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Many of us who are new to prepping become wrapped up in the things we don’t have. We scour the internet looking for prepper checklists and there are millions out there. We look for ideas on the best handguns to purchase or the best firearms to have. We look at bug out vehicles and survival bunkers and hidden retreats in the woods. It can be overwhelming.

I know a lot of preppers including me in the beginning focused on the things we felt we needed to get at the beginning. The sheer volume of ‘things’ that make up all these lists can seem insurmountable and you might even be wondering where to start.

How about starting in your own home first?

There are a lot of great household survival supplies that you as a prepper already have. I am not saying that you don’t need to look at other options for survival, but don’t overlook the obvious either. A true prepper isn’t defined necessarily by what they have, but more how they are prepared to deal with crisis and looking at the items you have on hand is one way to adjust your perception.

  1. Bleach – Bleach is great for a couple of things. First you can use it to disinfect surfaces because bleach will kill almost anything. Bleach could be used to sanitize your home should there be some infectious disease outbreak and it can also be used to disinfect water which could come in handy if for some reason the tap stops working and you have to get your water from alternate sources. For instance, if you have a lake or rain barrels for water collection you will want to disinfect that water before you drink it. Boiling is a better alternative, but bleach is great in a pinch. Bleach does have a shelf life though that I discuss in another post.
  2. Towels – Do you have old towels lying in a closet somewhere? We have a ton hidden in a box that we use for all types of odd jobs. When the car needs washing we break out the old towels. When the survival dog is wet from the rain, out come the towels. These old towels and rags have a use in a survival situation too. They can be stitched together to make blankets, they can be shoved in cracks to keep drafts out; they can be ripped up to make diapers or bandages or fire starter. You can wrap them around hot pot handles to save your hands too.
  3. Dental Floss – Dental floss makes great fishing line or emergency rope although you would need a lot of it to make rope and that is assuming you don’t have that wimpy wax tape they are selling now. Floss can be used to suture a wound, as your noose in a small game snare or as fishing line. I like to use it to keep my teeth clean and I have some stocked for that purpose and I’ll use the inner cords from my paracord for the other uses.
  4. Feminine hygiene products – What? Well you might be thinking these are necessary for one thing but think outside of the box. These products are great for stopping blood so in an emergency situation, they can save someone from bleeding to death. Tampons can be used to plug bullet wounds and maxi-pads make great pressure bandages. What about those make up remover pads? They make great tinder for starting fires. You can actually soak them in paraffin wax and they will make starting fires a breeze so they are a good addition to your bug out bag. Check out this video for instructions.
  5. Duct Tape – If you don’t have at least one roll of duct tape in your home right now, I am pretty sure you are violating a natural law of some type. Duct tape is incredibly useful from making repairs on clothing or survival gear, patching holes, protecting your feet from blisters and generally being awesome. All duct tape isn’t made equal though and I recommend something like Gorilla tape which is much stronger than traditional duct tape. For a bug out bag tip I don’t carry a whole roll. I take a plastic card like a hotel key or old credit card and wrap about 20 feet of duct tape around the card. This way I have plenty of duct tape if I need it but do not have all the weight or space a whole roll takes up. You can even use it to make a sling!

  6. Garden hose has more uses even if it has a hole.

    Garden Hose – Garden hose can be used to do what it normally does and that is transport water from one location to another. You can also use this as a siphon to get gas out of vehicles or storage tanks. You can also cut the hose and use it to protect your hands when you are dealing with wire. Just cut some of the hose off, slice it down one side and slide the wire in. You can use the garden hose to set up a makeshift shower with a bucket of water hung in a tree and gravity. Let a large bucket of water sit in the sun for a few hours until it gets warm. Set the hose in the bucket and get the water flowing much as you would in siphoning gas and you have a way to hose off with warm water.

  7. Tools and Lumber – Hand tools will most likely be needed as I don’t want to use my gas to recharge electric tools. A hammer, some nails and heavy duty plywood can be used to seal openings and make your home more secure from intruders. Nailing windows shut can slow access and repairs to all manner of items is easier with tools. You can also use box cutters and even lawn mower blades as defensive weapons.
  8. Cooking Oil – So what do you do with oil when you are all out of fish sticks and French fries? Make an oil lantern with it. That’s right, oil burns so if you have a power blackout and you are fresh out of candles, you can use oil and a glass jar or small empty can to create a source of light in your home. Make sure you are careful though because any open flame can cause you more problems than it solves. This video from the Shepherd School demonstrates how to make a survival oil lamp.
  9. Kitchen Knives – Every kitchen in America must have that block of knives sitting on the counter that we got as a housewarming gift. Just because you don’t have an expensive EDC knife on you doesn’t mean you have to forgo the advantages that knives offer. A good kitchen knife will cut just as well as most of the tactical knife blades out there and in a pinch would be better than nothing. If you want to carry a knife you can make a sheath for it out of plastic or cardboard and duct tape. Wrap a long piece of paracord around the handle to make the grip better and you have your caveman survival knife.

  10. Survival Oil Lamp

    Tea Bags – Tea Bags are not only good for a beverage (as long as you have sugar or honey IMHO) but they are also a great homeopathic addition to your medical kit. Tea leaves contain tannins which are a natural anti-inflammatory. Some people will use wet tea bags to reduce bags under their eyes and you can use this for lots of other uses like bee stings, hemorrhoids, boils (not in that order obviously).

  11. Toilet Paper – If there is one prepper item that I have seen people obsess over more than anything it is toilet paper. What will you do when the roll is all gone? I am thinking there are far bigger problems in the world if you can’t buy toilet paper anymore, but let’s say you have an abundance of the fluffy white stuff and are looking for other uses. You can twist toilet paper into a wick for a toilet paper wick heater, or your oil lamp or use it to start fires, apply medicine or write notes on it.
  12. Canned Food – Once you are done with the contents of your canned food you can use them as containers. You can build that oil lamp I mentioned above. You can also use them to cook with over a fire and when they are all done, you can string empty cans together to make a hobo alarm system. Don’t worry if the disaster left you a ton of cans but no way to open them, because you can easily open a can without a can opener.
  13. Potato Chips – Believe it or not you can use potato chips to start a fire. That is because they have so much fat and oil in them. I will add that this would be a really silly way to start a fire because you are using food to make a fire when that should be unnecessary in all but the most extreme circumstances. Maybe you are trapped in a Lay’s warehouse or something and need a fire to keep warm. I added this just for kicks but you should know how to start a fire using tinder and not food. It is possible though.
  14. Fire Extinguisher – Not only can this be used to put out fires, you can also use this as a defensive weapon. Granted, I don’t ever want to be that close to the bad guy; I’d prefer to be shooting distance away, but in a pinch you can use a fire extinguisher to blind someone. Spray them hard in the face and while they are blinded, crack them over the head with the fire extinguisher.
  15. Garbage Bags – I don’t know how many uses garbage bags have but they are really just plastic sheeting that has been folded and welded together. We look at these as our go-to option for taking out the trash but they can also double as rain gear. Just cut a hole for the head and one for each arm and you are all set. You can use them as a water barrier if you have to sleep on the ground. You can also use them to keep the rain off your head by cutting them down the sides to make the bag footprint larger. These can also be used to black out your windows if something happens and you don’t want your neighbors looking inside at your oil lamp. Garbage bags and duct tape go a long way.

What items do you have in your house that could have other uses?

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Many of us who are new to prepping become wrapped up in the things we don’t have. We scour the internet looking for prepper checklists and there are millions out

Life is often about measuring ourselves against a standard. The standard changes with the situation but there is always some metaphorical yardstick we are trying to use to gauge our progress for our efforts. Consciously or maybe subconsciously we keep looking back to that yardstick, checking to see how we stand. In some cases it is easy to see how you are doing. If you want to diet and lose weight, you have the ability to look at yourself in the mirror, maybe your clothes fit more loosely, and then obviously there is that dreaded bathroom scale. If you never get on the scale, you might think you are doing better than you actually are on your diet. The problem comes when you do step on the scales and find that you are much further away from your goals than you thought.

With Prepping, I think we should also do a similar exercise at least once a year where we pause for a moment and take stock of where we are and how much further we need to go. With a clear understanding of where you are at currently in contrast with your prepping goals, it is easier to identify any problems before they are too late to fix. You don’t want to get invited to a pool party at the end of the world and realize you are still 15 pounds overweight and your bathing suit has a big moth-eaten hole in the butt.

I wrote an article some time ago titled “How Will I Know When the SHTF” where I brought up this concept of the Arc of Preparedness. For me, the journey most of us are on towards being more prepared doesn’t have a final destination, but I think there is a less prepared and a more prepared side with a healthy middle in between. Ideally, we would be as close to the more prepared side as possible, but without measuring your progress on that continuum occasional, how would you really know where you stand? The last thing we want to happen is some SHTF event and you realize with horror that some vital aspect of preparation you thought you had covered, is not going to be able to save you or worse missing completely.

What is the Arc of Preparedness?

Like anything else we measure on an arc I will start with least prepared and end with what I think is the maximum level of preparedness we need to realistically worry about achieving. Obviously, nobody is expected to have capabilities akin to a Global seed vault like they have in Norway, but for the average family I think something a good bit less than that is a reasonable level of preparedness. Knowing again that I consider prepping a journey with no destination. You can be very squared away, but I don’t believe anyone will be able to prepare for everything under the sun for the rest of their lives.

Minimum Requirements to be Prepared

I think the minimum level for being remotely “prepared” would be one week of supplies to feed, clothe, shelter and protect you and whoever is in your care. This should assume that all utilities are off, no emergency services are working and you have to rely on only what you have at your present location. Could you live for a week if the grid went down? What if you had to leave your home? If you aren’t even to this point yet, you might want to read our How to start Prepping article.

Just as a point of clarification, I am not talking about extremes here which some commenters like to throw out as an argument. If a nuclear bomb goes off in your neighborhood, I don’t expect you to be able to live for a week. I am not talking about the military or someone else dropping a bomb on your house or an F5 tornado barging through the front door. The example I will use is a global disruption in power. This in itself doesn’t kill everyone, at least not at first, but for all intents and purposes, it is the end of our world as we know it.

It is important to routinely measure your progress towards prepping goals.

Low-Medium Preparedness

Low-Medium preparedness using the same scenario above is the ability to take care of your family for one month. This means you have at least a month of food and water stored and can survive without power to heat or cool your home. Stocking away an extra month worth of food and water for your family is nothing to sneeze at and would keep you safe for 99% of all disasters.

Medium  Preparedness

Medium level of preparedness would be 3 months. All of the supplies above to keep your family alive for this duration. Of course with a longer duration of TEOTWAWKI, we have to assume mass civil unrest and possible violence in your town or neighborhood. At this point I don’t believe you would be safe on your own and hopefully have banded together with like-minded individuals, perhaps your neighbors for shared safety.

Medium-High Preparedness

Surviving in a grid down world for more than a few months will require skills most of us no longer have.

Medium High in my opinion is the ability to take care of your family for 6-9 months, assuming you haven’t been forced from your home. This level means you have acquired or identified a pretty large amount of prepping supplies. After this amount of time, the country may be very different. Martial law may have been declared and confiscations of supplies, or forced relocations or forced labor may have taken place in some areas.
Preparedness

I think anything over one year could constitute a high level of preparedness. This would allow you to feed your family while you work on setting up a sustainable food alternative. Assumes you have some backup power for the duration.

Maximum Preparedness

More than one year or the ability to care for larger groups of people. There are some who have many years of stored food, water, underground bunkers and all of the necessary things you would need to weather the apocalypse in style. I can’t say I wouldn’t do this too, if I won Powerball, but until that happens, this side of the arc is probably unobtainable for most of us. This could also include people completely self-reliant with food, gardens, power and a warehouse of supplies, although that is no small feat either and like Powerball is not possible for most preppers.

How to measure where you are on the Arc of Preparedness

Most of us, going back to that earlier analogy have a feel for how we are doing. We know if we are losing weight or in this context, how prepared we are. I think it is good to measure yourself though because you might be surprised. Do you have a ton of freeze-dried food stored in the shed? When is the last time you checked that out? Is it still good? What about your water supply? Have you measured how much you have? How is your garden doing and more importantly, how much food are you able to put up each year from the harvest? Have you considered that amount if you are eating solely on what is produced? Will that be enough?

Training is a component I didn’t even cover because that is a little harder to measure. You can take a first aid course, but that doesn’t mean you won’t crack under pressure or the individual you are treating will be worse than your skills can handle. Patients die every day even in the care of doctors with all the modern conveniences you have. What about self-defense? Do you have weapons? Are you training with them? How much ammo do you have?

Measuring where you are on the Arc of Preparedness is highly subjective I know, but the practice of taking stock each year might help you avoid disaster down the road. Knowing what you have will help you focus on what is needed and at the same time, reassure you of the bases you do have covered.

So, where are you on your own personal Arc of Preparedness?

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Life is often about measuring ourselves against a standard. The standard changes with the situation but there is always some metaphorical yardstick we are trying to use to gauge our progress for

One common concern for prepping is how you will be able to heat up and cook any food if you don’t have the nice stainless steel range to cook on? You might have a freezer full of the best steaks but they are awful tough eatin (yes that is the correct spelling) if they aren’t cooked to a nice medium rare at a minimum. A great Prep to either have or know how to make is a Rocket Stove.

Rocket Stoves were developed by a man named Sam Baldwin back in the early 80’s. What makes them so great is that the Rocket Stove concept achieves efficient combustion of whatever you are burning (normally small pieces of wood) at a really high temperature. It can do this because the unique design of the Rocket Stove allows a good air draft into the fire and this ensures you have a near complete combustion of the fuel and associated gases. Because of its simple year ingenious design, it has been used for cooking purposes in many third-world locales (notably Rwandan refugee camps) as well as for space and water heating.

LDSPrepper has taken this idea and adapted it to 5 simple cans most of us would either have laying around or could easily get our hands on. Using the steps in this video below you can actually build a rocket stove yourself with items lying around your house. Check out his video below.

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One common concern for prepping is how you will be able to heat up and cook any food if you don’t have the nice stainless steel range to cook on?

How do you go about protecting all those new gadgets and gizmos you got at Christmas or your birthday? You might be surprised to discover that there are many ingenious ways to keep your stuff safe other than keeping them on your person at all times or locking them up somewhere.

Whether you’re at home, at work, in a public place, or on vacation, the following tips will help you secure, disguise, hide, or make it easier to track down your stuff.

How to Keep Your Stuff Safe At Home

When you’re home, the best way to keep everything safe is to sign up for a reputable monitored home security system, especially if living in an area where burglaries are relatively common, such as a city. If you’re deterred by the price, you might be surprised to learn that top security tools like ADT security can protect your home for as little as $9 a week.

Besides keeping your stuff safe, your family will be protected, too. If your children get home from school before you get out of work, you will know that the house is protected from any unwanted intruders.

However, the most vulnerable possession in your house and the one that has the highest likelihood of getting stolen is your sensitive information. So it’s important to keep all the data on all your devices safe, too. Use passwords protect everything from your Wi-Fi network access to your desktop, laptop, or mobile device. Additionally, buy some good antivirus software to prevent people from stealing your data when you go online.

It’s also important to keep your stuff safe from accidents and loss. Buy reliable cases for phones and tablets, and making it a habit to put things in their proper place when done using them.

How to Keep your Stuff Safe at Work

One way to keep your stuff safe at work is to put a label on it. This is especially useful for gadgets. The label should have your name and address on it. Sometimes your stuff might not get stolen but either lost of misplaced. For example, you leave your handbag in the break room and the night cleanup crew finds it under the table. With your name on it, it’s much easier for the finder to return it.

Prevent your lunch from being stolen with this fake mold anti-theft lunch bag.

 

Use an anti-theft lunch bag to protect the sandwich and apple you’ve been saving as your mid-afternoon treat from getting lifted by a lunch thief. Simply smudge some food dye on your plastic sandwich bags. Once somebody pulls it out of the lunch bag, they will see fuzzy green dots, they will mistake it for mold.

How to Keep Your Stuff Safe in Public Places

The best way to attract attention in a public place, like a mall or grocery store or coffee shop, is to carry it in a bag that screams “opulence.”

If you’re shopping in a neighborhood with a crime rate, it’s best not to take your most expensive handbags with you. Besides handbags, laptop bags also attract a lot of attention–bags that have a high-tech look attract attention from those who would like to have a laptop without buying one.

One way to keep your laptop or mobile devices safe is to use a simple nondescript bag to carry your precious electronic belongings. It could be as simple as a fed-ex envelope, a cheap plastic shopping bag, or a beaten up old leather case.

What about your wallet or purse? That’s probably even more tempting than handbags or laptop cases. While you might do your best to keep your cash and credit cards and id safe, but you might still lose your purse or wallet, either through an act of carelessness or a pickpocket. Worse still, you might only realize that you lost it when you’re back home?

Here’s one ingenious way, you might be able to get your lost or stolen wallet or purse back:

In Edinburgh, psychologists conducted a test with 240 wallets. After losing these wallets around city streets, they waited to see how many would be returned. In the plastic sleeves, they either put a picture of “a smiling baby, a cute puppy, a happy family or a contented elderly couple” were inserted or no image was left at all. Some wallets also contained papers indicating the owner had recently donated to charity.

Here’s what happened:

“The baby photograph wallets had the highest return rate, with 88 per cent of the 40 being sent back. Next came the puppy, the family and the elderly couple, with 53 per cent, 48 and 28 respectively. At 20 per cent and 15, the charity card and control wallets had the lowest return rates.”

So insert a cute baby picture in your wallet!

How to Keep your Stuff Safe When Traveling

If you’re backpacking, you might sleep in a hostel room, a bus, or train. Use a concealed money belt to keep your passport, credit-cards, cash, and camera memory cards on you.If you’re staying at a hotel, read reviews about the hotel. Finally, keep an eye on your bags as you travel on taxis, buses, and trains, and if you have precious possession in them, distribute them over several bags.

Try out these ideas. While you might not be able to keep everything safe from loss, theft, or someone borrowing it without your permission, you will at least protect most of your important stuff.

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How do you go about protecting all those new gadgets and gizmos you got at Christmas or your birthday? You might be surprised to discover that there are many ingenious

Whether you want to make money from your yard, save money on groceries, enjoy foods you can’t easily buy, or simply get more out of the experience of gardening, growing your own food is a great choice, and it’s easier than you might think. As long as you have a spade or fork, a rake and a hoe, and a sturdy trowel, you can make a go of it – additional tools help but aren’t essential. These handy tips will help you to get started.

Caring for the soil

All sustainable gardening begins with taking care of the soil because plants need nutrients in the growing medium almost as much as water and sunlight. Investing in fertilizer will let you enrich the soil easily but it can be expensive, so if you want to save money you can create your own compost from garden waste and leftover food scraps. If you know someone who keeps cattle or horses, there’s nothing like well-rotted dung for nourishing your plants. You can also bind nitrogen into the soil by growing peas or beans, or if you have a fish pond – or even an aquarium – you can use the nitrate-rich wastewater from that for irrigation.

Choosing the right crops

The right crops for your garden will depend on how acidic or alkaline the soil is, how much rainfall you get at different times of year, and what you actually want to eat. Don’t grow food in quantities that overwhelm you, and bear in mind that having a lot of variety in your yard reduces the risk of losing everything to pests. Choose crops that fit around one another over the course of the year, so you can be ready to plant one as soon as you harvest another. Keep moving your crops around within the yard because they will take up different nutrients from the soil, so this will help to avoid exhausting it.

Extending your growing space

Composting is a simple way to enrich your garden soil and reduce trash.

If you have limited room for growing crops in your yard, ask yourself if you’re making the most of all your options. If there are paved areas you don’t want to dig up, you can still grow things in pots on top of them. Running trellises along your walls or fences will enable you to grow things vertically. You can also bring plants indoors – south facing windows act like greenhouses and are great places to grow tomatoes or bell peppers.

Extending the season

Setting up a proper greenhouse with some heating in winter will allow you to grow food all year round. Simpler devices like cold frames can also make a big difference; you can get plants started earlier in the year. Not every crop takes a full season to grow, so with good planning you can fit in multiple harvests. Potatoes, for instance, can produce three crops a year, and you can harvest radishes monthly.

There are thousands of DIY Greenhouse plans on the internet.

Preserving your post-harvest crops

Experts predict that the world is heading for a food shortage in the years ahead so post harvest food preservation is now a vital area of scientific research. Population growth, increasing demand from emerging economies and the adverse effects of global warming will be the main causes of the problem. This might be hard to believe now with food from all over the world currently displayed for sale in supermarkets, however, the growth in crop production won’t continue forever, and waste must be reduced.

Scientists all over the world are addressing the problems of food supply sustainability with some urgency, and agriculture executives such as Jai Shroff, who is CEO of UPL Ltd, have worked hard to provide more support for small-scale farmers and gardeners. Shroff’s initiatives have seen the development of practical preservation solutions for those with limited harvesting options. The company has also developed affordable fertilizer products to fit with a sustainable approach and they are a more practical choice for growers who don’t have sufficient land to let areas lie fallow for extended periods. Shroff’s LinkedIn page states: “By providing the agriculture sector with quality seeds, plant nutrition, and post-harvest preservation products, he aims to strengthen food security in over 120 countries.”

An effectively planned kitchen garden can work well in even a small area and should produce an abundance of fruit, salad crops and vegetables.

Food security is already a worry for many of those countries that are striving to meet today’s demands, and the development of new preservation methods that will play an important role in the future is becoming essential. Until those new methods become available the conventional methods of preservation will continue to be used. Storing fruit and root vegetables in temperature-controlled conditions or freezing as soon as possible after cropping are still the favored options to prolong the life of foods and reduce waste.

Keeping a kitchen garden

An effectively planned kitchen garden can work well in even a small area and should produce an abundance of fruit, salad crops and vegetables. If you’re a keen cook you’ll need herbs as well as fruits and vegetables. Herbs can be grown in all sorts of little niches where other plants won’t fit, such as hanging baskets or well-secured mini-beds running along the tops of your walls. This will help you to use up every bit of space and will give you many more flavor options when it comes to making use of the things you grow. Just bear in mind that some – especially mint – grow like weeds, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on them (best in containers). Choosing flowering herbs is a great way to give an extra boost to everybody’s favorite garden helpers, bees.

Growing your own food requires some manual work. You’ll need to weed your yard at least weekly, turn over the soil after harvesting and pay careful attention to draining and irrigation. When you sit down to enjoy a hearty meal of home-grown food, however, that work definitely feels worthwhile.

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Whether you want to make money from your yard, save money on groceries, enjoy foods you can’t easily buy, or simply get more out of the experience of gardening, growing

Yes, most of us depend on the local electric company for our energy needs. Not all of us even have the power to choose from differing rates like they do in cities like Dallas. Most of the time, especially in smaller areas, there is just the one power company and you either go with them or you don’t have power.

The thing is, traditional power companies aren’t the only way to get energy to our homes. What’s more, you don’t need to go off the grid to have these types of alternative energy sources in your home. Some of these types of energies include things like:

  • Solar power
  • Wind power
  • Water power
  • Geothermal energy

Why don’t we take a look at a few of these more closely?

Solar Power

There are people out there who claim that solar power for the home is the energy of the future. They wouldn’t be too far off base either. It is a renewable source of energy and can be done on very large or very small scales. Right now, the prices for the equipment are falling and there are other financial incentives in place. These alone can make this a tempting option. There are even some cases where a home solar power system will create more energy than it needs and some of this can actually be sold back to your local utility company. As nice as all of this sounds, there are some things you will need to consider if you want to take this route. They include:

Wind Power

Some people are turning to wind power as a source of energy for their homes. This is done by installing a small wind turbine. These are basically generators of electricity. They use the power of the wind to create power that is clean and free from emissions for family homes, farms, and even some small businesses. This technology is simple and gaining in popularity and allows for people to create their own energy and slash their energy bills while doing their part to reduce their carbon footprint and help the environment. Like with solar power, the government does offer rebates as well as tax credit programs to encourage people to turn to this as a source of energy.

Water Power

Water power has been in use for homes for longer than either of the first two and there are hydroelectric power plants scattered across the country. That is large scale hydro power. However, if you happen to have a creek, stream, or other source of water flowing on your land, you can have your own hydropower system. Typically, a 10 – kilowatt system is enough to power a large home or even a small farm. To do this, you will need to figure out how much power you can get from the water on your land and will have to get the proper water rights and permits. This type of power is also eligible for rebates and some tax credits from the government.

When you are ready to say goodbye to high energy bills and invest in your own source of power, check with the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiencies to see what tax credits and rebates are offered in your area.

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Yes, most of us depend on the local electric company for our energy needs. Not all of us even have the power to choose from differing rates like they do

NEVER! If there is one “miracle” survival product it is paracord. It can handle so many jobs, it can be packed efficiently, it can be used, reused, re-purposed, reconfigured, and depended upon in almost any situation, it is the friend-zone of materials – always there, always ready, expects (and gets) nothing in return.

No matter how many ways one lists to use paracord they will be as far short of all its uses as a politician is of getting something, anything done.

If you see a bug-out bag without paracord in it walk away, disown or unfriend the bags owner, and put some distance between you and them. At some point, they will be the comic-relief in the horror movie who surly gets eaten and you do not want to be in their “collateral damage” zone. You could try and correct their ways but this might take hundreds of years and cost millions of dollars, though, seeing that light bulb light up in their brain, realizing you may have, perhaps for the first time, made two of their contiguous brain cells work together, could be rewarding. Your call.

Cinching together lean-to or shelter materials, securing a Mylar blanket to a shelter to reflect back campfire heat and light and not depending on dumb luck and no wind to not bring things crashing down. And don’t get me started on “making stuff” – a belt, a bullwhip, a lanyard, a rifle sling, a monkey fist (ouch!), snowshoes, hammock, trap ring/snare (varmints roasting on an open fire), bow sling, bottle harness, knife handle, dog collar, survival donut (we LOVE efficiency), grab handles (for a vehicle, for bags, for water jugs, for panicking people), the list is endless.

Learn how to cut and cap it off properly with a lighter. As a sailor I like to also duct tape (aka combat tape, safety tape, field-medical tape, keep-grandma-in camp tape, and all its other names) the end but it really isn’t necessary for paracord, while it is for larger nylon ropes. If you do “duct tape” go for dull as opposed to shiny, though with the variety of colors available in both paracord and duct tape, one could get creative.

Is color important? Bright orange can easily be seen. A plus when taking down a camp, a negative if you don’t want to draw attention to yourself. Black, or any of its variant, great for camouflage, not so great for taking down tree branches and such lashed together and used for a shelter, in the rain, in the dark, at midnight.

For the purist, I always recommend the Mil-Spec (C-5040H) for the tough jobs as you usually don’t need a lot, the price difference isn’t that big, and you know what you are getting, if you read the spec. Also, the 4 simple visual tests to verify Mil-Spec are easy to perform. Cut off an end, and push back the sheath and count 7, 8, or 9 inner strands. Good. Less than 7, not Mil-Spec. On the inner strands unravel one, if it is NOT 3 strands wound together it is not Mil-Spec. If the inner strand is NOT even twisted strands then again, not Mil-Spec. Finally, if one of the inner strands is not colored, it is not Mil-Spec. These colored ID strands, called “Manufacturer’s ID Strand” are required and a registered marker of compliance.

Just one more point, I said I was a purist, but I am also rational to a fault, so, to be clear, 550 Type III Commercial Nylon Paracord, not Mil-Spec, is an excellent product. It is excellent for building all the things mentioned above, and readily available from multiple sources and it will meet all your needs. This is rated with a tensile strength of 550 pounds, so unless you are trying to air-lift Michael Moore out of Krispy Kreme, you are good!

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NEVER! If there is one “miracle” survival product it is paracord. It can handle so many jobs, it can be packed efficiently, it can be used, reused, re-purposed, reconfigured, and depended

The majority of Preppers are well equipped in survival skills, including finding food, keeping warm and making temporary shelters, but how many of you are prepared for a total life-long power cut? Would your home stand up to being totally cut off from the grid?

This is where survival retreats come in. Many people choose to have an emergency shelter to prepare for a SHTF scenario, others just want a back-up place to go in case they lose their primary residence, or perhaps some just want to get off the grid and be less visible.

Preparing such a location, is a great way to ensure your safety should you ever need somewhere to escape to. But regardless of that, even if you don’t end up using it as a retreat, it can have many different purposes – to store your personal survival cache, or even just a great place to meet up with family and friends.

Whatever your reason for wanting an emergency shelter –there are so many different options, from

shipping container homes, homes made from trailers and old school buses, to log cabins.

Many Preppers already have an off-grid shelter prepared just in case of an emergency, and one of the cheapest and most natural ways to do this is to build a log cabin. To build a cabin from scratch is going to take you months, possibly years. But there is a way to get around that time-frame if you don’t have that much time to dedicate to a build.

You can build an emergency prepper shelter in just a couple of days if you choose to buy a log cabin kit. The main purpose of your log cabin is literally just for shelter and warmth, so you don’t need to build anything fancy. You can get an extremely basic one, which will be perfect to live off-grid in for as little as $20,000.

Building your own cabin can be an extremely rewarding process, and will provide you with your own place to get away from it all, soak up the natural world and practice your survival skills, but this is a serious undertaking and you need to do your research properly. So, how do you know which cabin kit is right for you, and which suppliers to trust with your build?

There are four main steps to buying a survival kit; understanding kits and what you should know before buying, how to choose a supplier, what’s included in your package and the total cost. I’m going to share over 30 years of experience with you to help you get the best deal.

Step One: Understanding Kits

There are so many different kits available, it’s difficult to know which one to choose but really, it’s just a matter of personal preference.

The first choice you’ll need to make is whether you want milled or bespoke logs. Milled logs are those that are all identical and uniform in shape because they have been machine processed. Bespoke logs are hand peeled which preserves all the natural characteristics of the logs. Bespoke log kits are rightly so, more expensive than milled.

Once you’ve chosen the finish type, you’ll need to choose the lumber and profile of the log. The four-main species of trees used for log cabins are pine, cedar, spruce and cypress. The most common is pine because it’s so readily available. Cedar is also very popular but comes at a premium price.

The next step is to choose how the corners of your kit will join. The traditional round logged cabin is joined using a Scandinavian Saddle Notch, other common joins include the dovetail notch, butt and pass, tongue and groove and corner post.

The log profile is how the log is finished; round logs, half-logs, square logs and D-logs. D-logs, with a tongue and groove join are the most popular, because they are so easy to slot together.

You’ll also have the choice between air-dried and kiln dried logs. It’s important that the logs are dried to prevent warping and bowing, kiln dried logs are more expensive due to the energy intensive process they go through. Whichever you choose, the logs should have around a 10% moisture content before building.

Step Two: Choosing a Supplier

With over 300 suppliers to choose from across the US, how can you be sure you’re choosing a reputable and professional company to buy your kit from?

There are a few ways to tell if a company is reputable, and therefore offering quality kits. The first is to look at whether they are a member of the Log and Timber Homes Council, or another association which requires the supplier to meet certain standards.

Once you’ve found out if they’re registered, ask if you can visit the factory where the kits are made and if possible, visit a model home. You’ll get a good feel as to whether the people building your cabin are real craftsmen or just technicians. You can also ask to talk to previous customers to hear their experiences and reviews.

Additionally, to these standard checks, other things to keep an eye out for are whether the logs and blueprints are graded and stamped. Whilst this is sometimes included in the price of a regular kit, with other companies it can come as an extra, but ensuring plans and logs are stamped and graded gives you assurance that the materials and plans are quality.

You should also ask whether the company offer an installation service, and on-site assistance if you require it. You may have no intention of taking them up on this service, but the very fact that the offer it shows they are confident in the level of quality of the product they are offering.

The last thing to consider is the warranty. Any decent company will offer you a minimum of 10-year warranty.

Step Three: Kit Contents

Kits normally come in three different stages of completion; shell only, dry-in package and turn-key packages. The kit you opt for will most likely depend on how much you want to pay, and the completion of package you want.

A shell only package, also known as the log wall system, comes with all the logs and beams that you’ll need to construct the basic shell of a cabin. You’ll have to source the windows, doors, possibly the roof and all exterior and interior finishes.

The dry-in package usually provides you with all the materials you need to create an air-tight log cabin, including all the logs, windows, doors, floors and roof, as well as all the exterior finishes.

A turn-key package will provide you with everything you need to complete you cabin, including interior finishes. This option provides you with everything you need for the cabin to be ready to use straight away.

Depending on which kit you opt for, you’ll receive some of, or all the components you need to build a log cabin shelter.

Step Four: Total Cost

The most important cost you need to look at is the turn-key cost. This is the complete cost of the cabin including the logs, roof, floor, windows doors, interior fittings and labor cost.

The shell package will cost you in between $50-80 per square foot, the dry-in package around $70-$130 per square foot, and a turn-key package in between $130-$180 per square foot.

You should compare like-for-like packages in cost, there is no use comparing a shell price from one company to a turn-key price with another. Figure out what the additional costs will be for the shell package before making a comparison.

One thing to keep in mind with any package is this will not be the total cost of your survival cabin. The golden ratio to use is 1:2. So if the kit costs $20,000, you can expect your final cost to be closer to $40,000 if you intend to carry out all the work yourself. If you employ someone to build the cabin for you, use a 1:3 ratio.

Is a Log Cabin Kit Right for Your Emergency Shelter?

Having an emergency shelter is a wise idea, if the day comes that for some reason your main place of residence is no longer a viable place to be.

In the mean-time, it doesn’t have to go to waste – it can have multiple uses such as somewhere just to go a hangout on the weekends with friends, or a place to store all your survival supplies.

A kit might work well for you if you really want an emergency shelter, but don’t have months or years to spend building a log cabin. All the difficult work is taken out of the build, and it is delivered straight to you ready to assemble. The assembly of a kit can be done in just two or three days with a handful of people.

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The majority of Preppers are well equipped in survival skills, including finding food, keeping warm and making temporary shelters, but how many of you are prepared for a total life-long power cut? Would

The list of items to pack in your bug out bag (BOB) can seem limitless. However, you cannot afford to pack all of them due to limited space available and the fact that you must keep the weight of the BOB down. This leaves you with very few options if you must carry all the essential items to help you with successful bugging out.

Put another way, you must come up with ingenious ways to ensure you pack the vital items. One of the best options is to pack multipurpose items. Wouldn’t it be great to pack a single item that can perform many tasks? This will eliminate the need to pack specialized items for each of these tasks. So, what are these multipurpose items for your BOB?

A Multi-Tool

A multi-tool to handymen or repairmen is like what a stethoscope is to a doctor. Soon after a multi-tool was invented, preppers developed a special liking for it because of its versatility. Just as the name sounds, a multi-tool is a single unit that has most tools attached to it. Each of the components tools is designed to perform specific functions.

A good quality multi-tool is a great replacement for a knife, can opener and even a saw. Imagine using a single tool to cut wood, prepare a game for food, build shelter, harvest forage and cut ropes/cordage. You can even use it for defense. This is a just a fraction of what a multi-tool can do.

A Survival Knife

All preppers know the importance of a survival knife. Bugging out without a survival knife is an impossibility. It comes handy in almost all your survival needs. You’ll need a knife when preparing food, for First Aid in medical emergencies, for bush crafting, for preparing firewood and many more.

A survival knife is important if you need to start a fire but you have no matches or lighter. Simply use the knife with a Ferro rod to start a fire. It also offers a great way to secure you and your companions from potential attack in the wilderness. You need to choose the best knife that can handle multiple tasks.

Duct Tape

 You may not think of a duct tape as a multipurpose item for your bug out bag. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You can use a duct tape to fix literally anything. You can use it to repair ripped jeans and even cover open wounds. The material used to make a duct tape is highly flammable. It is very good tinder for starting a fire.

An entire roll of duct tape can be several meters long. It can also be bulky. Amazingly, you can increase its versatility by simply rolling a small portion onto another item such as a flashlight. Thus you’ll not need to pack tinder and a whole roll of a duct tape.

Dental Floss

A dental floss, really? You could be wondering how a dental care item could serve as a multipurpose tool in a survival situation. The secret to its versatility is the material used in its construction. In most cases, the material used is nylon. Nylon is strong, lustrous, resilient, elastic and resistant to abrasion. Theseproperties make it ideal for many applications.

It can act as a dependable fishing line. You can use it as a cutting tool to cut soft material such as cheese blocks. It is also a good item for repairing torn clothes.  Dental floss takes very little space. It is also extremely light. It is impossible to underestimate the versatility of a dental floss.

Cordage

Pack good quality cordage such as 550 Paracord if you want to unlock the potential of the item as a multipurpose item for a BOB.  The 550 Paracords are so called because they have a minimum of 550 pounds of tensile strength. With such strength, this particular cordage can handle some of the heaviest tasks you will have to accomplish in a survival situation.

It will act as a reliable replacement for heavy and bulky ropes as well as some First Aid items. You can use a paracord to set a trap for a game, build shelter, make a clothesline, climb up or down a steep slope and tie things together.

Garbage or Plastic Bags

Garbage or plastic bags are annoying clutter all over our kitchens. Instead of disposing of such bags, use them as multipurpose items for bugging out. How can a garbage bag be of help in a survival situation? Well, you can use them as leak-proof water containers or carrying containers. You can also use it as a poncho.

Wrap a plastic bag around your water-sensitive items such as tinder and firewood. This is because plastic provides excellent insulation to protect such items against water and dampness. Interestingly, you can stuff things such as plant leaves inside a garbage bag to serve as a makeshift pillow.

A Hammock

The obvious use of a hammock is for relaxation. However, it can become a great multipurpose item for bugging out. In a survival situation, you can use a hammock for sleeping. It will keep you off the ground and therefore protect you from elements such as wet, dusty or cold ground.

If you have a cloth type hammock, you can use it a carrying bag for extra items you collect on the way such as tinder or firewood. If you happen to find yourself close to a water body, a netting type hammock can serve as a reliable gill net for fishing.

A Tarp

A tarp is a lighter and more compact alternative to a tent. Unlike a tent, a tarp has many more applications. As a shelter, it will provide you with a dependable protection against the environmental elements. I would recommend you go for a brightly colored tarp. It will act as a good signaling device in the wilderness.

Most tarps are made of waterproof material. This means you can also use it to cover your sensitive items. Also, use a tarp as a makeshift hammock to keep you off the ground if the conditions on the ground are not favorable.

Final Verdict

This list may not be exhaustive if we must list all the multipurpose items for BOB. However, at the bare minimum, you need to pack these eight items. This information is invaluable if you are serious at your prospects of becoming a successful prepper. Going by the tips, you can pack the maximum number of items for bugging out without having to carry a very heavy bag.

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The list of items to pack in your bug out bag (BOB) can seem limitless. However, you cannot afford to pack all of them due to limited space available and

Our family finally took the plunge and invested in baby chicks.  My wife and I have talked about raising chickens for years and, honestly, I don’t know what took us so long.  We did our research, bought some books, looked on the web, went to the library, and decided this year was the year to extend our renewable food sources.

Eggs hold so many nutrients and the “chicken ecosystem” as a whole is an incredible source of food, the eggshells can be ground up and taken for added calcium, the shells can be added to compost, and the chicken manure can be used as fertilizer for the garden.  Best of all, by raising your own chickens you are in control of the health and quality of the eggs you consume.

Eggs, Eggs, Glorious Eggs!

I love eggs.  You can scramble them, fry them, bake a cake with them, hard boil them, make a quiche, or wait until they spoil and throw them at bratty kids in your neighborhood.  Just kidding.  In the event that one day you wake up and find out that there is no more food at your local supermarket and you are on your own, having chickens will be a relief.  Eggs themselves are a wonderful source of needed protein and fat.  On average, for every hen you have, she will lay one egg per day.

I have included this simple recipe that you can make in any situation you may find yourself in, provided you have some Ziploc freezer bags.  If you have a garden or have canned foods you can use, you will be set with an easy protein packed nutritious meal.

Omelet in a Bag

  • Ingredients:
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 slices ham, chopped (optional)
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped onion (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped green bell pepper
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tomato

Directions:

1. Crack the eggs into a large resealable freezer bag. Press out most of the air, and seal. Shake or squeeze to beat the eggs. Open the bag, and add the ham, cheese, onion, green pepper, tomato, salsa, and mushrooms. Squeeze out as much of the air as you can, and seal the bag.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place up to 8 bags at a time into the boiling water. Cook for exactly 13 minutes. Open the bag, and let the omelet roll out onto a plate. The omelet should roll out easily.

Mmmm, Pass Me More of That Eggshell, Please

So let me break down the benefits that I have researched by starting with grinding up eggshells for extra calcium.  My mother does this for the calcium benefits.  Even if you are happy with your Centrum with Calcium right now, this is handy to know about in the event things go bad and driving to your local CVS to pick up your supplements is no longer an option.  Calcium is important for bodily function as well as promoting strong teeth and bones.

How to Make Powdered Eggshells:

  1. Wash empty eggshells in warm water until all of the egg white is removed, but do not remove the membrane because it contains important nutrients for the joints which helps arthritis.
  2. Lay broken pieces out on paper towels and allow them to air dry thoroughly.
  3. Break the eggshells up into small pieces, and grind them to into a fine powder in a food processor, blender, coffee grinder, or a nut mill, or put them in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to grind them. Please note that some blenders will not grind the eggshell into a fine enough powder. A coffee grinder works the best.
  4. Store powdered eggshells in a covered glass jar or container. Keep it in a dry place, like the kitchen cupboard.

How to take eggshell calcium (this forms calcium citrate) takes 3 hours:

  1. Put 1/2 teaspoon of powdered eggshell into a small dish (approximately 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches across) 1/2 teaspoon equals approximately 400 mgs of elemental calcium.
  2. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon (freshly squeezed), and mix well it will start to bubble and foam, which is what is supposed to happen.
  3. Leave it at room temperature for 6 hours the longer you leave it the less gritty it will be, but do not leave it longer than 12 hours.
  4. It can be taken by the spoonfuls, followed by mouthfuls of water to wash it down. It is not sour tasting. In fact the taste is quite pleasant.
  5. Also take 400 mgs of magnesium citrate at the same time.

Compost It

If you are not using your eggshells for calcium, then by all means add it to your compost for added calcium to your crops.  Tomatoes love it.  Place some crushed eggshells at the base of your growing peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage to deter slugs and cutworms. If you are trying to attract birds, for their benefits, put crushed eggshells near or in a feeder.  Woodpeckers in particular love it, and it will keep them from pecking a hole in the side of your house at 5 a.m.

Bring on the Chicken Poop

Chicken manure makes wonderful fertilizer for your garden.  However, you never want to add it directly to your soil because it is too strong.  Here are some tips for handling and dealing with your chicken’s manure.

  1.  Collect manure and bedding.  We use pine shaving for bedding.  It is approximately $5 per cubic yard.   You can also use sawdust, dry leaves, or straw to provide a dry cushion for chickens and to control odor and pests.  The coop bedding can be collected with the manure and dumped into a composting bin.
  2.  Use a “hot compost” recipe.  By adding water, it will cause the pile to heat up.  It is recommend that the compost pile heat to 130-150 degrees F and maintain that temperature for 3 days.  Heating is necessary to destroy pathogens but temperatures above 160 degrees F can kill beneficial microorganisms and slow the process.  To help you achieve appropriate temperature you can purchase a compost temperature gauge from a local nursery.
  3.  Repeat the heating process.  Once the center of your compost pile has reached the required temperature for three days it will start to cool. After it cools, pull the center apart and move the core material to the edges and bring the edge material into the center to heat.  For 1 cubic yard of material repeat the process of bringing edges into the core at least 3 times.
  4. Let it cure.  Monitor the pile and once you are satisfied that the entire contents of your bin has been heated, loosely cover and let cure for 45-60 days before using.    It’s ready when most material is dark, crumbly and sweet-smelling like soil.
  5. Add to garden.  You can add the resulting compost to your vegetable garden or flower bed by spreading it on the surface or by gently working it into existing soil.

Manure Safety Tips.  Fresh chicken manure may contain disease organisms that could contaminate root crops (carrots, radishes, beets) and leaves (lettuce, spinach), so DO NOT spread uncomposted manure on the soil in your vegetable garden.  The following “Safety Tips” are summarized from the Stewardship Gardening Program provided by Washington State University:

  • Apply only aged or composted manure to your soil.
  • Always wash hand after handling livestock manure.
  • Thoroughly wash raw vegetables before eating.

 

Good Things Can Come in Small Spaces

If you live on a small plot of land and are concerned you don’t have the space, no worries.  Chickens require very little space and take about as much time to care for as you would spend on a dog or cat.  In fact, I would venture to say that our chickens take much less time to take care of than our cat.  Our family feline likes fresh ice water twice a day, is constantly hungry, and likes to vomit all over the carpet because she eats too fast.  And before anyone contacts me to diagnose any illnesses that might be inducing this annoying habit of hers, don’t.  She is perfectly healthy.  I remind her every day as she stares me down with contempt, that if she were a real pet she would lay eggs.  I digress.

We opted not to purchase a rooster because we weren’t interested in making baby chickens just yet and we figured our neighbors wouldn’t be crazy about the racket early in the morning.  If you have a large plot of land, though, a rooster may be right for you.  They are protective over the hens and can fight off predators.

When You Are Ready To Buy

Okay, so now I have convinced you that if you don’t buy chickens this minute, you will surely perish.  Can you order them on Amazon?  No.  Not yet.  We bought ours from the local Tractor Supply.  We were able to walk in and pick the exact breed and point to the particular chicks, which to our novice eyes, looked as though they would grow to be mighty hens that would spit out giant yummy eggs in abundance. There is a plethora of information about breeds and their various qualities.  We wanted hens for egg production and not for chicken salad so we chose Leghorns.  An excellent guide to chickens and their many breeds is at http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/breed-list.aspx

Another Benefit of Our Feathered Friends

I hate bugs that eat my garden veggies and bite my tender flesh.  Well, chickens actually eat bugs.  They also eat many varieties of weeds.  A chicken can make your gardening work easier by doing some post-harvest gardening for you. Let them loose and they will scratch and dig your garden beds.  We have a fenced in garden, so I am hoping to move them into our garden occasionally to help improve the soil and destroy unwanted pests and weeds.

What Does a Chicken Eat?

You can purchase commercial feed, but it does contain soy and GMO corn which many experts believe will compromise the quality of your eggs.  I have included a homemade chicken feed recipe.  I must be honest, I have not made this recipe yet, so I cannot elaborate on the shelf life, storage of, or tell our readers where to purchase all of the ingredients.  I can say, however, that all of these ingredients are good for human consumption, so in the event of a disaster situation, you and the chickens can share the same food items.  This means you can alleviate the hassle of buying food for yourself and stocking up on a separate food to keep your chickens alive and healthy.  I would suggest making small batches and storing in an airtight container as you would your own grain.  The following will provide your chickens with the nutrients they need to produce delicious and nutritious eggs:

Homemade Poultry Feed Mix

  • 2 parts whole corn
  • 3 parts soft white wheat
  • 3 parts hard red winter wheat
  • ½ part Diatomaceous Earth (not the kind you put in your pool)
  • 1 part hulled barley
  • 1 part oat groats
  • 2 part sunflower seeds
  • ½ part peanuts
  • 1 part wheat bran
  • 1 part split peas
  • 1 part lentils
  • 1 part quinoa
  • 1 part sesame seeds
  • 1/2 part kelp

In A Survival Situation, Can I Feed My Chicken MREs?

Okay, so what happens in the event you have depleted all your supplies of lentils or commercial chicken feed?  Commercial chicken feed is only good for a couple of months.  Stockpiling food for chickens is a good Plan A, but what about Plan B?  Here is a list of some food items for your chickens that are storable or may be on hand:

  1. Oats – oats stored in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers can stay viable for close to 20 years, if stored properly.
  2. Corn – dried corn stored in Mylar bags can be ground and fed to chickens.
  3. Worms – worms from compost bins.
  4. Table scraps only in desperate situations.  Chickens will eat pretty much anything.
  5. Foraging – given enough land, and variety of greenery, chickens can do well.

Preserving Eggs

Every Prepper wants to know how to preserve food for storage.  Eggs have a long life once they are layed.  They can be stored for two to three months in your refrigerator or at temperatures no higher than 55°.  There is a process whereby you can oil the eggs and keep them in warmer temperatures.  It will compromise the flavor, but in an emergency most of us would not complain.

The eggs you’re going to store this way should be oiled 24 hours after being laid. (This will immediately put store-bought eggs out of the running.) In a clean, closed carton that is located in a cool, dry place, eggs dipped in oil will keep for several months. They will, however, eventually develop an off-flavor, and this off-flavor is especially pronounced in eggs stored at 34°F for more than four months. By the time you hit the six-month mark, the flavor is usually unacceptable to most people.

If you’re able to have fresh eggs at your house day in and day out from some pretty prolific layers, or because you have a neighbor who gives you fresh eggs each day, or if you’re able to obtain fresh eggs from a farmer’s market, then this method may be for you. Regardless, the knowledge alone will be a great help if and when the worst were to happen.

To properly oil your eggs, they must be at room temperature (50 to 70 degrees F) and they must be dry. Make sure your oil is free of bacteria and mold by heating it 180°F for about 20 minutes. Then, with tongs or a slotted spoon, dip the eggs one at the time into the oil. Set them aside on a rack such as is used in candy making and let them drain for about 30 minutes. Pack them away in clean, dry cartons.

What You Need to Start

It is not necessary to have a chicken coop to get your baby chicks.  Your chicks will need to mature before you can set them outside.  You will need a large box or bin to keep them in, a heat lamp to keep them at the required 95° the first week, bedding, a water dispenser, a feeder, food, and chicken wire for the top to keep them from escaping once they become juveniles.  As I write this, I can hear their soft peeps and stirrings behind me.  They possess a delicate, sweet, downy smell that fills our sun-room.  Caring for them has been unbelievably easy and rewarding when I think about how our family has secured another renewable food source for our future.  Now if we could just figure out a purpose for our demanding cat.

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Our family finally took the plunge and invested in baby chicks.  My wife and I have talked about raising chickens for years and, honestly, I don’t know what took us so

We’re by no means rich or even moderately well off, but we do believe strongly in living within our means. Granted, we’re probably not as strict on some things as Dave Ramsey would be, but on most financial matters we try to follow what we believe to be the spirit of Dave’s financial ‘school’ of advice. While he teaches specifics that any family who wants to get out of debt and attain to financial freedom should follow, the basic things we have done to get and (for the most part) stay out of debt (except for our house, unfortunately) include some of his and even a few of our own – one of which is… prepping!

Prepping?!?! When most people think about prepping, they probably think about spending gobs of money on doomsday bunkers, 30-year freeze-dried goods, solar panels, and other expensive items. Sure, those are fun and, given a few truckloads of discretionary income, would be great things to purchase; but prepping, ultimately, should be a money saver first. We firmly believe EVERY family, on even the most modest of budgets, should take some basic prepping steps. But today, in case you’ve been considering preparing your family for the inevitable hard times to come but have been holding back for financial reasons, we’d like to explore five ways prepping can actually save your family money over the long haul.

1.) No matter what you buy, buying in bulk is usually less expensive.

This is often true whether you are buying raw ingredients or your favorite canned, frozen, or dried items. While it’s certainly important to check the cost per ounce, buying things in bulk, especially from a wholesale retailer like Sam’s or Cosco, is normally less expensive than buying things one at a time. Furthermore, seasonal, local, fresh vegetables from a co-op or local farmer’s market can often be less expensive than the grocery store (gardening yourself is even cheaper!). This could be the understatement of the century but… preppers like buying things in bulk!

2.) Raw ingredients are usually cheaper and store longer than processed foods.

For our philosophy of prepping and overall wellness, cooking from scratch is a key. It’s less expensive than eating out or even buying processed foods from the store. Basic rule of thumb: the more ‘hands’ (or machines) that touch the food, the most it costs. Even buying that can of soup from the store is much more expensive than making the soup yourself. It’s not as hard as you think, but it does involve a lifestyle change, albeit one that is well worth it. Added bonus – cooking from scratch is healthier. Not only does processed food cost more, but it’s also usually less nutritious.

3.) Prepping allows you to buy almost everything on sale.

Except for fresh items like milk, eggs, fruit, and the like, we rarely buy a food item that’s not on sale. Let’s say you want to make a nice chicken casserole from scratch one night for dinner. Great idea, except you don’t have any chicken in your pantry – so you go to the store, only to find out that the chicken you need isn’t on sale. In fact, it’s marked higher than it normally is! Had you been prepping all along, you wouldn’t have run out of chicken in the first place, and the chicken you have in the pantry would have all been bought on sale. A smart prepper will pretty much clear the shelf when he sees a good deal (score!). After all, who knows when that deal will come around again?

4.) Prepping saves time, and time is money.

See point #3 – how much time, gas, and vehicle wear and tear do those avoidable trips to the grocery store take?

5.) Prepping in this way will help you eat healthier, and eating healthier will save you money in the long run.

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates once said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Cooking and eating healthy ingredients from scratch is certainly not something only preppers do, but preppers who practice this will reap the same rewards. A healthier lifestyle = a healthier family = less medical expenses = more money in your pocket! Win-Win-Win-Win!!

It’s a no-brainer – prepping, properly and smartly done, can SAVE the average family money over the long haul. Then, later, maybe there’ll be enough for those doomsday bunkers and solar panels!

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We’re by no means rich or even moderately well off, but we do believe strongly in living within our means. Granted, we’re probably not as strict on some things as

There has been some time that has passed since the latest “mass” shooting, although the news yesterday of a recently fired UPS worker killing two of his co-workers and eventually himself, reminds us that life is sometimes deadly. As a prepper as well as a strong advocate of the rights guaranteed by our second amendment, one of the things that I prepare for is a situation where a nut is going around killing innocent people. This could be some terrorist, a mentally deranged person, someone under the influence of psychotropic drugs or like in Alabama, someone with a grudge who simply doesn’t care anymore. You could say all of these types of people have one thing in common regardless of their motivation; they simply want to kill people.

There has and will always be people who want to kill for one reason or another. To deny that is to deny human nature so arguing about methods to make innocent people safer while at the same time preventing them from protecting themselves is to remain willfully ignorant about the reality of this issue. Bad people will always be around in one shape or another and they will endeavor to do bad things no matter what the rules are. Period.

I for one strongly believe that the best way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good guy with a gun. This is exactly what the police do and when they engage some nutcase like this with lethal force, the killers always stop. Usually they kill themselves first, but they do stop killing others in most cases when they are confronted.

This isn’t a debate about guns though or the second amendment, it is a conversation about what I want to share with my children should they find themselves in a situation where some psycho with a gun (or a knife, or an axe, a machete, sharp stick, baseball bat, hedge clippers) is in a location where they are and the psycho starts trying to injure people. This isn’t what you who may be a concealed carry holder are to do in a situation with a psychopath; it is what the unarmed can do to get out of the situation and have a fighting chance at survival.

What do gunshots sound like?

Do your children know what gunshots sound like? Have you ever been outside and heard gunshots from a distance and wondered what was going on? If you live in some areas, gunshots outside are common but they can have completely different meanings depending on where you are. For example, if I was in downtown Chicago and I heard gunshots I would automatically assume someone with a gun was shooting people. Compare that with where I live which is vastly more rural than a big city. To hear gunshots out here probably means that someone is sighting in a new scope or is just practicing with a new handgun they purchased for self-defense.

The important thing is for your children to be able to recognize the sound of a gunshot wherever they are so they will be ready to act should they need to. Even out in the country people can go crazy so that gunshot you hear might mean that you will need to escape shortly. If nothing else, it should be something you pay attention to.

My children have all been to the range with me on multiple occasions and they have fired all of my weapons. They have been to indoor ranges and out in a pasture shooting at cans. They know what the sound of a gun is and this is a crucial point if your children are going to be prepared for this type of situation. It might even be their job to let a grownup know what that sound is. The range is a great place to introduce children to firearms in general but they also get to know the sounds a firearm makes. Even if you don’t like or believe in guns, that exposure could be something that saves their life.

Know your surroundings

This is probably the hardest thing for children to learn to pay attention to unless they are in a very familiar environment but knowing where the exits are and how to get out of a building in more than one way is important. If an active shooter is in the building you are in, do you know how to get out? If the shooter is between you and one exit, do you have a backup or alternate exit to go to? In a life or death scenario (and assuming you aren’t in a high-rise) would you bust out a window and go out that way?

Panic is probably the hardest to overcome in a situation where there is someone shooting people and coming your way, but having some conversations about where they would go and what they would do if faced with certain obstacles helps kids to think about this potential situation before they are faced with it. Just the exercise of talking through what they would do gives kids some perspective they can draw on in a crisis situation. I tell my kids to do whatever it takes to get out of the building. If that means busting a window, I’ll pay for it. If they have to steal a car I will bail them out of jail. Whatever it takes to stay alive and they have to know you are going to back them up when that happens.

Run – Get Out! Hide only as a last resort

As a Dad I would chase my kids around the house. I still do sometimes, but it isn’t anywhere near as fun. My youngest child would always run some distance but when I got close she would hit the ground and curl up waiting for me to tickle her. I would always try to get her to keep running because I would want her to run until she couldn’t run anymore if her life depended on it. I know with me she felt safe “getting caught” but I wanted her to know that wasn’t an option if she was running from a Zombie or a bad guy. We use zombies all the time to discuss end of the world situations because they are more fun to a kid than some of the realities of regular people acting odd.

If my children are anywhere they hear gunshots they are taught to run and get out of the building or location they are in as fast as possible. Like I said above, do whatever it takes to get out and the faster the better. A lot of schools will say go into a classroom, lock the door and turn out the lights. What the?? No, run out of the building so the bad guy won’t be able to break or shoot out the lock and walk in the room and kill everyone hiding under their desk. Even if they don’t break down the door you are trapped inside and they are between you and safety. I even tell my kids to run no matter what their teachers say. If their teacher’s say they are supposed to hide under their desks, I tell them to run out, go away from the shooter and get out of the building. Even DHS, when discussing what to do in an Active Shooter scenario recommends “if there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises”. Just get out.

Cover versus Concealment

Lastly, it is important for your children to know what bullets can do and what is necessary to stop them from going through someone. If they are trapped inside, they need to find something that will give them the best chance of surviving if the bullets start flying. That means something with enough mass to stop rounds.

Children think that as long as they are hidden they will be OK and we know that isn’t the case. They have to know what will protect them from bullets and there aren’t many things in an office building, movie theater or school that will do an effective job but you can learn to look for more solid objects. Don’t even bother hiding under a table or a glass trophy case, but those big concrete posts in the lobby will work. Forget about hiding under the teacher’s desk, but the large bookshelves in the library could offer protection. Large appliances in the back of the cafeteria will work better than stainless steel serving dollies. The next time you are out anywhere ask your child what they could hide behind that would stop a bullet and see what they say.

To illustrate the damage of a bullet you can also go back to the range and take a watermelon or better yet a large phone book with you. Have your child stab the phone book with a knife really hard to see what happens. Most children will barely be able to penetrate the surface of a phone book with a knife. Then set the phone book up and shoot it with any pistol you have and show them the hole in the back. This will impress upon them the damage that bullets can make and why it is so important to get behind something very sturdy if they have no place to run.

Hopefully none of our children or any children will ever have to face a situation in which an active shooter is attacking people where they are. My hope is that if that happens I am with them. If I am not with them, I hope they will do everything they can to get out of there before they are harmed. Do your children know what to do?

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There has been some time that has passed since the latest “mass” shooting, although the news yesterday of a recently fired UPS worker killing two of his co-workers and eventually