I almost did not write todays post. Took the wife shopping earlier today and then took my third grand daughter shooting tonight and, at my age, those activities wore me out. However I was thinking about some simple and fairly inexpensive ways to get yourself better prepared.
First covers a question that every new survivalist has and it's "where/how do I begin to prepare?". The simple answer is just to begin, but that's copping out on an honest question. My suggestion is to pick a time frame, let's say a week. You want enough goods on hand to keep your family secure and well fed. So look at what you'd need to take care of ALL your needs for a week and then build up your stockpile to cover it. But don't stop with a weeks worth of food, that isn't the complete answer. You also need a weeks worth of personal hygiene products, including and especially the venerable toilet paper. Yes there are alternatives to T.P., but somehow I just don't see any modern America using them right from the git-go. Then you'll need a weeks worth of cleaning supplies, disease is right around the corner of every emergency and keeping your area clean, most importantly the food prep and eating areas, is essential. In every emergency I know of, power is gone immediately. So can you light up your home for a week without electricity? The same question covers cooking. If the basic services are gone, can you cook the food your family needs without the use of your stove? Water, the average amount of water a person needs per day for drinking and cooking is 1 gal. Notice that doesn't include personal hygiene or simply flushing the toilet. have you access to a good water supple and is it clean? If not, how will you purify it? What if someone sees the light in you house and decides he needs your supplies more then your family does? Can you protect you family and life saving supplies? For that matter, what will you do if a small fire ignites into one that consumes the entire house, including ALL your supplies? If a small fire starts, do you have a fire extinguisher on hand to keep it from destroying everything. These are just some of the things you need to consider when you begin prepping and need a starting point. So, using these hopefully helpful questions and applying them to you plan for survival and make sure you have as many avenues covered as you can. Once you have enough to cover your family's needs for that time span, increase the time span and start all over again. But do not skimp on anything or skip over something non-glamorous like cleaning supplies and over stock in the sexy areas like guns or ammo. An unbalanced stockpile means that when it comes time to use those items you've been keeping won't be there when needed. Last I heard they haven't revoked Murphy's Law yet, so plan for a visit, or two, from the little imp when TEOTWAWKI occurs.
Speaking of water, you have more on hand then you may realize. Every home I know of has both a water heater and a water pressure tank. Each holds anywhere from 20 to 60 gallons of clean water and are fairly easy to tap into if you have the right tools to do so. There are several gallons available in the toilet tank, NOT THE BOWL. Myself I'd use the toilet tank for cleaning up a mess someplace along with bleach, but never for cooking or drinking. Anyway, the two tanks mentioned above may hold as much as 80 or more gallons of useable water. For a family of 4 that means you have 20 days of drinking/cooking water at your fingertips. If the event lasts longer then those 20 days, how will you get more good drinking water for your family. The easiest way is to get it from a near by stream, river or lake and then purify it. Just make sure the water is from a fresh water supply and isn't salt water. Salt water can be cleaned so it is drinkable, but the process is long and fairly labor intensive. My suggestion is to get a good water filter system that uses either charcoal filters or reverse osmosis to purify the water. Or strain out as much of whatever is floating in the river water and then boil it for 15 minutes minimum at a roiling boil. Whatever method you decide on, and I'd suggest you have several ways to purify the water, you need to do sample runs of the system to be sure you understand what your doing and to become proficient at it. As a matter of fact I think every prepper should hold practice sessions for every level and method of survivalism before the use of that technique becomes needed. Practice makes perfect after all.
An inexpensive method of carrying extra ammo with you is to utilize items like stripper clips to carry ammo of a different caliber then they were intended for. As an example the stripper clips for the M16 in 5.56 will also hold 9MM pistol rounds. The rounds will slide in just like the original ammo and allows it to be carried in a pants pocket quietly and still gives you quick access to it. Or use the stripper clips for an AK47 in 7.62X39 to carry extra rounds for your .38/.357 pistol ammo. It functions just like a Bianchi stripper clip, but costs pennies compared to the Bianchi. Also it will carry 10 rounds while the more conventional Bianchi stripper clip holds just 6 rounds. BTW, the M16 stripper clip will hold 9 rounds of 9MM ammo. Both clips are inexpensive and easy to use for this new purpose. Those are two methods of carrying extra ammo for when/if you ever need it. I'm sure there are other methods available that I am unaware of. If you have any suggestions, e-mail them to me and I'll put them in my next post and give you credit for the idea.
Finally I was recently asked how a fairly intelligent person like me can still believe in the old fable of a "Supreme God over the whole universe". I gave them the standard answer that my faith is what's helping me cope with the many medical problems I am now facing, that the love God showed when he sent his Son down to cover my many sins, etc. yadda-yadda, ad nauseum. Then I told her that my belief was ironclad and if I was wrong, so what? If I died tomorrow and there is now afterlife, what happens then? I'm dead and pushing up daisy's in some small box until I disintegrate. And what have I lost? Absolutely nothing. To cover my belief that God has a plan for me as well as a place in Heaven when He calls me home, I've lived as best I can to the teachings in the Bible. I've not stolen anything from anyone since I was a young, very young boy. I haven't killed anyone other then in time of war, nor have I committed adultery or coveted my neighbors anything. I've honored my parents and placed no god before my God. In other words I've lived a good life for the most part and God has seen fit to recognize that and blessed me with many bounties. And at what cost to me? Well I don't wake up with a hangover or in a strange bed. I don't look over my shoulder when a cop car goes by, nor am I afraid to look other people in the eye because I never cheated them out of anything. I'm not deeply in debt, in fact I owe no one anything anymore. So there was a cost for my beliefs after all. I couldn't live as recklessly or stupidly as others, nor did I spend money that I didn't have on things I didn't need. My wife has been the only woman in my life for the last 43 years, but I don't consider that a cost at all. So if I place all the things I DIDN"T do against all the things I did do and add in what I've received, the scale is strongly tipped towards a belief in God. So in the end that's what living as a Christian did cost me, I had to live a good life with a good woman and enjoy the multitude of bounties God gave me. WOW!!! What a price I had to pay and I'd do it all over again in a New York minute. Compare that to the many who live a life apart from God and see what that costs them and you'll understand why I'm a Christian and why I believe in the old wives tale of a supreme God. Call me foolish, stupid or brainwashed if you want, but I'm happy in my beliefs and have no regrets at all about any of those decisions.
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