I wake up in the morning, get out of bed, and head to the kitchen. There is a jar of seeds on the counter that have sprouted. They have little, white, hair like sprouts, with some sort of fuzzy little hairs covering them. I think to myself, “I agreed to eat this?”
As I go about my day, I encounter various oddities from my husbands prepping. The above mentioned sprouted seeds are wheat sprouts, as many of you may have already guessed. I hear, from my husband, that they are packed with nutrients. He has quite a few mylar bags full of wheat seeds stowed away. You of course can not stock pile bread, so you stock up on wheat.
There is a box in the back of the kitchen, full of empty two liter bottles. They will eventually get washed and rinsed, filled with water, and be stocked in my husbands “man cave”, as I call it. While he does have a couple five gallon jugs and a handful of one gallon jugs that he has bought, he has a hard time paying for water. So filling up the two liter bottles is his way to supplement the water supply. Dumping out what gets too old, always rotating the stock. Of course, what safe water we do have, we will eventually use up. In that event, he has iodine tablets, as well as other methods for making water safe to consume.
The man cave. This is the place where my husband keeps the majority of his prepping supplies. His “beans, bullets and Band-Aids”, if you will. He has his stockpiles, books, tools, weapons, medical supplies, and more in this room. Let me take you through the man cave.
I suppose the first thing that I think of is the food. He has cabinets full of canned goods and other nonperishable food items. Off of the top of my head, he has various canned vegetables, baked beans, tuna, soups and evaporated milk. I believe there are also ramen noodles, peanut butter, rice, beans, and oatmeal. He has plenty of salt. The salt is good for preserving food, as well as using it to attract wild game, for easy hunting. Not exactly a very sportsmanlike way of hunting, but when the SHTF, and you are trying to feed your family, I do not think that matters much anymore. In addition to those items, he has a wide variety of freeze dried meals and MREs to choose from as well.
The next thing that come to mind is hygiene. In the man cave, you will find bags of soaps. Hand soap for people, dish soap for things. There are a few bottles of hand sanitizer, and tubs of baby wipes, for when water is not available to wash with soap. He has bleach, which can be used for cleaning, and also as a way to make your water safe for drinking. You will find piles of toilet paper, and to go along with that, he has purchased a “Luggable Loo”. For those of you not familiar with this, it is a toilet seat that fits onto a five gallon bucket. You put liners in the bucket (a garbage bag will work just fine), and sawdust in the liner (to help with the smells), and viola, you are now the proud owner of a porta potty. This is pretty nice to have around even if you‘re not a prepper. If something goes wrong with your plumbing, like happened to us just last night, you don’t need to run to the nearest gas station to use the toilet.
Now we move on to lighting. My husband has an entire cabinet devoted to lights. There are all sorts of flashlights, big and small. He has the largest array of batteries I have ever seen not in a store. There are various sizes of oil lamps, and plenty of jugs of oil. There is an array of lighters, waterproof matches and strike anywhere matches. In addition to all of those, he has a couple of propane lanterns, and so many propane cylinders I didn’t bother counting. He also has these magnesium flint sticks. You shave off some of the magnesium, and strike the flint, making sparks. The magnesium catches fire, and when the magnesium is on a pile of tinder, you can start yourself a fire. It really works, I have watched him firsthand light a fire this way while camping. It is not nearly as easy as they make it look on television, but in a bind, it is better than nothing. The magnesium flint sticks would fall under both lighting and heating.
Which brings us to heat. You need heat for warmth, as well as for cooking purposes. I have already mentioned all of his lighters and matches. I believe there are a few cans of lighter fluid tucked away. He has a dozen or so hand warmers. For Christmas he got an indoor safe propane heater. It shuts off if the oxygen level gets too low, or if it gets tipped over. It is also nice because you can either use two small, one pound propane cylinders, or a larger twenty pound one. To go along with the heater and lanterns, he has a propane stove as well.
The next thing that I think of are his first aid kits. You’ve got your general, drug store items. Band aids, triple antibiotic ointments, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide. He has a variety of gauze rolls, tapes and ace wraps. There are boxes of rubber gloves and N95 masks. You have your over the counter drugs as well. Things like multi vitamins, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, aspirin, etc. He has standard implements, like tweezers, scissors, and nail clippers. Then he has higher level tools, such as sterile scalpels and suture kits, for when things really get hairy.
You might ask, “Why would you need a scalpel and sutures?” Suppose there is a civil unrest, riots, looting, and angry mobs. There are no doctors or hospitals that you could get to, even if they were open for business. You have to have your bases covered. On the same note, you need to be prepared to defend yourself, your family and your home in the same situation. Which brings us to one of my husbands favorite topics, guns and ammo. This is the topic that I know the least about, not that I know all that much about the rest of them. I know he has a few pistols, a few rifles, and loads of ammunition to go along. He has taken me out to teach me about the different guns and how to shoot them. I have recently gotten my FOID card, so I am sure I will be expected to learn more now. I would venture to say that a gun is a very important tool that you will have a great use for in the event of TEOTWAWKI. From protection to hunting, as long as you have ammo, it will do you a world of good. Of course, you will need more tools than just a gun. My husband never leaves home without his Swiss army pocket knife. I would imagine the tools you have around the house, for example, hammers, saws, hatchets, things of that nature, would be of great use to you. Although, I wouldn’t rely too heavily on anything that requires electricity.
The last thing that I can think of in regards to the man cave would be my husbands bug out bag. Basically, if you need to leave in a hurry, you have this bag packed with things to sustain you for a few days. In the bug out bag you will find things like clothes, food and water. You will want flashlights and batteries, probably some matches. My husband also has a battery powered AM/FM radio, along with a travel alarm clock in his. In the van, he keeps his get home bag. Similar to the bug out bag, only used to get home in the event of an earthquake or other natural disaster which makes traveling by car unfeasible.
If you take a look outside my home, you will find a garden. This is not such an unusual thing for most people, but for us, it started with the prepping. He grows a wide variety of different fruits and vegetables. The more self sustainable you are, the better. Recently he has acquired a large barrel. Currently he is in the process of furbishing it with a spigot. Once finished, it will sit out by the garden to collect rain water. During normal times this water will be used for watering the garden. In a survival situation it will be another way of supplementing our water supply. Not too far from the garden are three very long, I would say over twelve feet, four by fours. I am not one hundred percent sure if he has a specific purpose for these, or if they are for “just in case”.
Around the rest of the house, you will notice other aspects of his prepping. Flashlights and candles, batteries and matches, strategically placed in every room. Our television is programmed to switch to the National Geographic Channel when a new episode of Doomsday Preppers airs. All of the “favorite” pages on our computer are about survival and prepping. He also has an array of books on the topic, and I believe at least a couple were written by the editor of this web site. He is always reading, always researching. Whether it be books, web sites, television shows or blogs, he is always looking for new ideas.
I am sure when my husband reads this, he will be pleasantly surprised at how much I pay attention when he talks about these different things. I know that he would like for me to be more involved with the prepping than I am, but it is just not my forte, it’s his. While I may not have a whole lot to say about it, and even though I poke fun at him now and then about different things, I do listen while he talks. I am very privileged to have a husband who will be ready to take care of our family, no matter the situation. Hopefully this has helped some of you. Maybe by mentioning something so simple that it had not yet crossed your mind. Maybe you too have a significant other, who you think couldn’t give two hoots about your prepping. You might be wrong, they just might surprise you.
by Coburn.