Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Nobody has ever argued that the government deficit-spending and all the rest of the heroic, last-ditch, pull-out-all-the-stops monetary excesses would not make statistics of economic activity blip upward. The argument is whether or not it will eventually destroy the economy. I say it does. The rise in the price of gold says it does. The decline in the dollar says it does. All of recorded economic history says it does.” – Richard Daughty (aka The Mogambo Guru)

Notes from JWR:

Please keep those who are in the path of major storms in your prayers. There’s Cyclone Yasi (Category 5!) in Australia, and monumental snow storms in the American Midwest and northeast. There are some secondary global implications, so pray hard and get your own family prepared, even if your aren’t in the path of a storm. We will each see a storm of some sort, in our day. Hopefully, not a lead storm.

—

Today we present another two entries for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) 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, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 33 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Planning for Training, by B.D.

When you’re training, your main goal should always be to improve tactical and technical proficiency.  Combat is a contest of skills and abilities, and without tactical & technical proficiency you’ll surely lose this contest, going from survivalist to speed bump before you know it. 

Let’s start by defining these terms.  Technical proficiency is obtained from the experiences you gain from training whatever equipment you plan on using, whether it be an AR-15, a field dressing or a compass, to name a few.  Tactical proficiency is best gained through experience training with your team, such tactical movement exercises, drills for reacting to enemy contact, and so on.  To attain a level of proficiency that will sustain you through a life or death fight, you need to train.  Proper training will help you to overcome the small problems that can compound and cripple your ability to kill your enemies and protect your loved ones.

But how do you train?

While at the range, a good approach would be to go into your range drills the same way a professional athlete would go about his or her workout; with a well thought out plan that details what exercises you’re going to perform and how much time or ammo you’re going to devote to each activity. This approach will help you train more efficiently, instead of just going to the range without goals and a well thought out plan.  Poorly planned training wastes both time and ammo, and can quickly get expensive while building poor form and weaknesses.  A wide variety of range drills are out there on the internet for you to take and implement in your own training program, on web sites like www.vikingtactics.com and www.pistol-training.com to name a couple.

Don’t forget about how beneficial it can be to practice dry firing your weapon against a safe backdrop.  Army Special Operations soldiers have been known to spend their first 2 weeks of weapons training only dry firing their weapons, because this is a very effective way to develop the muscle memory to bring your weapon up on target quickly.  As a sniper, I dry-fired my M110 a lot to remain familiar with the feel of the trigger and to practice my marksmanship fundamentals. While deployed to Iraq I was able to keep up on my marksmanship skills just by dry firing.  A 70% dry fire / 30% live fire ratio during weapons training has proven to be a good, cheap, and low profile way to maintain and refine your skills as a firearms operator.

Training blocks are a great way to manage your time and help your training program transition from one fundamental element to another, while maintaining accountability of what skills you’ve practiced and what skills need practice.  For instance, in my group’s carbine training plan (We have different training plans for each weapon system we train on, as well as different aspects of operations, such as first aid/self aid and land navigation), Block 1 is a simple loading/reloading drill. We break Block 1 down into different sub blocks, because there are different methods to how we reload our weapons, depending on what type of environment you’re in, e.g., Admin loading is done before range training, patrols; tactical reloads are used when there’s a lull in the gunfight and you have an opportunity to top off your weapons; and speed reloads are used when in a time-is-life situation, such as when there are bullets snapping past your head and your bolt locks to the rear. 

Our next block would be Basic Marksmanship, since that would logically come after loading your weapon, and so on.  So when you look at it on our training plan it looks like this:

RIFLE/CARBINE TRAINING PLAN
Block 1- Load/ Reload and AR-15

  • Administrative Reload
  • Tactical Reload
  • Speed Reload

Block 2- Basic Marksmanship Drills

  • Prone Supported
  • Prone Unsupported
  • Kneeling
  • Standing
  • Short Range Marksmanship
  • Intermediate Range Marksmanship

Block 3- Advanced Carbine

  • Weapon Transitions
  • Offhand Marksmanship

Block 4- Malfunction Correction Drills

  • Immediate Action Drill
  • Remedial Action Drills

Of course there are many more aspects to employing an AR-15, but, for all intents and purposes, you should develop your own training program that best suits you and your team’s needs.   

After you’ve designed enough training plans you might wish to combine them and have a team field training exercise, if you have the resources to do so.  Not only are these fun team building events (when done right), but your team can focus on a wide variety of different skills, and can evaluate individual members to diagnose areas that need more training, like first aid, marksmanship, or land navigation. 

Okay, some things to think about when actually employing your training plan:  I like to keep records on my skills as they progress, and when I don’t see the type of improvement in a certain area that I’d like to see, I’ll focus on that problem area by devoting more training time to it.  It seems pretty obvious, I know, but if you don’t keep tabs on your progression you’re not going to know what skills need attention.  Keeping a training journal will pay off big time in the long run. 

  • Buy a shooting timer.  I use a PACT-III Timer and it is awesome for working on your Balance of Speed and Accuracy (BSA) Drills.  Training with a shooting timer will help you get rounds on target a lot faster, and they’re especially good for short range marksmanship training.
  • Dummy rounds are excellent training tools.  You can randomly put them into your buddy’s magazines to help build better immediate action skills.
  • If you can, try to video tape your training.  If you’re trying to learn how to do a dynamic team movement, video is a great tool to help you see who needs work, and to show that person what they’re doing wrong. Sometimes you have to actually see what you’re doing wrong to understand how to improve.   Video is also a good way to help improve the mechanical aspects of drawing your handgun or transitioning to your handgun from your carbine, because you can actually see and identify where your excess waste movement is coming from and can better eliminate it.
  • Lists are your best ally if you hate leaving things behind.  Pretty straightforward, but a lot of people don’t think to take the time to put together a quick list and do a quick layout of everything you want to make sure you have, before you leave for the range.  (When I was in my company’s sniper section, our training coordinator would always forget something important when we went to conduct training, and it would cost us hours of valuable training time.  One time, we were going to conduct a stalking exercise, and when we got out to our training area he realized he didn’t have the table that the guys on glass needed, so he had to go back to get a folding table.  When he got back, we went to go grab our blank rounds that we would be using, and we realized nobody remembered to bring the blanks that we needed.  The next time we went out training we made sure we had detailed checklists for everything we needed, and that helped immensely.)
  • Research and develop your own creative drills to train with.  Go take classes if at all possible.  Training weighs nothing, you can take it anywhere, and you only have to pay for it once.  If you can’t make your way to a course at OnPoint Tactical or Magpul Dynamics, you can watch Magpul Dynamics DVDs, which have a ton of great information on them, and it’s also easy to find a lot of good tips on YouTube for free from some tactical training schools, like Viking Tactics.
  • A good way to induce stress into training is to put the shooter under some sort of bodily exertion, maybe by knocking out 25 pushups or some sprints before the buzzer goes off, and using a stopwatch to time the shooter. 
  • My favorite way to practice reloads for both my primary and secondary weapons is to take several magazines and have a buddy load only a few rounds into each one, and to speed reload/ tactical reload after each magazine runs out, until I’m “rounds complete.”  You can also do weapons transitions between reloads with this drill, and this is also a great way to stretch a small amount of training ammo.  You can incorporate dry firing into this exercise to get even more mileage out of it.

All in all, training should be the first thing in your mind when you’re prepping.  This article focuses mostly on weapons training, but a good technical proficiency is absolutely needed with all aspects of your self reliance, and without a good technically and tactically proficient team when the horde comes or while bugging out, you’re sure to be dead in the water.  Remember: All the cool guy gear in the world means nothing if you don’t know how to use it, and when things go south it’s already too late to start learning.

About The Author: “I’m a B4 qualified Army Sniper with two combat deployments to Iraq under my belt; one as a Sniper and the prior one as a Rifleman and SAW Gunner. I gained teaching experience as an instructor for my battalion’s Squad Designated Marksman program and by training Iraqi National Army (INA) soldiers on numerous occasions, and have been an avid shooter since age 10.” 

Survival: The Five I’s That Might Keep You Alive, by Dino

Survival: The Five I’s That Might Keep You Alive, by Dino

If you read the title carefully, you’ll notice the word might. Regardless of preparation, situations sometimes spiral out of control faster than we can react to the. In a TEOTWAWKI scenario of indeterminate cause, all the plans in the world go out the window, literally in some cases. Ask any senior military officer about mission planning, and invariably they will tell you that from the time a briefing starts until it ends, the situation has evolved to make the plan need adjusting. The film industry has some of the most creative minds in the world (and some that are not so creative), so the gamut of post-apocalyptic possibilities runs from Mad Max to Waterworld, from The Postman to Dawn of the Dead, from Outbreak to Armageddon. My interest in this genre of these movies (and books for that matter), led to my need to prepare for almost any eventuality. This article can only hope to give you my concepts for saving myself and my family.

The five I’s mentioned in the title are initiate, instruct, improvise, isolate, and invisible. Most of you, who are reading this, have the inclination to live this lifestyle on an everyday basis. You’re already interested in keeping yourself and your family out of the coming storm, in whatever form it takes. Four years ago, when I met my wife (a widow with five children) she laughed at what I jokingly call my “zombie kit”. You would call it a bug out bag. Today, after only four years together, she takes it much more seriously, and we have one for all seven of us, one at my place of business, one at her office, plus smaller versions in each of our five cars. Witnessing the crumbling of the US economy has given her a better understanding of the possibility of social upheaval, or as I love to call it, “the coming of the zombies”. It really is only a matter of time until the costs of food, clothing, and shelter, force everyday people to drastic, violent measures in an attempt to keep their families alive.

     Step one: Initiate.

It’s your plan, so now is the time to initiate it. Wait until those first news reports of violent riots breaking out in the cities, and you’ve waited too long. It’s not like you aren’t already planning for your future. With saving up to buy a house, for your kids’ college tuition, or your retirement, you plan for the day that you should eventually need these things. In the past ten years, we’ve witnessed just how helpless the authorities can be in time of dire need. Terrorist attacks, unprecedented natural disasters, extreme weather, banking failures, and escalating economic collapses sound like the preface to a science fiction thriller, but are really just today’s headlines. Your reaction may well define how you survive the next decade. If you initiate a good plan today, and that really means today, you just might get your people through in one piece.

Once started, you’ll notice how easy it becomes to work your preparations into your everyday life. Things that seemed impossible, or difficult, will become second nature, and the boost to your self-esteem and skill sets will serve you even if worst case scenarios never occur. Okay, so maybe you were never planning on growing your own food, but even a windowsill planter in the smallest urban apartment will give you an idea of how difficult it might be to just feed yourself, while providing tasty berries or cherry tomatoes. Try hiking. Your health will benefit, and you can break in a great pair of boots before they are needed. It’s a great way to explore parts of your area for the necessary materials you may need on very short notice, whether you live in a rural area, or in a large urban setting like Manhattan.

Where I live, in Nassau County, just outside of New York City, my escape options are very limited because of the size of my family and the nature of the bottleneck created by needing to cross a bridge to get off of Long Island. So my wife and I were forced to institute some rules for the five kids, whose ages range from 23 to 12. We must know of their whereabouts at all times (a good idea anyway), so should the worst-case occur, we could get them and get out. Without giving away any details, I am confident that I could get my family away from almost any trouble should the need arise.

     Step two: Instruct.

As human beings, we have the ability to learn new things on an ongoing basis, while retaining knowledge previously mastered. Now, imparting that knowledge to your family should be a priority, while continuing to learn new things yourself. Its best if you all try to learn new, diverse things, as the width of your communal know-how is just as important as the depth of your specific information. The greatest gift that I was able to pass along was my thirst for knowledge, learning new things, sometimes just for learning’s sake. With seven very different and distinct personalities to satisfy, there have been some surprising additions to our family well of knowledge.

Our 16 year old daughter has embraced my philosophy totally, and has taken French in high school (should Canada become an option), became a Certified First Responder, the precursor to being an EMT, and begs me to teach her how to drive our newest addition, a 2003 Ford Excursion. The eldest boy, aged 14, wrestles in High School, and is a sponge for knowledge. His brother, at 12 years old, knows his way around a tool box as well as I do, and believes, in his heart, that there is nothing he can’t repair. These were all skills they were cultivating long before I met their Mother, but when shown how they could pool them together to form a team, the incentive to grow further became evident.

     Step Three: Improvise.

MacGyver. That name brings a flood of memories to my generation. A television show based on the improvisational abilities of the lead character to get himself out of trouble. Some of the solutions seemed absurd at the time, but looking back, the concept was purely survivalist. With a short list of basic supplies, a prepared individual should be able to not only survive, but thrive in a post-apocalyptic future. With a family of seven, the going could be harder, or easier, depending on the situation, but my imagination has kept me ahead of the curve in most cases. With very little financial investment, we have based family vacations around learning to adapt, trying out outdoor living in the form of camping. By “forgetting” an important item or two each time, lessons were learned, and solutions were found.

Thinking on my feet is one of my greatest assets, and something you can’t teach. The old saying that “Necessity is the Mother of invention” will hold true more than ever should society fold up.

     Step Four: Isolate.

Getting out of reach. A world wide cataclysm will not let anybody go untouched, but there are certain cases where “away” is where you want to be. Just because you don’t have a rural retreat, doesn’t mean you can’t isolate yourselves. Barricades and boarded windows could save your lives, as the rioting masses would choose the low hanging fruit first. Surviving the first hours, days, or weeks of an incident may be the time you need to gain an advantage.

Be prepared to spend that time out of touch with the world, something the current generation may have huge problems with. We have phone free days, in an attempt to teach our kids just how much time they waste texting, tweeting and emailing. Being out of touch for the first time rattled them a bit, but they are growing used to the idea. Try out “blackout Sundays”, where you kill the main power breaker to the house. Extreme? Maybe. Eye-opening? Positively. Funny how seven people in the dark have trouble getting along, even if the alternative is surely fatal. A few tries at this went horribly wrong, but we seem to have gotten it right the last few times. 

     Step Five: Invisible.

I’m lucky. Twenty years ago, when I was flush with money and stupid enough to spend it, I bought a huge chunk of upstate New York land. [Because of building restrictions] I can’t do anything to it, just hunt, but the vast size makes it a perfect retreat. No dirt trails, hiking trails or easy access, make it key for isolation, but it’s the terrain itself that make it invisible. It’s entrance is in a deep rock cleft, barely two hundred yards from the Thruway, my refuge has come to be invisible. I dragged two forty foot shipping containers, two twenty foot shipping containers and a collection of old stockade fencing panels from a fencing company that was only too happy to let me have them. All this was no easy feat, it being almost a mile through the woods with no trail. We used just a few power winches and steel fence poles for roller logs. Now I have covered the tops of the containers, angling the fencing to provide roofline, and planted creeping ivy vines to hold the whole thing together. From twenty feet away, the cliff top looks like a solid mass of granite covered with native growth, and the access is a maze of transplanted shrubbery.

Being prepared means understanding that others who aren’t prepared will want to take your safety. Invisible solves that problem. At my home, you’d never know it, but the drywells that I had sunk in my backyard are all connected to each other, and by entering through a hidden manhole beneath my deck, I have access to my entire bunker system, and the dry wells double as water cisterns. In five years, only once did the water fill the first four drywells, leaving two between my shelter and rain water. The guys who installed the drywells saw only the connected drywells, and I did the bunker work myself, converting the last two (of eight) drywells for my own purposes.

Plan well ahead of need, and you’ll have a fighting chance at survival. If it’s never needed, that’s a good thing, if it is needed; it’s a great thing you did. Many of the things I’ve done cost little or nothing, and some even earn me back some cash. Inexpensive solutions, like getting the garbage fencing from new PVC fencing jobs made me money, and the company lets me use their equipment in exchange for disposing of all their fencing waste. Piece by piece I have added to my hoard. Many times these items were collected with permission during community curbside pickup days. These have included a cast iron wood burning stove, a chainsaw, lawnmower parts, and shelving units.

Two Letters Re: Prepping Pays Off in Midwest Winter Storms

Hello,
I just wanted to write you about an experience I had recently. First of all I own a very dog eared copy of your novel “Patriots“ that was given to me by someone who I look up to a lot. This individual was the first person to expose me to the “bug out” bag concept. As a result I’ve always been a preparedness type of girl. In high school and college I always kept provisions for myself wherever went and as a result I’ve been able to rise to the occasion many times when things got tough.

As a long distance commuter I try to ensure I have things in my car for whatever may happen whether it is an unexpected overnight stay or just a band-aid. My daily drive to work is 85 miles from the small town in the country I reside in to one of the nearest big cities where I work. On January 31st the first predictions were ice storm with sleet and snow accumulations. Soon after they started calling for 3/4″ ice and 10-15 inches of snow by the end of the day the doomsayers were all out declaring it would be a bad one. I had to work Monday and Tuesday so Monday I finished out my shift and went over to a friends house so I wouldn’t have to drive up in a storm. Tuesday I came in an hour early. At 11 am my boss told me to get done and go home as soon as possible. 15 minutes later I was out the door. I fueled up and posted to Facebook my intentions and estimated time of completion. Before I had even left the city limits I had to stop and fix my windshield wipers that weren’t wiping. Common sense may dictate to me that I needed to stay put another night, but my heart was telling me I needed to be home with my loved one. The pace started out at 40 miles per hour but by the time I hit I-44 things were getting worse, my average speed was about 15-25 mph and it took me from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to make it from mile marker 69 to mile marker 11 which was the exit I needed to head south towards home. I got off at the exit and realized that all the traffic was stuck, after a chat with a truck driver I learned that two trucks ahead were immobile, side by side in a snow drift. We were about a mile and a half from the nearest truck stop. I could have sat and idled for a few hours but the forecast called for temperatures in the negative after dark. So at that point I knew I had to make a decision, to gamble on staying or to try to walk through the blizzard and get to shelter before dark.

I decided to walk. Thankfully, I had my bug out bag with me and packed plenty of warm clothes in my overnight bag. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything waterproof and I didn’t have any snow boots. I chose between running shoes that had ventilation which would allow moisture to get in or my oxford work shoes that were made of leather and would insulate my feet better. I chose the oxfords. The next issue was energy, I needed a facility but I also needed to keep my energy up. I didn’t have enough water, in fact I was only able to refill my Starbucks tea cup partway, but it sufficed. I got rid of the stuff that needed cooking. I also had dates. I read in the past that Medjool dates are really high in energy and nutrition. Those I did grab. I was ready to go. I wore jeans with a loose pair of cotton pajama pants over the top. on my upper body I wore a turtleneck, a vest and my Carhart sweatshirt over everything. On my hands I had cheap dollar gloves with leather work gloves over the top of those. On my head was a thin microfleece mask and my hood.

I started walking. The snow was difficult to navigate and ranged from a few inches to a few feet at times. I made over I-44 on the overpass and then decided to walk through the woods and in essence make a short cut. This is where things got really dangerous. I climbed a snowy embankment and started going through the woods but the farther I went the deeper the snow and the thicker the brush. Many hikers die every year because they take what appears to be the shortcut and then run down their energy too much and die of exposure. So I started backtracking out to the interstate. Only then did I realize that I didn’t navigate properly to go in a straight line and I probably would have wandered in circles before I passed out from exhaustion. I was becoming quite fatigued by then and started to wonder if I was going to run out of steam from my own stupidity. Back on the interstate I followed it towards the exit but I was pouring sweat and fatigue was setting in.

Several cars went past before a tow truck stopped and offered me a ride. It turned out that they were headed to the truck stop and then south towards the area I lived in. Would I have passed out from exhaustion or made it to the truck stop? That is a question I will never know the answer to but a lesson learned about shortcuts! Little did I know that God had an even bigger test of my faith and resolve ahead of me. I learned that we would be stopping at the truck stop to pick up a key for another tow truck that was stuck. So we made our way south to where the truck was stuck. But as we started getting off onto this single lane highway the roads went from bad to worse. These men had a job to do and they were very determined to do it. We might have even succeeded had our way not been blocked by an 18-wheeler that was stuck. Soon after that we became stuck for the first time trying to find an alternate route. Four more times after that we got stuck in drifts and ditches trying to turn around the large flat bed F650 tow truck and it took us the next three hours to get out of the mess we got ourselves into. So we put all our faith in God and started praying.

About the time I finally admitted to myself that I was scared a tractor showed up and towed us back out to the highway. The rest from there is now history as I made it home and gave the tow guys each a dry new pair of socks to replace their cold wet ones. They wouldn’t accept any monetary compensation. And they truly were sent by God to save me from what could have been a very dangerous or even deadly situation.

In reflection back on my situation I learned some important lessons about survival. Things would have been a lot safer and easier with hiking boots and some Carhart coveralls. Never try to go through brush in deep snow if you down have to, its too easy to sap your energy and pass out. The left over tea bag and the water I kept putting in there helped me stay hydrated. The medjool dates were easy to eat and kept my energy up throughout those long frustrating hours of waiting and worrying.

Would I attempt the same thing again for the same reasons? Probably. Next time, however, I will be even more prepared than the last. The last thing is my faith in God. I prayed hard, and it was that faith that kept my courage up and gave me the hope. I knew in my heart that it wasn’t my time to die yet, this was simply “trial and tribulation”. We can never leave God out of any situation that we get into. The driver of that tow truck was right there beside me praying for all he was worth as we were trying to get unstuck and out of valley we got stuck in. It was Jesus Christ that gave me the peace in my heart not to panic. And that was my first real life serious bug out experience. Sincerely – Erin D.

 

JWR:
I’ve worked for a major food store in Michigan for over 20 years and just wanted to let you know that over the last few days that with the news of the winter storm that was coming people were panic buying like I have never seen before. They were buying anything they could get their hands on not just water and canned goods. Must be very few people in my area that have any food or water stored for any type of emergency. We have been prepping for a couple of years now and thank you for all of the information that you have put out for people. Thanks, – Steve in Michigan

Letter Re: Multi-Lens Eyeglasses Sets

Dear Sir,       
Just to let you know during the last few days we have received an overwhelming number of responses to an online customer survey we performed from SurvivalBlog online readers since your brief mention in the Odds n-Sods section of your blog about our “Multi-Lens TEOTWAWKI Vision System“.  

We asked your readers what we could to earn their business and what they felt we could do to improve our packages in hopes of making them more accessible to everyone.  

Your readers provided us some profound feedback to which we have quickly responded to. Here is what we have done to answer the needs of SurvivalBlog readers:  

Firstly, we now offer the option of three equal installment payments for our complete survival vision packages via PayPal to offset the initial cost of our product over a period of three months. This allows access to our much-needed product to those who cant afford to lay down the entire cost up front. [JWR Adds: Very few online vendors offer this payment option.]  

Secondly, we have taken our suppliers back to the negotiating table and have demanded lower pricing on our frames. With a great deal of hard bargaining pricing, we are now able to include a second pair of identical ANSI Z87.1 safety frames with each package at no additional charge! (A $190 value, free.)   Any of your readers that purchased our survival vision packages in the last three days will receive a second pair of identical frames along with their initial purchase and an additional $50 PayPal coupon, redeemable at any online retailer that accepts PayPal payments, as a show of good faith.

We hope to establish a reputation as the world’s best survival online vision care supplier. – Dan Stephan

Two Letters Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

James Wesley;
As a First Aid instructor trainer (I teach teachers how to teach First Aid) for Emergency First Response Corp., a subsidiary of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) , I read with great heartache the letter “First Aid Kits are not enough” and felt deeply for it’s author. We teach the importance of self reliance in an emergency situation because there are times, like the one so eloquently shared here, that EMS just isn’t coming. I applaud his courage and level-headedness.

One of the things I ask my students is if they have a “well stocked” First Aid kit. The response is usually about 50% say the do. When I start to go over the list of what goes into a “well stocked” First Aid kit, I am met with blank stares. Most people go to their local drug store and buy a 250 piece first aid kit and store it away thinking all is well. Those “drug store” kits are nice for everyday cuts and scrapes, but as the author of the letter describes, you need a lot more than you think you do. I call the drug store kits, boo boo kits, because 200 of the 250 pieces in that kit are merely band aids and “boo boo”. That is about all that about all they are good for. Although I applaud the author for his coolness under stress and his ability to literally save is wife’s life, I do have some additional thoughts that may help others who may find themselves in a similar situation; the author sates “I set the phone down near us as I replaced the dripping bandages.” One shouldn’t remove blood soaked bandages if you want the blood to clot. If the bandage becomes blood soaked, place another on top and continue to wrap the new bandages over it. He also didn’t tell us if he used firm direct pressure on the wound, which combined with elevating the wounded area above the heart is the preferred method of stopping severe bleeding. The fact that he went through so many gauze pads is an indication of his pulling them away and aggravating the wound and keeping the wound from clotting properly. He also stated “My wife, now shivering from slight shock of the incident was nauseous and dizzy. I took appropriate actions and assured her everything was going to be fine.” By proper actions I’m assuming he treated her for shock (Elevating the feet six to twelve inches and maintaining her body temperature), and not just tell her everything would be okay. He notes that, “It was 9 p.m. when I ran out of bandages. In four hours I had gone through three boxes of gauze as the wound wept, the ‘dull thudding pain’ also taking it’s toll on the medication we had in the kit”.

If in his kit he had had some blood stopper trauma dressings or steri-strips (Butterfly bandages) or more than a few 4″ x 4″ gauze pads, he should have been able to slow the bleeding to a manageable level, place on the butterfly bandages and then covered the wound in a sterile dressing, saving him the dangerous trip out for more supplies. One thing he didn’t think of (and most people don’t) and that is the use of feminine hygiene products for stopping severe bleeding. I’m sure his wife would have such products (tampons, and pads) somewhere in the house. Although you can use these to stop the bleeding, most have added fragrances and chemicals so their long tern use in not recommended. But if he had used a few Maxi pads to gain control of the bleeding, he surely wouldn’t have had to make that harrowing trip out in extremely dangerous weather.

It’s story’s like these that can help all of us prepare for those times when the emergency strikes and we are on our own, Note this wasn’t TEOTWAWKI, situation, his was a weather caused emergency, and those happen all the time. There are three things each of us should do:

• Get trained – Seek out a professional CPR/First Aid course in your area. having had Red Cross, Medic first aid and the American Heart Association’s training, I prefer EFR’s training method best, but you be the judge.

• Get a Kit – A rifleman with out a good rifle is no rifleman at all. A well stocked First kit is essential. You should spend at least $80.00 to $100.00 for a decent kit. After you buy a kit, add to it with back up supplies. I have an entire plastic stack-able office bins dedicated to first aid supplies.

• Get practice – After you have learned the basics of First Aid, PRACTICE. Just like owning a surfboard doesn’t make you a surfer, and owning a rifle doesn’t make you a marksman, taking a First Aid course doesn’t make you a First Responder. You must PRACTICE! So how do you get practice and experience? Join a volunteer organization, Church or service group and volunteer to be in they’re first aid tent. Ask to do a ride along with the EMTs (if they allow it). Next time there is a family/Friend/Work gathering make sure you take a long your new and improved first aid kit, and let everyone know you have it. Most will think your strange until the first time they need your supplies and talent. Have you ever been to a family BBQ and little Johnny got too close to the BBQ and burned himself and then the hostess of the party had to run around and empty her entire medicine cabinet looking for the right stuff? How much better it would be to have your kit at the ready! Trust me, you’ll be the “go to” guy from now on. Get all the practice on the scraped knees and slightly burned fingers now, and when you REALLY need your skills to save a life, you will be prepared.

Remember the three “B”s….Bullets, Beans, and Band Aids, may I add the three “Gets” Get trained, Get a Kit and Get Practice!

Make sure you have plenty of each! – Kory Mikesell

Economics and Investing:

‘Too Early to Declare Victory’ Fed May Not End Bond Buying. (Thanks to Jonathan C. for the link.)

Phil F. flagged this: Which will it be, inflation or deflation? Maybe neither, maybe a run

B.B. suggested: Bernanke, BLS Lie About Inflation: Dr. Doom Faber

Former Treasury Secretary is A-Scared; Should You Be?

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Mixed a Day After the Dow Tops 12,000  

Oil Prices Fluctuate On Egypt, Growing US Supplies  

Winter Storms Expected to Slow US Economy Slightly  

Gold and Silver Set to Resume Upward Trajectory  

Donald Trump:  Things in the US Could Get Worse, Buy Gold  

Crash Landing (The Mogambo Guru)  

10 Things We Can Learn From Egypt About Preparing for Economic and Societal Collapse  

World Stocks High 2-1/2 Year High

Odds ‘n Sods:

Texas imposes rolling blackouts as mercury drops. (A tip of the hat to Sue C. for the link.)

   o o o

DocLiberty and Yishai both recommended this gem: The Real Life Civilization-Building Kit. “For two years, a group of engineers has been working on the Global Village Construction Set, a collection of 40 DIY machines that can build a small, modern civilization anywhere with sun, soil, and water. Sounds like hard work.”

   o o o

Kevin W. suggested this CNN piece: A scene of violent chaos in Cairo. Kevin’s comment: “What lesson can be learned by preppers? Violence and brutality do not require guns. Gun control does not control people’s behavior. If goons want to wreak havoc, then they do.

   o o o

The folks at CampingSurvival.com just created a special 8% off coupon for their best-selling colloidal silver product. If you use the coupon code, “rawles”, then your price is just $11.91 each. This offer is good until 2/18/2011 and cannot be used in conjunction with any other coupon, promotion of freebie.

   o o o

Reader “Home’s Cool Mom” found this article interesting:  Joe Bastardi Predicts Colder Weather in Three of the Next Five Winters. Her comment: “If this is true, and the climate is beginning a colder phase, perhaps this should be factored into seed/plant/tree purchases for the garden and orchard. Growing seasons may be shortened and varieties for cooler zones than at present may need to be selected.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Saturday was indescribable. Nothing that I write can describe the utter state of lawlessness that prevailed. Every Egyptian prison was attacked by organized groups trying to free the prisoners inside. In the case of the prisons holding regular criminals this was done by their families and friends. In the case of the prisons with the political prisoners this was done by the Islamists. Bulldozers were used in those attacks and the weapons available from the looting of police stations were available. Nearly all the prisons fell. The prison forces simply could not deal with such an onslaught and no reinforcements were available. Nearly every terrorist held in the Egyptian prisons from those that bombed the Alexandria Church less than a month ago to the Murderer of Anwar El Sadat was freed, the later reportedly being arrested again tonight.   On the streets of Cairo it was the scene of a jungle. With no law enforcement in town and the army at a loss at how to deal with it, it was the golden opportunity for everyone. In a city that is surrounded with slums, thousands of thieves fell on their neighboring richer districts. People were robbed in broad daylight, houses were invaded, and stores looted and burned. Egypt had suddenly fallen back to the State of Nature. Panicking, people started grabbing whatever weapon they could find and forming groups to protect their houses. As the day progressed the street defense committees became more organized. Every building had its men standing in front of it with everything they could find from personal guns, knives to sticks. Women started preparing Molotov bombs using alcohol bottles. Street committees started coordinating themselves. Every major crossroad had now groups of citizens stopping all passing cars checking their ID cards and searching the cars for weapons. Machine guns were in high demand and were sold in the streets.” – Sam Tadros, January 2, 2011, as quoted by The American Thinker. 

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) 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, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 33 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Buy It Wholesale–Free Food Now and Free Food Later, by P.O.

I wanted to share with my fellow preppers a way to rapidly increase your food storage. Yes, it’s legal and for real!  I have no sales pitch and nothing to gain out of this, I’ve been doing this for almost a year now and the results have been just amazing.
         
My wife and I started a Farmer’s Market in our community almost three years ago.  The following “system” I have developed since then has come from our experiences there as well as my almost 20 years in restaurant management.  It can easily work for you with minimal effort.  Please stick with me because I’ll run the numbers for you off of actual prices in my area and you’ll be shocked and amazed at how much all of us are getting charged by our local supermarkets!  Even if you don’t have the time or inclination to do this, read on, as there is some very valuable information that could save you big money on your preps! 
        
If your family is like ours we don’t have a lot of money left over after paying the bills. Times are tough.  So if you could find a way to put a little cash in your pocket, eat fresh fruits and veggies for free, and be able to can or dehydrate them for free, then wouldn’t you?  Even if you and a few friends pitch in and buy produce in bulk and split it evenly amongst yourselves you can dramatically reduce your current food costs as well as your future food prep costs.  You can then use that saved money for other prep areas like medical supplies, ammo, and guns etc.
        
I call what we do a Local Food Co-op because it’s not really a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  Basically I buy an assortment of produce (fruits and veggies mainly) by the case or bushel and sell boxes (or bags) of assorted produce for either $10 (small family) or $20 (large family) with plenty left over for our family to eat for free and we have our dehydrator going 24/7 kicking out dehydrated food free for future use.  Now let me clarify a few things before I get into the “nuts and bolts” of this operation.
        
First, the people that buy produce from me get it for far less money than they can get it from Wal-Mart (or any other supermarket in our area ) and it’s almost always better quality or at least the same quality.
        
Second, it doesn’t take too much time at all to run.  You’ll need to spend a little more time up front getting all the needed information but after that less than five hours a week should be all you’ll need to devote to your food independence.  I spend an hour and a half once a week going to buy the produce. ( An hour of that is the round trip to buy it and about a half hour to purchase everything needed.)  I might spend another hour and a half dividing out the produce into orders for the customers and then getting them to the customers.  (Most of my customers are either friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers.)  Is it worth it to you to spend three hours a week so you and your family can eat all the fresh fruits and veggies they want for free all week long and all the produce you can dehydrate and can for future use for free? 
      
Third, you don’t need to be an expert to set this up and run it for yourself and lastly, you don’t need dozens and dozens of customers to do this. I started with just 10.  People will come looking for you when word gets around about how good a deal they can get.  Most people are in utter disbelief about how much produce they get for the money when they get their first order!  A few have even tried to give me more money than what I  charge.  Now on to the meat and potatoes…

      
First we’ll run some numbers.  I’m using the actual prices I’m paying right now (12/2/10) for this example:

      
This is roughly based on a weeks worth of produce for a family.  Let’s say you get 10 larger size families wanting “in” at a $20 share a week. So week 1 goes like this:

10 families at $20 =                              $200

That $200 you take and go buy:

100 lbs of potatoes for                             $40
25 lbs (case) of tomatoes for                   $12
bushel (30 lbs+) of green beans for         $19
bushel (40 lbs+) of oranges for               $20
bushel of cucumbers (40 lbs+)for           $10
a bushel (25 lbs) of bell peppers for        $14
bushel (40 lbs+) of red delicious apples  $20
case (25 lbs) of yellow squash for           $12
case (12 lbs) of zucchini for                    $12
50 lbs of onions for                                  $20
                                                               ______   
Total money spent:                                  $179                                                                

You go and divide up the produce and each family gets:

5 lbs of potatoes
2 lbs of tomatoes (that’s around 6)
2 lbs of green beans ( that’s almost a half a plastic grocery bag full!)
3 lbs of oranges (about 5-6 oranges)
3 lbs of cukes ( about 4 or 5)
2 lbs of bell peppers (5 to 6)
3 lbs of apples (5 to 6)
2 lbs of squash (6 to 8)
1 lb of zucchini (3 to 5)
3 lbs of onions (5 to 7)
That’s 26 pounds of food for $20! Can you walk into any one store and come out with all that for $20?

Now here’s what you and your family get out of the deal:

$21 cash (offsets the gas and wear and tear on your vehicle to get produce)
50 lbs of potatoes
5 lbs of tomatoes
10 lbs oranges
10 lbs cukes
5 lbs bell peppers
10 lbs apples
5 lbs squash
2 lbs zucchini
20 lbs of onions

That’s $21 cash and 117 lbs of produce for three hours worth of work!
You could sell off two more shares for another $40 in your pocket and still have a bunch of produce to eat all week and plenty more to can and dehydrate for future use.  You could also give more of the produce to your customers that is entirely up to you. That’s free food now and free food later!
       
About the only up front investment is you’re going to need a scale to weight the produce.  I got mine from the kitchen department at Target for around $20.00 and it’s weights up to 11 or 12 pounds before the scale tops out.  I also bought a bigger cheap plastic bowl to put on the scale to weight out bulkier items like green beans or potatoes for another couple of dollars.  Just remember to “zero” out the scale when you put it to use or your weights will be off.  It wouldn’t hurt to have a heavier duty scale to weigh your bulk cases just to make sure you got what you paid for.  I just use our bathroom scale and set the cases on that. It works great and I didn’t have to go out and buy one. [JWR Adds: In many jurisdictions, scales must be state-certified as “legal for trade.”]
      
So, obviously, you have to figure out where to get your bulk produce from and there are several ways to do that.  I would start by opening up the phone book or do a web search for produce companies for your local area or biggest city by you.  Ask them to fax or email you a copy of their latest produce price list.  Some update them daily, some weekly.  Get on their e-mail/fax list so you get updated pricing.  Get pricing from several produce companies if possible.  The price lists also include the case count (how many of something come per case or case weight.
      
Also be sure and sign up for their newsletter if they offer one.  It will tell you about shortages (huge price increases) due to weather etc. as well as price swings due to being in between growing seasons.  For instance, as summer winds up, tomatoes wind down in most areas of the country leaving about a four week span until Florida’s winter crop comes online.  Prices can spike from $12 a case to well over $20 and I’ve seen over $40 last year when Florida had a freeze that wiped out a bunch of tomatoes.  This is useful information as you can stock up on some produce that has a longer shelf life or brace your customers for temporary outages or reductions in their usual amounts of that specific item.
   
You should also check with your local farmers.  Most are willing (and want) to sell directly to you during their growing season.  It can never hurt to build a relationship with your local farmers.  In a SHTF scenario they may be your only option to source food if you can’t grow it yourself.
     
BIG TIP ALERT :  Another place to get bulk produce is from Restaurant Depot if there is one in your area.  It’s free to join you just have to show proof you have a business. (Any business!)  They generally want to see your business license as proof but are pretty lenient usually.  Even if you don’t have a business bring a friend or coworker who does as they gave me four cards with my business name on them.  Meaning anyone with a card can shop. (Hint, hint!)  They have unbelievable prices on a wide variety of produce as well as bulk foodstuffs such as spices, bouillon base, instant potatoes and hash browns, #10 cans of everything, bulk dried fruit, etc.  And if that’s not enough they also carry 20-to-100 lb bags of wheat, assorted flours, assorted rice, assorted beans, split green peas, lentils, corn meal, sugar, et cetera.  They also beat Sam’s Club on most prices also including lunch meats, chicken, and beef etc.  This place is a Preppers dream!
      
Once you get the price lists you now know the bulk pricing your typical restaurant would pay.  Next get a few weeks worth of newspaper ads from your local supermarkets.  That, combined with going to the grocery stores will tell you what the average consumer pays for produce.        

Do the math from the bulk price list from the produce companies to get a bulk to retail comparison.  For example… bulk price on a 50 lb box of potatoes might be $20.00 and a 5 lb bag from the supermarket might cost you $4.00.  So $20 / 50 lb = 40 cents per pound x 5 lbs is $2.00. Or pay the $4.00 at the supermarket.  Just bring a pocket calculator with you when you go and you’ll know before you buy it if you can make money on it (or at least break even) before you purchase.  When you get to know your pricing it ensures you won’t be paying retail prices on bulk purchases.
      
Now you might run the numbers and find just buying from you local produce companies will work.  You may even be able to get them to deliver!  But, there is usually an even better way.
      
Every decent size city usually has a “downtown” area where all the produce comes in by train or ship. ( Which is also usually where your produce companies are located)  Usually there is a downtown open air market or Farmer’s Market (or combination of both like in my city)  What happens there is the public can buy wholesale from the Farmers themselves or from the market.  These are where the real deals are, folks.  The same 50 lb bag ‘o potatoes you bought for $20 from a produce company can probably be had for $12-15 there.  Most places like this are open 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  They are open real early in the morning too, so you can beat the rush hour traffic by going either before or after.  They also seem to have a lot of the seasonal produce a week or so ahead of them appearing in your supermarkets.
      
The people there are usually pretty helpful and will answer questions about how many per case or pounds per case etc.  Just ask!   You can also open up and inspect the cases or boxes too.  You might need to buy the $14 case one week because the older $8 case looks a little too close to the end of it’s “shelf life”, while the next week the $8 case might be perfect.
      
The produce quality is usually better there also if you take the time to look around and comparison shop.  You’ll also have a choice of different sizes.  A 25 lb case of tomatoes can have 25 tomatoes in or it could have over 50.  (Far more than 50 if you get Roma or cherry tomatoes)
      
A few other items of note:  Pay attention to how many of an item come in a case or bushel.  Items like tomatoes, squash, zucchini are sold in different sizes or grades.  If you buy the largest size of tomatoes for instance there might only be enough to give every customer one where if you bought medium size case they might be able to get 3 or 4 even though the weight and cost could be the same.  When possible try to notice where your each of your produce items come from.  People would much rather buy local or regional than from some scary sounding city in a third world country.  People will ask and the more you know about your produce the happier you can make your customers. 

It is important to note that rules, regulations, and requirements imposed by various government agencies vary from location to location so I can’t even begin to cover that here.  But suffice it to say that a group of friends or co-workers buying wholesale and dividing it up amongst yourselves is viewed differently than if you have so many customers you have a warehouse with a retail shop up front and full-on marketing and advertising.  If you feel you need to know more on this by all means please consult your local government, lawyers, accountants, and experts in general.
      
I’ve been in the restaurant management business for almost 20 years and I can get produce far cheaper than the major international restaurant chain I currently work for with over 1,500 locations in 31 different countries, and now you can too.
      
WORDS TO THE WISE: Produce in this country and around the world is not nearly as abundant as you might think or are led to believe!  I have seen several severe shortages over my almost two decades in the restaurant business and they are happening more and more frequently.  I’m aware of on more than one occasion several national restaurant chains temporarily (meaning weeks or months at a time) not selling certain items because of shortages–caused by a multitude of reasons–here in the United States.  The restaurant chains stop selling it for reasons such as:

1.  They flat out can’t procure enough to supply their restaurants. 
2.  The quality of product they get is just too substandard to sell to their customers.
3.  Because of the shortage it becomes too cost prohibitive and would kill profitability.  
4.  They stop selling it so you can still buy it at the supermarket.  They fear the public’s reaction to food shortages will be to quit eating out and stock up and stay home.
        
So be warned: Get it while it’s still abundant and you still can afford it and can or dehydrate it for your future security.  I’m going to start including rice and various dried beans and put it in with my customers orders.  I plan on telling them to store it in 2 liter soda or juice bottles for their emergency food supply and buy a dehydrator with the money they are saving and get busy.   The U.S. government is now suggesting a minimum of a “few weeks” supply of food now.  They used to say three days was sufficient.  I wonder what’s changed all that?  Wouldn’t you feel a bit safer if you knew your neighbors and local community had emergency food you provided for below market cost?  If they have enough food to get though an emergency you won’t have to worry about sharing.  Tricking them into recycling/reusing the soda and juice bottles for storage would be an added bonus too!
      
I have found it helps retain customers if you switch up or rotate the types of produce from time to time.  Also throw in some different recipes or ways to cook or prepare some of the produce.  You’d be surprised how many people have no idea what to do with a sweet potato or that kids who hate green beans generally love them with Asian salad dressing on them.  (That is if you can get them to try the green beans in the first place!)
      
That’s pretty much it.  You find people who want to pay less for better produce.  Find out where to get the best bulk prices then you buy it, divide it up, and hand it out to your customers.  A couple hours a week tops for free produce and a little food security. You gotta love it!  I hope you have found this article helpful and informative. It has made a huge difference to my family of seven as it has helped greatly cut our food bill, sped up our emergency food preparations, and we now eat healthier than we ever have in the past.

Even if it’s not for you, then help a brother or sister out and pass it along because if you’d just take a minute to think about it, you probably know someone who could use this system.

The Psychology of TEOTWAWKI, by J.P.C.

Many are preparing with physical items for “The End”. This aspect is extremely important, but what good will it do you if you are mentally weak? In survival situations research has shown that on average the mental willingness to live equals roughly 50% of your survival chance. This is based upon the individual, whether already mentally weak or strong, the type of situation, and the duration of the situation that the individual is in. Some people are very wise, strong, prepared, or a combination of all, but will not make it passed the initial phase of a catastrophe due to their lack of adaptation, psychologically.

Many cancer patients make it through to remission mainly through mental will. Much like a body that has exercised principally in cardio for five years will do fine in a 5K run, a mental willingness has proven the same in mild to serious situations. I would like to discuss some situations and tips to prepare you psychologically, not just for yourselves and family, but for others that you may encounter.

The Mayo Clinic says that the effects of stress on the body include:

  •      Headache
  •      Back pain
  •      Chest pain
  •      Heart disease
  •      Heart palpitations
  •      High blood pressure
  •      Decreased immunity
  •      Stomach upset
  •      Sleep problems

Effects on thoughts and feelings are:

  •      Anxiety
  •      Restlessness
  •      Worrying
  •      Irritability
  •      Depression
  •      Sadness
  •      Anger
  •      Feeling insecure
  •      Lack of focus
  •      Burnout
  •      Forgetfulness

 

Effects on behavior are:

  •      Overeating
  •      Undereating
  •      Angry outbursts
  •      Drug or alcohol abuse
  •      Increased smoking
  •      Social withdrawal
  •      Crying spells
  •      Relationship conflicts

If these are symptoms during normal times, you could imagine what they would multiply to during a SHTF scenario. What would the effects be if you have to kill another human being? If hearing a random gunshot in your neighborhood gives you chills now, what about a battery of bombs being lobbed your way? It’s hard not to give to orphaned children right now, what about when you are on a tight food supply and there are three kids outside your house starving and begging for food, looking like they are starving to death?

Taking care of yourself and others:
If you are someone that has never been in harm’s way, may I suggest that you do so? I am not saying to do something potentially fatal, but do something that will give you a rush, an adrenaline high. This means different things for different folks. If you’re someone who enjoys hiking, whitewater rafting, or hunting grizzlies, try something that will push your limit whether it is writing an article or skydiving.  Get out of your comfort zone to feel what that rush is. If you are a homebody that prefers a good book to taking a walk in the park, go hiking. Try giving a speech in front of a crowd. Push the limits that you are comfortable with.

One item that I would highly recommend is what is commonly known as a “Ride-A-Long”. You can ride a shift with police, paramedic/EMS, or with the fire department. Try and do it in an area that has high traffic. The things that you will see will forever change you and help to toughen you for the future. Another issue that many of us face and are unable to cope with is the fact that someone we love will die shortly after the SHTF. Is your spouse on insulin? Are your parents on high blood pressure meds? Is one of you children epileptic? You need to face the fact now, not that they will die, but that they can die in a TEOTWAWKI situation. How are you going to take care of them in their final days? How are you going to provide security with them in your care?

If you are currently overweight, have a curable condition, or have an addiction, then now is the time to take care of these issues. If some kind of tragedy occurs after the SHTF and it was due to something you could have take care of before, you will be overcome with grief. Perhaps your small child is being attacked by either beast or man and you could not quite get there in time because of your physical health (being obese, no endurance due to lack of physical activity, a bum knee because you’ve put off surgery, etc.) guilt will surely overwhelm you. In an already dangerous situation, adverse effects could take place to self-punish. This does no one any good. For those of you that are already in the acceptance stage of future catastrophes, what about those you love? If you already have a plan set up and an elderly person will be staying with you, have they faced the fact that they may not last long? Have you and your members? Looking at the obvious, an eighty-four year old female who quite possibly could be on medications, will not last long. Medications run out and if she has to “run for it”, death could quickly be upon her.

The Basics:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory of psychology often presented in a triangle for visual understanding. At the top we have “self-actualization”. This includes creativity, being factual, understanding of one’s self, and realization. At this stage it is said that you understand what you were meant to do and that you do it. The next stage down is “esteem”. This is where one searches for the need to be an individual. Uniqueness, self-respect, and confidence are key attributes. The next stage is “needs of love and to belong”. Here is where things are broken down a little simpler. One searches out relationships through family and friends. They understand the importance of giving and receiving love. After this stage is “safety and security”.

One understands that there are real dangers in the world. This security is provided by one’s self and others. This security is not just against physical harm, but also against modern ideals such as losing a job or home, losing a loved one, or losing in one’s health. At the bottom of the pyramid is “physiological needs”. This is where the most basic instincts of all living beings stem from. The needs of food, water, shelter, and procreation are found. After looking at this pyramid, you could see how quickly humanity will decline. At the bottom of the pyramid is also the bottom of the barrel. People who were not very far up on the chain to begin with will quickly dissolve into murderers, rapist, drug abusers, alcoholics, and possibly even cannibals.

For some, the lack of morals that they’ve always had, the law helped to keep them in check. Once the law is gone and no one to take them away, their true inner selves will be exposed and they will search and destroy at will. Others will not be able to handle the notion that they will never be able to watch television again, or surf the Internet. No more fast food and easy living. No more one night stands and endless parties. Drugs and alcohol will depress these stresses and wind up turning them into mindless junkies. Your CEO may find himself looking at his girlfriend with a hungry eye because his maid hasn’t brought groceries in three weeks. He’s never cooked himself anything, but he completely understands the pangs of hunger.

Someone from your local place of worship may have had a complete mental breakdown. They’re confused, hungry, and dirty. They never truly had faith in what they practiced to believe, and now they are mentally incapacitated. Your own spouse, parent, child, or sibling could quickly reach the bottom of this barrel. When the facts that your family is well prepared with stocks of food, water, medicines, and a strong shelter cannot penetrate the mind of someone entangled in the beliefs of modern society, what do you do? When they have become so dependent on modern society that the fact that they have to make their own food and can’t cruise down Main Street any more sends them suicidal, or even homicidal, how will you react?

The Others:
Not everyone will break down and become evil. That neighbor down the street that you thought you couldn’t stand may turn out to be your best ally. He may be a war veteran, mentally hardened, but soft in the heart. He has food, shelter and security. Your spouse, who may have been weak before, may surprise you by pulling themselves out of the psychological muck and begin to take charge. Your computer loving, cell phone texting, television-watching kid could be the one to accept that there has been a large change and help to keep the family together and sane.

In survival situations of small scales, most people tend to unite. Even for the few that don’t pitch in, the others help them out. In larger scale situations, people generally tend to separate. You have the people who expect to be taken care of or that can’t take care of themselves, and the other group of people who realize the extent of the disaster and are barely able to take care of themselves and their families. If the situation is dire and last long enough, there will be confrontations between the two groups. In these situations, it will be important to find others of like minds not only for physical needs, but also for emotional. Try to find others who aren’t just prepared like you, but have the same morals, religious beliefs, political ideals, and values that you have. Remember that crazy Uncle Joe? You can stand him for the holidays, but that’s about it. Now imagine him living with you all day every day for years to come in a TEOTWAWKI scene. Hopefully you understand.

Being the Shrink:
It would be beneficial to have someone in your group or family who is experienced in counseling, psychology, or psychiatry. They don’t have to possess a degree, but preferably someone who has taken some classes and is understanding of the theories. This person could even be you. Why not take the initiative upon yourself to be this person. When a situation arises, you can help calm and support someone who has just lost a loved one or who has realized that the world is going to be a very different place. When someone realizes that they are going to expire, you can be there for them. When fights and quarrels break out amongst family, friends, or party members, you can help to restore the peace. Many times, when you finally have an outburst, the ones that you have consoled will then turn to console you. As a person who has studied these areas, you will be able to keep track of members’ mental health. Just as preventive medicine is good for medical health, the same applies to mental health. Should you notice that someone’s attitude has changed, find out the reason why and counteract it before it turns into a problem.

Psychology is a large, growing, and ever-changing field of medicine. This is why I have given you tips and reasons versus actual plans of action for different scenarios. Psychology also is not so clear cut. Some people who you may think would break down, may not. Lots of people that strongly believe in their religions will suffer to the end without resorting to their animal instincts. Their empathy for a greater good will prevail. No one can truly know what is going on inside the mind of someone else, but you can help by doing what you can. Although some people don’t truly know what is going on inside of their own minds. 

Two Letters Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

Sir,
I very much appreciated reading the recent article about an adventure in wound care during a blizzard. It was chilling! Hope your wife has made a complete recovery! In my many defensive firearms classes with John Farnam, he has held forth the many virtues of the Israeli Battle Dressing (IBD) and its fantastic ability to control hemorrhaging. Had your wife severed an artery, the IBD may have been to only thing that would have saved her, at least would have been the best solution. The IBD has the ability to quickly apply a lot of preferential pressure on a wound and maintain it without further attention from the caregiver or the patient. Additional pressure is available by using the closure bar as a windlass to crank down even harder over the wound.

It is available in four inch and six inch pad sizes, and features a six foot long ace bandage securely attached to it. It also features a pressure bar that is used to focus direct pressure onto the wound as the Ace bandage is wrapped around the whole affair. The price, if you shop around, is about $6 each. I recommend that each family buy 50 of them. Have a half dozen in each vehicle you own. A half dozen in each kit. Can be used especially well on head wounds, chest, abdominal, and on extremities! If it bleeds through, apply another one on top! Do not remove the original.

That article, I hope, will jolt many out of their complacency and get them to realize that the vast majority of first aid kits out there are useless snivel kits. One needs a really serious trauma kit to fair well in any serious circumstance as you found yourself in!

Interestingly, during my five day stay in a hospital for open heart valve surgery, I spent my free time teaching staff and doctors how to use the IBD. They had never seen one! It was all new to them. Imagine, a really sore and hurting patient with tubes, wires, etc all over him wrapping the arms and heads of the nurses and surgeons who were caring for him. For a while, it took my mind off my own problems. Most cops have never seen one. I find no end of willing students who want to know about this truly amazing bandage.

You do a lot of good on your site and post a lot of useful information not available anywhere else. Even is some of it is not the best information (can’t think of anything that falls in that category), it gets people thinking! God Bless You. Best Regards, – Paul S.

 

Dear JWR:
I have been wondering why the writer kept changing bandages.  Particularly with a clean cut, as with a knife vs. a jagged vessel tear, most bleeding will stop within 10 minutes.  However, you should apply pressure for those ten minutes as measured by the clock, and not by how much time you think has passed.  Every time you remove the bandage to “check” the wound, you remove part of the clot.  Always add to your dressing, rather than change it (acutely) for this reason.  The dressing should be removed slowly and carefully for the same reason.  There is no rush to remove the dressing unless you are prepared to definitively clean and close the wound or some hours have passed and you want to minimize infection by gentle cleaning and replacing the dressing with something more sterile.

Once a clean or sterile dressing or sanitary napkin has been applied on the wound (to reduce infection), you may use towels over them if necessary for additional absorption and to maintain a dry outer surface for applying pressure.

Exceptions to the general rule about clotting may occur if someone has a coagulation disorder, whether inherent (liver disease, blood disorders) or secondary to medication (aspirin, warfarin, calcium channel blockers in high doses).

I can think of only about four times in the last 40 years as a lifeguard, firefighter, paramedic, and physician that I have faced uncontrollable bleeding.  Twice from severe liver disease (sick livers don’t make the proteins necessary for clotting), and twice from disseminated intravascular coagulation (before a strategy became widely known to address it).  I have had others bleed out, but those were from massive trauma causing quick death, generally secondary to internal bleeding that would have required immediate trauma surgery to address.

Regards, – K.N.

Letter Re: Post-TEOTWAWKI and Off-the-Grid Entertainment

Dear James,  

Thank you for the excellent work you do for those that listen and hear your guidance.  I’ve been an avid reader for many years and moved my family from urban Michigan to a full-time retreat property in the woods of North Idaho largely on recommendations here on SurvivalBlog.   Reed’s article on pastimes really should include the card game of cribbage. Any game, like chess, which has survived pretty much intact for many hundreds of years must have something good doing for it!  

Adding cribbage is as simple as investing in a quality board and taking a few minutes to learn the rules.  In a pinch, you can make one from a flat piece of wood, a drill and some spent matches as pegs. Many also use paper to score with, although a physical board makes it much easier to keep track.   The benefits of cribbage are many-fold. A few of them are: 

• The balance of luck and strategy allows absolute beginners to win some games, even against experienced players, unlike chess. 
• The scoring system also involves a significant amount of mental arithmetic, helping youngsters and older players alike. 
• The game itself can be played with 2, 3, 4 or rarely more players.
• A game only takes fifteen minutes or so, allowing a quick game.
• The game is open to, and suitable for, deeper analysis making it fun for the more calculating players.
• The game can be won by either player pretty much until the end, making it a good mood-lightener.
• It takes up little space, and no critical parts that can be lost.
• Cribbage is especially popular in Canada, the Northwest and mid-West regions of the US, and its overall popularity makes it a good ice-breaker, especially in hard times.

I would like to offer 20% off my cribbage boards for your readers.  (Use the discount code “TEOTWAWKI”). –  David, The Cribbage Guy