20 Things You’ll Need For Survival When The Economy Collapses!
PrepperFortress
Within: Numerous survivalist/prepping articles!
When the economic collapse and the next great depression begin !
Today, millions of Americans say that they believe that The United State is on the verge of a major economic collapse and will soon be entering another Great Depression. Only a small percentage of those same people are prepared for that to happen.
The sad truth is that the vast majority of Americans would last little more than a month on what they have store in their homes. Most of as are so used to running out to the supermarket or to Wal-Mart for whatever we need that we never even stop to consider what would happen if suddenly we were not able to do that.
Already the U.S. is starting to stumble about like a drunken frat boy! All it would take for the entire U.S. to resemble New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is a major war, a terrorist attack, a deadly pandemic or a massive natural disaster to strike at just the right time and push the teetering U.S. economy over the edge.
So just how would you survive if you suddenly could not rely on the huge international corporate giants to feed, clothe and supply you and you family? Do you have a plan ? Unless you already live in a cave or you are a complete and total mindless follower of the established media, you should be able to see very clearly that our society is more vulnerable now then is ever has been.
This year there has been an unprecedented number of large earthquakes around the world and volcanoes all over the globe are awakening. You can just take a look at what has happened in Nepal and to see how devastating a natural disaster can be.
RELATED : 4 Ways to Financially Survive a Natural Disaster
Not only that, but we have a world that is full of lunatics in positions of power, and if one of them decides to set off a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in a major city it could paralyze an entire region.
War could erupt in the Middle East at literally any moment, and if does the price of oil will double or triple (at least) and there is the possibility that much of the entire world could be drawn into the conflict. Scientists tell us that a massive high-altitude EMP (electromagnetic pulse) blast could send large portions of the United States back to the Stone Age in an instant.
In addition, there is the constant threat that the outbreak of a major viral pandemic (such as what happened with the 1918 Spanish Flu) could kill tens of millions of people around the globe and paralyze the economies of the world.But even without all of that, the truth is that the U.S. economy is going to collapse. So just think of what will happen if one (or more) of those things does happen on top of all the economic problems that we are having.
Are you prepared ?
The following is a list of 20 things you and you family will need to survive when the economy totally collapses and the next Great Depression begins….
RELATED : Lindsey Williams – Warning to prepare for an emergency. Stock up on food, water and supplies now!
1) Storable Food ! Food is going to instantly become one of the most valuable commodities in existence in the event of an economic collapse. If you do not have food you are not going to survive. Most American families could not last much longer than a month on what they have in their house right now, how long could you survive on what you have?The truth is that we all need to start storing up food.If you and your family run out of food, you will suddenly find yourselves competing with the hordes of hungry people who are looting the stores and roaming the streets looking for something to eat.
Of course you can grow your own food, but that is going to take time. So you need to have enough food stored up until the food that you plant has time to grow. But if you have not stored up any seeds you might as well forget it.When the economy totally collapses, the remaining seeds will disappear very quickly. So if you think that you are going to needs seeds, now is the time to get them.
2) Clean Water! Most people can survive for a number of weeks without food, but without water you will die in just few days. So where would you get water if the water suddenly stopped flowing out of your taps?
RELATED : Water Storage Tips
Do you have a plan? Is there an abundant supply of clean water near your home? Would you be able to boil water if you need to? Besides storing water and figuring out how you are going to gather water if society breaks down, another thing to consider would be a water purification tablet. The water you are able to gather during a time of crisis may not be suitable for drinking. So you may find that water purification tablets come in very, very handy.
3) Shelter ! You can”t sleep on the streets, can you ? Well, some people will be able to get by living on the streets, but the vast majority of us will need some form of shelter to survive for a long period of time.
So what would you do if you and your family lost your home or suddenly were forced from your home? Where would you go? The best thing to do is to come up with several plans. Do you have relatives that you can bunk with in case own emergency? Do you own a tent and sleeping bags if you had to rough it?If one day everything hits the fan and you and your family have to “bug out”somewhere, where would that be? You need to have a plan.
4) Warm Clothing! If you plan to survive for in a nightmare economic situation, you are probably going to need some warm clothing. If you live in a cold climate, this is going to mean storing up plenty of blankets and cold weather clothes. If you live in a area where it rains a lot, you”ll need to be sure to store up some rain gear. Someday after the economy has collapsed and people are scrambling to survive , a lot of folks are going to end up freezing to death.In fact, in the coldest areas it”s actually possible to freeze to death in your home. Don”t let that happen to you!
5) A Chopping Axe or Hatchet ! Staying along the theme of staying warm, you may want to investing in a good axe. In the event of a major emergency, gathering firewood will be a priority. Without a good cutting tool it would be much more difficult.
6) Lighters or Matches! You”ll also want something to start a fire with. If you cane start s fire, you can cook food, boil water and stay worm . So in a true emergency situation, how do you plan to start a fire? By rubbing sticks together? Now is the time to put away a supply of lighters or matches so that you will be prepared when you really need them. In addition, you may want to consider storing up a good supply of candles.
7) Hiking Boots or Comfortable shoes ! When you ask most people to list things necessary for survival, this is not the first or the second thing that comes to mind. But having hiking boots or comfortable and functional shoes will be absolutely critical. You will also want footwear that will last a long time, because when the economy collapse you may not be able to run out to the shoe store and get what you need!
RELATED : The Multi-Fuel Generator: Don’t Depend on Just Gas…
8) A Flashlight and/or Lantern! When the power goes off in your home, what is the first thing they you grab? Just think about it a flashlight or a lantern of course. in a major emergency, a flashlight or a lantern is going to be a necessity.Solar powered or “generator” flashlight or a lantern will probably be the best during a long-term emergency. If you have battery-powered units you will want to begin storing up lots and lots of batteries.
9) A Radio! if a major crisis does hit the United States, what will you and your family want? Among other things , you will all want to know what in the world is going on. A radio can be an invaluable tool for keeping up with the news.Once again one “generator” will probably work best for the long term.
10) Communication Equipment ! When thing really hit the fan you are going to want to communicate with your family and friends.Having an emergency cell phone is great, but it may or may not work during a time of crisis.
11) A Swiss Army Knife! If you have ever owned a Swiss Army knife you probably already know how incredibly handy they can be. It can be a very valuable and versatile tool.Make sure that you have at least one stored up for emergencies.
RELATED : Surviving Armageddon: Creating an End of the World Survival Pack
12) Personal Hygiene Items! While these may not be absolute “essentials”, the truth is that life will get very unpleasant very quickly without them. For example, what would you do without toilet paper? What would you do? The truth is that a soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper and other hygiene products are things that we completely take for granted in society today. So what would happen if we could not go out and buy them any longer?
13) A First Aid Kid and Other Medical Supplies ! On a more serious note, you may not be able to access a hospital or contact a doctor during a major crisis.In your supplies, be absolutely certain that you have a good first aid kid and other medical supplies that you think you may need.
RELATED : List of ‘Collapse’ Medical Supplies
14) Extra Gasoline ! There may come a day when gasoline is rationed or is simply not available. If that happens, how will you get around? Be certain to have some extra gasoline stored away just in a case you really needing to get somewhere someday.
15) A Sewing Kit ! If you were not able to run out and buy new clothes that you have and make them last as long as possible. Without a good sewing kit that will be very difficult to do.
16 ) Self-Defense Equipment! Whether it is pepper spray to fend off wild animals or something more “robust” to fend off wild humans, millions of Americans will one day be thankful that they have something to defend themselves with.
17) A Compass ! In the event of a major emergency you may find yourselves having to be on the move. If you”re in a wilderness area it will be very hard to tell what direction you”re heading without a compass. It”s always a good idea to have one available.
18) A Hiking Backpack ! If you and your family suddenly have to “bug out” what you will carry all of your survival supplies in? Having a good hiking backpack or ‘survival bag” for everyone in your family is extremely important.
19) A Community ! Don”t think you can do your own or you may find yourself robbed, beaten, raped on even killed! Loners will have an extremely hard time surviving once the local food banks, and Government assisted programs run out of supplies. During a long-term crisis , it is those how are willing to work together that will have the best chances of making it.
20 ) A Backup Plan! Lastly it is always, always, always important to have a backup plan for everything. If someone comes in and steals all the food that you stored up, what are you going to do?If you have built your house into an impregnable survival fortress but circumstances force you to leave to do you have an alternate plan?The truth is that crisis situation rarely unfold just as we envision!
The United States economy is going to collapse and incredibly hard times are coming!!
Five Key Foods For Survival
Five Key Foods For Survival
If you had to focus on just 5 key foods for survival, what would they be?Why even discuss this type of question? My website’s focus on how to organize things in 5 key dimensions. The rational is the number “5″ is an optimal number to manage against. A list of 4 or fewer items doesn’t provide sufficient coverage and details. Six or more items start to become unmanageable. Despite our modern thinking and use of electronics to conduct multi-tasking, the human brain works very well when focused on once subject at time. This is true for men in general. If my wife asks me what I’m thinking, the response will be commonly, “nothing”. This is hard for women to accept, but men are often think about nothing. It’s not because men are dense, stupid or simple. It’s just that men will periodically give their brains short rest, then return to the task at hand. If you ask me to focus on one thing at a time, the task will be completed with strong quality. Ask me to concurrently juggle 5 things at a time, all five will get finished with poor quality.
RELATED : 5 Key Foods for Long Term Food Storage
But if given a list 5 things to do today, I’ll knock them out one at a time. Less than 5 accomplishment in a day makes me feel unproductive. More than 5 task on my to-do list, then the day starts to get overwhelming. Thus I like the number 5 as a balance to getting a lot of work done. It is particular point of view, but it works for me. Everyone can form their own judgment about how to be effective in their work of the day.
If you could focus on 5 key foods as preparations for disasters and survival, what would they be? I’ll offer a perspective here.
RELATED : Economic Collapse Survival Map – Risk Analysis of best area in United States
For food storage programs (especially in the suburbs and cities):
- Milk – Powdered and shelf-stablized milk provides a lot of nutrition. Nitrogen packed low-fat milk from a reliable provider will last for 10 years. Shelf-stablized milk in the non-refrigerated sections of the grocery store can last for 6 months to a year. Regular, boxed-packed powdered milk will last for 1 or 2 years. Milk is especially important for children and women, who need the calcium for growth and bone preservation. Milk should be one of your key and first priorities for food storage.
- Spam luncheon meat or canned tuna – Take your choice. Tuna will be a bit healthier. Spam will be more calorie dense. Needed dietary fats are hard to store for a long periods of time. Of any food components, fats go bad first. Then proteins. Then complex carbohydrates. And then simple sugars. Spam and canned tuna will store for up to 5 years.
- Spaghetti pasta – Pasta is inexpensive, easy to store, and stores well for a couple of years. Pasta is a great way to fill a stomach and provide a lot of calories. In the spaghetti form, pasta takes very little space. You can fit 4 one pound bags of spaghetti into one box of rigatoni.
- Mixed Vegetables in cans – To get a broad range of vitamins and mineral, an effective catch-all are cans of mixed vegetables. It can be cans of peas and carrots. Or the generic cans of mixed vegetables with beans, carrots, peas, potatoes, whatever is mixed in. One of the best ways to provide a hot meal in a disaster / WROL situation is the one-pot meals. Soups or stews of combined foods is a very effective way to provide a balanced, diverse, and easy to prepare meal. A big pot of soup or stew can feed a big family.
- Peanut butter – Peanut butter is a super food. It is among the most calorie dense food you can find. Peanut butter has a shelf life of about one year, so it must be rotated. There are some providers of long-term stored foods who offer wet peanut butter which stores longer than a year. And dried, powdered peanut butter is very available. If peanut butter doesn’t appeal to you, then substitute cans of beans.
With just these five foods above, you and your family can survival for a long time with good health and energy.
RELATED : Energy is the Key to Survival
For homesteaders and food producers
- Potatoes – Potatoes are relatively easy to grow, store well over a winter, grows in cooler climates, and is very calorie dense. Potatoes are easy to digest for young children and those adults with digestion problems. A small patch of potatoes can produce a lot of calories.
- Chickens – For meat, eggs, and garden fertilizer, chickens are low-input, high-output food source. Chickens eat just about anything, including bugs, garden scraps, table scraps, and grasses. Chickens and their eggs provide a fantastic source of protein and needed fats. Chickens reproduce naturally, but better with some control with the separation of the rosters and hens. Back in the 1st Great Depression of the 1930′s, the hen-house kept many people out of the poor house.
- Root vegetables – Like potatoes, other root vegetables provide a lot of calories and vitamins within just a small growing space. Carrots are my family’s favorite vegetable – cooked, raw, in soups, and stews. Please refer to my past write-up on root vegetables: Root Vegetables – The most important items in your garden
- Milk – From cows, goats, sheep, and even camels, milk is a valuable resource. From milk, can make cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, and as an ingredient for many cooking and baking recipes.
- Beans – Bean poles are a great way to provide a lot of calories and nutrition. There are a lot of diversity in the types of beans, so likely you can find one that grows well in your region. Much of the world, especially Latin America, relies on beans and rice as their staple food. Rice is a challenge for most to grow. Nearly everyone can grow beans in a small garden patch. Once dried, beans store very well over a winter.
These five foods above are good candidates for homesteaders and back-yard gardeners. With these five foods alone, you’ll achieve a high-level of food self-reliance.
What would you add to this list. Please drop a comment with your ideas.
May your stomachs and heads be always filled with quality.(source)
Top 5 Emergency Survival Radios
One of the most often overlooked basic necessities for serious prepping is the self-contained ESR (Emergency Survival Radio).
You might have been of the mindset that everything you need to know about emergencies in your area can be discovered with a couple swift moves of your index finger on you smartphone or tablet. Or on the breaking news channel on your nice high-definition flat screen TV.
And if for some reason those weren’t working, you could always resort to your reliable little AM/FM radio you keep somewhere in one of the kitchen cabinets. If it was good enough to pull in George Noory on ‘Coast to Coast AM’, in those wee hours of the morning when you couldn’t sleep and sat up sipping your hot cocoa waiting for the sun to rise, it should be good to go for some emergency update when you needed it, right?
Wrong. What if the emergency was a major power outage?
An EMP, or any number of catastrophic events which causes electricity to be the first casualty of the day?
If you don’t have a battery radio with fresh batteries, or the ability to recharge without plugging it in, you might not have it working good enough or at all, just when you need it the most. Like you’re hearing unusual explosion type sounds in the distance and you are trying to make a critical decision of bugging out or not, and need to know what‘s going on in your immediate area and the extent of the situation.
Batteries will usually be dead or too weak if they’ve been sitting too long in your radio. And standard small AM/FM radios have limited local range for the most part, and if the broadcasting origins are standard commercial stations, they simply might not be broadcasting any emergency details that would help you. Or they might be ’out of order’ themselves due to the emergency.
ESRs are intentionally purposed for off grid survival and not to be confused with a weather radio only. ESR’s perform some additional necessary functions in a bad situation.
Depending on the extent of the disaster scenario and what or who caused it, cell phone transmission capability might be also be dead. Governments now have terminal site kill switches for the servers, and cell towers are easily manually/computer disabled or sabotaged. They have been working on an internet ’kill switch’ and likely have it already. The G, of course, already has its own proprietary parallel internet and secured closed satellite communications systems, and doesn’t care if you can’t use yours. You need something better.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other dedicated radio stations are ubiquitous and independent of standard commercial television and internet program transmissions.
Even after a major EMP event, if your ESR has the capability to reach out you’ll still likely find some broadcasts coming through somewhere to inform you of what is happening. This will be increased with advanced bandwidth and reception capabilities especially if your ESR receiver has short wave capabilities.
All ESRs Are Better than Nothing, but Some Are Much Better
An emergency radio usually means that it works in any emergency where standard equipment does not, because it doesn’t depend on the normal modes of operation like cell phones and other methods of info reception. It doesn’t need to be used through the standard power grid or even utilize batteries if they become dead and replacements are not available.
A good emergency radio will have at least two ways to power it. Most are battery operated but also have a hand crank dynamo/charger, but the better ones include all four power options:
- Basic AC outlet plug-in
- DC batteries
- A hand cranking power/charging dynamo
- Solar charging panels.
So the best ESRs will have the above functions and also a wide band range, possibly even a short wave reception capability with a NOAA weather specific service, be relatively compact and light enough to fit in your bug out plans, AND…not break the equipment funding bank!
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration it’s a scientific action group that monitors all the weather and provides your television stations with the satellite photos they use for their own weather programs. A NOAA receiving radio is your best source of direct in progress weather information, even better than TV or standard radio weather forecasts, which broadcast on a prescheduled program because you can tune it only to instant live updates of your local areas anytime of the day.They are linked to dedicated local weather ‘spotters’ or equipment to determine on the spot wind speeds, rainfall, etc. And most radios with NOAA channels also have an option panic alert which sets off a beeping or loud alert tone if a bad storm, tornado watch or warning, or meteorite, volcano eruption, earthquake, UFO landings, attacking cannibal Zombie group, or escaped zoo lion is heading your way.
I’ve had dozens of various models and although there are many out there and some of you might have your own ideas or requirements, these choices represent my own opinion based on versatility, capability, and cost effectiveness. Yes, you can get some two hundred dollars plus models in weather radios because they have concert quality Bose style speakers and best reception antennas available, but a lot of these don’t have the above survival criteria. I can’t qualify it as a true ESR unless it at least has some sort of backup power supply and a NOAA alert option.
While there will always be differences of opinion depending upon subjective experience and other factors, this is just a list of what most survival people currently consider to be the most popular best bang for the buck.
But with technology changing so rapidly, who knows what better stuff is coming down the road? And if you don’t have one yet, at least get something now, and it never hurts to have another cooler one for back up later on when they come out with something that also has a built in satellite TV, tablet, and beer cooler.
1. Top Alert Emergency Solar and Crank Dynamo Radio
If you want an ‘almost’ pocket size compact ESR with no less than SIX ways to power/charge it, with a NOAA function and alert and flashlight AND for the least expense, this might be it, and it costs only 35 bucks!
2. Kaito KA500-600 series 5-way powered emergency AM/FM NOAA Short Wave Emergency Radio
The biggest difference is in the digital or analogue display versions and some interesting options like SW reception. Some preppers think it’s better to have the analogue frequency display because it might be less susceptible to damage or failure to display.
3. C. Crane CC Solar Observer Emergency Radio
4. Compact Kaito Vogager DX KA 360 Solar Crank AM/FM NOAA Weather Alert Emergency Radio
It’s hard to beat Kaito radios for bang for the buck and decent quality judging from their popularity growth in the last couple of years. This is their smaller pocket carry model with multiple features for its size like a solar panel it can run off directly without batteries. And it has a stand-by mode that automatically starts the radio message if the government is issuing one of those emergency alerts you sometimes hear over standard broadcasts as a ‘test’ with that raspy bleep noise. Can’t beat it for around 30 bucks.
This is the ’Swiss Army Knife’ of ESRs, and one of the lightest and most compact models with good additional function we’ve come across. If you must have one for minimalist use only due to you absence of a non-permanent BOL or to carry in a solo back pack bug out scenario. This would be a good one to have for all its additional utility for around 40 bucks on E-bay or Amazon.
Again, you can search the Web and see dozens of different ESR models to pick the one that most suits you. And there are decent big brand names like Midland and Cobra mainly known for their compact two-way communications radios sold in Home Depot and elsewhere, but they also make NOAA weather alert and perhaps by now they have an ESR model.
And there are even some dirt cheap ones with NOAA service for under 15 bucks which are better than nothing, so check them out, read the reviews, and get one you like that best suit you and your situation. There’s really no excuse not to have a dedicated ESR these days. Once you get used to using it for direct weather forecasts and alerts in your area, you’ll appreciate it even more.
We always take a lot for granted in our lives. But catastrophic disasters you never expected–and were not prepared for–will always derail that train of complacency and normalcy bias the hard way for you. You won’t believe how lonely and frightening it will be when you don’t have a clue about what’s immediately going on in the world around you when the S finally does HTF.
This article has been written by Mahatma Muhjesbude for Survivopedia.
Underestimated Survival Skills That Will Save Your Life When the SHTF
Whether you’re thinking about the basic skills that might be needed to deal with a sudden emergency in daily life or planning to survive the collapse of civilization, there are a number of talents that can be very handy when everything goes bad quickly. It’s easy to think that having a cell phone on-hand and car with enough gas to get you to the next state will be enough, but that supposes that someone will be there when you call or when you arrive. In most cases, it’s better to have practiced those survival skills before you need. Let’s take a look at a handful of survival skills that don’t get the credit that they deserve.
Sewing
Sewing can seem like such a simple and boring thing, so why would a survivalist ever need to know it? Survivalists are big and cool types who go off having adventures. People who sew are grandmas, right?Imagine one day you’re out in the woods, taking a long hike. You fall, and the sharp edge of a rock rips your leg open. It’s bleeding profusely, and you realize that you have to get it closed up right away. Sewing the wound is the first order of business under such circumstances. (Meaning with a suture kit, not a needle and thread.)
Sewing also comes in handy when you need shelter. You can take pieces of fleece fabrics and stitch them together quickly into a tarp or a tent. Clothes are also likely to get ripped or worn out, and a person who’s good with a needle can make repairs quickly.
High Angle Rescue
Being able to go down a cliff can be a surprisingly useful skill, even in the modern world. This process is more technically know as “high angle rescue,” and it’s used all the time to recover people who’ve fallen down holes, over the sides of cliffs and into other places that may be hard to access. It’s a skill that requires serious practice in advance of real-world use, and you should never attempt it without proper training. If you want to truly be good at this skill you can hire safety consultants to teach you about high angle rescue and all of the ways in which you can be trained to be the ultimate prepper.Hunting
In a long-term survival scenario, you’re going to need some protein, and that ultimately means that you’re going to have to kill something to get it. Eventually, all those nice fleece fabrics you have for exercise are also going to wear out, and one of the quickest ways to get new clothing is to take it off of the back of an animal. In most scenarios, the animals probably aren’t going to be standing around waiting to be sheered.Hunting is another skill, like high angle rescue, at least in the sense that you don’t want to have to figure it out on the fly. That means obtaining a weapon and ammunition learning how to put them to use. Whether you intend to use a gun or a bow and arrow, it’s wise to become familiar with the weapon. Take a training course and find a target range, and when hunting season comes around, go out in the woods with a knowledgeable person and kill something.
Gardening and Raising Livestock
Hunting requires spending a lot of energy, and there’s a reason that settled human populations eventually overran everyone else who hunted. Gardening is, at its base, subsistence farming. Growing your fruits and vegetables not only saves you from having to hunt as much, but it also provides nutrients for your diet that you might not otherwise obtain. Just as sailing vessels at sea once encouraged their crews to avoid scurvy by consuming fresh fruits and veggies, your garden can save your from crippling diseases in a time of deprivation.Raising livestock is also a worthwhile enterprise. In a difficult survival scenario, smaller animals represent smaller risks. Stick with animals like chickens or goats in order to avoid the dangers of being gored by a bull.
Preservation
When you have lots of food, it’s prudent to prepare it for those times when you expect to have nothing. There are a slew of ways to keep foods for longer periods of time. Canning preserved fruits and vegetables is still popular in many rural cultures. You’ll also be amazed to learn how many ways there are to preserve meat, from drying it out with smoke to packing it with salt.
Related posts:
- Make Your Harvest Last Longer By Building a Root Cellar
- The Survival Garden: Making The Shovel Your Weapon Of Choice
- Before Your Trip to Grandma’s
- Proper Preparation
The Prepper’s Disaster Communications Plan…
You are at home waiting on the cable guy on a drizzly Monday morning. You relax in the quiet house since your spouse is at work, older kid away at college and younger kid in school. You settle in with a nice cup of coffee and the paper, when suddenly the TV show is interrupted for a breaking news bulletin. There have been terrorist attacks in your state capital and two other cities nearby. You grab your cell phone and get a polite message that the system is experiencing technical difficulties and to please try your call again later.
Your home phone has the same problem because it uses Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and the internet is down. This means no emails either. What do you do? Do you try to pick up the child at the local school? Do you try to make the hour drive to the college to pick up your older child? What will your spouse do? Would you make it to the college only to find that your child had left for home or that your spouse had already picked her up? The best solution in this case would be to have a plan already in place for how to handle the situation and how to communicate when conventional methods fail.
In an emergency whether it is a deliberate act or act of nature, communications can be disrupted. Not only can an increased load on the system cause failures, but the emergency at hand could damage the infrastructure. Storms take out towers and lines all the time. Terrorists could intentionally target communications infrastructure. Not only does it cause a panic when people can’t contact loved ones, but it also prevents people from coordinating to resist them....
Read the whole article here
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/preppers-disaster-communications-plan/
5 Ways to Introduce Your Kids to Preparedness
In the hustle and bustle of the today’s busy life, it is hard to keep up with your preps. It is so easy to get distracted with everyday life and forget all about your food storage, financial security, bug-out strategies, and many other topics important to preppers.
This is especially true if you have children and have the extra time eaters of school, homework, and kids activities. So when you finally have a spare moment to work on your preps, it is often when the kids are not around.
Preparedness is one of the most important values we can teach our children. It can help them become confident, responsible adults and help ensure they survive the disasters little and big throughout their lives.
Here are some ways that you can introduce you children to prepping that will stay with them for a lifetime.
Read Survivor Books
One of the best ways to excite your children about survivalism and preparedness is to spark their imagination. A good book can capture the imagine of a child and keep them focus on a topic for weeks, months, and even years. It stays with them well beyond when they are finished with reading it, carrying over into their thoughts, artwork, and play. It can lead to them asking you many questions, which is the perfect opportunity for you to teach them your preparedness values while they are receptive.
A quick check search on various survival related blogs and websites will results in many ideas for books for your kids. Also, be sure to talk with your local librarian as they know a wide range of lesser known books. Another great start are some of my favorites such as Swiss Family Robinson, My Side of the Mountain, Little House on the Prairie, and The City of Ember.
Make a First-Aid Kit
A great exercise that you can do with your child is building a first aid kit. Every parent knows the importance of having a good supply of bandages on hand for all of the natural scrapes and cuts that kids get on a daily basis. Bringing the child into the decision-making process for stocking the first-aid kit will give them ownership and teach them valuable lessons.Start by reviewing the first-aid supplies you have on hand with your child. Then with your help, you can have them make a list of all of the additional things you would need to make it complete. Once this is complete, take them to the store with you on a special trip just to buy the first-aid supplies. Finally, you assemble the kit with your child and place it in an easily accessible place.
Now the next time they are injured, you can easily grab the first-aid kit they made. They will see firsthand the planning they did in action. You can even emphasize it further by telling them how easy it is with everything they could possibly need right there.
Remember to repeat this process every six months to keep the first-aid kit well stocked and to reinforce the message of preparedness to you children.
When developing your first-aid kit, I recommend that it contains at least many bandages of different sizes, several instant ice-packs, antibiotic ointment, scissors, tweezers, oral thermometer, antiseptic wipes, and a couple lollipops. I also recommend that you have one for the house and a separate one for each vehicle.
Cooking
Food storage is at the heart of most preppers inventory. However, this is a topic that is difficult to pique the interest of most children. Cooking, on the other hand, can be exciting and delicious. And a way to start your kids down the path to thinking about food.
A fun exercise is to pick your kids favorite recipe, that is not a boxed meal, and cook it together with them. Start be reviewing the recipe with them and write down a list of all of the needed ingredients. Even if you already have the ingredients on hand, go to the store to buy just the items on the list. This will help build the excitement and keep them focused on the goal of cooking the meal.
Once back home, begin cooking the meal together. Make sure to have your child participate in every step of the process. For older children, you can have them cook the entire meal with you standing next to them to offer guidance only. When it is finished, you can sit down as a family to enjoy the meal together.
Learning to cook is an important skill that everyone should possess. It is also a solid confidence and self-esteem builder based on achieving something instead of just being.
Remember to start small and build. This is a great thing to turn into a weekly event such as Tuesday is Kids Cook Night!
Camping Trip
Going camping is an excellent fun, family activity. If you are a prepper, chances are they you already go on at least one camping trip per year. Getting your children involved in the planning is a great way to get their brains focused on preparedness.
Like all preparedness activities, the best way to start is with a list. Sit down with your children and discuss the upcoming camping trip and develop a list of everything that you would need. Write down any food, cooking supplies, clothing, tent, sleep gear, first-aid kit, and toys and other stuff for activities that they think are needed.
As they begin, they are bound to forget something that would be wanted. For younger children you can remind them and keep the list with all of the essentials. For older children, you can let them forget and give them the important lesson of a weekend without something. A weekend without a pillow is a great way to never forget again.
Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts
There is no organization more aligned with the values of preppers than one whose motto is “Be Prepared!”. I was a Boy Scout when I was a little boy and all of my four daughters were in Girl Scouts when were younger. Both organizations are great avenues for kids to learn and explore wilderness and preparedness topics.One of the very best aspects about the Scouts is that it is a great way for your kids to make friends in your community. Most troops are assembled with kids in the same school district and meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. The meetings typically last around one to two hours depending on the meeting frequency. Spending time doing activities with the same kids week after week all year-long often results in friendships that continue outside of scouts. Which in turn leads to most interest in scouts to spend time with those friends.
All of the activities in scouts are oriented around positive and important lessons for children ranging from science to community stewardship to wilderness survival. It is also very common for troops to have an annual camp out. The specific activities for each troop greatly depend on the leader, which is a good reason to volunteer as much as possible to help choose the ones you like best.
Children also view their scout leader as an outside authority figure similar to a teacher. They often times, frustratingly, listen to them on how to do things better than you as the parent. This is especially true for teenage children. But by having them involved in Scouts, you are using this natural tendency to your advantage by having the lessons and activities be the same preparedness values you want to instill in them yourself.
Are “Long-Term” Storage Foods That Important?
This is going to fly in the face of a lot of what you’ve likely read or heard with regards to food storage but here goes: You don’t need to invest a ton of money into buying special “long-term” foods. Seriously, you really don’t. In fact, for many people doing so is just a bad idea all the way around.
A common question is some variation of, “What foods store the longest?” There are some foods, such as dried rice, honey, salt, and sugar, which will last essentially forever as long as they are protected from critters and the elements. They’ve found jars of honey, still perfectly preserved, sitting next to mummies several thousands of years old. That said, kinda hard to survive on just rice and honey.
Here’s the thing, folks. Shelf life, while important, falls far behind a few other considerations when choosing what to store. First and foremost is taste and personal preference. It makes absolutely ZERO sense to store food you don’t like to eat. I don’t care if you found it at an incredible price. If you don’t want to eat it now, you aren’t going to want to eat it later. Choose food items that you enjoy.
Honestly, there is such a variety out there today, it would be foolish to do otherwise.
Many of the foods we eat regularly also happen to have long shelf lives. The aforementioned rice is a great example. Dried beans and canned goods are also commonly found in kitchens and pantries from coast to coast. These types of foods will last a long time and you’re already accustomed to eating them. Add a few extra bags or cans to your cart each time you go shopping and build up the supply slowly.
Second, choose foods that agree with you. We all have things we dearly love to eat but we pay for later, right? I mean, I love bananas but even just a few bites of one will give me stomach pains. If you’re considering adding a new food to your storage plan, try it first. Make sure it doesn’t give you indigestion. Disaster recovery is stressful enough without adding tummy troubles to the mix.
Another thing to keep in mind is that many, though certainly not all, of these special “long-term” foods require water to prepare. Water might be in limited supply, depending upon the nature of the disaster. Do you really want to be forced to choose between drinking the water and using it to prepare the only food you have on hand? If you’re going to invest in these long-term foods, plan ahead and be sure to store extra water as well.
Many long-term foods aren’t the healthiest things on the planet, either. Frequently they are loaded with sodium, which not only isn’t very good for you but will make you thirsty, causing you to consume more water. Now, I will freely admit I’m far from the healthiest eater on the planet so don’t take this as a pot meet kettle situation. But, you need to go into a food storage plan with both eyes wide open. If you’re going to rely upon these long-term foods as a primary source of sustenance, you’re going to suffer from some nutritional deficiencies unless you also stock up on vitamins and such.
A lot of these products are also fairly expensive. For the cost of one case (12 units) of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), I could feed my family of five for several days. The food would be healthier, too.
Here’s one of my big issues with these special long-term storage foods. A proper food storage plan will incorporate regular rotation. Meaning, you use the food and replenish it as you go along. However, these long-term foods don’t encourage that practice. In fact, the whole point is that you can buy a few cases and they’ll be good for 25 years or more, right? This, to my mind, is the lazy man’s way to preparedness.
Now, with all of that said, I’m not suggesting you abandon any plans of buying these products. They have their place in some scenarios. You just need to determine for yourself if the long-term food option is right for you. What I suggest to most people is to concentrate their food storage plan on the things they already eat regularly but also have a stable shelf life, such as rice, dried beans, dried pasta, and canned goods. Then, add some long-term storage foods as a backup.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/
The
Official ORDER of the EAGLE Page
Please share blogs and help spread information Crusaders!
TradCatKnight is the most viewed
& followed traditional catholic page worldwide.
This is the HOME of the New Crusade
keeping you up to date on the latest Endtime
News stories worldwide as we head closer to the GREAT CHASTISEMENTS foretold by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima.
Please Help Keep TradCatKnight Alive
& Growing:
Donate below for a chance to win a
gift via TradCatKnight’s
Monthly raffle. Minimum contribution
is 20$ for the raffle.
Winner announced on every last radio
show of the month!
It's good to see this list of preparation. But I believe that my trust in Christ is sufficient for the days of survival.
ReplyDelete