Survival Diva 2012 Archives
Marchb 10, 2012
Can A Family Survive The End Of The World As We Know It
On Their Own?
Banning together with loved ones or trusted friends will increase your ability to survive a crisis of any duration. The reason is
simple: it would be extremely difficult to meet the heavy demands of survival during a grid-down scenario, which nearly always accompanies a crisis, without divvying tasks and skillsets. Let’s examine that.
Gathering Water will be demanding. Should you need to haul it in from a distance, not only will it be physically demanding, it will also eat up a good portion of your time. Even pulling water from a well with a manual hand pump is physically demanding. Because we can’t survive without water for drinking, cooking, and gardening, gathering water is an absolute necessity. Many of us would have a difficult time coping without the ability to bath, hand wash laundry and keep our surroundings clean, which will add to water demands.
Gathering Wood will be necessary for heating for those living in northern regions. Some preppers have chosen wood for alternative cooking because it is renewable. Tree-felling and chopping wood is physically demanding and time consuming.
Childcare doesn’t become less demanding during a crisis. Depending upon their age, children can help with certain tasks, but even then, they will need entertainment such as arts and crafts, games and reading in order to thrive.
Everyday Tasks like cooking from scratch, hand grinding grains, hand washing laundry and feeding a wood stove
takes physical stamina and takes time. Even simple tasks like cleaning a carpet means sweeping, rather than vacuuming when the grid is down.
Food production, as in gardening and gathering edible plants and herbs will be an absolute necessity. Otherwise, you
will face hunger when food storage runs out. Gardening, in turns, requires preserving the garden’s overflow through home canning, dehydrating food and storing it year-round in a root cellar or cold room.
Small Animals must be tended to. Many urban locations allow people to raise chickens, thus many preppers keep chickens for their valuable protein source. Those in rural areas may have goats and other animals that require attention.
Bartering is something many of us will find ourselves doing in a long-term crisis. It will be a lifesaver when goods run out, to be able to trade our know-how or goods for another’s, but it will expend energy and time.
Transportation will always be a necessity, but after SHTF, unless you have a horse or lots of fuel, you’ll likely have to get along on foot or on a bicycle. This expends time and energy.
Safety will be the MOST demanding of all the duties during a crisis. When grocery shelves empty (this will occur within hours of a crisis) and water no longer flows, people will be forced to take to the streets for survival. Unfortunately, some of them will be looters and worse. It will be necessary to patrol your property to be on the lookout for opportunists. This is not to say you haven’t planned on helping others—many preppers have set aside extra goods for just such a contingency—but if that person who shows up to your doorstep would rather steal your food storage and goods, you may be forced to defend yourself in order to survive.
Pooling Resources Equates To Survival
Survival requires knowledge, but I’ve yet to meet the person who has medical, military, hunting, fishing, tree-felling, carpentry, sewing, cooking, gardening and food preservation skills and the physical strength to be able to accomplish it all. Pooling skillsets with others helps to insure survival. Pooling funds is another benefit. For instance, you may not have the cash flow to buy large quantities of bulk beans and rice, but you may be able to with a group. Likewise with land; you may not have the bankroll for a cabin with a well, enough acreage for a garden and to raise small farm animals, but when banning together, suddenly the impossible may become possible.
March 8, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your Preparedness Is
Enough?
Part 4: Food
It may seem I've saved one of the most obvious aspects of preparedness for last.
Food storage, however, isn't as easy as it may seem. Emergency food storage
includes canned goods, bulk food, dehydrated and freeze-dried foods and MRE's.
Many experienced preppers use a combination, preferring to have flexibility in
their preparedness plan in the event they are forced to relocate or illness
makes cooking difficult.
Since over 80% of the populace
live in densely populated areas, it is important to consider safety when
planning meals. During a long term crisis there will be looting and worse. This
is not the time to telegraph preparedness with cooking odors! In dense
populations, it is wisest to store MRE's and canned goods that do not require
cooking.
For those in more rural settings, your
choices are greater and you can stock up on bulk goods, which is a cost saver.
Keep in mind that at least a portion of food storage should be canned goods or
MRE's for those times when your area may experience looters (the country will
NOT be immune) or when you simply need a break.
By checking
grocery circulars, clipping coupons, and buying in bulk at the bigger grocery
stores and through local growers, it's possible to cut the costs for food
storage in half! You'll find my favorite sites under "Favorite
Links".
Happy
Prepping!
February 16, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your
Preparedness Is Enough?
Part 3: Water
Without water, there
is no preparedness. It is the most important part of your arsenal towards
survival. If you have a well, you will need a manua (hand) pump to draw water
from the well if the electrical grid crashes. There are many
reasons to
prepare for a grid-down situation: storms, EMP, coronal mass ejection from the
sun, or economic collapse, which could fold municipalities during severe
economic conditions. Already, some folks have had to draw a straw as to whether
to pay the electric bill or buy food. Why get caught without a way to draw water
when there is a solution before a disaster? A manual hand pump comes
in several styles, and their costs vary greatly. For those living in a northern
climate, a frost-free model is the only way to go. For those who live in more
southerly climate zones, you can take your pick. If you're on an extreme budget
(this group is growing nowadays), visit Fred Dungan’s site:http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm
-- He kindly offers free step-by-step instructions on a making your own
manual hand pump and tells you how to dig your own well on under
$500..
If you live in the city, you will have to find a water source. Never make the mistake of believing that
a bathtub full of water and a few dozen water jugs will get you past a crisis! In an extreme emergency,
you will need to provide at least 28 gallons of water per person per month, and this does not include
bathing water.
An alternative water source can be a river, a lake or a pond. But when using
untreated water, water purification is a must, or you will get sick. My
favorite water purifier is the Berkey (no, I don’t have stock in Burkey), or the
Katadyn. Be sure to get extra filters and keep track of your water use so you
will know when it’s time to change the filters out. It’s a good idea to practice
running household water through your water purifier, so you can get a feel for
the amount of time it takes. It may surprise you--and why you will want to task
someone in your family or group to process water throughout the day so you can
stay on top of your water needs.
*** Never
store water in old milk cartons. This is a common mistake and it can prove
disastrous. Milk cartoons break down over just a few months. Should you store
water in them next to food storage, any leaks can and will destroy your food***
Think about how you will transfer water to
your home. If it’s a long ways away, then you’d better plan on getting a hand
cart that can pull filled water containers. Water jugs are extremely heavy!
Think about the safety, or lack of safety in your location. If you are in a
heavily populated area, you will want to take the path least travel to avoid
drawing attention to your preparedness. Think about this carefully…in a
melt-down, how many people will have thought ahead even to put aside water jugs,
or to have a hand cart? These items will speak volumes as to your preparedness
and they will be in great demand in a crisis. The wise thing to do is keep as
low a profile as possible and not bring strangers back to your door in the hopes
that you’ll have a water purifier to go along with the water jugs and the hand
cart.
Under links, you will find information on
how to purify water, including nuclear fallout. It is always wise to get a few
books on preparedness to have on hand as a reference...Survival: Prepare
Before Disaster Strikes has an entire chapter devoted to water collection,
storage, and purification. But so do many others. Pick the one you feel best
suits your needs—it’ll be money well spent!
If
you intend to pull information from the Internet, be sure to download it! Should
a grid-down arrive with a crisis (and this is likely), you would have no way to
pull the information from a computer. Always print any preparedness material and
keep it safely in a folder and NEVER assume the grid will be there when you most
need it.
February 10, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your
Preparedness Is Enough?
Part 2: Alternative
Cooking
To continue with our prep 101, today
we'll touch upon alternative cooking. Natural gas stoves and electric stoves may
not be able to be dependanded upon during an emergency. Some preppers have
decided to use a generator for backup power to run appliances, but should a
crisis last long enough, these steps may not be enough, for a gas or deisel run
generator will only run as long as stored fuel lasts. This will not be the case,
however, for those who live in a southern clkimate and plan to use a solar
generator.
Should you live in a urban setting,
cooking may not be the best choice, due to cooking orders...which will draw
attention to your preparedness. Think MRE'S and canned goods in such a case. In
a rural setting, a wood cook stove is a good choice, provided that you have a
wood supply. Another alternative
is open fire pit
cooking.
As you do a grid-down practice run,
keep note of the alternative fuel and or wood you consume--then times that
consumption by the length of time you plan to be prepared for. Practice cooking
with cookware suitable for your alternative cooking method (most likely cast
iron cookware) , and while doing so, cook with your food storage. Likewise, if
MRE'S are what you plan to eat, keep notes over what worked and what didn't and
the amount consumed. It may be that you'll decide to add canned fruit and other
canned goods to your food storage.
Stay tuned
for the next installment, which will discuss water storage, water purification
and collection.
February 4, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your
Preparedness Is Enough?
Unfortunately, a
crisis does not come with a crystal ball and instructions as to the event,
timeline or the duration of a crisis. The best any of us can do is make the
decision to prepare, determine if we want our preparedness supplies to cover a 3
month, 6 month, 1 year or longer time frame, and from there,
keep our eye on the goal until we’ve reached our personal safety zone.
But there is one often overlooked step to
preparedness that will uncover problems that can be addressed to avoid failure
in a full-blown emergency where failure is NOT an option. This approach is free,
but requires determination—simply put-- unplug from the grid for at least a
weekend, or longer if you can. No fudging, no excuses, just tough love with your
preparedness plan while it’s kicked into action and you search for weak links .
The next several Survival Diva Blogs will dive
in to what it takes to be set up and maintain a grid-down, self-sufficient
lifestyle that incorporates alternative water collection &
purification, heating, cooking, food preservation, lighting,
communications, and separating
ourselves from every-day dependence with everything electric.
To test your preparedness in a grid-down
scenario, you will need to be ruthless; meaning switch off the main circuit
breaker and spend a weekend, and preferably longer, without electricity and all
the conveniences it brings…without cheating!
We’ll start small, but even then, once your
electrical breaker is off, after a few hours things will get interesting:
·No
lights, unless you have emergency candles or oil/kerosene lamps. Even then tasks
like reading and sewing or tending to animals outdoors once the sun’s gone down
will be difficult.
·Small
electrical appliances like a coffee maker, can opener, electric wheat grinders
and a whole host of other every-day appliances we take for granted will not
work.
We’ve all been stuck without
electricity during a winter storm, but typically the power lines are repaired
within hours and it hardly registers a blip on the radar screen. Of course, a
weekend’s worth of off-grid living doesn’t offer the reality of a long term
emergency, but it will shine a light on the need to thoroughly plan out
preparedness that should include emergency candles and oil or kerosene lamps and
replacement chimneys and wicks for oil or kerosene lamps. And don’t forget to
store plenty of matches and oil or kerosene to see you through to the other side
of an emergency.
Setting yourself
up with manually-run appliances is another important aspect to successful
preparedness. If you’re used to starting your day with a cup of coffee before
your ready to face the day, better get a camp-style coffee maker or a coffee
press! It doesn’t hurt to have an “ heir and a spare”
for important items such as a
can openers—always keep at least two top-of-the-line can openers on
hand.A manual wheat grinder is a
must-have if you plan to grind wheat buds to render flour for baked goods and
breads. Even if you were able to purchase a best-brand model like Country Living
Wheat Mill, having replacement parts on hand is important. For cheaper models of
whet grinders, having an heir andspare
is the best approach.
January 26,2012
Just The Basics
So many that I talk to say they are guilty of dragging their feet with regards to preparing for the simple reason they don’t know where to begin. So I thought today was a good time to discuss preparedness 101.
Preparedness is easiest when approached from the basics…up. To do that, prioritizing is important. For any prepper, water should be your number one priority. Man can live for three weeks without food, but only three days without water. Do you have a workable solution for your water needs? If you are living in an urban setting, have you found a dependable source of
water? If not, it’s time to start problem solving your single most important component to survival—water.
There are surprising workarounds that you might consider for water storage even in the city. Waterbeds store an impressive amount of water and although in a long-term crisis you will still need a steady source of drinkable water, they will see you
through for the short term.
If you live in the country and have a well, have you planned ahead for a manual hand pump if the grid crashes and your water pump no longer works? If the answer is no, better get busy!
For those in the country or the city you must have a quality water purifier such as a Berkey or a Katadyn. And when you purchase that water purifier, make sure to buy replacement filters.
Food storage is “basic” only after figuring out what makes sense for your situation. Storing bulk foods such as beans, rice,
canned goods, and dehydrated and freeze-dried food requires cooking and storage space. That works for those with a basement who are not in the city where cooking odors would draw unwelcome attention. Decide on your best approach for
alternative cooking. A wood heat stove can be used for meal preparations when using cast iron Dutch ovens. Open fire pit cooking is another method. If you’re a die-hard prepper, a wood cook stove can’t be beat provided you have a reliable
wood source (think a tree-felling axe). Many plan to use a propane camp stove, but if this is your chosen method, make sure to have plenty of propane put aside and a back-up plan should a crisis last longer than you’d planned for.
Dense populations lend themselves better to MRE’S. They are portable, and they don’t require as much in the way of
storage space. Just as important, they don’t generate the cooking odors. Trust me; in a time when grocery store shelves have been emptied, and when people run out of food, there will be looters and worse. In a dense population, it’s best to about telegraphing your preparedness by generating cooking odors!
So what have you done to plan for your future? If you’ve been dragging your feet, stop! It’s time to start getting those pantry
shelves filled.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
January 18, 2012
Wake Up & Get Ready
If I had just one question I could ask, it would be asked of the American people: Why Aren’t You Prepared? It’s a legitimate question…I mean we think nothing of shelling out for auto insurance in case we have a fender-bender. We insure our homes, and some even pay for rental insurance in case of fire or theft. And we have health insurance in case of a medical emergency. So why, when food and water are pivotal for survival, don’t more people put food aside?
Is it because we don’t want to be seen as paranoid? Or are we worried about what our loved ones would think? Possibly it’s because we don’t want to give up that daily espresso, or movie night, or those stiletto heels we had to have.
Well, Here’s a wake up call.
*The United states has exactly enough wheat reserves for ½ a loaf of bread for every man, woman and child
*To feed the American people ONE meal for ONE day would require over 311,000,000 (311 million) meals
*The average piece of food must travel 1,500 miles before it reaches the consumer
*Food prices are driven by oil prices because agriculture is fossil fuel driven
* Grocery stores have only 72 hours of food on the shelf with ZERO back stock
* Weather anomalies are on the rise, leading to crop failure and higher food prices
* Fears of global financial collapse WILL lead to higher food prices & hoarding
* The average American saves only $392.00 per year and is $117,951 in debt, which includes credit cards, installment loans, home equity loans, and mortgages.
* Average monthly food costs, per adult, is between $150-$300
Based on the demographics listed above, lets assume you are one of the people who actually saves $392.00 per year, and lets assume your pantry is empty and you must buy food with the cash you have saved. We’ll be conservative and figure that your monthly grocery bill is at the lowest average cost of $150. With this equation, you would be able to feed yourself for a little over 2 ½ months.
The above scenario assumes there has not been a calamity that cleared grocery store shelves within hours. It also assumes truckers are able to deliver food, and that oil prices haven’t been driven up due to political unrest. In our scenario, there couldn’t have been crop failures that further increased food prices. And, there could not have been fears of global financial collapse that lead to hoarding, which lead to inflated food prices and the rationing that is sure to follow.
All in all, it makes perfect sense to fill your pantries…unless you expect meals on wheels to show up at your door, three times a day, 365 days a year.
________________________________________________________________________________
January 15, 2012
Who Do We Get To Blame For the Coffee Shortage?
Americans are adaptable. But take our coffee away, and look out! Most of us would be completely lost without caffeine to wake us up, and that doesn’t even address the headaches—which are not psychosomatic, but very real for any coffee drinker who has tried to go cold turkey without their morning coffee.
Coffee has gone up to ridiculous levels, but 2012 promises to be much worse. As with everything nowadays, the reason is multifaceted. We can begin by blaming China, because high-rises aren’t the only thing they’ve become interested in. The countries coffee consumption has risen 20% for several consecutive years, bring the prices up by the sheer force of supply and demand. Mother nature is another problem. Floods and dry weather, globally, has reduced crops, thus driving up the price and has lead to disruptions in supply. Some growers have become weary of the boom-bust cycles and have avoided increasing production. Seeing how demand is climbing and the coffee plant takes five years before cultivation, these circumstances have also added to the shortage and the price increase in coffee.
Since I was introduced to Yuban, I’ve been hooked—it’s the closest I’ve found to beans without the hassle and mess of grinding fresh beans. A little over a year ago, I remember seeing the 3 lb# cans for $5.00 and stupidly bought four of them. I should have bought a truckload full. It’s now $8.99 here in North Idaho. Bummer…
If you’ve begun setting aside food storage, I highly suggest you stock up on coffee. Now, before you have to take out a loan to buy it. Just one favor I ask from my fellow North Idahoans …please don’t take ALL the Yuban!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
January 3, 2012
Don’t Become a Victim By Advertising Your Preparedness
Most of us keep our preparedness a secret from our neighbors, community, and co-workers. This is a wise tactic, for should calamity strike, anyone we've told will be beating a path to our doors should the excrement hit the fan!
But what about the inherent dangers of advertising our preparedness when we kick our preparedness into gear?
Picture this; the grid has crashed. Silence reins as you start up your generator to keep your well water flowing and your fridge and heat going.
Better think of a plan B! Why?
In grid-down, looters and worse will go on a search-and-destroy for prepper goods. The noise from a generator is what they'll be listening for. In the ensuing silence, the noise from a generator will act as a beacon of opportunity for opportunists. The same goes for burning an oil lamp in your home. Either one of these backups will alert the bad guys to your preparedness. And make no mistake...they will liberate your goods through whatever means necessary.
Plan ahead by having blackout curtains, blackout fabric or black trash bags (that can be secured to windows with duct tape) to mask light coming from your home that would tip your hand of your preparedness and gain you a "visit".
If you live in a dense population, forget about firing up the BBQ or building a fire pit to cook up a pot of beans. Cooking odors will attract anyone nearby. Instead, consider MRE's that can be heated with the aid of a heating jacket or canned goods that can be eaten straight from the can if necessary.
Please, whatever you do, consider centering your preparedness strategy as independent of non-renewable goods such as fuel sources as possible. Think manually run appliances and a lifestyle similar to that of "Little House On The Prairie" if you're able to. This is especially true when planning for alternate heating, cooking, and water collection. I know this recommendation is demanding. And I readily admit it centers on the belief that during a crisis, people will become violent. But, we're talking about a time when desperate people will be seeking survival for themselves and their loved ones once it becomes evident the help they expected to receive from the govt. won't be there for them. No meals on Wheels, no clean water...nothing but their wits, and in some cases, their weapons.
Marchb 10, 2012
Can A Family Survive The End Of The World As We Know It
On Their Own?
Banning together with loved ones or trusted friends will increase your ability to survive a crisis of any duration. The reason is
simple: it would be extremely difficult to meet the heavy demands of survival during a grid-down scenario, which nearly always accompanies a crisis, without divvying tasks and skillsets. Let’s examine that.
Gathering Water will be demanding. Should you need to haul it in from a distance, not only will it be physically demanding, it will also eat up a good portion of your time. Even pulling water from a well with a manual hand pump is physically demanding. Because we can’t survive without water for drinking, cooking, and gardening, gathering water is an absolute necessity. Many of us would have a difficult time coping without the ability to bath, hand wash laundry and keep our surroundings clean, which will add to water demands.
Gathering Wood will be necessary for heating for those living in northern regions. Some preppers have chosen wood for alternative cooking because it is renewable. Tree-felling and chopping wood is physically demanding and time consuming.
Childcare doesn’t become less demanding during a crisis. Depending upon their age, children can help with certain tasks, but even then, they will need entertainment such as arts and crafts, games and reading in order to thrive.
Everyday Tasks like cooking from scratch, hand grinding grains, hand washing laundry and feeding a wood stove
takes physical stamina and takes time. Even simple tasks like cleaning a carpet means sweeping, rather than vacuuming when the grid is down.
Food production, as in gardening and gathering edible plants and herbs will be an absolute necessity. Otherwise, you
will face hunger when food storage runs out. Gardening, in turns, requires preserving the garden’s overflow through home canning, dehydrating food and storing it year-round in a root cellar or cold room.
Small Animals must be tended to. Many urban locations allow people to raise chickens, thus many preppers keep chickens for their valuable protein source. Those in rural areas may have goats and other animals that require attention.
Bartering is something many of us will find ourselves doing in a long-term crisis. It will be a lifesaver when goods run out, to be able to trade our know-how or goods for another’s, but it will expend energy and time.
Transportation will always be a necessity, but after SHTF, unless you have a horse or lots of fuel, you’ll likely have to get along on foot or on a bicycle. This expends time and energy.
Safety will be the MOST demanding of all the duties during a crisis. When grocery shelves empty (this will occur within hours of a crisis) and water no longer flows, people will be forced to take to the streets for survival. Unfortunately, some of them will be looters and worse. It will be necessary to patrol your property to be on the lookout for opportunists. This is not to say you haven’t planned on helping others—many preppers have set aside extra goods for just such a contingency—but if that person who shows up to your doorstep would rather steal your food storage and goods, you may be forced to defend yourself in order to survive.
Pooling Resources Equates To Survival
Survival requires knowledge, but I’ve yet to meet the person who has medical, military, hunting, fishing, tree-felling, carpentry, sewing, cooking, gardening and food preservation skills and the physical strength to be able to accomplish it all. Pooling skillsets with others helps to insure survival. Pooling funds is another benefit. For instance, you may not have the cash flow to buy large quantities of bulk beans and rice, but you may be able to with a group. Likewise with land; you may not have the bankroll for a cabin with a well, enough acreage for a garden and to raise small farm animals, but when banning together, suddenly the impossible may become possible.
March 8, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your Preparedness Is
Enough?
Part 4: Food
It may seem I've saved one of the most obvious aspects of preparedness for last.
Food storage, however, isn't as easy as it may seem. Emergency food storage
includes canned goods, bulk food, dehydrated and freeze-dried foods and MRE's.
Many experienced preppers use a combination, preferring to have flexibility in
their preparedness plan in the event they are forced to relocate or illness
makes cooking difficult.
Since over 80% of the populace
live in densely populated areas, it is important to consider safety when
planning meals. During a long term crisis there will be looting and worse. This
is not the time to telegraph preparedness with cooking odors! In dense
populations, it is wisest to store MRE's and canned goods that do not require
cooking.
For those in more rural settings, your
choices are greater and you can stock up on bulk goods, which is a cost saver.
Keep in mind that at least a portion of food storage should be canned goods or
MRE's for those times when your area may experience looters (the country will
NOT be immune) or when you simply need a break.
By checking
grocery circulars, clipping coupons, and buying in bulk at the bigger grocery
stores and through local growers, it's possible to cut the costs for food
storage in half! You'll find my favorite sites under "Favorite
Links".
Happy
Prepping!
February 16, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your
Preparedness Is Enough?
Part 3: Water
Without water, there
is no preparedness. It is the most important part of your arsenal towards
survival. If you have a well, you will need a manua (hand) pump to draw water
from the well if the electrical grid crashes. There are many
reasons to
prepare for a grid-down situation: storms, EMP, coronal mass ejection from the
sun, or economic collapse, which could fold municipalities during severe
economic conditions. Already, some folks have had to draw a straw as to whether
to pay the electric bill or buy food. Why get caught without a way to draw water
when there is a solution before a disaster? A manual hand pump comes
in several styles, and their costs vary greatly. For those living in a northern
climate, a frost-free model is the only way to go. For those who live in more
southerly climate zones, you can take your pick. If you're on an extreme budget
(this group is growing nowadays), visit Fred Dungan’s site:http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm
-- He kindly offers free step-by-step instructions on a making your own
manual hand pump and tells you how to dig your own well on under
$500..
If you live in the city, you will have to find a water source. Never make the mistake of believing that
a bathtub full of water and a few dozen water jugs will get you past a crisis! In an extreme emergency,
you will need to provide at least 28 gallons of water per person per month, and this does not include
bathing water.
An alternative water source can be a river, a lake or a pond. But when using
untreated water, water purification is a must, or you will get sick. My
favorite water purifier is the Berkey (no, I don’t have stock in Burkey), or the
Katadyn. Be sure to get extra filters and keep track of your water use so you
will know when it’s time to change the filters out. It’s a good idea to practice
running household water through your water purifier, so you can get a feel for
the amount of time it takes. It may surprise you--and why you will want to task
someone in your family or group to process water throughout the day so you can
stay on top of your water needs.
*** Never
store water in old milk cartons. This is a common mistake and it can prove
disastrous. Milk cartoons break down over just a few months. Should you store
water in them next to food storage, any leaks can and will destroy your food***
Think about how you will transfer water to
your home. If it’s a long ways away, then you’d better plan on getting a hand
cart that can pull filled water containers. Water jugs are extremely heavy!
Think about the safety, or lack of safety in your location. If you are in a
heavily populated area, you will want to take the path least travel to avoid
drawing attention to your preparedness. Think about this carefully…in a
melt-down, how many people will have thought ahead even to put aside water jugs,
or to have a hand cart? These items will speak volumes as to your preparedness
and they will be in great demand in a crisis. The wise thing to do is keep as
low a profile as possible and not bring strangers back to your door in the hopes
that you’ll have a water purifier to go along with the water jugs and the hand
cart.
Under links, you will find information on
how to purify water, including nuclear fallout. It is always wise to get a few
books on preparedness to have on hand as a reference...Survival: Prepare
Before Disaster Strikes has an entire chapter devoted to water collection,
storage, and purification. But so do many others. Pick the one you feel best
suits your needs—it’ll be money well spent!
If
you intend to pull information from the Internet, be sure to download it! Should
a grid-down arrive with a crisis (and this is likely), you would have no way to
pull the information from a computer. Always print any preparedness material and
keep it safely in a folder and NEVER assume the grid will be there when you most
need it.
February 10, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your
Preparedness Is Enough?
Part 2: Alternative
Cooking
To continue with our prep 101, today
we'll touch upon alternative cooking. Natural gas stoves and electric stoves may
not be able to be dependanded upon during an emergency. Some preppers have
decided to use a generator for backup power to run appliances, but should a
crisis last long enough, these steps may not be enough, for a gas or deisel run
generator will only run as long as stored fuel lasts. This will not be the case,
however, for those who live in a southern clkimate and plan to use a solar
generator.
Should you live in a urban setting,
cooking may not be the best choice, due to cooking orders...which will draw
attention to your preparedness. Think MRE'S and canned goods in such a case. In
a rural setting, a wood cook stove is a good choice, provided that you have a
wood supply. Another alternative
is open fire pit
cooking.
As you do a grid-down practice run,
keep note of the alternative fuel and or wood you consume--then times that
consumption by the length of time you plan to be prepared for. Practice cooking
with cookware suitable for your alternative cooking method (most likely cast
iron cookware) , and while doing so, cook with your food storage. Likewise, if
MRE'S are what you plan to eat, keep notes over what worked and what didn't and
the amount consumed. It may be that you'll decide to add canned fruit and other
canned goods to your food storage.
Stay tuned
for the next installment, which will discuss water storage, water purification
and collection.
February 4, 2012
Can You Be Sure Your
Preparedness Is Enough?
Unfortunately, a
crisis does not come with a crystal ball and instructions as to the event,
timeline or the duration of a crisis. The best any of us can do is make the
decision to prepare, determine if we want our preparedness supplies to cover a 3
month, 6 month, 1 year or longer time frame, and from there,
keep our eye on the goal until we’ve reached our personal safety zone.
But there is one often overlooked step to
preparedness that will uncover problems that can be addressed to avoid failure
in a full-blown emergency where failure is NOT an option. This approach is free,
but requires determination—simply put-- unplug from the grid for at least a
weekend, or longer if you can. No fudging, no excuses, just tough love with your
preparedness plan while it’s kicked into action and you search for weak links .
The next several Survival Diva Blogs will dive
in to what it takes to be set up and maintain a grid-down, self-sufficient
lifestyle that incorporates alternative water collection &
purification, heating, cooking, food preservation, lighting,
communications, and separating
ourselves from every-day dependence with everything electric.
To test your preparedness in a grid-down
scenario, you will need to be ruthless; meaning switch off the main circuit
breaker and spend a weekend, and preferably longer, without electricity and all
the conveniences it brings…without cheating!
We’ll start small, but even then, once your
electrical breaker is off, after a few hours things will get interesting:
·No
lights, unless you have emergency candles or oil/kerosene lamps. Even then tasks
like reading and sewing or tending to animals outdoors once the sun’s gone down
will be difficult.
·Small
electrical appliances like a coffee maker, can opener, electric wheat grinders
and a whole host of other every-day appliances we take for granted will not
work.
We’ve all been stuck without
electricity during a winter storm, but typically the power lines are repaired
within hours and it hardly registers a blip on the radar screen. Of course, a
weekend’s worth of off-grid living doesn’t offer the reality of a long term
emergency, but it will shine a light on the need to thoroughly plan out
preparedness that should include emergency candles and oil or kerosene lamps and
replacement chimneys and wicks for oil or kerosene lamps. And don’t forget to
store plenty of matches and oil or kerosene to see you through to the other side
of an emergency.
Setting yourself
up with manually-run appliances is another important aspect to successful
preparedness. If you’re used to starting your day with a cup of coffee before
your ready to face the day, better get a camp-style coffee maker or a coffee
press! It doesn’t hurt to have an “ heir and a spare”
for important items such as a
can openers—always keep at least two top-of-the-line can openers on
hand.A manual wheat grinder is a
must-have if you plan to grind wheat buds to render flour for baked goods and
breads. Even if you were able to purchase a best-brand model like Country Living
Wheat Mill, having replacement parts on hand is important. For cheaper models of
whet grinders, having an heir andspare
is the best approach.
January 26,2012
Just The Basics
So many that I talk to say they are guilty of dragging their feet with regards to preparing for the simple reason they don’t know where to begin. So I thought today was a good time to discuss preparedness 101.
Preparedness is easiest when approached from the basics…up. To do that, prioritizing is important. For any prepper, water should be your number one priority. Man can live for three weeks without food, but only three days without water. Do you have a workable solution for your water needs? If you are living in an urban setting, have you found a dependable source of
water? If not, it’s time to start problem solving your single most important component to survival—water.
There are surprising workarounds that you might consider for water storage even in the city. Waterbeds store an impressive amount of water and although in a long-term crisis you will still need a steady source of drinkable water, they will see you
through for the short term.
If you live in the country and have a well, have you planned ahead for a manual hand pump if the grid crashes and your water pump no longer works? If the answer is no, better get busy!
For those in the country or the city you must have a quality water purifier such as a Berkey or a Katadyn. And when you purchase that water purifier, make sure to buy replacement filters.
Food storage is “basic” only after figuring out what makes sense for your situation. Storing bulk foods such as beans, rice,
canned goods, and dehydrated and freeze-dried food requires cooking and storage space. That works for those with a basement who are not in the city where cooking odors would draw unwelcome attention. Decide on your best approach for
alternative cooking. A wood heat stove can be used for meal preparations when using cast iron Dutch ovens. Open fire pit cooking is another method. If you’re a die-hard prepper, a wood cook stove can’t be beat provided you have a reliable
wood source (think a tree-felling axe). Many plan to use a propane camp stove, but if this is your chosen method, make sure to have plenty of propane put aside and a back-up plan should a crisis last longer than you’d planned for.
Dense populations lend themselves better to MRE’S. They are portable, and they don’t require as much in the way of
storage space. Just as important, they don’t generate the cooking odors. Trust me; in a time when grocery store shelves have been emptied, and when people run out of food, there will be looters and worse. In a dense population, it’s best to about telegraphing your preparedness by generating cooking odors!
So what have you done to plan for your future? If you’ve been dragging your feet, stop! It’s time to start getting those pantry
shelves filled.
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January 18, 2012
Wake Up & Get Ready
If I had just one question I could ask, it would be asked of the American people: Why Aren’t You Prepared? It’s a legitimate question…I mean we think nothing of shelling out for auto insurance in case we have a fender-bender. We insure our homes, and some even pay for rental insurance in case of fire or theft. And we have health insurance in case of a medical emergency. So why, when food and water are pivotal for survival, don’t more people put food aside?
Is it because we don’t want to be seen as paranoid? Or are we worried about what our loved ones would think? Possibly it’s because we don’t want to give up that daily espresso, or movie night, or those stiletto heels we had to have.
Well, Here’s a wake up call.
*The United states has exactly enough wheat reserves for ½ a loaf of bread for every man, woman and child
*To feed the American people ONE meal for ONE day would require over 311,000,000 (311 million) meals
*The average piece of food must travel 1,500 miles before it reaches the consumer
*Food prices are driven by oil prices because agriculture is fossil fuel driven
* Grocery stores have only 72 hours of food on the shelf with ZERO back stock
* Weather anomalies are on the rise, leading to crop failure and higher food prices
* Fears of global financial collapse WILL lead to higher food prices & hoarding
* The average American saves only $392.00 per year and is $117,951 in debt, which includes credit cards, installment loans, home equity loans, and mortgages.
* Average monthly food costs, per adult, is between $150-$300
Based on the demographics listed above, lets assume you are one of the people who actually saves $392.00 per year, and lets assume your pantry is empty and you must buy food with the cash you have saved. We’ll be conservative and figure that your monthly grocery bill is at the lowest average cost of $150. With this equation, you would be able to feed yourself for a little over 2 ½ months.
The above scenario assumes there has not been a calamity that cleared grocery store shelves within hours. It also assumes truckers are able to deliver food, and that oil prices haven’t been driven up due to political unrest. In our scenario, there couldn’t have been crop failures that further increased food prices. And, there could not have been fears of global financial collapse that lead to hoarding, which lead to inflated food prices and the rationing that is sure to follow.
All in all, it makes perfect sense to fill your pantries…unless you expect meals on wheels to show up at your door, three times a day, 365 days a year.
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January 15, 2012
Who Do We Get To Blame For the Coffee Shortage?
Americans are adaptable. But take our coffee away, and look out! Most of us would be completely lost without caffeine to wake us up, and that doesn’t even address the headaches—which are not psychosomatic, but very real for any coffee drinker who has tried to go cold turkey without their morning coffee.
Coffee has gone up to ridiculous levels, but 2012 promises to be much worse. As with everything nowadays, the reason is multifaceted. We can begin by blaming China, because high-rises aren’t the only thing they’ve become interested in. The countries coffee consumption has risen 20% for several consecutive years, bring the prices up by the sheer force of supply and demand. Mother nature is another problem. Floods and dry weather, globally, has reduced crops, thus driving up the price and has lead to disruptions in supply. Some growers have become weary of the boom-bust cycles and have avoided increasing production. Seeing how demand is climbing and the coffee plant takes five years before cultivation, these circumstances have also added to the shortage and the price increase in coffee.
Since I was introduced to Yuban, I’ve been hooked—it’s the closest I’ve found to beans without the hassle and mess of grinding fresh beans. A little over a year ago, I remember seeing the 3 lb# cans for $5.00 and stupidly bought four of them. I should have bought a truckload full. It’s now $8.99 here in North Idaho. Bummer…
If you’ve begun setting aside food storage, I highly suggest you stock up on coffee. Now, before you have to take out a loan to buy it. Just one favor I ask from my fellow North Idahoans …please don’t take ALL the Yuban!
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January 3, 2012
Don’t Become a Victim By Advertising Your Preparedness
Most of us keep our preparedness a secret from our neighbors, community, and co-workers. This is a wise tactic, for should calamity strike, anyone we've told will be beating a path to our doors should the excrement hit the fan!
But what about the inherent dangers of advertising our preparedness when we kick our preparedness into gear?
Picture this; the grid has crashed. Silence reins as you start up your generator to keep your well water flowing and your fridge and heat going.
Better think of a plan B! Why?
In grid-down, looters and worse will go on a search-and-destroy for prepper goods. The noise from a generator is what they'll be listening for. In the ensuing silence, the noise from a generator will act as a beacon of opportunity for opportunists. The same goes for burning an oil lamp in your home. Either one of these backups will alert the bad guys to your preparedness. And make no mistake...they will liberate your goods through whatever means necessary.
Plan ahead by having blackout curtains, blackout fabric or black trash bags (that can be secured to windows with duct tape) to mask light coming from your home that would tip your hand of your preparedness and gain you a "visit".
If you live in a dense population, forget about firing up the BBQ or building a fire pit to cook up a pot of beans. Cooking odors will attract anyone nearby. Instead, consider MRE's that can be heated with the aid of a heating jacket or canned goods that can be eaten straight from the can if necessary.
Please, whatever you do, consider centering your preparedness strategy as independent of non-renewable goods such as fuel sources as possible. Think manually run appliances and a lifestyle similar to that of "Little House On The Prairie" if you're able to. This is especially true when planning for alternate heating, cooking, and water collection. I know this recommendation is demanding. And I readily admit it centers on the belief that during a crisis, people will become violent. But, we're talking about a time when desperate people will be seeking survival for themselves and their loved ones once it becomes evident the help they expected to receive from the govt. won't be there for them. No meals on Wheels, no clean water...nothing but their wits, and in some cases, their weapons.
