Building a survival stockpile is a never-ending task. No matter how much you have, it always seems there’s something more to add. Stockpile a month’s worth of food, and then you’ll want two months worth. Bring that up to a year and you start asking yourself if that’s really enough. But the biggie that we’re all afraid of, is forgetting to stockpile something that we’re going to have to have.
There are a lot of things we are going to need in the aftermath of any major crisis, which will not be readily available. Some, like a sewing kit, are things that most of us have anyway. Others are unusual enough, that we’re not likely to be using them on a day-to-day basis. Those are the ones which are likely to get us in trouble.
I’m always looking for those items, trying to make them part of my stockpile, as well as making them part of my day-to-day life. Some things need to be used regularly, just so that we can become comfortable using them. Otherwise, when the time comes to use them, we won’t be ready.
These are some of the things I’ve added to my stockpile in the last couple of years. In all of these cases, they were things that I hadn’t realized I needed. But when I did; I was surprised that I hadn’t thought of them earlier. Perhaps you’ve left them out of your stockpile as well.
Related: A Month’s Worth of Survival Food with 2000 Calories per Day
Repair Parts
Every piece of survival gear we own is subject to failure. Because of that, some parts are even made to be replaceable. Yet how many of those parts do we have on-hand? If you have Coleman lanterns, do you have pressure pump rebuild kits? How about a spare spigot for your Berkey water filtering system? What about a spare solar charge controller for your solar panels, just in case the primary goes out?
This is a difficult area to deal with, especially if you’re not accustomed to doing your own repairs. But the reality is, you probably won’t be able to find anyone who can do those repairs for you, let alone finding the parts to use.
I’ve been going through every piece of survival gear I own, looking for parts that can potentially fail. This means everything from the previously mentioned pump for my Coleman stove to springs for all of my guns. I may never use any of those parts, but when the time comes, I don’t want to be the one who loses the war for want of a horse shoe.
Tarps
Tarps are incredibly useful things. Not only can they be used to make a temporary shelter, but they can also be used to make emergency repairs to your home.
Have you ever gone through a neighborhood a week after a serious hail storm and seen roofs covered with tarps? That’s because the roof was damaged enough by the hail, that they needed to do a temporary repair, until the crew could replace the roof.
Tarps can also be used to cover damaged windows or cover your woodpile, keeping the rain from soaking into it. If you have to establish an outside cooking area, a tarp makes a great roof, protecting you from the sun. It’s also easy to form a rainwater capture system with one.
⇒ How To Build Your Own Pressurized Rainwater Harvesting System
Make sure you have some way of attaching the tarps to your home, without the fasteners tearing through, as well. Roofing nails, which have a large washer under the head, are good for this. So are drywall shims, giving you something to nail through, which will protect the tarp.
Safety Pins
I mentioned a sewing kit earlier, as something you probably already have. But do you have enough safety pins?
As you lose weight and your clothing becomes looser, chances are you’re going to need a lot of safety pins to hold them in place. Besides, they’re useful for a variety of other emergency repairs as well.
Insecticide
Pest populations tend to climb in the wake of a disaster, especially those of ants and cockroaches. The simple reason is that there is more food available to them, as they aid in the process of decomposition. That’s fine outdoors, but you don’t want them inside your home, where they could help spread disease. Better to keep your home clean and kill any insects you see indoors.
You’ll also need insecticide for your survival garden. Those insects can’t differentiate between what’s your food supply and any other plant out there. To them, it’s all food. So they are likely to attack your garden the first time you turn your back. Natural gardening is great, but you’d better be ready to use something more.
Related: How to Keep Moisture and Pests Away from Your Food Stockpile
Mouse & Rat Traps
Insects aren’t the only critters whose populations increase in the wake of a disaster; mice and rats do too, especially rats. Once again, the reason is an abundance of food for them to eat. But that won’t keep them out of your food.
Unless you are planning on sharing it, make sure that it is well packaged in containers that are rodent-proof and put traps around your stockpile to catch those who come looking.
Spare Water Filter Cartridges
Many of us have bought water filters to ensure that we can produce potable water for our families to drink. The most popular of those use replacement cartridges. So, how many spare cartridges do you have for your filter?
Depending on the filter system you have, one cartridge can be good for anywhere from 300 gallons to 1,500 gallons. If we limit ourselves to using that water only for drinking and cooking, the theoretical one gallon per person per day, even the best filter is only good for about a year, for a family of four.
What happens if it takes longer than that to get the municipal water system back in place? How will you purify your water, when those filters are all clogged? Better get more.
⇒ Click Here For The Awesome DIY Device That Turns Air Into Fresh Water
Lime
If we assume that water is out, then sewage service will probably be out as well. This will leave most of us either using a five-gallon-bucket toilet or digging an outhouse.
Either way, you’re going to want a supply of lime to put in the hole, to help keep the smell down.
Sand
Most preppers believe that they will be forced to defend their home in the wake of a disaster. There are two basic parts of that: stopping the attackers with aimed firepower and keeping the attackers from shooting you. Both are necessary in order to gain the victory.
You have some advantage in being the defender. But your home isn’t going to stop any bullets they might fire at you. Even a brick wall isn’t strong enough to stop bullets. You’ll need something more, something like a sandbag wall. A foot of packed sand will stop pretty much any bullet; except for some extremely high powered rifle bullets.
The military solved this problem years ago, with the common sandbag. A one foot thick sandbag wall will stop pretty much any rifle or pistol round. About the only thing that it won’t stop is a .50 cal.
Sandbags
If you’re going to use that sand to protect yourself, as you protect your home, you’d better make sure you buy some sandbags to put it in. Those will also be useful if you have flooding and need to keep the water out of your home.
A Way to Cut & Haul Firewood
Most of us are planning on using firewood as a means of heating our homes. That’s great, but what are you going to use for firewood, once you’ve burned all you have?
The trees in your neighborhood will probably all get cut down the first winter, as people try to heat their homes. For the next winter, you’re going to have to range farther afield. But will you be able to? Will you have some way of cutting that wood, if your chainsaw isn’t working? How about hauling it? Do you have some sort of cart, which can be used to haul that wood back to your home?
Related: How to Store and Stack Firewood the Right Way
Manual Tools
Speaking of a means of cutting that wood and hauling it, how is your supply of manual tools? You know, those things that people used before power tools came along?
In the case of any grid-down event, those power tools you have won’t be usable at all. The only tools that will work, will be the old-fashioned ones that work off of muscle power.
Gardening Supplies
Survival gardening is a big thing within the prepping community. Yet it is extremely rare to see anyone who is truly ready to do it. Most people seem to think that they can survive off of their 10 foot square conventional or 4 foot vertical garden, when in reality, you’re going to need to convert your entire backyard into a garden, in order to grow enough food to feed yourself and your family.
This means having seed, fertilizer and other critical gardening supplies in abundance. You’ll need to dig up the grass, fortify the soil and then plant your seed. If you don’t have the means of fortifying the soil with necessary nutrients, it will adversely affect your harvest. So it’s best to make sure that you have enough.
What unusual items do you have in your stockpile, which I’ve missed here? Do others need those as well? Share your best and let us see.
You may also like:
16 Items FEMA Tells You to Stockpile and Why
The U.S. Army’s Forgotten Food Miracle (Video)
Scare Them Off Or Shoot Them Dead?
a few of these i already thought of, but still a good article
OPERATION CORONA BIO-TERROR: Former FBI Agent with the …
stateofthenation.co/?p=5561
Jan 26, 2020 · The number of infected people has risen to slightly over three million and the death toll now stands at a MINIMUM of 156,000. 90,000 DEAD IN WUHAN ALONE! The video below is from a Medical Professional in the infection zone. She reports ninety-thousand DEAD in Wuhan alone:
For water filtration, make your own with the charcoal from a fire. Will that work?
It will work but is not as effective as activated carbon. If you’re filtering water for consumption, choose activated carbon. It will clean water more effectively, and can remove more than traditional charcoal can. Regular charcoal is best left for art, odor removal, and cooking.
You have knives, machetes, hatchets,and axes, make sure you have a way to sharpen them.
Dana: I bought a ring sharpener on Amazon, American made. After using a stone, you run a blade thru one of these and it comes out razor sharp. Rada Cutlery, quick edge sharpener, 8 bucks. I need to get back to Penna and see if I can get Dad’s water wheel (very fine sandstone wheel with a hand crank and foot pedal). I never saw a better stone for sharpening axes and so on. niio
Yes, you can MAKE ACTIVATED charcoal! Also called biochar!
Use layers of activated charcoal, pea gravel, and sand. Use good clean pebbles and sand, and it works great.
SAND and the SANDBAGS…seems like the “sweet spot” to protect self against rounds is 5 1/2 to 6 inches–pure sand.
QED:
https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-7-the-sands-o-truth/
Yeah, I like that site, thank you. We have adobe block. 12 inches by 18 by 4 and they’ll stop pretty much anything. niio
Or you could build your bol out of cob, adobe or cob/straw bales. Walls are very thick, straw bales add insulation for colder climates, and it’s “dirt cheap” compared to other building materials.
Great List. On meds better add Jim Humble’s books on MMS. It even gets to cancers. Also get the nano silver generator for making your own sub micron silver solution. I wipes out bacteria, viruses, fungus, and alergens.
Chuck, I would do a little more research on the silver issue. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/expert-answers/colloidal-silver/faq-20058061
I partially agree with you. Research is good, vital, but please remember about the saying born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Wealthy people would buy baby spoons made f silver because when teething, the baby was much more likely t survive than people who hadn’t the money to get them. Silver, copper, brass are all still held as something to be reverenced by 3rd world nations because they work. I’ve biologists in the family, and was taught that anything that comes out against common, proved knowledge must be taken with a grain of salt. But, yes, colloidal silver may be too much of a good thing. After all, people have died from drinking too much water! God post, and we need to be wary of so-called miracle cures. niio
I heard that in the old days, they made door knobs out of copper because it kills germs…
Brass, because zinc kills viral infections. Copper in it works against bacteria.I have seen copper knobs, but brass is better. niio
Trust the Mayo.Clinic on alternative medical treatment? ????? Well, at least we know who NOT to take any advice from… you AND Mayo clinic. ????? You go ahead and follow their fake science. And pray to God it works out for you.
Sorry, Mayo clinic is mainstream drugs: they don’t want you to be using anything other than Rx drugs….so no OTC or homeopathic/natural/herbs…etc…
They are going to say no to anything that isn’t mainstream Rx Drugs.
OPERATION CORONA BIO-TERROR: Former FBI Agent with the …
stateofthenation.co/?p=5561
Jan 26, 2020 · The number of infected people has risen to slightly over three million and the death toll now stands at a MINIMUM of 156,000. 90,000 DEAD IN WUHAN ALONE! The video below is from a Medical Professional in the infection zone. She reports ninety-thousand DEAD in Wuhan alone:
Russ, where are you getting this awful news?
Exactly ?. Two of THE MOST IMPORTANT “medicine cabinet” items. Could add DMSO to those as well. And invermection, not just for the fake “virus”, but for cancer treatment and blood sugar management.
Having a supply of plastic sandbags, 100 count would come in handy. a roll or two of plastic sheeting clear as well as black.
All I need to learn is distilling water for my CS machine, and a second machine.
Pressure canners work, if you have a coil..niio
I wonder if animal feed bags would work for the bags, some are meshed together.
yes. they’re often stronger and a lot more able to handle sunlight than many other products. niio
Don’t se why not thought of that myself corse they’re gonna be heavy
Good, thanks, Rich. Tarps we got. Living near two state routes, they can be found about every 200 miles of travel. We have enough to give them to ranchers, who probably lost them in the first place. 🙂 We also have two of the best mouse and rat traps known, 1) a rattler and 2) a dachshund. And, will be adding castor beans to the garden because anything that bites thru the roots is dead. Planting moringa around the house helps, AKA horseradish root tree. Anything we want or feel we’d need after SHTF we have spares stored. Not insecticides. But, we need diatomaceous earth. Zinc as well, and thaty can be bought in 50 pound sacks, @ a dollar a pound. No lime. We can make our own. Wood ashes work better, anyway. Sand? Our soil is sandy adobe. Anything that can bust through even raw brick is powerful enough to scare me 🙂
For a non poisonous insecticide, use diatomaceous earth.
We do have some to use. there were cockroaches in the garage, but the scorpions and black widow spiders ate them.then something ate them! A centipede, probably. they can get up to 6 inches long down here. But, a grasshopper mouse will eat all three.They’re smaller than your thumb, but brassy and got the power to do the work. something that works well is borax mixed with bait. One part borax, three parts bait. I used that and cornmeal with sugar to kill fire ants last year. niio
You mention the grasshopper mouse eating the predatory bugs, I saw a video of a grasshopper mouse attacking and eating a scorpion, that little mouse was faster than lightning, that little mouse was kung fu fighting, his style was leap in to attack, leap out for defense. Scorpion must be good as lobster.
They’re cool mice, and have been known to attack coyotes. Once a cat learns its lesson, it avoids them. They’ll eat other mice if they find them. they love our centipedes, which can get 6 inches long. 🙂
Scorpion is good, a little bitter but that may be old bugs. It’s called desert shrimp and in NYC, costs an arm and a leg for a few on a plate.
I like your luxury camping, except for the coffee. At home, we use a percolator, tho I want a vacuum pot. In the brush, boil a pt of water, add the right amount of grounds, set to one side till the grounds settle.
Ham salad for lunch in collards wraps. Pre-cooked/streamed collard leaves, drain well. they keep for a few days in the fridge. add ham salad and wrap. Peanut butter cake for a light dessert. Light because it’s not deep=fried 🙂 And if the dachshund doesn’t stop bugging me, might had a fat hairy hotdog for supper. ! niio
The 1st time I saw a desert centipede I thought it was one of the divine messenger’s pranks and didn’t tell anybody. People keep them for pets and say they are the smartest bug, maybe they should be running the world? We’re not doing such a good job.
I usually use a #6 Melitta cone for coffee, luxury camping means setting up the electric pot to start automatically at 5:30 so I don’t have to get out of my bag and put the pot on the fire.
I like a coarse chopped chicken salad with lots of sweet onion wrapped in greens with a bit of Yucateca green habanero sauce. The closest I come to desert these days is topping my coffee with whipped cream and a bit of shaved dark chocolate.
A Choctaw friend of mine (he was messing with my head) picked up a puppy and showed me the fontanelle on the skull, told me that when the fontanelle started to firm up was the best time to eat puppy. It was a Golden Retriever, not a dachsund, probably stick with desert shrimp for me.
They are cool, but even a small one is toxic. When moving rocks or mulch, it goes in a garden bed. Mostly I see white ones, but saw them red, as well.
Timer on the coffee pot? Man, some people just love to rough it too much 🙂 The only timer on the percolator is, no more in the pot, time to make a fresh one. This time of year, I won’t even take a lantern. Sun goes down, I lay down till 3 AM or so, then start the fire. From experience, most perps, and we a lot of snowbirds, don’t stay up after 1 or 2. I did enough to know that when the monsoons hit, the border is flooded with mojados and slavers. Before Sheriff Joe, every year there were dozens, sometimes hundreds of dead on the border. And always, so naive liberal out enjoying nature would up dead, his old lady raped of disappeared.
Dessert! Japanese eat that first, then want steak with mostly fat. The fat gets eaten and then the beef. To us, the meal is meat, with meat cooked in berries as a dessert. Cafe ranchero is good, but we use non-dairy creamer to make it. A little vanilla bean, some cocoa powder and a lump of Mexican sugar.
I don’t eat habaneros. They give the hiccups. Helado de chili is good, but again, it has to be non-dairy. For imitation, whipped cream is good. Roasted chilis and some extra vanilla or cocoa powder. A cousin makes a tasty sauce out of them with black raspberries.
You know a Choctaw who has a friend? Man, he must be a saint. All of them that I know can’t seem to get along with each other till a little blood flows. Yes, they had a breed of dogs bred to fatten. Some restaurant on a reserve in Canada used to specialize in dog. Puppy patties, setter steaks, dachshund hotdogs, and so on. Tourists would come in and gag, but ate it. “I can’t believe we’re eating a dog!” It was beef 🙂 chocs practiced a form of endocannibalism, I think its called, eating a little off a beloved dead relative or friend. And, nasty as it sounds, cannibalism is getting common around the world, again, hunting victims. Dahmer wasn’t the only one out there.
In the Army I had a few fights with a black Choc. I got sick of him and said, Cherokee widows. He scowled and then started to laugh. The women were widowed when the English attacked Cherokee towns. My grandmother said the widows went to war wearing a leather skirt, a warstick and hate. They mowed down the brits and scared them off. Like a hot knife through butter, Nana said. More than one took a Choc home as a captive male and settled in for life. There’s a song about the men, Oh her knife is at my throat, what’s a man to do but love this one. She might not be the prettiest gal this man ever saw, but is about the deadliest, and that makes her beautiful to me, when her knife is at my throat. niio
Mike: FYI, I have it from knowledgable friends in the Far East that brown dog is superior to black dog when it comes to roast dog. Handy tidbit of info to tuck away for the EOTW when Fido may well become a welcome addition to the larder along with Suzie the cat.
I’m afraid Susie the cat is long gone whatever choice spot in Hell is reserved for cats. She attacked the wrong rottie. It brought backup.
Older dogs taste a little bitter, bedurned rendezvousers.. But if hungry enough, about anything would be gourmet food :)With or without a marinade or charbroiling. niio
Have you tried a french press? Been using that for our coffee for years… faster than a percolator IMO. Red, you gotta be in the south side of AZ cause I had to deal with many of those critters as well; exceptions being the fire ants. Our critters were occasional scorpions, rattlesnakes, and the yearly tarantula migration. Never saw a grasshopper mouse, but did see a kangaroo mouse or 2. And tell that begging hotdog he’s the emergency food supply, LOL! I tell my ducks that but they don’t seem to believe me…
PS- anymore stories about the Cherokee? I KNEW we were bad ass, but also know we (females at least) usually gotta be backed in a corner or provoked enough first. And here I thought we got along with the Choctaw…. never thought it was forced, LOL! My great great(?) grandmother was on the Trail but made her way back east after getting to OK.
I had a French press, but like boiled coffee best. We’re about 40 miles north of Tuscon. ALL large AZ ants are fireant. Black, red, anything in between. They have grasshopper mice in Catalina state park.they like desert and are all over Sonora and up to Nevada and Utah. You rarely see one, but at night, they howl (wolf mice/were-mice :). Best way to know they’re around is, let a pit bull out after dark. When it starts screaming n pain, you got them.
What kind of ducks? When we get more land, I want Muscovies, but we need a permit in AZ for them. they roost, BTW.
Ani/Cherokee? Robert Connely wrote the history of the Cherokee in a series of novels to help teach it.Max Evens wrote about Cherokee in modern times. His book, Rounders, was a bestseller. He, tho, didn’t mention Native Americans in it, but Glen ford played it because he was Cherokee.
Mine ran north instead of obeying the Dems and walking West. I’n not putting anyone down saying that. Mine liked to hunt at night. They settled in the Willies, in today’s W. Virginia.
I have friends who are Choc-Cherokee. Might not be marriages made in Heaven, but they stick it out to the last bullet. niio
We have property about 40 miles NW of Flag; never heard those mice but plenty of coyotes. I have a Silver Appleyard drake & 3 ducks: Welsh Harlequin, Khaki Campbell, & a black Indian Runner. All were purchased from TSC as straight run hatchery choice. The Harlequin is not quite a year & has a mothering instinct; she’s nesting on a clutch right now. I know about mud ducks as they are all over in South FL but didn’t know you needed a permit to own. Damn beaurocrats! I’ll check these authors out & thank you for the lead. My grandpa was a full blood but he never talked about it. One of the very few stories I heard was the “Indian” school flooded when he was in 3rd grade & he told his mom he wasn’t going back. He ran a successful business in the lowlands for years before retiring & kept his rentals & stocks for that. It wasn’t until after his death that we found out most of this. No offense taken to what you said, apparently my great great grandma stayed long enough to get on the Rolls & came back. We are a stubborn lot to be sure! My Mom says we got a little Choc in us as well so guess that explains a bit… I’m married (traditional, not government) to a Shosone & the fur flies around here sometimes but we do fine. You want land? Check up in Coconino Co. If you are stubborn & can keep your head down land can be found cheap. Just don’t drink the water! Oh wait, that’s the entire state. LOL Apache Co. has a couple of deals too & it’s closer to you.
No, I agree with fish and game on this. Muskies will kill other wild ducks to drive them off of a feeding site. They’re known to take over hawk nests, as well. With the kind of claws they have, even predators are wary of them. When breeding in the wild, as soon as the ducklings are big enough to take care of themselves, the hen is laying again. On the farm, take the ducklings off her and in a few days she’s wagging her tail at drakes, then back to brood another clutch. Where muskies were domesticated, C. America, wild ones only lay through the dry season. Here in the southeast, it can be year-long. They’re so popular, they can be found around the world today, and are preferred for meat over all other ducks by farmers.
Friggin coyotes! Man, I came back from PA year before last after two family members passed away. I got back before dawn and sat out back and three coyotes were at the back gate singing to their godf of death. I yelled but they ignored it. Then told them may Eagle eat your children! They ran off! 🙂 A couple of days ago, a female was nosing with my dachshund and trying to get him out for a little hanky-panky and a light snack. I got out the hose and cooled them off. Coyotes are bad for raiding for stray pets.
Man, when we started a pow wow close to home, my mother was terrified to go. In PA, go to one and the cops are there taking down license numbers and pictures. To the dems, we’re not even human because we don’t make good pets. But, it’s still way better than south of the border where we get raided and kids are stolen to sell to pedos. Right now, there’s a major crime wave on reservations because liberals can’t get slaves over the border as easily as when the dem is in the white house. People are disappearing and families know what’s going on.
OK U sells Okla Hanneli, and it’s a great read. The author is very political, and very anti-dem because of our history. https://www.amazon.com/Okla-Hannali-R-Lafferty/dp/0806123494 has it for 7 bucks. Look at what my old hardcover would be worth! Dang, man!
Gov. Wallace in Alabama, was part Choc. Word at pow wows was, his grandfather was a full-blood and owned 200 acres of good bottom land. A black businessman wanted the land but he refused to sell. The KKK showed up one night and whipped him to death, then burned them out. Word says, also, that the businessman later had an accidental meeting with a cottonmouth, either in his car or bathtub. Wealthy African Americans supported the old status quo because they could hire people at half-wages.
I like Pinal. The town is loaded with preppers now, and it’s a repub county (mostly Native Americans/mestizos and blacks (‘skins with some African in them)). People do not care what you do as long as you don’t get their nose caught in the crack. I like gardening year-long, and how we’re all coming together.
We border on Pima, but are far enough away to not be bothered much by their lunacy. I have miles all around that are ranches and parks. Of course, Arizona, the only thing lacking is water in the river 🙂
Thank you for the heads up…. I did not know that about muskies. I’ll definitely keep it in mind if I get a wild hair to get 1 or more; they will be penned & seperated from the others. I knew about the claws & roosting but not the territorialality or whoring around, LOL!.Lived down that way for a few months within spitting distance of the Pinal/Pima county lines. We were on the right side & didn’t have the headaches from Tucson. Rented a spot by the airplane boneyard from a guy down there that was pretty cool. And yeah those coyotes are bad… had to keep my dogs penned at night so they didn’t fall for that trap. I was out many nights trying to hunt the bitches that called to them. I’ll keep your curse in mind next time I see one as I hear there are plenty in MT as well; although I’ve heard more about wolves & bears at this point.
My new community is the same way. Bunch of us living up in the hills to get away from government & self righteous idiots. I’m looking forward to Spring when I can get back up there & start work on the new house & get to know the neighbors better.
Red, you are a veritable font in info, thank you! I haven’t been to a Pow Wow mostly cause I’m nervous of the reception a mixed blood will receive.My husband says his people wouldn’t be very welcoming because I’m not only mixed but not Shosone. And I’ve heard disturbing stories of the Sioux having their children taken & put in foster homes to deny them their heritage. Time to get on the Web & start hunting these books now that I got some jingle in my pocket.
And yes, the water situation there is the biggest issue. I still swear that was what caused my kidney stone. I had one for 2 1/2 years that was 5×11 mm. Finally had it removed in MT when I found a doctor willing to deal with the VA. And since the bastards didn’t pay him off I’m working on paying that bill cause he did great work & I’m very thankful to him for ending my pain. Stupid thing sent me to the ER 3 times & VA would do nothing until the last time cause no urologist in Flag would touch me once they heard VA & Regional wouldn’t authorize it. I couldn’t afford bottled water & I know of no purifier that removes excess calcium. I’ve warned my neighbor about that as well & recommended an herbal remedy to keep him from having the same problem. He’s Iroquois so I hear good tales from him as well. He’s one of the few I will miss from down there.
Do you have razorbacks up your way? We don’t but someone said they were spotted (sign of them, wrecked fields, tracks) up tnorth of Mammoth on the San Pedro. Here, the river is dry most of the year. For that matter, most years. Arizona rivers 🙂 Avaripa Creek is year-round and runs into the SP down from Mammoth.
If push came to shove on ducks vs coyotes, I’d go with the muskies. Wolves? I wish. They were always sacred to Native Americans as sign of eater-of-filth (sin) at east in part because they’ll kill coyotes (eater-of-souls), chase away mountain lions and harass grizzlies out of their territory. What I don’t like is ‘tame’ wolves being released. No better than stray dogs for trouble. The old-timers used to say, wolf is sacred, yes, but life is always better for all of us when wolf remembers he makes fuzzy underwear 🙂
We all get on fine down here. I never had a problem on the big rez up there, or the smaller ones. College injuns, yes. Before they went to college, they were normal. Then proffs brainwashed them into feeling downtrodden and abused, and never tell them it’s the dems who are still at war with us, not the nation, not the repubs. One hippy proff tried that crap with me, but I had listened to my family’s wisdom and went military 2 years first. It immunized me from his BS. If you go, always remember to say walk in beauty. Go, enjoy like an outsider, and get known as someone interested. Eventually, you’ll be asked to a sing, if you act respectable and not a liberal, a suck-up. No cameras, do not look men in the eye, and have your husband take a pack of cigarettes to share one with the elders. I’ve been invited to go to agave roasts on the Tohono rez. That’s an important ceremony. Only thing is, those Tohono love practical jokes. Like, they can take things too far and joke a body straight into perdition. They did that to Gov. Babbitt, after he tried to replace good water with sewage water. Salt river Project has a contract to take water from their wells off the reservations. They have to release water form the dams to recharge the aquifer. To keep the money flowing into his investments, he refused to release the water so the men got in their trucks and early one morning blew out all the windows in the state capital building. Rednecks, all.
It’s not just the Lakota, but everyone lost their kids. Mexico is way worse. There are 8 million slaves there, and the liberals screaming mad because they can’t buy slaves cheap here since Trump took over. S. Dakota got a lot more conservative after Wounded Knee.
I got trucker’s disease, kidney stone and an abscess on the back of one thigh. The VA will eventually get around to removing both. The abscess is caused by mold allergies and gluten, and it’s perennial. The stone started because I was in too much a hurry to come home and didn’t do a lot of stops till I got back. Do you use apple cider vinegar? A tablespoon in a glass of cold water several times a day is supposed to help break a stone.
Do you have a pressure cooker? A tube from the outlet to a container, simmer the water at nght, so the chill makes the steam back to water. A solar still is two containers and a sheet of glass, seal it with foam rubber. Upper tank gets filled, and at night, condensation forms, running into the lower tank. It worked for a farmer in upstate NY, near the rez, who was making E-85 for the tractor. He got arrested and tried. The judge took one look at the still and laughed so hard he about broke the gavel when he dismissed the case. Unless you’re into certain illegal things, like folks down in Cochise call the old traditions 🙂 I don’t thing distilling water will be a problem. Just the same ask! The county ag rep could tell you or find out for you. As for the VA, they’re a dozen times better than they were. I go to Tucson, but yours is in Phoenix, no? I don’t see why they wouldn’t help now. niio!
Better put a few nail brushes in those medical bags. Whatever your doing or cleaning can get under your nails easily.
You will also need manual kitchen tools as well as woodworking and mechanical tools. At this time you can purchase a manual “minichopper/blender”, grain and meat grinders, manual egg beaters and many other wonderful tools.
If you’re heating with wood, you won’t need lime for the outhouse. Use the wood ashes from your woodstove!
Hand cleanser (not liquid soap) for sanitation and as a fire accellerant. Hygiene is a big killer in the 3rd world. Found in bulk for a low price – this will become a barterable item
And outstanding suggestion.
Make sure it is at least 60% alcohol. Less than that is not lethal to bacteria. That’s why unless the alcoholic drink is at least 120 proof, it is not a bactericide. The advantage of using an alcoholic beverage to lavage wounds is that it is clean — not sterile, but clean. In days gone by, water as clean as the whiskey from a bottle, was hard to come by. A passerby might not have a bottle of boiled water in his pocket but he likely might have a pint of whiskey — or more.
Hand sanitizer will be a great boon in any disaster situation. A small dab of 60% IPA hand sanitizer will do a better job than a larger quantity of clean water and soap.
Having a small dispenser of hand sanitizer in your pocket in a bug out situation will save significant time by not having to prepare clean water for hand sanitation.
Hand sanitizer can evaporate, I’ve had it happen, so maybe store it in glass jars?
Borax, bleach, soap, face masks, gloves…this Corona virus thing has me nervous! Just saw an article at the Electroverse.net website…one expert was calling for approximately 10% mortality from this thing globally….65 million out of 7 billion+ people.
And keep your distance from crowds and enclosed places like busses – I caught the flu two years ago from a guy coughing all over the bus I had to take to work.
LCC: Yes! Beer and ale were considered harmless enough, even children were given it over water. Other drinks that people used to make water safe, wine was 50-50, and fruit vinegar but I can’t recall what percentage. Drinking vessels and cooking utensils made of copper or brass, because copper kills most parasites. When the stepson’s Lab picked up tape worm, one copper penny in the water dish and three days later, no worms. niio
Red: The reason why beer and wine were given to children was because it was cleaner than the water that folks were using. There were no deep wells. Wells in town usually were artesian. If the water came from a surface source, it was bound to be contaminated. Alcoholic beverages were drunk because they were safe to drink as opposed to drinking water.
Even today, travel advisories talk about only drinking water of a known brand from a bottle where you break the seal yourself. Don’t use ice cubes in your alcoholic drink. Drink it neat or with bottled or canned beverages that you have opened and recognizable name brand.
Cross Pen company sells a copper/brass pen that is listed as germicidal. They suggest it for folks who are dealing with the public who must lend their pen to the folks to use.
I suggested it to a cabin attendant friend as she flies internationally and passengers must fill out customs forms before arriving. She made a derogatory comment about it and said if she handed out her personal pen she would never get it back.
We used to use generic pens at the front counter of our print shop. We went through about a dozen pens a week. I decided as long as customers were going to walk away with our pens, they might as well walk away with a pen with our name on it. Surprisingly, our pen loss dropped dramatically. Guys would start to stick the pen in their pocket, notice the name and say, “Oh, that’s your pen” and hand it back.
I instructed the employees to tell the customer it was okay to take the pen. Some still refused to take “our” pen. An interesting experiment on human psychology.
Yes, definitely. The beer was brewed, bring it to a boil, then 3 days later, bottled. We were allowed to drink it for several days after bottling, but after that, it was considered too strong for kids. Wine was cut with water and often spices added to it. For the most part, juice and so on. Water was considered toxic, especially in high limestone areas.
When I go to Mexico, the hotels and family there buy distilled water or, in same cases, distill their own. Yes! Always check the friggin bottle. Any sign ot was opened or a small, sealed hole in the bottom, do not use it. If there’s even a hint of cloudiness, toss it. Vendors can work a cap off and reuse the bottle or buy new caps. I heard that happened to a dude in Hermosillo, who caught a bug and it trased back to the bottle of water. A solar still is easy enough. A sheet of glass and two water tight containers. You know the rest. A bro, a farmer, in upstate New York had a neighbor who was arrested for making E-85 with one. The judge looked at it and laughed and said, Next case!
Cross Pen, Made in the USA! Thanks for sharing that.
I tell cousins in PA to put the name of the farm market on their bags. It’s cheap advertisement. There’s always good information from you. Much thanks for the post. niio
jrg said hand CLEANSER not sanitizer. you know, that gooey stuff you use with no water: mechanics used to use it all the time. My dad used it a lot when working in his shop. Gets rid of grease …probably made from petroleum products for the grease removal. That’s why it can be used for starting fires.
Do the “books” in the bundle come as printed, or just downloads?
The website depicting the protection afforded by sandbags was quite interesting and enlightening. It was very interesting that the 9mm fmj bullet penetrated better than the 5.56 bullet. I would not have suspected that. Another interesting demo was the damage the buckshot did to the sandbags.
My impression was that if one were attacking a sandbagged position, buckshot would be the most effective means of destroying the position — well, of course, an 81 mm mortar would be best, but lacking that, buckshot from a 12 ga.
Overall. my take-away from those videos was that it would be better to stack the sandbags with the short end toward the expected direction of the bullet. Or better yet, two layers of sandbags with the direction of the bag alternating so as to lock them together.
A single layer of sandbags stacked with the long side at right angles to the path of the bullet was the weakest structure. Two rows of sandbags all stacked in the same direction was better but still weak. Two rows interlocking would be best in my opinion from what I observed of the testing.
While adobe bricks would make an effective bullet stop, the real value of sand in sandbags is that it smothers the spalling effect that occurs when a bullet hits a substance like steel or adobe or stone. That’s why bags filled with sand are more effective than bags filled with stones.
Any bag will do. Sandbags today are made of some type of plastic, but I can remember when sandbags were made of jute or hemp. Movies that accurately portray WWI or WWII will use jute or hemp-like bags. I think the bags today are polyethylene which I guess is cheaper than natural materials, more weather resistant and lighter to transport.
You could make a sand barrier out of 2 x 4s with wallboard facing to hold the sand in as a barrier. I wouldn’t think filling the spaces between the wall studs would be sufficient to stop most fmj bullets. I would think a minimum of 1 foot of sand would be the least protection I would try for.
Sand is kind of like ammunition. I don’t think anyone has ever said, after a gun battle, “Next time I am only going to have one layer of sandbags, three layers is just too much.”
Ha! 6 or more layers, at least. Problem here, while we have plenty of sand, it’s encased in 25-30% adobe and caliche. I agree about the wisdom of sand, but raw adobe blocks, sun dried, work well and no one would question me using them. While most in the area are now prepping, it might seem a little too not subtle. this is a good area and Sheriff Joe’s protege is always welcomed here. And, as well, the sun eats up even good mesh. Sunshade seems to work best, some of it can last for years. niio
With so many battery operated hand tools available today, it seems to me that with the correct solar charger one should be able to maintain his battery operated hand tools so that they would be available for use at least a couple of hours a day every other day or so during at least the summer season.
Does anyone have an idea what size solar charger and other equipment one would need to maintain, say, an 18 or 24 volt hand power saw; drill or other hand power tool?
If so, I am sure that a great many followers of this list would appreciate an article from you. I wouldn’t worry about grammar, Claude would be happy to proofread it for you and make grammatical and punctuation corrections as necessary.
I have long considered that to be a viable, useful adjunct to our survival equipment. I am sure with enough on line research, I could ascertain the answers I want, but if someone already has the necessary knowledge, it’s easier to share than for me to reinvent round wheels.
I don’t have one, but I feel that an 18 volt or 24 volt circular saw would cut a lot more wood in the amount of time the battery was able to drive it than I could cut with my hand saw, especially considering that at 80+ I am what many would consider ancient. Some days I don’t feel like I have one foot in the grave, I feel like I am all the way in and they are ready to throw the last shovelful of dirt in. It probably wouldn’t even be much of a challenge to cut more wood with a battery operated circular saw as compared to my 24-inch, 60-year old Sandvik.
I use a 100 Watt solar panel with a charge controller and 2000 Watt PSW inverter with two 12 volt deep cycle batteries to power my luxury campouts, meaning a couple of fans, some LEDs and a coffee pot. That would be plenty to keep a couple of tool batteries charged while you work, unless it’s cloudy, and it even gets cloudy in the desert. You could set that all up for under a 1000.00, RV websites have great articles and videos on building small solar systems. My experience with battery powered hand tools is that they aren’t worth owning, it’s much more efficient in the field to run a small generator and use real tools.
IVYMIKE: I was really talking about a situation where we are in extremis. I would agree, a generator in the back of your pickup and full power electrical tools is much more efficient. IF THERE IS GASOLINE to run both your pickup and the generator.
Certainly your set-up would do to keep battery operated hand tools running. I was contemplating a much smaller set-up, that which was just adequate for charging a spare 18 volt battery or 24 volt battery for a saw or drill or other battery operated tool. If one is going to be going out to retrieve wood and decides to take a battery operated tool as opposed to taking the 24-inch Sandvik, one would not want to be lugging a 1,000 was solar panel with associated regulators and two 12 volt deep cycle batteries. That is more a permanent set-up or something hauled on a rig of some kind.
Could one get by with a 25 watt solar generator and some kind of plug adaptor to fit the tool? Would one need some other rectifier or voltage modifying device?
Even when it comes to screw screws, I find the battery operated drill with a driver bit, if I am installing a series of screws is faster and much easier than doing it by hand and even more convenient that getting out my 3/8 electric drill, getting the extension cord etc, etc..
Yeah, I was thinking about going to work Monday morning with my tools to make a living instead of a minimalist situation. My 100w panel is about 18×40 inches, maybe 8 pounds but they make thin folding panels that are lighter and affordable, a 50w panel would be big enough. You have to hook a power inverter to the panel to change the DC to 120 AC,, the charger for the tool batteries should be ok with the power supply fluctuating, which it will do w/o hooking a storage battery between the panel and inverter. A good 50w panel is about 200.00, a pure sine wave converter about the same, pure sine wave means it produces a current suitable for charging electronics w/o frying them.
One of my complaints about getting old, it’s so danged hard to drive screws into wood with a screwdriver, and just about impossible to nail up studs with a 24 0z framing hammer. Crap, it’s hard just to see the screw…
I bought a 110v reciprocating saw (saws all) at Harbor freight for 35.00 ten years ago, I buy 2.00 pruning blades for it and use that for tree limbs up to 6 inches in diameter. It’s lighter, faster, easier, quieter, and a helluva lot cheaper than a chainsaw and lasts forever.
I bought the more expensive sawmill at Harbor Freight for doing exactly the same thing and was thinking about EOTW and how to set up a solar unit to charge the battery for the saw. I had not a clue what size solar unit I needed nor if I really needed an inverter. Thanks for the advice. If I have to saw wood after the EOTW I would much rather use a battery powered sawzall than my Sandvik. A solar charger that could do the job would be extremely handy, In addition, a smaller unit and inverter would be much easier to protect from frying than a bigger rig.
Nice work, Rich! Lots of food for thought here!?
No, I did not forget. Next article please change title to things you may want to add to your stockpile. Thanks
DONT FORGET TO GRAB ANY OLD BAR BQ RACKS TO COOK OUTSIDE IF NEEDED..I,VE PICK SOME OUT AT THE CURB.. THE THICK IRON ONES..ARE REAL STRONG FOR A FIRE..AND CIDER BLOCKS TO PALCE AROUND THE FIRE TO HOLD RACKS YOU NEED 3-4
BLOCKS ..
Did that when we first got to our property with nothing but a van, a trailer of tools, & a dream. Even the regulars work in a pinch. We cooked that way for a couple of months until I found a propane stove.
MIMI: Junkyards can be a good place to look. Dumps, f they’ll let you pick as well. If all else fails, subsoil usually has enough clay to make a good fire pit and thick green twigs work for a grill. niio
I’ll need a school bus to carry all of the “SHTF” stuff that we’ll need to survive!
We all will need an old fashioned wall calendar as well as a wind up click.our cell phones might not work any longer.
good idea. Wooden calendars with movable numbers. Paper calendars usually give the dates for several years in advance so that can be used to do the wooden one..niio