You Should Be Prepping For Survival
So why should I be a prepper and why might you consider it?
Just look around. Four in ten Americans will face a Mother Nature calamity every year.
And let’s not forget what politics or a volatile economy might do to us.
Why Emergency Prepping?
Hurricane Laura crashed into the Gulf Coast town of St.Charles, LA with sustained 150-mph winds.
Also, hundreds of California wildfires devastated an area the size of Rhode Island in just a week. Due to wildfires, more than 10% of the population of Oregon has been forced to evacuate their homes.
And while doing a little updating on this page, a ‘derecho’¹, a complex of unusually powerful, hurricane-like storms, tore through Iowa, destroying homes and crops across a 745-mile path.
All in a matter of weeks.
Not to mention a rather deadly pandemic engulfing the whole world.
Due to the uncontrollable way nature can act, and governments can treat us, not to mention our own next-door neighbors, I am sorry to say that emergency preparedness for your peace of mind can be a very valuable consideration.
How do you respond?
Before, during, and after a crisis situation.
It is important to be educated and informed with survival tips in all ways possible to well prepared for whatever the future brings.
“Never in my life have I felt so alone”
from a flood survivor in the Midwest of the United States in March 2019.
Let us look at other recent past crises that should answer the question of why I should be a prepper and get you in an emergency preparedness frame of mind.
Disasters Demanding Emergency Preparedness
January 2021 Insurrection. Can you believe the chaos in Washington DC during the confirmation of the president-elect? How far will this go? Could it affect you on your own front doorstep and would you know how to protect yourself and your loved ones?
January 2020 Covid-19, the dreaded Coronavirus is shocking the world with life and death health and economic concerns. How are your survival of the fittest plans? How about your toilet paper supply?
November 2019-Fifty thousand Texan civilians were evacuated due to explosions at a chemical plant. How would you handle that?
Where are you going when told to get out?
In the first week of July 2019, Southern California was hit by two major earthquakes. It was unclear when personnel and their families would be able to return to their homes of the 1,200 facilities at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
In March of 2019, the mid-west of the United States was inundated with some of the worse floods in recent memory. How fast could you ‘bug out‘ and where would you go?
In February 2019, cities such as Chicago experienced some of the coldest weather in history. How are you going to stay warm when the power goes out?
In early April 2018, the Southern and Eastern United States experienced tornadoes and severe weather.
Summer-Fall 2018, had a firestorm in California. The city of Paradise was destroyed. People died here because they could not get out fast enough. What’s your survival plan?
October 2018, Hurricane Michael devastated the Gulf Coast of Florida. The city of Mexico Beach was devastated. Ten months later….yes …..10 months…..people were still waiting for their homes to be put back together.
In September of 2018, Hurricane Florence slammed into the Carolina’s. Where are you living after your house is destroyed?
In 2007 the Great Recession—which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009—began with the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. The U.S. labor market alone lost 8.4 million jobs or 6.1% of all payroll employment.
And don’t forget Bernie Madoff’s 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008. Just one man led many to a crisis situation. If your bank account should disappear or you wind ‘upside down’ on your house value, how would you handle it?
Are you prepared with a survival kit, with stored food, self-defense, and bugging out ideas, and how about some home preparedness solutions?
In 2018 alone, the U.S. suffered 14 major climate-related disasters with losses that totaled one billion dollars each.
Homes were destroyed, shelters were lost.
People lost their lives.
And that is just weather-related disasters.
Stock markets fail, Ponzi schemes rob people without mercy, your power may go off for days. Man-made disasters can be, and are, just as destructive to the lives of everyone.
What are your emergency planning ideas so you may protect yourself and your loved ones?
What are your emergency preparedness solutions?
Common Sense Emergency Survival Solutions
Please educate yourself with some of the informative and helpful content and resources I have on this prepping topic for yourself and your families well being and peace of mind.
Here you will find real solutions for planning an emergency preparedness plan, an emergency preparedness list, emergency preparedness for pets, emergency preparedness requirements, and also, though you might not see it now: emergency preparedness jobs!
Prepping solutions that will make that why you and I should be a prepper that more easily obtained.
For example:
What can you do in the way of your talents that can help people in their time of need such as a volunteer or as someone who needs to make some money because that crisis just cost you your job!
We really don’t expect you to go dig a hole in your back yard, furnish and supply it and prepare yourself to live in it for months on end. However, I do have a post or two on underground survival bunkers just in case you are interested.
I really believe that long-term prepping is futile. Having all the guns and ammunition you think you need to protect yourself and your survival supplies will not be enough. When push comes to shove people will want your stuff.
A lot of people.
Those guys in the Alamo did not run out of bullets or food.
All we can do is hope and pray it never gets to that type of situation.
However, I would like to show you practical ways to prepare for yourself, your family, and your home for any impending disaster, be it by mother nature, faulty government policies, or some political crazies looking to make a statement.
A day does not go by when we do not hear of some calamity affecting someone in some place.
Read the news and you find out about hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, and other acts of natural disasters affecting people and places.
Prepping yourself for such events, even the simple ones, can make your life more secure and comfortable, and give you some peace of mind knowing that you will not be one of those last-minute shoppers.
There is a lot of concern about government blunders, how they deal with the economy or other governments. How a bad decision or a combination of several bad decisions can lead to a major catastrophic event.
Prepping yourself for such events can make you and your family more secure.
This is a common-sense site for people not willing to “go off the deep end” with this stuff.
There is really no need to plan for a Doomsday Castle.
Go about your life.
Just stay informed.
Just get yourself prepared for anything life and what mother nature might throw at you.
Real Survival Prepping For The Rest Of Us
The whole concept of emergency preparedness is centered on the idea of taking measures well in advance of an emergency situation such as a natural disaster so that you’re ready and prepared when that crisis actually strikes.
That means doing everything that your time, skills, and budget allow you to make yourself as prepared as possible to survive a disaster situation both physically and emotionally.
Beans-Bullets and Band-Aids
*We are not affiliated with the Patriot Nurse, however, we agree with the common sense advice she believes in. Check out her website.
Emergency preparedness does not and should not put you in the poor house.
However, if you are not properly prepared after the crisis happens to you and your family, it will cost you an arm and a leg to get what you need, such as food if you can get things at all.
Everything from diapers to gasoline will be almost impossible to get your hands on, so it would be a good idea to think about it now and go about the prepping on an easy pace long before a disaster overwhelms you and the neighbors.
Survival prepping for normal people means that no one can be prepared for every possible situation all at once, and no one is telling you to do that. However, we should all find a way to be prepared on a budget.
And that means doing it a little bit at a time. A few dollars a day, even a week will put you closer to the ideal solution for you and your family’s comfort. Find a comfortable budget, make up some planning, and stick to it.
Make Use Of That Prepping Budget
Food Issues: The Beans
Packaged Solutions: When talking about your food issues packaged freeze-dried meals are very convenient and easy to obtain and use. However, they can be terribly expensive especially if you have a large family. It’s just my wife and myself here so one of those 5-gallon buckets of prepared food that will last 25 years is wonderful.
One of those buckets could last us for weeks after a major crisis. Canned goods and dried rice and beans from the supermarket are bland but will save you plenty and will last a long time.
Protein: Buying meat is one of the most expensive things on a grocery list and it does not store too easily especially if the power is out and the fridge does not work. Think of beans as a substitute. Not as flavorful, but you gotta eat and they are a good source of much-needed protein. There are many varieties available so you may change it up. Try cooking them with purchased bullion cubes.
Think Sales: If Walmart is having a sale on canned foods such as tuna or vegetables for a buck a can, head on over and stock up. Always keep in mind that shopping like this will not only get your food supplies up to survival levels, it will also save you from the mad dash to market when the hurricane has you in its eyesight or that earthquake took you by surprise and you are without utilities for weeks.
Art of Couponing: An easy way to save money on your prepping quest is to take advantage of the ‘free money’ that the supermarkets and manufacturers give out.
Another little trick for emergency preparedness I want to mention to you here is stockpiling spices. You can make just about any rationed food you cook taste great if you use the right spices.
Remember what I said about putting a little bullion with your beans? Take it one step further with garlic salt, paprika, or simple black pepper.
Your prepping budget should not put you in the poor house or deprive you and your family of a normal lifestyle.
Are Guns Effective For Self-Defense
The Bullets
Unfortunately, self-defense might become an issue either before, during, or after a serious crisis situation.
I firmly believe that guns as defensive weapons can be a deadly mistake.
There are many preppers out there, that think the only way to properly prepare for a good defense is by the method of gun ownership.
However, let’s ask: Could we defend ourselves without gun ownership?
When it comes to self-defense, the consensus seems to show that firearms are the most trusted form of protection.
I myself do not own one. I find them costly in not only money but also on any end result if I had to use one.
However, many feel it’s a good idea to keep at least one in the house if you are prepping for or anticipating a crisis scenario and the defense of yourself will most likely increase.
Your emergency preparedness plans should include thoughts on how to defend yourself.
So what happens when you are forced to defend yourself when there is no such weapon such as a gun is around?
And there is also the possibility your gun is taken from you and then used against you from an unforeseen attacker.
Because of lack of proper training, many fail to realize exactly how much time and distance (between you and your opponent) you will need to effectively draw, aim and shoot your gun at an oncoming attacker.
In many cases, attempting to draw your weapon is not advised. This is not the wild west and your a far cry from Wyatt Earp!
You could be caught mid-draw as your attacker closes the gap and be incapacitated before you have the chance to fire a shot.
Furthermore, what happens when you venture outside your home or shelter to replenish your supplies, including ammunition? Unless you are capable of manufacturing your own ammo in-house (chances are you aren’t), you will be forced to consider ‘gun-less’ combat.
In this case, you should consider a need to have an alternate weapon available that you can rely on for self-defense.
Unfortunately, finding an alternate weapon is not always as easy as it seems.
Guns Are Rarely Used In Self-Defense
So how can one defend oneself without the use of guns?
Many preppers will argue that a knife is a person’s best friend, even more so than a rifle or handgun, and they carry one on a daily basis for a variety of everyday chores and, if need be, self-defense.
However, some knives over a certain length are illegal in many areas, as are those with automatic opening systems (switchblades).
In many jurisdictions, electric Tasers and even pepper spray are illegal and unavailable for purchase by the average consumer.
So before you go out and start spending money arming yourself to the elbows with what could be illegal, it would be a good idea to check your local laws regarding such things.
When all hell breaks loose and you feel there would be a need for you to defend yourself in the absence of those traditional weapons, what do you do?
Roll over and let all you worked for go into the hands of someone else?
No.
It may be time to get a little creative and to think outside the box and start thinking now on how to prep yourself for self-defense without those types of weapons.
This is going to take some time.
Some would say the mind is the greatest weapon so you’re only as limited as your own ideas.
Keep in mind a universal rule of combat: You should and must avoid and/or defuse a confrontation before it has a chance to escalate. You must always consider what can be done to prevent yourself from becoming a victim.
For starters, you can never go wrong by taking the proper time and energy to train yourself in martial arts. It doesn’t matter what variety you practice; regular self-defense training will equip you with the techniques, ability, and stamina to take on an attacker, who in most cases won’t be well-versed in fighting skills.
But your own fighting skills – however good or bad – are only part of what can be considered a layered defense. You must be able to identify and incorporate different options into your self-defense regimen in the event of an actual attack.
Nonlethal Self-Defense Weapons
There are many different alternative items that can serve as a self-defense weapon in the event you must otherwise face an attacker unarmed. Again, consider the fact that you could find yourself in a fight with little or no time to react.
So in order to be prepared, you need to have (or find) something concealable and easily accessible to be used as a makeshift weapon to deter or incapacitate your foe.
If you can’t carry or don’t have access to a firearm or Taser, consider carrying a less lethal type of gun.
For example, flare guns are legal for purchase in most areas, are affordable, and can be discharged with potentially lethal force. Their phosphorus rounds (which are used for signaling for help at sea) can actually light a person on fire if you are a reasonably good shot and pointed at the body of your attacker.
Be careful, though. Just like a traditional firearm, it may take some practice to effectively aim and hit a human target with a flare. Also, the cartridges usually have a shelf life and can only carry a charge for a certain length of time (typically upwards of 2-3 years).
Another “gun” that you could use is a squirt gun. These children’s toys are filled with water and used for harmless fun in mock battles. But have you ever considered the effect of replacing the water with bleach, ammonia, or another toxic chemical (acidic juice or oil from hot peppers could have an equal effect)?
Even a small, handgun-sized squirt gun filled with one of these liquids could be easily concealed and drawn against an attacker. Just aim for the eyes and be careful not to get any on your own skin or face.
Also, consider aerosol and spray alternatives to traditional pepper spray. Most liquids that come in an aerosol can have an incredibly painful and dangerous effect on the eyes, nose, throat, and skin.
Think oven cleaner, wasp killer(my favorite) or other toxic chemicals with a potentially long-reaching spray. If a handheld fire extinguisher is lying about, even better.
Other less conspicuous items unlikely to arouse much attention are things like spray deodorant, perfume or cologne, which you may already carry on your person or in your bag. These can have the same effect as household cleaners and other spray chemicals.
In addition to human targets, these unconventional deterrents could also be used against attacking animals in an ‘after crisis’ situation.
You would be surprised at how many pets are left to their own devices because their owners left them behind before all hell broke loose. Usually, a dog can take one sniff of a harmful chemical, sense danger, and flee.
While these items allow you to put some distance between you and your target, nothing is foolproof, and your attacker may still persist.
Though we’ve mentioned the importance of hand-to-hand fighting skills and training, most people would like the added security of wielding a makeshift weapon before the fists have to come out.
To that tune, items that can cause blunt force trauma are the next most viable go-to. One swing of a baseball bat, golf clubs, pipe wrenches (or pipes themselves) or a length of rebar can have a devastating effect against your opponent.
So too can something as simple as an emergency LED flashlight, which serves dual purposes as a temporary blinding agent (the light itself) and a bludgeoning tool.
While these items may not be concealable, they are found and/or can be stored in most households and car trunks. After all, you never know when you could find yourself in a physical altercation. It could be at the hands of a home invader or car burglar, just the same as it could be a stranger on the street.
For all intents and purposes, you probably want to stay away from edged weapons altogether. This includes decorative swords, axes, kitchen cutlery, and everyday pocket and survival knives.
First, you never want to bring a knife to a gunfight (as the saying goes), or to any conflict wherein you may be outgunned, outnumbered or out-skilled.
Know your limitations!
Though these sharp objects can do serious damage to human flesh, using them effectively takes serious practice and skill. Knife fighting is an invaluable skill to possess, but without it, you are essentially involving yourself in one of the most dangerous forms of combat.
Another commonly overlooked item is the walking stick. A shoulder-height stick made of a hard and properly dried wood can be a formidable weapon for self-defense and can be carried about the town without arousing suspicion.
However, a pool cue, tree branch, fire poker, or other long and hard items can also do the trick. These will give you a degree of control over your attacker by keeping them at a distance and are ideal for hitting, swinging, and jabbing at your target’s weak spots.
Ultimately, it’s an unchangeable notion that the majority of us will be involved in a violent altercation at some point in our lives. This is sadly true after a crisis arrives and people might get desperate and/or take advantage of a poor situation.
You may not always be able to determine your fate, but you can always change the way you prepare. Weapons, however obscure and improvised, are mere extensions of your body and can serve to enhance your self-defense skills, especially with proper training.
Always be equally vigilant and creative. Study the everyday objects that surround you and think of how they could serve you in the event of an attack.
Preparing A First Aid Kit
The Band-Aids
In addition to the food, water, and self-defense items, you can not forget about emergency preparedness for your own personal health.
It never fails that the majority of people who prepare themselves for a crisis fail to think of first aid items that may be critically needed at a moment’s notice.
Injuries and sickness occur. That’s one thing you can count on. Therefore, it is prudent to be ready for them by having the necessary supplies and medicines to help your body heal.
The human body has the ability to heal itself from a lot of things. However, major and sometimes minor injuries may be too much for the body to heal alone. Not only that, injuries can provide opportunities for infection, which can kill.
Having a good first-aid kit in your survival supplies is essential. It should include the means to treat all types of injuries, as well as medicines to take care of common illnesses.
Dying of sickness isn’t going to help you or your family.
24 Items For A First-Aid Kit
Prescription medicines plus extra
An up-to-date first-aid manual. (things change)
A written list of emergency phone numbers (friends and relatives too)
Sterile gauze pads of different sizes
Adhesive tape
Adhesive bandages in several sizes
Elastic bandage
A splint or two
Antiseptic wipes
Soap
Antibiotic ointment
Antiseptic solution (such as hydrogen peroxide)
Hydrocortisone cream
Aspirin and ibuprofen
Tweezers and pins
Sharp scissors
Disposable instant cold packs
Calamine lotion
Alcohol wipes
Thermometer
Mouth and teeth care
Plastic non-latex gloves (at least 2 pairs)
Flashlight and extra batteries
If you have pets, remember their needs also.
We could cover a lot of other things as well, such as tools and means of communication. But these three things:
Beans
Bullets (Self-Defense)
Band-Aids
are the most critical items to keep in mind when thinking about why you and I should be preppers. Whether in your home, in your car, or on your personal vacation.
Cost-Effective Emergency Preparedness Plan
Up to now, I have talked a lot about how to understand the basics of survival prepping and the need to build the necessary survival kits and ideas for both home and away from home.
When it comes to staying in to weather the crisis, however, there are really two things to consider. The first is making your home defensible; the second, making your home comfortable.
I want to help you save a little money and a lot of stress in taking care of both.
Home Preparedness
Being well prepared makes you a target. Oh, you may not be a target today, but if things fall apart and you’re the only one in your neighborhood who has any food, you’ll surely be in everyone’s sights.
Peppers basically accept this as a fact of life. For that reason, most are prepared to defend their home. They buy firearms and ammo so that they have the ability to defend themselves and their families no matter what.
In addition to that, it’s important to make your home defensible. Basically, that means making it hard to break into. No, an alarm system won’t help. Remember, there probably won’t be any electricity to run it.
Criminals either come inside via doors or windows. So, what you need to do is make your doors and windows boot-proof. You can actually kick through a deadlocked door rather easily, and glass windows are nothing to breakthrough.
Making a door or window boot-proof merely means making it so that people can’t kick their way in. You might not be able to stop them, but you can at least slow them down.
So, put a bar on the door, and make plywood covers for your windows or get hurricane rated windows. That way, you can make it hard for the bad guys to get into your home. If you hear them trying to break in, you have time to prepare your self-defense.
Emergency Preparedness Without Electricity
Pretty much any disaster is accompanied by a loss of electric power. Since we use electricity for so much, that loss means a major change in lifestyle.
Electricity is a convenience, not a necessity. People lived for thousands of years without it. Preparing to live without electricity basically means going back to the old ways of doing things, the ways that our ancestors lived.
The most critical electrical uses are heating, cooking, refrigeration, and light. Fortunately for us, we can duplicate all of those by other means.
For refrigeration, you can always dig a good, old fashioned root cellar. That’s what our grandparents did to keep their food fresh longer. Another way is to use a Zeer pot. This is a really slick method that uses two ceramic pots and some sand.
Basically, a Zeer pot works by evaporation. The two pots are nested, with the food inside the smaller one. Sand is packed in between the pots and then wetted down. The water soaks through the clay pot and evaporates, cooling it and the food inside.
No Running Water In House
When the power goes out, you can pretty much count on the running water going out as well. That means you need some other source of water and some way of purifying it.
If you don’t have a canal or stream nearby, have you thought about drilling a well? Having a well drilled professionally is expensive, but there are ways you can do it yourself.
Most well drilling companies will want to drill a deep well to get you the best water. While that idea has merit, you just need water, even if it isn’t the best. You can get that from a much shallower well. In some places, you can get water 20 feet below the surface.
There are several methods for drilling or “driving” a well that you can do yourself. Driving a well is probably the easiest. To do so, you pound a well point into the ground. This is attached to the well screen and followed by a pipe.
If you have dirt or sand under your feet driving, a well works easily. But it doesn’t work well if you have clay and rock. So, figure out what type of ground you have before starting.
And you will also have to figure out how to pump the water out of that well with no electricity. An electric pump that will work via battery power, or an old fashioned hand pump.
What Happens If The Sewer Service Fails?
When the city water goes out, you can be guaranteed that city sewage service will too. If you have a septic tank, that won’t be a problem. But if you’re on city sewage, it will be.
A good old outhouse is a solution to that problem. If your ground is too hard to dig a latrine, you can make a port-a-potty to use. The waste will need to be bagged and taken to a safe place for disposal.
You don’t need to dispose of greywater, which is the water you use for washing. Greywater can be used to water your vegetable garden and flush your toilets, recycling it. That will reduce your water consumption and save you work.
It really doesn’t take all that much to prepare for these things. You’ll probably find it faster and easier than the work you’ve put into your stockpile. Nevertheless, they are all important for your family’s survival.
Speaking of survival, do you know by now everything you need in order to survive? Let’s check. In my next e-mail, I’ll talk about the basic necessities for survival, just to make sure you know them like the back of your hand.
Thinking Outside The Box: Learning Some Skills
Any skill and or supplies your family needs will be needed by others as well.
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[signup id=”683″]Your education on how to prepare yourself for future calamities could be the difference between life and death or at the very least a more comfortable situation for you and your family. Why would you not want this information?
Why Should You Be A Prepper?
2021 was another catastrophic and deadly year for weather…. continue reading
We all want to make the best of a bad situation!
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¹ Derecho is a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that move across a great distance and are characterized by damaging winds.
