The Novice And The Expert- Part 2, by Old Bobbert

Today, we are continuing to learn, whether we are a novice or an expert in preparedness. If experts, we can learn how to guide a novice in their preparation planning.

Confidence Key Words

We left off yesterday with a group in a pandemic situation going grocery store shopping in teams with lists and cash. We had a reference to use confidence key words at checkout to help avoid being a victim. What are these confidence key words? I know that you know them. Read the following out loud: “Please and thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. We appreciate your help.”

“We” is used often and especially if you are actually alone. These are the key words and this is the style of the type of person that the bad guys want to stay away from. You will then easily look to be the confident non-victim. You will most likely be safe.

The Other Good News

The other sorta good news is that there is a high likelihood that the pandemic will die out as the contagious victims die off. As a general rule, with few exceptions, pandemic toxins, bacterium, or viruses need a host person in whom it can survive. This is not a pleasant thought, but it is your reality.

Okay, for the sorta specific pandemic stuff, most of the balance of the topic will apply to most of the rest of the incidents in the list. But having said that with full confidence that it is an absolute truth, I may be wrong. This won’t be the first time.

An EMP

Let’s move on to #1—an EMP situation. It will most likely be from a solar storm or flare-up rather than an enemy attack. However, who knows what North Korea or the so called religious radical terrorists are going to do. It is important to know that an EMP will not be nearly as bad as some folks have predicted, and it will be much worse that some other folks are preparing for. It’s something sort of dead center and near the ends is a very pronounced probability.

However, we can learn from documented recent history, well sorta recent. Back in the mid 1800’s, there was a strong solar flare that caused many of the nation’s telegraph long lines to burst into flames from a sudden and huge electrical surge. It was that era’s equivalent to a grid down day. And their one and only electrical system failed completely.

My Faraday Cage

I created a terrific (my opinion) homemade “Faraday cage” for our EMP security. We took a used, cleaned, all-metal 50 gallon barrel and lined it with about two inches of corrugated card board on the bottom and sides with the same thickness on top of those items stored in the barrel. It is stored inside our garage under our home’s all-metal roof, which is grounded through the extendable antenna tower that is attached to the side of the garage and tied to an implanted 8-foot copper ground rod for safety. That’s quite a mouthful of specifications. Yes, that may well be more than a bit of overdone, but it makes me feel happy and very secure. We still have it there today.

Our Faraday Cage Contents

Our contents include:

1. Three sets of hand-held radios, all with the same frequencies
2. One short wave transceiver and a homemade 40-ft di-pole antenna
3. Two solar-powered battery chargers
4. Multiple size new rechargeable batteries
5. Manuals for all of the communications equipment
6. One small crank powered radio – tv
7. One large number of D.I.Y. DVD films
8. An external computer hard drive with a huge amount of usable information,
9. A few “hundred” kindle e-books (By the way, many e-books are available from Cornell University free!)
10. A full set of scriptures, and finally
11. And finally, a beautiful pt 145 pro 45 cal with a case of ammo

No, we did not jump up and go buy all of these items in one lazy afternoon. Oh, no! It took time and patience and specific lists to save money. We did all of these things either by buying new items on sale or good quality items from local flea markets or garage sales and also through online discount sales and thrift stores. (Note that the manager can lower a price when asked. You may get lucky, so ask every time.)

A Cyber Attack On Power Grid

How do you cope with weather when there’s been a cyber attack on the power grid? From a prepper’s outlook, there are really only two climate seasons. There is hot weather, and there’s cold. That is it. We need to prepare to lose commercial electric heat and commercial air conditioning. But we’ll only lose one at a time in most areas most of the time. At least that’s true for most of us. Don’t you just love that profound near useless word “mostly”?

Catching Up

Okay. Here is the all-important question! How do we “catch up” on proper preparation when the SHTF incident first occurs? The answer is “we can’t!” We don’t even try! Why not try? It’s too late to catch up on everything at that point!

Sorry, but that’s the truth of the situation. And, it will be okay. Having everything is not necessary today. You can survive on the minimums for awhile. And that time will enable you to do better for the longer haul in front of you.

Yes, we (you) could have done more and better. You could if we (you) had only had enough time, enough information, enough forethought, enough money, enough family cooperation, enough conviction, and enough courage to face a really dismal possible future that we really didn’t even believe would be possible.

Make a List of Immediate Needs

Now you are going to take a short time to do what you can to take care of the immediate needs of your own family and perhaps a very few much loved close by neighbors. Start with making an immediate listing of:

1. Missing food and medicine items.
2. Food items you can’t prepare on your outdoor gas grill.

Get Gas For Grill and Head to Store For Bulk Supplies You Don’t Have

Make sure you have a few, full gas bottles. And when you go to refill the bottles, do not just exchange the empty for a used full bottle. It may not actually be full. Get your bottle personally refilled; it should cost less that way.

Get to the store for supplies and go where you can buy in bulk, if possible. What you do want is:

• powered milk,
• powdered potatoes,
• canned foods you can eat cold right out of the can (go big on canned mixed vegetables and canned beans),
• an extra can opener, if you only have one, and
• bagged rice.

OTC Pharmacy Shopping in Bulk

If the store has a section for bulk items, go to it first! Look for the containers that have a month’s worth of emergency food for one person. Buy them now!! Also buy some small treats.

Send a single buyer to the store section that has the OTC medicines and supplements. Make that list as short as possible. Do not skip items for help problems listed below as well as supplies listed:

• sleep aid meds/supplies,
• upset stomach meds,
• headache relief,
• stuffy head cold meds,
• meds for low/high blood sugars,
• bandages,
• feminine sanitary supplies,
• hydrogen peroxide for cuts and scrapes, and
• handy wipes for many uses, including wiping hands.

East Coast Tsunami

Okay, moving onward to incident #4, where the east coast gets drenched about 75 foot deep and 50 miles inland because of a tsunami. How could that ever be possible, you ask. One answer is an article I found that said, “If that resting half mile wide rock slide to the Atlantic in the Canary Islands ever moves again we may not be able to find New York City or Washington or Baltimore and maybe any place east of the Allegheny Mountains.” [Note: SurvivalBlog Editors were unable to verify the preceding quote.] Sound impossible? Perhaps the local volcano will erupt again and push the big wave towards our East Coast.

Look it up on your Internet search site. Go ahead. Do what I did. It’s scary. One writer said perhaps it could be a 100- foot high wave with about 22 hours warning to go for the high ground! If this warning has come, go immediately!

Where can we get information we can trust? Start with a simple quest in Google or any search engine. That’s what I did, and my search parameters were very simple. I used the following lead, “Canary Island rock slide”. One of the articles is titled “Scientists Warn of Massive Tidal Wave from Canary Island Volcano” by Steve Connor, Science Editor, The Independent – London 8-29-2001. Look it up yourself.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: There is controversy on the subject of this risk. While there are some scientists who promoted this theory of a massive tsunami, there are others who declare it nothing more than hype and a means to gain funding for their research as well as support for their funders’ businesses, which are risk and insurance based. Please do your own due diligence before taking actions, such as relocating, merely based upon this information alone.)

Tomorrow, we’ll continue discussing the implications of the East Coast under water and what we can do to prepare for this, whether we lived there and had to evacuate or we live elsewhere and are affected by the loss of its contributions to society.

See Also:

• The Novice And The Expert- Part 1, by Old Bobbert
• The Novice And The Expert- Part 3, by Old Bobbert

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been part two of a three part entry for Round 72 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

1. A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
5. An infrared sensor/imaging camouflage shelter from Snakebite Tactical in Eureka, Montana (A $350+ value),
6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
7. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
8. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

1. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
4. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
2. A custom made Sage Grouse model utility/field knife from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
7. Montie Gear is donating a Y-Shot Slingshot and a $125 Montie gear Gift certificate.,
8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value), and

Round 72 ends on September 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.