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Did you ever think about how different your day to day life would be after an SHTF event? The little things we take for granted now, like making a meal, staying warm, or having water to drink and bathe in would suddenly become a whole lot more complicated.

Who better to tell us what that is like than Selco? For those who don’t know, Selco spent a year in a city in Bosnia that was blockaded. During that year, he and the other residents lived without our normal amenities like heat, running water, electricity, and supplies that could be purchased at the stores.

I asked him some questions about daily life after the SHTF. I think you’ll agree that his answers are eye-opening.

(Note: Selco’s interviews are lightly edited for clarity, but I want to use his own words. The authenticity of his stories remains intact. For those of you who don’t know of Selco, please note that English is his 4th language. Whiny grammar Nazi comments will be deleted. Comments complaining about my use of the word “Nazi” will be posted, however, so we can publicly mock them, and then the commenter will be banned forever for being a whiner.)

What time did you usually get up? What woke you?

A few weeks after the collapse came, all aspects of our normal life changed based on the new reality around us.

One aspect was “sleep cycle“- the time when we sleep and when we were awake and active.

One of the most basic rules that jumped in was that most of the activities got done during the night.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Family Preparedness Essentials: Assessing Your Emergency Medicine Supply For the Home

January 26, 2018

Family Preparedness Essentials: Assessing Your Emergency Medicine Supply For the Home

ReadyNutrition Guys and Gals, it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to see that we’re living in perilous times and on the brink of a slew of problems. There are several flashpoints throughout the world that can translate into war at any time, such as Ukraine, Syria, and North Korea. Knowing these things, your preparations and training need to continue. You can continue this preparation by conducting a home assessment regarding medicines and supplies you will need.

What do I mean by this? I mean for you to specifically identify all the needs of each of your family members and begin acquiring them. Family members have varying needs depending on age and physical condition. Now is the time to ensure you have all the meds you need and the vitamins you will need when the SHTF. Allow me to sound the personal “trumpet” that I have been sounding throughout the years and in many articles:

You guys and gals need to get into good physical shape: it cannot be overemphasized.

Assessing Your Emergency Medicine Supply For the Home

That being said, how do you start? It is simple enough if you just insert a measure of organization and preparedness planning into it. Let’s do it, shall we?

Start by identifying family members who have special needs and/or ongoing, long-term treatment in terms of medication. Examples of conditions can be Type I Diabetics, Blood Pressure/Circulatory patients (meds such as Calcium Channel blockers, etc.), and family members with respiratory compromise (such as COPD, or severe, chronic asthma).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Would Rural Areas Be Safer In A SHTF Situation?

January 24, 2018

Would Rural Areas Be Safer In A SHTF Situation?

In a situation where national infrastructure and life sustaining resources are suddenly cut off , population density will have a lot to do with how well you get by in the days following the crisis. When it happens, what you have on hand will likely be all you have to work with for an extended time. Those that lack supplies will seek out and take what they need in an increasingly hostile manner as time goes on. This is why being in a large city will likely be hazardous to your well being.

Very few will argue that being in a rural area when something catastrophic happens will greatly increase your chances of survival. A lower population density and more available natural resources to help you get by will make long term survival much easier. This is why so many people advocate heading for a rural area when something happens. The problem is unless you are already established in a rural area, survival will not necessarily be easier.

Leaving the city when supplies and infrastructure are shut down would work only up to a point. Rural areas are like anywhere else. They have infrastructure designed to service a certain number of people that normally live there. The housing, restaurants, roadways, water systems and grocery stores will only handle a small excess of people even in the best of times. When the city dwellers suddenly evacuate to the rural areas in mass, they will simply be taking many of their big city problems with them. They will likely find no housing, food supplies or other infrastructure they need to live.

Because of this many small towns will likely close their roads at some point and prevent entry to anyone who does not live there. They will suddenly realize their already finite resources will not be enough for themselves much less thousands of new people.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

SHTF Medical Emergencies: Why This Antibiotic is the Most Popular Type Stored

January 18, 2018

SHTF Medical Emergencies: Why This Antibiotic is the Most Popular Type Stored

Ready Nutrition Readers, before you scoff completely at the title and smirk at the use of a manufactured pharmaceutical, there are a few things I ask you to keep in mind. I have written before on my stance regarding both naturopathic and traditional medicines, and I will reiterate that position once more if you have either forgotten it or not read it:

Herbalism is the parent of modern medicine, and the two “branches” should complement one another and never be in contradiction.

I have the utmost respect for the educational background of physicians. The definition of a true physician is one who uses his skills to for the benefit of a patient in need and helps that patient as best as can be done. Don’t discount modern medicine completely. Where one of the two branches cannot work, or does not work effectively, the other should be able to pick up the slack. In this light, do not relegate all of the chemistry and science behind medicines that do work. Sometimes we need that extra “edge” when facing an illness we cannot rectify through traditional home remedies.

Why Amoxicillin is the Most Popular Type of Antibiotic

One of the best medicines to stock up on is Amoxicillin, a drug that has been actively used in the service since 1972. It is a pretty broad-spectrum antibiotic that is great for bacterial infections, such as ear infections, sinusitis, respiratory ailments, UTI (Urinary Tract Infections), Lyme disease (yes, we’re entering tick season now), pneumonia, and other ailments. A well-rounded antibiotic, it has a shelf life of more than 15 years. That in itself should ring a bell for you as a happy prepper.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How To House the Whole Family in a SHTF-Emergency

December 27, 2017

How To House the Whole Family in a SHTF-Emergency

One of the complications of a major disaster event taking place (with or without warning) is not having supplies and equipment before the event takes place. In line with this dearth is the shortage of preparations for members of the family who live in other locations who may wish to band together. I’m going to propose a solution here that is slightly “unconventional,” so try to remove your mind from the constructs imposed upon it by your entire life spent from the army of skeptics and closed-minded establishment mindsets.

The imposition is that we all are channeled to live in “cookie-cutter” houses, plopped down akin to so many Hershey kisses in a row: identical construction in an approved, regulated, homeowner’s association-sanctioned manner.

We’re referring to the end of the society, and if you’re a multi-millionaire and you want a house for each member of the family retreating to your location, more power to you. We do what we can in life, and do the best we can. In the absence of millions, there is another route. Let’s go over the basics first.

The principle is for all the family members (and anyone close to that family) having a place to meet up and reside together when it all falls apart. From a logistics perspective, unless you have a gigantic manorial-type residence, your space and resources will be stretched thin. What I propose here are sheds…cabins, if you prefer. You can build them yourself or you can buy them.

Once again, much of this is going to depend on the geographic location you reside, and the social and legal impositions placed upon you. Only you know them. Armies of bureaucrats who want to tax you into insolvency are behind the hordes of conformists (commonly labeled as homeowners’ associations) and “friendly” neighbors who wish to impose their wills upon you.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Snowmageddon Dumps Record 60 Inches Of Snow On Erie, PA; “Declaration Of Disaster”

December 27, 2017

Snowmageddon Dumps Record 60 Inches Of Snow On Erie, PA; “Declaration Of Disaster”

On Tuesday, the city of Erie, Pennsylvania signed a declaration of disaster emergency, after a two-day storm dumped 5-feet of snow. Heavy lake-effect snow set record-setting snowfall totals in the snow belts to the east of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

From 7 p.m. on Dec. 24 to 6:02 p.m. Dec. 26, Erie had received 60.0
inches of snow, which shattered numerous records for the region. Nearly
all of the snow fell on Monday and Tuesday.

AccuWeather Meteorologist Bill Deger said, “this is now the biggest two-day snow total on record for Pennsylvania, besting the old record of 44 inches, which was set in Morgantown from March 20-21, 1958.”

Dale Robinson, the county’s emergency management coordinator, said that the declaration will allow the National Guard to respond to the paralyzed region. Robinson adds the National Guard deployment is “really for precautionary measures for the additional amount of snow we think we’re going to get.”

Images posted on social networks showed a world covered in several feet of snow:

Erie, PA: One resident’s house is barely recognizable with over 5-feet of snow.

Erie, PA: Brave man dreams about baseball in the chest-high snow.

Erie, PA: Resident is trapped within the home upon opening the door to over 5-feet of snow.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Emergency SHTF Packing: How To Efficiently Pack a Bug-Out Bag

December 16, 2017

Emergency SHTF Packing: How To Efficiently Pack a Bug-Out Bag

This article is a continuation and the second part of the load management series written at the request of Mr. Brent Westbrook, a ReadyNutrition Reader. In the first part, we covered how to stagger a load by weight and pack it according to function for a vehicle. Guess what? Many of the basics used to emplace that load are followed here, in how to pack a rucksack (another word for a backpack). Let’s get right down to it!

Packing a Bug-Out Bag + Gear Suggestions

For those who have been reading my articles for a while, you know that my personal preference is the large-frame Army Rucksack (also called a Large “Alice” pack) …the one from the turn of the century and thirty years before. It has an aluminum frame, it’s made of nylon, and it can take a lot of punishment. That being said, the mechanics and reasoning for packing it are still the same.

You must ensure with a ruck that the load is balanced, as high as possible to keep pressure and weight off your back and that you can get to your equipment in a hurry.

Items on the bottom are those rarely used

I pack at the bottom of mine stuff that I do not intend to use at all or very seldom, such as extra clothes and extra food. Pack your clothes in a wet-weather bag ( the military issue is preferable to me, although I’m aware there are many civilian firms that follow the premise of waterproof bags). In the middle of the ruck, you want some ammo, more clothes, and some specialty equipment that doesn’t see immediate use. You be the judge of that. Toward the top, I keep Gore-Tex pants and jacket, as well as an issue sleeping bag with a Gore-Tex cover in a compression bag and then in a wet-weather bag.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Your Disaster Response Is Limited By Your Imagination

December 6, 2017

Your Disaster Response Is Limited By Your Imagination

I touched on this in a previous article. You need to imagine the many forms a disaster will take and have a plan to cope with the changing situation.

I am sure there were many people in the areas affected by the recent hurricanes that had prepared for such an occurrence only to find they were still lacking in some form. It is good to have several months of supplies on hand to deal with a crisis but how many of these people had to evacuate due to flood waters and leave the bulk of these supplies behind? I often wonder how many ended up in evacuation sites anyway and how many had a plan and were able to load up their supplies and get to an alternate safe location.

It is difficult to know how any disaster will play out but your response to it is only limited to how much imagination you put into planning for it. I’m often accused of having crazy ideas but those ideas provide me with a data base to draw on in times of crisis. It is often hard to think straight when disaster approaches and time is short and it is in those moments that you must rely on what you already know.

For instance, following the unprecedented flooding in the gulf states I wondered what I would do if I suddenly found my home surrounded by rising flood waters. I live on a small hill which is one of the highest places in the area. Any flooding would cut off vehicle evacuation long before water reached the house. I concluded my only options would be to sink or float.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fact: Your Chances of Surviving a Post-Collapse Urban Environment are Slim

October 21, 2017

Fact: Your Chances of Surviving a Post-Collapse Urban Environment are Slim

ReadyNutrition Readers, Simply put, urban survival will be quite a bit different from survival in a remote wilderness area or even a sparsely-populated suburban area. Let’s game some options, remembering that these options are general. These actions aren’t specific to the type of breakdown of society (external by an attack from a foreign nation, or internal from economic collapse, for examples).

So, we have our collapse. Let us “X” out a nuclear war/nuclear terrorist attack, as we can deal with all the other scenarios in variables without radiation to contend with. Let’s identify the largest challenges faced for that high-rise apartment resident in Manhattan, or the family in the brownstone on the South side of Chicago. First, let’s game the scenario:

After “The Day,” the city was almost completely without power. You and your wife and two children were not able to leave town. All mass transit was halted or discontinued. It has been three days, and your family has been listening to static on the radio for the most part, with “campy” pre-recorded disaster broadcasts that have not been helpful or informative. One of your neighbors left this morning after saying goodbye: he and his family had a boat, and they were heading out of the harbor, hoping to use one of the major rivers to make an escape.

They didn’t have room to take you or yours, but you wanted to stay put and not follow your neighbor’s idea: that there were plenty of boats whose owners were not going to use them…probably dead following the rioting and civil breakdown. You’re beginning to think you should have listened to him. Now you can hear angry voices outside, and you go to the window. A mob has gathered at the top of your street!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why and how to wargame your emergency/disaster plans

September 24, 2017

Why and how to wargame your emergency/disaster plans

I spent a lot of years in the military and have worked with many different agencies and countries in that time. One thing I found universally true is the more effective and higher-level a groups (Delta, Special Forces, Navy SEALS, S.A.S, etc, the more they wargame their scenarios and specific missions.

These practice run-throughs (drills, exercises, dress rehearsals) includes everything from being generally prepared for possible missions to building mock-up buildings and neighborhoods and using all available intel to make things as realistic as possible. I’m not saying that you need to be prepared for emergencies to that level (this is their job), but I think you do need to use dress rehearsals to flush out vulnerabilities and deficiencies in your plan(s), and the more realistic you make these rehearsals, the better.

According to a 2015 FEMA report, 60% of Americans aren’t practicing for disasters. Pretty much every part of your emergency plan (your family emergency communications plan, bug out route plan, using a ham radio, dealing with medical emergencies, surviving in the woods, dealing with a power outage at home, and many, many other topics, require hands-on training as well as just walking through the plan you currently have so you can update it and try again. The danger is that if you don’t actually walk through the process in a semi-realistic fashion, you won’t realize you’re not prepared until it’s too late. As they say, “Don’t practice until you get it right; practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

Discovering your abilities and shortcomings

One of the biggest mistakes that preppers or others that try to prepare for emergencies or survival situations (and don’t want to call themselves preppers) make is about what they put in their bug out bag.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“It’s A Killer” – Florida Orders A Third Of The Population To Evacuate As Irma Hurtles Toward Tampa

September 9, 2017

“It’s A Killer” – Florida Orders A Third Of The Population To Evacuate As Irma Hurtles Toward Tampa

Florida’s highways and backroads are clogged with motorists after Gov. Rick Scott has ordered an unprecedented 6.2 million residents of central and southern Florida to evacuate. Meanwhile, Miami, along with many towns and cities along the state’s southeastern coast, resembles a ghost town, according to the New York Post.

To recap: The category 4 storm has already carved a path of destruction through the Caribbean, leaving 90% or Barbuda uninhabitable and nearly a million people without power in Puerto Rico. And now, with the storm’s outer bands already battering the southern part of the state, meteorologists are saying Irma has suddenly shifted westward and is now heading toward Florida’s Gulf Coast – specifically, the Tampa Bay area.

Here’s the Associated Press:

Forecasters expect Irma’s core to come ashore Sunday and strike the Keys, southwestern Florida and the Tampa Bay region, which hasn’t felt a major hurricane since 1921. The eye is expected to miss heavily-populated Miami, which may have dodged a bubble in the last minute, but that area will still get life-threatening hurricane conditions even without a direct hit, Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

ABC News

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Replying to @ABC

LATEST: #Irma currently Cat. 3 Hurricane with winds of 125 mph; expected to restrengthen as it heads towards Florida http://abcn.ws/2xcR82b pic.twitter.com/6MStKhvII4

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MORE: #Irma 175 miles SE of Key West, FL, moving west at 9 mph; expected head up western coast of Florida. http://abcn.ws/2xcR82b pic.twitter.com/b6XtIF92YI

11:10 AM – Sep 9, 2017

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How preppers prepare for hurricanes: a comprehensive look

September 9, 2017

How preppers prepare for hurricanes: a comprehensive look

Everybody’s a prepper when the storm comes. Unfortunately this particular portrayal of peripheral preparedness not only did a disservice to the prepper community, it dissuaded many people from pursuing training or meeting others that could have helped them understand how to be ready for emergencies before they happen.

Some people look past the stigmatism and realize you have to be proactive in preparing. This article breaks down what you need to consider when preparing for a hurricane (and to some extent any weather emergency), from a prepper point of view. I’ve spent some time looking for and linking some specific examples for you but they’re only suggestions to get you started (this is only a blog post and not a book). Please do some research after thinking through your plans.

I’m writing this article just after Harvey slammed into Texas and just before Irma is supposed to hit Florida but the details should hold true for years to come. This topic is of particular concern to me because I’m in the middle of transitioning this year from living in the suburbs of Phoenix to living on a sailboat in the Atlantic/Caribbean. I’ll first go briefly over the four basic time periods to consider and then give you some basic ideas of what to start planning in order to handle them.

There are four basic time periods to consider in preparing for a hurricane:

Well before a storm is forming
When a hurricane is likely to hit your area
During the storm
Dealing with the aftermath

Well before a storm is forming

This is normal life. The time that no one really thinks about hurricanes. This is the time to do all the things that take an extended amount of time to complete or must be started well in advance.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Letters from Venezuela: This Is What Life Is Really Like in a Post-Collapse Society

June 5, 2017

Letters from Venezuela: This Is What Life Is Really Like in a Post-Collapse Society

If you ever wondered what life was really like in a post-collapse society, look no further than Venezuela. Today, I’d like to share a first-hand report of everyday life there.

The country has been on the way down since a socialist government destroyed the economy. Here’s a quick timeline:

Private ownership of guns was banned in 2012. Then things began to go downhill in a hurry.
In 2013, preppers were relabeled “hoarders” and the act of stocking up became illegal.
In 2014, the government instituted a fingerprint registry for those who wished to buy food to ensure they didn’t take more than their “share.”
In 2015, things began to devolve more quickly as electricity began to be rationed and farmers were forced to turn over their harvests to the government.
2016 brought the announcement that folks were on their own – there was simply not enough food. As well, despite the rationing, an electricity shortage was announced.
2016 also brought the news that the country was out of everything: food, medicine, and nearly all basic necessities. People were dying of starvation and malnourishment made other illnesses even worse. Hyperinflation brought exorbitant prices, like $150 for a dozen eggs.
Now, civil war is near (if not already happening.) They’re calling it “protests” but violence between the people and the government is ongoing. This rage is stoked by wealthy Venezuelans who enjoy luxurious meals, fabulous parties, and lush accommodations while the rest of the country struggles to find a bag of rice they can afford. Let them eat cake?

It appears there is no end in sight to the tribulations of the Venezuelans.

So, what is day-to-day life like for the average Venezuelan?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Where Do You Go in a Hurricane?

May 1, 2017

Where Do You Go in a Hurricane?

As a West Indian, I’ve lived through quite a few hurricanes in my time. My level of responsibility in each varied quite a bit. I was eight years old in my first hurricane and I thought it was great fun, as it was so exciting during the hurricane and, afterward, the landscape had changed so much that I had lots of new places to play.

On the other end of the scale, in 2004, my country, the Cayman Islands, experienced a Category 5 hurricane, with winds up to 200 miles per hour that sat on us without moving for 36 hours. I was responsible for ensuring that safety be provided for scores of my employees prior to the hurricane. After the storm, one of my companies took on the complete rebuilding of the country’s wholesale and retail food distribution facilities in order to ensure that the country’s population would have the most essential commodities—food and water. (A big change in level of responsibility over the years.)

In addition to having spent decades planning for hurricane damage, I’ve also spent decades as an economist, planning for major economic storms. In 1999, I determined that the world would experience what Doug Casey has termed a Greater Depression that would be more devastating than any economic event the world had ever seen. I predicted that it would happen in stages and that the final stage would be the most devastating. I would have been quite pleased to have been incorrect, but unfortunately, my predictions have come to pass. I believe we’re now quite close to the final destruction stage, a period that will lead to the collapse of many of the world’s formerly strongest economies, coinciding with a period of devastating warfare. In both the economic and warfare cases, those who are the world’s major players will believe that they’ll be able to control the extent of devastation and even profit from it, but events will go beyond their control and take on a life of their own.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Korea Times: “China Bracing For Emergency Situation Involving North Korea”

May 1, 2017

Korea Times: “China Bracing For Emergency Situation Involving North Korea”

With the North Korean situation tense after Friday’s latest failed missile attempt, the South Korea’s Korea Times reports that a Chinese town near the border with North Korea is “urgently” recruiting Korean-Chinese interpreters, “stirring speculation that China is bracing for an emergency situation involving its nuclear-armed neighbor.”

The Korea Times cites The Oriental Daily, a Hong Kong-based news outlet, which reportedly published the story on Apr. 27, including a photo of a Chinese government document ordering the town of Dandong to recruit an unspecified number of Korean-Chinese interpreters to work at 10 departments in the town, including border security, public security, trade, customs and quarantine.

The document did not specify the reason behind the unusual, large-scale recruiting. But experts and local citizens said the move indicated that China was bracing for a possible military clash between the United States and North Korea.

The Korean outlet goes on to speculate that this “might trigger a huge exodus of North Koreans to border towns in China.”

Whether this dismal scenario will become a reality is largely up to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.

The Dandong administration also has ordered its officials to work rotating night shifts since April 25, according to South Korea’s news agency Yonhap.

Meanwhile, China has dismissed recent reports that it has sent 150,000 additional troops to its border with the North.

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