Home » Posts tagged 'Prepare'
Tag Archives: Prepare
As The Perfect Storm Approaches, Most Americans Are Partying Instead Of Preparing
As The Perfect Storm Approaches, Most Americans Are Partying Instead Of Preparing
I can’t think of a time when Americans were more apathetic about getting prepared, and yet this is exactly the time when the urgency to get prepared should be at the highest. Earlier today, my wife Meranda and I were discussing the fact that every single element of “the perfect storm” is coming together just as we had anticipated. One by one, the pieces are all falling into place, and I share the most recent things that my research has uncovered with all of you on a daily basis. Unfortunately, most Americans are absolutely convinced that there is no reason to get prepared for hard times because everything is going to be just great. In America today, most people either believe that the future is going to be totally wonderful or that the future will be totally wonderful once we get rid of Trump. Because so many of us have adopted one of these false narratives, most Americans are partying instead of preparing, and that is going to mean big trouble when things really start going haywire.
Are you familiar with “the rule of three”? I just looked it up on Google, and this is how it is defined…
“You can survive for 3 Minutes without air (oxygen) or in icy water. You can survive for 3 Hours without shelter in a harsh environment (unless in icy water) You can survive for 3 Days without water (if sheltered from a harsh environment) You can survive for 3 Weeks without food (if you have water and shelter)”
Of course these numbers are not exact. For example, many have gone without food for more than 3 weeks without serious problems. But in general, this is a pretty good guideline for survival.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
A Quick-Start Guide for New Preppers Who Want to be Ready RIGHT NOW
A Quick-Start Guide for New Preppers Who Want to be Ready RIGHT NOW
You feel a panicked urgency because you’ve learned just enough to know that you are NOT prepared.You know that there are all sorts of supplies that you need, but if you’re like most of us, you’re on a budget. Very few of us can afford to buy everything we need all at once.
Here’s a guide
Stop panicking. Take a deep breath. You can devote yourself to getting prepared without breaking the bank.
So if you have to split up your purchases, how do you prioritize your supplies? How can you create a sensible supply quickly before an impending crisis occurs?
The recommendations in this guide for new preppers will help speed you through the preparedness process. Wherever possible, use items that you already have. Consider this a checklist of what you need and fulfill it as you can. In each category there will be a range of options, including some freebies whenever possible, as well as reading material on the subject.
Please keep in mind, the following doesn’t provide you with a year’s supply of anything. It will get you through most short-term disasters with aplomb, though. Once you have this foundation in place, you can spend time and money building upon it.
Water
Water is near and dear to my heart, so much so that I wrote a book on the topic. (You can find The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide HERE.) I always put water at the top of the list, because without it, you’ll be dead in 3 short days. The need for an emergency water supply isn’t always the result of a down grid disaster. Recently, we tapped into our emergency water when the well pump broke.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Top 50 Non-Food Stockpile Necessities
The Top 50 Non-Food Stockpile Necessities
Be honest. When you think about a stockpile, the first thing that comes to mind is food, right?
Preppers are well-known for having a stash of long-term food to sustain them through anything from a winter storm that leaves them stranded for a week to the end of the world, but there’s a lot more to a good stockpile than edible items. Think about the things you use on a regular basis that you purchase from the store. Personal hygiene items, school supplies, cleaning supplies – the list goes on and on of consumable goods that you use without really thinking about it.
Ever since my kids were little, I’ve always kept a stockpile of these types of goods. And there have been occasions in my life that I was very grateful to have them on hand. When I was unemployed for a few months, I didn’t have to run to the store to get day-to-day items, nor did I have to do without. I was able to simply go shopping in the pantry and meet my family’s needs. Because of this, we survived a stressful situation without the added stress of not having the things we needed to live comfortably.
How to get a good deal on non-food stockpile items
Shopping for non-food stockpile items is much like shopping for your grocery stockpile. It’s essential that you get the best deal you can. If the deal is really epic, sometimes I stock up on brands that we don’t really use so that I have some items on hand for a friend who may have fallen on hard times. A gift of health-and-beauty supplies would be very welcome to someone who has lost a job or otherwise fallen on hard times.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How to communicate when the world goes silent
How to communicate when the world goes silent
So how would you communicate with your family or get help if communications go down? If you found yourself in the middle of a wide-scale disaster such as a hurricane or other catastrophe and you had no government coming to help for a while, how would you communicate with your family or others? What if the power grid went down?
You won’t be able to rely on your cell phone. There are alternatives, however. This is a pretty long article that goes into some good detail, but if you want the short answer, this is what you need.
I’ll go over the basics of some emergency communication methods but if you want more detail, check out Personal Emergency Communications: Staying in Touch Post-Disaster: Technology, Gear and Planning.
Short-term emergencies have shown the limitations of using cell phones to coordinate with each other. Even if the towers are operational, they can’t handle the added traffic of millions of people trying to get a hold of loved ones – or help. Ever had trouble calling your mother on the morning of Mother’s Day?
During many recent events, cell phone service wasn’t an option for many for days. The system became seriously overloaded on 9/11 so calls wouldn’t go through, 70% of the towers went down during Katrina and were down for days, and most areas haven’t been adequately improved across the US.
These won’t be isolated events. Don’t think that because you live in a large metropolitan area that you’re safer. A quick look at some of the things that went on during Hurricane Sandy in NY will show that the government has a lot to deal with in addition to just trying to get your cell phone service back up so even though that was a pretty short-term event, it caused a lot of problems.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Beginners Guide To Selecting, Stockpiling And Defending A Survival Retreat Part Two
The Beginners Guide To Selecting, Stockpiling And Defending A Survival Retreat Part Two
Once you have your retreat purchased you can begin the serious work of getting it ready to receive you and your hand-picked group. Everyone needs a place to live, sleep, eat and relax. All members of your group will need a place to be alone or completely by themselves for a period of time. I learned that lesson when I took off on my forty-one foot sailboat many years ago and headed for the South Pacific. Take my word for it, everyone needs to have a place where they can be completely alone.
You must have adequate sanitary services for everyone. It should not be very close to your main retreat drinking water supply and close enough if during your rainy season or the winter snows that getting there won’t be a chore. It needs to be well ventilated for obvious reasons. There should be a kerosene lamp located in there as well or at least a candle.
I have always maintained that when you are setting up your retreat initially all buildings should be camouflaged when looking down at them from the air. Ideally, if there is time, you should build an underground structure as your main living area and as a gathering/meeting area.
They are climate controlled naturally year around, and are difficult to see from above. You always want to draw the least amount of attention on your retreat and your group. I cannot overemphasize to anyone who is a serious survivalist your retreat is the last stop and it will be your ultimate safety if and when the free trade and commerce stops around you for any reason. How bad things will get in the event of a national disaster such as an economic collapse can only be imagined, but all anyone has to do is look back on history to get a good idea.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Here’s Why a Prepper Homestead May Not a Good Plan for Survival
Here’s Why a Prepper Homestead May Not a Good Plan for Survival
Lots of preppers are convinced that they’re going to “live off the land” should the world as we know it come tumbling down around our ears. Seed banks are stockpiled, books are purchased, and people are confident that they’ll be able to outlive everyone else based on the sweat of their inexperienced brows.
But no matter how hard working you are, farming takes time. Time for learning, time for mistakes, and time for your plans to come to fruition. A prepper homestead is something that must be built over a period of time – it’s absolutely not a plug-and-play solution, regardless of the number of survival seed packets you have carefully stashed away. Farming for survival is not a good plan if you have never done it before.
If a prepper homestead is your survival plan, let me give you some advice: STORE. FOOD.
You are going to have to have something to get you through that first year when your farm doesn’t produce diddly squat.
As anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows, my family is prone to new adventures. We’ve moved from a large city to a cabin in the North Woods, where I discovered I knew nothing about building fires and living in the wilderness. We drove across the continent to move from Ontario, Canada, to the West Coast, where I had to rebuild my preps from the ground up, since US Customs would not allow us to bring our food supplies across.
This year’s adventure is food production. My daughter and I recently moved to a small farm, eager to polish up a new skill set and build that idealized prepper homestead that many of us dream about.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
European Stocks, Chinese Stocks And Commodities Are All Crashing – Are U.S. Stocks Next?
European Stocks, Chinese Stocks And Commodities Are All Crashing – Are U.S. Stocks Next?
A global stock market crash has begun. European stocks are crashing, Chinese stocksare crashing, and commodities are crashing. And guess what? All of those things happened before U.S. stocks crashed in the fall of 2008 too. In so many ways, it seems like we are watching a replay of the financial crisis of 2008, but this time around the world is in far worse shape financially. Global debt levels are at an all-time high, the 75 trillion dollar global shadow banking system could implode at any time, and there are hundreds of trillions of dollars in derivatives that threaten to wipe out major banks all over the planet. The last major worldwide financial crash was almost seven years ago, and very little has been done since that time to prepare for the next one. If global markets do not calm down, we could see carnage in the months ahead that is absolutely unprecedented.
For months, European authorities have been promising us that a “Grexit” is already “priced in” to the markets and that any “contagion” from the Greek crisis will be “contained”. Of course everyone knew that was just a smokescreen. Just in the past couple of days since the Greek “no” vote, European stocks have already been crashing. The following comes from Zero Hedge…
Does this look contained to you?
Portugal, Spain, and Italy all collapsing…
As I mentioned at the top of this article, European stocks started crashing well before U.S. stocks started crashing during the last financial crisis. If you doubt this, just look at this chart, and this chart and this chart.
Will the same thing happen again this time?
And just like I have warned repeatedly, European bond yields have started to soar. When bond yields go up, bond prices go down, so many bond investors are losing a tremendous amount of money right now. Here is more from Zero Hedge…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
