http://www.do1thing.us/

A few simple things you can do a bit at a time to get prepared for a potential emergency.

I learned allot from Jericho.

Buy guns, buy more guns - then buy lots of ammo. The if there is a huge emergency, at least I'll be well armed to deal with all the other thieving fucks.

Obama's possible election is enough reason to do that.

Our family has been working on this for a couple years. We have an alternate location to go to if we need to that has food, water, and weapons. It is not as far along as I had hoped, but it is getting there.

Alright, time to reveal my survival wackyness.

I stock a lot of stuff. Guns, and LOTS of ammo, to start. I have excellent hunting grounds for deer, elk and need be, bear out in the NF behind my house. It is nearly untouched all the way to the divide. Also have excellent fishing grounds, so I keep a large supply of fishing gear (way more than what would be needed for a typical season).

Water supplies:
-Two large water containers for transport/ storage, and bunch of small containers. Capacity in the area of 50 gallons.
-Water filter with extra filter cartridges. Enough to filter around 1000 gallons
-Activated carbon and sand for an emergency long term filter (I actually use this in my dog shit septic tank, so I always have it on hand)
-Water source within walking distance

Food supplies:
-Rotating pantry of canned goods. Go to Costco, buy large packs of soups, bean, etc and rotate stock so they are consumed prior to expiration.
-Hunting
-Beginning production of a small greenhouse garden

Heat:
-Wood fireplace with 2 - 3 cords of wood onhand in the winter

Gas:
-Rotate gas cans, keep around 20 - 30 gallons on hand at any given time. Not a lot...

Why? Not the end of the world, not peak oil, not global warming... a snow storm. A few years ago the house got hit with six feet of wet snow. 6 days without power (which meant no heat, but also no water, no food once the fridge thawed) in the winter. You could not go anywhere; even my backcountry cross-country skis were tough to navigate with. I learned my lesson. But now I am a little wacko...

Oh, and I also like to take survival backcountry trips each year. Spend a few days in the woods with a knife, water filter, pot and emergency sleeping bag to brush up on skills like shelter building, primative hunting, finding water, edible plant life...

I have been considering that sort of camping trip myself, but my family is not going to be able to handle that. I am concentrating on getting enough food to last us a few months right now.

My bug out location does have tons of deer and fish though.

Don't you guys still have your Y2K supplies stashed away???

It's always a good idea to prepare for emergencies. In some cases like where Mine_Man lives, if you might get six feet of snow it appears to be a matter of necessity.

There is one thing you need to consider though when thinking about emergency preparedness. Stockpiling food is one thing, but what if the emergency requires you to evacuate the area? Maybe evacuate permanently.

You need a different plan for that type of emergency.

Don't forget to duct tape the house!

If you're just looking for normal emergency food, dehydrated camping meals are excellent. Lots of calories and sodium and they've got a good shelf life - plus you can rotate through them on camping trips.

Might also want to purchase a camping water filter so you can pump-filter the water. Purifying tabs are probably also a good idea, depending on your source of water.

Other supplies to have on tap are some basic OTC meds:

• Aspirin
• other pain relievers
• anti-diarheals
• basic cold and cough stuff
• benadryl (great for allergic reactions
• mouthwash, toothpaste
• antiseptic creams, alcohol wipes, etc
• rubbing alcohol
• witch hazel

Just a few off the top of my head.

Even more guns instead?

We have water, and we're just minutes from Nordstrom.

Everything will be just fine in my household.

We have cats.

If necessary, we can eat stir-fry for a couple weeks.

On a more serious note. To keep rain off of my patio, we are hooking up a few big drums to some new gutters to collect rain water from the Garage & House. Which could be used in a stay at home kinda emergency after being filtered.

Plus we have a good supply of medical supplies & canned food. I joke about learning from Jericho the TV show, but do feel that the writers weren't to far from the mark with regards to how society would lower it's standards to survive.

You are always going to need guns in many types of emergencies. Some types of catastrophic emergencies will require the need for guns more than others.

Chances are those types of emergencies may never happen in your lifetime. But, it's always better to have guns and not need them than to need guns and not have them.

Rinky - that's why you need activated carbon and sand. Layer those in the bottom of one of the drums, poke some holes in the bottom, use the other drums to feed and collect, and you have pretty clean water.

frontier - just make sure you keep enough gas onhand to get to your hide out, obviously. If the power goes, no more pumping gas.

Ron ap Rhys - camping filters are only good for around 50 - 200 gallons for each filter, depending on size, brand, etc. That is why I keep several back-up filters. And I do the same thing with my camping food.

Popular Mechanics has an interesting guide to natural disaster preparedness....

http://www.popularmechanics.com/survival

Good point on the gas. Currently I just never let the gas get below half a tank on our two primary vehicles. That would most likely get us out of town. I need to get 20-30 gallons to keep on hand though.

If the highways out are jammed or occupied by unfriendly forces I have mapped out several other routes that use country backroads.

I too am kind of a survivalist nutter to some extent. I hope and believe that I will never need any preperation, but it is fun to think about and prepare for just in case.

True on the filters, but for "normal" emergency situations one and a spare would be fine. That's roughly 2x the necessary supply of water/person at a gallon, so if it's just two, one could potentially last for 100 days. Even in our situation (1 dog, 7 cats for my wife, 3 snakes, and a gerbil) that'd easily last us through even a NOLA-type event, which really isn't likely in central Ohio.

But if I ever got truly survivalist nutty type, I'd need to get more. Not that have anything against the survivo-nuts, but I haven't crossed that line. I can see it in the distance, but I know I probably won't get there...

Ron ap Rhys - Remember, you will need to filter more than just drinking water. Water to add to dehydrated food, water to clean with, and so on. I used to live in 110 year old miners cabin, we lost water for about 2 months over a brutal winter (it would freeze, warm up and thaw, freeze again...), we used about 1.5 gallons per day of filtered snow melt for drinking/cooking and another 1.5 gallons of unfiltered water for bathing, toilet...etc. It sucked, but we got thru it.

A "normal" emergency you would be fine. I have an elderly neighbor or two that I always anticipate helping out.

True - and that depends on the types of emergencies you'll be facing. But it's better to start small and work your way up.

Plus, toilet water doesn't need to be disinfected. Just a reminder for those that might not think it through...

oh - and you might want to make sure you've always got an adequate stock of the OC or other BC method laying about. One wouldn't want to be partway through a non-ending emergency and find out that another mouth is on the way.

Especially considering that there might not be much else to do for "entertainment".

Am I the only one that caught this? pot

Here is a good idea for storing fresh water for temporary use in some types of impending emergencies....

The WaterBOB...

https://www.waterbob.com/Welcome.do

Well look at this scenerio:

Your neighbor has lots of food, water and supplies.

You have guns and ammo.

After a period of time if the emergency lingers....who has the food,water and supplies now????

This would be a real, sobering experience that everyone could face.

True - but you can happily barter in that situation. Chances are there are others that might want to take both from both of you. Since you know your neighbors, you can help provide protection and fresh protein in exchange for them helping with alert duty (note that I didn't say guard duty - don't give them the firearms, have them alert you of a problem and then you respond appropriately).

You know whats bad is we've already had a situation of sorts in New Orleans. During katrina, you had folks prepare with supplies and guns so they could stay and protect their property. What happened?? The police went door ro door and evacuated them anyway and arrected those that resisted or those that had guns. Welcome to the USSR.

True. A lot of states have put laws in place to prevent the confiscation of guns in an emergency. Nagin has actually been sued and lost for doing it, but the guns still have not been returned.

Personally, I think I would just not tell them I had guns in that situation. If they want to push it, we can see who has the better collection and aim.

What guns? I lost them all in an unfortunate boating accident

Of course if you want to get real paranoid, you could buy a couple of cheap SKSs at a gun show and burry them with about 1,000 rounds of ammo.

What... am I the only one who has done this already??? Oh and bury them off your property makes it harder for them to find.

if you truly want to be prepared, playing backyard soldier isn't going to do anything for you.

Take a survival course, get certified in at least first aid. Be able to communicate with the outside world. (Don't count on cell phones.)

I won't go into my plans, but put it this way... Your plans need to be secret, your inventory secure and hidden, your personnel trained and ready.

I'm to the point that my coworkers don't even really know where exactly I live... That's deliberate.

But I will lay this tidbit upon you. If you get into building shelters and installing gen sets and mass water storage, NBC Scrubbers, learn to do it yourself. Contractors remember where unique things are. There are plenty of books from storing fuel, wheat, and other commodities long term, and how to do it properly.

Your food stores should be 5-6 months of normal living. If things are not livable by then, well.... I think you get the point.

Les Stroud has a permanent place available at my house... so Im good. :p

Wow...talk about paranoia...

I understand Mine_Man's situation...a snow storm definitely necessitates storing stuff. Same thing with Katrina.

But "unfriendly's"???

PLEASE. NEVER gonna happen.

Agreed... the US is the most heavily armed private citizen country in the world. Think about how suicidal it would be for a country to invade.....

Im with Mine Man... prepare for Natural Disasters. Snow is my biggest worry as well. And I dont really have any neighbors... the few houses nearby are all snow birds or weekend cabins for the most part.

Oh and Mine Man, Im not sure if I ever thanked you for the offer to bring up supplies this winter. Thanks Man!! We didnt need it and the people that did no truck was getting to them it was all snowmobiles and snow cats... even they had issues.

That is most likely correct. The problem is there's always the possibility. As pointed out, not telling anyone but those going with you is a very good thing. Also good is making sure wherever you retreat to is a damn long way from anyone.

“I knew Obama during the mid-1990s. The first time I introduced myself to him he said ‘Oh, you are the gun guy.’ I responded ‘Yes, I guess so.’ He simply responded, ‘I don’t believe that people should be able to own guns.”’ —Professor John Lott, PhD, author of More Guns, Less Crime

His followers should all have to have these stickers on the front door of their homes.

Who, pray tell, is going to invade? Canada? Mexico?

We are positioned in probably the best way...NOBODY, not China's 1 billion people or Venezuela's 28 million are going to invade without us knowing WELL in advance. Having two large oceans on either side will do that for you.

Stop renting Red Dawn.

I'm not worried about anyone invading. I don't think even China would have the balls to flat out invade. I'm more concerned about a smuggled Nuke from Mexico or a Dirty Bomb taking out Down Town Phoenix.

The AZ / Mexico border is to porous. Terrorists could smuggle practically anything over.

Having enough food, water, guns, ammo, and other survival supplies is all fine and dandy, but the thing every one in America should have above all is some CPR and First aid training. If you want to be really prepared you should also have safe weapons handling training, map and compass knowledge, and basic outdoor traning and knowledge. Having tons of survial supplies is kinda pointless if you don't know how to really use them. Just my opinion though!

So how exactly is all this stuff going to help you in the case of a dirty bomb? Are you going to shoot the cloud as it nears you? Do you have gas masks?

Once the cloud settles, who are you trying to protect yourself against? I don't think there was looting and stuff in the aftermath of the subway gas attacks in Japan. There wasn't any insurgency in the aftermath of the subway bombings in Spain...nor after the Murrah building came down.

If we lived in an unstable country...then yeah, sure...I could see having all this stuff. But we aren't in an unstable country.

If it takes the Feds anywhere near as long to get to town as they did for Katrina, seems like it would be everyone for themseves after such an event. I don't think something that takes out a whole City is really in the same league as a few blown up train passengers, or a confined gas attack in a subway.

I'm stockpiling lube and Victoria's Secret catalogs.

So....my basic survival plan of hoping to stumble upon a well-stocked bombshelter from the '60's probably is NOT the best plan I could have?.....Am I reading you guys right, here?

You are rotating stock I presume...