Apr
27
The Survival Group – part 3
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Let’s get back to the survival group today… Last time we discussed that I’ve been thinking that the idea of a group would probably be better than going it alone with just Mrs. Prepper. The truth is that the probability of us going it alone would have been highly unlikely as we have some folks that are already fairly committed to this being a united front project anyway. We are far from where I’d like to be in the area of skills diversity though, so I am actually getting as much out of writing this article as I hope you will by reading it and doing the thought exercises.
I covered the basic group of our 3 core participants or members and even brought in the likely addition of some close neighbors to help make a go of it. Whatever it, turns out to be? We’ll get back to the neighbor participation eventually, as I do want to cover that in better detail for all of you and share how I think that arrangement might work! Let’s cast our net further out, where could we be looking to find others of like mind to gather around us, for when the SHTF?
For me an obvious place would be church! I put a lot of weight on the idea of having people around me that share my value system! This however wouldn’t disallow my pagan witch neighbor from working closely with us if and when the time comes. It’s just that my preference would be to have as much in common with those that I’m depending on as possible. It would make those “Tough Choices”, a little easier if there was an easy consensus when it comes to something that might be viewed as unsavory!
Many of the larger churches have what I call community groups or even sometimes will have groups that members can join based on common interests. One particular church that my family attended in the Seattle area even had a group that composed of those interested in preparedness. Although, I did not get involved with that group, I certainly would have looked there if I had been hoping to find more local folks that were into the same things that I was! The main reason I never made it to any of their get together ‘s was that I’mnot planning to be around Seattle when it all goes ca-put. I plan to be living full time on the Eastern side of the state and will be attending a church there, so I’ll be seeking those folks out that will be in that local with me for strategic alliances.
Ok, so I can hear you now… My church is small or I don’t attend a church regularly and wouldn’t know how to approach anyone even if I did attend. I highly recommend a good church as a place to do some prepping for your LONG term future but there are other places that I might look if I found myself in that situation. Most towns, even the very small towns, will have a food bank or other social safety net system. I have found that a lot of these programs, the private ones that is, are run by planners. The planners would be a great place to start when looking for those folks that might have their act together. Families that bring in donations of food that is getting towards the end of it’s life cycle, would be an indication of potential preppers? I would certainly give some thought to this type of charitable organization in hopes of locating quality people, if not preppers specifically.
How about a couple more areas to investigate in your search? Hard core couponers have been in the news a lot lately and all the shows on TV that covered these folks showed them with a bent toward stocking up… Might get involved with some local couponing club to find ways to free up additional money for preps and I’d be willing to wager that you’d only have to kick a few rocks to find one with a prepper under it!
While I am not a LDS church member, I have several friends that are and they have been more then happy to let me tag along to the local cannery on more then one occasion with them. The LDS community is well known for their stand on the value of food storage. Check around your sphere of influence and see if you might have a Mormon church member at work or in the neighborhood? See if they might include you in their food storage acquisition plans. I’ve found LDS members to be very open about their views on preparedness and once they saw I was sincere in my interest they have been more than willing to include me in their activities! I’t might be possible to either recruit one of these families to your group or it might just be that you could be integrated into theirs? I’ve found these folks to be very tolerant of my differing beliefs and have never made me feel uncomfortable about not seeing 100% eye to eye on religious topics!
Another place that seems like a logical place to find potential preppers would be in the “Search and Rescue” crowd. Most all Counties, whether large or small have some sort of search and rescue contingent. From my research these groups are generally composed of private citizens, even if they may be headed by a county government employee or office. While seeking out information on the group activities in my rural county, I found that many of the same individuals I already deal with as owners of businesses in town are also active with search and rescue… I know of several that are also active shooters and many have substantial camping and prepper gear for these outdoor activities. If they aren’t full blown preppers they would certainly be prepper friendly!
Let’s see who else might be worth approaching in our quest for like minded individuals that would have “survival group” potential? How about the home school community? In my line of work I’ve ran into more then a few of these families and they have all been very respectable and thoughtful people. They are usual wary of the government and typically “conservative too very conservative” politically! They have chosen an unpopular way to raise their children and are often demonized in the press. Just my type of folks, family oriented free thinkers that aren’t afraid to stand on their principles, even when the going gets tough. That would make them good candidates for my group!
These home school families are often very conservative financially as well, they have to be to make that program work… Typically Mom stays home with the kids while Dad goes off to work. I have found that Dad will often be working with the kids education as well, after work and on the weekends. Most of the families that I’ve had experience with are also tapped in to other families in the area that home school, even forming coops to assist each other in their common goals. Hmm, an entire group of people that are already pulling together to help when times aren’t even particularly bad yet? Might be worth some investigation, right?
I’m sure that many of you have found other ways to identify potential allies. These are just some of the places I would be looking if and or when I’m on the search for group members. In the next “Survival Group” post I want to discuss what I mean by diversity of skills and what my ideal but realistic group might look like… I know, that should be interesting huh!
Prepper
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Apr
26
Product Review – Thrive Brand Storage Food
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Today I want to do the first of what will be at least several reviews of the Thrive brand food I’ve been trying out. This food was sent to me for review by Randy Greene, our Shelf Reliance sponsor.
I’m a breakfast fan and decided to do a breakfast dish review to kick this all off. I made a breakfast scramble with the following 3 Shelf Reliance, Thrive brand foods.
Whole Egg Powder
Mixed Bell Peppers
Freeze dried chopped Onions
Let me start off by saying how impressed I was that Thrive had made their cans “easy open”, there’s a pull tab on the top which eliminates the need for a can opener. I know not a huge issue as we all have can openers, at least we all have can openers today but who knows what we might be able to come up with WTSHTF?
As soon as you open a can of something that should be aromatic, it is, go figure? Seriously, my wife came by and asked if she really smelled the peppers? These are the dehydrated peppers mind you, so the fact that they smelled appetizing was a pleasant surprise. I sampled them straight out of the can and they tasted decent but nothing like they did after they were added to my egg dish… Just for clarification, these aren’t meant to be snacked on right out of the can but added to cooking since they are in very small diced consistency.
I opened the envelope of freeze dried onions and the same powerful scents wafted out at me. I’ve worked with dehydrated onions that I keep in our spice cabinet but never have had the opportunity to use freeze dried. These onions, like the peppers, are diced into small pieces so by design they are to be added as a flavoring to dishes and again not eaten right out of the package… Not that many of might want to eat chopped onions by themselves?
On the powdered eggs… I have to be honest that I’ve never used powdered eggs before and wasn’t real sure of what to expect. I’ve had experience with complete meals, like backpacking/camping breakfasts that I believe use powdered eggs and they were alright but nothing exciting. So, with that in mind I popped the top on the can of whole egg powder. You’ll never guess what I found inside… that’s right, powdered eggs! Just an orange powder? I have to admit I was still skeptical.
On the can of eggs the directions explained that I needed to mix 1tbsp egg to 2 tbsp water. I was feeling hungry so I thought I’d try to make a 6 egg omelet and give this stuff a real taste test! I mixed the proper parts together and started stirring, the consistency came out similar to pancake batter rather then a bowl full of whisked eggs? I went ahead and added some additional water to thin down the mixture. I didn’t add a lot as I was trying to stick to the directions, at least the first time to give you all a true review of these products qualities.
The mixed bell peppers had instructed me to mix the product with warm water and let stand for 15 minutes and then drain any excess moisture off. Onions had a similar instruction, so I just tossed them in together and let them sit while I mixed up the eggs.
With everything now prepared for the skillet, I poured in the eggs just like I would have on any other day. These eggs were a lot thicker then the fresh (or fresher) eggs we normally would use. I proceeded to do what I always do with making my omelets… That is let the mixture set and get good and done on one side before I start screwing with it trying to flip the egg pancake over to add my other ingredients…
Like I said, I did what I always do with omelets… I messed it up and had to change plans and go for an egg scramble? I would love to blame this deviation on the powdered eggs but that wouldn’t be fair since I ALWAYS mess this up and have yet to successfully make an omelet? So anyway, the eggs were getting close to done and so I added in the pepper and onion ingredients as well as some grated cheese too. I know the cheese came from my fridge and not out of a can but hey what’s a guy to do, I like cheese so it went in!
The peppers and onions were still damp after I drained off the relatively small amount of remaining water in the dish I used to rehydrate them. I was a little concerned that this moisture would make the dish come out funny but as soon as they were on the heat, they dried right out!
A couple of minutes went by with me stirring this whole mess in the pan but then just like any other day… It was time to eat my creation, on to the plate and sit down at the table…
Alright, here I sit with this giant plate of food. I’ll admit that I’m not a picky eater but I do keep a bottle of Tabasco close by to help mask any flavors I’m not fond of. My wife’s a great cook but she has this habit of trying to get me to eat healthier, which we all know means the stuff doesn’t always taste great! With the Tabasco close by I started in… Hey, this stuff was actually good! The peppers and onions while possibly a little thick for the amount of eggs I used added a great amount of flavor. Everything tasted like a fresh dish would. The only thing that even looked off was the somewhat large chunks of egg? I told you the egg was similar to pancake batter and when I tried to flip it over the whole thing broke apart into pieces resembling a pancake as well, not all that different then when I use fresh eggs though, to be fair…
I really had expected to need that Tabasco but this stuff was too good to go putting anything else on it. I even forgot to add salt and pepper but didn’t even think of it until right now, while I’m writing this post? If the dish had been lacking anything, I would have noticed right away but the fact is it was just plain good!
Randy has sent me some other items to sample and this will be the first of several reviews that are on the way in the coming weeks! Please be sure to stop over and see all the specs on these items at Shelf Reliance. Randy Greene is committed to help all of us get anything and everything set up and all of our questions answered so don’t hesitate to ask him about your specific needs. I will personally vouch for his service and so far I have been impressed with the quality of the food offered by Shelf Reliance and Thrive!
Prepper
Apr
24
Guest Article – AN OVERLOOKED EXTREMELY DEADLY WEAPON
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Alright, today we’re going to run a guest article by Lloyd Tackitt. He’s generously offered to bring something new to us today! As the title says, an overlooked weapon! Yes, I said weapon and I know that gets everyone all excited so take a read below to see if this might be something to add to the preps wish list!
I also want to bring to everyone’s attention that Lloyd is also the author of a new book – “A Distant Eden”, I’m waiting for my copy to arrive and will be doing a review of his fiction work in the very near future!
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You’re a prepper. You’ve read and studied and researched being ready. You have made preparations, you have a bug out bag ready to go. You know where you’re going to go if you have to bug out. You’ve thought through self defense, finding food, how to get clean drinking water. You’ve decided on your weapons of choice – probably a firearm of some type.
Firearms are the ultimate, there’s no doubt of that. But, there is an extremely deadly weapon that you may not have thought about, or didn’t give much consideration. It will absolutely not be useful against firearms, but in any other situation it is the ultimate. Call this the penultimate weapon, one worthy of your full consideration, a great backup to have when a firearm isn’t the right tool.
There is no defense against this weapon, except a shield, and how many people carry shields? If an assailant attacks me with a knife or club, this is what I want. I would be willing to take on the an expert martial artist with it, maybe even two or three of them. It requires only a little training, is useful in the hands of men or women, perhaps even children. It can be used for hunting too.
It is the Assegai. You may be more familiar with it as the “Zulu War Spear”. This weapon has no equal for close order combat without firearms. Pure deadly. It is, from tip to tip, about three feet long. It can be thrown short distances if necessary but it was designed for hand to hand combat. Holding it with one or both hands it can be used to thrust or slash. It’s long double edged spear tip, when sharpened to a razor’s edge, will penetrate and slash with extreme damage resulting. There is no defense against it excpet as I previously mentioned, a shield.
If your opponent tries to block it with an arm, you slash the arm, cutting to the bone. If he tries to grab it you either thrust forward to penetrate his body, or rapidly pull back slashing through his hand as it slides through – you grease the first twelve inches of the shaft so he can’t get a grip. When thrusting it is almost impossible to deflect, yet it can also be used for slashing as the double edged razor sharp long blade is similar to a short sword.
These ultimate fighting tools can be used for hunting, if you hunt small game with it. It can be used on large game if you are good enough at hunting to get close. They are light, portable, and easy to learn to use. They are also inexpensive. Google it and you’ll find many versions for sale – you can even find them on Amazon.
You will have to fit the shaft carefully to the blade yourself, possibly sand down the shaft to get the right grip. You don’t want a slippery surface where you hold it, use rough sand paper to bur up the wood a bit so that you get a solid non-slip grip on it. You can cut light grooves in it to do the same thing, or even checker it like a gun stock. You will need to carefully sharpen the blade on both sides until you have it razor sharp. A dull blade will still penetrate, but not as well. A dull blade isn’t much use for slashing.
I recommend that you purchase two of these. Mount them on your wall in a cross-over pattern. Make the one against the wall hard to remove, but the outer one easy to pick up and off the brackets. To everyone else this will look like a decorative item. But to you, it is an instantly available and superbly designed close quarter combat weapon. Why make the one hard to remove? Because you don’t want your opponent to have an opportunity to imitate you. In fact if he tries to take the other one down he will be in a weak exposed position for a couple of seconds while he tries – and that is all the opportunity you need.
Check these out, watch the movie “Zulu”, a dramatization of the battle of Rorke’s Drift for some eye-popping examples of how deadly they are. Not against guns, but against anything else. Every prepper should have these at hand.
Lloyd Tackitt
Apr
18
The Survival Group – part 2
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Tough Choices…?
By Prepper · Comments (7)I was just watching the AMC channel show “The Walking Dead”. I’m not sure that we’ve ever discussed this particular show in the past or not but I’ve found it to be interesting and entertaining! I’ll admit it’s an overly dramatic mind exercise on what a post event may look like… No, I’m not a zombie buff and usually tend to not particularly like the horror genre. This show does fit in with the survival/prepper niche that I can’t help being drawn to it even if we have to suspend reality with the whole zombie thing.
This particular episode was called “Judge, Jury and Executioner” or something like that, it dealt with the tough choices that I think many of us will be sharing if and or when the world we currently know collapses. Tough choices like what to do with otherwise decent people that have gone rouge in the attempt to save themselves and or their families… What will we do with them?
Let’s just imagine that like in the episode I just watched, we have a prisoner… It doesn’t really matter how we got the prisoner but that they were a threat previously but no longer are, what then? I know, I know, we just shoot them in the head and call it good! Yes, that would be my first inclination too but is that the only choice? I don’t just don’t know? The show brought up the issues that I think in reality we all would probably be facing. If we just start down the path of taking life wholesale, aren’t we just like the people we’re trying to defend against?
Don’t start thinking that I’ve gone soft on ya but I found myself watching a situation that should be cut and dry with a feeling like, it might not be as easy as it sounds on the internet forums. What criteria do we use to decide who lives and dies? It would be really helpful that all threats to our families come in the form of armed men that show up guns blazing and we are then more then justified in blowing them away…
What if we let our guard down and some old woman with 10 children shows up on our doorstep just looking for help? Do we take them in and have our own survival threatened by 11 additional mouths to feed? Do we send them packing and hope they don’t ever come back? What if they inadvertantly give some other group of refugees our location in the course of conversation on the road? What then?
I think you can see where I’m coming from, right? It just isn’t as cut and dry as we might hope it were! When the actual stuff has hit the fan, we will be faced with tough choices that a decent person would never hope to have to make. I’ll do whatever’s necessary to protect my family but the converse of that is so will the other guy… I know all of you have the same inclinations for your selves and families too!
Will any of you guys be able to discard your humanity at the drop of a hat and do the currently unthinkable to some old woman and her wards? I just don’t think you will be able to do that any faster then I would… If we allow ourselves to just not think about things like this aren’t we just leaving a gaping hole in our preparedness plans? I’d really like to hear what some of you have come up with to either avoid or deal with having to make choices like this on some fateful day in the future…
I don’t know why this is so bothersome to me, other then it doesn’t have a clear cut answer of – do this, then that and we’ve got it covered like so many of the beans, bullets and bandaids solutions! If there are answers out there then I’d really like to hear them… All I’ve been able to come up with is an avoidance strategy. If that old women and her kids just walk right past and don’t turn up my driveway then I don’t have to deal with it. However, she will be turning up someone’s driveway eventually and whoever that person is had better have a plan to deal with it! “Fail to plan, plan to fail!”
Another question that comes to my mind is the “how far is far enough” question? Is it good enough to have the old women not turn up my driveway or should I some how keep her from turning up my road or even turning off the Hwy into my town… The obvious answer would be the further the better but how do we accomplish this task… We’ve been discussing the “Survival Group” topic this week and we’ll be getting back to it here pretty soon, I guess this is kind of in the same vein.
I already shared with everyone that my inclination these last few years has been, live and let live – just leave me out of it… Politicians are going to do what they want and don’t give two sh*ts what I think or how I vote! The federal reserve is having their way with us economically and I’m powerless to stop them so “just leave me the h*ll alone”! I sound like a pouty little girl don’t I? Unfortunately that’s how I feel but I’ll get over it and stand up for what’s right, I always do in the end! It’s frustrating though!
Sorry, I digress, I believe we should all complete this thought exercise as best we can… The truth is that not everyone will be faced with this particular Tough Choice but if it isn’t this one, it will inevitably be something else! What will you do? I just ask you to not take the lazy man’s way out and try to make me believe that the “shoot em all and let God sort em out” route will fix everything! We can all agree that the MZB’s will be shot without hesitation but what if they are just as deadly in the long run but look like grandma when the arrive? What then…
I hope some of you will make some comments on this topic! I would love to hear what you come up with and I know that there’s a lot of you out there that would be well served in thinking this through today rather than tomorrow!
Prepper