Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Luger, 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $249 value.

Second Prize: 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 $350.

Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing.

Round 27 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.

Survival Tips for the Business Traveler, by F. Russell

I’m both a family man and a business traveler. When I’m on the road, my primary mission is to do the best job I can and get home again. In the event of an emergency, that mission immediately reduces down to get home as fast as I can.  Most families have emergency plans that assume that the family or group will be together. But what happens if one or more of the group can’t be there? When you’re on the road, your primary mission in any catastrophic emergency is to get home to your family and support system. You can’t fulfill your part of your community/family emergency plan if you’re not there to do it. For those in a position similar to mine, I offer the following suggestions. These suggestions are preparatory in nature for the start of any catastrophic situation and carry the following assumptions: Trouble comes unexpectedly. Chance (luck & fortune) favors the prepared mind. And in periods of catastrophe, while good will may abound – predators abound as well.

  1. Make sure that your family has an emergency plan that includes what to do when you’re not home. Have primary, secondary and tertiary meet spots, as well as innocuous signals that will tell the other parties if they’ve left and where they’re going.
  2. Don’t tell strangers or your casual neighbors (anyone not in your network) how long you’ll be gone, even inadvertently. (Not even in your church as a prayer request!) My usual spiel goes something like this: “yes I travel for business, but with us trading vehicles and the garage, you can never tell which of us is home.” and: “I don’t have a solid schedule, it’s just a day here and the next day I’m there.” Also: “Not telling” includes you generous souls who leave your garage door open all the time. You may think it’s not a big deal because nothing ever gets stolen. But are you sure that you want undesirables to know that your family is there without a critical part of their survival plan? (You!) And don’t think that someone isn’t taking inventory and will notice if you aren’t home. If you are gone and there is something that someone needs bad enough on the other side of a garage door – then the door is coming down. Once past the garage door, don’t think they’ll stop before checking out what they can get out of the house proper.
  3. Have a “get home bag” and keep it with you. This is usually just your three day bug out bag (BOB) bag kept in the car. Though you might specialize the bag somewhat I’ll still call it BOB. Keep your BOB with you. It’s your friend. You don’t want your friend to get lonely do you? Not too long ago backpacks, and especially camo backpacks were unusual and drew a lot of attention in the business world. Not so much anymore. Even in airports, (which I strongly suggest you avoid), it is not unusual to see men in suits with camo accessories. In any event, my Kettlebell draws more attention than any backpack.
  4. Do not under any circumstances use BOB as your travel bag. They serve an different purposes. The get home bag is to get you home. It has no room for your work laptop, or even an extra change of socks for the trip. The next thing you know – you’ll either leave BOB home or use it to live out of. I’m sure your luck will be better than mind, but I expect that about the one time I used BOB as a travel bag TEOTWAWKI would happen and I would be in the middle of nowhere with half-used resources.
  5. Stay fit. The road is a great place to break your diet and get weigh over your target weight (pun intended). If “it” happens, you may end up walking home at least part way with BOB on your back. Better to do so when you’re in good shape. Pick the diet that works for you and stick to it. Carry your workout equipment and routine with you if you can. Exercise equipment varies widely from hotel to hotel; but my Kettlebell is always the same. I was at a national brand upper scale hotel and found that 4 of the 6 machines didn’t work at all, and due to liability issues, you can pretty much forget about free weights in any hotel chain. Take responsibility for your own equipment and work out in your own room. From personal experience, I know that this more than doubles the likelihood that you will actually exercise. An additional advantage is the when working out in your hotel room, you never need worry about who is watching you. While I prefer the Kettlebell, other great options include elastic straps, weights that fill with water, and mats for stretching and yoga type exercises.
  6. Don’t fly unless you absolutely must. Drive whenever you can. Airlines will make you leave or check all of your goodies. Unfortunately, the days of carrying even a pocketknife or multi-tool on a plane are gone forever; and (again) while your luck will probably be better than mine, my luggage is lost or late at least once per year. In 2008, I flew cross country with my company training materials checked in the plane. But it was hot that day and when I changed planes, they left my luggage on the ground to save enough weight to get the plane in the air. I was told that they could deliver the luggage “tomorrow” but I needed the materials by 7am the next day. So I sat in the terminal for 6 hours hoping my bags would show up on the next flight. BOB will do you no good if you are in Sacramento and BOB is in Los Angeles. So for business expediency, I have adopted a 4 hour rule: I will always drive if I can drive there within 4 hours of the door to door flight time. This is the equivalent of a ~500 mile radius. If the trip difference is less that 6 hours, I will usually drive, with my current location, this is the equivalent of a quarter of the US.
  7. If you must fly, try not to share rental cars with people outside your your own geographical locale. In the event of another airline emergency, the flights will be grounded and if you don’t already have a car or rental then you probably won’t get one. I was 800 miles from home on 9/11. I had to fly out to the job site, but fortunately already had a rental car and was able to drive home. Typically I shared a rental car with another manager three states away in the other direction; fortuitously, we had for this “one exception,” acquired separate cars for this trip. Had it not been for that exception, the other manager and I would have been flipping a coin for the right to take the car home. I have never broken this rule since.
  8. If you can legally carry a concealed handgun do so; and carry whenever you can. You never know when trouble is coming and just like your BOB or Get Home Bag; it will do you no good at home or locked in the trunk of your car. And let’s face it, if you knew when and where trouble was coming, you wouldn’t be going there in the first place right?
  9. Know your surroundings. Sit where you can see what’s going on, don’t just look around, look around continuously. Know who and what is around you. This applies not only in restaurants, but in hotels, businesses, and even (or especially) on the road. Use your eyes, ears and nose to let you know what’s going on. While on a business trip to Milwaukee in the late 1990s I found myself sitting in a regional chain family diner during the late lunch period. The activity in the kitchen changed and we noticed that the smell of food was gone. My coworker and I got up, paid our bill and left the building. As we pulled out of the lot a fire engine (the big one with the pumps, ladders and such) pulled into the lot entryway and parked, blocking most everyone who was still inside.
  10. Be everybody’s friend on the road. The waitress, the hotel clerk, the gas station attendant/clerk. Learn to tell a joke that doesn’t offend anyone. Smile at everyone. You want to be that friendly guy that doesn’t look like he’ll harm a flea. Don’t be the victim or the strong man. Both are targets for criminals, the victim for the opportunity to exploit, the strong man for his ability to interdict the criminal’s plans.

Driving Tips for the Business Traveler:

  1. Don’t park “nose in” to a parking spot. If you nose in, you have to back out. In the case of an emergency, you may need to fight traffic to back out and may not have have the luxury of the time to do so. Also, if you back in, then you have the opportunity to make sure that no one is following you. By the way, this includes your own house! Every year, I hear several stories about people who are robbed or worse by predators who follow the driver into the house through the garage door. Turn around, double check your surroundings and then open the door and back in. Close the door and then get out. My more paranoid friends will add that once you back in, put the car in drive until the door closes. This way if predators come to get you, you can go forward out of the garage and away from danger.
  2. Don’t park where you can’t get out. This includes areas near fire hydrants and dead end parking lots. If I have the choice, I don’t park on the same side of the street as the  hydrant. Emergency vehicles will block you in. Losing your vehicle to a crime scene or other emergency makes it difficult to drive home.
  3. Be willing to walk away. Travel is like a delicate negotiation, if you’re not willing to walk away, then you increase the odd that your costs will be higher. Be flexible. If you can’t abide by the rules, be willing to walk away.  I’ve been known to drive a few miles out of my way for special food: Great ice cream in Cincinnati Ohio, the best prime rib in Milwaukee Wisconsin, incredible Carne Asada in Childersburg Alabama, and “can’t get them anywhere else”Green Chile Rellenos in Albuquerque New Mexico. Actually, I’ve been known to take a hundred mile detour or more for great food. But more than once, I’ve driven through or past the lot even after a detour because either it didn’t look right, or I couldn’t park so I could get out. I’m probably paranoid. But I’m also very alive and haven’t lost any stuff.
  4. Be willing to walk. Sometimes in order to comply with the park only where you can get out rule – you end up passing up the closest parking places. You can wear a jacket or hat if you don’t want to get wet. Walking in to the building gives you the added advantage of time to check the place out inconspicuously. As with the previous tip, be willing to change your mind to go back to your vehicle and drive away. It something seems wrong, it probably is.
  5. Don’t park under a street lamp and not in the dark either. You’ve got up to a couple grand in your emergency bag. The light makes is easy for criminals to see, the dark makes it easy for them to operate. Pick the middle ground if available.
  6. Don’t show your stuff (Keep your mobile office hidden). If you mobile office is your life, don’t expose your life to others. A lot of traveling professionals have near bleeding edge toys: laptops, PDAs, scanners, printers, GPS, etc. If you look like a traveling advertisement for the consumer electronics show – don’t be surprised when people try to take it from you. Discretion is not only the heart of valor, but of security as well. Discrete does not mean to take all of your valuable stuff from the passenger seat and move it to the trunk whenever you stop for meals. I was at a truck stop in Ohio once where this guy did exactly that; and the entire truck stop watched him do it. Get creative and only have the stuff you need available when you stop. Keep the goodies hidden!
  7. This should be obvious, but: Keep your gas tank full. The questions you need to consider is: How many fuel stops will I have to make before I get home? If I have to turn around right now, can I make it back the way I came, or around an unexpected detour? I’ll confess to have broken this rule a time or two trying to get the cheapest gas or stop at my favorite diner. It almost cost me big time when an accident on the interstate made me take a 15 mile detour through no-man’s land. I made it to a gas station, but it could have easily gone the other way.
  8. Lastly, keep your car in good repair. Don’t skimp on tires or fluids. Especially in inclement weather. One fluid that everyone forgets until they run out is washer fluid. Keep an extra gallon in your car. I shared mine a few years back with a sports car that ran out in middle Kentucky. It was the worst storm of the year and the station had run out of fluid to sell.

I think everyone here knows that preparedness is a much a matter of mind than stuff. And once everything goes south, this will be on everyone’s mind. But I tend to view survival as as 24/7 issue: not just getting ready for when “it” happens, but anticipating that “it” could come at any time. And being ready. Blessings to you and yours.

Three Letters Re: Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance

Mr. Rawles,
Regarding the blog entry “Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance,” I wanted to add that the problem with the messiness of cloth diapers can be lessened by using disposable liners. Special liners are sold for use in cloth diapers, however a more cost effective solution is to dry out cheaper baby wipes and use those [as liners]. Thank you for your diligent service to the survival community. Keep up the great work. Sincerely, – JD in Richmond, Virginia

Jim,
I love your blog site. About the article about cloth diapers — they are easy to make and cheaper than bought ones. There was an article in Backwoods Home Magazine about making them.

Last year we had two grandbabies born and I made 3 dozen of each size for each baby. Cutting that much terry cloth was messy and the project time consuming, but well worth the effort. Their mothers used them and were glad to save money on disposable diapers. I suggest getting the snap machine and snaps to close the diapers, I never was successful sewing on the velcro.

Also, for the ladies, there are patterns on the Internet for making [washable] ladies menstrual pads. The same materials for babies diapers can be used to make these pads. Here is one of the web sites for patterns for making these.

Thank you for providing such a great site to share ideas for survival. – A Granny in the Woods

 

Mr. Rawles:
This was a good, informative article. There are a few things that I’d add for your readers:

1. You can save money on cloth diaper systems by buying them used.

2. You can also sew diapers yourself. I sewed pre-folds for our children from old flannel sheets and cotton terry cloth towels: a rectangular center pad of 6 layers of cotton flannel or 1 layer of terry cloth, sandwiched between two wider rectangles of flannel. I made them in three sizes, for newborns up to older toddlers. Leftover flannel scraps went into diaper doublers, cloth wipes, or “mama cloth” (see below).

3. If you can’t spray dirty diapers, they can be scraped with an old spatula or an ice scraper for windshields. I’ve never dunked or sprayed diapers, though the hand-powered sprayer does sound useful.

4. For an emergency diaper, fold a washcloth into half or thirds and put inside a onesie; or use a flannel receiving blanket as a flat diaper, by folding it into a rectangle or triangle. Cloth diapers are easy to contrive–just look at what cotton fabrics you have on hand, and fold them into a shape that is thick in the right places and can be pinned onto the baby. Diaper covers are not quite so easy; in a pinch I would cut a triangle of polar fleece or old sweatshirt, and pin it on over the diaper.

5. Diaper pins are strong and don’t rust, you may want to keep some around even if you don’t have a baby.

6. At night and while traveling, the key to avoiding overflows seems to be to simply provide enough absorbency. We put a “doubler” (an extra pad of flannel, using scraps leftover after sewing diapers), or a smaller pre-fold diaper folded lengthwise, inside the diaper.

7. Cloth diapers may require some troubleshooting. Typical problems are recurring diaper rashes or diapers that are stinky after being washed. “Stripping” the diapers by washing them with a little Dawn dish detergent, and improving the diaper washing procedure may help. Direct sunlight will help disinfect diapers.

8. For the ladies, flannel “mama cloth” pads can also be made: 6 layers of flannel, or 2 layers of terry between 2 layers of flannel, sewed together into a pad shape. These are comfortable and do the job surprisingly well.

Thank you for your excellent blog, – Peggy

Letter Re: Some Real World Battery Life Data

Hi Jim,
There are batteries becoming widely available these days with the lithium/iron-phosphate chemistry (different than the lithium/cobalt chemistry in laptop batteries). These lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, or LFP) cells were first used in Dewalt brand lithium power tools. The main advantages are a vastly improved cycle life (2,000 – 7,000 cycles versus 500-800 for lead acid and 500-1000 for NiMH), high discharge current closer to lead acid, better deep-cycling performance, they won’t explode like laptop batteries and need no maintenance, venting or caustic chemical refills and they operate at almost 100% efficiency. If you topped these batteries off once per year they should remain good for a decade or longer.

The only downsides are the price, which is higher than lead-acid (in Dollars per Amp-Hour) but less than other lithium or metal-hydride batteries. There is also the need for a programmable charger, which can be expensive. The cut-off voltage is unique, unlike lead-acid, NiCd and NiMH batteries, and the batteries will be damaged from overcharging. I’ve been using a disassembled Dewalt battery pack for my portable radio rig, with this “Dapter” charger. For a house-size battery bank, you could use the Outback Flexmax line of charge controllers, which are programmable from a PC. Most charge controllers support only lead-acid or have fixed settings for only the most common battery types. – Jeff M.

Economics and Investing:

Hugh D. zeroed in on this Telegraph article: China orders retreat from risky assets. The article begins: “China has ordered managers of its vast currency reserves to withdraw from risky dollar assets and retreat to core debt guaranteed by the US government, a clear sign that Beijing is battening down the hatches for fresh trouble on global markets.”

Randy F. sent this article: Monopoly “Money “ –which notes that it is currently illegal to melt pennies or nickels, and the plans for further debasement of our currency.

Reader JTH found this: Bailout panel cites commercial real estate danger

UK central bank says it may restart debt monetization –after just r4ecently trumpeting the end of it. (Thanks to George Gordon for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Money Supply Data Reveals “New Major Dip” Ahead

Famous Last Words: US Will “Never” Lose AAA Rating (Not as long as the fox is guarding the henhouse!)

The Dumping Begins: Chinese Reserve Managers Notified That Any Non-USG Guaranteed Securities Must Be Divested

Jobless Claims Figures Raises Hopes for Recovery (What a roller coaster this is…it’s down…it’s up…it’s worse…it’s better!)

Median Home Prices Show Signs of Stability (Someone saw a green shoot in a neighbor’s front yard and misinterpreted it as an economic indicator…correction will soon follow!)

Citi Plans Crisis Derivatives

Darryl Robert Schoon–Davos: The Bomb Shelter

Stocks Swoon After China Brakes Spending Again

Eurozone Economy Falters, Germany Flat

The Rude Awakening of 2010

Odds ‘n Sods:

H.D. in Alaska recommended a piece by Mona Charen in National Review Online: “Frontier Suburbanite“.

   o o o

Scientists Invent Rice That Doesn’t Need Cooking. (Thanks to Joe P. for the link.)

   o o o

JRH Enterprises is running a President’s Day sale on new Third Generation AN/PVS-14 night vision weapons sight/monoculars–now with a five year warranty–for $2,995. I bought one of these from JRH last summer, and I love it. I have it mounted on a “flat top” AR, just behind an Aimpoint Comp 3 electronic red dot scope (with a 2 MOA dot). With a flip of the throw-lever on the GG&G mount (sold separately) the PVS-14 detaches. This allows me to use it as a hand-held monocular, and makes the rifle available for daytime shooting. What a great combination! Orders yours, ASAP. Quantities are limited, and the sale ends sale ends on Tuesday!

   o o o

Tamara over at the View From the Porch blog posted a link to this blog piece: Beretta Revolver Shotgun – Taiwan Edition. It just goes to show, that if there’s a will–and a milling machine- there’s a way…

   o o o

Global Warming update: University of Oklahoma Student Collecting Pictures of [Simultaneous] Snow in All 50 States

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises, it costs nothing." – Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Notes from JWR:

Tomorrow is the last day in the 25% off sale at SafeCastle on all Mountain House foods in #10 cans is in progress. They are offering free shipping to the 48 continental states! The sale ends at midnight eastern time on February 13th, so order soon!

—

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Luger, 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $249 value.

Second Prize: 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 $350.

Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing.

Round 27 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.

Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance, by K. in Pennsylvania

After watching MacGyver as a kid I was left in a awe of how someone could create a diversion by blowing up an old abandoned shed in the middle of the woods with a  propane tank, child’s tricycle, the tire’s inner tube, three ball bearings, and a grinding wheel strategically placed near the shed window.  After he launched that “3rd and last chance” bearing, from the improvised “tricycle-sling-shot”, thru the window, striking the grinding wheel and igniting the propane filled shed…KA-BOOM!  My life was never the same…that was the start of my “improvising calling”.

My wife has graciously born the ups and downs of my “need-to-modify” mindset.  I appreciate that your site brings other improvisers to sit around the internet campfire and trade stories and real world, practical ideas.

So why I’m writing: I’m a blessed husband and proud father of two young boys. I’ve always had “how do I protect them” in the back of my mind.  So with that in mind my wife and I have been working on setting up our “emergency” stash.  A few months ago I started looking at the issue of diapers vs. “no-diapers.” This article is from a dad, to all the parents with little ones in diapers, or those anticipating future additions to the family.  The goal is to anticipate diaper changing issues in a prolonged emergency (while currently benefiting from the solution, even if the worst never happens).  I’ll explain that last statement by the end of the article.

Potential Problem

What do you do WHSHTF and there is no place to make a “disposable diaper run” to the store?  I like to call this the WTSHT-LOD scenario, where ”LOD” = Lack of Diapers.
If you think that changing diapers can be messy now; imagine no diapers, no wipes…and no place to get them…now that is a real crisis.   I can’t even imagine trying to change a poop total-diaper-blowout with some last-minute, improvised, t-shirt solution.  I don’t want my wife, nor myself for that matter, to have to be on diaper changing duty in a WTSHT-LOD scenario without a good back-up system.

Possible solution? 

Change to cloth diaper, now (or start kissing your t-shirt collection good-by)

Objection #1               But aren’t cloth diapers messy?

Reply # 2       
           
Yes…but all diapers are messy.  Cloth diapers are a bit more work, but my wife and I made the switch a year ago and figured out a system of rinsing out the poop into a bucket , then dumping the black water into the toilet.  The cloth diapers then get wash and dried like regular laundry. (I’ll go thru the details below).

Objection #2               But aren’t cloth diapers expensive?

Reply # 2

Think longer-term or call it “diaper insurance”.  We were spending around $60 a month on disposables, and decided to switch to a cloth system ($300 total). Cloth diapers paid themselves off in five months and now we’re ready if there are no disposables available. Plus they are now available for our second boy. Note: I pray we never have to run into a WTSHT-LOD scenario, but if we do, we have diaper insurance.  If it never happens, we save money.  (I wish my other insurance policies were so beneficial).

Objection #3               There are no cloth diapers available in my neck of the woods.

Reply # 3

            Do not get the Gerber brand “cloth diapers” that you might find in stores.  They are more suitable for waxing your car, changing oil or for use as a spit rag.  Using them as a true cloth diaper will only leave your child and yourself very disappointed.
            They have advanced a long way from the old-school style of cloth and pins. There are various different options out there now. We started with a www.fuzzibunz.com cloth diaper system (it uses a “pouch/layer” system to hold various absorbent layers that trap the urine and poop).  After trying that for a while my wife found www.softbums.com (it uses a “cover/layer” system where super absorbent inserts are laid onto the cover).  There are plenty of options out there, pick what works for you.  We like the Softbums (cover/layered system) because you simply change inserts and keep using the same diaper covers..  Additionally, they have a clever “adjustable cover system” (MacGyver would be proud).  The diaper cover grows with the child (saving money versus other systems that require buying bigger diaper covers as your child grows).

Note: My “review” of cloth diaper systems are limited to these two.  I’m sure there are other viable systems.  I’ve got no kickbacks or vested interests in it either. 

If you’ve gotten this far I figure you’re probably wondering: Okay, how do I make the switch?  I’ll go through that in the following paragraphs.

Note: If you happen to change over to cloth diapers don’t toss those disposables away.  They are great as a back up if the cloth diapers are in the wash/dryer.  Now that I think about it, they would be a great barter item.  While they can be bulky, disposable diapers might be the 1st thing that unprepared parents are looking for in a WTSHT-LOD scenario.

Speaking of this, can anyone shed some light with your experience on other uses of disposable diapers…improvised wound bandage?….perhaps even a desiccant (with the amount of  urine they soak up from my baby boys you could bail out a sinking battle ship or use it as a chemical spill boom. I’ve been tempted to toss them into my ammo cans and gun cabinet).

Equipment List

1.)         A long-term mind set (can’t buy in stores or on the web…but if you’re a prepper you’ve already acquired this item)
2.)         Buy a cloth diaper system (see above suggestions or surf the web for others)
3.)         5 gallon “rinsing” bucket to rinse off poop…any hardware store has these (don’t need a lid)
4.)         8 gallon “holding” bucket/container (preferably with a “pop-up” lid)
This will be used to hold rinsed diapers before being laundered.

Optional Equipment #1

             A hand-held sprayer (used to spray off poop from the diaper).  It works like the supplemental hand sprayer on some kitchen sink, but instead it attaches to the existing toilet water supply line.  Check out www.bumgenius.com or for the MacGyver out there you can probably make your own set-up with a trip to the plumbing section at you local hardware store. 
Note: I place this hand sprayer under “optional” but after I used it there was no other option.  The alternative to not using a water sprayer is to dunk the diaper directly into the toilet and agitate by hand. Which is not only messy but will leave you with seriously dry and cracked hands (bless those mothers who used to do it that way).  In a post-WTSHTF scenario you need your hands to be in good shape.  If you decide to use a cloth diaper system with the optional hand held sprayer you will still have to get your hands slightly dirty with the cleaning/wringing, but it will be much less than the dunking method.

Optional Equipment #2
            An unused hand-pump weed sprayer (like the ones found at any hardware store). Why? What if there is no water pressure?  This will provide “off-grid water pressure” in case there is no more water system and the previous toilet hand-held sprayer becomes useless.

How does our system work (with the “optional” hand held sprayer)?

  • When the diaper needs to be change for urine deposits, diapers go straight into the 8 gallon bucket and thrown into the laundry later.  These are the easy diaper changes.  If you want, you can rinse them with the hand held sprayer, although we don’t find this necessary
  • If there is a poop deposit, use a minimal amount of  toilet paper, take off as much poop as possible, and throw that combination straight into the toilet.
  • Now the fun part…Drape the messy diaper inside of the 5 gallon bucket (messy side facing the middle of the bucket)…Turn on the hand held sprayer and start firing.  Note: some poop issues are easier to clean up than others…better aim/technique will come with time…trust me.  If you’re good at the “water sprayer games” at the local fair this will be easy…almost fun. Who am I kidding? You’re spraying water at poop!  But I figure if you having to do this crappy job you might as well make a game of it.  Additionally, instead of getting the satisfaction of winning a big-blue teddy bear, you’ll win the ever incalculably valuable affection of your spouse.
  • When most, if not all, of the poop is off, wring out the cloth diaper and place in the 8 gal “holding” bucket.  When bucket gets full it’s time to do diaper laundry.

Use the black water that is left in the 5 gal “rinsing” bucket to manually flush the toilet.   Another good technique to learn: How to manually flush the toilet from a bucket (without splashing)?  Two keys to that are aim and steady, continuous follow-through.

How does our system work (without the “optional” hand held sprayer?)

  • Same as #1. 
  • This is the really messy part….instead of taking off the poop with toilet paper…you need to dunk the whole diaper with you hands and agitate until it’s all off.  Once again I seriously recommend investing in a hand sprayer.
  • Same as #4 above

Conclusion

While the cloth diaper system requires a little more labor than disposables, there are many advantages:

A.)        Most of all…you’ll have a fully funded “diaper insurance” policy that comes with a sense of peace when you encounter a WTSHT-LOD scenario

B.)        Save money verses disposables (long-term mindset)

C.)        Avoid the last-minute “honey-we’re-out-of-diapers” trip to the store

D.)        Reduce valuable storage space requirements for long-term disposables stash

Note: Even if you were able to buy a stash of disposables. How many cases of different sizes of diapers are you going to have to buy?  What if you have more than 1 child?  You might as well start building a dedicated “diaper storage shed.”  Let me know if you do, I’ll buy some stock in Pampers.

Follow-up note:  Even if you had the cash and storage space for a shed full of diapers, what would you do if you had to G.O.O.D.?  I can see it now, an SUV with a pop-up trailer filled with disposables tearing down the road with a crazed mob of diaperless parents hot on their tail.

E.)        While I would not rely on disposable diapers for my kids, I would think that in a WTSHT-LOD event, disposables (if you have the space to store them) would be a valuable barter item for non-prepared parents.

F.)        If you get the “weed-sprayer” you now have a “grid-down-proof” way of getting pressurized water for not just diaper cleaning but also for rinsing dishes, final bathing rinse in the shower and other water pressure needs.

Letter Re: Some Practical Experience in Dehydrating Vegetables

Hi Jim,
We have been dehydrating foods for a couple of years now and I thought you might like to hear how things went for us.

Green beans are dried down south and are called leather breeches. You can do a Google for recipes. Traditionally you use a sewing needle and sew a string through the green bean and then hang them to dry. We blanched the beans prior to drying in our dehydrator. After the beans were dried we wrapped a handful of the beans in a paper towel and shrink wrapped the package. The paper towel protects the plastic bag from the pointy beans.

To cook, simply soak in water overnight and cook as if you were cooking a fresh green bean. We made ours with pork hock, some shelled dried horticultural beans and potatoes. We cooked them for 12 hours in a crock pot, excellent. Be sure to freeze the beans for three days before putting them in storage because those pesky moths will hatch in them if they are around your area.

Potatoes. We recently came into some free potatoes, some will store in the root cellar but the biggest part needed worked on right away. Scrubbed them, sliced them and placed them in a salt brine for a few minutes.( this helps keep them from turning brown) then into the dehydrator for 24 hours. Dehydration rate is 5:1, for every 5 lbs of fresh potatoes you get 1 lb of dried. The next batch we’ll run through the food processor and make hash browns, then we’ll dry them like the slices. Vacuum packed, these, like the green beans will keep for years.

Tomatoes, we sun dried when there was Sun available and then finished the tomatoes pieces off in the dehydrator. We cut the tomatoes into roughly ¼” wedges and gave them a light coating of salt before setting them out. Use caution as they make a lot of juice at first , we filled a dehydrator without first air drying them in the sun first and drowned the dehydrator in tomato juice. After the wedges are dry but slightly rubbery tightly pack a jar and cover with olive oil. The olive oil keeps the oxygen off the tomatoes, we ate some from last summer last night six months later and they were great.

Eggplant, we sliced, dried and vacuum packed. After soaking in water to rehydrate we found the eggplant was every bit as good as fresh only it was slightly firmer.

We raise our own Shitake mushrooms and when we have a big bloom we will slice and dry these also. If Abigail is making soup the mushrooms will go directly into the pot without soaking first.

We really like drying foods as an addition to our other methods of food preservation; it stores in a smaller area but does require some planning when fixing meals so as to allow enough time to rehydrate. Yours, – John & Abigail Adams

Letter Re: How I Made My iPhone a Useful Survival Reference

Mr. Rawles:
I loved the letter on the iphone. In addition to what LC listed there are also ballistics calculators for the math-challenged like me. (iStrelok is free and works pretty well). One caveat to consider with the mighty smart phone is the fact that it could potentially be used to locate your location and perhaps even as a bug to listen in on conversations. One work-around is to buy an iPod Touch. You loose the phone and GPS features, but you can still carry God’s word and all your multimedia in your pocket!

Thanks again for all you do and God bless, – Red in Oklahoma

JWR Adds: For more detailed ballistics calculations, one of my favorite web sites is JBMBallistics.com. I like their ballistics calculators so much that I included a mention of the site by name in my upcoming sequel to “Patriots” . (Scheduled for release in early 2011.) I recommend developing bullet drop and wind drift tables for the standard loads for each of your centerfire rifles. Print them out on card stock, laminate them to make them weatherproof, and either tape them to your rifle’s buttstock, or carry them in each of your buttstock-mounted ammo/utility pouches.

Economics and Investing:

From GG: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt

Tom W. wrote to mention that he liked a Real Clear Politics piece titled Big Government’s Big Shortfall.

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Up After EU Pledges Support for Greece

Moral Support, But No Money, EU Says to Greece

Oil Up for Fourth Day on Strong International Demand Outlook

The Fed’s “Exit Plan” is Just Another Secret Gift to Wall Street

Jason Kelly Reviews the US and European Economies

Banking and Housing Payments Devoured Middle Class Income

Stocks Fall as Bernanke Points to End of Stimulus

Trade Deficit Jumps Sharply in December

Consumers Spent Modestly in January

Oil Nears $74 as Weak Dollar Offsets High Supplies

EU Officials Wrangle Over Possible Greece Rescue

Greek Bailout Looking Increasingly Likely

British Airways Credit Downgraded by S&P

Think PIGS are in Trouble? These Seven US States Could be Headed for Something Worse

Odds ‘n Sods:

Karen H. forwarded this news item: High sugar prices will soon hit bakeries. Here at SurvivalBlog, we warned you about this as far back as May of 2009. Stock up. (But preferably with more healthy natural sweeteners like honey and stevia.)

   o o o

Bruce T. spotted this in Popular Science magazine: New Armored Wall System Assembles Like Legos, Could Replace Sandbags in Afghanistan. Somehow, I doubt that these Big Boy Legos will ever see much use outside of “Green Zone” roadblock set-ups. Let’s face it: Empty sandbags are cheap, and they fit in a backpack. It is safe to predict that sandbags will still be used for a few more centuries. They’ll just start making them from Kevlar, or goat milk spider silk, or somesuch.

   o o o

The BBC report: GPS to suffer from awakening sun; As the Sun exits its period of solar activity and the numbers of flares increase, users of sat-nav technology will face errors and outages. (A hat tip to Mac The Gadget Guy, for the link.)

   o o o

Don W. sent us an article to file under: Big City OPSEC: Police: Man with weapons cache was preparing for ‘Armageddon’. (This comes from Massachusetts, the birthplace of the American Revolution. My, how times change, and how attitudes differ, regionally. Here in the Unnamed Western State, the sheriff’s deputies would just say : “Nice gun collection”, and “Gee, what a great place to do some pistol practice, when its snowing.” (Or, if inside city limits, they’d probably just issue a stern warning.) Here is William Norman Grigg’s insightful take on this, posted over at the Lew Rockwell blog: Paramilitary Thugs Steal Private Arms Collection.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“As things get worse the next time around, there is going to be violence. When the people realize A.) that what the government has done has been wrong, B.) it hasn’t solved the problem, C.) it has made the problems worse, you are going to see people unhappy, you are going to see social unrest, you are going to see violence, and you will probably see some more governments toppled–no question about that. That may sound like a radical statement; it’s just the way the world has always worked.” – Veteran investment guru Jim Rogers, February, 2010

Letter Re: Post-Collapse Charity OPSEC

James Wesley:
A buddy of mine and I were talking about giving out food in a post-collapse world and it occurred to us what we give out could have an impact on your operational security (OPSEC). Unless you come upon the refugees in the middle of your garden, then they’ll probably think (unless you tell them or give them reason to believe otherwise) that you are in much the same situation that they are in. The type of food you give charitably could be a message in and of itself.

Give them store-bought food standard-form (processed food that can be picked up at a regular grocery store, in #2.5 size cans) and that tells them “I have some food”

Give them store-bought food in bulk-form (#10 cans, bags of rice, grain or any of the such) and that tells them “I have a prepared stockpile of food”

Give them standard garden-fresh vegetables (carrots, lettuce, the “salad foods”) tells them “I have a small source of food”

Give them orchard-grade foods (apples, pomegranates, anything that comes from high-maintenance plants or old-growth plants, or fresh meats other than perhaps deer or common game) says “I have a large and capable food supply”

In the large scheme of things it may be more of an afterthought, but it would be one less thing to draw attention to your group. In my heart I want to help as many people as I can however I can, but my primary responsibility is my family and any others under my care. If people know you have a large source of diverse foodstuffs it makes you an all the more tempting target. Take care, – WPK

JWR Replies: As I’ve mentioned before in SurvivalBlog. in the event of a societal collapse, I plan to distribute charity anonymously, through a third party: my local church. I believe in “giving until it hurts”, but not in getting oneself hurt while trying to give.