I love this conversation as there is always room for modifications in my preps. Here are a couple of Survival Blog pages that I find very useful:
Bug out bags - This is a great post detailing bug out bags by level of survival.
The Ultimate Altoids Survival Kit - This is a really fun project. Okay, I know that might sound weird. I couldn’t actually get these to fit in an Altoids can, so I used a small first aid kit pouch. I gave them away as Christmas presents one year.
...if you have stored some precious metals at your home, as recommended for wealth preservation, how do you handle them in a bug-out scenario? Leave them behind in a secret fire proof place to eventually recover them when returning, or include them in your bug-out resources?Storing PM inside a home is risky. It could burn, be looted, searched by those who suspect you own it, or the police could easily find it on some false pretext search and take it claiming it's part of something illegal. But it's easy to bury in a yard, buried septic tank, well, crawlspace, or on public land, and to be quite safe. The idea: a bug-out situation, personal or public, is exactly what PM ownership is preparing for, and should be a yawn. Off-grid PM is insurance of a type money just can't buy. Primary risks in life are not something sexy like an energy/political/war crisis, although this grabs the imagination. Rather, it's FAR more likely to be a personal black swan, like bankruptcy/divorce/medical/lawsuit. In these cases, one must be prepared to testify in court without risking purgury, and with family/relationships-of-trust/gift deeds this ownership control can be legally arranged. The rich have always done this, historically. Of course there is no way to eliminate <i>all</i> risk but with reasonable planning off-grid PM is IMO the best insurance money can buy. And when done correctly, a bug-out situation, public or private, becomes a PM yawn. As they say, the only safe secrets are the ones you've forgotten yourself...
Used to purchase necessities during shift moment should be,what
easily recognised
hard to fake
what else
JHK used junk silve in His World Made By Hands series.
Emergency Evacuation Resources
I live in a heavily wooded area, and what I have done is to go through my house room by room and make a list of what I would want to grab if there was a chance that my house would burn. I have done that during a non-emergency time when I can calmly think things through. In an emergency, one will inevitably miss things. This way you can quickly walk through and throw the essentials into a box in a few minutes. Think of having to live in a motel room for the next two months. Some examples are below.
Office.
Safe Deposit Box keys, credit cards check books, car titles, current financial and tax records, passport, Personal papers file (wills, deeds, birth certificates, etc) computer hard drives and backups, insurance info folder, address lists.
Bathroom.
Essential toiletries, medications, nutritional supplements, otc pain medications
Kitchen.
Essential recipe books, mechanical can opener.
Bedroom.
Extra glasses, alarm clock, extra shoes, extra clothing.
Other.
Warm caps, gloves, and coats. tool box, heavy boots,
We did NOT have to evacuate, but our power was turned off by PG&E for four days. My three methods of cellphone charging were useless as 40% of the cell towers in Marin County did not work. Our communication was limited to our landline (which AT&T keeps trying to get rid of) and AM/FM radio. Just ordered a radio that also has NOAA alerts and two ham bands.
Otherwise, had stored water, food, etc. and packed the car in case of evacuation orders. Thanks for all your work! Sat here during the day reading Matthew Stein’s books When Technology Fails and When Disaster Strikes that I picked up at the PP conference in April.
I think our Denier-in-Chief should talk to the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff. What’s happening in Calif is just the beginning. It’s going to get really crowded in those evacuation safe zones (aka citizen detention centers).
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbmkz8/us-military-could-collapse-within-20-years-due-to-climate-change-report-commissioned-by-pentagon-says
If you can, watch the documentary “Fire in Paradise” on PBS Frontline. Also on Amazon Prime video. It is a horrifying story of the Camp Fire which burned Paradise CA November last year.
About 5 years ago I was driving around in rural southern Oregon when I saw signs posted next to the road that said: “Fire Evacuation is a personal responsibility” Things looked pretty crispy back then. I bet it’s explosive now.
Disaster writer William Allen, best known for his excellent Walking In the Rain series, defines the bug out bag as a “3 days of survival stores and tools that can be carried on foot.” Each person’s bug out bag in a unique color.
In the novel Rock Fall, he also adds a bailout bag as a larger canvas duffel that is carried in your car but would be too big to carry on foot. It contains more of the same supplies (especially food and water) and is intended to extend your outing for a week.
Bug out bag contents may need to shift with the season. The sleeping bag and mosquito netting for summer and cool weather are different, for example.
One niche in a collapse scenario is that of the raider – person who intends to steal food and supplies from others who have prepped. (Short term looting is a bit different.) Raiders accumulate guns and ammo and a like-minded cohorts and make note of who the preppers in their town as targets for future raids. Hide ones “prepper” orientation with gradual stocking, no discussions with non-neighbors, and buying steadily and from different stores and outlets.
He recommends the clothing style of hiking gear, not military surplus and the avoidance of camouflage clothing as these identify you as a prepper. He again recommends farmer’s clothing, like Carhartts brand (found at Tractor Supply) and used from Good Will. Hunting clothing is good camouflage in rural areas where hunting is common, (but not so much in downtown Atlanta). Similarly, an AK or AR looks like a prepper, but a wood stock hunting rifle looks more like a country boy. Act like country folk, organic food and grass fed beef enthusiasts and gardening nuts–but not preppers.
Your neighbors will be an essential part of your survival team. You cover each others borders and help each other with tasks that need more people. Get supplies for those neighbors that they may not yet realize that they will need, but you can see that they are likely to need in the future.
Hi Sand,
Hope you had a good shoot in Nevada.
This is all great info above though I am unable to follow much of it.
I’d get a Mini-14, several caliber choices, instead of a hunting rifle. JMHO. Ah, we miss AM and the old firearms thread in the good old days.?
Cape
Cigarettes for minor bartering
I live in an urban community and storing gasoline here is both impolite and illegal.
Now when it comes to DIESEL, storage of number 2 fuel (aka diesel) in a 275 gallon fuel tank in a cellar is perfectly polite and legal. Personally when purchasing any vehicle or equipment I always consider the diesel option. BTW Diesel fuel can be made from recycled veggie oil, it’s called bio diesel. And it can be grown as an oil producing crop and pressed during a long emergency. It is the diesel mechanic that will be very useful during a prolonged SHTF scenario.
richo27 wrote about:
Essential toiletries, medications, nutritional supplements, otc pain medicationsand others have made similar mentions. This is all very optimistic, but I rely on two sets of prescription eyedrops self-administered twice daily to keep my open-angle glaucoma under control. (If you don't know what this is, do a search on it. Talk about insidious!) Both are imported and neither has a shelf life of more than 2 or 3 months. When opened, they are usable for 28 days, for reasons of sterility. Recently it happened that I was not able to use my eyedrops for a bit over 24 hours, and the results were dramatic and scary. I had a huge pressure spike in both eyes; it was like peering through a pea soup fog; I couldn't read. It wouldn't take too many days of that before I would be functionally blind. After administering the drops, my vision returned to normal within 6 or 7 hours. To my immense relief, my eye doctor reports that I have not suffered any damage to the optic nerve or retina. Both remain undamaged. The practical upshot is that barring some major development in ophthalmology, if I want to keep my vision intact then I cannot stray far from the pharmacy, which in turn relies upon the international medical distribution system for supplies. For me "bug out" locations are simply not an option. Naturally I hope and pray most fervently that if any civilisational collapse or even severe wobble occurs, it won't leave me in the literal dark. The prospect of going blind exactly when I need my vision most is not an appealing one. Wish me luck. Or an ophthalmological breakthrough.
We were watching from day 1 over 100 days later I think we got ahead of the game because of you, thanks for saving me and my extended family
Wondering how that Kyng solar generator worked out for you. Looks to be very handy.
Tim