Critical survival gear and child’s play

What is the most important part of your survival emergency preparedness kit?  The one thing that you MUST have?

What this item is not:

1. bulky
2. heavy
3. expensive
4. hard to find
5. illegal (yet anyhow!)
6. hard to store
7. need to be rotated
8. easy to lose
9. prone to spoilage
10. needs special tools to operate correctly
11. need accessories

What it is:

1. critical to survival
2. works for your entire group
3. can be boosted by others
4. adaptable
5. ingenious
6. useful
7. hard to lose
8. easy to carry along
9. doesn’t need special sizes
10. uses many accessories
11. adjustable
12. renewable
13. works better when shared with others, whether before or during an emergency
14. works better when used before the emergency occurs
15. works better with frequent usage

Know what it is yet?

It’s your brain and knowledge it carries.

It’s the single most important piece of survival and emergency preparedness equipment that you can make sure you possess.  It works when you have little else, and even when that emergency backpack is missing, damaged, or destroyed.  It can get you out of situations that no weapon or rope alone possibly can.  It can attract the attention of rescuers when there is no flare bright enough.  It can find food and water when there isn’t much to be found anywhere.

It also works better when shared with others, even before the emergency even actually occurs.  It’s effectiveness is compounded by being used frequently before the emergency too.  Sometimes, its potential effectiveness can be multiplied simply by sitting around with others and mentally going through potentially challenging situations and thinking about how they could be solved.

A lot of the ideas that can become useful skills are born out of the play of children.  Playing house?  Building a house out of found materials in the wooded lot next door can give birth to the same skills that create a shelter out of found materials in the woods in an emergency too.  “Fun” childhood activities can lead to survival skills too…like boiling water in a paper bag or heating rocks to boil liquids in a flammable container.  Cooking on a stick.

The games we play as children, and the games we play with our children have much more meaning than we realize sometimes.  Those childhood games lead to problem solving skills, adaptability, and being able to think creatively.  Cooking that hamburger patty on a hot rock isn’t as silly when you compare it to preparing food without utensils in a survival situation.  What is the difference really between building a ‘cool snow fort” and building a snow shelter?

Realizing that those playful excursions build skills and provide a foundation of knowledge for survival in our children, as well as hones adult skills, really changes the whole concept.  Just as play provides learning experience for other mammals during their youth, it does the same for our own.  Just in our case, we can continue learning in playful manners as adults.  Lessons learned in such play are also the lessons that will provide both the adults and the children with the foundation of knowledge that can turn into real survival skills when under stress too.

Too often, as adults we take learning new things too seriously, and take the fun out of it.  Without the fun, our brains don’t make the same critical connections that we need to make to ensure that knowledge is retained and accessible during an emergency.  It is our brains that are a critical tool for our survival, and the knowledge that is retained from childhood builds the entire foundation for our ingenuity and inventiveness at solving survival situations.  Those lessons will be the basis for our children’s ability to adapt and find solutions for the infinite possibilities that can occur in an emergency, whether it is suddenly being stranded in a winter storm, a natural disaster, an invasion of a foreign army, or breakdown of the modern infrastructure or anything else.  No one can have an emergency backpack that is prepared for all eventualities all the time.  Everybody should have their brain prepared with that framework of knowledge and problem solving skills that give them the best possible chance of survival, however.

Taking knowledge and playing with it creates associations of pleasure with the skill set.  It may sound silly initially, but the most dangerous risks for anyone in a survival situation is hopelessness, mind numbing fear, depression, panic and similar negative responses to the stimuli being delivered during the event.  If you add in your companion(s) emotional response, it can become even more daunting.   By creating associations with fun and pleasure prior to the emergency in association with skills for survival, you are in essence putting in an emotional insurance policy.  This emotional insurance policy is multiplied by confidence and knowledge too, so the more practice and knowledge added, the greater that potential pay off.

And doing these activities with novices and children has an additional pay off.  Not only teaching these things to others increases your own knowledge and understanding and gives you practice that creates confidence, you are passing the knowledge on to others.  Tenfold to your own experience, you discover the things that can go wrong when trying to successfully achieve a goal, whether its cooking food over a primitive spit over a fire, build a fire using no matches, build a shelter…or whatever.

Camping provides another way of preparing for emergencies, as silly as that may sound.  In an emergency, we’re often forced out of our familiar situation and into an unfamiliar one.  We may have food and shelter, but we have to adapt to living in close quarters with our family or friends, of using common restrooms and showers, of dealing with strangers with whom we have nothing in common.  We may have to cook food over a camp stove or campfire and wash dishes out doors.  We may have to sleep on a cot or pallet on the ground in a tent.  We may have to eat food that is unfamiliar or ill prepared.

We’ve all seen photos of refugee camps on television, newspapers, and the internet.  What do they resemble?

Overcrowded campgrounds!

Loss of privacy, crowded and primitive quarters, uncomfortable beds, communal restrooms and showers, lack of control over our environmental comfort (heating and cooling of our quarters) and our own food seem like minor issues.  In a refugee situation, these become major issues.  If you lack the ability to adapt and stay positive, managing to live through a refugee situation can become an insurmountable problem.  You may be laughing, and saying that this is the United States and we don’t have refugee camps.

FEMA camps?  Katrina?  We saw that on the Gulf coast, and we saw how incredibly long some of these FEMA trailer villages existed as people tried to get back on their feet.  The entire Katrina experience is an excellent example of what can occur during and after an emergency, and what the most critical areas for survival for an American refugee.

The refugees then that survived best were the ones that were best able to adapt to changing circumstances.  Not because of money or social status, but rather because of that internal ability to adapt.  Those same adaptable victims were the quickest to return, whether they returned to their previous homes or found alternative housing.  They were the first to resettle in other areas when their job and home had vanished and there was no alternative available for them.  These were also the same people that needed the least amount of assistance from relief organizations and the government to get back on their feet.

This vividly illustrates the importance of teaching skills to prepare people mentally and emotionally to adapt to situations.  It’s important for society as a whole to teach the individual these skills, as it reduces the drain that individual presents on the greater group.  Taking these same lessons and applying them to your own “survival group” whether it is your nuclear family or a larger group of family and friends, and ensuring that everyone CAN adapt to an emergency situation is important.   It is much harder to remain positive and keep on thinking on your feet when a family member, significant other, or simply another member of your group is continually focused on the negative, and protests the situation with every breath.  The best way to prevent this is to maximize their adaptability quotient prior to an actual emergency, and camping can be an excellent outlet.

So, try out those survival skills you read about.  Get that unused tent out of the garage.  Go camping with the family and make it fun and enjoyable.  It’s a lesson worth learning.

 

 

 

 

 

Save money on holiday gear with Ebay?

First, click on “Sporting Goods” in the categories.  Next, choose “Outdoor Sports.”  Only then do you get to the “Camping & Hiking” section.  Now you have reached your potential gold mine.

So what is on your Santa’s list?  Tents, you say?

Let’s see what our options are there!  We start by clicking on “Tents & Canopies”.  Here we get options as to the types and sizes of tents, such as 1-2 person, 3-4 person, or 5+ person, along with tent accessories or canopies.  Probably the most common size for most people is the 3-4 person, which in reality, provides room for 2 people plus their gear comfortably and works well for car camping.  1-2 person tents are geared for minimalists, bicyclists, and backpackers.

Now switch the “sort by” drop down menu to “ending soonest.”  This shows the auctions that are closest to ending, rather than by any other option.  Now comes the shopping part.

We’re going to search for a three season tent in this section, so we type in “three season” into the search bar at the top of the window.  On this particular occasion, our cheapest option is a Texsport Osprey tent, and the listing describes its size as 9′ x 6′ 6″ x 40″ h.  That’s shorter than we really want, as we want to be able to stand up inside of the tent.  We really want a tent that is 72″ tall, for a comfortable height inside.

Trying “72”” inside of the search bar isn’t productive, only showing us 2 tents that are higher priced than our $100 limit.  So, we go back to the category.  To do that, click “browse this category” just under the search bar.

In this method of browsing, I found a used REI Taj 3 Backpacking tent for 3 people.  It is supposed to be in good shape, includes the footprint, and is a very good tent.  I searched (in another window) Google for that model of tent, and read Backpacker magazine’s review for this tent, which was practically glowing.  I checked REI Outlet for their selling price, and the price on Ebay is well below half their price at the current bid.  The shipping fee of $18 seems a bit high, but within the “reasonable” levels.  BUT…the seller has only a rating from 3 people.  This low rating, combined with the product’s used status, makes me shy away from paying that much for this tent.  I’ll pass on this “bargain” since I can’t personally inspect the tent prior to purchase.

Just as I’m about to give up and admit that my desire for stand up height and under $100 is not going to work in this category, I find a potential buy.  It claims to shelter 4 persons, and measures in at 9×7′ with my 72″ height requirement.  It has a rainfly, with supporting poles so that all four sides can potentially catch a breeze (important in hot climates.)  It looks like the rain, should it have to be used in a heavy rain storm, would run away on each corner.  It also has “free shipping” and the seller has a 99% positive rating, along with thousands of ratings, so is obviously not a newbie to the world of Ebay.  The dome would be easy to set up, but it also is an
“unknown” brand.  With the current bid under $60, it might be a real bargain after all.  Still, it doesn’t close the bidding until tomorrow, but we’ll see.  (I didn’t really bid, so if you are searching for one, feel free!)

With the tent search finished, we’re now on the prowl for a lantern.  In this case, we’ll say our goal is to buy a single mantle lantern that uses the disposable propane tanks because we’d seen one someone else had and liked it.  So let’s begin our search.  First, go back to the main category of Camping & Hiking.  The easy way to do that is to click on the bar that says “Item listed in:” and find the words “Camping & Hiking” and click on those.  Now in the left hand column, we’ll choose “Flashlights, Lanterns & Lights.”  Next, choose “Lanterns” from the left hand category.  At this point, type in “propane single” and hit enter.

I happen to know that it was a Stansport propane lantern and it had a piezo starter to make it matchless.  I also know that it is sold for $16.99 from the local Walmart.  Our search today indicates that Ebay prices are substantially higher than what it would cost me at the local Walmart.  We don’t make a purchase in this category at this time.

That is the important part or rather, one of them.  Auctions are not a test of your worthiness or importance, but rather a competitive bidding process.  They are popular because it is a good way to get the most money out of your buyers, and there is also always the possibility your buyers will get a bargain too.  Always know the going retail prices for your items before starting to bid.  A bargain will never happen if the starting bid is higher than your local stores sell the item for.

Set your limits and stick to them.  Remember to check your shipping costs BEFORE you ever place a bid.  That bid is a legally binding contract and you can’t weasel out of it because you failed to read the listing.

Pay attention to what other buyers have to say about the seller.  A lot of complaints is not a good sign and steer away from them.  No one can please everyone all the time, so a few complaints are inevitable.

Plan ahead–don’t buy on Ebay expecting to have it by the end of the week unless you talk to the seller before you bid and they agree to expedite your shipping options.  Shop now if you want to find bargains for the holidays.

 

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?

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