Post-Apocalyptic Healthcare, by Dr. Daniel Stickler

I first began prepping about two years ago so I am fairly new to this.  In those two years I have been fairly aggressive with my education and training on the topic with much of my real world education coming from reading blogs.  I have found an area where there is a great deal of misinformation and limited preparedness so it has prompted me to address this topic since it is the one area where I possess a skill set that I can share.  The topic is healthcare after the SHTF.  I think it is difficult for any of us, especially in America, to understand how so many aspects of our health we may be taking for granted.  I can honestly say that I was in the same boat which is a sad statement considering the fact that I am a physician.

To give a little background as a lead in; I worked as a general and vascular surgeon for about 10 years after I finished residency.  A little over two years ago I walked away from that to focus on nutrition, fitness, and wellness counseling.  There were many reasons for this change, lifestyle being a big one but more importantly I came to understand that we were no longer practicing medicine but rather pharmacology and surgery.  I found that training people to modify lifestyle was the best defense and prevention strategy and this certainly applies to prepping.

I will be focusing on four topics:

  • Optimizing your health
    • Nutrition
    • Fitness
  • Healthcare skill sets
  • Water and hygiene
  • Healthcare supplies

Optimizing your Health

Health should be viewed as a spectrum with chronic disease at one end, disease-free in the middle, and optimized health at the other end.  Think about where you would want to be and whom you would want in your survival group should the SHTF.

In reading through the various prepper and survival blogs, I see so many people that are unhealthy and they do not hesitate to talk about it.  I would be worried if I were in this situation or if I had to rely on this person as an essential link in my support group.  Stocking up on medications may help but what happens when they run out or expire?   Will you live to take advantage of all your amazing preparations or will they be taken from you?  The solution is to get out of the chronic disease end of the spectrum and get as close to optimal health as possible.  I treat and resolve chronic disease every day by basically changing one thing: lifestyle.  This means nutrition and fitness.  You just have to understand that chronic diseases such as Type II diabetes, high blood pressure, and most high cholesterol are actually just symptoms of a poor lifestyle, you fix that, and you fix the problem without medication.

Nutrition is the key to good health; the problem is there is way too much misinformation out there as to what constitutes good nutrition.  What I am about to say will make most prepper gasp, but let me explain.  Get rid of all grains from the diet!  Now, that said, I do store grains but I do not currently eat them, they are reserved as emergency foods only.  You may now be asking, “where does this insanity come from?”  Well the answer is biochemistry and anthropology.  We are and always have been physiologically hunter/gatherers and grains were not a part of our natural diet.  Our bodies function best and experience the most positive effects from a hunter/gatherer style diet.  I am not asking you to immediately take my word for it just because I have a few initials at the end of my name, but I do ask that you try this challenge – give up all grain, bread, pasta, rice, crackers, chips, pretzels, popcorn, sweets, etc., for one month and see how you feel.  You will eat only meats, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and nuts during this time and eat all you want.  You will experience amazing results.  Since I do have limited space here to go into all the details, I have provided a link to a video on Vimeo to help explain my approach to this diet: Functional Nutrition.

Other good sources of information are the books The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf and The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.  Sisson also has a great web site at MarksDailyApple.com.  Good nutrition is 80% of a healthy lifestyle, it is the base of the pyramid of health and without it you cannot develop optimal health.  I am not promoting some agenda here or trying to sell some magic snake oil, all I can tell you is that I have been utilizing this diet in my clinical practice for years and the health transformations and the disease resolutions I have witnessed are amazing.

Another aspect of optimal health is fitness.  It is a necessity in survival and should be an integral part of any preparation regimen.  Everyone seems to prep for food, medical and self defense but another aspect of preparation is your body.  I would like to see the 3 Bs change to the 4 Bs: Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, and Body.  Your level of fitness will be directly proportional to your chances of survival so you need to train the right way.  Bottom line – lift heavy stuff and run fast.  What I recommend is functional fitness and you do not need a gym for this.  Functional fitness means training the body to be able to do the necessary things in life well and remember, life will be substantially different if society fails.  If you have weights available, then lift heavy – squats, cleans, military press, rows.  Add push-ups and pull-ups.  Chop and carry wood, dig ditches, and run sprints. The book The Primal Blueprint that I mentioned has some good functional training advice and workouts.

Healthcare Skillsets

The practice of medical care could change dramatically in this scenario.  Physicians and nurses currently practice with the aid of technology, sterile environments, a slew of available instruments and specialist referrals.  EMTs and paramedics are trained in stabilization and transport.  Despite my surgical training and experience, my experience in a level 4 trauma center and having been an Advanced Trauma Life Support instructor, I would have little skills to care for people in a post-apocalyptic scenario.  That was until I began studying wilderness medicine.  Wilderness medicine training is available for health care providers (EMTs, paramedics, nurses, and physicians) and what makes this different is that you have to diagnose and more importantly TREAT in the field without the benefit of technology and transport.  In TEOTWAWKI scenario things like minor wounds, burns, blisters, and fractures become potentially life-threatening emergencies. I never realized all this until I took a Wilderness First Responder course offered by NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) and I feel that this is an absolute necessity for someone in your group.  We should all know how to properly clean and care for wounds, close lacerations, treat a burn, splint and reduce fractures and dislocations in situations where we do not have the luxury of modern technology.  Now this course will not make you the Dr. House of the TEOTWAWKI but it will give you the basis to build from and a level of comfort in dealing with many of the issues you may encounter.  You should still have access to someone with advanced medical training.

Water and Hygiene

Wilderness medicine gets you thinking about things we take for granted like water or hygiene.  In the wilderness, clean water is your best friend.  Even sparkling clear mountain spring water can be full of protozoa and bacteria so boiling or filtration is essential.  What kills more people worldwide?  Infectious diarrhea.  This is also one of the number one debilitations in the wilderness along with food poisoning related to poor food prep hygiene.  It is also important to remember that filtration will not get rid of viruses, so in the face of a viral outbreak if the water supply gets contaminated, you will need a chemical disinfectant as well.  Iodine and/or chlorine will work well for this added safety.  We need to look at the health care issues faced in the third world countries in order to fully understand what we need to prepare for should the worst case scenario occur.

Healthcare Supplies

First thing to remember here is that it will do you no good to stock up on supplies that you have no skill or knowledge to use.  When I design and stock kits for people, I always find out what abilities they possess first.  You also have to determine what size group you want to prepare for and the environment where the kit will be needed.  I typically see a need for three types of kits and a stock of supplies on top.

Kit #1: Basic field kit.  This kit needs to be compact and lightweight but still be supplied to cover you for a 1-5 day trip away from your Bugout Location (BOL) for 3-4 people.  This should cover everything for stabilizing illness or injury long enough to get you back to your BOL.  This is the kit that I keep in my Bugout Bag (BoB) and I take hiking or camping.
Basic contents:

  • Sterile and non-sterile gloves
  • Facemasks with eye protecting, also antiviral mask
  • Thermometer
  • Ace bandage and scissors
  • Various quantities of different size sterile gauze and gauze rolls
  • Field surgical kit and sutures
  • Variety of medical and athletic tape
  • Moleskin for blisters and second skin for burns
  • Opsite or other occlusive dressing
  • Steristrips and benzoin for wound closure
  • Small vial of povidone iodine or betadine
  • Bacitracin and Cortisone
  • Thermal reflective blanket
  • SAM splint
  • Eye pad
  • Large irrigation syringe
  • Several cravats
  • Quikclot or Celox trauma bandage
  • Pen light
  • Emergency resuscitator pocket facemask
  • Ibuprofen, aspirin, Benadryl, and various antibiotics

Kit #2: Advanced Home Kit. This is an advanced medical kit for the home or BOL.  It contains all the above items from Kit #1 just larger quantities, plus:

  • Stethoscope and BP cuff
  • Fiberglass casting wrap
  • Greater variety of surgical items
  • Lidocaine, needles, and syringes
  • Battery operated cautery device
  • Skin stapler
  • Greater variety of antibiotics and other prescription meds
  • Emergency cricothyrotomy kit

Kit #3: Advanced Trauma Kit.  Now this kit would be mainly for people with advanced medical training or military field medics.  I keep this is a STOMP bag and it weighs about 40 pounds.  It is basically a portable trauma bay with advanced surgical instrumentation, major wound treatments, airway control, etc.

My recommendation is to train each person in your group in the basic medical skills and have each carry a basic kit.  Many prep groups run drills for defense and bug-out but few run through medical scenarios and these are the most likely issues that they would encounter.  Each group or family should have someone in charge of medical and it should be their responsibility to train the others.

So our best course of action is prepare and prevent.  Prepare by optimizing each individuals health, have the training necessary for your environment, and have the appropriate tools and knowledge in order to act.  Prevent by obtaining/maintaining optimal health, recognizing and understanding the risks of your environment, practice good hygiene, and utilize adequately filtered water.

Making Water Safe to Drink, by Paratrooper John

There’s a lot of information available on how to make water safe to drink.  That’s a good thing because water is one of the most important parts of our survival and comfort.  My goal in this article is to organize and describe some of these methods in a way that is interesting and easy to read. I have included a few internet links to more detailed step-by-step descriptions and how-to videos created by others.

Although important, I’m won’t go into all the diseases and problems that can be caused by ingesting contaminated water. Just know that there is some bad stuff out there that can make a survival situation worse than if you didn’t drink the water at all. Additionally, I understand there are differences between the terms PURIFICATION, DISINFECTION, and FILTERED. I don’t want to get into all those details in this article.  When making water safe you want to choose the most effective method with the materials available.

In all methods listed below an attempt should be made to pre-filter large contaminates before beginning the disinfection process.
I have listed some of the methods below in two different ways; a brief description and then a detailed description. 

Brief Descriptions of methods:
Boiling: Bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute.
Distillation: Converting water into a vapor and then back into a liquid via direct or solar heat.
Commercial Filter:  A product designed and manufactured specifically for purifying water. These usually contain some type of charcoal or ceramic filter.
Chemical:  Using water purifications tablets, chlorine (bleach) and iodine.
Solar Disinfection (SODIS): Exposing water filled transparent bottles to the sun for an extended period of time.
Improvised Filter:  Using multiple layers and combinations of sand, rocks, pebbles, grass and cloth to create a filter similar to how the ground naturally filters water.

Detailed Descriptions of Methods:
Boiling: Boiling water is probably the most effective and reliable method of disinfecting water.  To make water safe to drink by boiling the water needs to be at a rolling boil for at least one minute.  Some sources may mention five or more minutes as the minimum but the extra time doesn’t provide any extra benefit and uses up more fuel.  An exception to the time for the boiling would be in high elevations where three minutes is recommended.
Ensure the container has not been previously used to store dangerous substances.  Metal containers are ideal for boiling water but other containers such as clay and plastic can be used as well.
A plastic container can also be used for boiling water.  Place the full container as close to a heat source as possible without coming into direct contact.  Keep it there until you see the water boiling for one minute.  Here’s a video from the YouTube channel Wilderness Outfitters demonstrating this method: Boiling In Plastic Bottle [JWR Adds: If you have a thermometer (ideally a floating dairy thermometer, the oft-repeated “full boil” or rolling boil” is not required to disinfect clear (filtered) water. The magic number that needs to be touched for Pasteurizing is 65º C (149º F). But if you don’t have a thermometer, then bring the water briefly to just short of a boil (where the water visibly starts to churn), just to be safe.

Distillation: This method is similar to how nature creates rain.  Heat transforms water into a vapor.  The vapor will condensate when it comes into contact with a solid surface or enough of it collects together until it’s too heavy to be suspended in the air.  There are several methods of making water safe via distillation. I will discuss solar distillation here.
Many survival manuals discuss creating a “Solar Still” to procure water  from the moisture in soil or green vegetation but it can also be used on existing sources of water that are suspected of being contaminated.

The typical description of a solar still describes using a depression in the ground eighteen to twenty-four inches deep and about three feet wide. Green vegetation is placed inside along the sides.  A collection container is placed on the ground in the middle and then the entire depression is covered with plastic sheeting.  Cover the sides of the sheeting with soil or other heavy objects to hold it in place and create a seal.  A small weight is placed on top of the covering directly above the collection container.  This causes the covering to drop slightly in a cone shape so that the condensed water on the underside of the plastic sheeting will pool to the center and then drip into the collection container.  You can run tubing from the collection container to the outside of the solar still and use as a straw so that you don’t have to disturb the cover when accessing the water.  Here is a video posted on the YouTube channel Desert Survival demonstrating how to build a solar still: Solar Still

Potentially unsafe water can be placed into the solar still and it will be evaporated the same way that moisture from the green vegetation would be.  You can pour the unsafe water directly into the depression or place in containers.  It’s very important to not allow any of the contaminated water to come in contact with the collections container or the covering for the depression.

[JWR Adds a Proviso: As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, do not use distilled water as your only source of water for drinking and cooking for an extended period, since it lacks the essential trace minerals found in spring water, well water, or tap water.]

Commercial Filter: There are numerous types of products designed to mechanically purify water.  The technology for these is constantly changing especially as more effective and efficient methods are developed for use in impoverished areas of the world. 
They come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Most use a ceramic filter or activated charcoal to remove contaminates.  There are pump-operated versions and some very simple straw types.

These types of filters can be expensive but their benefits would quickly outweigh the cost if they are ever needed in an emergency.  Some major benefits are time and energy do not have to be expended in gathering fuel, starting a fire or waiting on chemicals to be effective etc.
I have provided a few links below of different types of filters and how they work.  I’m not promoting any of these brands but simply directing you to them as examples of what a typical commercial filter looks like.

The following link has some examples of portable filters by one of the leading manufacturers of these devices:  Katadyn Water Filters  Here’s an explanation and demonstration of a pump filter on the YouTube channel, KatadynKP: Pump Filter 
Here is an example of a filter straw:  Aquamira Filter Straw  This link has a great demonstration posted on the YouTube channel, ShelfReliance:  Filter Straw Demonstration.

Chemical:  There are a few different types of chemicals that will make water safe to drink.  Some, like purification (iodine) tablets are made specifically for camping, hiking and emergency situations.  Others, like household bleach and iodine tincture can be used safely if you know the proper ratios to use. 
When using chemicals for disinfection in a container with a lid remember to loosen the lid about 5 minutes after adding the disinfectant and allow the water to come into contact with the threads and the inside of the lid.  This will ensure no contaminates remain in those areas.

Water purification tablets are pretty straightforward.  You drop the appropriate number of tablets into a container of water (usually about a quart) and wait about 30 minutes.  The effective time will vary slightly depending on the clarity and temperature of the water.  These types of tablets were standard issue in my infantry days in the army.  They can be purchased just about anywhere camping gear is sold.  An unopened container of the tablets can be good for a few years.  Follow the directions on the label.  Here’s a great demonstration posted on the YouTube channel, eHow: Water Purification Tablets

Household bleach (chlorine) is probably the most accessible method of disinfection for a typical family since it is such a common product in our homes.  The bleach must not have additives such as scents, cleaners or be the “colorsafe” type. About 1/8th teaspoon can be added to a gallon of water.  (16 drops if you have dropper.) After stirring let it sit for at least 30 minutes.  Smell the solution to get a general idea if it was done correctly.  There should be a slight chlorine smell similar to a swimming pool.  If you do not smell the chlorine then you can repeat the procedure.  If it still does not work the second time around then the bleach is probably not effective anymore.  Bleach does not have a particular long shelf life especially after opening the container.  “MrJmfitch” created a video of the bleach technique:  Chlorine Bleach Disinfection
Iodine tincture solution is a handy item to have in your emergency kit because not only can it be used to disinfect water but it can be used in the treatment of wounds.  Caution must be used for people with sensitivity to iodine. 

It is recommended to use tincture with 2% iodine.  Add about 5-8 drops of iodine to 1 liter of water and wait at least 30 minutes.  Issues with the iodine taste of the water can be remedied by adding vitamin C after the 30 minute wait.  Here is a step-by-step guide with pictures on the web site, Instructables.  Iodine Purification

Solar Disinfection (SODIS):  This method uses the suns UV radiation to disinfect contaminated water.  Ideally a PET made container should be used.  A typical plastic transparent water bottle would be an example of a PET made container.  Here is more information on what a PET container is: PET Containers
Completely fill the bottle with the contaminated water and expose it to at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.  If only partial sunlight is available then the time should be extend to several days.
An optional step I have read about is to agitate the container before it is completely full.  This will oxygenate the water.  Finish filling the container after oxygenating. 
This link has detailed step-by-step instructions:  SODIS Step-by-Step
Here’s a video demonstration of the SODIS method on the YouTube channel, wildernessinnovation: SODIS video

Improvised Filter:  An improvised filter uses multiple layers of different materials to filter the water.  It’s similar to how the earth naturally filters water.  This method is certainly not the preferred method but is probably slightly better than drinking straight from the source.
Some type of container will be needed such as a bottle or a can but I’ve even seen this method demonstrated in a hole in the ground.  Filter materials that can be used for this method include dirt, grass, charcoal, cloth and coffee filters.  You will ideally need at least three different materials.  The preferred ones would be grass, charcoal and dirt.

The top of the container will need to be removed so the materials can be layered into it.  Smalls holes will are placed in the bottom of the container.  They need to be the right size to allow the water to flow through them but not allow all of the filter materials to get through.  You can start small and increase the size of the holes as needed.

The filter should have the coarsest materials on the top and bottom and as the layers get closer to the middle the finer materials are used.  For example, at the bottom of the container would be grass, then on that would be dirt, then charcoal, dirt again and then another layer of grass at the top.
This link has an easy to follow step-by-step guide on the web site Practical Primitive: Improvised Water Filter
Here is a video demonstration from the YouTube channel eHow: Improvised Water Filter Video

Remember, you always want to use the most effective method of water purification with the materials on hand.   You also need to factor in the time an energy that will be expended in the particular method you choose. In a worst case scenario there may be a chance that you have no method of ensuring water is safe to drink.  If it comes down to dying of dehydration or possibly getting sick from drinking unsafe water, drink the water.

Letter Re: Barter, Post-TEOTWAWKI–An Update

Dear SurvivalBloggers:
Please re-read my December 2011 article on “micro stores” following TEOTWAWKI. Pay particular attention to the proposed stocking list. Enough water has gone under the bridge since then–I’ve had plenty of time to think some more about it, plus I received some quality feedback from SurvivalBlog readers–that I thought some updating might be useful and in order. Here goes.
 
There were several premises I used as a basis for recommending your considering a “micro store”: Yes, the situation might get bad (less than comfortable)–but (IMO) will be something less than grim–following some sort of catastrophic “meltdown” event, especially if you live in a smaller, conservative metropolitan area, rather than a large one. Look for extended supply disruptions and some criminal activity, but no “golden horde” and associated rampant violence–those will prevail in the major cities. Also, expect well-armed local citizens will get organized quickly enough, people will do a reasonable of taking care of each other, and that commerce will help mitigate any violence and serve as a civilizing force for the community’s benefit.
 
Important factors advancing my scenario are that enough of us have sufficiently prepped ahead of the event so that there will be goods in excess of our personal needs to trade/barter, that the basic civil fabric of the community will remain and stand the strain, and that we have sufficient useful “currency” (small/compact but necessary items and silver coins) to lubricate the wheels of commerce. So, consider that we will face extremely uncomfortable–but not deadly (unless we make or allow that to happen)–circumstances.
 
Since commerce is based in large part in curing uncomfortable circumstances–we’ll pay for things that make us feel better or more comfortable (it’s been that way since one of our distant ancestors traded a custom-made spear for a couple of fish, or something)–and, you can plan on trade/barter your goods with others.
 
Essentially everything can be traded, even skyscrapers for gold mines–I recall a particularly onerous trade in one of the apocalyptic novels I downloaded–the USA was forced to trade an aircraft carrier in exchange for some of our outstanding debt. Nasty thought we hope we do not come to. Back to our SHTF scenario.
 
You’re not going to be Wal-Mart, Kroger, or Home Depot, but you don’t need to be. A footlocker or two of compact, high-value, in-demand merchandise should suffice to help you and your neighbors. Please look over my original list. Here are some additional ideas I have come up with and several suggested by other readers. (BTW: Your local dollar store will be helpful for much of this). I’ll continue my numbering sequence where I left off–
 
7. (Addition). Toothpaste. Rather than purchasing tubes of toothpaste for sale (too large), here’s an alternate idea. Colgate sells toothpaste in single service packages–think fast food ketchup. What a great idea/ Why hasn’t anyone come up with this one before? I was formally president of a large condominium project (beach resort) and we bought many of our supplies from American Hotel Register (www.americanhotel.com). Good outfit; competitive. They have cases of 1,000 Colgate toothpaste packets for $130.89 (I have no financial interest here and there are surely other sources). Sell five packets for a silver dime? At a cost of $.65/5, that would give you about a 400% markup, at current silver prices. You could also buy some toothbrushes for resale, but people will use their old ones until the bristles fall out, so new ones would not make good trading material. Get a handful of new ones for yourself and family so that (bristle failure) doesn’t happen to you.
 
26. Soap. I recall another reader suggesting you should stock up with a full pallet of soap; that’s more than a bit of overkill, unless you have lots of room to spare. How about a case instead? Another hotel supplier we have used is Suite Supply (www.suitesupply.com). They have cases of 500 one and a half ounce bars of Dial soap for $76.87. The calculation is about the same as the toothpaste–sell five bars for a silver dime for a reasonable markup.
 
27. Playing cards. I can’t believe I left this one out before. The dollar store has plenty of these for …a dollar. Not the highest quality, but there are 52 cards plus jokers in every deck. Get a dozen or more decks. Playing cards are a much better choice than board games, which are too expensive as barter material unless you pick them up used from Goodwill or some other thrift store (caveat: thrift store board games and puzzles are generally missing pieces and are usually pretty beat up). And, playing cards are useful to all ages for many different games. You could make a little sign–“Playing Cards a Dime a Deck.” Continuing with this thought, you could include puzzles with your book sales business model–trade one-for-two and sell one-at-a-time–The dollar store has plenty.
 
28. Plastic bottles. If/when the SHTF, we just might be looking at the last plastic bottles that will exist for a very long time. We (my family) have gotten accustomed to drinking bottled water from Sam’s (to the perpetual irritation of local greenies), but the expense is only about $.15/half liter bottle. The bottles are always thrown away, but at some point, I’ll start filling a plastic bag with the empties, caps attached. I’m not sure if there will be a market for empty bottles, but your neighbors (and you) will appreciate having plenty available, when there is no source of new ones. Save plenty of empties for yourself and give away a half dozen when you sell something else. They will be great for storing and carrying water (not too useful for much else). Here’s an important tip on re-using the plastic bottles: Most water and soft drink bottles (almost all) are made of “PET”–polyethylene terephthalate, a remarkably inert (safe) plastic, manufactured through the “stretch-blow” process. The resin is first injection-molded (melted/squirted) into a mold that makes a test tube-looking “preform,” which is then re-heated, stretched, and blown in a mold into its final shape. There is a lot of molecular memory retained in the final bottle–If you heat it (boiling or very hot water, for example), the bottle will shrink toward its preform shape (and become not useful at all to you), so sanitizing through heating it will not work. You can easily sanitize the bottle for reuse by rinsing it with a dilute bleach solution–put about three drops of Clorox in the bottom of the bottle and fill with room temp water. Let it rest for a few minutes, then pour it out (over the threads and the cap, to sanitize them, too). Don’t drink this water–You won’t like the chlorine taste. Refill the bottle with your purified or sanitized water (room temp; not hot). (In another, earlier life, I helped create the PET bottle as a marketing manager for a packaging company whose name you know, so you can blame me for these bottles if you want).
 
29. Duct tape/electrical tape/para cord/zip ties. Figure it out.
 
30. Feminine supplies. The need is in our rearview mirror, so it didn’t occur to me. Think this one through if it applies to you/your family/your neighborhood. If you’ve got a lot of storage space, it fits the bulky category, like toilet paper–more likely to stock for personal use than to trade–unless you have plenty of room.
 
31. Multivitamins. I checked with a couple of my doc friends on this one. What supplements do they recommend to stock way ahead and (potentially) trade with? The answers were remarkably consistent–A year’s worth of whatever you take (for personal use). For trade/barter–several bottles of antioxidant multivitamins, Vitamin C, and low-dose aspirin. Inexpensive generics are fine. Keep them all in a cool place. Recommended dose is half the dose on the bottle, except for the low-dose aspirin; keep that at one/day. Half dose will keep an adult healthy and stretch the supply nicely.
 
32. ED medications. Okay, youngsters, laugh away; your day will come. There’s an important reason everyone in the commercials is smiling. These are expensive, but will be worth a lot when the SHTF. You’ll need to calculate a reasonable mark-up for your stock, but one pill might go for as much as a dollar in face value silver. (At least they can be cut into smaller pieces/doses). 
 
33. FRS radios. It wouldn’t hurt to purchase a couple of extra sets of these for neighborhood use. Again, this might be a giveaway item to enhance local security.
 
34. Coffee filters. Many uses for these besides filtering the coffee, especially for pre-filtering dirty water before boiling. They are very inexpensive in big bundles at the warehouse stores. Price accordingly.
 
There’s my “micro store” update–We’ve come a long way and are getting pretty complete with this. Thanks, James for the opportunity to add to the original post. – A.A.A.

Letter Re: Thoughts on Paracord Belts

Sir:
I’ve made a few paracord belts and would like to mention that not all paracord belts are the same. Some have fancy weaves and really look neat. (That was what I did with my first try.) But after completing that project I realized that in the event of that envisioned emergency, I would have to build a campfire, make some coffee and sit on a log for a considerable period of time undoing the braid of the belt and tying pieces together. What if I needed the paracord in a hurry? What my friend had fallen to a precarious ledge? Knit or crochet pattern belts require nothing but undoing the end and pulling. Make sure your survival belt so that it can be quickly turned into a single rope.

The second thought is to put your vanity aside and make (or buy) a belt that is several inches longer that you need. The main reason you have the belt is to hold up your pants and carry your knife or Leatherman tool. If your shoelace becomes unusable or you have to lash some poles together for a travois, you will still need a belt. Not to say you couldn’t take a couple of wraps around your waist but, not too comfortable, much better to just pull loose the excess belt and then re-secure the end. – B. Buzz

Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael Z. Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large mentioned this fascinating TED talk: Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world

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Pierre M. sent this food for thought: Global Temperature Trends From 2500 B.C. To 2040 A.D.

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J.B.G. sent this news from England: Fuel strike: pumps go dry as ministers provoke a panic. [JWR’s Comment: Politicians often make blithe statements without considering their consequences. At any given time, the average car’s gas tank is only half full. The unfilled portions collectively represent a huge reservoir. There are about 34,300,000 cars registered in the UK. Let’s assume the average gas tank is just 12 gallons. (Yes, most cars are small there.) But assuming an average of 6 gallons of available capacity, that is collectively 205,800,000 gallons. So if 80% of the population decided to “top off” in a 24-hour period, then every petrol station in the country would soon be sold out of fuel. And that’s not to mention Jerry cans…]

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My recent interview on CBC Radio’s The Current has now been archived. The editor of CanadaPrepared (who produces an interesting podcast) had this to say about the CBC show.

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Gracie, the Packing Pretty gal, reviews the CRKT M16-14SF-Tanto folding knife.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“It is painfully difficult to decide whether to abandon some of one’s core values when they seem to be becoming incompatible with survival.  At what point do we as individuals prefer to die than to compromise and live?  Millions of people in modern time have indeed faced the decision whether, to save their own life, they would be willing to betray friends or relatives, acquiesce in a vile dictatorship, live as virtual slaves, or flee their country.  Nations and societies sometimes have to make similar decisions collectively.” – Jared M. Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, 2005

Note from JWR:

Today we present two more entries for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and E.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak F-50 hand well pump (a $349 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, C.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and D.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 39 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Key Questions For and About Your Children, by M.D.M.

Preparedness is a lifestyle and a state-of-mind. You never know what disaster or emergency will befall you, it could be something you cannot possibly prepare for, for me and my family the times we have had to use our bug-out-bags were not related to national emergencies, but to family and local emergencies. I’m not saying not to prepare, I’m saying to prepare in ways you may not have ever thought to do, and these tips I have learned over the years could help someone else. These are not so much extrinsic items for survival, but intrinsic necessities.

When you have children, how you structure your family unit and your parenting skills can either keep you all alive or be the reason none of your family survives. So if you are a parent, I have a series of questions for you to ask yourself. How would you and your family answer these questions?

QUESTION #1. Do you have a picky or finicky eater? I’m not talking about allergies, I’m talking about pickiness. My youngest grandson has a good friend who won’t eat fruit, cheese, pizza, cake or ice cream or anything normally served at a kid’s birthday party. Not because he is allergic, just because he is finicky. While he is best friends with my grandson, there is no asking him over or inviting him to parties, because he is finicky to the point of being rude. He is the product of over indulgent and even neglectful parenting skills. These parents are not preparing him for the future in an unpredictable world. A child who is a finicky eater becomes a dead child in emergency situations. If you don’t want to see your children starve to death, teach them to eat anything that is put in front of them by loving, caring parents. Don’t allow them to become so very selfish as to be picky and finicky all the time. Now I am not talking about real allergies. Allergies are real medical conditions to be dealt with through planning, food storage and professional medical care. I have a real food allergy to shell fish and sea foods. If I eat French fries cooked in the same oil with shrimp, it can put me in the hospital. I carry an epi-pen, and have one packed in our emergency bug-out bag. My whole family knows and helps me deal with my food allergies. However; an allergy is different from pickiness, like not eating strawberries because you don’t like the seeds or birthday cake because it might make you fat or pizza because it is the wrong type. Teach your children that within reason, they need to eat what is put before them and be thankful for it, some day it might just save their life.

QUESTION #2. How many times to you have to tell your children to do something? Do you ask two, three or four times? The average these days is asking about four times. What if you only had time to tell your children once?  Hearing and listening are two different sides to this issue. How many hours a day do your children or grandchildren have earplugs on? What if they could not hear you, or did not listen to you when you called for them in an emergency situation? Do you realize in a disaster situation, it could cost your child his/her life if they failed to listen or respond at a critical time? My own son hated it because I required that he respond to me the first time I spoke to him. I was not being mean in teaching him that mom would not tell him twice. I was trying to teach him an important element to being ‘ready’. This generation has iPhones, iPods and headsets on all the time. I believe it is critical to teach children to be obedient from an early age. Little children don’t need strict lessons, they only need gentle guidance, and then they grow up right. If you wait till a child is older to teach them, good luck, the learning curve is over. Don’t let this lesson come as a surprise; prepare them now by teaching them to be obedient the first time. Just today as I finish this article, there is a G2 magnetic storm and an S2 solar radiation storm. My daughter called me on her cell phone a few moments ago, it cut in and out so badly I could not hear her, I suspect due to these atmospheric storms, but I did listen to what I did hear, so I got the message. If the time ever came when there were no cell phones, iphones, ipads, ipods working, our children and grandchildren would be lost. So I encourage parents, especially parents of teenagers, to have your children put their electronic devices down for a few moments each day and teach them obedience and to respond to your first asking, not the third or fourth.  It just may save their lives some day.

QUESTION #3. When you ask your children for details about a party or event or school project, do you ever get the response, “I don’t know”. Teach yourself and your children to be observant of details. If your children are younger, this can be a good game to play in the car to prepare them, with questions like ‘what color was the last car that passed us’ or ‘what color dress did the lady have on at the filling station’. My children loved this game when they were real young. Teaching them to be observant can help them reestablish contact if they ever become separated from you. Being observant to details is not inborn in all of us, just in the technical-minded. But, I am convinced that we can all learn to be observant to details. Any police officer who has ever worked a crime with ten witnesses and no details will tell you how important it is to teach people (children) to be observant of details. I witnessed two men stuffing a lady in the trunk years ago in what was a kidnapping crime. As I gave the police officers my statement, one made the comment that I was “no help” because I did not have details. I had become emotional as I witnessed the event and in my emotions, I failed to pick up any details that would help the police find the assailants. All these years later I still carry the burden of that event in my heart, and if that lady did not survive, it was my fault for not thinking clear enough to gather details that would help find her alive. Teach your children to be observant of details all around them.

QUESTION #4. Did you ever stand in line at the grocery store and realize how very loud the world has become? Background music and noise, people talking on their cell phones (some as loud as they seem to be able), beeping from the scanner, creaking from a bad wheel on the shopping cart, rattling of paper and plastic, etc, etc.  Silence seems to be a thing of the past. Many religious societies use silence as a structuring agent, they say that when you stop using one sense, it somehow seems to heighten all the others. No one teaches the value of silence anymore. Teach your children the importance of silence. In the early 1960s, I watched a documentary about a man who had survived the Holocaust and I regret that I do not remember his name. He owed his survival to silence. He had been hidden in the floorboards of his neighbors’ home and had to stay in a coffin sized area, in silence 23 hours a day. He said sometimes he was in there 24/7. His documentary struck me so intensely; I remembered it all my life. Because of that documentary, and much to the dismay of my children, I taught my children to be silent and to sit still, one hour at a time. I was a chatterer, so are my children and grandchildren, so this has not been easy, and quite possibly the hardest lesson they had to learn. It is a lesson parents today need to teach their children, even one hour at a time, ‘silence is golden’. Others might remember another more current television show that relates to silence was a M*A*S*H* episode where a bus load of people needed to be quiet to avoid the enemy, and a Korean lady held her hand across the mouth of her crying child until the child died. It was a show with a tremendous message for any parent in a life-death situation. I would pray that never happened to anyone, and realize it was about a baby whom cannot be taught, but older children can be taught. Teach your children the importance of silence, complete silence, no shuffling, no wiggling or tapping during silent time.  

QUESTION #5. Does it ever seem you and your children’s lives are spinning out of control? Balancing your inside life to the outside life can be complex. Parents and children today have so very many distractions, schools activities, getting the grades, extracurricular activities, church activities, friends, Scouts, etc. It seems like everyone everywhere is running around like chicken with their heads cut off, especially if you have school age children. Take an evening and list your family priorities, include prepping for the future. Make another list of every activity and organization everyone in your family is associated with, and what benefit they derive from it. The world is changing fast, if you don’t do this as a family once a year or at least once every couple of years, you are going to find out your probably out of touch with your family goals and priorities. Perhaps five years ago prepping wasn’t on your family list of priorities, now it is, have you made changes? Have the courage to stop the things that aren’t working for you and your children, whatever it is. Clubs, organizations, activities that worked in the past, but not now might have to be cut in order for your family to realign themselves to new ones. One person cuts here, someone else cuts there and it will work for everyone. A family that has not readjusted and reassessed their family goals every two years, is behind and not current.
QUESTION #6. Can your family keep calm? Learning to keep calm in the face of crisis is a difficult emotional challenge, but is a skill that must be developed if you plan to get your children and yourself out of disaster alive. If parents are anxious or upset, the children will be twice as upset. Myself, I turn to the Bible, you turn to whatever gives you peace and comfort. Most religions teach hope, so if you are a religious person, turn to that hope. In a national emergency a Christian or Jew may turn to Psalm 46: 1-3  ”God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Pick what is important to you and your family and prepare them ahead of time for any upcoming crisis. For six generations now, our family has stood on Psalm 91, by the dying wish of my great grandmother who pinned a note on her children as she lay dying, committing them to the care of angels. Giving your family faith and hope in normal times, gives them calm courage in desperate times. Pray ahead, don’t wait and let your prayers get ‘behind’ and you will be surprised at the calmness your children will display. Be honest with older children about crisis situations, they have a way of knowing anyway. 

QUESTION #7. Have you sat down with your children lately and ask them, who they are? Do your children know? Their answer might surprise you. Some say the only way to know who we are is to do an extensive genealogy. True, that will give you and your children insights into yourself, but it will not tell them their personal values. That is something kids (and adults) need to learn for themselves. I firmly believe the high school and college kids that get into trouble with drinking and drugs do so because they are trying to figure out just who they are. If they are taught family values as younger children their image of themselves will grow strong with their age. A self-identify gives a child security and courage. Hopefully, if bad times do come, your child will know themselves well enough to handle difficult situations, and have confidence to make snap decisions. Hesitation can kill, a person who knows themselves has the confidence needed to respond appropriately and quickly in any situation. You can’t hand a child self-image on a platter. It has been learned early and formed all through a lifetime. Ask your child what their values are, what their friends values are and who they identify themselves to be. Ask yourself too.

Answers to these seven questions teach your children acceptance, obedience, observance, mastery of self and emotions, prioritization, courage and faith.  If you can answer most of these questions with a ‘yes-done’ you are in good shape for any future emergency or disaster. If not, I strongly recommend you consider implementing some of this immediately. Any of these preparations can be made fun for children. They may not necessarily need these skills as a child, but they will retain them for life if you teach them while they are young. Preparations need not all be physical, the physical can disappear. Parental responsibility is not just caring for the children’s physical needs; it is caring for their mental, emotional and spiritual needs too. I encourage you to do some unseen preps soon.

A Christian’s Call to Prepare, by J.P.

In 1919, the Spanish flu killed around 75 million people in a single year (Knobler, pp. 60–61). In 1931, the China floods killed over two million people (NOVA). In 1945, America dropped two atomic bombs that killed around 200,000 people (Radiation Effects Research Foundation). In 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit Haiti and killed 316,000 people (USGS). In the past century alone, 29 countries have had to deal with hyperinflation, causing severe economic depression, during which millions died from starvation, disease and looting. These events go to show that disaster has always been an unavoidable aspect of life, and will continue to be unavoidable as long as sin is still in this world. However, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Although it is nigh impossible to avoid these events, it is possible to lower the death toll and effect of damage by being properly prepared. Individual households can take responsibility in making their city a better and safer place to live. To learn how to be properly prepared for events like this, we must look back at these terrible catastrophes, and learn.

One such catastrophe was the Great Depression. Besides being the greatest economic crisis this country has ever seen, the Depression starved to death perhaps up to 12 million Americans–10% of the population. (Pravda.ru). [JWR Adds: This figure is disputed, primarily based on the difference between the 1930 and 1940 census, which showed a 7.3% population increase, but for comparison between 1920 and and 1930 there was a 13.7% population increase. Even excluding immigration deltas there were significant numbers of starvation deaths.] Two major events that caused the downfall of our economy are the failure of banks, which led up to the stock market crash, and the Dust Bowl, a dust storm that left 500,000 Americans homeless and destroyed most of the farmable land and crops in America (First Measured Century: PBS).

Compare the events that caused the depression to the conditions of today. For example, in the past twenty years the average number of natural disasters for a twenty-year time span is up by four hundred percent (Natural News). Yes, natural disasters fluctuate throughout history, but the severity of these events is greater than we have ever seen before. Just look at the beginning of this century: it started in 2004 with Hurricane Katrina, which caused $180 billion worth of damage. Even though the final death count of 1,833 does not seem significant, Katrina also left over 12,000 people homeless, and 25 percent of Louisiana jobless (National Climatic Data Center). Furthermore, rioting and looting became rampant because people were desperate for food and resources. However, Katrina is only one of the numerous natural disasters. Out of the ten biggest earthquakes on record, three of them happened in the past ten years. The earthquake that caused the tsunami in Japan in 2011 cost their economy $235 billion, killed 15,850 people, injured 6,011, with 3,287 missing (Damage Situation and Police Countermeasures). Nevertheless, experts speculate that the natural disasters will not subside. Sooner than later Mt. Rainer will erupt, creating a mudslide that will result in the death of thousands, and kill miles of environment (Popular Mechanics). Expert Seismologists estimate that more earthquakes of higher magnitude will hit Mississippi, as well as the Atlantic Ocean, which would cause an enormous tsunami. We live in delicate times, but not only because of these natural disasters.

Our country is in an enormous economic crisis. According to the United States National Debt Clock, provided by the Federal Reserve, our current national debt at exactly 8 o’clock pm on February 27, 2012 amounts to $15,404,053,723,986, and is increasing at an average of $48,998 per second. If we were to divide this debt between taxpayers in America, each one of them would owe $136,167. In just one month, it has increased over $180 billion, and the average taxpayer would owe another $1,000. This debt is seemingly impossible to get rid of. What is even worse than this debt is the inflation of the dollar bill. Since the beginning of the decade, the dollar has lost 24 percent of its value. Furthermore, many countries have recently dropped the dollar as their reserve currency, such as China, Japan, Switzerland, Kuwait, Libya, Iran, Russia, and Syria. They have done this because they do not trust the dollar and do not want to lose any more money than they already have. In addition to the devaluation of the dollar, more and more banks today keep closing because of the inability of Americans to pay off their own debt. From 2000 to 2009, the Federal Deposit Insurance Company recorded seventeen banks failing and having to close. Between 2010 and 2011, over 150 banks closed. The amount of debt we are in and the devaluation of our money is a very real threat to this country, one that will not end well.

As well as suffering from a fragile economy, this world is experiencing a major food shortage. According to the World Bank, 44 million people have been pushed into poverty because of rising food prices. The earth is also losing its topsoil due to the new methods of farming we have adopted. In addition, the earth has not been reproducing the natural amount of topsoil that it used to produce (Seattle PI). The World Bank also states that food prices have increased by 36 percent in the past 12 months. Even though we may not feel the effect where we live, neither did those of the 1920’s. Hedonism dominated the 1920’s, as well as the increased movement in liberal thinking. This same attitude is thriving in the times we live in today, and has taken an even greater extreme. Every type of event that led up to the Great Depression we have experienced in this past decade. The extreme natural disasters, food shortages and insane increase in bank failures are the precursors of something that will be much worse.

Nevertheless, why should we care? These events are frightening, and it is not comfortable to dwell on such things, but there comes a point where we must deal with the inevitable. The magnitude of these events is truly incredible, and is seemingly outside the scope of our influence. Fortunately, this is not the case, and there is a practical way to be prepared for such events as these. Though it is not comfortable to dwell on these events, we cannot stand around and do nothing. In light of these events and this principle of action, there are three points to show how Christians ought to handle these events. First, there is Biblical justification of a Prepper mentality. Second, the Biblical examples of physical preparation give us an example to follow. Third and finally, the practicality of Survivalism is a justifiable use of resources. Therefore, based on Biblical principles and the events of the past century, Christians have a moral and practical obligation to prepare for catastrophes.
Before dismissing what I am about to say as extremely right-winged, back woods redneck, or an advocate for the zombie apocalypse to come tomorrow, listen to why I am presenting this argument. Many Christians in America have jumped to the wrong side of the topic because liberal America has exaggerated, skewed, and falsified the reality of Survivalism.  I am presenting this argument in its true light from two different standpoints: the cost to benefit aspect, and the morality of preparation.

When a Christian is facing any decision, the first place to look is the Scriptures. Scripture says, “The fear of the Lord is the Beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom, written by the wisest man to ever walk the earth, Solomon. Proverbs 2:1-5 describes how we need to cry out for wisdom, and seek her as silver. Verse 5 declares, “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” To find the knowledge of God, it is necessary to have wisdom.

Therefore, when Proverbs 22:3 states, “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished,” we need to listen and act upon this insight into becoming godly men. Seeing how important it is to align our views with the Lord’s, look at the man who does not listen and take action, but rather continues in his folly. Different versions of the Bible calls the person in this verse different names, such as simple, thoughtless, naïve, gullible, and fool. Throughout Proverbs, we see how much God disdains the fool. In this case, the fool is the one who disregards preparation and continues with his life like there is nothing wrong in this world. Do you want to be in that category of person who ignores wisdom, scorns prudence, and disregards foreseeable danger? On the other hand, will you listen to wisdom, and acknowledge the Biblical standard of living?

This Biblical standard of living is one of action. The ethic of working and collecting for yourself is spread throughout the Bible. Proverbs 6:6-8 gives an example. “Go to the ant you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers food in the harvest.” The ant creates and stores up food for when she will need it, while the sluggard does not, and will pay the consequences. We are to rely on Christ, but that does not mean we stand around and just wait for Him to come back. Look at the example of Noah. God told him he was going to destroy the world, and then told him to build an ark. God demanded action of Noah, just as He always expects action from us. James 2:26 tells us that faith without works is dead. Many Christians apply this to their life, but it also needs to apply to the upcoming catastrophes. Christians need to see the danger coming ahead, and take action by preparing for it.

As well as the Biblical example of reason why to prepare, the practicality of preparing for catastrophes makes it inexcusable to be unprepared. Almost everybody will agree that preparation is necessary for certain events, such as fire drills and lock downs, because people see the cost to benefit ratio as much more practical than a hassle. It is worth the time for the reward. Why do these people not apply this to preparation of emergencies on a much larger scale? To fathers and future fathers, how much is it worth to you to keep your family safe? You buy life, automotive, house, medical, and who else knows what type of insurance, but what are you going to do when an earthquake hits and the grocery store is empty. Alternatively, maybe the bank cannot give you your money because it just does not have it due to others not paying off their debts. Will you have to look into their eyes and tell them you will have to deal with being hungry for a little bit? What if that little bit has been a week, and one of them is getting sick. No good father is going to sit around and let his child die. Citywide anarchy, starvation, and a gigantic increase in crime are to be expected once more people come to the same realization. I realize this seems very far-fetched and there is little chance of this happening. That is what Sarah Luker thought, an average Betty Crocker housewife. Then Hurricane Ike destroyed their house and her family had nothing to live on. Since then, Sarah has embraced the Prepper mindset, canning food and storing resources so that she will be ready for catastrophe the next time it strikes. More and more “normal” people are seeing the benefits of preparing. Costco is now providing survival kits in handy backpacks, with food for two weeks, knives, hatchets, a tent, and other essentials to survival. This is the reasoning of ordinary people who see the danger coming, and the obvious reason to prepare for them. Nevertheless, people question how much of a priority this should take. You apply this same reasoning to insurance. You pay so that when something bad happens, you will be able to fix your care, or get a new house. Apply this mindset to preparing for catastrophe. Is it not identical to buying life insurance? People pay money just in case they die and cannot take care of their family. How about buying resources to sustain your family just in case something goes horribly awry?  Christ says to love your neighbor as yourself, but if you are unable to love and take care of your own family in times of trouble, how are you going to be an example of Christ like love for his children?

Nevertheless, how much is enough? While some will buy a two-week survival kit and call it good, others will pay thousands of dollars to have a nuclear bunker in their backyard. Where is the line drawn that says this is enough? Frankly, there is no such line. However, the principle I am advocating requires one to know what is going on around them. Therefore, when the time we live in is in direct comparison to the time of the Great Depression, one ought to prepare to be ready for an event such as this. It is your responsibility to be well informed on the current events of today that will affect whether or not you are prepared enough. Proverbs declares that the wise man seeks out council; this applies to understanding how much to be prepared! There are hundreds of books and web sites about preparation and today’s current events. There is no excuse to ignorant of the world around you.

However, many Christians are still weary of embracing this Survivalist mindset, for three overarching reasons. First, that the events that people prepare for are farfetched and blown out of proportion by the stereotypical doomsayer. Another is that the call of dependence, that to depend on God implies dependence in all things, and that we need not worry about tomorrow. Finally, many object to Survivalism because they cannot afford to spend the money, and that it is a waste of resources.

The first daunting enemy that stands in the way of justification for Survivalism is the stereotype people have given those who are labeled as Survivalist, Doomsayers, Preppers, or even Zombie hunters. Though being a Prepper or Survivalist is what I am advocating, the baggage that society associates with these groups is unjustified. Though there are antisocial groups who would love it if they had the opportunity to blow a couple zombie heads off or maybe start a fire sale, Survivalists or Preppers do not fall into this category. All that Survivalists or Preppers stand for is the mindset of being prepared for the unpredictable events of life; they are not hoping for the end of the world to come tomorrow.

These same people also claim that the coming events Preppers warn society of are “doomsayer exaggerations.” This comes only from ignorance of the current and past events. Looking at the events of the past century, it would be foolish to disregard them just because it is socially awkward to accept the solution that Preppers are providing. As I explained earlier, these events are in direct comparison to those of the Great Depression. In addition, the numbers and examples I gave came from sources unrelated to the topic of Survivalism, such as PBS, The Federal Insurance Corporation, and the World Bank. The events are not skewed or twisted to try to advocate the end of the world. They are only to show that there are events that have the potential to destroy lives in the future, and it is only wise to prepare for events such as these.

Finally, the next objection many Christians have is the call of dependence on God, which is based on the Scripture passage in Luke 12:22-29, where Christ gives the Parable of the lilies.
Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.  Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?  And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

Most people look at this verse and automatically jump to the conclusion that we cannot justify Survivalist principles because they imply that we are worrying about tomorrow. The problem with this judgment is that these people misinterpret the principles of preparation as worry. The principles I am justifying are not those of worry, but those of preparation. Again, we come back to Proverbs 22:3, which tells us the wise man foresees danger and hides himself. He takes action. Yes, the Bible tells us to be dependent on God, but this does not absolve us from preparing for catastrophe or storing resources for hard times. Look at the example of Joseph. When God told Joseph there would be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, did Joseph just sit back and expect God to do the work? On the contrary, he immediately went to work, preparing for this time of hardship by storing food and taking action so he and his country would be ready for these seven years of famine. This is the same action Christians need to take when preparing for foreseeable catastrophes in the nearby future.

The final objection is that many people do not have the money to prepare for these events. There is no set amount on how much money you should spend: there is no percentage or complex formula to show what is enough or not. The principle I am advocating is a mindset, not a calculated amount. Only the person preparing can know what enough is. The only way a person can be certain they can know this is by doing research, and analyzing one’s budget to match a survival plan. The amount of preparation can only come from a knowledge gained through research and understanding of the world around us. Then will we know how to prepare for the future.

Nobody wants another Great Depression. Nobody wants another Hurricane Katrina. Nobody wants worldwide pandemic, food shortage, or any other catastrophes. Nevertheless, catastrophes are inevitable, no matter how much we despise them. God has placed these trials in our lives to fulfill His ultimate plan. However, that does not imply that we sit back and watch these events destroy us. There are many Biblical examples of physical preparation that coincide with dependence on God; examples that we need to follow. I pray that you do not just leave this room and keep on living your life as if nothing bad will happen to you, but rather, as Christians, step up to the examples set for us. Therefore, based on Biblical principles and the events of the past century, it is vital that we as Christians prepare for disasters.

 

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“Should Christians stockpile food/supplies in preparation for a possible future disaster?” Bible Questions Answered. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.
Taylor, Gene. “The Role of the Man in the Home.” www.expositorysermonoutlines.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
“The Christian Survival Guide Blog, Video Channel, and Forum.” The Christian Survival Guide Blog, Video Channel, and Forum. WordPress, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.
“The Christian Survivalist: A Biblical View of Preparedness” – Mark12 ministries Weblog.”  Mark12ministries’s Weblog. WordPress, 9 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.
Welter, William, and Jean Egmon. The prepared mind of a leader: eight skills leaders use to innovate, make decisions, and solve problems. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006. Print.

Letter Re: Salt Storage Advice

Sir,
How would you recommend that I store the many salt blocks I have been stocking up on  (cattle type – various kinds of salt and mineral blocks)?
 
I was out in the shop today and did a brief walk through and noticed a bunch of moisture (water/liquid) developing around the blocks. Some of them are noticeably deteriorating. A few are on card board, others are stacked on back of a parked trailer. Am I setting myself up for disaster? Will these salt blocks eventually corrode the metals nearby? Where is the best place to store them? 
 
I have a two bedroom farm house from the early 1920’s. There is literally no more room for supplies that do not have to be in the home.
 
While I am on the topic, my order of 500 plus pounds of culinary salt is waiting for me to put up. They are in bags now. I have three large plastic drums coming soon (40-50 gal size). I plan to put the salt in them. Do I need to find room in the house to keep them? There are a lot of moisture troubles/humidity where I live in northwestern Kansas. 
 
BTW, in case you are wondering why salt, — well, it’s a God thing I guess. I felt a very strong feeling to purchase large quantities. I now have pink salt (Himalayan), iodine salt, and sea salt. 
 
I don’t want this to happen! (Advance the player to 2:40 if you are in a hurry).
 
Thank you for your time, – Tess of Kansas

JWR Replies: Yes, storing salt can be a challenge, but nothing insurmountable. Salty air (salt molecules suspended in water vapor) can be controlled by keeping humidity low in your storage area and by keeping your salt supplies dry and airtight. Use sealed plastic containers as much as possible. But if you lack the requisite containers, then at least use multiple wraps of plastic around all salt blocks, bags, and boxes. And regardless, always store your salt in a separate building from your tools, hardware, and canned goods. (Id est, store your salt storage buckets in a wooden cabinet in your hay barn, not in your garage or shop.)

Economics and Investing:

Reader Bill V. suggested this: Measuring the yield famine in food. And here is a related article: How the Fed Hurts Retirees..

G.G. found this over at New Scientist: Metal detector knows how much cash is in your wallet

Items from The Economatrix:

Bernanke’s Words Drive Wall Street Up 1%

Doug Casey:  It’s A Dead-Man-Walking Economy

America awash in cheap credit and monetization: Rasmussen Consumer Index Reaches Highest Level Since 2008

Gold’s Getting Ready To Go Extreme

Bernanke:  Job Market Weak Despite Gains

Gold Rises 1.5% On Renewed US Easing Hopes

Odds ‘n Sods:

Odds ‘n Sods:

F.J. mentioned that the clever folks over at Instructables have a lot of new article topics that are relevant to preparedness, including: Palletized Water Storage, Raised Garden Bed, Gravity Powered Water Filter, How to Clean a Fish, Altoids Tin Candle, and many more.

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Linda U. suggested this: Butchers making comeback

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Kevin S. mentioned this handy tool: Wire Bending Jig

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Bram recommended this piece by Charles Hugh Smith: Welcome to the United States of Orwell, Part 1: Our One Last Chance to Preserve the Bill of Rights

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Top secret Visa data center banks on security, even has a moat. (Thanks to Pierre M. for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like that the banks can and do create money.  And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of the Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people." – Reginald McKenna, Chairman of Midland Bank, 1924

Note from JWR:

Today we present two more entries for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and E.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak F-50 hand well pump (a $349 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, C.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and D.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 39 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.