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Category: Preparedness

When the abnormal becomes everyday reality

The following letter comes from Helen, who lives in Greece. “William” is a reader of this blog who has spent years urging preparedness on her. She writes about the demonstrations and riots in her country and how quickly the unnatural can become the natural, the abnormal the normal. Pundits debate endlessly about whether the U.S. economy is going to end up like or unlike Greece’s. Whichever way you bet, the future doesn’t exactly look rosy. Might as well listen to voices of experience, just as Helen listened to William’s warnings about preparedness. I’m reprinting this with thanks to Helen, who…

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Preparedness backup reference library

The KTD Project is an effort to put over 600 preparedness and survival texts onto bootable thumb drives or SD cards. The idea is to be able to carry a vast store of resources anywhere and access it on even some pretty inadequate equipment. (Yes, paper would be even more accessible in primitive conditions — if we weren’t talking about such a huge volume.) Mark (aka GreyLocke), who’s been pulling this together, has pretty comprehensive instructions at the link above. I’ve queried him about access to the library for people who may not want to deal with the tech stuff.…

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Monday links

Tribes. (Aka help Tam, Queen of Snark, and maybe win some cool gunstuff.) Hm. Happy life? Meaningful life? Choices … choices … How to devise more secure passwords. (Yeah, we’ve been here before; always a good reminder, though.) I know some cynics think Obama and Eric Holder will kill recreational cannabis in Washington and Colorado. They’ll try. But this is a battle they’re going to lose. The new legalization is already making waves in Mexico. And having a very, very real effect on prosecutions in Washington state. Hey, look! Europe has turned the corner and is headed for financial stability!…

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Preparedness priorities: First aid, part II

This is another guest blog from Will Kone, aka BusyPoorDad. His first installment is here. —– What are the minimal items to have in a first aid kit? We have all seen the ads, heard the sales pitches, wallowed in the fear-mongering marketing. “You MUST have this special kit! Your life depends on it!” Which is why companies who sell specialized first-aid kits feel they have to charge so much for stuff they sell. After all, it must be great, it costs a whole lot! I have nothing against making money selling stuff. And there is value in having someone…

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Election, Sandy, and California Joe on freezers and generators

Can we all get back to normal now, after that amazingly anticlimactic election? But speaking of things not being back to normal, some folks are still reeling after Hurricane Superstorm Sandy. Even one frequent commenter here at the blog still hasn’t been heard from, and while that could be just because he’s not talking to us, he and his family were near “ground zero” New Jersey — where some folks are still reportedly without power, reliable food supplies, or running water, 10 days after the storm hit. So much for the old “three-day” supply recommendations. Maddeningly, many government sources are…

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Preparedness priorities: First aid, part I

This is a guest post from Will Kone, aka BusyPoorDad, whose bio appears at the end of the column. Though he is busy indeed, he has huge expertise in the areas of first aid and emergency management. He has agreed to write a series of articles on those and related topics. These will appear irregularly, as he has time and gets the inspiration to write them. BTW, I will be returning to the topic of water storage; just not sure when. Will’s post on what to have in a first-aid kit will appear later this week. —– Where to learn…

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The apple saga continues

Community cider pressing pot-luck last weekend! I wasn’t there, but furrydoc took along a box of apples from my tree and took these pictures: First the apples were washed, either in a dilute bleach bath or a vinegar bath (for those who didn’t like the idea of bleach on their apples). Then into the grinder and the press. The juice went into buckets. The pulp was caught in cheesecloth and taken to the host family’s animals. The juice … … is incredible. And I’m not just saying that because it has my very own backyard apples in it. My apples…

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Preparedness priorities, part VI

Storing water Again, I’m going to deal with the simple stuff here. I won’t cover things like rainwater catchment systems, homemade water towers, or underground cisterns. Once again, I’m just sticking with things anybody could do simply. The most basic thing Everybody should have a few days supply of water in every vehicle and every bug-out bag. The “official” recommendation is a three-day supply. A week is better, but water is heavy and three days supply will get you through most mobile emergencies. As with everything else, we need to evaluate our own circumstances and needs. Do you live in…

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Good luck with Sandy

With post-Sandy comments You folks on the mid and upper east coast — batten down the hatches and good luck with that b***h, Sandy. I hadn’t been taking the Sandy reports very seriously. (How many media-touted mega-storms fizzle every year?) But this morning I heard a normally dispassionate meteorologist here in the west compare Sandy to The Perfect Storm of 1991 — only worse. Then he likened it to the west coast’s Columbus Day Storm. That one remains the biggest “wind event” to hit the U.S. since records have been kept; even the fringes of it, which I experienced as…

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Tell me about emergency generators

Yesterday morning somebody had an offer up at the post office: Troy-Built 5500-watt generator, Briggs & Stratton motor, six years old, hardly used, $350. I’m not buying this generator because it doesn’t have an electronic start. I know from daily experience at the Desert Hermitage that if my life depended on successfully cord-starting a generator, they’d soon find my mouldering bones in the sand, cord still grasped in my skeletal fingers. (I have no problem starting a lawn mower, but that generator we had for a while: &^%$#@!) Fortunately, we mostly had electric starters. Other than at the Hermitage, where…

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