Infectious Disease in the TEOTWAWKI World- Part 3, by Militant Medic

How Do Antibiotics Work? (continued) Antibiotics work in a number of different ways, but perhaps it would just be easier to talk about each one individually. I will focus on the pet antibiotics, since these are the ones most of us can stockpile easily. Again trying to make this as simple as I can, I have omitted many technical details. (A cellular biologist may take exception to what I say, saying “He didn’t even discuss peptidoglycan cross linkages by the DD-transpeptidase enzyme!! Who does he think he is!!??” However, I think most of the prepper army will appreciate omission of …


Infectious Disease in the TEOTWAWKI World- Part 2, by Militant Medic

Bacteria, Virus, Fungi, Parasites, and Prion Medicine.net defines an infection as “The invasion and multiplication of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that are not normally present within the body. An infection may cause no symptoms and be subclinical, or it may cause symptoms and be clinically apparent. An infection may remain localized, or it may spread through the blood or lymphatic vessels to become systemic (bodywide). Microorganisms that live naturally in the body are not considered infections. For example, bacteria that normally live within the mouth and intestine are not infections.” There is a lot there, in that …


Infectious Disease in the TEOTWAWKI World- Part 1, by Militant Medic

Before we start, here’s a quick disclaimer: I am a physician who has been practicing for 11 years, so I hope I know what I’m talking about, BUT this information is written for a TEOTWAWKI scenario where routine hospital based care is unavailable and the only antibiotics you have are ones designed for pets. This article is written for the desperate times ahead. Please do not use it as a guide to infectious diseases or how you should provide care to your family now. If you or a family member are ill and the hospitals are still staffed with knowledgeable …


My Experiences And Lessons Learned As A Suburban Prepper- Part 2, by CGman

Lessons Learned and Important Experiences (continued) Food and animals. When you start storing food and grains, be prepared to defend it against hungry critters. I’ve had a mouse that got into one of my bug out bags and ate through all the MRE packages. (I now store all dry goods in plastic totes.) I’ve had neighborhood dogs smash through fences to eat my chickens. (I now use chicken wire with electric wire on the outside.) I bought full-size metal trash cans to hold dog, fish, and chicken food and keep it away from rodents. I lost numerous fruit and other …


My Experiences And Lessons Learned As A Suburban Prepper- Part 1, by CGman

As I sit here typing I wonder again what has taken me so long to write down these thoughts. I think this website is one of the most important places on the Internet for people who are actually concerned for the future of their family and this country. I cannot begin to write down all of the things I have learned and used from reading the articles on SurvivalBlog. My reason for typing this article is not to win a prize but to try to pass some important information along to others who are in similar circumstances. As an upper-middle …


Feeding The Vulnerable At TEOTWAWKI: Infant Nutrition- Part 2, by P.G.

Plant-derived Milk Substitutes Are Dangerous For Infants Plant “milks” should never be used as a substitute for breastmilk or infant formula. Without exception, they are too low in calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Soy, rice, almond, and sweet chestnut milks have been associated with severe problems in infancy, including death. Protein malnutrition and growth arrest, rickets, hypothyroidism, iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin B12 deficiency, seizures, and coma have all been reported in infants who were fed these substitute milks. Substitutes For Commercial Baby Foods Most pediatricians recommend that infants receive only breastmilk, no water or fruit juice, for the first six months …


Feeding The Vulnerable At TEOTWAWKI: Infant Nutrition- Part 1, by P.G.

In the event of an EMP or other worst-case scenario, it is feared that as many as 90 percent of the population will not survive. The elderly and the ill, who are dependent on soon-to-be nonexistent medicines, will be the first to succumb. Another extremely vulnerable group consists of infants in the first year of life. They are toothless, wholly dependent on adult providers, and limited to breastmilk or infant formula for the first few months of life. Babies do not have the immunologic capacity to defend themselves against the myriad of microbes that will arise in an environment that …


Six Prepping Principles Derived from One Year as an Expat- Part 2, by G.L.

Fourth Principle: Prepare for Where You Are I can think of no greater irony than for someone who is a “prepper” moving somewhere and not doing some of the basic analysis required to adjust the preps for where you are. Still, I have talked to several like-minded expats who basically suspended their preps while on assignment. In researching the assignment country, we noted that there are particular risks for which we have never specifically prepped in our part of the U.S. These are risks for which our preps would contribute to the preparedness required for those events. This can be …


Six Prepping Principles Derived from One Year as an Expat- Part 1, by G.L.

About a year and a half ago, my company offered an expatriate assignment for a period of between two and three years. For those who don’t know, an expatriate assignment is where an employee and his or her family is relocated to another country (from now on referred to as the “assignment country”). In large corporations, this generally includes certain benefits to make the transition easier and “worth it” to the employee. For our family, this news came at a great time from a career point of view and for the age or our kids and what an international move …


Head Up, Eyes Open, by Hondo

By way of introduction, I am a retired cop. For my second career, I now ride the train to work daily. After 28 years in my first career, with command responsibilities for training a very large agency’s officers for many years, I have many habits ingrained as second (or FIRST!) nature. These habits are not always useful, until the SHTF. These habits are “cloaked”, because that’s how they work best, until the SHTF. These habits sometimes, even after all these years, baffle my loved ones. My aim here is to share a few things that may be useful, in light …


Digital Communications Capabilities for Prepared Families, by Prairie Dweller

As most preppers know, regardless of where you are on your prepping journey, the ability to communicate is a vital need. We need to communicate with our families, and we need to get information about what’s going on around us. The need for communications, as well as the traditional methods for establishing them, has been well addressed in preparedness circles. What has not been addressed much is what digital communications capabilities have to offer you as a prepper. I have been an amateur and commercial radio operator for many years, and the capabilities of digital communications as compared to voice …


Survival Electronics- Part 2, by K.A.

Fire Fire for heat and cooking can also be very important to survival. Enter the USB-rechargeable cigarette lighter. Note there are two versions of an electronic lighter: one which is an “arc” lighter that generates a small electric current and requires the material to be lit be passed through the beam and is loud like a tazer (definitely try these first before buying) and another which is a resistance-coil version that requires the item to be lit to be pressed into the hot coil. While the author feels a good old-fashioned firesteel is more reliable in the wilderness, sometimes you …


Survival Electronics- Part 1, by K.A.

Many preppers seem to think that a catastrophe would automatically cause society to revert to the 1800’s and that no electronics will survive. This unspoken assumption is not necessarily accurate, since there are a number of ways in which electronics can survive a crisis and play an important role in a survival or SHTF situation, particularly for short- and medium-term or local situations, such as storms, fires, or when forced to evacuate or go mobile. This article explores the advantages of some devices in various categories: physical needs, information, communications, and morale. Understanding Modern Lithium-ion Batteries Before we delve into …


Firearm Noise Suppressor Overview, by S.M.

It seems that ownership and use of firearm noise suppressors, also referred to as “silencers” or “cans”, are increasingly popular in the United States. Manufacturers have responded to the increased interest and demand with new, innovative products. For those considering acquiring suppressors, I thought it might be useful if I shared my recent experiences. While there are many legal hurdles to suppressor ownership, they can be addressed fairly easily at a reasonable cost and effort. Since I am not a lawyer, I can only provide a layman’s perspective. Therefore I suggest that you research the applicable legal requirements of the …


Soothing the Savage [Beast], by Captnswife

It’s easy, when preparing for the worst, to concentrate only on material needs and ignore the less tangible but vital elements of health. Music, and the ability to produce it, will be an extremely important salve on the mental, emotional, and even physical wounds of a diminished lifestyle, should the SHTF. Modern science has shown us that there are tangible physical benefits of listening to music, including the ability to help in healing illness and injury. We must remember it’s only been in the most recent decades that the Western musical experience became the passive listening of professional recording artists. …