From my last post I mentioned I would use that as an outline for a few of my future posts. First off lets start with water. Do you store any? Most people have a few weeks of food on hand which I consider not nearly enough. But how about water? On the short term like a broken water main out at the street it would be easy enough to run to the store pick up a few cases of bottled water. Oh and while your there use the bathroom. Its been recommended by various groups that you should store at least one gallon of water per person X how many days you determine you have the space for. So a family of 4 will need 4 gallons just for one day. If your planing on a 3 day event then you could use a minimum of 12 gallons. Now out of that gallon of water 1/2 of it is meant to drink with. the other half to wash with. But when your done washing don't through that water away. There are other uses for it. #1 on my list would be flushing the toilet.

What can be used for storage? If your a household of soda pop drinkers save and wash out the 2 liter bottles. These are great water storage containers. They also work well for the storage of rice or beans. If used for food make sure they are completely dry inside before you load them up with rice or beans. What I do after the washing is to let them sit with out the cap on for a few days. This way any water in them will evaporated.

Now back to water. It used to be said that you should treat your water before storage with unscented house hold bleach. That still holds true if your water source isn't from a municipal source. If your on city or town water its already treated before it comes out of your faucet. I would still rotate the water out every 6 months and refill the containers. Just as a reminder use dates like the first day of summer and first day of winter.

Other good water containers can be the hard plastic bottles juice comes in. These generally have a wider mouth so it makes food storage much easier. I like the Soda bottles because they can be laid on there side and stacked like chord wood. Other items you could find in a camping or sporting good store such as hard plastic 5 and 6 gallon containers. If you already have a few on hand because your family camps, great. Don't put them away empty.

Once your water has been used to wash with I recommend saving it. That would mean you have a bucket or dish pan or something to store this water in. An empty 5 gallon bucket would work great. This water could then be used for the toilet. You could just pour the water in the toilet bowl but this is pretty inefficient and usually wastes more water than if flushed in the normal manner. So open up the top of your toilet tank and refill the tank. Don't flush on every use. You will go through a lot of water. Remember the old saw? If its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down.

Also don't limit your water intake. Dehydration can at best be a headache (literally)  and or something far more severe at worse, especially in the summer heat. Dehydration is pretty easy in the winter months as well just because of the dryness of the air. And don't forget your pets they need to drink as well.

On my next post I'll try and cover other ways to procure water and how to make it safe for drinking.

God Bless
Mark       

Long term survivability

In the event we are hit with something catastrophic, could you care for yourselves for even a month? What if Iran makes good her threats to hit the great satan? It doesn’t have to be an EMP. It could be small guerrilla tactics to take out pieces of our power grid. Or doing other such mayhem. 

5 or 10 people spread out across the nation all performing some type of destruction all at the coordinated same time. People here would be in fear. This would be difficult at any time but even more so in the colder months. Could you stay warm? Could you eat on a semi regular schedule? Could you procure good clean water? Could you dispose of your waste in a sanitary manner? In something sever could you dispose of your dead?

   

All these situations are problematic on their own but compounded together death will be very common. So how do I get here from yesterday’s post about being thankful for our blessings? 

Have you seen the news last night where an avian flu strain was made in the lab to be weaponized. (There is no other word for it) it was done in 2 labs, one in Europe and one in Wisconsin. The reports say that this would be easily transmittable and 60% of those infected would die.

Are you aware of isolation procedures or social distancing? I’m all for putting up food storage. We have used our storage many times in the past but this is more than putting up extra cans of beans or tuna. If you depend on prescription medications do you have any kind of a supply? Insurance often won’t cover more than three months’ worth. So can you pay cash for a longer term supply? Will your DR cooperate with writing out a years’ worth of something. 

These are almost all questions with very few answers. Hopefully I can use this post as an outline to cover some of these things in more detail. Or it could prompt you to find solutions on your own. If so I would hope you would share your thoughts. 

Be Thankful

It is yet time for another post. Christmas is right around the corner and with that idea we had always tried in the past to give gifts that were somehow related to preparedness. Things such as food, clothes, sleeping bags, we even gave out silver dollars. This year with things being tight as they are for everyone, we slacked off on the preparedness gifts and are mostly giving fun stuff if we can give at all.

It is important to keep your spirits up. As much as I would appreciate a new pair of wool socks for Christmas I can’t imagine a child would be thrilled with the same gift.  

So with that said I really do think it’s also important to remember the reason we celebrate the day. Children are not too young to learn, adults are not either. That’s about as preachy as I’m going to get. Except to say times are tough. Our spiritual attitude is important. Keep focused on the good things. God has blessed us in many ways. Count them if you have to but remember them and give thanks for them.   

Rifles and Carbines.

What I know about rifles and come from practical hunting application of both small game and deer.  To transfer this knowledge to home defense requires a bit of thinking out of the box. Most of my hunting rifles have been either large caliber single shot such as the Ruger No 1 or bolt action like the Remington 70 or the savage scout concept. All have had some type of glass on them. But of all of these I would only consider the Savage Scout to be somewhat adequate for home defense.

There are a few things to consider in a home defense rifle or carbine. 

1. The distance the gun is meant to shoot. (Will you be shooting at hordes descending 500 yards down a slope trying to gain access to your property?  

2. Will you be using the gun as a house clearing device. The invaders have already gained entry.

3. Will you be blockaded in a safe room until help arrives?

 I think in all these scenarios I would opt for a semi-auto. In #1 I might go with a good accurate bolt action. But I think I would still prefer a semi auto in a larger caliber such as 308 or 30:06.

In all situations I would prefer calibers that are very common, where picking them up at Wal-Mart would be easy or some local hardware store might carry them. Save the odd ball stuff for fun and games now.  I would also consider stocking up on reloading supplies such as proper dies powder brass primers and reloading manuals scales and press. If you don’t want to spend a fortune then buy simple stuff. Such as a Lee hand press. Most of the lee products are good quality and wont break the bank. Practice the reloading technique now.

If reloading isn’t in your future then consider stocking up on ammo. Keep your calibers to a minimum. Such as 2-3 handgun calibers like 9mm and maybe a 22 to practice or in our case I have a conversion kit for my 45 to convert to 22. I get to shoot my primary gun at a fraction of the cost. With rifle I would stick also with basic calibers. 30:06 or 308 for longer shots 7.62x39 for closer in shots and of course the 5.56 nato or .223.

What would I consider a good battery? For not so much money I would opt for a M-4 clone maybe by rock river arms or Stag arms. Or there is always the SKS or the AK type rifle.  An ar10 could cover the 308 rather nicely. I would not feel under gunned with a good AR or M4 and a 45 acp or even a 9mm hand gun.

The one rifle I have left in my hunting battery is a Winchester 94 carbine in 44 Mag. As this is a lever action and short and light I feel it’s a somewhat decent choice to keep. It’s a good 100 150 yard game getter. And I would not be afraid to defend myself or home with it as it is short and powerful enough.

So these are my thoughts on firearms. Whatever you do keep it sane and keep it legal. The following are a few links that may prove valuable.

http://www.m1911.org/

http://www.reloadammo.com/

http://www.theboxotruth.com/index.htm

http://www.saiga-12.com/index.asp

http://www.northbranchbullseye.com/range_index.cfm

http://www.galleryofguns.com/genie/default.aspx

http://www.gunsmagazine.com/

There are plenty of others please just google what you need or go to You Tube and do a search.

God Bless

The powers that be would have us believe the spin that the economy is getting better. That unemployment is slowing down so therefor improving. What the numbers don't take into count is the amount of people that have fallen off the roles of unemployment. They don't collect UI so they are not counted anymore. Believe me folks there are plenty of these people out there.

Currently there is talk of the falling dollar, that certain countries and the UN are conspiring against us to create the fall of our dollar. Will it happen? I'm no economist but I read from the works of good people that are and they are worried. Most are talking about diversifying assets. Makes since to me. Why keep all your assets in a worthless paper currency. When is it time to diversify?    I think now if you can. Take control of your assets. By that I mean have your assets in your hands and under your control. Precious metals are always the first topic to come up and I tend to agree that gold and silver have been historic ways to beat economic hardships. Also assets that produce wealth would be worth while. Ag land where small crops can be planted and raised, or small animal production of chickens, rabbits, ducks and geese, maybe even lambs and goats.

Other assets may produce income in other ways. Find a niche that needs filling and if possible try and fill it. Some items in a down economy will be difficult to get. Think food and medication. These are things that need to be worked on now. Filling the basics now and expanding from there as money and time permit. Clothes as well. By extra as you can and store them.

Once your needs are taken care of don't forget to collect some barter items. Things that could be easily traded. But remember Never Ever trade items that could come back to hurt you.

Enough for tonight
God Bless
Mark

As promised I plan on this post to be about shotguns. As a hunter I have very little use for a shotgun. I don't hunt as much as I used to and I was never much of a bird hunter. So what I write will primarily be from the defensive side of shotgunning.

There are basically 3 types of shotguns, Semi auto, Pump action, and break open. the break open design can be single shot or double barreled side by side or over and under, also there is the break open combo with a particular shot gun gauge as the bottom barrel and a rifled barrel as the top barrel. I wont focus on the latter.

The two most effective weapons out there as shotguns, are the pumps and the semi autos. The reason they have the edge over the doubles are they hold more rounds.  Today there are semi's that are considerably more reliable than their counter parts of 20 years ago. Some are made specifically for combat/police/home defense work. The one I have most experience with is the Italian made Benelli M4. What a wonderful piece of work. I have only shot this at the range using other shooters firearms. But no matter what I shot (slug, or buck shot even bird shot) it was pleasant to shoot. Recoil is tamed considerably in this piece. Also everything shot and fed just fine even when I ran a series of rounds alternating between bird or slug or buck. 


Certainly there are other semi autos out there. But I think the M4 Benelli is as close to perfection as a semi-auto combat shot gun can get. 


Now the shotgun that probably gets the most play as a military, police, or home defense is the pump action 12 gauge. Of all the brands and models out there the #1 top of the list has to go the the Remington 870. This by far is the number one shot gun you will see behind doors or mounted in squad cars or in the hands of our military except for the Coast Guard. They seem to prefer the Mossberg as do I.  I think the biggest differences between the two is the location of the safety. I like the safety right under my thumb as it is on a Mossberg. An easy flick forward and its ready to fire. Thumb it back and its made safe again. The safety is right where a right or left hander would grab the stock with the hand to hold the cheek weld and control the trigger. Easy. To me the Remington seems awkward the safety control is on the rear of the trigger guard. Most people must have no issue with it as this gun has millions of fans and large contracts from military and police.


Either gun can be configured for home defense with rifled sights or ghost rings or express sights. Both can be fitted with slug barrels if you want a dedicated slug gun. Both can have synthetic stocks if weather and rot are a problem. The Mossberg even comes in stainless steel. I'm not sure about the Remington. 


Lets get a few false notions out of the way. A blast from a shot gun or any other hand held weapon in common use will not take an attacker off his feet and make him fly backwards through the door. Also the spread on a shotgun at room distances is not that big. You better be aiming and not pointing. Even with an open choke your pattern at room distance is not the great. 


Also keep in mind there are all kinds of gadgets and gismoz you can hang on all your weapons. Lights, and lasers are the 2 that I think most useful but even to use a light mounted on a gun you have to point that weapon at the suspect, who may just be your child coming home at 3 in the morning. Training and Practice.   Training and practice. 


Next I'll go over rifles and well call the firearm subject good for awhile. 


God Bless
Mark     

Treason

This from the trends forecast. Even if this gets defeated and does not make it into law. Is it not scary enough that our elected officials would try this. Every one that supports this act of treason by either authoring this bill co sponsoring this bill or voting for this bill needs to be held accountable as a traitor.

I am off the soap box now.

Hand Guns

Well I promised a blog post on firearms. So here it is. I’ll do my best. I am not a firearms expert. I have a certain passion for firearms and love to tinker and shoot and reload. I have repaired a few pistols and revolvers as well as long guns.

I suppose the question is where do I start this? I figure it best to start from the point of view that these firearms will be used for defensive use only. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what they need or want. If you are coming at this with some practical experience under your belt then make your decision based on that and call it good. If not listen to people you KNOW to have good experience and whose opinion you value.

Having a gun is an awesome responsibility. Keeping your gun loaded is even more so. There is one main purpose to a firearm. That is to kill. Sure we can have fun target, trap, skeet, or various other games or contest designed for a particular weapon but all these are designed to sharpen your skills with your firearm.

So let us go over a few general types of guns and what they are used for and what they shoot.

Handguns: In this category I will include semi-automatics as well as revolvers and then separate the 2. What a handgun is basically designed for is close up personal protection. Its primary function is to get you out of trouble and back to your long gun or safety as soon as possible. Semi autos have come a long way in the last 50 years as well as ammunition design. It used to be that feeding a semi auto with wide flat or hollow point bullets was a jam waiting to happen and all too often happened sooner than later. But today between gun designs and ammo manufactures feeding problems are less of a concern. Miss feeds still happen and it is best to function test your weapon with at least 200 rounds of the ammo you plan to carry/shoot before you consider it good for everyday carry.

Revolvers are less prone to feeding problems. That doesn’t mean that they are trouble free. When a semi-auto miss feeds or you have a failure to fire, (it happens for various reasons) you need to slam the magazine home and rework the slide hard and fast. That will often take care of the problem. In a fight forget about why just get it done now. At the range everything can be inspected to figure out why. With a revolver a dud round is not as big and issue. With a double action just pull the trigger again. The cylinder rotates to the next round and BANG. The worst thing I can think of for a revolver is the cylinder goes out of time. Meaning when the cylinder rotates it doesn’t line up with either the barrel or the firing pin. You cannot fix this in a fight. It is hard to fix at home. Often its best left for a professional gunsmith to handle.

Size does matter. You should carry the largest caliber you can comfortably handle. Personally I like the 45acp it has recoil sure but it seems to be more of a push than the sharp whack of say a 357 which is also a great carry/personal defense round. There are lots of choices in caliber. I would even go so far as to say if all you can handle is a 22 than practice with it and carry it. It is better than throwing rocks. The only caliber I would shy away from is the .25acp it has a lousy reputation. But in hand gun calibers usually 380, 38 special 9mm 357mag 40s&w 45acp are the primary defense calibers. Dirty Harry Callahan with his 44mag is over kill. It’s a great hunting round and I dare say it may work as a defensive round outdoors where over penetration MAY be less of an issue. But also consider any round has the capability of over penetration. Meaning they can go through the bad guy and into and through the wall behind the bad guy and possible into the innocent on the other side of the wall. This is even more likely if you miss your target.

Find the pistol and caliber that suites you. Rent a few at the range. See which ones fit your hand the best and point naturally. Then consider is this a night stand gun or a carry gun? Then size really does matter. Keep in mind the larger the gun the harder to conceal, also usually the more uncomfortable, which will keep you from carrying all the time. On the next post I’ll talk more about Shot guns and rifles. There are volumes written about all this stuff. There is no way for me to cover it all without writing a book.

Till next time God Bless.

For those that need I should take the time to provide links that will teach and maybe inspire you to do more on your preps. These are not in any particular order except I will put provident living first. Its from the LDS church and has a lot of good information. You must know (full disclaimer here) I’m a Husband and a father and a grandfather and a prepper and I’m a Mormon.

http://www.providentliving.org/

http://24.179.28.6/

http://www.codeready.org/index.cfm

http://www.sorbentsystems.com/mylar.html

http://mormonfoodstorage.blogspot.com/2008/09/pantry-paragon-or-how-to-make-your-own.html

http://safelygatheredin2.blogspot.com/2008/11/alphabetical-recipe-list.html

http://www.codenameinsight.com/

http://www.ferfal.blogspot.com/

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_home.html

http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

http://beready.utah.gov/beready/index.html

http://dehydrate2store.com/

http://72hours.org/make_plan.html

http://readynutrition.com/resources/category/preparedness/

http://readynutrition.com/

These links should provide plenty of reading and prepping ideas for a while. Next time I’ll post on one of my favorite subjects. Firearms. And I will provide some links that will inform and possibly entertain

Your health

Taking care of my health is always an issue with me. I always seem to like what is not good for me. But in these uncertain times it is far better to correct an issue before it becomes a problem than wait until it becomes a problem and shell out big money to maybe have your problem fixed if it can be.

Case in point, My doctor told me for a few years I was pre-diabetic. I just blew her off and continued to live and eat the same way I had. When I became diabetic it escalated quickly.  First to blood testing and pills then to multiple injections. No matter what I did it seemed I could not get good control over my blood sugar. I had to live with this for a number of years until I learned about bareatric  by pass surgery. Now this seems to have cured my diabetes but it comes with its own set of issues to deal with on a life time basis. Some foods I cant tolerate anymore. My eyes are always to big for my stomach now. Over eating can be a real problem. And I will be on supplements for the rest of my life.

All this could have been avoided if I would have listened to my doctors advice when she first discussed my imminent problem. Diet and exerciser would have taken care of the issue.

I have always been one to exerciser, but it would go in spurts, and I always figured I worked hard so why couldn't I enjoy a few more cookies or that bowl of ice cream. 

Do what you can to take care of your health now. It is way easier than correcting a problem after it becomes a problem.  

Thanksgiving

Today is the day we as a nation feast and give thanks to God for seeing us through another year. I have to say as one who tries to be prepared in as many things as possible with out the blessings of the Lord I could do nothing. With out the Lord it would all mean nothing. So today I hope my family and friends remember the Lord and his bounty and give thanks indeed.

Wasted Food Storage

My youngest son is moving home. Yea....Boo.... I have had to completely remove the shelves from our spare room and move them into our bedroom. Along with this I had to move some of our food storage. We had a variety of things put up in Mylar bags. Things like beans, hot cocoa, dried carrots and dried onions, and a few more items. I noticed the seal on the side of a few bags were split. These are not the seals we did these were factory seals. Not knowing how long the items were exposed to the air I had to throw out 6-7 bags. No more Mylar bags for us. We will use what we have and from now on it all gets put into cans.

I think cans stack and rotate easier anyway.

Saving money

Recently I posted about my ordering RX eyeglasses through a company called Zenni Optical.   http://www.zennioptical.com/ this isn’t really an endorsement of them except to say I have been very happy with their service and pricing. They have enough styles of frames to keep me happy and I have been using them for about 4 years.

But like I said this isn’t really an endorsement. I am sure when it comes to Rx eye wear there are other sites that do just as well.

What I am hoping to do is to get your wheels turning with the idea that sometimes (not always) you can save money by shopping online.  Almost every store has sales now and again even online stores.   

I have no loyalty to any brand or store If I can save money.  What used to cost me 450.00 or more because of my astigmatism I can get away with less than 80.00. For my spouse her glasses, that look real nice, cost less than 60.00.

The biggest problem is getting sizing right, but if you can use a ruler and measure in metric your good to go. All you need is a current Rx and pupil eye distance. Maybe you can talk you DR into measuring that. Good Luck mine never would. But it is easy enough to measure yourself.

Today I had to figure with the change of seasons coming and the cooler weather It has to be time to revamp our GO Bags. We do planning on sheltering in place for most things but I can see a few reasons to have to move,These bug outs will require some thought as Cheryl cant carry a back pack. Im thinking maybe two large rubbermaids on wheels, or even two large basic airline type suitcases.  Mayby a smaller pack already set up and in the van in case something happens on the road and I need to walk home.

 

Each Kit will contian a basics of change of clothes appropriate for the season, hygene items, three days non perishable food, preferably that you can eat cold, 2 two liter bottles of water, rain gear, Rx medicine, first aid items, cash and change, (yup we have a lot of that floating around) Scriptures. batteries for the radio and flashlights. (dont keep the batteries in these items incase of leakage) and important family documents. Some of them could be on a disk or usb flash drive. Don't forget plastic garbage bags. Maybe a family walkie talkie for each set or person set on a predetermined channel. More items as I think of it. Our kits are always evolving.  

 

Make a plan. Plan how to evacute. Plan where to meet up. Plan who is to do what and go over it until every one knows there duties. Plan who takes care of who. Ultimatly as adults were responsible for the children but even older children can and should help where appropriate.. 

Recently I posted about my ordering RX eyeglasses through a company called Zenni Optical.   http://www.zennioptical.com/ this isn’t really an endorsement of them except to say I have been very happy with their service and pricing. They have enough styles of frames to keep me happy and I have been using them for about 4 years.

But like I said this isn’t really an endorsement. I am sure when it comes to Rx eye wear there are other sites that do just as well.

What I am hoping to do is to get your wheels turning with the idea that sometimes (not always) you can save money by shopping online.  Almost every store has sales now and again even online stores.   

Let’s jump into a totally different subject. Apples….. It’s the time of year when the apples are coming in. Orchards are full. Bring the kids out to hike around the orchard then stop and bring home apples. How much is up to you but certainly you want enough for eating and doing any fresh baking. But have you considered putting up your own dried apples. It’s easy enough. Especially if you have an old fashioned hand crank peeler, slicer, coring machine.  Spray the apples down with lemon juice. Right out of a squirt bottle or spray bottle. This keeps them from turning brown. Spread them out in your dehydrator and away you go. 

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Time to save some money. Needing a new pair of glasses I ordered a new set from Zinni optical, there an online store. My eyeglasses because of my prescription are usually very expensive even if i go with cheapo frames. At Zinni i can expect to pay 2/3rds less. Walmart will do the adjusting for free.

New or updated links

I had started this blog with idea that my family and friends would take the opportunity to read about preparedness and food storage. There by helping me to magnify my callings as the ward preparedness specialist and the wards home storage specialist.

I may write about things that you may not think have anything to do with being prepared but if it will save you money by showing or explaining how to do something on your own then you will not be dependent on someone else in a crisis.

There are so many good sources for information out there on so many topics. I would recommend a few of them to you. First is http://providentliving.org  this one is provident living. It is full of good basic information and the source can be unquestionable.  The next I would recommend is a Boy Scout manual. I learned so much good basic information from an old scout manual that was given to me as a boy. You can pick these up in any scout store. Sometimes you run across these manuals in 2^nd hand stores or even garage sales. Another source is You Tube. I won’t vouch for its accuracy unless something is posted by a source you trust. But even a source your uncertain about may give good information. Just be careful of the internet commandos out there whose man purpose seems to be to just get a following.  Also another great source is http://71.14.99.192/ This is the public side of the Rubicon whose Motto is "Facta Non Verba"