Emergency preparedness, camping, and interesting and helpful websites

Last night, on Gia Scott’s Dawn of Shades, I promised to post the websites that we were talking about on this blog.  (My guest was the mysterious Mississippi Hippy and the topic was outdoor survival, emergency preparedness, and outdoor/camping skills.)  I use a LOT of websites, some recently, some were favored in days gone by.  They are all worth checking out!

Emergency preparedness (food storage):  www.foodinsurance.com (recommended to me, but I have not shopped with them.)  www.beprepared.com (I like this company, have shopped with them, and will be shopping again with them…what more is there to say?) 

Camping: Each state will have a website for their state parks, with individual sections for each state park.  Typically, the address is going to be something like www.statename.gov/parks but its much easier to use a search.  Just make sure you are accessing the state’s own website!  Other sites may have interesting and relevent reviews and comments, but may not be current in their information.  For car camping, I LOVE state campgrounds.  Why?  They usually cost about 1/2 to 3/4 of what the national park’s campgrounds in the area are charging, offer better facilities, have more polite staff, have more interpretive programs that are of interest to children and families, are more tent-friendly, and are better maintained.  Even 30 years ago, I learned that state campgrounds were far better–at that time, hot showers were unheard of at any national park campground.  Today, many national park campgrounds will offer things such as flush toilets and showers, but they are NOT tent friendly.  Requirements consistently require that the tent be erected ONLY on the tent pad, which at about 10×10 is far smaller than a family tent, resulting in sometimes over a foot drop as the tent hangs over the edge of the pad.  Sites in Mississippi that I have visited were also prone to flooding during relatively minor rainstorms, resulting in not only campsites being flooded, but the roads within the campground as well.  I do enjoy primitive camping in national parks, where it is permitted, but I recommend steering away from national park campgrounds unless you have a camper.  So much for the image of a tent camping in the national parks!

Other camping and hiking information–I used to LOVE www.gorp.com and got excellent destination information for hikes and camping trips that made me look like a pro even in unfamiliar territory.  Last time I checked…that lovely feature was gone.  I haven’t been back recently to see if it has been reinstated on their website.

Current favorite is www.backpacker.com  Even though I don’t backpack right now and don’t know if I will ever be able to again, the information is good solid information about a lot of gear that tent campers find relevant even when car camping.  Their magazine is also highly recommended–great information!  There is really a shortage of websites, magazines, and communities devoted specifically to tent campers.  Those of us who cling to our tents with every penny pinching muscle we have…seem to be becoming a rare breed.  There seems to be more backpackers than car camping tenters these days, if the web is reflecting reality.  RVers seem to rule the campgrounds, and while I enjoy a comfortable stay as much as anyone, I cannot afford to haul a 6000 lb travel trailer every weekend to some destination.  I cannot afford a vehicle to tow such a trailer anyhow, let alone afford the gas to drive it anywhere.  It’s just plain good sense to tent camp in terms of environmental responsibility.  And yes, I whine when its really hot and humid.   GM whines when its cold and rainy.  We make a good pair!

I use Google Earth to look at terrain and maps at home prior to venturing out into new territory, largely so I have an idea where things are in relation to each other and the general lay of the land…it’s the next best thing to being there.

As for emergency preparedness, here’s my routine for storm season, our largest threat on the Gulf Coast and we’re now in the early stages of the worst part of it.

1) keep your vehicle in good repair, well maintained and with good tires

2) keep your vehicle fueled at all times, do not let it have less than half a tank of gas (in my case, half a tank means I can drive about 200 miles.)

3) keep your important papers and files in a grab & go box of some kind.  I happen to use a portable hanging file folder box with a hinged lid.  Everything really important from birth certificates to titles are stored inside of that box.  It’s easy to add files, find files and transport.

4) have your emergency backpack packed and ready at all times.  keep it with you (we carry ours in the van normally.)  Each person needs their own backpack, and it should be appropriately packed for that person and their ability to carry it.  Mine is very heavy for me right now with my limited ability to carry anything, as it weighs in at 27 lbs. (Yes, we weighed it.)  Its an inexpensive internal frame pack with a waist belt and chest strap.  GM has a limp and back issues, but his weighs about 38 lbs.

5) have extra supplies packed into a “drop bag.”  This bag includes extras that would be nice but aren’t essential for immediate survival.  This bag goes if you can take it, but your real needs are in the backpacks.  This drop bag will have extended supplies, additional clothing, food, and comfort items.

6) be prepared for stay-at-home emergencies as well.  The H1N1 scare turned out to be nothing, but it may not always BE nothing.  There may be times when it makes sense to stay home and wait out a problem, whether it is a pandemic, job loss,  or other problem.  Every family should keep a full year’s supply of food on hand, but if this is not possible, at least 30 days should be stored in the pantry.  Having recently suffered from “economic stress” myself, as well as having moved, and gone through my stored foods to remove items that needed used or were spoiled by insects or the integrity of the can, I recently calculated that we had approximately 22 days of food on hand.  We are also going to switch to dehydrated foods packaged for long term storage after ascertaining that loss of supplies due to spoilage was an unacceptable event that was happening all too quickly and too often.  Previously, we had been using traditional grocery store supplies, with a 6 month rotation.  We were regularly suffering losses as high as 75% per 7 day unit (it was packed in 7 day boxes) in that 6 month time frame.  Not only was that wasted money, but what if we had needed that food 5 months after the last rotation and discovered that it was unusable?   At the same time, even though it would be much easier, we cannot afford to buy the 12 month units from any of the emergency food supply companies.  We have VERY limited space for storing this food as well.  We will make our purchases a case at a time, choosing foods that we will actually also USE in our day-to-day life.  We want to make sure we want to eat the stuff, after all!  We will also supplement our long term storage food in #10 cans with more stable grocery store products that we pack using a vacuum sealer.  Sugar, salt, some flour, and some other grain based products will be sealed with oxygen absorbing packets and tested after 12 months of storage.  We already know the sugar and salt will store well in this way, but flour and grain products may become stale or become otherwise less-than-palatable.  Hard candies will also be vacuum sealed for storage–these items can be stored for very long periods of time without much degradation of quality.  I grew up eating candy in the 60s and 70s that had been made for World War II and packaged in small drums.  Those red or yellow lozenges had little flavor besides sweet, but we loved them anyhow! 

Certain items that we find to be “comfort” items such as coffee, tea, and artificial creamer, are not available from the long term storage companies.  These items will have to be purchased from traditional grocery sources and regularly rotated.  Oils and shortenings are also not suited to long term storage, and must also be sourced from grocers and regularly rotated.  Dog food is also needed by dog owners, and once again…must be sourced from traditional sources or additional meat and fats must be stored to allow for their calorie needs to be met.  Since dehydrated meat is very expensive, I’m likely to vacuum pack traditional kibble for them, with additional oil being added to my supply lists to add to compensate for missing calories and fat in the kibble.

Being prepared mostly is about thinking ahead and using common sense.  Skipping your car payment to allow for purchasing MREs does not illustrate common sense unless you have inside information that a disaster is arriving.  Since few people ever receive prior notice to an emergency, we’ll assume that we won’t have much notice that it is going to arrive.  At the same time, in a world  where jobs are uncertain, natural disasters are potential threats, and rumors of potential pandemics run rampant…having at least that 30 day supply on hand does illustrate common sense.

Here’s some things to think about:

1) most cities will run out of food, both in stores and warehouses, in less than 72 hours if supplies are cut off and cannot be delivered.

2) some of the first things that stop during an emergency situation is utilities such as telephone, natural gas, electricity, water and sewer.   How will you have lights, something to cook on, or a way to keep warm without these utilities?

3) during emergencies, hospitals, pharmacies, and doctors are often unavailable.  How long will you be able to survive without these facilities?  Do you have your medication on hand?  Can you handle minor injuries and illnesses with your first aid supplies? 

4) A group can share supplies, knowledge, skills and provide security.  Do you have a local network for your own little survival group?  Have you got a plan?

5) Do you have a plan for your family in the event of an emergency?  Have you practiced, even by sitting around the table and going over who would do what and why?  On the Gulf Coast, we typically have about 3 days before landfall when we know whether its apt to hit our area and evacuations of vulnerable areas begins.  Depending on a person’s occupation, they may be required to perform certain duties for their job before leaving to return to their own families.  In the meantime, who is going to be preparing one’s home and vehicle for the incoming storm?  Who packs what for evacuation?  Who makes sure that there are adequate supplies, whether you are staying home or evacuating? 

6) THINK about emergencies…even wildly unlikely ones.  Talk about them with your family, friends, or survival group.  Talk about what you should do, could do, or would do.  Assess risks for various actions and for the various members of your party.  Sometimes things you never dreamed could be real…can turn out to be suddenly very real.  There are many stories of people being suddenly confronted with over 6 feet deep water in and around their homes as they were forced to swim to safety, including the very elderly and very young when the surge from Katrina suddenly struck their homes.  The ones that survived had family members who had thought about the situation and were able to make a decision on how to ensure everyone escaped safely in the brief moment that was available to make that decision.  The ones that didn’t survive were the ones that no one made a decision fast enough or made the wrong decision.  Floods, fires, riots, pandemics, civil wars, travel restrictions, infrastructure breakdowns, power outages, terrorist attacks, mud slides, plane crashes, avalanches, earth quakes, winter storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, chemical spills, oil spills…we’ve seen all of them happen in the past few years.  What kinds of situations could happen in your neighborhood?

Good websites to read and the niche of the tent camping world

Small 2 person tent

Okay, there aren’t a lot of sites with good, solid information geared specifically for the tent camper crowd.  It seems they either focus on the backpackers or the rv’ers.  Tent camping people seem to be nearly an oddity.  We’re not buying the latest in ultralight gear and trekking out into the wilderness, but we’re also not driving land yachts into campgrounds and firing up our generators and air conditioners and televisions.  Instead, we arrive in our cars, vans, and pickups at our chosen camping location, be it primitive or developed, and tote our gear a mere few yards.  We bring along comfort, but we do it in a lower key way.

I’ll confess, I have some things I bring when I’m doing the civilized camping routine.  Things like the laptops (a lot of campgrounds have wifi, and I have a connection card if I have a good cellphone signal) electric light and in summertime, an electric fan.  I don’t bring things like my mega-sized water containers, as I’m not bringing all of our drinking/washing water–I was a desert girl a very long time, I’m very water conscious!  Greg looks at me as I talk of things like not using dish soap to clean my dishes so the “wash” water could be used by RedDog as drinking water.  Red used to tank up on water (she was a desert native too) every night & morning, and would easily slurp up nearly a gallon twice a day, with extra drinks during the heat of the day.  By giving her the water that was used for cooking things like macaroni or noodles, along with the ‘wash’ water, I could easily conserve a gallon of perfectly good drinking water.  When I returned home, the faint greasy film on my dishes & pots would wash off just fine.  (Besides, it was a small cook kit, a teflon skillet, a plate, a bowl, a cup, knife, fork and spoon.)  But, I digress.

So, because a tent camper has things in common with the backpackers AND with RV’ers, we can often glean information & ideas from material actually targeted to them.  We use tents like a backpacker, and we have space/weight issues like they do, as our gear has to pack into our car/truck/van, along with the people.  Like the RV’ers, we are interested in comfort items, such as tables that fold, compact comfortable chairs, etc.

Backpacker magazine is one I love.  Seriously.  Great information, and though I may never be able to backpack again, I can vicariously enjoy the hikes of younger & more fit hikers.   It has great information, but I’m still aghast at the information I’ve seen for “camp cookery.”   I apparently am some sort of snob in regards to camp cuisine, despite past dishes like “spaghetti & sauce with corned beef” (btw, NOT recommended, you have to be very, very hungry to manage to enjoy that.)  Backpacker magazine also has a wonderful website, despite their lacking in the recipe/menu department.

Subsequent searches also pulled up a website called BackpackingLight.  This one is also well worth a look, although once again, it definitely focuses on the more minimalist crowd.  Gear ratings & reviews are a very important thing, if you hike at all, this website. along with others focused on the backpacking group, are going to rate things such as shoes/boots, backpacks, walking sticks, etc. that you may well be interested in.

A magazine geared a bit more towards those using RV’s, campers, etc. but still acknowledging the tenter world is Camping Life.  I did find the website sufficiently interesting that I may well add their magazine to the stack that arrives each month in my mail box.

Of course, any gear I have personally tried out and used gets a rating at Get Ready GO.  Granted, I buy this stuff myself and try it, and other items are bought by others involved in Get Ready GO and rated by them.  We don’t rate a lot of stuff, but the stuff we do rate is stuff we really use or have tried and we use it in the same way you would.  There are no fancy boil tests, expeditions up the Alps or Himalayans, or trips down the Amazon.  We’re more likely to try it out on the Blackwater River, the Atchafalaya swamp, etc.  When we test a tent, its going to get set up in primitive campgrounds and campgrounds with electricity, we’re going to try it out in a real rain storm (Louisiana and Mississippi offer them a lot for testing gear, btw!)  We will have dogs and kids and grown ups and smoky fires and spills and coffee and pancakes.  I can tell you from real experience that if you have your Coleman dual fuel single burner stove go flying off of the table because the dog tangled a leash in it and knocked everything everywhere as she took off dragging the table upside down…the stove will be just fine.  The food is ruined in the dirt, but the stove is just fine.  (Thank Red Dog for that stunt, she was being “tough” and warning a stranger she was not happy at his arrival.  Between her and Sissy, nobody, and I mean NOBODY could ever sneak up on our camp.)

Then comes the gear.  Always check manufacturer’s websites for what they have to say about their gear.  They may have information that is not included on the retail website that is important, especially things like replacement parts, repair kits, etc.  I’m more willing to pay a little more for an item which I can get replacement parts for, versus one made by “Who Knows” in “Whatever Country.”  I hope I never need them, but knowing they are available is important.  I also want to know what kind of customer service is available, both from the manufacturer and the retailer.  That’s a big deal to me-don’t just ship me item X and walk off with my money, or I may as well have bought it off of Ebay or from a yard sale.

When I lived in Northern Arizona, I had a favorite outdoors store, I could have LIVED in that place, they had everything under the sun, it was called “Outdoor Outfitters.”  They got a lot of my disposable income, and it was partly because they had great customer service in the store.  They had clerks who helped people!  (Novel idea these days!) I heard a rumor that they have closed down since I moved to New Orleans, and that makes me sad.  It was an utterly fantastic store.

I have visited a Cabela’s store, in the Mobile area.  It’s massive.  It has all sorts of stuff, its absolutely beautiful–and its rather high priced.  It does not have much for tent campers either, focusing more on hunters, fishers, and tailgaters.  You also need a map to find your way around, and they have departments that are bigger than the entire Outdoor Outfitter store was.  Customer service isn’t exactly wonderful, mostly because as I’m standing there looking lost and wondering where their “camp kitchen” gear is, I’m in a section devoted to gifts or some such, and that person has no clue what I’m talking about.  I still go, just for the view, whenever I’m passing through.  I buy a few things, but the sole time I went specifically to buy a specific tripod chair they had had a month before, they had none (it was right after Christmas.)

Most of the time, I get my gear from Walmart, just like most Americans do.  It’s cheap, easy to find, and I know better than to dream of customer service.  A knowledgeable & helpful clerk will be as much an oddity as a chicken with teeth.  That’s okay, I’m there to get a can of Coleman fuel, not select a new tent.  K-mart has also been the point of purchase for some items, such as the tent that I am so fond of.  I bought it on clearance, apparently it was a dud retail wise, but it is a great tent for car camping.  My other tents did not come from brick & mortar stores, but rather arrived via UPS.  The Quest tent was purchased years ago from a seller on Ebay, and it has been a great 3 season tent, although it’s too hot for summers in the South.  My Coleman Red Canyon tent, my favorite foul weather & group tent was purchased from a jobber who cleared out returns.  It leaks, and I’ve sealed that  rain fly over and over, but still it’s great when we have a small group and the weather isn’t wonderful.  In the winter, to sleep in, it’s sheer misery, and scarcely a step from a bedroll outside.  There is just way too much air flow, but even so, it turns into an oven in summertime too.  To be fair, I have never found a tent that was not unbearable on a summer day–but why are you in the tent during the day anyhow?  If you are ready for a midday siesta, you’ll be far more comfortable finding a shady spot under a tree.  Rain on a hot day is just misery-all you can do is get under a canopy of some sort and wait for it to pass.  Rain on a cold day is a misery too, all you can do is stay dry and have a hot drink to feel warmer.  From experience, I’d rather have snow than a cold rainy day–the snow isn’t as invasively damp.  It actually insulates your tent from any wind.  It doesn’t leak through pinholes in the rain fly.  You can shake it off of clothing and shoes.

But back to gear companies.

Overstock has some gear, but they are a clearance outfit, so they can’t be counted on.  If you see item x in their online catalog, and you intend to buy next month, better check to see if its still in stock.  Their inventory fluctuates immensely, especially on outdoor gear.

Cheaper than dirt sells a lot of military surplus gear.  If you know what you are getting, it can be a great buy.  If you don’t, you might be in for a big surprise.  I have some gear that came from them, they were recommended by a friend who swears by them.  I don’t use them a lot, personally.

Sportsman’s Guide has a lot of stuff.  I have bought more stuff from them, not only for camping but for day to day living too.  They have never given me any reason to complain, and they sell the “pocket stove” that I am so impressed with as a back up stove.  They not only have camping gear, but they also sell household items, gift items, clothing, boots/shoes, hunting gear, & fishing gear.

A good standby is always Amazon.  I buy from them a lot, we have items for sale from them on our website at Exogeny Network.  They sell everything under the sun, and some things that have likely never seen the light of day.  They are very good at getting your stuff to you, but be warned, if you use their “super saver shipping” you had best not be in a hurry.  I’ve had shipping dates so far out that I actually cancelled the order and ordered elsewhere to save on shipping and still get the item on time.  Order it well ahead of time, or else pony up the extra money to get it shipped sooner.  That has really been my only complaint about Amazon over the time I’ve used them, and I guess I’ve been ordering from them for about 6-7 years now, buying everything from gifts to electronics from them.

Ebay can be an exercise in aggravation or elation.  You have to pay attention, read reviews of sellers and take it into consideration.  Read the entire description so you don’t accidentally buy a broken item for parts.  If you want an item to be new, make sure that’s what it says it is.

Other companies that also sell gear that I am not as familiar with are places like Cabela’s, REI, Campmor, etc.  I have not bought gear from them, and can’t tell you whether its a great experience or not.  As I purchase items from other companies, I’ll either give them a thumbs up or not, depending on what the experience is.

For manufacturers, Coleman has been around a very long time.  Sometimes, they get a bad rap for being “low quality” but I find they have multiple levels of gear.  There is cheap gear for occasional users, gear for the tailgating crowd, and then there is gear for the serious car camping crowd.  They make a few items for backpackers, but they aren’t a huge force in that niche market.  They do offer replacement parts & repair kits for a number of their products, and their items are widely available.

I have to admit, I own some Texsport products, and some of them have landed in the trash due to lack of quality.  They are inexpensive, but similar to Coleman, and they are often accused of being a “Coleman knock off” company.  They have a wide variety of products, the prices are reasonable, so check out their offerings.  Not everything is sub-par quality, some of it is quite well made.

So there’s my two cents worth for today.