truth shown here ready to be gleaned by the keen observer. I don’t think I’m ready to jump on the rewilding bandwagon just yet, but even they can teach us something.

What are your thoughts on homesteading? Is it realistic? More hype than substance? Are you too late in the game to attempt it?

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Preppers stockpile water, food, security, and health care items for TEOTWAKI or even a lesser SHTF event. This is wise, but it does nothing to address the angst in the

Bugging out with Someone Who Has Dementia

When the SHTF and Nellie has Dementia

Dementia is not just about forgetting things. Memory loss, confusion and incontinence are some of the earlier symptoms, but definitely not the only things to face.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines dementia as: “A group of symptoms caused by disorders that affect the brain. People with dementia may not be able to think well enough to do normal activities, such as getting dressed or eating. They may lose their ability to solve problems or control their emotions. Their personalities may change. They may become agitated or see things that are not there.”

According to the American Alzheimer’s Association (2015), five million people in the USA are living with dementia – that’s one person in 64; most of them over the age of 65 (younger people can develop dementia).

For the last five years, I have been caring for my mother who is now 87 years old. She has vascular dementia. Many of the observations made in this article are drawn from my own experience and from talking to other carers. Some of this article will be of use to those living with other disabilities. Not all people with dementia will have all these needs and there will be other things I have not mentioned – it is not meant to be a primer on dementia care. Some points are more relevant to those who are bugging out, but most can be applied to any situation.

For this article, I have chosen to give a name to the person with dementia. Her name is Nellie.

Prepping for those with Dementia

Add to your stockpile: Spare parts and the tools to repair and maintain mobility aids eg. tires, pump, water dispersal spray, oil, small spanners etc. You can fit/hide more than you think in the frame of a wheelchair!

Black cloth or plastic (it must be black) – Nellie may be a compulsive wanderer. Three or four large pieces of something black strategically placed around your living space may reduce the chance of wandering (Alzheimer’s Foundation of America). Why? Nellie’s brain sees the cloth as a hole and instinct takes over to prevent her from falling in!

Melatonin pills (unless contra-indicated) – Nellie may sleep for 20 hours a day, which as long as she is happy, presents few issues. But on other days, she seems to survive on only four. Nellie’s carers (and the rest of the group) need their sleep in order to function.

“Melatonin production slows as we age and is especially compromised in Alzheimer’s disease, a factor that may contribute to disrupted sleep in dementia sufferers. Melatonin supplements may improve some sleep-related symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease.”- (Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation).

Monster spray – A few squirts from a decorated spray bottle of colored water can scare off many of the frightening things lurking in Nellie’s version of the world. In this respect, and in many others, Nellie is like a child. Some will say the monster spray is just playing to her insecurities. Maybe; but a drug-free way to a calm Nellie (leading to a calmer group!) is not to be discredited.

Incontinence supplies – Disposable diapers, pull-ups and incontinence pads are convenient but they are expensive and eventually, supplies will run out. There are washable alternatives, worn with water-resistant plastic pants (watch for irritated skin). (absorbs up to 570ml of urine) or cloth diapers (absorbs up to 400ml of urine). Expect Nellie to use several pairs of underwear every day. Pads from a lightweight fabric bag stuffed with soft and absorbent sphagnum moss can work for mild incontinence. The moss is available from many garden centers and some hardware stores. Night time requires something much more absorbent but so far, I have not found anything I am willing to recommend.

You will also need to stockpile nappy rash cream, at least three draw sheets (puppy pads or similar are a useful back up), urinary tract infection remedies, soft wash cloths, disposable gloves (they can be washed and reused a few times) and plastic bags.

Suitable food and utensils – secure everything else out of sight – Many people with dementia, especially in the later stages, will lose interest in food; often because they are losing their sense of smell and therefore, of taste. Bitter and sweet are the last parts of taste to be lost. I prefer sweet foods to bitter ones: those with dementia are no different. Nellie may pile on the salt so she can actually ‘taste something’ and reject anything she perceives as tasteless. Are you going to anger Nellie by rationing the sweet things?

Nellie may have difficulty swallowing and will need a soft diet, or even pureed food. Do not be tempted to think that commercially available baby food is the easy option. Nellie will most likely not eat it. Have you tried the stuff? Most of it is almost tasteless to the adult palate, therefore to someone like Nellie, it is totally unappetizing!

A study done by biopsychologists at Boston University (2004) showed that people with Alzheimer’s ate up to 25% more when their meals were presented on a red plate. Why red? Red is highly visible and contrasts with many foods – if it doesn’t, use another color for Nellie’s meal. If she can see it, she just might eat it. You may need to rotate the plate during the meal as Nellie’s brain may not register the whole plate. It may be easier for Nellie to use children’s crockery (plates with a lip, cutlery with chunky or even angled handles, sipper cups or a mug with two handles) when eating her meals.

A word of caution: as the dementia progresses; compounded by the decreasing sense of smell and taste, Nellie may not realize that soap is not food and disinfectant is not safe to drink.

Extra clothing, towels and laundry supplies – You will need extra clothing because of the incontinence, especially if you are unable to wash and dry things every day. A ringer bucket will make laundry day easier. But even then, things may take two or three days to dry; longer if there is not much sunlight. In springtime, mum’s draw sheet took only 3 hours to dry when hanging on the line but a day or more inside. The incontinence pants took 4-6 hours to dry on the line and two days inside.

Lightweight microfiber towels used by hikers are surprisingly absorbent, very compact, and quick to dry. Mine takes about half an hour to dry in the sun or two hours if I hang it up inside.

Twiddle – Appreciated by professional care givers for its calming effect

If you judge it safe to do, write Nellie’s name and address/destination on her clothing in case she wanders.

Something to comfort Nellie – People with dementia can sometimes draw a great amount of comfort from a familiar soft toy to cuddle, a ‘twiddle muff’ or a ‘twiddle blanket’. A favorite piece of music helps too (another reason to include a small musical instrument in the SHTF kit).

Learn how to:

Repair mobility aids – Unfortunately, even with the best of care, wheelchairs, walking frames etc will eventually break or wear out. The ability to fashion new ones from the remains of the old (or whatever random parts you can scavenge) will be a useful skill to have.

Sing Nellie’s favorite songs – As well as providing entertainment, it may help reduce Nellie’s fear and agitation/aggression.

Live in Nellie’s world – Reality may confuse or upset Nellie. Unless it is a matter of life and death, always agree with her: it’s easier on everyone. A lie can be your friend, especially if the short-term memory has gone and they are living in the past. When she asks for the third time this morning “Where’s Johnny?” don’t tell her Johnny died last month, just say he has gone to get some bread, or whatever seems suitable.

Recognize triggers – Similar to PTSD, some things can trigger extreme distress in those with dementia. In mum’s case, a low-flying fighter plane will send her looking for an air raid shelter. In some situations, if you know what the triggers are, you can have a well-timed distraction in place.

And if the SHTF?

Nellie is going to be slower than you or me – “We have to leave NOW!” is not going to be easy, especially in darkness or low-light conditions. Nellie will pick up on the urgency and become distressed even if she doesn’t understand what’s happening. And that means it will take longer than usual to get her ready to leave.

When walking, the group can only move at the pace of its slowest member. If Nellie is mobile, she may tire easily and not be as sure-footed as you or me. Walking frames are not designed for rough terrain and most of the time, their brakes are useless for anything except a straight and level surface. Some wheelchairs are better suited for sand and rough ground than others but none will be of any use with a flat tire. Have someone scan ahead for accidentally – or deliberately – placed tire traps. And someone still has to push the chair. If you think it’s hard work pushing a toddler, try pushing a fully grown adult, even if she is underweight. Test yourself. My current limit pushing mum’s distinctly average wheelchair uphill and down and along slightly muddy ground is about 90 minutes.

Some things are not so obvious:

Nellie may have no depth perception – Shadows may be perceived as steps to avoid, or rocks to go around. And nothing will convince her otherwise. When Nellie is getting agitated and grabbing at ‘nothing’, it may be her trying to reach for something she wants 10′ away.

Nellie may be noisy and will not self-censor – Nellie may not understand the need to remain quiet. She may even make involuntary noises. This could pose a security risk. And if Nellie announces “Gee, he’s fat!” to the lout blocking your way, the rest of the group may not have a chance to smooth things over.

“I want to go home!” – Nellie and others with dementia need to feel safe in their own world (even if their world is not the same as yours). Routines help them to feel safe. In a SHTF situation, this may be impossible. Often the desire to go home is a deep-seated feeling that things are not right, not familiar in the world she suddenly finds herself in. If Nellie is mobile, she may try to get home. Home may actually be her childhood home, not the home she raised you in. This is where the ‘black holes’, the songs and the cuddly toy can really help.

But what about Nellie?

I know there are some out there who would cite their version of the Greater Good theory, saying it is too difficult and too risky to have Nellie in the group. Ultimately, like many SHTF-based decisions, it comes down to “Which decision will haunt me the least?” In other words: a matter for your conscience.

All I can say is that during the Blitz, Granny stayed behind and sheltered mum when she could not get her to the air raid shelter. Mum would never leave me behind and I will not leave her when she needs me the most.

Before you go, you may also like:

This is more than just about your guns…
How to survive any medical crisis situation with ease
10 Easy Steps to Secure your privacy
Secret Military Solution For Power Independence
DIY Unlimited water source
Why a food reserve is way better than the Federal Reserve
Lost Skills of our Ancestors that still work today

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When the SHTF and Nellie has Dementia Dementia is not just about forgetting things. Memory loss, confusion and incontinence are some of the earlier symptoms, but definitely not the only things

Guerrilla Gardening for Survival

The phrase “guerrilla gardening” was first used in 1973 in New York City, when Liz Christie and her Green Guerrilla group transformed an empty private lot into a vegetable and flower garden for community use. While not legal it was not challenged, and eventually became part of the NYC Parks Department.

Guerrilla gardening today can be done for either personal benefit, or as a form of activism to draw attention to urban blight. In our case, I will discuss guerrilla gardening for survival.

I got the idea for a little guerrilla gardening last year, when I read this Survival Blog post and decided to give it a try in two places – my own backyard, and an abandoned farm not too far from home.

I had never grown field corn before last year, but in the mid-West you see it grown everywhere for cattle feed. In a TEOTWAWKI situation, being able to grow corn for your family would be vital their survival. Why? Because it’s easy to grow, packed with calories, and lasts for several years once harvested.

Here’s how to test the technique in the backyard:

Select the area of lawn to be converted to corn field. Make sure it is fenced in, or otherwise kept clear of pets and toddlers for a few days.

Do you have the skills you need to be your own source of food if the grid goes down??

Chop holes in rows every 12-18”, plant a couple of corn kernels about 1” deep, and cover with the chopped dirt. Water in the seeds, and the next day spray the whole area with glyphosate (Roundup) prepared as directed on the label. The grass dies before the seeds sprout, and within ten days the corn sprouts should be poking out. Thin the ranks once they get a couple of inches tall.
When the corn stalks get about a foot tall, plant two climbing bean seeds (like dried pinto beans from the grocery store) a few inches away from the stalk; the bean plants’ roots fix nitrogen in the soil for the corn-stalk, and the corn stalks provide support for the bean plants so they get more sunlight. Beans and corn together provide an excellent nutritional base of carbohydrates and protein. Also, if you can plant another set of bean seeds a couple of weeks before bean harvest time in late July/early August, you may be able to get a second crop harvested by corn harvest time in October/November.

By the end of the growing season, the grass and weeds rotted away, and I had an established garden area. I tried this on my lawn last year (on about 100 sq ft), and I was able to harvest 16 pounds of field corn, and 6 pounds of pinto beans, for a total of about 35,000 calories. Since my family of four needs about 8000 calories a day, I would need about 85 of these plots to cover their needs and have seed corn/beans for the following year. That’s only about 0.2 acres – smaller than most subdivision lots! If you were able to get a second crop of beans, that would provide you with calories to spare, or some extra beans to trade to your neighbors.

This was lawn in the spring of 2014, before converting to corn last year.

Naturally, in a SHTF scenario, I would like to plant more to account for bad weather (like the monsoon season we are having in lieu of summer this year!), infestations, or thievery by two and four-footed critters.

This is where the true guerrilla gardening comes in.

There is an abandoned farm at the end of our subdivision street. The rumor is that it is owned by the subdivision’s developer, but he is in jail on drug charges for a long time, and so any further development is in limbo. Maybe you have seen a similar fallow field or empty lot around your neighborhood that you could control if things go to hell.

An abandoned farm in our neighborhood

Residents occasionally hike through some parts of the farm, so there are trails that wind around the edge of the field, but the tall grass and thorny bushes stop most people from going through it – all the better for me.

Around the first of June, I put a bag of field corn, a hedge trimmer, and a bulb planter into my backpack, and took a little hike. I selected a patch of field that was mostly tall grass for ease of planting, and got to work. Although I was nervous as hell about getting caught, I chopped the grass as low as I could in a 15’ x 15’ square, and threw the grass to the side. Then I got busy with the bulb planter, punching holes in the dense grass root systems, and pushing in the corn seeds. The next day, I packed in a small sprayer loaded with glyphosate, and sprayed the whole area. Within two weeks, I had little rows of corn seedlings. Yay, it worked! When they got about a foot tall, I planted the bean seeds as described.

That’s the good news, but here is the bad news – within a week, I noticed that the grass next the plot was flattened, and the tops of my little corn plants were being nipped. Deer! Those little bastards found the seedlings a tasty change of diet, and are doing their best to commandeer the crop.

So here is what I have learned –

Deer like to snack on corn and beans in bed (rear left).

It would be too expensive to fence my little plot now (about $100), and fencing would draw unwanted attention.
If I were to guerrilla garden post-TEOTWAWKI, I would do it with whatever surviving neighbors I could trust. We would use fencing acquired after the disaster, and/or take turns patrolling the field until the seedlings matured and were less tasty. This would also provide us an opportunity to hunt deer drawn to the plot, and put some fresh meat on the table. I have also heard that human urine is a natural deer repellent, but I haven’t tried it yet.
I need to stock up now, to be prepared to implement this plan.
- Fifty pounds of feed corn costs about $5 at a feed supply store, should germinate adequately, and covers about an acre and a half. You could trade or give some to your trusted neighbors that will be part of your guerrilla gardening group.
- 50 pounds of dried will complement the corn, and is good for eating if gardening doesn’t work out.
- A variety of other garden seeds – tomatoes, cabbage, and other foods that can be kept/canned.
- About a gallon of glyphosate and a couple of sprayers.
- A couple of bulb planters, trowels and/or shovels.
- Adequate firearms and ammo for guarding the crop and hunting deer.

While it is a little late in the season to expect to harvest, why not try it anyway soon near you? Better to learn now what works than later!

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The phrase “guerrilla gardening” was first used in 1973 in New York City, when Liz Christie and her Green Guerrilla group transformed an empty private lot into a vegetable and

Life (and Death) on the Homestead

As a husband, a father, and a prepper, one of the driving forces for the things I do is to protect my family from hardships. From battery jump boxes in both vehicles in order to prevent my wife from being stranded, to having plenty of ammunition to kill the zombies if/when they show up, keeping the wife and kids (and the brothers, cousins, and, yes, even the in-laws – I know you are reading this, Ev) safe is a highly motivating issue with me.

So when I find myself helpless in the face of adversity, I realize I’ve found a weakness in my planning. And as much as it pains me, I have to push through the trouble and suffering to get to a resolution, and in the aftermath, I need to find a way to prevent it from ever happening again.

This happened on a very minor scale with the lack of alcohol sales after a hurricane (it helps those around me deal with my obsessions, trust me!). I taught myself how to make my own, and moving forward, “no alcohol” is no longer a possibility for me.

The battery jump boxes are another end result of planning for the worst. I suggest EVERY car have one. The wife got stranded once due to a dead battery. The next day, she had a battery jump box in her vehicle. And thanks to a phone call to my brother who was in the area, the situation was only a minor inconvenience. (Thanks, Dave!)

Planning for disasters is NOT a psycho habit. We all do it at varying levels. Insurance is a form of disaster preparedness. So is packing a diaper bag for the baby. I just prefer to take it to another level. I don’t like inconvenience, particularly when it affects my wife.

So last week, while I was out gator hunting, and my wife called me distraught, with sobs in her voice, and me 2 hours away. I was on the water, with my phone on silent (didn’t want to scare the gators) and packed away in a waterproof container. Thus, I was completely out of contact with her, and unable to offer any assistance. When I finally did get the message, I immediately called her, to find out what the problem was, all the while thinking to myself, “how the hell could I fix it from this far away?”

It seems that in my planning for scaling up the winter rabbit production, I failed to realize that my rabbits didn’t “miss”, being due the day before I left, but have simply been “running late” and delivered the morning after I was gone. Since I’ve converted my cages into suspended nest boxes, this normally wouldn’t be a a big deal.

However, combining the new mother with a cage without “baby saver” wire, three of the six kits were found outside of the cage on the ground, cold and covered with ants. My poor city-girl wife was NOT ready to deal with this kind of real life drama. Through the tears in her eyes, she did her best to gather them up and get them cleaned off, but was unsure what to do with them so she called me. Five times. And texted me eight times.

Lucky for me (and the kits in question), I married a smart girl. With the understanding that the mother should know what to do, my wife cleaned the ants off of the kits, and placed them into the nest box with their siblings. By the time I had called her, everything was OK….other than the wife’s emotions.

After I returned home, as I went to check on the kits, the wife informed me she didn’t want to know if they made it or not. Her reasoning was that if I didn’t say anything, then there was bad news. She preferred to not know anything rather than take the chance at getting bad news.

I need to expose my family to more of the daily issues of raising our own food. While my kids know food doesn’t come from plastic trays covered in cellophane, they only know that “Dad does that stuff out back”, and we have food later.

For every rabbit that reaches the table, there are countless hours spent building, cleaning, checking, interacting, scratching, feeding, upgrading, watering, harvesting and learning. I really try to give the animals I raise a good life. I try to learn from my mistakes, and while they happen less frequently now, they still happen. I’ve probably lost more rabbits to my mistakes, injury, predation, bad luck, etc. in total than I harvest in a year…and that’s a lot.

It is rare that anybody other than me sees the stillborn babies, the loss due to a new mother rabbit getting everything wrong, or the damage done by predators. The only see the cute young rabbits that like the human interaction the kids and wife provide while the rabbits are still small enough to handle easily.

On the rare occasions that something “bad” is seen by the others in my household, it is a shock to them. I feel I need to expose them to more of the grittiness of raising food, so that they are more ready for life’s brutal fairness. Everything ends up as food for something else (people included), its simply part of the chain of things. By not seeing this, at least occasionally, we can lose sight of it and then when we do come face to face with death, we become shocked and appalled by it.

I am the one that does the harvesting, and each time I dispatch a rabbit, I feel remorse and joy at the same time. Remorse at taking a life for my own personal gain, and joy at having given the animal the best life I could manage, and one far better than most of the food I could have purchased instead at the local grocery store.

By hardening myself to the process of growing and raising food, I’ve become more appreciative of what I eat. And I tend to eat better than many others because of it.

Some die, but life is tenacious. Most live, and those are the future.

And hopefully, I can instill the value of life into my wife and kids, so that they too can reap the benefits of living closer to their food. And when the course of events includes some life being snuffed “too soon” from one of our animals, they will be better able to cope with it. After all, the animals we raise were destined to be food from before they were conceived, and while sad, the loss is part of life.

And eventually this equalizer will take me and my wife too. I just hope our children will be more ready to face this loss because of lessons I’m trying to teach them now. And possibly, they will pass this lesson on to their kids, a legacy I’ve created for future generations of my decedents.

A father can dream, can’t he?

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As a husband, a father, and a prepper, one of the driving forces for the things I do is to protect my family from hardships. From battery jump boxes in

Cookstoves and the Prepared Lifestyle

Imagine this scenario: It’s the dead of winter. The ground is covered in snow, the temperature is below freezing during the daylight and worse after the sun goes down. Your power goes out. You’ve got water and a decent amount of food in storage, but your heat source went with the power and the temperature inside your dwelling is rapidly dropping. What can you do?

The best option, one that people have come back to time and again throughout history, is to fire up the stove. If you have a woodstove or wood cookstove, chances are you’ve never worried about this situation. If you lose power and have to rely on yourself for heat, all you need to do is grab a couple blocks of firewood, throw them in the stove, start a fire, and in no time at all your living space will be just as warm as with any other heat source. The difference, however, is that wood heat from cutting the tree to splitting and loading the wood is entirely your responsibility.

If you’ve got the time and energy, cutting your own firewood for the winter is one of the most rewarding aspects of living in a cold climate, both mentally and economically. There’s something to be said for the satisfaction of surviving the winter on your own terms: Gas, propane, electric they all require middle-men in some way or another. With wood heat, you have the option of gathering your own fuel and maintaining sole responsibility for how it’s burned and why, all at a cost that is far lower than that incurred by other heating methods.

But we’re not talking about just ordinary woodstoves, we’re talking about cookstoves. What’s the difference? Let’s go back to that scenario:

Your only source of heat is a stove, but what about preparing food? Sure, you can get by on the standards like canned goods, freeze-dried foods, MREs, etc. But when you’re looking at an extended period of time without access to proper power, you’ll want variety in order to avoid the very real issue of appetite fatigue. Survival isn’t just about getting the proper amount of nutrients into your body, it’s also about maintaining your sanity, and being able to cook food that actually tastes good will go a long way towards helping you hunker down for the long haul.

That’s where cookstoves come in.

A cookstove has two main features: A firebox and an oven. The firebox works essentially like a standard woodstove and, depending on the stove, will heat just as effectively. However, that heat and the smoke from the fire is also routed through an adjacent oven (in ways that vary between stove manufacturers), allowing you to bring the oven to a temperature that will effectively cook anything you want.

Most cookstoves even offer independent controls for each side, as well as a universal damper system for total control over how much heat- if any- you wish to allow into the stove. If you can cook it on a normal household stove, you can cook it on a cookstove via wood heat.

The advantages of a cookstove aren’t limited to personal warmth and cooking, though: Many cookstoves also offer options for domestic hot water. With steel coils installed in the firebox and connected to a water reservoir located on the stove (or remote tank, in some cases), a cookstove will also create hot water when in use. This technology operates on the basic principle that hot water rises and cold water falls, using absolutely no additional electronics, pumps, or pressure tanks. You heat up the stove, the stove heats up the water. It’s that simple.

Cookstoves are not a new invention by any means, and chances are if you’ve heard of them or seen one before, it was collecting dust or in a state of disrepair in the household of a family member from a previous generation. Wood cookstoves have a long history in America, but fell by the wayside as social and economic forces led coal to replace wood as the main source of energy in the early 1900s. Wood still has its drawbacks as an energy source, particularly if you’re not living near a forest, but for many the benefits far outweigh any issues and always have.

The Esse Ironheart Cookstove.

Wood is reliable, and that reliability has kept cookstoves on the market and improving over the years. Today’s cookstoves aren’t your grandma’s cookstove left over from the Great Depression: They are simple but robust pieces of technology built on generations of experience, and with proper maintenance, will keep burning and cooking for decades.

That reliability and self-containment is invaluable to anyone living the prepared life. You can take all manner of precautions against society and what will happen when the grid goes down, but you can’t survive mother nature without a consistent source of heat and food. If you’re a prepper living in the north, or anywhere with temperatures that regularly dip below freezing in the winter months, you need to prepare not only for a large-scale disaster, but for a seasonal one as well. Every year winter storms regularly knock out power for tens of thousands of citizens across the country, often for weeks at a time. Being snowed in without power or a way to restock supplies is still a part of life for many Americans in the winter, and if you’re relying on a third-party to provide your heat in such a situation, you run the very real risk of freezing to death. Keeping a cookstove around will not only alleviate that risk, but allow you to do so relatively comfortably.

As mentioned earlier, a cookstove will open up a variety of options in the event of the grid going down, but that’s not limited to how you prepare your already stored food. And it’s just as well, because no matter how you ration it that food will eventually run out. If you’re to survive through self-reliance and meet all the dietary needs of the human body, you’ll need to raise or hunt your own meat, and that meat will need to be cooked. The benefit of a cookstove here is that you won’t be using multiple devices to accomplish this- your heat source will also provide you with an efficient way of preparing your meat.

A cookstove will go a long way in itself to sustain a person, but if you can also cut your own firewood and kill or grow your own food, a cookstove will provide almost everything else you need. Regardless of whether you’re a prepper or just interested in living a bit more self-sufficiently, a cookstove offers enrichment and security for your life. And on those long, cold winter days in the more out-of-the-way parts of the land, you can’t ask for more.

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Imagine this scenario: It’s the dead of winter. The ground is covered in snow, the temperature is below freezing during the daylight and worse after the sun goes down. Your

Why do you need protection?

What’s the best choice?

Heavy Weapons and Blades

What do MREs taste like?

How do MRE’s fit into a Prepper Plan?

ACCIDENTAL INJURIES

COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

VERMIN

MALNUTRITION

MEDICATIONS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES

So You Decided To Suit Up

What are you packing?

In conclusion…

Forward

What is Fire Craft?

What does modern man have to offer?

The Ferrocerium Rod

The Magnesium Block

The Spark Wheel

The Fire Piston

The Magnifying Glass / Sun Glass

Other Modern Methods

Oldies but Goodies

So when it comes down to it what is the best tool for the job?

When the SHTF and Nellie has Dementia

Prepping for those with Dementia

Learn how to:

And if the SHTF?

Some things are not so obvious:

But what about Nellie?

Here’s how to test the technique in the backyard:

So here is what I have learned –

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