12 Months of Prepping

Gaye Levy, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Once the prepping bug hits, it is easy to want to go for it.  You know what I mean:  Let’s do it and let’s do it all Right Now!

There are some problems with this.  First there are time constraints, and second there are money and budget issues.  But the biggest problem and undoubtedly the one that is overlooked in the initial flurry of readiness preparations, is that without reasonable care and thought given to the process, the tasks and the actual products involved, you can make some costly mistakes.  I say this from experience.  In my haste to get “stocked up” I bought gear that I don’t like and will never use.  I purchased foodstuffs I will never eat.  Stupid stupid stupid of me.  I should have taken my time, done my research, and made a well thought out and educated decision before I even got started.

Today I would like to help you break down the overwhelming task of emergency preparation by providing you with a month-by-month calendar of things to do, tasks to complete and items to purchase.  For the newbies, this gives you a manageable number of things to do in a short period of time.  Instead of looking at a task list 10 pages long, you have a short list that is eminently doable in 30 days or less.

Clean Your Cooking Gear with Wood Ashes

When it comes to wilderness survival, large scale disaster, or even just camping outdoors we often try to do things in the same manner as we are accustomed to doing them at home. However what works well enough in civilization does not necessarily translate smoothly to a wilderness or disaster scenario where familiar supplies of every sort are limited or non-existent.

Solutions are available to most outdoor and survival problems, if only we have the knowledge and inventiveness to use them. But because we usually spend most of our time in civilization where specialized tools and products are readily available, we loose some of the edge in our abilities to utilize the common items we find around us in the wilderness.

Often it is simply a matter of key pieces of information missing in our expertise, which once provided suddenly gives us a powerful new way to accomplish necessary tasks. Survival Topics maintains that the best survivalists are experts at repurposing what is available to them under field conditions.

Wood Ash Soap  You can use wood ashes instead of soap to clean your mess kit and cooking gear Shown here is a greasy pot with food residue that we want to clean, a bottle of water that has been treated to destroy disease causing organisms, a pile of wood ash, and a scouring pad Important: do not wash your gear with 200 feet (60 meters) of any source of water

Consider the daily chore of cleaning your mess kit after a meal. There can be no doubt that the proper cleaning of your mess kit and cooking gear is an important wilderness or disaster survival task; when it comes to the food you eat and the cooking gear and utensils that come in contact with it, a lack of proper hygiene can lay you low in short order.

Easy Access to Soap is Limited

In a disaster or wilderness survival setting you will often lack soap with which to wash your camp cooking gear and mess kit. Soap takes up weight and space, which is a very important consideration when every ounce and every cubic inch of your gear must be measured against what is most important for your survival. Especially when you are on foot the less you carry the better off you are; hard decisions must be made on what you bring with you and what is left behind.

On extended stays in the wilderness or during a large scale disaster re-supply from outside sources is usually not available. You are likely to eventually run out of any soap you have so an alternative means for cleaning your cooking gear and mess kit is preferable.

When practicing survival skills in the field I usually do not bring soap to clean my mess kit and cooking gear. To save on bulk and weight, I would forgo using any soap I had in favor of rubbing and swirling a mixture of water, mud and sand on cooking utensils in order to scour off caked on grease and food particles. Although sanding down cooking gear certainly removes food residues, it often doesn’t eliminate all the grease. And the mess kit and cooking gear sure take a beating.

For many years I was content on using the sand and mud method to clean my cooking gear when in the wilderness. But one evening while sitting around the camp fire after having washed the remains of the evening meal from my mess kit with the usual mud, sand, and water mixture, the smoke sudden cleared from my eyes and the world seemed fresh and new. I had independently made a discovery that had already been known for centuries.

Bartering – 100 Items to disappear first

By Joseph Almond

#1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy..target of thieves; maintenance, etc.)

#2. Water Filters/Purifiers (Shipping delays increasing.)

#3. Portable Toilets (Increasing in price every two months.)

#4. Seasoned Firewood (About $100 per cord; wood takes 6 – 12 mos. to become dried, for home uses.)

#5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)

#6. Coleman Fuel (URGENT $2.69-$3.99/gal. Impossible to stockpile too much.)

#7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats; Slingshots

#8. Hand-Can openers; hand egg beaters, whisks (Life savers!)

#9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugars

#10. Rice – Beans – Wheat (White rice is now $12.95 – 50# bag. Sam’s Club, stock depleted often.)

#11. Vegetable oil (for cooking) (Without it food burns/must be boiled, etc.)

#12. Charcoal; Lighter fluid (Will become scarce suddenly.)

#13. Water containers (Urgent Item to obtain. Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY)

#14. Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won’t heat a room.)

#15. Grain Grinder (Non-electric)

#16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur by September, 1999.)

#17. Michael Hyatt’s Y2K Survival Guide (BEST single y2k handbook for sound advice/tips.)

#18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)

#19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula/ointments/aspirin, etc

#20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)

Peanut Butter – Stock up NOW

Stock up now….while you can, and beat the 30% price inflation on Peanut Butter and peanuts. It has just been anouced over the past couple of days that peanuts and peanut butter will have a dramatic price inflation due to the crummy crop season.

Peanut Butter has great survival benefits including:

• Of the fat in PB about 47% is mono-unsaturated, about 27% polyunsaturated, and only 20% saturated. (compare to olive oil which is nearly 75% monounsaturated oil)
• There is a good amount of protein in peanut butter, about 15% of the calories in PB are protein calories.
• In the “natural” brands of peanut butter, there is very little sugar, less than 1 gram per 2 tablespoon serving in many brands.
• There is very little sodium in most brands of peanut butter.
• Peanut butter is rich in magnesium.
• Peanut butter also contains Resveratrol, a potentially healthy polyphenol.
• Peanut butter is very high in calories because 71% of the calories in peanut butter are from fat.
• Peanut butter and peanuts provide vitamine B3 and E magnesium, folate, dietary fiber, arginine, and high levels of the antioxidant p-coumaric acid.

Nutrition Data

And for some new articles on the reason for crummy crops….

Expedient Water Crossings

In a survival situation, you may have to cross a water obstacle. It may be in the form of a river, a stream, a lake, a bog, quicksand, quagmire, or muskeg. Even in the desert, flash floods occur, making streams an obstacle. Whatever it is, you need to know how to cross it safely.

RIVERS AND STREAMS

You can apply almost every description to rivers and streams. They may be shallow or deep, slow or fast moving, narrow or wide. Before you try to cross a river or stream, develop a good plan.

Your first step is to look for a high place from which you can get a good view of the river or stream. From this place, you can look for a place to cross. If there is no high place, climb a tree. Good crossing locations include–

• A level stretch where it breaks into several channels. Two or three narrow channels are usually easier to cross than a wide river.
• A shallow bank or sandbar. If possible, select a point upstream from the bank or sandbar so that the current will carry you to it if you lose your footing.
• A course across the river that leads downstream so that you will cross the current at about a 45-degree angle.

The following areas possess potential hazards; avoid them, if possible:

• Obstacles on the opposite side of the river that might hinder your travel. Try to select the spot from which travel will be the safest and easiest.
• A ledge of rocks that crosses the river. This often indicates dangerous rapids or canyons.
• A deep or rapid waterfall or a deep channel. Never try to ford a stream directly above or even close to such hazards.
• Rocky places. You may sustain serious injuries from slipping or falling on rocks. Usually, submerged rocks are very slick, making balance extremely difficult. An occasional rock that breaks the current, however, may help you.
• An estuary of a river. An estuary is normally wide, has strong currents, and is subject to tides. These tides can influence some rivers many kilometers from their mouths. Go back upstream to an easier crossing site.
• Eddies. An eddy can produce a powerful backward pull downstream of the obstruction causing the eddy and pull you under the surface.

The depth of a fordable river or stream is no deterrent if you can keep your footing. In fact, deep water sometimes runs more slowly and is therefore safer than fast-moving shallow water. You can always dry your clothes later, or if necessary, you can make a raft to carry your clothing and equipment across the river.

You must not try to swim or wade across a stream or river when the water is at very low temperatures. This swim could be fatal. Try to make a raft of some type. Wade across if you can get only your feet wet. Dry them vigorously as soon as you reach the other bank.

RAPIDS

If necessary, you can safely cross a deep, swift river or rapids. To swim across a deep, swift river, swim with the current, never fight it. Try to keep your body horizontal to the water. This will reduce the danger of being pulled under.

In fast, shallow rapids, lie on your back, feet pointing downstream, fanning your hands alongside your hips. This action will increase buoyancy and help you steer away from obstacles. Keep your feet up to avoid getting them bruised or caught by rocks.

In deep rapids, lie on your stomach; head downstream, angling toward the shore whenever you can. Watch for obstacles and be careful of backwater eddies and converging currents, as they often contain dangerous swirls. Converging currents occur where new watercourses enter the river or where water has been diverted around large obstacles such as small islands.

Honest Food Guide

Provided by Honest Food Guide.org

How to make a ring-pull smoke grenade

You never know when you might need some kind of survival deterrent. This is a very easy “tool” to make! It may even save your life if you need it in an emergency situation.

 

Survival Compartment – Contents and Layout

This is the second video in a series, I thought it to be very useful to see how other people organize including the reasoning behind it.