Survival

Safe Water If the Grid Goes Down – Part II

In Part 1, we discussed the conundrum of water; how it was necessary, but safe water is not always available. We listed what could contaminate water, and mentioned the six practical ways to fix this. Then we investigated the first two of these methods. Here is the investigation into the other four methods.

Boiling

Boiling is a very simple concept; bring water to a boil for a few minutes and anything biological is killed. This process does not do anything for any particulates, salt or chemicals, and requires a source of heat to get and keep the water at 212 degrees F (at sea level; the temperature goes down as the altitude goes up). A useful item to always have in your water bottle or canteen pouch is a stainless steel cup into which the bottle nests. Not only can you boil water to kill organisms, but can melt ice or snow to get the water, and cook in it.

Bring water to a boil for a few minutes and anything biological is killed.

Chemical Treatment

As an alternate to boiling contaminated water to kill the organics, you can poison them. Fortunately, they are more sensitive that we are, and the amount of poison needed for them is not enough to bother us. It can taste bad, though. The common choices are Chlorine or Iodine based. Chlorine can be cheap (think standard bleach), but is unstable (has a short life span), leaves a bad taste, and the residue left behind is suspected of causing some cancers. Iodine deteriorates on exposure to sunlight. It also leaves a bad taste and is dangerous for people with some thyroid conditions. The iodine taste can be alleviated with Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) after it has completed its work. Although you can use the liquid forms of these chemicals directly, they are subject to deterioration and the potential to leak all over everything, and need care to avoid overdosing. A tablet purification system is more practical. The “best” treatment seems to be Katadyn MicroPur tablets, which uses Chorine Dioxide. This formulation increases the effectiveness and durability, and keeps the chlorine taste to a minimum. Aquamira is generally considered the number two tablet, also Chlorine Dioxide based, and the number three rated tablet is often considered to be Potable Aqua, which is iodine based (they now also have a Chlorine Dioxide product which has not been evaluated yet).

Cryptosporidium cysts have a high resistance to poisoning; Chlorine Dioxide will do it, but it can take as long as four hours. Iodine is not reliable against Cryptosporidium.

For something completely different from tablets or liquid, there is the Potable Aqua PURE device. Solar powered, it takes a salt and water brine mixture and produces a Chlorine and Peroxide purification liquid.

Distillation

Each chemical has a temperature at which it transforms to its gaseous form (boiling point); this temperature varies inversely with the surrounding pressure. For water, of course, this is 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level (1 Atmosphere of pressure). If you capture the gaseous form of water and cool it, it turns back to liquid water. This process is called “distillation” and the apparatus is often called a “distiller” or “still”. If the liquid (contaminated water) is a mixture of compounds, then some of the chemicals may “boil” (transform to gas) at lower temperatures than water (alcohol is one such chemical), and some at higher temperatures. Thus, in order for this to be effective at purifying water, you must NOT capture, or contaminate your cooling apparatus with, any vapors prior to the water boiling AND keep the temperature below the boiling point of water until all (or at least most) of the low boiling point contaminants are gone.

And this can take a while, since some of these chemicals (like alcohol) REALLY like being mixed with water. And you have to remove the cooling apparatus before the water has all boiled away AND keep the temperature from rising above the boiling point of water so no other contaminant is boiled off. Theoretically, with care, you could get perfectly pure water using this methodology. In practice, that is often not the case, but the results can be adequate. Most often, this apparatus consists of a tank which can be filled with contaminated water, situated over a fire or other heat source, and a way to capture only the steam from water and run it through tubing, which uses open air or a liquid bath to cool and “condense” the steam back into water.

If you capture the gaseous form of water and cool it, it turns back to liquid water.

Many of the commercially available distillers are “one piece”, so should not be relied on if there is much chance of low boiling point contaminants. Most of the rest seem to be “screwed together”, so it might not be practical to keep the collection and condensing parts free of low boiling point contaminants. The WaterWise WW1600 seems like it might allow you to just add-on the collection part when the water is boiling, but it looks freaky, the reviews are not very good and the price is too high for me. There is another option, the Prime Water distiller, which appears to allow placing the collector/condenser after the water is boiling (make sure you have a way to avoid getting burned by the steam), and it is quite low-priced. They appear to be low producing though; the models they list are specified as only putting out two or four quarts of distilled water PER DAY, and I’m not sure how easy it would be to avoid re-contaminating the output, since it is a bowl which floats in the contaminated liquid. Then there is the Gravi-Stil from SHTFandGo, which can be set up either as a distiller or a filter, and the non-auto-fill version looks like it could be made to do the job. Or if you already have or can get two large pots, they have the D-Stil light which looks like it would be fairly easy to use in our desired manner, and the price is not too bad.

Distillation takes a lot of fuel, and does waste some water; some might escape as vapor and as the remaining contaminants in the liquid increase, production of water will decrease, eventually resulting in having to discard it. You might lose as much as four gallons of water for each one gallon purified, but with good temperature control and care, should be able to get the losses down significantly.

This works, but often you spend more water (as sweat) building the still than you get back from the still.

There is also the concept of the “solar still” which uses solar energy to cause evaporation (the other way a liquid can be transformed into a gas) which is then condensed back to pure water. This can be a hole in the ground covered with an appropriate plastic film. This works, but often you spend more water (as sweat) building the still than you get back from the still. Nowadays, there are “one piece” solar stills. These are essentially “balls” or “bags” which enclose contaminated water, and uses the sun to evaporate the water and condense it back into a clean container or area. Note that you don’t want to use this system with any water with contaminants which “boils” at a temperature less than water, such as from a car radiator. An example of this is the Aqua Mate solar still similar to those included in lifeboat survival kits to purify sea water. A variation on this is a “transpiration” still, which captures the water given off by a living plant during photosynthesis. Since the plant draws water from the ground, this can produce small amounts of water continuously. If a living plant is not available, this methodology will also work on plant clippings which contain moisture, but only as long as moisture remains. The Hydro Kit from Survival Metrics is an example of this.

UV/Solar

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is effective against organisms, and highly portable units such as the SteriPen are available. I don’t trust them because they require batteries or other sources of power which may or may not be available, they are electronics which are subject to failure or an EMP, and if there are any particulates in the water, it is possible some organisms will be “shaded” from the UV and survive to wreak havoc.

The SODIS method is very easy to apply: A transparent PET bottle is cleaned with soap. Then, the bottle is filled with water and placed in full sunlight for at least 6 hours. The water has then been disinfected and can be drunk.

Solar disinfection (often called SODIS) adds heat and sometimes other techniques to UV, only needs sunshine and would seem to be a more reliable methodology, although it takes a lot longer. It is sometimes done with special containers, but can be approximated with standard PET/PETE (clear plastic, recyclable mark “1”, somewhat flexible) bottles with all labels removed. PVC bottles should be avoided, as chemicals from the container can be added to the water. Clear glass bottles will work as well. An interesting option is the Puralytics SolarBag, which not only is an effective SODIS container, but contains a mesh which is designed to treat organic contaminants and heavy metals.

Choosing a Water Treatment Methodology

Unfortunately, there is not really a universal solution. You need to evaluate what is likely to be in the water and go from there. Here is a summary of the common methods and what they can usually handle:

	Filter	Purifier	Reverse Osmosis	Boiling	Chemical Treatment	UV	SODIS	Distillation	Activated Carbon
Particulate	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	MAYBE
Bacteria	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
Cryptosporidium	YES	YES	YES	YES	MAYBE	YES	YES	YES	NO
Virus	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
Salt	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO
Chlorine	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
Heavy Metal	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	MAYBE	YES	SOME
Volatile Organic Compound	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	MAYBE	YES	YES
Inorganic Chemical	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	MAYBE
(Taste)	NO	NO	MAYBE	NO	WORSE	NO	MAYBE	MAYBE	YES

As you can see, for a fixed location with a regular water supply, a distillation or RO system can be a good choice, or if fuel will be a problem or water is limited, a large Purifier with an Activated Carbon stage. For portable use, a small purifier with an activated charcoal stage would seem the best bet, but this could be a bit hard to find at a reasonable price, with the possible exception of the water bottle based Sport Berkey. As an alternative, multiple methods might serve. Boiling, Chlorine Dioxide tablets, UV or SODIS, followed by a filter with an activated charcoal stage would seem to cover everything practical. Alternatively, a filter followed by an enhanced SODIS like the SolarBag would seem to be about the same. For salt water, distillation or RO seem the only practical options.

Finally, don’t get a water treatment methodology and assume you are good. Some of these things have been known to break or fail or get used up; water is not only a requirement for life, but an immediate requirement. Always have backups; either duplicates or alternate methods. For instance, have distillation or RO AND a Big Berkey or equivalent at a fixed location, and coffee filters, a metal cup and MicroPur tablets, a portable purifier with Activated Carbon or Sport Berkey, and possibly a SolarBag or Hydro Kit in a bug out bag or other mobile methodology. It is a good idea to test your systems where practical. For instance, I ran my tap water through a Sport Berkey, and there was no change to the TDS reading, although I expected at least the Chloramines to be removed. I talked with a dealer, but she has not responded yet, so I guess I’ll have to go to the company.

Note that in addition to being able to purify your water, you should have ways to collect it for purification, and store or transport it after purification. If you are going to be using chemical treatment, make sure your container is appropriately sized for the chemical used. I like 1L water bottles since my chemical tablets are designed for that volume, but they are a bit hard to find, and don’t fit into some of the carriers. Stainless steel is my favorite, but there is nothing wrong with some plastic bottles as long as you have that stainless cup it nestles into. In small kits, I use 1L sample bags. Whenever possible, I like to also have a hydration bladder; it might not be optimal for purification, but it is hard to beat for transport and continual hydration. A length of surgical tubing can help you get access to water you might not otherwise be able to get to, and has other uses as well. A clean cloth or “Survival Sponge” can help you collect water from dew or condensation.

0 Comments

In Part 1, we discussed the conundrum of water; how it was necessary, but safe water is not always available. We listed what could contaminate water, and mentioned the six

Are You Prepared for Any Crisis?

Everyone has a personal bias they bring to any situation they are placed in. Your mental baggage is formed in part by who you are (your life experiences, how you were raised, personal beliefs or principles) and what you think you know (skills, training, history, and evidence) combined with the various factors of the situation or how it relates to you in terms of personal risk/reward. Put 6 people in a room and catch the room on fire, you will have 6 different responses at least internally to what each individual is thinking and is capable of doing. Or at least that is what I think.

I do believe that for whatever reason – and I know smarter people than I have studied and diagrammed this out millions of times – that each of us has our own opinion based upon, for lack of a more scientific term, what we feel in our gut. How our gut gets programmed is a science arrived at by the specific disciplines I mentioned above more or less I believe and maybe 1 part supernatural, but regardless of how we get to what we are; each of us brings our own perspective to everything we do. It is no different with potential threats we all consider when we are talking about SHTF and how best to prepare for those threats as we see them in our own minds. What is our gut telling us about the various threats and how should we react knowing what we think we know and dealing within the realities of our current lives?

All of this is to say that we all have different opinions on what is important. We all make our own determinations as to what is reasonable for us individually and each of us comes to the subject of prepping, with respect to the threats we visualize, from a different point of view. How in a world of so many various viewpoints and opinions, advantages and limitations can anyone say they have a concrete step by step plan for all people that will guarantee safety and security without fail?

The bottom line is you can’t.

I take with a grain of salt anyone who proposes to sell you a 10-step program that promises to solve all your problems. You should look at the information on Final Prepper the same way if we start doing that. Even from my own perspective, I speak in generalities more often than some people are comfortable with because I believe that you have to make the best decisions for yourself and your family based on what your gut is telling you. I can share areas of consideration that I can argue make sense, but I can’t make the specific detailed decisions for you because I am not you. I don’t know what you know. I don’t live where you live. I may never go through the same things you go through and I may not act the way you would act when confronted with the same information.

Too often we look for the easy way out and I am just as guilty of doing this as anyone from time to time myself. We just want a magic box of preparedness that we can stash in the closet that will give us everything we need. We don’t want to think about what is in that magic box and we don’t want it to take up too much space or require us to pay attention to it from time to time. We just want someone to send us the box that will do anything we need it to if we have a disaster. People want to be prepared just by owning a “kit” and then having that box checked, we can go on with our lives. Preparedness to me isn’t just about having stuff (your survival kit), it is taking steps in a direction that puts you on a path to preparedness that you are constantly traveling. The destination is never reached.

I don’t believe there is any magic kit of preparedness that you can purchase. There isn’t a single list of prepper supplies that will cover any and every contingency that you could ever be faced with but I do believe there is a strategy you can follow that can guide you down the right path towards being better prepared for any crisis. So absent the rationale of the specific threat itself which we might all disagree with; what do we all as humans need to do to be prepared for any crisis that we face from Alien invasion to Zombies? (Note to the new reader to Final Prpper, that signifies A to Z… not that I only believe in highly improbable events)

Physical health and ability are just as important as having the gear.

Are you physically prepared for any crisis?

I can’t imagine that too many people would argue with the statement that a physically healthy individual is better prepared to handle any crisis. I have discussed this on Final Prepper before and this isn’t a new topic by any stretch on prepping blogs, but I see so many people who are out of shape but believe they are going to be running through the woods with a giant overloaded bug out bag on their backs. Have you gone to almost any store and looked at the overall physical health of people? I would say that where I live, a majority are toting an extra 100 pounds on their mid-section. I shouldn’t need to pull up statistics on obesity in the US, but survival in great measure depends on strength, endurance and the need for hard work and movement. If any of these are difficult to do on a normal day, how do you feel it will be when it is raining aliens from another planet?

All joking about aliens aside, even if you have the latest bulletproof vest, survival rifle and all the tactical battle gear in the world, that doesn’t mean you are prepared as well as possible to survive. Even if you have 500 cases of the best freeze dried food on the planet, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a heart attack carrying it up the stairs. If you aren’t able to run a couple of miles, carry that bug out bag for a few days or work hard in your yard all weekend without pulling something or being laid up the next week with body pains; you should consider how this might affect your overall chances at surviving anything.

This is not directed at the more senior of us out there who may have age related health issues, but if you are a 30 year old man who can’t do any push ups, couldn’t run 2 miles to save your life, but have spent thousands of dollars on the must-have prepper gear you should stop and think about getting physically prepared now. If the crap hits the fan chances are you won’t be able to do a Jillian Michaels workout in your living room fast enough to get in shape before you need to.

Are you mentally prepared for any crisis?

I think the mental angle of preparedness is more important than just about any other aspect of prepping when you consider everything that goes into forming, executing and possibly modifying your preparedness plan. Going back to what I said at the start of this article, you can’t simply buy a ton of gear, lock that in a safe and call yourself prepared. There is a mental component to analyzing data that changes daily. Certainly having supplies stored up is a component, but mentally you have to work through the problems of figuring out what supplies you might need and in what quantities. You will have to adjust for your own environment so that could involve researching alternatives and there is your own reality. You may have small children that require different approaches than an older teen for example might need. Prepping is a lot of thought and it is this process of research and a lot of trial and error that has informed my prepping plans more than any book.

In addition to knowledge, mentally you have to consider the various outcomes possible from some of these scenarios you are preparing for. It doesn’t matter if you have the best handgun in the world. If someone comes to your home intent on harming you or taking your supplies, are you prepared to use that handgun? What good is stocking up in the first place and purchasing a weapon for security unless you have made the mental decisions about what you will do if ever placed in that situation? In the end it will boil down to what you actually do and your mental preparations need to take this into consideration. The magic box isn’t going to think for you.

Are you logistically prepared for any crisis?

I saved this for last because it is less important in most respects than the other two in my opinion. I believe knowledge trumps stuff, but stuff can and will benefit you. It is very important to have water on hand for example, but without it, the person who will be better prepared is the person who can go get water, disinfect it and live when it runs out. These two people are both capable of obtaining water for at least the short-term and that may be all that is necessary. Another way of looking at this is the person who doesn’t have any water stored, but is able to go out and acquire it may be putting themselves at greater risk that the person who has it stored at home.

A well-rounded prepper should both know how to make do without supplies and ideally have those supplies at their disposal when they are needed. This gets into subjects like food storage, having a garden that is producing, having first aid supplies and self-defensive weapons. I am not advocating having a lot of “stuff” without knowing how to make it work for you, but if you do have a fully stocked pantry, a working garden or livestock that you can depend on for food if the stores are no longer working, you may have an advantage over the person who knows how to create a snare to trap small game; at least initially. Long-term Daniel Boone will be better prepared, but in the short-term I wouldn’t advocate relying entirely on your ability to acquire food in the forests.

In addition to supplies, you may have to move. Are you prepared to leave your home if needed? I know my personal plan is to shelter-in-place, but I know that can change. If it does, my family has prepared to go on foot. We have options should my perfect disaster situation not work out like I hope. Going back to mental preparation, this backup planning and strategizing will help you.

Prepping gets distilled down to simple lists and advice, but there are tons of things to think about. I personally think the act of thinking about the various topics benefits each of us. Certainly conversations on this blog inform others so I welcome the dialog.

Have you thought outside of your magic box?

1 Comment

Everyone has a personal bias they bring to any situation they are placed in. Your mental baggage is formed in part by who you are (your life experiences, how you

Data Storage for Preppers

On October 21, 2016, the internet broke. Netflix, Twitter, Paypal, and more were all hacked, and it took most of the day for representatives from the many major companies affected to find, fix and implement the problems. For most people, this was a minor disruption to their day. To my teenage daughter, the SHTF situation we’ve all been waiting for was occurring right then and there. She instantly lost at least half of her ability to communicate and find news, she lost her entire source of entertainment, and she lost the ability to pay for anything online, even if temporarily.

I think it’s safe to say that we could all live without Twitter. Netflix is a great modern convenience, but we could live without that too. What would happen, though, if we lost Wikipedia? I know that I reference Wikipedia at least twice a day, whether it’s for random historical trivia, information I need for work, or items of interest I’m using to plan my next prepping project. To lose access to what I consider to be the major source for all accumulated human knowledge would be a major blow. News recently broke that the Turkish government is preventing it’s citizens from accessing Wikipedia.

The outage I referenced earlier was one of the largest in the short history of the internet, and it was, fortunately, quite temporary, lasting around 12 hours. What if it affected your personal PC? The infamous computer hijacks and ransomware that have been plaguing PC users for the past few years often destroy and corrupt enough of your internal data that it cannot be recovered. What if it were permanent? That could be an EMP attack or a CME that wipes out all power, or it could be a targeted hack that we can’t figure out how to solve, or something else entirely. What happens if our government passes laws similar to those already in place in Turkey and many Asian countries which prohibits access to sites which they have decided contain information they don’t want shared?

I don’t have all the answers to these problems, but I know one potential solution – Local Data Backup. Most amateur computer owners have one or more PCs, with probably only one or two copies of their most important data – resumes, scans of birth certificates and other legal documents, family photos and more. The true solution is to have many copies of your important data stored locally, updated frequently, and maintained in a Faraday cage in case of an EMP attack.

To start, you’ll want a high-capacity data external storage device. I would recommend at least 5 terabytes of storage space per unit, and multiple drives if possible. You should also have at least one or two flash drives that store at least small parts of this information. This should run you about $200. That, and an older computer or tablet with a USB cord and an internet connection should be all you need for this invaluable project. I’ve heard some preppers who prefer to maintain optical discs with information on them, but a number of the solutions I want to implement will require files that are larger than the storage capacity of a single DVD or CD. You’d also have to consider storage space – all those discs and the disc drive itself will take up more space than a single external drive.

Personal Data comes first

The chances of any computer contracting a virus or a worm while you’re surfing the internet (yes, even you Apple people) is significantly higher than the chances of an EMP attack happening in next few weeks. It’s important to have a copy of your birth certificates and other important documents, including copies of social security cards, recent pictures of your immediate family, address and phone contact information, and other information available for bug-out situations, and it’s valuable to have that data stored in a variety of locations, including on your external hard drive. It is also highly recommended that you maintain a copy of receipts or warranty’s for major appliances, and pictures of each of the rooms in your house. It is possible that, in the event of a major flood or fire, that you could use these items to help increase the amount of money you can get back from home insurance as proof of at least some of the major items you’re keeping in each area of your house.

Second, survival. One of the first tricks that preppers learn when getting involved in the lifestyle of preparedness is that it’s possible to download a wide variety of “prepper manuals” online, including military survival PDFs and other documents. You could even save valuable web pages and articles for offline viewing. I have printed many materials to put in a binder, but again, that takes valuable storage space, and could be easily destroyed in a fire or a flood. My digital copies of data, so long as they remain well-protected in their Faraday cage, are safe from most dangers.

Next is the broad category of “items of personal importance” which could include almost anything that you find important to keep around. What’s in my collection? Family photos & videos take up a large bulk of my storage space. A simple feed scanner that you can purchase on Amazon for about $100 will allow you to scan and store thousands upon thousands of photos onto your external drive, where they are well-protected from flood damage and fading due to aging, and where you can easily gift them to another relative to open up more storage space under your stairs for prepping supplies. All of my wife’s hard work on our family tree is now scanned and preserved in it’s own folder as well for the next generation to continue the work, as are my grandfather’s old diaries we’ve been left. I also keep a local copy of any digital media I own, which is everything from digital copies of Disney movies that come for free with the Blu-Rays I’ve purchased for my kids, to those new music albums that I’ve bought as MP3s because it was cheaper and more convenient than buying the disc. I’ve got downloaded digital copies of my Audible collection, and a few Kindle books as well. Essentially, if I’ve paid money for it, I have a copy of it on my external drive that I can download and access forever, even if these host companies go out of business or lock my accounts.

Additional data to backup

Finally, you can do what I’ve done and keep a localized backup copy of Wikipedia and other sources of world knowledge. Many of these archive sites allow anyone to download a full copy of the entire site, and with a Wiki reader, it’s possible to maintain a version of Wikipedia which does not require the internet to search. In addition, you can also download a few other collections for posterity , including a huge collection of out-of-copyright novels from Project Gutenberg that could keep you reading for your entire lifetime without having to purchase a new book.

I believe that maintaining at least a bare-bones minimum of these documents and files is essential regardless of whether you take the steps necessary to protect this data from an EMP. For that, a Faraday cage – an enclosure completely surrounded by metal on all sides – is important. There have been thousands of people before me who have discussed the creation of such a device, so I’ll leave them to it. Suffice it to say that if an EMP occurs, it is widely assumed that almost all electronic equipment that is not protected is in jeopardy. That means that if you are taking the time to store data, you also need to store some kind of old computer or laptop capable of accessing the data, and a backup copy of installation files for programs you can use to read them. That means that you want a PDF reader installed, as well as programs that will allow you to view photos and videos, and if you have movies or audio-books tied to a service like Audible, you’ll need to have those installed.

Is this doable for Preppers?

The value of a project like this is in the details. First, it preserves a large amount of your family’s history, making it more accessible for younger, computer-savvy members of your family to learn about and carry on the knowledge we have as a modern society and many of the traditions that you hold dear. Second, this is a great way to make more space in your life (for prepping supplies, or whatever else you want to have). I was able to re-gift fifteen banker’s boxes worth of photos, VHS tapes, diaries, CD-ROMs and floppy discs full of data and combine them into one external hard drive, and I purchased a second drive to send to a distant relative overseas as a holiday gift that meant the world to him. Finally, I truly believe that with cloud computing, government regulations on access to information, and an ever-increasing life-or-death reliance on technology, there will come a time when the freedom of the internet and our personal data will be under attack. Having at least a portion of that knowledge stored in a metal trash can in your garage where Big Brother can’t find it might make all the difference.

Is this an expensive project? Yes, it certainly can be. A good quality hard drive along with a backup copy of a computer and a Faraday cage could cost a pretty penny. There’s no doubt that this is a long and difficult project as well. Even with a fairly fast feeder scanner for photos and small documents, but with searching and downloading times for files, and figuring out how to store this data for ease of use, it took me the better part of all Winter and Spring to make this a reality. How much of this would be useful in a true SHTF situation? Potentially quite a lot, potentially not at all. The information on that Wikipedia backup might be invaluable, but you may also not have the electrical power to access the data. As a project that has so many qualifications, this is likely not applicable to all preppers, but for those who have enough backup water filters, have installed their solar panels, and have too many boxes of old photos you can’t get rid of, this is a great project to start this year to help not only modernize but also to help prepare.

0 Comments

On October 21, 2016, the internet broke. Netflix, Twitter, Paypal, and more were all hacked, and it took most of the day for representatives from the many major companies affected

100 Deadly Skills – Lifesaving Tips for Preppers

I am always looking to learn skills that can improve many facets of my life. A chief aspect of prepping I believe is to continually learn and increase your ability to survive. This education can come in many forms from training courses, real-life exposure, videos, lectures and books. For me though I don’t learn from books as well as I do with hands on exposure to the core aspects I am trying to learn. The more complicated the subject, the less likely I am going to learn from a book and at a certain point no matter how compelling the subject matter, if the book is too detailed I usually don’t finish.

I am sure this challenge hampers me from mastering a lot of concepts, but I can’t help how I was born so I try to learn in different ways to prevent my learning-handicap from getting in the way of acquiring skills or knowledge that could be crucial someday. Sometimes I find a source that seems to be a perfect fit for my learning style and 100 Deadly Skills by Clint Emerson fits the bill nicely.

Clint Emerson is a retired Navy SEAL who spent twenty years conducting special ops all over the world while attached to SEAL Teams (including the elite SEAL Team SIX) and the National Security Agency (NSA). Clint was able to use an array of practical skills he developed to protect himself while at home and abroad, he created Violent Nomad—a personal, non-kinetic capture/kill program cataloging the skills necessary to defend against any predator or crisis and his recent book 100 Deadly Skills puts much of that knowledge he obtained and created into the hands of everyday people like you and me.

Going back to my learning style, 100 Deadly Skills isn’t a technical manual. It isn’t a college level white paper on the various subjects Clint is discussing although I firmly believe that any Navy Seal receives so much more education and instruction than could ever be contained in 20 books. I am no Navy Seal though and 100 Deadly Skills is set up to share concepts in a compelling way that while not replacing professional training, still give the average person tons of useful information that could help you if you are confronted with many survival situations.

100 Deadly Skills that you never knew you needed

100 Deadly Skills takes the standpoint of a “Violent Nomad” who is characterized in the book as an operator working overseas under heavy cover. The book proceeds to share tactics that an operator could use in all aspects of what I would assume someone in that line of work would need to plan for.

100 Deadly Skills - Great information for people who want to make sure they can survive any dangerous situation. — 100 Deadly Skills – Great information for people who want to make sure they can survive any dangerous situation.

Mission Prep
Infiltration
Infrastructure Development
Surveillance
Access
Collection
Operational Actions
Sanitization
Exfiltration and Escape

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Why would I ever need to know what a Navy Seal operator working overseas in hostile environments would need to know?” and I admit that this book definitely has a target audience of people who find this type of skills or tactics fascinating. This book is not for Navy Seals or secret agents as I said before, it is for regular people and it easily shares information that even a regular Joe could use to protect their life.

Each skill or BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) as Clint calls them is no more than a page or two and comes with excellent quality illustrations showing the finer points of each of the 100 deadly skills he tries to teach you. I found almost the entire book to be extremely interesting and I came away with a lot of new ideas that I could catalog in the back of my noggin for use potentially. I know I am never going to be working clandestine in the Middle East, but I can easily see the benefit of these skills in a SHTF event. Even if the world as we know it doesn’t end, there is still crime; there are still bad people and bad situations that you might face. A little knowledge sure helps and if these topics interest you, I am sure you will enjoy Clint’s 100 Deadly Skills.

0 Comments

I am always looking to learn skills that can improve many facets of my life. A chief aspect of prepping I believe is to continually learn and increase your ability

How Chemistry Class Saved My Life

While in high school chemistry class you would have been called a geek or nerd if you ever truly believed that “I am going to use this one day,” while everyone else was saying “I am never going to use this in my future, so why must I learn it now?” I’m here to tell you today that I was that nerd that believed such things and further studied chemistry for another five years into college.

During my academic career my interests always sparked when I learned about chemicals that could be used for some medical treatment, or were able to create an exothermic reaction and generate enough heat to produce a combustion of sorts. One that was very particular to me was a chemical called Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4). Potassium permanganate was especially interesting because if mixed in the proper quantities it can be used as an aseptic treatment to prevent infection on wounds and injuries. To add to its unique properties if mixed with a locally bought form of glycerin it would create an exothermic reaction to cause a small flame to form.

Now that I have given you some background information I will tell you of my experience when chemistry class saved my life. During the fall semester of my junior year in college I joined a backpacking adventure group that was composed of individuals, whom all shared the passion to learn survival skills and backpacking techniques. Being a rookie in the world of prepping this group caught my interests. So as meetings began to start and we practiced various skills such as cooking over fires, knots, survival skills and techniques. As we continued expanding our knowledge we also planned our first outing into the back-country of New Mexico during the month of October.

We assembled our gear and packs and planned out our route with enough food to last our 30 mile trip into the wilderness. Along with the checklist of items that we were given that would be necessary for any camping trip; I thought it was necessary to pack my trauma kit, and some chemicals for a chemistry experiment. This experiment was to take place towards our highest elevation at 13,000 feet above sea level and to be as much for entertainment for the group as an experiment for me.

We trekked for two days up and further into the back-country until the only tracks we saw were our own and the native wildlife. As the group approached the summit the weather began to rapidly change and thunderclouds started to form. We had made a group decision that in order to get back into the tree line for cover, we needed to summit the peak and descend on the other side as quickly as possible, because the route back down on the ascending side if caught in a storm would become even more dangerous due to its steep and narrow trails than the route descending on the other side.

Moving with a purpose the group quickly summited the mountain while fighting the wind that was gusting approximately 60-80 miles an hour the entire time. As the group began the descend one of the female hikers tripped and tumbled down the steep rocky path and received a moderate laceration on her knee. Quickly I dumped my pack and my skills as a nurse took over. I quickly had another member pour approximately a teaspoon of potassium permanganate in a one liter water bottle and shake it until dissolved while I readied the bandages and wraps for her knee. I cleansed her cut with our prepared aseptic solution and bandaged and wrapped her knee so that she could continue down the best she could.

Shortly after our unfortunate event our luck continued to fail and heavy rainstorm began just before we reached the tree line. Quickly the group of six gathered firewood, and threw together a tarp lean-to for shelter. Wet and miserable some of us were experiencing early signs of hypothermia, and we all desperately wanted to feel some small amount of warmth. Several members tried various means to start-up a fire from lighters, storm-proof matches, to even burning their own cotton shirt to get a flame to arise and light our fire. However the wind was awe to powerful and would extinguish our flame before it could ever catch.

It was then I remembered my plans to do an experiment and rushed to my bag and removed the small baggie of potassium permanganate and small bottle of glycerin I picked up at the store. I paused before I began and looked back on my previous trials with this combination. I remembered back home in Texas at 3500 feet elevation it would take approximately 5 seconds to generate a flame, but at this elevation and wind I knew my chances would be limited. So then I figured I’d better go for broke and used my remaining supply of both ingredients. What seemed like an eternity ended up only being about a minute before the greatest sight of our lives appeared.

A huge, bright fire-ball arose from our stack of tinder and kindling, and the group simultaneously began tossing larger logs onto the fire for it to chew on before the wind would have a chance to counter its warm punch. Our fire was a great means for improving morale and keeping at bay the clutches of hypothermia. We were able to dry our wet clothes, cook a warm meal and drink some tea and hot chocolate under the tarp until the rains subsided. After the rain stopped and we were all dry and full we set up our tents and crawled into our sleeping bags for much-needed rest. Once we woke up that morning it was as if the rain had cleansed the mountain of any bad juju, and we finished our adventure safely and pleasantly back to the truck.

There were numerous lessons learned from my first trip into the back-country that I have since benefited from. Most importantly the one that I and the group agreed on was that if there hadn’t been a chemist in the group then we all undoubtedly would have had a much more difficult time fending off hypothermia than we did that night.

0 Comments

While in high school chemistry class you would have been called a geek or nerd if you ever truly believed that “I am going to use this one day,” while

Are You Planning to Fail If SHTF?

You could encapsulate just about anything in the world of prepping under one simple word: planning. Preppers are planning for different scenarios where they must implement one or more plans for how to deal with various aspects of said scenario. We plan on how we will act, what prepping supplies we will need to acquire and we plan how to talk to family members and avoid neighbors.

Preppers plan for medical emergencies by selecting the right medical supplies, books and resources such as wilderness training to put us in a better position to render first aid to wounded family and friends. We plan for economic collapse by investing in precious metals, or diversifying our income by a second or even third job. Preppers plan to bug out and deal with violent confrontations from displaced and possibly hostile individuals or groups that will stop at nothing, including your life to survive themselves. Gardens, food, shelter, alternate power, FEMA, government abuses and on and on we have our plans. But are you planning to fail? Is what you are doing really a plan at all?

What is your prepping plan?

I have written a few articles on the subject of planning with respect to prepping because it seems to me like a logical step but I was reminded of this topic again while planning a backpacking trip with a small group of my daughter’s friends. We would be going into the woods in a remote location that I had been to before, but my “plan” focused on me really – the basics I knew I would need to take into consideration and I had not fully appreciated this group of kids that I hardly knew. I hadn’t expanded my scope of thinking outside of my own little bubble. Almost instinctively I was making lists in my head of what gear I would need and where it was stored. Mentally I calculated the weight I would be packing in and pictured myself walking through the woods with my faithful dog and a bunch of teenagers lagging somewhere on the trail behind me. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I certainly couldn’t “plan” on each of these kids knowing what they were getting into and what they would need.

I started writing out a list of the basics: Who, What, When, Where, and How. I left out the Why because I don’t need an excuse to go live in the woods for a few days, I have been waiting for almost a year for the opportunity! In my revised plan, I focused on what they would each need to have, the conditions of the voyage into the great unknown and many details the parents would likely need to know. Before long my plan was a two-page word doc that my daughter laughingly said “detailed enough, Dad?” It’s a simplistic example, but I started thinking about my prepping plans considering that exercise.

A list isn’t a plan

When I started prepping, the first thing I did resembling a plan was to write out a long list of the items I thought I needed to focus on in order to “be prepared”. I still have that list around here somewhere but I remember exactly the types of things I scribbled down back so many years ago. There were sections for Food, Water, Shelter, Security, Finances, Gardening and Medical. Each section had a list of items I knew from my research could help me and my family. It was a good start but just writing down these supplies I needed wasn’t really a plan. It was a shopping list.

My list helped me get started with the acquisition of food. I was able to focus on first a 30-day supply of food and that grew as I had other items checked off. My list was constantly being analyzed for priority. If I got an extra $100 to spend I would look at my list and see where I had the biggest hole in my preps and move in that direction. Some months I was able to cross items off my list and other months I wasn’t able to. It helped me but again this was not a plan.

Having a ton of supplies isn’t a plan

Eventually my supplies stared to add up and I was feeling more comfortable with the odds of my family being able to survive, I still didn’t have a plan other than to stay in my house and use the supplies we had been scraping together. I had a supply of ammo, weapons, rain barrels, our garden was started and the pantry was filled with canned beans, rice and corn. I had freeze-dried food under the beds and medical supplies stashed in bins at the bottom of closets but after all this, the only thing I could really say was that my plan was not to need to go to the store for a while. I could sit pretty while the world collapsed at least for some time.
It wasn’t too long after that I realized a few things:

No matter how much you stock up, it will run out eventually.
Your plan to stay on your piece of land might need to change against your wishes.
If the world goes to hell, your reality will likely change. Your health, responsibilities and abilities could all suffer in a long-term collapse.

Going back to my backpacking analogy, I started to reflect on all the other people whose lives could impact my prepping ideals. It is wise to take these other people into account when I made my plans. My neighbors, the people down the street, law enforcement, rescue services, the military, gangs, relatives, friends. A disaster will likely be a dynamic event that you will have to adjust to and make changes to your plans on a daily basis in some cases. A warehouse of supplies is nice, but what if you are forced to leave all those behind?

So, in some ways all the work we think of as being the bulk of Prepping – the accumulation of gear, guns, ammo and supplies only gets us maybe 15% of the way to this mythical point of preparedness. The rest is what we will do with those supplies we have accumulated, how will we use them with our families in various situations. How will we ensure the use is done in a manner consistent with how you envisioned them when you purchased the supplies. Do we need to ration and when? Who can access the supplies and how will you deal with resupply? Who will you share with and what are you prepared to do in situations where you don’t want to share? But that’s just the Stuff part of it. There is so much more!

Prepping is not simply distilled only to the acquisition of gear. You should not relax when you have a pantry full of food and some camping gear and a rifle or two. Granted, that will put you ahead of many people, but that is only a short-term gain. If you are searching for true preparedness, your plans must begin to imagine a life without many of those supplies you have stockpiled because in a true grid-down disaster, end of the world calamity that you are imagining there is a pretty good chance your MRE’s will be long gone, your ammo could be gone and any medical supplies you had might have vanished months ago.

For me, a true prepping plan is being able to live without any of the supplies I am stocking up. I am pointed in that direction now with efforts on self-reliant power, food production and living off the land as much as possible. Does that mean I am not stocking up anything and I am only going to be prepared to eat bark and roots? Nope, but I won’t be sitting in my suburban bunker eating my canned peaches watching DVD’s on my solar-powered player either as the world burns outside. The supplies will only buy me time. That time is going to need to be spent on many initiatives that will lend themselves to survival. Survival for my family and everyone I can bring along with me.

What’s your prepping plan?

1 Comment

I have written a few articles on the subject of planning with respect to prepping because it seems to me like a logical step but I was reminded of this

Four Ways to Increase your Survival Endurance

Regardless of whether you are just now getting into prepping or you have been prepping for years, there is more to survival than having a stocked pantry, bountiful garden, or a well with a hand water pump on your property. Simply having supplies isn’t the true yardstick you need to be comparing yourself to if you realistically want to know how prepared you are for this or any other crisis that may happen. Supplies can be taken away, they can be flung across the county or washed down the river. What matters most of all is your mental capacity to see you through difficulty. Your will to live and survive no matter what the odds will do more for you than any survival knife. Your determination and confidence that you will succeed will be more valuable than a box of MRE’s or freeze dried food.

Without being trained in survival though, how can the average person get this type of mindset? Do you need to have survived through a big earthquake or tsunami in order to have what it takes? Should you sign up for intensive wilderness immersion courses that teach you the things you need to know? Possibly and I am not discounting any training like that, but the average person can increase their survival endurance skills by much simpler means. Some people are born with the will to survive and other people need some practice.

Pull the plug

Have you ever imagined what your day would be like without electricity? If you have lived through any power disruption you know. Out of habit, I will flip on light switches and nothing happens. I will press buttons, open doors to use appliances and it takes a second to realize that nothing is working in each instance. I still go to the wrong silverware drawer in our kitchen even though my wife changed that years ago so maybe its just me. Dealing without power or electronic devices is a huge hurdle for some people to overcome. In a life or death situation, the absence of power is disorientating so what can you do now to develop experience in living without the convenience we are all so used to?

You could go a weekend without power and this is frequently recommended. Simply flip the main breaker on Friday night and put all of the cell phones, tablets and e-readers in the closet. Bonus points for shutting off the water also.

This exercise will allow you to adapt to living without electricity as you see how to light your way, possibly use stored water or perhaps go and get water to live on, cook and bathe for the weekend. For a lot of people this is a huge eye opener that can highlight holes in their preparedness plan.

Practice makes perfect

Is your plan to bug out to the woods if Ebola breaks out or some other form of societal collapse? Have you meticulously gathered the contents of your Bug Out Bag and have it ready to go in the back of your car? Have you ever put it on and walked 20 miles through the woods or even down the road with it on your back? Have you tried to live for 72 hours off the supplies in your Bug Out bag to see if you have the right equipment and more importantly the experience with what works and what doesn’t. Another aspect of prepping is the knowledge and experience of what to do with these supplies you have stored. You don’t want your first experience building and lighting a fire with your Swedish fire steel to be when it is raining, dark and you are scared. Your ability to safely collect and filter water will give you confidence. The ability to navigate without the benefit of roads or GPS possibly will also give you invaluable exposure to the aspects of your plan that could fail.

Navy SEAL Survival Secrets Now Released to Americans for Limited Time

This former SEAL Team Platoon Commander/Sniper is on a mission to deliver the elite-level “spec ops” survival secrets to 250 lucky, everyday Americans today.

Do you make the “cut”?

Click here before they’re all gone!

Activities like backpacking are the perfect test scenario for bugging out. You strap that behemoth you have been building for months with all of the gear you have read about on bug out bag checklists and see what it’s like living in the woods for 3 days. There will be so much you learn about both your physical ability, the weight and utility of your bug out bag as well as whether or not the items you have worked or were necessary in the first place. After my first backpacking adventure with my family, I knew that I needed to drop at least 20 pounds from my pack if I had any hope of running through the night away from disaster in it.

Challenge yourself in small but important ways.

Develop a can-do attitude

One of the main elements of survival is the belief that you will make it through; that you can overcome whatever obstacles you face. This is not something that comes naturally to everyone so it helps to put yourself in uncomfortable situations and see how you fare. Just take something as relatively simple as being too hot or too cold. When winter comes do you run inside the second you get cold? This is probably because you aren’t dressed for the weather. What if you couldn’t go inside? Would you sit there, shivering and complaining?

In a disaster, expect things to be uncomfortable. Expect to suffer a little bit and try this out when you are perfectly safe. Stay outside in inclement weather all day and do physical things. You will learn that you won’t die and that you can make it through situations where you’d rather be back indoors. Spend the night out in the woods by yourself, set up your tent, build a fire and think big things. You learn that you aren’t helpless and that you can do things for yourself. Even if you already have a healthy dose of this experiences like this build your endurance. They mentally reinforce you will the knowledge that you can do things on your own.

Train to build up your body strength

Nobody ever said survival was easy. You could expect to be hungry, tired and to work more than you do on any normal day. To have the best chance at survival you need to be in excellent physical shape. Does that mean you need to be carved up like one of the models on the fitness magazines? Not at all, but you do need to be able to carry yourself around all day without pain or discomfort regardless of your age. Can you walk around all day, possibly with a pack or do you have a hundred pounds or so to lose? Can you pick yourself off the ground when you fall? If not, how do you expect to survive out in the wilderness with that bug out bag that’s too heavy on your back? Some people want to give up rather than put the effort into survival but even if you have every prepping supply in the world, you have to be in shape.

Get in shape now or suffer later.

Everyone who doesn’t have a physical handicap can get in better shape for $0. If you are overweight, start off walking. Walking is a great exercise that is free, doesn’t require a membership and you don’t need fancy clothes or equipment for it. Start off slow and build your way up. Maybe you could even begin running one day. Personally I think everyone who is seriously considering any bug out on foot scenario should be able to run 2 miles without stopping. Can you run at all? Can you run with your bug out bag?

Mastering your own body strength is something that anyone can do with time and will give you a huge amount of endurance. If you can walk all day without stopping, run a few miles three times a week, knock out a few dozen push ups and sit-ups daily you will be in so much better shape than the person who watches TV for 4 hours or sits in front of that computer all day. Strength will keep you healthy, it will prevent injuries and will help you last longer, go the extra mile when you might need to in order to save your life.

I wrote about the will to live and I believe that is at the heart of every prepper out there. I know it is my goal and I want to take as many people along with me as possible. Do you have what it takes to endure?

Navy SEAL Survival Secrets Now Released to Americans for Limited Time

This former SEAL Team Platoon Commander/Sniper is on a mission to deliver the elite-level “spec ops” survival secrets to 250 lucky, everyday Americans today.

Do you make the “cut”?

Click here before they’re all gone!

0 Comments

Regardless of whether you are just now getting into prepping or you have been prepping for years, there is more to survival than having a stocked pantry, bountiful garden, or

Lessons from History – The Importance of Water

Throughout history, settlements form near water. The largest and most successful settle with plentiful water. There are a number of reasons for that. One, water really is life. We require water for drinking. We also use it for cleaning and laundry. As the human species advanced, we needed additional water for livestock. Then we became stationary, mastered various forms of irrigation, and bred our crops to become more and more dependent on water. Doing so allowed us to reap larger yields of sweeter and more mild crops, but it also tied us inexorably to water systems.

Historically we were further tied to water systems for faster and easier travel and trade, and we eventually turned to it for some of our labor. First with direct-labor systems such as grinding mills, then for the generation of power that could be sent across distances, water made life easier as well as sustaining it.

We are no less tied to water now than the caveman, Viking or European colonist. We just don’t always notice. And because most of North America enjoys easy, low-cost water, we aren’t great about conserving it.

Test Your Water Use

Want to see just how influential water is, and how much we use? Easy enough. Turn off the water at the main for a day. Remember to also tape or turn off faucets so you don’t empty any hot water heaters and end up with problems.

If you’re on a well, use your backup pump system. If you don’t have a backup system, one immune to fire and earthquake and the prepper-minded EMPs, you don’t actually have a water system. Turn it off.

Do it on a standard day. A day you’re not off backpacking, not working on your three-day bare-minimum drill doing a dry camp in the living room or backyard. Really ideally, do it in summer or autumn on the day(s) you’d be watering if you irrigate gardens, and on a day you’re hunting or harvesting some doves, chickens and rabbits.

For less-immersive comparison, just monitor the water gauge. For livestock on a non-metered system, fill containers that can have checks and tally lines added quickly.

Don’t let yourself become complacent or say, “well, that’s just because” to justify the amount of water used. Yes, our grooming standards can go down and change, and we can adopt some laundry methods and clothing treatment from the past that limit our uses more. Eventually, though, hygiene suffers.

If water’s out, something else is regularly going on, from “small” family-sized crises to storms and other disasters that affect the area and region. Roads and doctors may not be available if someone does become ill.

If anything, a crisis is a time to focus more on proper hygiene.

Handwashing, especially, can make a major impact on fecal-oral route infections, which tend to be the root of most of the illnesses laymen call “food poisoning”.

If your hygiene is dependent on wipes, run that test as long as you can to get the best possible average for how many you run through per day. Whatever your backup toilet system is, use that.

Use the data to create a baseline. How much do you use? How long will your stored water last? What seasons can you reasonably count on resupply?

From there, we look for ways to increase our sources and our efficiency in harvesting and using the water we can access.

A Double-Edged Sword

Water is one of the few things we can’t do without, and a functioning stream, river or lake system or even just a marsh can make a huge positive impact on our preparedness. They aren’t without hazards, however.

Flooding is a primary risk, although healthy marsh systems can actually mitigate and minimize floods. Still, the levee systems in the U.S. are aging and Midwest floods aren’t uncommon. Colorado and Tennessee have both had major, devastating disasters due to river- or creek-originated floods.

In a protracted crisis, the hydro dams put in by the Tennessee Valley Authority and in the Northwest are likely to suffer failures, on top of the failures we see washing out roads and creating mudslides and large floods right now.

In addition to those failures, there are mines and factories along our waterways these days. We’ve seen in just the last year what can happen as they fail and toxins leak out. Nuclear plants are routinely along waterways.

Failures combined with flooding can wash those contaminants into our farmlands, cities and suburbs, affecting creeks and wildlife long before and long after we can see the effects.

EPA Accidentally Turns Colorado River Orange With Pollution, Putting Drinking Water At Risk

Livestock are also a contamination risk to both well intakes and streams, just like human waste can already be right here in the U.S. Those risks are even more prevalent in some of the third-world nations that live without our level of basic services. Disease is rampant after earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods due to fecal wastes, and can be expected to go up after a major disaster.

Mosquitoes and the spread of ever increasing and previously “dead” diseases by insects are another risk.

Many of those risks can be limited with site selection and sculpting the land a little, by planting a few things that can help create buffers, predators, and sinks for water and its diseases and pests. An interruption in “easy” water after we’ve become accustomed to it is still the bigger and more likely threat for most of us.

While a gravity-driven well with a pressure-driven cistern would be ideal, not everybody is there. Not every well can either reach or hit the amounts needed for livestock and crop irrigation.

Pairing the unprecedented, super-filtration power of an all-new gravity block core with a hybrid ceramic shell, it removes 99.9999 percent of impurities, including bacteria, cysts, disinfectants, volatile organic contaminants (VOAs) and heavy metals.

Because requires no electricity, it is ideal for home use, on or off-grid.

Self-Sufficiency through Streams

A moving channel is a fantastic element to site. One aspect to watch for with small systems is that they don’t dry out in summer. Ideally, they won’t even dry up in the 25- and 50-year drought cycles.

Through much of history, moving water has helped us either with direct labor, such as the old mills we can still find here and there, or later by producing power for us to then use however we like.

Running streams, creeks and rivers can also turn water wheels that help us by lifting water into aqueduct systems or into cisterns that will produce enough gravity from water weight to push water further away from the source.

With even a small amount of motion, there are sling pumps capable of moving water for us. Even if a sling pump won’t reach all the way to gardens and livestock, saving us the bend-lift labor of filling buckets and being able to fill a cistern while we move the first load can make an enormous difference.

With greater rates of movement, we can create hydro re-directs to lessen some of our labors and in some cases produce small amounts of energy. We can dam small waterways to increase pressure or create channel- or pipe-based systems to generate power.

In some cases it’s not going to be a lot of electricity, but even the ability to slowly charge electric tools, appliances, and our music and photo devices can be a huge boost.

Slow it, Sink it, Spread it, Store it

In permaculture, there are several “S’s” promoted in regards to water. They simplify the desires to:

Catch water for future use
Prevent flooding even on the “daily” and seasonal scales, and by doing so prevent erosion and soil hardening via water (runoff, soil compaction)
Allow water to infiltrate so roots can access it, and to lift the water table for springs and swale systems
Keep chemicals and waste from running across landscapes and polluting our waters or gardens

Catchments are one way we capture water – storing it for later and preventing it from running wasted over the surface of the soil.

Water catchment on a huge scale was and still is used in Australia, with systems similar to water towers and large roof-to-cistern systems both above ground and below ground.

Sheep and cattle stations and small farmers also create nearly lock-style channels to store water for the three- to six-month dry seasons. Those systems can be duplicated in North America depending on local laws.

In places where regulations prohibit such large scale water harvesting or hoarding, it may be possible to obtain permits to put in lakes or ephemeral or permanent pond systems, which can function similarly and have added benefits for homesteads.

On a small scale, water can be stored using systems as complex as we like, or we can go simple and create pyramids or triangles of trickle-over buckets and barrels with no plumbing and just mesh or permeable cloth to prevent mosquito infestations.

Small, shallow swales sequester less, but can prevent damage from rains over years. Larger swales can hold more water, allowing that water a greater amount of time to infiltrate. That water then creates a “lens” beneath the surface of the soil and allows plants a longer period of time to access it.

The slope of the land and the soil type and structure play the biggest roles in the types and sizes of swale systems we put in.

Preexisting vegetation and the type of vegetation we want to put in, if we plan to move livestock through the swale systems and what type of livestock also affects what type of swale system will work best for us.

Reducing Reliance On Systems

We have to have some water, and ideally a constant source. However, even with the best of planning and siting, sometimes we run into droughts or damaged systems. One way to build resiliency to those is to lessen our overall dependence.

Silvopasture over turf can provide forage and fodder even in drought years, and lessen dependence on irrigated grains and delicate pasture and hay. Some silvopasture is coppiced, but most will be either pollarded or selective-drop of large limbs from each tree.

The type and number of livestock and the amount of labor desired affects what style of silvopasture is effective.

Our livestock selection can also lessen dependence.

Ducks tend to be wasteful of water, while with drip waterers, chickens can be highly efficient. Pigs really need a lot of water to gain weight efficiently, and they need regular access to it. Comparatively, dairy and meat goats need a little less access and less total water per pound of produce.

If we veer a little further away from the American norm, camels need less yet, and have traditionally been used for milk, meat and hides and in some cases angora just like llamas.

We can also look into more water efficient breeds from typically dry regions of the world. They may be more expensive as an initial investment and have less-efficient feed-milk-meat ratios, but in a survival situation, the fact that they do survive with little water may make them invaluable.

If we have a fair bit of property, we can also tailor habitat for hunting small game, and focus our water labors on egg and dairy producers.

Hugelkultur beds are another way to limit use and dependence on rainfall and irrigation. Once established, a properly sized and layered hugel bed requires almost no assistance at all. It retains and essentially generates moisture from within.

When we do use water, we can use it as many times as humanly possible instead of letting it run and flow past our fingers.

Gray water systems, using cooled cooking water in gardens or for livestock, and reclaiming runoff from sprouts and sprouted fodder for livestock or re-watering can all help decrease our total draw.

Then there are little things like using a cup of water to rinse while brushing teeth, and having catch basins for washing hands or rinsing produce that then gets used for laundry or put back into the garden systems – at least once, and in some cases, several times.

Water Is Life

We have always been dependent on water as a species, and civilization and modern post-industrial life has made us more so. However, we can look back at history and to some of the underdeveloped nations to find ways that we can harvest and store water against need, and in some cases, use water wheels and even small creeks or lake properties to help us move water or generate a little bit of power.

Pairing the unprecedented, super-filtration power of an all-new gravity block core with a hybrid ceramic shell, it removes 99.9999 percent of impurities, including bacteria, cysts, disinfectants, volatile organic contaminants (VOAs) and heavy metals.

Because requires no electricity, it is ideal for home use, on or off-grid.

There are a few tips here. The article about gardening in droughts has additional lessons from fairly recent history that can be applied to reduce water uses for human and livestock food production, large scale or small, urban or rural.

When we’re ready to delve into long-term disaster planning, water needs to be a focus. Without water, and a backup plan for water, all the rest of our preparations become null and void in a large-scale emergency.

Water can also be dangerous. It’s worth researching the local flood patterns, especially pre-levee system, and looking up the diseases, symptoms and cures common to waterways in third world nations and after disasters.

2 Comments

Throughout history, settlements form near water. The largest and most successful settle with plentiful water. There are a number of reasons for that. One, water really is life. We require

Choosing the Best Rifle Sling – Part 1

Early long guns could be carried in two hands ready for instant use or in one hand for almost as quick use. But you really could not do anything else with that hand or those hands. It became quickly obvious that a hands-free way of carrying a long gun was needed, and probably the first sling was simply a piece of rope tied to each end of the gun. Times have changed and today this article will be begin with some history, but will also share how to choose the best rifle sling for your use.

Introduction to Slings (Part 1)

In the late 17th century, as European militaries were arming more and more men with muskets, sling “swivels” started to appear on military firearms. Generally this was a slotted ring on the bottom of the stock near the butt, and a matching ring on the underside of the forend. A flat strap, usually of canvas, was then threaded through these rings. There was generally some length adjustment ability. In the 1870’s, a new U.S. military rifle was introduced which came with a fairly new concept: a sling made of leather.

As the experience with slings became more common, people found that besides allowing for hands-free carry, a properly set up and fitted sling could help achieve greater accuracy. The model 1907 sling was the height of sling development as far as support while shooting goes, where the forward arm is inserted between the straps of the sling and “locked” in place with “keepers”. Despite efforts to replace it, this model continued to be an official U.S. Military option until the days of the M16, which came with a simple adjustable nylon strap, returning the sling to a mere carrying device.

Note that even with a sling which is designed only for carrying, there is a technique of wrapping the sling around your forward arm which provides some of the stability of a M1907 style sling. This technique is called “hasty sling” because it is pretty quick and doesn’t require a lot of adjustment.

Originally the sling attachment points, and thus the slings, were usually along the bottom of the gun. This was not really a problem with early firearms, but as magazine fed guns started to appear, the sling and the magazine tended to interfere with each other a bit. Slings along the side of the gun could fix this problem, but were by no means ambidextrous and did not work as well for shooting support.

Quick Disconnect Mounts

Civilian shooters preferred a sling which could be easily attached and detached, encouraging the development of quick detach sling attachments. The strap is threaded through the QD attachments, which then can be easily attached to or removed from the matching mounts on the gun. Nowadays there appear to be at least five possible true QD options to put on the end of your sling.

Which of these options can be used on a particular gun depends on what mounts are built-in or added to that gun. It is optimal to have the same QD attachment on both ends of the sling, but it is not a requirement if having mismatched attachments is appropriate. It is handy to have the same mount or set of mounts on similar guns, so you don’t necessarily have to have a separate sling for each one.

STUD Mount

One of the first choices was “studs” screwed into the wood or clamped around the barrel. There was a hole through this stud and flat sides perpendicular to the hole, and the matching part had two flat flanges separated by the width of the stud, with a pin through them. Attached, there was a flange on each side of the stud and the pin through the flanges and the stud. Uncle Mikes has an extensive history with these swivels and still have a good selection. They are pretty good on sporting arms, but for tactical use they are not optimal. Early models could be “popped off” as the moving flange was merely spring-loaded. Some later models have a threaded knob, which when screwed down to the flange, prevents it from unintentionally opening.

CUP or HOLE Mount

Another early option was a “cup” inlet into the stock with a groove around near the top. The matching part had some small balls around the circumference, which clicked into these grooves. A button in the center retracted the balls so the part could be removed. An alternative mount to the cup is a hole in a piece of metal of the same thickness as the distance from the top of the cup to the groove. This system is fairly heavy-duty and can rotate side to side, which can be both good and bad. A few have built-in stops to prevent complete rotation, keeping the sling from getting twisted.

RING Mount

The M-LOK Paraclip Sling Mount is the M-LOK compatible variant of the older MSA – MOE Sling Attachment.

More recently, rings started appearing on tactical guns. These can accept a quick connect hook, and there appears to be three common choices. There is the Magpul Paraclip, slightly similar to a clothespin. This is fairly bulky; on the one hand, it does not fit on smaller rings, but on the other hand, is very stable. If it comes with a cross-bar lock (and you use it), it is highly resistant to unintentional release and even without using the lock I have not had a problem. Next is the HK snap clip. This is very versatile and flexible, but is a bit noisy and floppy, and if you twist it right, it can pop off by itself. The third common option is the Mash Clip. This has a structure similar to a split key ring, but rather than having to pry the layers apart, there is an area you squeeze to separate the layers. Like the HK clip, it is a bit noisy and floppy, but is much more secure.

There are a few other hooks which might work and are available from some sling makers. One is called a “trigger snap”. There very well may be a version which is strong enough and secure enough for sling usage, but the ones I’ve used (on keychains and other non-sling items) release accidentally and even bend open. Another is a freaky-looking hinged hook, which I don’t know the name of and have never seen in person. Basically, before relying on any connector other than the common ones, investigate it thoroughly. You want to make sure it won’t bend or break, won’t release accidentally, is acceptably easy to attach and detach, and does not get “tangled up” with the gun.

SLOT Mount

The slot mount, like the original slotted ring, is not a quick disconnect attachment. Although it, like the original slotted ring, can approximate a QD attachment if you strap a quick connect buckle to the slot, and have the other part of the buckle on the end of the sling.

No Mount

Having no mount on your gun does not mean you must do without a sling or even without a QD sling. One option is to have a strap wrapped around the stock or forend to which a sling can be attached. Most often, this attachment point is a ring or a quick connect buckle. If you have a picatinny rail on the gun, pretty much any kind of mount you want is available to be clamped on to the rail.

Combination Mounts and Adapters

There are a few “combination” mounts available, which offer more than one type of connection. Blackhawk has a nice one to attach to a picatinny rail which offers a cup, slot and ring. This is another way that one sling can connect to multiple guns, or different slings can connect to the same gun. Another rare option is various “adapters”, which connect to one type of mount and provide the connection for a different QD connector. Finally, there is the “Universal Wire Loop” which can connect to anything the wire or cord can fit through.

Sling Types

Nowadays, the most common slings are nylon or equivalent. A few are woven out of paracord, and ones made of leather, including the venerable M1907 style, are still available.

The classic sling is attached to the gun at two points, near the butt and near the front. These are known as “two point” or “dual point” slings. These are pretty good for carrying a long gun, but have some problems in getting the gun into action quickly. One option is to put one arm through the sling and hang the gun on the same side. This is fairly quick to get into action, but very insecure; the gun can easily slide off the shoulder and down the arm, resulting in dropping the gun. On the other hand, if you put your arm and head through the sling so that the sling bears on the opposite shoulder, this is very secure, but slow to get into action.

In the 1980s, there were attempts to improve the tactical capabilities of the sling by developing the “three-point” or “triple point” sling concept. This added more strap, so that the shooter’s body was enclosed by the strap. Thus the “three points” were the two points on the gun and the third point was the person carrying the gun (since the sling was “attached” to the body). One common characteristic of a three-point sling seems to be an additional length of strap which goes between the two attachment points on the gun. Often the forward part of the sling which was to be attached to the wearer’s body was attached along this length of strap. The problem with this concept was that the additional strap along the gun could interfere with the mechanical operation or use of the gun. Furthermore, some of these designs used various mechanisms to extend the gun for use or retract it for carrying, and these mechanisms could be easy to miss under stress, or a pain to return for carrying. These designs tended to focus on transitioning from carry to use, and not providing support.

One interesting sling variation which actually attaches to the gun at three points (but is not considered a “three point sling”) is the “Ching sling“. This was intended to approximate the support of the M1907 sling but be much quicker to get your arm into.

The next major evolution in slings was the single (one) point sling. As you might expect, this sling is attached to the gun at just one point, usually right behind the receiver and not near the butt as was common up to this point. The “other end” of the sling was attached not to the gun, but to the sling itself, allowing a quite secure attachment to the body. This is a very good option for quick access, allowing a free range of movement of the gun and easily switching from strong side to weak side shoulder as needed to get around obstacles. And if you suddenly need your hands, you just drop the gun and it hangs in front of you. The down side is that being attached at just one point; the gun can swing around, bumping you and everything around you. This is not a good option for long-term carrying, but is hard to beat when quick access is important.

As a solution to the weakness of the single point sling, the “convertible” sling was developed. This is a two point sling with a ring or buckle near one end, to which the forward end of the sling can be attached, turning it into a one point sling. This gives you the best of both types of slings. Other improvements were elastic elements in the sling which helped to absorb shock or chest expansion, an attachment point on the sling or your belt, allowing you to tie down the forward end of the gun when in single sling mode, and wide-range quick-adjustment options. By the time you combine these features, you get a sling which makes the three point sling obsolete.

Tune in next time for some hints on choosing a sling and a look at a few tactical choices.

0 Comments

Early long guns could be carried in two hands ready for instant use or in one hand for almost as quick use. But you really could not do anything else

Will Your Family Survive SHTF Without You?

Imagine this is your home…

A darkened house in the suburbs of Columbus, around eight on a cold winter’s evening.

A little girl is snuggled under a blanket, next to her mother on a couch. A couple of candles throw shadows against the family room walls.

“Mommy, where’s Daddy?”, asks Kayla.

“Honey, like I told you before, Daddy went on his business trip to Chicago before the power went out a week ago. It’s not easy for him, but I’m sure he’s on his way home right now.” replies her mother, Melissa.

“Well I hope he hurries up – he told me he was taking me to McDonald’s when he gets back!”

Her mother laughs, but inside she worries about her husband John and their own situation. When the lights first went out, it seemed like an everyday outage. Maybe the ice storm had knocked down the power lines, or maybe the cold weather had overloaded the system. But now with the stores closed “for the duration”, and no news of help on the way, Melissa didn’t know how long the food in the pantry would hold out.

John had a hobby as a prepper, she knew, but she didn’t know exactly where anything was, or what the plans were, so she was hesitant to start rummaging around. But now she was getting desperate and scared for her and her little girl. What should she do?

Could this scenario happen to your loved ones?

While some ideal families may work together to prepare for emergencies, many of you may be in my situation. My kids and wife have their own activities and interests, so they look at me a bit oddly and are mostly uninterested when I bring up my prepping actions and purchases. I have ended up being the sole person in my family responsible for preparing. Despite their reactions, I want to make my family’s life easier, safer, and less stressful should I be sick, dead or otherwise not around when the SHTF.

Here’s what I’ve done:

Labeled all supplies and equipment, and kept them organized.
Prepared an Emergency Planning binder, with a separate section for each of my family’s needs.
Reviewed the contents with my wife.

My binder

Section A: Short-Term Emergency

Eight days or shorter for our family. Foods need only be heated, lots of convenience foods and bottled water. Life would be kind of like camping. Each need is covered, same as in the Long-Term section, but some details differ.

Section B: Long-Term Emergency

Life would be very different and more difficult, so I made a separate tab for each need:

Food –This section contains a menu based on the food I stored, a short cookbook with recipes adjusted for our situation and family size, and a food inventory spreadsheet with amount stored, portion size, calories, etc.

I also detail how to prepare for life after our family’s food stores run out. An example from our binder:

If power goes out and LED flashlights don’t work with fresh batteries, immediately go to the corner store and buy as much food as you can carry with the emergency cash.
Use our saved seeds to plant a large garden (as large as possible), with precedence given to foods that can be stored/preserved. Spring and fall growing seasons can provide a lot of food.
Our stored wheat, barley and beans can be planted, eaten or sprouted.
When protein supplies run low, hunting and snare use will be necessary. Use the shotgun, or the stored snares. Meat can be cooked fresh, salted and cured, jerked, or ground and dehydrated. See the meat preservation cookbook.
Wild plants can be collected – dandelion leaves, young plantain leaves, spring cattail heads, as well as apples, persimmons, and pawpaws in the fall. See the wild edible plants handbook.
Foraging in stores or houses is a last resort, because of the danger involved.

Even though I think I know how to tell if an EMP attack has occurred, my family doesn’t, so I gave explicit instructions as to what to do, since we only have 4 months of food stocked up so far. I also have guidebooks for them to use to plant, can, and other vital functions that I know how to do, but they don’t.

Drinking Water – how to filter and treat rainwater with pool shock, how to assemble and operate a water filter.
Hygiene & Sanitation –how and where to construct an outhouse, handle trash, wash clothes and dishes, and keep healthy.
Defense – a list of weapons, ammunition, and how to use them. Since my wife doesn’t shoot, this will be a tough one to communicate in writing, a very good reason to store more food, so my family doesn’t have to search for food outside during potentially dangerous times.
Power – including how to operate a solar-powered battery recharger for lanterns and other battery-operated devices.
Shelter – discuss what’s needed for basic house maintenance (shingles, plastic sheeting, plywood), and basic fortification with stored materials.
Heating – use of kerosene heaters, wood-burning stove, and where to safely collect firewood.
Medical care – inventory of first aid kit, medical supplies, and use of emergency medical and dental handbooks.
Communication – walkie-talkies are all we have, so that’s an easy one.
Transportation – Any vehicles, their fuel and supplies.

In summary, the best way to help your family prepare for when SHTF is by having them involved in the preparations. But in case they aren’t yet receptive to this message, in case you aren’t around, or just to make the job easier in a very stressful time, it’s best to write down your family’s emergency plans now stored only in your head.

0 Comments

Imagine this is your home… A darkened house in the suburbs of Columbus, around eight on a cold winter’s evening. A little girl is snuggled under a blanket, next to her mother

Are you Prepping to Bug Out Financially?

As Preppers we take steps to plan for disasters that could force us out of the comfort and safety of our homes. These threats could range from regional weather incidents like Tornadoes, Earthquakes or Hurricanes to longer term disasters that might not be caused by Mother Nature. Even these relatively common regional weather events can cause massive damage in some places, but shelter and safety is usually within a short drive or walk from your home. To reach safety, it may be necessary to throw your Bug Out Bag into the car or on your back and get the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible before the roads are clogged or leaving is no longer possible. The hope is that you will be able to come back home as soon as the disaster has passed and conditions are safe for your return.

When you are preparing to Bug Out, there’s a lot of advice on various aspects of preparing like how to select the right bug out bag, or how to load your bug out bag. We can give you lists of supplies to actually pack in your bug out bag but in some cases, you simply won’t be able to carry everything you will ever need to in one pack.

The perfect bug out bag will give you basic supplies, food and shelter to live for at least 72 hours, hopefully longer without being so heavy that it will kill you. A bug out bag is designed to give you what you need to survive without the benefit of your home and all its supplies but it is only a short-term solution because it will be impossible to carry every single thing you would ever need for any potential scenario. What if the disaster is longer than 72 hours? What if you aren’t able to come back home ever again for some reason? What if the grid goes down and you can’t get to your money any more due to bank holidays, power outages or some currency crisis?

How can you protect your money?

There are a lot of things that we put in our bug out bag but a supply of money is one of those at the very top of the list when we start to consider what we might need in order to survive. I am not talking about lost in the woods survival here but surviving in a society that still operates in cash. Until we have some TEOTWAWKI event, money still has purchasing power so having some extra cash on hand is wise. You might not be able to access the money you have in the bank anymore like the people in Cyprus, so I recommend keeping a relatively large amount of cash hidden somewhere that nobody can find it outside of your bank. Having all of your money in the bank makes this a single point of failure so having a decent amount of cash on hand, as long as you take precautions could save your rear if the banks decide they can’t or don’t have to give it back. How much should you keep out of the bank? That’s up to you but I try to keep as much as possible outside those doors that can lock me out.

Zimbabwe Dollars ranging from 10 to 100 billion printed within a one year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.

Maybe your money will still be accessible, but with inflation it simply won’t buy you anything at some point in the future. This isn’t without precedent as it has happened in the Weimar Republic after WWI and also in Zimbabwe. As a hedge against actions beyond our control; some people are storing precious metals for long-term protection against inflation. Holding physical gold and silver could be crucial to your family’s survival if the currency collapses so many preppers are acquiring silver and gold coins should the Dollar fail someday or the banks prevent you from accessing the money in your accounts.

While those beautiful shiny coins could save your life financially speaking if the fiat money you have ends up being worthless, they also have their disadvantages. When it comes to bugging out, you have to consider the weight. If you have been quietly purchasing precious metals for years in anticipation of an economic collapse, have you given thoughts to how you will take all of that with you?

There are a lot of options when it comes to precious metals. Some people like James Wesley Rawles advocate using pre-1965 US coins because of their silver content. Smaller denominations, in easy to understand measurements would be easier to barter with other individuals he reasons and I agree with that theory. Instead of spending my weekends sorting rolls of quarters from the bank though; I have settled on 1 ounce Silver coins as my precious metal of choice. I chose silver coins because they were more affordable than gold and I could see paying someone with a silver coin being much easier than chiseling off a piece of my gold coin. Gold coins because of their worth are easier to carry, but harder to make change for. I could carry one gold coin or 70 silver coins. When you are bugging out that weight will start to add up.

Let’s say it was the end of the world and you had to bug out with only the items in your bug out bag, your trusty AR15 or preferred end of the world firearm and all of the money you have. If you had one gold coin you could easily carry that around practically anywhere, but the problem comes in when you wanted to purchase something with it. You couldn’t go to a restaurant and pay for a meal with a fraction of your gold coin. You would want some smaller bills (coins) so to speak.

So, instead of gold you chose silver and now all of your silver is loaded in your bug out bag. Just 200 silver coins will weigh over 14 pounds. What if you had more silver? What if you had cashed in your 401K and have 1000 silver coins? That would be over 60 pounds and I don’t care who you are, adding that much weight to your bug out bag will hurt you sooner or later. Not to mention, if you lose your bag or someone steals it, all of your money is gone.

A bug out plan with Precious Metals

So what is a good prepper supposed to do? I still recommend having some precious metals because I don’t have faith the long term health of our monetary system. Does that mean I am right? You have to investigate that for yourself and make up your own mind. If you do plan to purchase some precious metals how can you plan to bug out on foot with all that coin?

You can’t.

What? Is that your great advice? Well, not exactly but you have to plan on this happening. I have some silver and this works for my me and my family, but I would not load it all into my Bug Out Bag. I also might not load it all in my vehicle if I was bugging out either. So what would I do?

I would bury it. Yes, I would bury my precious metals in containers I could dig up later. This poses a couple of problems too though. What if I can’t make it back to my buried treasure? What if I couldn’t find it after it was buried? These are the realities of storing all of your money outside of a central location but they can easily be mitigated. If I had a bug out location, I would bury some, probably most of my silver there. I probably wouldn’t bury much more than a handful of coins if any along the route. I would also bury a lot at my current location. If I was planning to bug out and had time I would dig it up and take it with me, but if the plan was to bug out on foot, I would only take a small amount with me in my BOB and leave the rest buried.

How much would I take? For a bug out scenario I would probably take 20 silver coins and several hundred dollars. All of this money would be divided into different hiding places and probably with different people. This way if one person gets robbed or lost you don’t lose all your money.

You may be asking what the point of buying silver is if it is going to be so hard to carry. You may be saying the same thing about bugging out. This article may be bringing up more problems than solutions but these are things to consider if you plan on bugging out. Having to bury your money in the ground isn’t ideal but neither is losing all of your money when the banks need a bail-in. Having to bug out isn’t ideal either and it helps to plan for how you are going to take your money with you or keep it safe until you can get back.

0 Comments

As Preppers we take steps to plan for disasters that could force us out of the comfort and safety of our homes. These threats could range from regional weather incidents

What We Want is What You Got: Defending Your Life From the People Who Will Stop At Nothing

One of the concerns of anyone who is preparing for a SHTF scenario if you are being honest is the dark side of human nature. You can have all of the supplies you ever need; you could have a fully stocked pantry with enough food to feed your family for 10 years, enough ammo to conduct a 21 gun salute every minute of the day for the next 5 years and it could all be taken from you in a minute by desperate individuals who care nothing for you or your family. When hard times come, the true survival instinct kicks in at some point and that is when some of the biggest evils happen and you might find yourself defending your life. When it is desperate and it’s either you or them, most people will side with themselves and do whatever is necessary to take anything you have if what you have can help them.

We discussed the concept of Marauders in a couple of posts here on the Final Prepper and while I think the shining example of an idiot used in Doomsday Preppers was not something I would be overly concerned with (the person, not the scenario) the threat itself is very real. That is one of the reasons we talk about security for your home, maintaining an active Situational Awareness and how society can break down when there is no rule of law. History is full of too many examples of good people being killed for senseless reasons, and ignoring the very real threat that this could happen to you isn’t going to make it go away.

One of our readers is from Australia and they commented on a post I wrote a while back about the top 5 guns you need to get your hands on. The comment was essentially, that since there are no guns in Australia, this person has nothing to worry about and I don’t believe that is true. If you have no guns, you have even less of a chance of protecting yourself from bad guys that do, but lets assume for a second that Australia really had no guns whatsoever. Do you really believe that the absence of firearms is going to guarantee your safety? Tell that to the people in Nigeria who were killed with Machetes. A lack of guns doesn’t mean everything is peace, love and singing. This isn’t new and it violence won’t stop no matter what law you pass or what right you take away from people. If someone wants you dead bad enough, you are dead. That is unless you can stop them.

Guns aren’t the only way to kill a person.

Now, that is one problem, not having some means of protection, but the bigger problem is that dark and sinister element I talked about in the first paragraph. No matter what happens, if society devolves to the point of desperation people will do desperate things. There will not be any negotiating with someone who is starving if they have a plan, superior numbers and firepower. There will be people coming to take what you have and you will be lucky if this happens that nothing worse than theft occurs.

No amount of planning can prevent people out there from trying to steal what they need in order to live. You can plan all of the charity in the world, but eventually it will come down to what you need to feed your family. The line will be drawn somewhere, maybe your stocked, solar-powered retreat that they want. If you have anything at all you will be a target for people like this.

2 Comments

One of the concerns of anyone who is preparing for a SHTF scenario if you are being honest is the dark side of human nature. You can have all of

Are you physically prepared for any crisis?

Are you mentally prepared for any crisis?

Are you logistically prepared for any crisis?

Personal Data comes first

Additional data to backup

Is this doable for Preppers?

100 Deadly Skills that you never knew you needed

What is your prepping plan?

A list isn’t a plan

Having a ton of supplies isn’t a plan

Pull the plug

Practice makes perfect

Navy SEAL Survival Secrets Now Released to Americans for Limited Time

Develop a can-do attitude

Train to build up your body strength

Navy SEAL Survival Secrets Now Released to Americans for Limited Time

Test Your Water Use

A Double-Edged Sword

Pairing the unprecedented, super-filtration power of an all-new gravity block core with a hybrid ceramic shell, it removes 99.9999 percent of impurities, including bacteria, cysts, disinfectants, volatile organic contaminants (VOAs) and heavy metals.

Self-Sufficiency through Streams

Slow it, Sink it, Spread it, Store it

Reducing Reliance On Systems

Water Is Life

Pairing the unprecedented, super-filtration power of an all-new gravity block core with a hybrid ceramic shell, it removes 99.9999 percent of impurities, including bacteria, cysts, disinfectants, volatile organic contaminants (VOAs) and heavy metals.

Quick Disconnect Mounts

STUD Mount

CUP or HOLE Mount

RING Mount

SLOT Mount

No Mount

Combination Mounts and Adapters

Sling Types

Could this scenario happen to your loved ones?

My binder

Section A: Short-Term Emergency

Section B: Long-Term Emergency

How can you protect your money?

A bug out plan with Precious Metals

Social

Featured