Skip to main content

What The Hell Am I Trying To Do Here??

For several months I've been asked by friends to do a "what's in my Bugout Bag" video and I've been asked about prepping in general. Many people want to prep and find the whole thing overwhelming and simply don't know where to start. When the topic of prepping comes up in the chatroom, everyone is an expert and everyone has 15 random things you MUST KNOW NOW!!

Holy shit, overwhelming.

I'd been asked to lead a chat "class"/open discussion.... well, it's just to damn open. Don't get me wrong, I love personal insight, but people just starting out need to start with the basics. You don't need to worry about an arsenal if you don't have food to get you through the weekend. If you will more than likely have to "bug out" is 250 gallons of water really beneficial?

I've been seriously prepping for about 3 years. I am by no means an authority on the issue, but I've had my *facepalm* moments and I've had my AH-HA!! moments. I've researched a lot of products and I am always wanting to learn more. I am hoping that by posting specific articles here, I can pinpoint discussion topics and guide the conversations in more manageable segments to help those who really want to get started.

I am hoping to break down concepts in to simple ideas to help others streamline a prepping plan that fits them and their own personal situation. I am hopeful that together we can create a dialogue that we can all grow from.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Source of All Life

Hopefully, by this point, you've identified your key objectives. What trouble you can most likely expect and your best options to deal with it... even if only vaguely. Keep working on it. Refine & Rethink constantly, but while you do that let's talk... water. If you're thinking about short term survival issues, storing water is generally no big deal. The basic rule of thumb is 1 gallon/person/day, but keep in mind you might have a lot of add water foods.... and bathing or washing dishes. **Don't forget your pets.** It might be more realistic to consider 2 or 3 gallons per day. You can buy various kinds of bottled, canned, or bagged water. You can "can" your own water in mason jars. You can fill soda and Gatorade-type bottles. You can buy big reusable water jugs (they usually store 5 or 7 gallons). You can get the big bathtub water bags and hope you have time to fill it before disaster strikes. You can get barrels or big water tanks. There are many, man...

Oopsies, I Forgot Saltwater!!

Last night as I slipped off to sleep, it occurred to me... I didn't discuss desalination at all. It's kind of mind blowing when you consider the number of people who've never seen an ocean, yet only 1% of the earth's water is liquid freshwater. 97% is salt water and we can't drink it without removing that salt. To be quite honest I've lived on the West Coast pretty much all of my life. I spent most of the first 20 years just five minutes off the beach. That said, desalination is not something I would ever consider for my survival situation, unless I was on a boat stuck out at sea, not long-term anyway. Personal filters life Lifestraw, Survivor Filter, and Sawyer do not remove salt. The big boys, Berkey and such, do not remove salt. In my previous article, we discussed a few different ways to distill water. Solar distillation will remove salt, as well the various types of fire-heated (or propane, or whatever) distillation methods. The main issue with these i...

3 Hours Without Shelter

3 minutes without air   3 hours without shelter   3 days without water   3 weeks without food I think it's obvious by the way I've presented these articles that I place water above shelter. That said, it's still pretty damn important. When I think of this topic, I think of tarps, tents, debris huts, R-Pods, isolated cabins in the woods, but I realized something else when I considered why it was "3 hours" category. You don't necessarily need shelter so soon if you have a decent jacket or clothing... *facepalm*  Shelter is not just a place to sleep. Shelter means protection from the elements; jackets, rain ponchos, maybe even sunblock, as well as a place to call home (even if only for the night). So don't overlook these things, having a proper outer-layer makes a huge difference when considering what kind of shelter you need. In this same category of shelter comes sleeping bags. These can be really damn expensive, but for the most part, you get...