5 Lifesaving Items for Emergencies

Seemingly every year about winter time, preparedness sites focus on life saving items to keep on your nightstand, or items you should keep near you at night. And it makes sense, as many emergencies can occur in winter time, including ice and snow storms, fires and break-ins. So here’s our take on the age-old question.

Source of Light can be a LifeSaving Item (Flashlight/Headlamp)

Emergencies can come at any hour. but not being able to see during the emergency makes things all that much more dangerous, not to mention scary. Keeping a flashlight handy can save your life or at least make you much safer.

There are several approaches to having light sources available. Personally I suggest keeping a high lumen handheld flashlight like this one.

These types in particular allow you to focus the beam very far away or broaden the focus to light up an entire room, or even a backyard.

Many of these models of flashlights have safety loops you can wrap around your wrist when using them. And that loop can be used to hang the light close to your bedside.

In addition, it’s highly recommended you consider including a headlamp that can be used to free up your hands in a disaster situation.

Imagine needing to quickly grab items, like bug out bags, or weapons, and having to fumble around with a flashlight while doing so. Using a headlamp allows you to avoid this exact scenario. Be careful to try a few different types. Some can be pretty heavy and not very effective for long term use.

Another aspect of headlamps that can be important, not necessarily in emergency situations, is the ability to change the amount of light and even applying a red filter. Changing the amount of light allows you to save on battery life. And, of course, the red light is better for keeping your eyes’ natural night vision.

Cell Phone or Mobile Device

There is no doubt, the cell phone is one of the best tools we can have available to us in emergency situations. Emergency services can be called. Quick information lookups can be made – for instance in the case of poisoning.

Of course if your light sources above are just out of reach, you can still use most cell phones these days to light up an area as needed.

Most modern smartphones also have cameras, many of very high quality. Of course that means you can take pictures of damages done during storms or accidents, or get quick snapshots of criminals while in the act if you deem it safe to do so.

We’ll talk about it a bit more below, but don’t forget to plug that phone into its charger each night. Nothing more frustrating or dangerous to get into a challenging situation, just to realize your phone has only got 6 percent power remaining.

Power Supply for Any Electronic LifeSaving Item

We’ve alluded to it already. It becomes very important to keep all your electronics properly charged. You’re doing nothing else with them overnight, so plug them in to be better prepared.

One caveat here, keep in mind some electronic devices (primarily flashlights) still use the older style NiMH batteries, which will eventually lose their charge capacity. So if you do have that style, it might be important to put them on more of a schedule of allowing the device battery to run completely dead occasionally. And then completely recharge it.

If your device uses standard batteries such as AA or AAA, then consider adding a little case to carry it along with a few backup batteries.

Finally, consider having a small power pack, like this Mophie power station.

These can be used to charge your phone, and if you happen to have a rechargeable headlamp or flashlight, it can be used there too. These are so important to have available in everyday life and in possible emergency scenarios.

Security Device/ Self Defense Items

For security, if you’re a second amendment advocate, you likely already have a weapon of choice. And it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, get trained and regularly practice shooting with your platform.

It may seem the natural choice is to go with a smaller package to “keep in your nightstand”. However, do some research and consider the possibility that a shotgun or pistol caliber carbine might be better suited for your personal needs. I won’t go too much in depth in this guide on the advantages and disadvantages of each. Just know that there are many options and considerations must be given for each. I’ll say It again, get trained on your platform, and practice.

If you’re not much of a firearms fan, there are many options you can still use to protect yourself and your family. Consider non- lethal items such as:

Fast-Strike Tactical Whip

https://www.faststrikedefense.com/fast-strike-whip

Sabre Pepper Gel Canisters

https://www.sabrered.com/pepper-spray-and-personal-safety-products

And it may seem drastic, but keeping a large knife (like a hunting knife or machete in its sheath) can be a great deterrent if someone sees you wielding it. Again, just be knowledgeable on how to use it. And willing to use it if the time comes. If you don’t think that’s your style, then stick to the other non-lethals.

Last but not least, it’s great to have a dog! Dogs can be our best friends. They can go on runs with us to keep us healthy. They can show you kindness and distract you when you’re feeling low. But throughout history, domesticated dogs have also been used as protection from danger.

It is true that even just having a smaller dog able to bark a warning when danger is near is a great first line of defense. But it becomes even more important to have a well trained dog that knows you and your family. A dog can be treated as part of a family, but don’t skip out on proper training for the main commands.

Eye Glasses/ Reading Glasses

Speaking from a position of years of experience, don’t forget the glasses. Yes there are many who are not afflicted by near or far-sighted struggles. But, if you’re coming from anywhere near the GenX perspective, reading glasses become so important to a normal way of life. Definitely consider getting the Multi-focus lenses as well. They are great for everyday use.

So, just trust us, this is important to somebody out there!

LifeSaving Honorable Mentions

fire extinguisher – at the very least, have several positioned purposefully throughout the house and know how to use them
vehicle keys – at the very least, know where your keys are at all times. Have a default place where they are kept and always leave them there
wallet/purse – same as keys. Have a specific location preferably the same as your keys, and always keep them there
Shoes – it seems silly to say, but think of a scenario in which a breakin or storm happens, with broken glass and you’ve got to move fast in the dark. You will want to be able to move quickly without fear of cutting your feet
And just for the long-locks ladies out there, possibly a hair-band. In emergencies having those beautiful locks tied up and out of your face will allow you to function much more smoothly

Thanks for joining us on this one. But we’d really love to hear your feedback to help us grow and communicate new ideas to the audience.

Until next time, this is @genxtalkin signing off…

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022

5 Powerful Methods for Food Prepping for Emergencies

Prepping food is, of course, a key aspect of a family’s Preparedness goals. As the “Rule of Three” suggests, a person can typically only last 3 weeks without food. So having a solid plan around food prepping is incredibly important. In today’s blog post, we are going to review 5 types of food prepping for emergencies.

5 Powereful Food Prepping Methods in Emergencies

72 Hour Supply Recommended by the Government

In just about any FEMA or Preparedness website sponsored by the government, you will find the recommendation is to prepare our homes with at least 72 hours of food and water. Now, whether 72 hours is a useful timeframe (or not) is not the main point in this section. We are only using this as a placeholder for the most often used short timeframe for preparing emergency supplies. This really can be a simple task, and with some review of our own personal stock I dare say almost all homes in the US have this already, three days of food readily available, whether they believe it or not. We really are a nation of plenty, and without even realizing it, most homes have at least some stocks of food that could be rationed out to 72 hours.

Ready.gov Website - Bug Out Bags — Ready.gov Website – Bug Out Bags

Therein lies one of the serious issues, rationing. In times of emergencies, many people who are not prepared mentally, would see dwindling supplies in their cupboards and immediately think they need to go out and gather more to stock up, “as the storm approaches.” We do see evidence of this in many big cities affected by hurricanes, tornadoes, and larger storms every year. News stations seem to love showing images of the empty water and toilet paper shelves days ahead of these proverbial storms, which causes more concern for the average citizen.

An uncomplicated way to approach the 72-hour food prepping recommendation is to buy in pairs. Meaning, when you’re at the grocery store acquiring items your family eats on a normal basis, consider adding a second can or package of pasta to slightly increase the amount in your smaller pantry or cupboard. And then, keep a simple running inventory of items, or make them readily visible. This way you can recognize if something is getting low, you can purchase more the next time you are at the store. Also, by inventorying or making the items visible, the first response to the “dire” images from the media will not need to be run out and buy more stuff you do not need.

Stock the Pantry so you can Shop the Pantry

Now that we have our short-term supply covered, we can begin considering longer time frames for food. An interesting term gets used in some preparedness circles, “shop your pantry.” Mainly this means, when you run out of an item in your kitchen, such as bar-b-que sauce or chicken stock for soups, you can go to your own pantry to “shop” for more. Afterall that is where your initial stock should be, within your own home pantry.

As we did above to prepare our 72-hour stocks, use the “buy-in-pairs” method to build up this stock within your own pantry over time. In this case, keeping a running inventory of the items in stock becomes a bit more important. You do not necessarily want to keep buying more supplies, and accidentally stock more of something you may not need. Especially considering you could be low in another item.

But even if you store additional items your family may not need immediately, having these items on hand will start to build a level of comfort and peace when challenging times arise. One key point to emphasize again here is to purchase items your family regularly uses or eats. This is especially important to keep in mind so that your shelves do not become overflowing with useless items the family will never eat.

Additionally, when walking through the grocery store some days, look at the expiration dates on the packaging of items. When it comes to dried pasta, canned foods and oil, there is a very long shelf life for these items. And in exceedingly tough times, non-perishable food that is long past its expiration date can still be used. It often only means the flavor is a bit less quality and the nutritional value might have reduced slightly.

Finally, as part of the “shop your pantry” efforts, let’s introduce one more important term, cycling. Cycling simply means using the oldest food first when shopping your pantry. As you review your pantry storage efforts, consider placing new items toward the back of the row or stack, so you are more likely to use the oldest first by pulling from the front of the row. As well, it becomes important to start labelling each can or package as it’s added to the pantry. Just keep a little sharpie pen hanging in the pantry area, and as you add items in, write a quick month/year marker on the top or side of the packaging. This way even if you make a mistake in the cycling of the items, you can still quickly verify you are using the oldest items first in your day-to-day cooking.

Full Storage Plan for at Least 1 Year of Food Prepping

Now, if it is your desire, you can start moving toward a more prepared home for longer term events. Mormons, as an example, have a directive from their spiritual leadership to store the “bare minimum” of home, clothing, and protection for challenging times. Whether you are a fan of that faith group or not, the fundamental practice of keeping stores of items you may need for a year is sound. Yes, they do use the term “bare minimum” to represent a year of food and they include recommendations for longer periods of time where possible. Also note, they include recommendations for clothing and protection along with the food, which can be incredibly important additions to any preparedness plans – but not in the context of this post today.

So how can we begin putting a plan into action to build a one-year inventory of food (and possibly water) supplies? Begin by using the practices stated above, and organization will play a key role in successfully accomplishing this set of goals. Start with the “buy-in-pairs” method to continue adding to stores effectively. Keeping the inventory flowing on a first in, first out basis will help the family to ensure that the stores stay fresher, longer. Continuing this process over a period of months can easily build the stores within your home pantry. As you will find out quickly enough, space and variety quickly become nagging issues.

Premade Canned Food Storage for Prepping

There are many options for providing better organization of the space you do have. We’ve probably all seen the 12-15 can dispensers that automatically push the oldest to the front for you. These are great for canned items, but keep in mind the need to provide different options for the assorted sizes of canned goods. There are also building plans available online for wooden contraptions that allow you to store massive amounts of canned goods within small areas (like within the area between studs in a wall). These are particularly useful when your pantry is limited on space. Now, this effort mainly considers the storage of items like already canned foods, to bring organization to the food stores you have available.

As mentioned above, the next nagging issue will be variety, because, although we could exist, and maybe even thrive, using canned or packaged foods alone, eating the same foods everyday will not be joyful in the least. So… start a garden. If you are fortunate enough to have a large yard and the time and energy to maintain a garden, take the opportunity to start early. Having a garden in which you are able to grow some fresh vegetables, and even some fruits and nuts will offset the often-boring meals you might get from canned and packaged foods. And if you have the space for larger crops like fruit trees and expansive plants like sweet potatoes, take advantage of growing more and use alternative growing methods like companion planting and permaculture.

Knowledge is most definitely power when it comes to gardening. Each growing season you will learn more about what grows in your climate and soil. And even if you only have limited space, for instance an apartment or condominium, consider using vertical gardening or hydroponic methods indoors and near a window. There are some very impressive examples online of “living” walls within a home, in which the plants grow up a trellis, or within PVC pipes with holes, and it really can add to the beauty of the home. This will not only allow you to extend your growing season but will also allow you to monitor and protect the items as well.

Please do not be confused to think that in a small vertical garden within a rented apartment a family would be able to grow enough food for a year. Quite the contrary, trying to grow one’s own food source completely will be excessively difficult to prepare for properly, and lends itself more to the homesteading movement. Much more planning and organization would be required for that level of effort.

MREs and Emergency Rations can be great additions for portable Food Prepping

Emergency Foods and MREs

Before we move to the final option, any discussion of emergency food prepping should include at least a mention of emergency rations and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat from XMRE). MREs are packaged food with readily available warmers that were traditionally used by the military for short term missions. Although they are not the lightest food source for soldiers to carry into potential combat situations, they do provide nearly 4000 calories per package. Theoretically, if the recommended daily allowance for a person is 1500-2000 calories, just a couple of these packages could potentially provide sustenance for several days. This is, of course, a fantastic alternative in an emergency event, especially when considering portability. So, it makes sense, at the very least, to include MREs in the long-term planning for preparedness in any household or community.

What about Emergency Rations? The most interesting example of how to describe these little power packs is Lembas, those relatively flat cakes made popular by Samwise Gamgee in the JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings series. They are basically a block of food substance, with minimal taste (not bad tasting, mind you), but high levels of calories, typically 2000-3000 calories for a small block of food. Emergency Rations can be obtained from just about any online source, including the likes of Amazon, and they are typically very inexpensive considering the number of calories included in such a small package. It is true, Emergency Rations are not the most tasteful, but consider the name and the many potential use cases, and it is easy to understand why one should augment their preparedness planning with these effective items.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic on the beltway for a couple of hours?
Have you ever been travelling a long distance and had a highway shutdown due to a large pileup in extreme weather?
Have you ever been on a day hike and realized you forgot your lunch back at the car or base camp?

Now nobody is going to starve to death stuck in traffic, even for a day, but it sure would be a comfort to realize after a few hours of waiting, that you have nearly 6000 calories of a cake-like substance readily available in your emergency kit in your trunk.

The Ultimate Solution for Food Prepping: Homesteading

Finally, we get to the ultimate solution for sustainable food preparations, the homesteading approach. Homesteading can mean different things to different people, so let’s define with our own words.

“Homesteading is a sustainable way of life in which the individual or family unit can grow, process, store, cook and eat their own food substances to maintain a healthy, and varied, means of caloric intake.”

Of course, it can mean a lot more, but homesteading takes the family unit back to a time when they were able to survive and thrive within their own environment with limited need for outside support. Homesteading includes significant capability in gardening, even to include the level of actual farming potentially large fields and orchards. So that a family has a seasonal effort to plan, grow, harvest and store proceeds from the family plots of land. Assorted crops can not only be used for the family’s sustenance, but additionally could be used as barter with similar minded groups in trade. Using out of season provisions such as greenhouses can be used to extend the growing season for certain crops and allow the family to grow crops not native to their climate region.

Homesteading could include many layers of a family’s meat sources as well, such as raising chickens for eggs as well as meat. With chickens, eggs can be a tremendous source of protein for a hungry family. Additionally, eggs can be stored for over a year in a jar with certain processing. Eggs could also be dried for longer term food prepping. Raising goats, pigs, and cattle in similar ways for meat, and/or milk is an often-used alternative to purchasing store bought meats. Meat from processed animals could also be jarred and stored for long term.

Finding means to regularly store food and other items for longer time periods is particularly important to the homesteader. Jarring, canning, smoking, drying, and pickling (among others) are all unique ways the homesteading community will prepare for the times when the land is not providing in real time.

For the homesteader, establishing a means of barter with items of excess production or skill can make for a fantastic way to augment the family’s needs. For instance, if the family has a plot of land that happens to grow an excess of corn that is unneeded by the family, they can exchange it for other fruits or vegetables that might contain more vitamin “C.” Or if the family has a respectable number of goats producing milk, the family may use the excesses of milk to produce cheeses to be used in exchange for meats from the local farmer’s market.

Conclusion

As you can see, preparedness in relation to food supply can be a complex and multi-faceted endeavor. For the beginner prepper or person just entering this exciting world, it helps to start simply. Focus on the immediate potential hazards to gain the most benefit from food preparations. Make sure to focus on foods and tools the family uses most often and build up the 72-hour supply with most haste. The urgency should be a bit more relaxed at this point because the impact of most potential emergency scenarios is greatly reduced with this solution. In this process, you will likely be building out “get-home-safe” vehicle kits or Bugout Bags. Do not forget to consider MREs or E-Rations for this exact purpose.

Once to that point, focus on a two-week supply, but build it over time using the “buy-in-pairs” method and some decent organization. As time, energy, and space allows, begin to focus on what it will take to build a longer-term supply of food, clothing, and protection (maybe even a year’s worth). This effectively becomes an asset over time and allows the family to relax in those times when most of the population is scrambling during emergencies.

@genxtalkin

November 18, 2021February 2, 2022

Discover The “5 Cs” of Survivability

In today’s blog post I’d like to start first with defining the difference between survivability and preparedness. Prepping or preparedness is generally a process and overall frame of mind toward being ready to respond in challenging times. This can mean preparing the home, your office, your car for most likely challenging situations that could occur.

In contrast, and as the name implies, survival or survivability is the likelihood of a person or group to survive those challenging times.

“Survivability can be defined as the ability to remain alive or continue to exist.”

Let’s consider the “Five Cs” of survivability within this context then. They typically imply a person is in these challenging times already, and with the presence, and proper knowledge of the use of these items, survivability can be greatly improved.

One more note before we launch into each of the “Five Cs”. Very often the “Five Cs” are discussed within the context of wilderness survival. Although necessary to understand this value, I’m going to challenge myself by adding in a few additional concepts around survival in more urban type environments as well…. Here we go…

Cutting Tools

Yes, a knife! But not just any old knife. There are many different purposes for knives; and depending on the challenge ahead, different knives might be recommended.

Those who like to fish, know that the proper knife can make the process of cutting line or cleaning the fish much more (or less) pleasant.

Many feel that a simple multi-tool will do the job, such as this one from Gerber, or Leatherman. A multi-tool added to a go-bag or get home kit is an absolute must. However, if you’re striking a magnesium stick to start a fire, a straight, fixed blade might be a better option.

Of course, I couldn’t discuss knives without at least touching on their value as a security tool. Having a small multi-tool with a fold out blade is not a very good answer when needing quick access for self defense. Again a good quality straight edge would be a better option. And in some areas and some purposes, even Bowie or machete-type blades have their values. Ed did a quick review of the SOG Seal Pup Knife at the following:

So, starting off, really consider what purposes you might have for a cutting tool and augment your bag(s) with the appropriate tools.

Combustion Device

Next, let’s talk about fire! It gives heat and light and within the right framework brings great comfort and happiness. But living within a city? Aside from a home fireplace, Is there really a need?

To answer the question simply, yes. But first let’s just talk from the perspective of history and skill. To have the ability, by multiple means, to start a fire, is a great feeling! Imagine yourself as Tom Hanks’ character in Castaway, standing up with arms spears wide, yelling out, “I have made… FIRE!”

It’s so much fun to learn the different ways to start it and keep it going.

Now, onto the actual ways to start a fire. Of course, there’s the ok standby, a lighter (or multiple lighters to be safe). This is always a good idea to have some lighters around and available. But they do run out of fuel, and often at the most inopportune times. One side note here, I recommend those with longer handles to reach into a kindle pile for lighting.

Another very popular way to start fires are Ferro Rod (possibly along with a magnesium block) with Striker, such as this one from Uberleben

Matt did an Unboxed Prepping Review of this little tool. Check it out here:

These are great, and with the proper experience, a person can start a fire just as quickly as a lighter and almost never risk running out of fuel. As with most other fire starting cases, it’s also important to have some fire starter material such as dry tinder, cotton balls in petroleum jelly, dryer lint, or those pre-made fire ropes (like this one).

Definitely consider adding these to your go bags.

To learn more about the difference between Ferro and Magnesium, check out this article

Ferro Rod vs. Magnesium: The Pros, the Cons & our Top Pick!

There’s another tool, called the piston fire starter that’s similar to the ferro rod solution. Only it requires a couple of pretty specific items first before it will work effectively. Namely, the char-cloth in the tip of the piston allows pressure to create a spark with the premade char cloth. It’s quite ingenious and actually pretty fun to test your fire making skills. I would not necessarily recommend it for a go-bag mainly because you would likely have a limited amount of char cloth, and a fairly limited number of opportunities for fire.

I’ll conclude this section with the more dramatic fire starter skill, the bow drill. Although there are plenty of videos of people (I suspect highly trained people) using a bow drill to start a fire in a matter of seconds. I also highly suspect this is in ideal conditions with dry wood, no wind, and an expert at the helm. Unless you practice this specific set of skills regularly, I would not recommend this being a part of any go-bag.

Cover

Next let’s discuss cover, aka shelter, aka tarp, aka tent… so many different ways to provide protection from the elements. If out in nature or even your backyard, a simple tarp, pole and stakes will do the trick to keep a person protected. If you read anything about thru hikers (eg Appalachian Trail), the tarp is often the best option for shelter. It’s cheap, compactable and stands up to just about any weather. However I would caution a user to try many different ways of setting it up in different conditions (wet ground, cold, extreme heat, rocky ground) to be better prepared when difficult times arise.

In emergency cases something as simple as an emergency poncho or bivvy (bivouac) sack might be good lightweight options. Both of these options are single person and not intended for the long term, or for protecting anything other than the person (meaning there’s no room for items you may have with you, like a backpack).

This leads us to some other more common options, the tent and hammock/fly combinations. The tent is seemingly as old as time. If you’ve got a good tent and rain fly you can be prepared for just about any type of experience. Of course consideration should be made to the number of people that would be housed in the tent. As well, weight can be an issue, especially if the disaster experience could cause any significant travel by foot. That’s said nothing beats a good quality lightweight tent for shelter in difficult times. With some of the newer cloth tech used in hammock, these are quickly becoming valuable, lightweight alternatives to tents. It’s very important to have available a rain fly along with the tent to keep it considered as an effective shelter.

In the most typical disaster situations, a person’s home is the best shelter available. So keeping up solid maintenance on the home is very important no matter the type of abode. And of course in certain areas of the country, special consideration should be given for protection of the home itself. Ideas to consider might include hurricane windows in those areas, lockdown devices on cabinetry and other items in earthquake prone areas, and bunkers for tornado areas. As well it might also be important to consider potential for civil unrest and how one might protect their homes.

Container

Next, let’s talk about containers. Containers come in many shapes and forms (e.g. backpack, canteen, water bladder, fanny pack, tote back, compression sack, and more). Depending on the potential scenarios, different types of containers may be needed. Survival in the wilderness would need some form of water holding device like a canteen, water bottle, or bowl. And water really is one of the most important aspects of survival. I certainly like the dromedary-type bags from MSR

These are super tough and with a bit more planning a sipping hose can be attached to allow you to hold your water in your backpack while still having access.

But keeping it simple, one can simply find a 1 liter Smart Water bottle and refill it while trekking from one spot to the next.

Aside from water containers, there are two additional areas of high importance. Backpack, or other carrying container, and cooking containers. For carrying containers, look for a solid backpack that’s lightweight and anywhere from 40-50 liters capacity. This will allow for relatively easy travel. These are great options for a backpack if you’re looking:

But even picking one up from a goodwill or a flea market can get the job done without breaking the bank.

If you’re stationary, or have access to a reliable vehicle (with fuel), then larger plastic bins work very nice for keeping items organized and moveable. These types of bins (sealable, with snap-shut features) are readily available at large chain resellers.

Now, for cooking containers, there are too many options to name here, but, I really would recommend one of these little kits you can get, like this one from Esbit:

Cookset with alcohol burner (pots without non-stick coating) CS985HA | pots made of aluminum (without non-stick)

This one in particular is helpful as it has two separate containers in one (cooking pot and drinking cup), as well as a stand and little brass burner, that accepts liquid or solid fuel. You can try to get by with just a metal cup and perhaps a little rocket stove, but nothing beats the comfort of one of these little premade kits.

Cordage

Finally, we get into cordage. Like containers, cordage can mean different things and serve many purposes. When in the wild, like being on a hike, it’s important to bring along an extra bit of cordage so you can hang any food up high in a bear bag, or tie additional items to your backpack. A nice roll of 550 paracord works quite well for most purposes, even a couple of hundred feet makes for a pretty lightweight and smaller package that fits nicely into any carrying container.

Recently, I’ve also found a number of interesting SpiderNet type cordage that makes it much easier to attach items to loops on your backpack. Begin that they are often composed of interwoven 550-type cordage, they can be hooked to just about anywhere on your pack with simple carabiner. Here’s an interesting one from Pack-Rabbit:

As well as those more traditional purposes for cordage, there are also some more obscure purposes. In first aid being able to tie a broken limb to a splint can be an important life-saving purpose. And for protection, if you’ve caught an unwanted individual hanging around your property, cordage can be used to subdue them until authorities can arrive.

One important knowledge base item that should be considered along with cordage is the skill of knot-tying. Here’s a really neat site that can help with training. It’s got great little animated images for many different types of knots:

Home

And in case you don’t have an opportunity to study on a regular basis it might also be helpful to to throw a little waterproof, knot-tying guide or cards into your bag (something like the Pro-Knot Outdoor Knots Book Ring would really be a good addition).

To wrap up to discussion, I hope this review of the “Five Cs” of Survivability will help our audience to become more familiar with and simplify the concepts around survivability. If you have any further comments, please leave a message in the comments section below.

And always remember to be learning better ways to respond well and recover faster.

@genxtalkin

September 17, 2021September 17, 2021

Scheduling Your Preparedness

This is such a great subject to discuss, scheduling your preparedness, and for a number of different reasons. First, if you’re new to preparedness, and there are many of you out there, it can be very daunting to start. As you do start, you begin to realize very quickly how far behind you may be. By scheduling out your preparedness, you can see the positive changes taking place, which will help you to stay organized making sure you’re not missing something in your initial planning.

Anyone Can Gain From Scheduling Their Preparedness

If you’ve been a prepper for some time already, by going through this type of process, you can set yourself on a regular schedule, causing you and your family/community to stay prepared for the long run.

As well, consider if you’ve been focused on preparedness, but tend to focus more on one area than another. For instance, maybe you like the security aspect of preparedness, and not the medical aspects. Or maybe you’re very into homesteading and keeping yourself fed during difficult times, but have no real idea around security. Scheduling out your preparedness to include all the different areas will help you and your family to be better equipped.

Finally, if you’re a long time prepper and feel you’re the best and most prepared, then you may have already missed one major point of preparedness. That is, to always be learning and to always be improving. If you feel you’ve reached a point and you’ve got all your security bases covered, maybe it’s time to have a friend review it with you. If you feel your family can be fed consistently, even in difficult times, maybe it’s time to consider how you can help others in their times of need. So let’s look at some ways to schedule your preparedness, for now, as a person with beginner or intermediate knowledge of preparedness.

Examples of Scheduling Your Preparedness

Most government Offices of Emergency Management create some form of preparedness for the public at large. This really can be a great place to start. Examples of what some provide are shown above. Eventually, your plan and how you will react for yourself should depend upon your needs. You should not rely on any external organization, government or other, to solve your own preparedness challenges. But “borrowing” from these organizations, at the very least, to get you started and develop a schedule and plan will help get much closer to the goal, much sooner.

For example, the FEMA website, ready.gov shows the following diagram in their Communication Plan documentation:

If you were to take each of these 12 areas and focus on just one per month over the next year, you would find yourself much closer to your family being fully prepared for any natural, and perhaps even man-made, disaster. You would also find that, as you dive into one of the twelve shown, it may drive you to others. Learning to go with the flow will only help the effort.

You might start, in your first month, with simply signing up for “Alerts and Warnings”. And as you’re researching this effort, you find that several of the apps created for such a purpose are written or sponsored by one of the local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). As you find out more about CERT, this can help you “become more involved in your community”. CERT may give you opportunities to train in basic emergency response, and CPR and First Aid. Which then can make you more of a resource and you to “Plan more with your Neighbors”. At this point, you’ve already touched on several of the list of twelve.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting this is the only way to create a schedule for you to start on your path of preparedness. But by doing even a small amount of research and putting some form of a schedule in place, you can be more confident the plan will include the many different aspects of preparedness.

Preparing for Clean Air

Another example of creating a schedule is to use the survival rule of threes, ordering them by priority, and then placing them into regular intervals of achievement. Starting with air and shelter, give yourself a timeline, for instance, you might start by setting a goal to have enough N95 masks for your entire family. This became incredibly apparent during the early days of the Covid pandemic of 2020. Then, we must ensure each person is properly trained on how to apply the mask and at what point the mask becomes useless against different threats, and training is key here.

Preparing Your Shelter (Your Home)

For shelter, first ensure your home is properly cared for, whether single family dwelling, large piece of land or apartment. It’s important to make sure the chances of losing your home are very very slim. Having properly managed finances becomes key, of course, making sure you are living well within your means of income. If not, find a way to move to a home that fits within your means. Then of course, be sure the property is insured correctly, so if a loss of home is incurred due to disaster, you’re not left homeless.

Finally, still focusing on shelter, if you own a home or property, living within your means, also indicates you know how much per year it will cost to maintain that home. This can be a difficult pill to swallow. Many people just live in their home until something starts to fall apart, without regular maintenance, and they are always surprised when the roof or furnace needs replacing. If you perform your own maintenance on your home, you’re already a step ahead because you might be more likely to see something coming. But, if you don’t, then take a look around your home. Consider all major appliances, windows, doors, roofs, and try to remember when’s the last time they were serviced. They are all working to protect or provide for you, so do yourself a favor and get them serviced. In doing this, you’ll come to realize that this will help you to plan ahead and budget to replace an item, rather than have it fail on you unexpectedly.

As you can see, preparing for shelter may be a bit more of a project than just a single month, because there are so many different areas to consider. So you may schedule this out over a period of time.

Preparing Your Water Stores

Next, you can start moving on to collecting water. Water is incredibly important, and something that can be relatively simple to plan, It does however require space, so once you settle on a means of collection, plan to stick to that style. I personally have chosen the single gallon bottles from Crystal Geyser as my storage method. These bottles are semi-square in nature. So it makes storing them much easier in my shelving apparatus, and each bottle has a fairly strong handle that makes it easy to pick up multiple bottles at one time. Within a 4 foot area, I can generally hold about 25 gallons per shelf. Three or four shelves and I have enough water for most likely events. Oh yea, and just about every other week, there’s a sale at 10 for 10 bucks! This is not to say this is the only means of water collection, but it does allow for excellent ways to acquire, manage and store it. And of course, I can use these bottles as a normal part of our daily routine and keep cycling out older bottles over time.

Preparing Your Food Stores

This brings up an important point now as we start to transition into food storage. Cycling in new food, and cycling out older food stores. There’s a concept in some preparedness circles called “Shopping Your Pantry”. It simply means two things. First, when you go to the grocery store a large part of the shopping effort should be to replenish items used from your pantry. So when you see those sales of two items for seven bucks, or something similar, you pick them up in order to build up your reserves at home. Depending on your financial situation it could be one or two weeks to build up your pantry, or it could be several months. But once you do this, you will start to realize how easy it can be to build up a reserve. You can easily meet and exceed the recommended 1-2 weeks of food reserves in your pantry.

Second, when you schedule your meals for the upcoming week, plan to look in your pantry first, or “shop” in your pantry for items for the next week of meals. Overall, you may find your grocery bills start going down because you’re able to use what you already have, and only shop for the things you need. One important point here for those of you health conscious fans out there. There’s nothing that can replace fresh fruits, veggies and meat. So, I’m not saying store up on a bunch of packaged meals. Far from it. In fact augmenting your groceries with locally grown (even in your own garden or homestead) fruits and vegetables will only help you, and besides it gives you such a feeling of accomplishment to know that the food on your table came from you very own garden. Just remember, that as you stock up for short term emergency responses, you need to increase your stock with food you would normally eat. This way you can keep it also on a regular cycle of replenishing foods you’ve eaten with new stocks.

Preparing for Protection

Now that your air, shelter, water and food are taken care of, you can continue with scheduling out how you will protect yourself and your family and eventually assist in protecting your community. Consider firearms, with proper training and preparation, clearly firearms can be the great equalizer in home invasions, or similar type events, but if for some reason you’re uncomfortable or improperly trained, they can be more dangerous than beneficial. Really consider this topic and if you decide to move in the direction of any form of firearm, absolutely obtain professional training as soon as possible.

Alternatively, obtaining training in some form of martial arts or combat sport, can help in many dangerous situations. Examples might be Krav Maga, which is an Israeli Combat form that teaches people self protection with defence and simultaneous counter attack. I personally feel there are no other self defense skills that will better serve an average person. However, Krav Maga can also be quite stressful on the body’s joints, so as a person starts to get older, you might consider another form of martial art such as Jiu Jitsu. If you’ve ever seen some of the early days of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), there is one particular person that stands out. His name is Royce Gracie, and is a 185 pound guy that hails from Brazil. He came into the UFC and faced some of the biggest, most violent opponents and with his calm demeanor proceeded to put them to sleep, or cause them to tap-out in submission due to the severe pain he was causing. That… is Jiu Jitsu! Very powerful and perfectly designed for just about anyone wanting to protect themselves.

And finally, for protection, there are always non-deadly options for self defense. The only thing I would recommend here is be very aware of your local laws related to these types of items. Some knives, batons, and stun guns fall under the same category as firearms when it comes to them being used in deadly force. So absolutely do you research first before you settle on your perfect instrument of self-protection. I have two highly recommended items I typically suggest for people getting started. First, the Fast-Strike Personal Safety Whip, which is a perfect tool for an average person just trying to be prepared for hiking, biking, running, or just walking home from work at night.

And then second is a fairly common tool, often referred to as the “can of mace”. I say this in quotes because I think there are better alternatives to the traditional spray. Namely, the SABRE RED Pepper Gel Spray for Runners, or something similar. This little tool is great because it’s so light and unobtrusive, yet very effective if you find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation. Just point, and spray, and this GEL, will cover and stick to a person’s face causing a fairly severe reaction by a perpetrator. The nice thing about a gel, rather than the spray, is when in a windy environment, sprays can just as easily get whipped back in your direction causing issues for you and your own eyesight. With the gel, this is no longer an issue.

Whatever means you use, just continue to focus on the purpose of the protection while undergoing your training or research. If your goal is to “Protect this House”, this can often be done pretty well with a shotgun and a box of shells (again, with proper training and understanding of the weapon). But if you’re more comfortable with using martial arts as your primary defense, make sure the training you receive is designed to protect you in specific dangerous scenarios. It won’t do you any good to learn Karate Kata for 3 months (no offense Karate fans… Heh heh), and never know how to respond when a person attacks you from behind one late night after work.

I hope you’ve gained some understanding from this blog on how you might start on your road to preparedness by scheduling out the different areas. It may seem daunting at first, but as you start to get into it, and your understanding improves, I promise you will become more comfortable, and you will be more at peace!

Until next time… Matt Marshall… signing off!

@genxtalkin

August 20, 2021August 22, 2021

GXT Unboxed Prepping – Head For Survival Bandana – GenXTalkin

Hello again and welcome back to Unboxed Prepping brought to you by GenXTalkin – on being prepared.

Today we’re talking about the Head for Survival Triangular Bandana or Cravat.

Gun shows are a bit more difficult to come by here in my slice of the eastern seaboard, so I often find myself traveling to PA or VA to get in my fix.

I was at the Nations Gun Show in Dulles a couple of months back and I found a pretty cool little item I thought would really augment my bug out bag or even one of my grown up kids bags.

It’s the Head for Survival Triangular Bandana and along with it comes a couple of really nice, larger safety pins. All of it folded up nicely in a little zip locked packet. It set me back about 12 bucks but I think it’s really worth the cost for what you get.

For those of us with any sort of medical, or even just your simple first aid training, if you think triangle bandage you already get a sense of what this looks like. It’s an Isosceles shaped triangle with the long side being about 52 inches and the short, equal sides being 39 inches. Of course it works perfectly for its more common first aid purposes. Namely:

Sling to stabilize an arm or support a shoulder injury
Head cover for injury or keeping the head out of the elements
Stabilizing sprained ankle
Using in conjunction with harder item to splint leg or arm breaks
Possible tourniquet or means to slow bleeding down
Covering an injured eye
Or holding a broken jaw in place
Of course, there could be countless others…

As well this cool little piece of (not) technology can be used for other non-medical purposes, such as:

Pre-filtering water
A Simple face mask
And, if cut into strips, it can be used as cordage or even possibly tinder for fire starting

Now for the cool part. And I’m sure some of you may have seen these before… but printed on these little beauties is a whole host of survival concepts. It’s broken down into sections for:

Navigation
Knots
Signaling
Fire starting
Water collection and purification
And shelter

Each section contains very clear instructions on how to perform steps to success in these areas. For instance, within the Signaling section, it breaks down ideas on how to best use a cell phone in urgent situations. It also explains how many signal fires (three) you should build and in what shape… a triangle of course.

There’s a section on ground signaling, offering recommendations on how big to make an SOS sign on the ground – think about 18 foot tall letters!!! And when trying to hail a searching aircraft, make sure you wave frantically, not friendly. If you can, wave with a bright colored cloth… did I mention this triangle bandage is bright orange!!

Also within signaling, it breaks down ideas for SIGHT signals (SOS in Morse code) versus SOUND signals – think whistling or banging metal objects together. These sounds travel farther or course. And this is just the section for signaling.

Each section goes into quite some detail on its own topic. Very clear and concise. Not to mention helpful.

let’s answer the question – Add it or chuck it?

Personally I love this item and will probably look for more to add into each pack I have; edc, bug out, get home pack. Doesn’t matter I can always use one of these, or two.

So yep definitely give it a thumbs up and recommend it for anyone.

Thanks for joining us for this installment of unboxed prepping from GenXTalkin. I’m Matt Marshall. So long and thanks for all the … FISH!