In a way, disasters are what we all live for; at least, that’s what preppers live for. Oh, we may not admit it, but deep down inside our secret heart we do. On one hand, we’re all hoping that nothing goes wrong and we can live out our days in peace. But on the other hand, we’re secretly looking for that big disaster to happen, so that we can be the hero and prove that we were right all along. It’s a bit of a dichotomy, but one we all face, all the time.
I’ve been in this for a lot of years and each crisis has its own thrill to it. While I feel for those going through it at the time, I’m always watching to see what is going to happen. Even more than that, I’m looking to see what I can learn from each one, whether I’m in the midst of it or it’s happening in the other side of the world.
If we can’t take advantage of a crisis, then what is that crisis happening for? Oh, I realize that we have no control over that crisis and I also realize that those other people aren’t suffering for our benefit. But that’s not what I’m referring to. What I’m referring to is more of a rhetorical question. I’m asking us to ask ourselves what that crisis is happening for. In other words, how can we benefit from it?
This is something I do regularly. Not a crisis goes by where I’m not trying to get every bit of information I can about it. Not only that, but I’m trying to mentally put myself in the situation, so as to gain everything I can out of it. What sorts of things can I gain?
Related: Investing For Preppers – 12 Things That Won’t Lose Value In A Crisis
Reevaluate
It’s easy to sit in one’s home, thinking about their survival plans and be sure that they are right. Our plans always seem to fit into the scenarios we invent in our own minds. There’s just one problem with that; real life doesn’t follow our script.
One of the things I look for is how my current survival plans stack up against the crisis in progress. This covers everything from the bug out/bug in question to where I’m going to get water. While my main plan is to bug in, that wouldn’t have been possible in the Camp Fire that burned down Paradise, California. For that matter, it wouldn’t have been all that possible with Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
These two disasters showed me that I needed to beef up my bug out plans. While bugging in is still my main option, I have done a number of things to make sure that if I have to bug out, I’m ready to do so. More than anything, this has meant getting supplies in place, cached for such a time.
Often, I find areas that I either need to modify or where I need to improve my options. One of my bug out scenarios is into Mexico. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s not possible. Mexico has closed the border. What other bug out can I use, especially when travel is limited?
Learn
There are always more new lessons to learn, as each crisis shows us. A blizzard that I lived through a couple of decades ago taught me how quickly my home lost its heat and how poorly our fireplace worked for heating it. This caused me to rethink our emergency heating plans, which at that time had been mainly focused on using that fireplace.
Even the COVID-19 pandemic, which some say has been overrated as a disaster, has shown me a number of things I needed to work on, especially in the area of decontamination. We’ve been modifying our methods as we’ve gone through the pandemic and as we’ve learned more about how to decontaminate things thoroughly.
Ask Yourself
I live in a hurricane zone and have thought that I was ready to deal with any hurricane. But when Southeast Houston flooded from Hurricane Harvey, I realized that I wasn’t. As I watched the Cajun Navy rescue people in their swamp boats, I realized that I didn’t have any means of performing a self-rescue, if we were to have the same sort of flooding here.
Granted, there’s always the Cajun Navy and they’ve proven their willingness to help others. Even so, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to make it, if there’s flooding where I live. So while I appreciate them, I won’t depend on them for my life, if I can take care of myself.
The other thing it showed me was the need to have more of my supplies stored off-site, where they wouldn’t be damaged if something happened to my home. While I’ve always had a food cache or two, they were too small. I was depending too much on my main stockpile. But what if I couldn’t use that?
Related: Midwest Farming After The Floods: “FEMA Is Worthless”
Add
Going back to Hurricane Harvey, I realized that it wouldn’t take much to be able to perform that self-recue. All I needed was a rubber raft. While it might be nice to have more than that; like one of those swamp boats, I really didn’t have any need of anything so elaborate. Especially since I wouldn’t use it for anything else. If I got caught in my home and didn’t bug out in time, I could get to a place of safety with a $199 inflatable raft.
As with learning new skills, there’s always new gear to buy. The trick is figuring out what gear is really worth buying, rather than just buying whatever looks good at the moment. The key is to look at these various crisis situations and ask myself what equipment I would need in them.
If something doesn’t fit within that answer, then maybe that’s because it’s not something that I need; at least not for that scenario. If I don’t need it for some other scenario, then maybe I don’t need it at all.
Double Check
Checking one’s stockpile seems to be an ongoing work. But if there is any one time that we should do it, it’s when a crisis is showing us what we need. You’ll almost always find something that you didn’t have or didn’t have enough of.
When the Ebola outbreak happened in 2014, I added a number of things to my stockpile, just in case it managed to jump across the ocean and started spreading here. But even with that, when the COVID-19 pandemic started here, I found that I wasn’t prepared enough. Specifically, I found that I didn’t have enough PPE and disinfectants. If it wasn’t for Clorox, I would have had a hard time disinfecting things.
See What You Can Do to Help
I know that there are a lot of preppers who ascribe to the viewpoint that we take care of our own and only our own. But I’m not like that. While my priority is taking care of my family, I look beyond that, to see how I can help others.
For that reason, I have much more water purification capability than I need, some extra rice and beans I can pass out, and enough seed to help my neighbors start gardens.
One of the projects I’ve been working on is a portable water purification system which can purify 1,000 gallons of water per day. That’s not for my own use; it’s to help others when they are going through times of crisis. I want to be able to be an asset to the community, not so much when my community is in a time of crisis, but when others are.
Related: Who Needs the Most Food in a Crisis? The elderly? The Young? The Women?
Trial Run
Any crisis is a good opportunity to get out your own gear and go through the motions, playing it out as if you were living through the crisis itself. Call it a dress rehearsal or a trial run.
In either case, there are things you are going to see, when you try doing it for real or even try doing it for make believe, that you won’t see sitting there in your favorite chair. Things like how difficult it is to move everything from your home to your survival retreat.
While you may not be in the middle of the crisis itself, you can use that as the scenario for your trial run. Put the same restrictions on yourself, that you see the people in that crisis living though. If you’re planning a bug out, then use the Florida evacuation for Hurricane Irma. That’s an ideal one, because of the difficulties caused by limited roads and fuel, with a large population moving.
Many of the people who evacuated from Florida had to go as far as the northern boarders of Georgia and Alabama to find someplace to stay. Is your survival retreat at least that far? Gas shortages slowed travel. How much gas do you have? Everything they went through can teach us something.
You may also like:
How To Tell When People Are Lying to You (in a crisis)
75+ DIY Projects For a Self-Sufficient Homestead (Video)
8 Items That Disappeared Immediately after Hurricane Harvey
What’s the Limit of Your Morality in a Crisis?
12 Things You Need to Know Before Choosing Your Bug Out Location
Thank you for this article that reminds me that we can’t always bug-in and that we need to keep
mobile essential supplies handy. I also appreciate your more generous spirit in wanting to share what you can with your neighbors. That’s how we all get through these hard times.
Bless you.
Reading about prior regional disasters, getting out early seems to be important. When somebody says “Maybe we should leave,” the correct response is probably, “Okay.”
When my brother and I owned a dive boat the hard and fast rule was: If anyone suggests that it just possibly might be a good idea to head back we headed back.
It didn’t matter if you had just brought up the granddaddy of all lobsters and reported that it was the runt of the bunch, we headed back. As with pilots, there are old sailors and there are bold sailers but there are no old, bold sailors.
We intended to be old sailors. Well, we both made the old part.
Your suggestion is right along those lines. If somebody thinks it would be a good idea to bug out, DO IT!
I find this page very informative. I can hardly wait to read the SHTF e-book. Thank you for these articles on survival. I hope it never comes down to needing this info, but I want to be prepared in the event of the worst.
Stupid-19 being “overrated”, is the understatement of the century, ITS THE BIGGEST FREAKIN FRAUD, NEXT TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. For thouse who can’t compute that this is the largest global wealth transfer event to ever to have taken place, a power grab of colossal proportions and georgia-guide-stone-style-genoside, the only thing left is to get on the FEMA train to the nearest camp and be done.
While I agree that the COVD “pandemic” has been grossly overstated and the reactions to it have been a gross overreaction, I am not quite sure just what a “georgia-guide-stone-style-genoside” is. Can’t even scare up a w.a.g.
Look up Georgia Guide Stone in your search engine. According to it there can only be a limited number of people on this earth. And I think every region has a distinct job they are to be doing. But considering we could put EVERY man, woman and child on the earth on their on plot of land with house, yard etc in a space the size of Texas and Oklahoma I am doubting the stones, unless you are of the PTB who want to control everyone else.
Iraude: Learn something every day, even at my advanced age. I had never heard of the Georgia Guidestones. Thanks for the tip.
I’ve read another factoid that every man woman and child could have a plot of land in the United States. I went on line and found out how many square miles there were in the continental U.S, got a figure for the world population, rounded it up for easier math and figured that there were more folks since the data was compiled and yes, we can fit the entire population of the world within the boundaries of the continental U.S. I haven’t done the exercise for Texas & Oklahoma, but having done it for the U.S. and seen the results I got for the entire U.S., I seriously doubt we could jam everybody into Texas & Oklahoma.
Nevertheless, that is really a sophistic argument. Yes, it is physically possible, but what are you going to do if your plot of land is smack dab, ten miles off I-10 in the middle of the Mojave Desert? Can’t grow anything, no water, crappy soil, hot as hell in the summer and pretty damned brisk at night in the winter. Or halfway between Bad Water and The Devil’s Golf Course? Or in the middle of the Glamis Sand Dunes, just to name a few garden spots here in sunny SoCal.
So far, all of the predictors of over population, oil depletion, global warming, global cooling, and whatever other Henny Penny dire predictions you care to imagine have fallen flat on their face with their dire predictions.
The human race is remarkably flexible and adaptable. We have survived The invasion of the Germanic tribes into the Roman Empire; the bubonic place of the middle ages, five dramatic climate changes since the early Roman Empire days. The invasion of the Mongol hordes decimating the population of eastern Europe. The Hundred Years War which also decimated Europe. Two World Wars that in aggregate probably came close to killing as many people as had lived on earth to that time. Life may not be as we anticipated it. It may be harsher or it may be much easier, I believe we have not yet reached the end of our inventiveness. We will muddle through even if we suffer an apocalyptic event. We may be thrust back into the early 18th century, but while we will lack the infrastructure that supported life then, we have so much more knowledge that even the most advanced thinker of that time that it gives us a tremendous edge. I can’t begin to enumerate all the things that are common knowledge today that the most advanced scientist at the turn of the 18th century couldn’t even guess at. To take our most recent “catastrophe” who at the turn of the 18th century even guessed at the existence of bacteria and viruses? Who knew that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitos? Or bubonic plague by rat fleas? Who knew that one could make a magic potion from moldy bread that would cure a condition that was commonly fatal? I mean penicillin and bacterial infection. Those are just a couple of things that are common knowledge today that were not dreamed of only 220 years ago.
We will muddle through.
Thanks, LCC. I hate to say it, but your four-word “We will muddle through” is the most positive thing I have read in as many months. Really needed that.
And yet our biggest catastrophe is sneaking in the back door. BLM and Antifa, and who knows who’s behind that? Conquer and divide. How many people taking the knee thinking that shows support when in fact it shows submission. Are you all ready for that? The pandemic hit us by surprise. Cars still worked, electricity still on but the shelves were empty. What’s headed our way now? American flags set on fire in front of people’s houses in the middle of the night, businesses being torched, city governments caving in to the wild hordes, it’s insane, bizarre and down right disgusting. If you’re already bugged out make sure you’re in good graces with your neighbors cause you’re all going to need each other.
Also, whenever I go anywhere I’m always looking for a second, third or fourth location, just in case. Good luck everybody. God bless.
georgia,guide storn, reduce world pop. to 1/2B
I depend on you for accurate information and knowledge that you share so freely! Thank you so much for that!
Last week, we purchased a 27 foot travel trailer to put on the land where our cottage is, because some family members would need to bug out with us in the country if something major still happens with the Corona Virus.
We have planted a larger garden there as well, just in case. You know what the farmers say: Hope for the best, but plan for the worse.”
Why is it so difficult for some people to wear masks? I just don’t know what the problem is.. and wouldn’t it be nice if it were made mandatory?
Again, thank you Claude.
Sorry, A.E., I do NOT want a nanny state dictating how I live my life, thank you. There is no where in the Constitution that allows any government to dictate individual choices like whether to wear a mask or not.
The government may suggest that wearing a mask is an excellent idea. They might even go so far as to describe in detail the symptoms one suffers when dying of an overwhelming viremia, but do not tell me what to wear when I go about.
If an individual store or a chain wants to limits its customers to folks wearing masks, that is their right. I also have a right to shop elsewhere.
“We might overburden the hospitals and people would have to be boarded in the hallways and lobbies.”
Well, many times we make bad decisions in life and if not wearing a mask when the government strongly recommended it meant that I would have to be put up in a tent in the hospital parking lot, well that is one of the results one suffers for making bad decisions. Like not insisting a wear a mask, there is no provision in the Constitution that the government must provide for people who make bad decisions.
You don’t want to spend your tax dollars on people who do stupid things and require medical care. That is a sophistic argument. We already spend millions of dollars on fixing folks’ stupidity. How much tax payer money do we spend on hikers who hike off without telling anyone where they are going and without adequately preparing for the conditions they will meet?
How much money do we spend on people who smoke, eat too much, drink too much alcohol, smoke or ingest too much in the way of harmful substances? How much money have we spent on aids which is spread by people who either use second or third hand needles for their harmful; drug habit or deliberately engage in unsafe sex? So please don’t trot out the tired, old argument that you don’t want to spend money on stupid behavior. It might come back to bite you.
The government already intrudes too much in our lives as it is. I for one don’t want them intruding any further. In fact, I would like to see the government peeled back to maintaining a small standing armed force, maintaining an effective postal system and only able to levy duty on imports for money.
I would like to see a limit on the amount of time every elected and appointed official can spend in government of any type.
I would like to see former government officials not able to to accept a position where they can influence government activities for a minimum of eight years after leaving their last government post.
I would like to see government officials paid a flat yearly sum for their time in office and other than office space, heat, lights and if needed, a/c, have to pay for their office employees, furniture, meals, travel phone and any of the other sundry things that we now pick up for them out of that yearly sum that they get for being in office. Want a snazzy new MAC tablet? Sure, Mr. Congressman, I see that Best Buy is having a sale on them this weekend. Better hurry to get down there, they will probably go fast.
Just to be absolutely clear. I do NOT want the government telling me I have to wear a mask. To be equally clear, I do wear a mask but not because some government wienie told me I had to. I do it because with all the health problems I already have, I really don’t want to add something else to the pile.
DITTO! Wearing a mask is common sense. Common sense cannot be legislated. As Descartes put it, “Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world: because everyone thinks he is so well endowed, that even those who are hardest to satisfy in everything else, have no habit of desiring more than they have”.
What concerns me is that now that masks were required, anyone who wants to act up can mask up. There won’t be an end to masking. A year from now if you want to rob a liquor store you can wear a mask and when asked why you were seen hanging around there it’s a mask you can just say you wanted to be safe. Once people were required to show their face. There won’t be any lae like that ever again and with the suspension of facial recognition in some jurisdicTions, it gives a lot of latitude to the bad guys.
Check out Tactical Civics. It’s right up your/our alley.
You may not want the govt telling you what to do. All well and good. But you also do the responsible thing and wear a mask – which, incidentally actually protects others more than it protects you. But some people refuse to wear a mask. So what’s the fix? Because they are making people sick. And by extension, killing them. I’m personally tired of free for all, “unintentional/accidental” killing. It’s like drunk driving. It’s murder. You just haven’t decided who you’re going to kill.
It’s also protective camouflage. I live in a very liberal area in a very liberal state – I don’t put a Trump sign in my window. I wouldn’t have a Trump bumper sticker if I had a car and I wear the mask because I don’t want to deal with other people’s bs. Where I live, masks are also mandatory in public places and if you want to go into a store or business they won’t let you in without one. I really don’t want to get into a fight with someone about this – I’d rather lull them into thinking I’m just a brainless sheeple like everyone else.?
I HATE having to wear a mask! While I respect that many people feel more comfortable with them, I find them stifling, especially in hot, humid weather. I also have asthma, and I find that the extra layer is triggering my attacks. I can’t wait to get rid of the whole thing!
It should be your choice, Miss Kitty. If, understanding the risks involved, especially if you happen to be in a high risk category, you choose not to wear a mask, that should be your choice alone. If you wind up sick and stuck in a tent in the hospital parking lot, so be it. It was your choice.
If folks want to wear them, their choice. If folks don’t want to wear them, their choice.
Personally, I agree with your comments, I find they make breathing more difficult. They fog my glasses, even though I take pains to keep the lenses clear. With hearing aids and glasses, wearing a mask turns into a challenge. However, inasmuch as I consider myself in the high risk category due to age, cardiac problems and diabetes I choose to wear a mask while the disease is still rampant in SoCal. I also choose to take other precautions. But that is my choice. I don’t want some government wanker telling me I have to.
Perhaps the government wanker can’t see a difference but I see a huge difference.
What you can do if you wear a fabric mask is sew a piece of flexible wire along the top edge of it didn’t come with a nose piece. A common large paper clip will work. Roll the tips into loops so they don’t gouge your face. Then mold it to the bridge of your nose. This cuts down on the fogging.
I wear the mask, as you say, because of the ongoing health risks to myself and others….but I still hate the damn things!?
Also, doesn’t the timing of all of these riots seem just a bit convenient, with everyone assembled HAVING to wear feature obscuring, anonymity-ensuring face masks??
Thanks for the mask tips.
It is really disgusting what is going on. The residents of the autonomous zone are being abused. They have to show ID to get into their own neighborhood to show they “belong there,”. Remember the black professor who was asked for d to get into his house when a policeman thought he might be trespassing or trying to break in? Think of the flap Obama created over that one which resulted in the beer summit. These people have to put up with that everyday. Then there is the music late into the night. Music has been used to torture. Homeless tents up and down your street.
I remember when I lived in Eugene, OR. A young man decided to sit on the sidewalk in front of our house. It was very stressful knowing ths stranger was outside. It seemed we could do nothing about it. Fortunately it was summertime. My husband went out and said he was sorry, but the sprinklers were about to go on and he didn’t want the guy to get wet. He left.
Even after the coronavirus thing is over they will still get away with wearing masks saying they’re still worried about catching it.
My son moved from Seattle to London in November. He had watched the homeless tents move a street at a time closer to where he lived. Got out just in time.
Me too. I wear them when shopping because the poor store employees have to wear them all day. Have a brother-in-law in Florida who is an emergency room nurse and has to wear one. Imagine having to in the heat for hours! I do have one thing to offer- if you wear glasses and have e pleated mask, pull the bottom half so it goes under your chin. It fits better, is more comfortable and if you pinch the top around the bridge of your nose your glasses won’t fog up.
I keep my mask in my pocket. When I get in a situation where I can’t social distance, I put it on. When I get out to the truck, I use hand sanitizer.
I live in Massachusetts. Masks are mandatory here if you want to go inside a store. You still can’t go to a sporting event, a movie or a bar. Some cities were fining people for not being “mask compliant”. Just this week hospitals are allowing one visitor per patient. Before that, none, not even if you were giving birth or dying and were Corona negative. Not even last rights.
Be glad that you live in a place where it’s still optional… it’s a small thing, but it makes a difference to be able to remove the mask once in a while. Just to feel human again.
“Just to feel human again”. Sounds like a number of Star Trek episodes. Gene Roddenberry was a prophet.
Except Roddenberry was so bloody optimistic! Envisioning humanity living and working together in kumbaya harmony…whilst flying around telling the rest of the universe what to do and annexing sovereign planets for the “Federation”….visions of the UN ?
Miz Kitty: Roddenberry was a very conservative man. A Texan, he was southern baptist, tho his wife claimed he was agnostic. He qwas a combat pilot in WWII, and later a cop in LA.
Star Trek was military. This is what the military does, keeps the peace or forces a peace. When they sent some of his ashes into space, the rocket crashed. It was, perhaps, a protest because they also sent Timothy O’Leary’s ashes up.
Like Heinlein, his message always was fight for what you believe in. Look for the good but always be ready to die for what is right. niio
Your last comment/ questio, A.E. on “why don’t everyone just wear a mask” and “it should be mandatory “…here’s something you should think about, no where in God’s Words/ The Bible does it say cover your face….It does say trust in God. I’m well over 45 years old and never in my life was I told to wear a mask cause flu pandemic, cancer spread, HIV, Hepatitis spread! All of those mentioned are deadly! I rely on the Lord and Love and Trust in Him to see me through all obstacles of life. I got a personal relationship with Jesus and to get that way is to feed ur Spriit daily in reading the Bible/Gods Living Words, praying and meditating on what God is so trying to tell us! It’s rather you live for yourself or you live as God directs your path and when he calls upon you, which I hope and pray, Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, it’s a total win!! Eternal Life, but if it’s not your time well that’s a Thank You Jesus moment for giving you another day here on earth!! It’s great to be prepared but having God by your side first and then all else falls into place!! Amen☝️?
go robb the banks and if the crisis ends you’l be rich and if it doesn’t end you still have free fire starters.
Keep your daytime job, AR, you’re not ready for the Comedy Club circuit just yet.
It’s always wise to reevaluate from time to time, especially during and after times of crisis. I constantly find myself walking through our prep pantry, double checking rotation dates, filling empty spaces, adding to the grocery list and trying to find new ways to make it all better. It’s easy to become anal about it all – to the point of becoming obsessive. But then again …. nah, one can never be too prepared. Anyways, just here to comment on Rich M’s obvious good taste judging from the pic on the upper right above the column. Nice water filter, pistol and bull pup. Top notch kit. But nope, nope and again nope, I am not going to be a grocery store for the neighbors. Even though my neighbors are marked by acres and miles and we’re all friendly and no doubt we would do some bartering and watching-each-others` fourth point of contact (paratroopers get it) …. prepping for the neighbors is their job, not mine. Anyone who claims to be putting up rice and beans for the masses has lost their frickin’ mind. That’s just asking for trouble. You prep, you don’t tell the neighbors under any circumstances, and you get somewhere much more remote if the neighbors are really that close. I can only imagine that Rich M. must have a schweet smoke show looking neighbor and he gave her this heads up that he was going to be writing this guest column and she should read it because he was going to mention her in a roundabout way. I hope you score Rich M and that she is worth it because THE WORST advice you can give any prepper is to spend their hard earned time, money and space prepping for their neighbors.
There are three critical pieces missing from everyone’s conversation, everywhere.
ICCPR
ICESCR
UDHR
For the few whom grasp what the words: person and security, means, there will be alot to be had here.
Not a fan of the UN.
Care to explain more on your statements?
I drove 18 wheeler for 25 years. Roads are kinda my thing. The two most important things to have on a bugout is a map and a compass. You don’t need a 100 dollar compass. A ten dollar plastic see through with the rectangular flat base are ideal. These are made to be used with maps. Don’t get the round ones. They are for in the woods. Buy one for every member of your team. They are lifesavers and cheap. When it comes to maps get a plastic coated truckers map. They resist water damage or spilled coffee. To use place the compass on the map and align the red north of the compass needle with the north marking on the face of the compass. Then turn the map so the strait edge of the compass aligns with the north legend printed on the map. That done your map is now precisely matching with what is really around you. If you look left you are facing west. Look right and you are looking east. Find a landmark near on the map. Look in that direction and you should see it. Its a paper gps. And there is nothing wrong with printing out 20 copies of the map to take notes on and to ensure each member has a copy and compass. Also every day plot a rendezvous point in case the party is separated. Also test every member to insure they know how to use it. Even young children.
Speaking of bugging out stay away from freeways ! And roads right next to freeways. There lie monsters.. When you have time take your shiny new map and set a destination. Use the compass to plot your course. My cheap plastic compass saved me several times in the middle of nowhere. Everything looks the same on an overcast day. But the compass knows.
On another subject i bought the Lost Book Of Herbal Remedies. I am totally pleased with it. The writing is at once concise and detailed. The photos of plants make identification easy. i think of the book like i do the map and compass. Today it may not be important. Tomorrow they may be priceless lifesavers. Thank You for the articles and the book !
Yes! You can be a hero and save lives. To people with little understanding, someone telling them, “Yeah, I thought they would pull that trick,: makes sense, if you can explain why–but do it in an off-handed way. We still have a half-case of toilet paper bought months before the chicom flu hit. Someone getting a few rolls from us asked, Why do that? The pandemic-rats are desperate. All their lies are shown to be nothing but made-up stories. Yet, who owns the news media? Who induces panics thru the news media time and again? Why do we dislike the dnc? They obey Hitler. Right now, the brownshirts, antifa, is making life hell in liberal states. the press loves them. They love the terrorists. Hitler did, as well.Most people are shocked because they were never taught how the dems and Nazis are one. Yet, when explained, it makes sense. Then you can explain that the next crisis is already on the horizon and why they need to prep. niio
Explaining to snowflakes does no good. My stepson and his wife, who was a high school art teacher for forty years, Are thoroughly convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump is responsible for the virus and is intent on destroying the country for his own benefit, and there is no possible way of convincing them otherwise. If someone started a riot because Trump stepped out of the White House and said good morning, they would be there carrying signs and calling him a liar. Three generations of indoctrination though education, news and entertainment. We swore an oath to defend the constitution. It seems all we’ve done for the fifty years is keep saying “I swore an oath”, to the point that we’re no longer taken seriously.Is it time to honor that oath yet and die free Americans, or will we wait around and die a failed disgraced generation, remembered only for the anti American generations we allowed to destroy what we fought for?
tomk: What I do about snowflakes is very gently prove they’re Nazis. Go behind the scenes, and show them green fascism, rights for the wealthy to rape, New Age and human sacrifice, gay rights, suicide, and so on. Show them where most gays in Nazi Germany went, into the Gestapo (Germany had 26,000 registered gays, and Hitler murdered 2,000).Show them how Hitler slaughtered people for being Christians, how he rewrote the Bible, was a communist, friend of Stalin’s, how he sent a half-million SS and Gestapo into the world, and that we’re fighting WWII yet, thanks to the dnc ignoring it, and then adopting nazism.A word here, a word there. Never too much at any one time, never the same subject twice in a row or they turn a deaf ear. You’re not dealing with adults, but adult children. You have to teach them from that perspective. niio
Barricade Fire Gel is a product you can attach to a hose or pressure washer ( which is better) & you can spray your homes, vehicles fencing etc. and it won’t catch on fire. It sprays on as a white foam, & can easily wash off with Water. Also, Amazon has roof top skrinklers for about $50 you can have one, they turn 360 degrees. Then, get yourself a steel hose so that embers willn’t ruin the hose.There are also bowling ball style fire extinguishers by elide ( a little more $ but better,) and even a child could put out a fire just by rolling it in. When the temperature gets hot enough, it explodes a chemical to put out the fire. It comes with a rack so you may attack it by anything flammable, or even under your car hood. Lastly there are fire extinguishers that don’t expire. Back to the Barricade fire gel…..I emailed the company before purchasing & told them i’m not the type to leave my home, ever. I asked if I could spray & retreat inside. The answer was, your question surprised us, we had a meeting. Yes you can but we won’t put that in writing and you should cover vents and doorways with plastic to ensure no smoke gets inside, and turn off your a/c unit. They also said be careful going back in, it’s slippery. But again, they don’t recommend it.
p.s. uline sells bulk toliet paper.
b- Excellent advice. I have no sense of direction. Used to have q compass in my car and never got lost. Just added it to my next shopping list.
A couple of years back we were going to send Rand McNally Tour Guides to all our relatives for Christmas then realized we were the only ones without GPS. Since old ideas become new again, maybe that’s not such a bad idea.
Save old maps. The newer maps don’t have the detail the old maps had. With so many people with GPS, printed maps are not in big demand and printing companies are forced to cut corners in order to survive. Getting survey data, even with satellite views, translating that into a computer program, setting up a four or five color press to do the printing and with all that maps are amazingly cheap.
The newer California maps only show the major roads. The little 1 1/2 lane logging truck roads that are paved but just barely aren’t appearing on maps any more. I know the roads are there, they just have been eliminated.
I don’t know about other states, but I suspect the same is true.
Delorme makes the best maps for showing lots of detail in my opinion. In a bug-out situation, you may want to take that private logging road through the mountains rather than the secondary state highway.
As far as maps go, your best way to find a good one might be to ask people who drive for a living….cab drivers, delivery drivers, local police and fire, EMTs,…they probably all have a specific one that they like to use. These would likely be city maps, but it would be handy for planning how to escape the area.
Thank you, Left Coast. It makes sense that not all maps are created equal. Guess it would be good to visit Cabela’s too or a National Forest Service for hunting maps that show all those Forest Service roads. Hadn’t thought of that.
Excellent idea, Miss Kitty.
For Rich M who wrote this article.
Please give more info on the portable water purifier as in my area of Texas it is borderline desert these days. It seems it rains less every year but do have areas of creeks, ponds and tanks to draw water from in cases of emergencies. Decent article, thanks for sharing.