Archive for AND BEYOND…
Guest Article – It’s All About Food and Water
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IT’S ALL ABOUT FOOD AND WATER
There are any number of survival situations that you might find yourself in. But, for the sake of convenience let’s categorize them as short term and long term. In a short term situation your goal is to be rescued, say a Katrina style incident, or perhaps getting lost out away from civilization. In these situations your goals are to protect yourself against exposure, stay hydrated, and finally food. Most people, on average can go three days without water and three weeks without food. Most people are rescued within three weeks, so protection from cold or heat and water are primary.
But what I really want to talk about are the long term survival situations. This is a horse of a different color. There are some similarities, but only for the first several weeks. Then things shift into another gear, low gear as a matter of fact, the strong gear for the long haul. What I hope to cover in a series of articles will be of value for the short term survival situation, but will also take you farther, much farther.
The priorities for both long and short term are the same for the first two weeks or so. Stay warm and dry, drink safe water, and eat. Staying warm and dry doesn’t take a lot of discussion; it is just about as self-evident as it sounds. Safe drinking water is a good starting point. Since that will be the second survival priority I’ll go into it a little bit. This is not intended to be a long article so some home study afterwards is recommended. My newly published book “A Distant Eden” covers much of this, but not all. A list of links will be provided at the end of this article for in-depth study by interested readers. These are all skills that I think we should all have, and these particular skills in this article can be read and remembered, they don’t necessarily need to be practiced to be useful to you later. Just remember them.
Water can be contaminated biologically and chemically. Biological contaminants are live organisms in the water such as bacteria or viruses that cause sickness and in some cases death. I could go into some length on the varieties of biological contamination but it’s not very useful information. Unless you are stranded in the wilderness with a full scale laboratory you won’t be able to tell it is contaminated, or what with – and even then it won’t make any difference. The bottom line remains – pasteurize water before you drink it.
Most biological contaminants will cause diarrhea as one early symptom. Diarrhea can kill. It causes dehydrations, weakness, fever and if you have food you don’t get the value from it you need as it is discharged from your digestive system too fast. It is not a problem to take lightly. All of us have had bouts of mild food poisoning from time to time. Remember how sick you were? How miserable you were? And that was in a nice comfortable home with plenty of over the counter medications readily at hand, and central heat and air and a really comfortable bed. Try that when you are lying on the ground under a lean-to you built and it’s raining straight down and you are wet and cold. Yeah, me neither.
So, first step – do you have a pot and a fire? Simple, boil the water. Water only has to be heated to 160 degrees for six minutes to destroy the invisible bugs in it. By the time the water begins to boil it should already be safe to drink. Alternatively if you have a solar cooker you can heat the water in it. If you have a clear PET plastic bottle you can place water in it and lay it out in the sun for six hours. If it is more than 50% cloudy it takes two days outside. The sun’s UV rays will kill the critters in the water for you. The stronger the sun and the hotter the weather the faster the killing happens. Six hours would be my minimum under ideal conditions and sunup to sundown for average conditions. Two days if I wasn’t sure would be my third tier time.
If you’re stranded in an at home situation, say after a hurricane, you can use common laundry bleach. Just a few drops per gallon, then shake and let it stand for four hours. Pour the water back and forth between two containers to get oxygen into the water before you drink it that will remove the remaining chlorine. Only use standard bleach, don’t use scented bleach or bleach with other ingredients in it.
Iodine works well too – if you have any on hand. Add a few drops and shake and let stand for a few hours. No need to aerate.
If you suspect chemical contamination such as heavy metals or insecticides or pesticides then you want to distill the water to remove those. No amount of boiling, UV rays or chemical additives will help. A simple solar still can be made with clear plastic sheeting. Put your contaminated water into as wide of a shallow container as you can. More surface exposure means faster evaporation. One method is to scoop out a large shallow depression in the ground and cover that with plastic then pour your water in. Now, place a container in the center of this depression and cover with a sheet of clear plastic. Weight the edges down and seal them off, probably with rocks and dirt. The top sheet should drape down a bit. Place a small rock on top of the top sheet directly above the capture container.
You want as sunny a spot as you can find for this. The sun will evaporate the water, which will then condense on the top plastic sheet and follow it down to the low point above the capture container and drip into that container. This water will leave most, if not all, of the contaminants behind. I would still pasteurize this water though as you may pick up bacteria in the process of handling it.
Contaminated water can end your survival faster than you might think. It is still a major problem in many third world countries. Safe drinking water is an absolute top priority for survival. We take it for granted these days; it just comes out of the sink that way, or in nice cold bottles at the convenience store. Get out in the woods or desert though and you have a first tier major problem – you can’t drink the water you find, if you can find it at all. If you do, you are playing Russian roulette with the revolver loaded and only one empty chamber. Not a good bet. Not a quick clean death either. Dying from contaminated water is a slow torturously painful death. With knowledge you stand a good chance of avoiding that death. The links below are a good starting point for gaining that knowledge.
This series of articles will continue with finding food in survival conditions. See you next time.
Lloyd Tackitt – Author of “A Distant Eden”
Suggested reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothermia
http://solarcooking.org/plans/
http://water.epa.gov/drink/emerprep/emergencydisinfection.cfm
Book Review – “A Distant Eden”
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As you can see today we have another book review and giveaway! I’m very happy to announce we have another doomer “realist” author joining the ranks of Halfast (Lights Out) and James Wesley, Rawles (Patriots). I’m referring to the author that gave us the guest article last week, Lloyd Tackitt. I briefly mentioned that I was hoping to read Lloyd’s book “A Distant Eden” and I’m happy to report my book arrived shortly after his article was published.
With book in hand Mrs. Prepper and I headed for the BOL last weekend. We took turns reading the book to each other and had it completed in no time flat. It’s not an especially short book or a ridiculously easy read as much as it is GOOD! I’m not clear on what Lloyd’s writing background is but the book isn’t the work of a beginner.
He opens the book up with a short explanation of what he’s attempting to achieve through his work, at least through this particular work anyway. Lloyd wants to educate the reader and use the storyline to tie this education together through the examples of fictional situations the stories characters face. In my opinion he does this with mastery!
As a reader of just about anything in this particular genre, I’ve read just about everything out there and watch the shelves with anticipation of anything new. I also watch for books that bring a new perspective and I think that this author has done exactly that. While all of the situations that are presented in the book are based solidly in reality, a darker twist is taken to the characters approach to handling each eventuality. I pose that these characters approach is probably the most realistic one too, unfortunately!
I find my introduction to Lloyd as an author quite timely as we’ve been discussing the “Tough Choices” we may all face in the future. In the book the characters face these exact type of choices. It’s how they choose to handle the situations that seem to deviate slightly from the more traditional story lines we’re all used to! Sadly, I believe that this cold dose of reality is something we would all do well to spend time thinking through now, before we have to later. I suspect that’s what the author is trying to get the reader to do.
Folks, I think we have a new author to watch… Lloyd has taken our particular lifestyle to heart and is helping us ask the difficult questions that only we can answer for ourselves. Morality isn’t subjective in my opinion but it is far from cut and dried too! What are we all going to do in the world of tomorrow if the cards continue to fall the way they are now… Are you prepared to face a world where you WILL make decisions and live (or die) with the consequences of your actions.
I suspect that too many of us are looking at the future as some kind of great “gardening with guns” vacation from work… As the characters in “A Distant Eden” find out this is not the case. The author does a great job of keeping the story entertaining and at the same time forcing the reader to consider the reality of just how hard this will be. I know I do not relish being in the situation any of these guys face… Even the prepared central characters are not really ready for what develops in the world around them.
The book goes into another topic we’ve been looking at here at Preppernation, the “Survival Group”. The book delves into some thought excersizes that we can use to add to our list of things to consider when outlining the skills and personnel we’d seek to have surrounding us in a disaster.
This is just an all around good book, my only complaint would be that it’s to short… 214 pages long and fairly typical of a book like this but I found myself wanting more! The author explained that he didn’t focus on character development but I still got involved with these characters in spite of his intentions. I want to know how this all turns out! I will be very disappointed if Mr. Tackitt doesn’t come out with a sequel! However, I didn’t get the impression he had plans to write one from the emails he sent me? Let me encourage all of you to stop what your doing right now and go buy this book… It is priced more than fairly and exceedingly cheap as an ebook, in fact it is exceedingly cheap anyway you might choose to purchase it.
As is my standard operating procedure when doing a book review, I’ll be giving my copy of the book away to the 3rd person that emails me that they would like to receive it. I will be purchasing another copy to replace it as I have some friends and family I believe would benefit from Lloyds perspective on a disaster situation!
It’s my hope that all of you will read this book and then give your feedback to the author! It’s possible that if he gets enough encouragement from us, he’ll give the sequel idea some thought! I’d also like to offer my personal thanks to Lloyd for the time it took him to write this book. I can see from the pricing structure he’s offering the book for that he didn’t write it for the money.
Buy a copy of “A Distant Eden” and support this new authors work!
Here’s to you Lloyd and I’ll be watching for your future work, in any form you choose to offer it to us preppers!
Prepper
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
Guest Article – AN OVERLOOKED EXTREMELY DEADLY WEAPON
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The Recent Spike In Gun Sales
Posted by: Prepper | Comments (2)Gun Sales…
Just how many guns have Americans been buying lately? I’ve heard the reports of sales in the millions… What’s causing all these people to go buy their guns now, what’s changed?
At first glance I’m tempted to feel like this is a good sign, more guns IS a good thing, right? What if it really isn’t that great? Hear me out and see if my thoughts make any sense at all…
I pose to you this, the gun sales spike we’ve all been hearing about isn’t the best situation for us, the already preparing or prepared! Most of us have purchased our firearms preps and are doing nothing more then refining our selections at this point… Who are all these new purchasers? Are they new preppers? If that’s the case then I’m happy to add these folks to our ranks and they will be great to have around when the chips are down. What if they aren’t preppers though? While I’ll admit they probably aren’t tree hugging, PETA tee shirt wearing liberals, they still might not be the allies we would hope for…
If times were sure to continue in the way they had for the last several decades then I’d keep my mouth shut and just be happy to have what are almost certainly politically conservative people adding to their arsenals. However, I’m not at all expecting anything like the status quo as we edge forward into the future…
Are these firearms purchases ramping up due to the political landscape and upcoming election? This is sure to be one of the reasons that folks are out gathering armament prior to any reincarnation of the assault weapons ban that was lifted back in 2004. I’ve heard all the scuttlebutt about President Obama being a man on a mission if he gets re-elected. It’s expected that without the need to win another term in office, he will be let off the leash to push through all of his socialist legislation… Maybe?
I’m more prone to say that these purchases are due to the overwhelming feel of unease that we all seem be feeling as of late. While this general unease would be somewhat covered with the political reason we just mentioned but I think it’s more then that… I believe that when people feel vulnerable, they’ll look for some way to make that feeling fade. Firearms have a tendency to make most people feel more secure, even though this is more often then not, a false sense of security! If I’m right and these firearms sales are a way to appease a feeling of insecurity… We, the prepared, have a lot to be worried about!
We’re all familiar with the variety of survivalist that plans to TAKE his needed supplies at gun point. Any prepper forum you might choose to visit or participate in will have a few of these guys lurking around. To them it’s as simple as that, when times get tough… so will they!
I’ll admit that most of us that have put enough thought into those same “tough times”, will have thought to allow for these “TAKER” survivalists. Security is why we have those guns of our own, right? My premise is that while some of our “survivalist” brethren may go astray and need to be dealt with if they attempt to take our preps, these recent firearms purchases are something different.
As Americans we are a very well armed society, even before we consider the recent record breaking monthly firearms sales. As preppers, are we better off with all of these new guns in the hands of our neighbors? I maintain that we are not better off but much worse. Don’t get me wrong, I would never try to keep these people from owning guns, I’m big on all of our constitutional guarantees! I just hope to bring to your attention that the dangers of a disaster have gotten far greater with these recent gun sales, not less, as we might be tempted to assume…
Most of us have known or come in contact with one of those “taker” style survivalists and we can plan accordingly for them. How about all those new gun owners, what will we do with them. Many of these gun purchasers have no firearms experience and are drawing the conclusion that since they are now armed they must also then be prepared… They are not prepared and will quickly find that out. However, with newly purchased gun in hand they are better able to make trouble for themselves – and us!
It’s my belief that these folks have just increased all of our odds of having dangerous confrontations when the tough times come. We all have heard the question posed – “How many days will you be able to watch your family go hungry”. Just in case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t living in our grandparents world anymore… Our society isn’t use to patiently waiting for anything. We want, what we want and we want it now! Everything from fastfood to a luxurious home, if we want it then we expect to get it and I mean right now!
I suppose that I might be off base in feeling that this new gun owner is as big of a threat as I’m making him out to be… We do live in one of the most heavily armed societies on the planet… I just can’t help but think that the newly initiated gun crowd is only going to add fuel to the fire when the foul wind starts blowing in earnest…
Let me take you all back to a time in all of our pasts… Do you remember when you got your first gun? Do you recall the feeling of power that came with holding it your hand… I know it a little immature but I bet you do remember the feeling you got. So, would we be amis in thinking that they folks aren’t feeling the same way now?
I do know a fair number of preppers but they (we) certainly are in the minority. In the back of my mind I’ve had the feeling that as the most prepared neighbor, I’d be the obvious choice for a leadership role in whatever group I was able to cobble together. This new or at least newly considered by me eventuality of more and more of my neighbors arming themselves might just make them less likely to see me as the asset I would consider myself?
Just like I’ve been stating in the articles about the “Survival group”, we all need to know who we have living around us. While in those threads we are specifically looking for others to align with to add to our skill sets and thus increasing our survival situation. Conversely, we also need to evaluate those around us as the potential threat they might pose as well.
I’m sure that like me, you all have been accused of over analysing things so just take all of these thoughts as one preppers gut reactions and I truly hope that I’m way off the mark about this recent trend!
Prepper