Medical Supplies

One thing that I seemed to have overlooked on here is Medical Supplies. Not just a first aid kit, but an all out arsenal of supplies for JIC. Nearly all of us has, or has had someone in their family with some kind of condition that requires medication. This could be anything from Insulin to a simple skin cream for irritations. You cannot stock enough of this. In a worst case scenario, it may be a long time before you will be able to replenish. Items that need to be refrigerated will need very special accommodations, but most are okay with being kept in a dark, dry, cool spot.
At a St. Vincent de Paul second hand store, I scored a nice little cooler that is made to be put in your car or on the trailer of a motorcycle and will keep things approx. 30 degrees colder than the outside air. It is also made to run on either 12 or 120 volt.
Start with a basic first aid kit, then begin adding additional supplies that may be needed, such as decongestants, antibiotics, or blood pressure pills. When I say start with a "Basic" first aid kit, I do not mean a $5.00 kit from Walmart. A 35 piece kit usually consists of 34 band-aids and the box they come in. Worthless. To get a good starter kit, go to your local Army Surplus store. The prices for the decent ones range from between $45.00 and $400. Buy what fits your budget, but remember to add on from there.
Also, there are some great, inexpensive alternatives to stocking antibiotics. Go to your local Walmart or Veterinarian and pick up a bottle of "Fish Mox". This is pharmaceutical quality USP grade Amoxicillin Antibiotic. This antibiotic is labeled for fish and thus can be distributed without an Rx prescription. The same as you would be prescribed as an antibiotic from your Doctor. Its also available at Walmart or your local veterinarian. I learned this from my Doctor when I told him I would like to stock up on antibiotics. It is safe to take in an emergency and is a great item to stockpile. There are many more medicinal substitutions out there, start doing the research, but be safe.

How Much is Too Much?

Taking inventory this weekend on the non-perishable goods and thinking about how long what will hold out for how long. Not an easy question to answer. Some for me, some for you, some to trade for what I am short on... Its all hypothetical until its too late. On a tight budget, just collecting enough for you and yours is a chore, but inevitably there will be items you need and don't have or run out too soon. Flashlight batteries, candles, first aid supplies: these are just a few of the items that we don't need on a daily basis now, so it can be hard to guess how many we will need for an extended period.
My philosophy on this is "Buy 'em when you see 'em cheap". No body goes out and looks to buy 100 lbs of candles, but if your out at a Second-hand store and they have a bag of once used Christmas candles for a buck, I buy them and throw them into a "tupper-tote" in the basement. Before you realize it, that tote is full and hard to move.
Second hand stores are a great way to find many Retreat items. You'll surprise yourself if you go into one of these stores with a "survival" frame of mind. That pile of blankets or box of Mason jars that you would have walked right past now become a cheap cache for JIC (Just in Case).

It boils down to Three major catagoreies when stocking up.
1. Would I need it?
2. Can I afford it?
3. Do I have room to store it?

If you answer yes to all 3 questions, then its a no-brainer. If you only think you need one, but they have 2...why not? The second item can be a back-up, trading stock, or a gift to a neigbor in need. Non-perishables can be put away and forgotten. If you forget you have it, then it will be a plesant surprise when you need it.
Some items to consider or give you ideas: 5 gallon buckets, decorative kerosene lamps (inefficient but more useful than a candle), Fish and animal traps, Axe and hatchet, shovels and other gardening tools, sleeping bags!, books (how-to guides as well as intertainment), battery operated radios, flashlights, and virtually any Military or camping/backpacking items.

Backups at home

Everything you have at home that you depend on should have a backup. Water and heat being two big ones off the top of my head. Those of us in a Northern climate are more dependant on heat than those of you in the south, but heat is essential for cooking and your mental health.
Make an assessment of your home and your family. What would you do if all utilities were cut from your home? Water should be at the top of your priority list. The professionals state that 3 liters of water per day per person is the minimum, while many suggest that 1 gallon will not only provide drinking water, but water to cook and clean as well. A family of 4 x 1 week = 28 gallons of water. The biggest issue with water that I've run into has been rotation. Its easy to fill a 55 gallon food storage drum with water, its not easy to get that water back out, or move the drum if you need to. Water storage containers should be drained, cleaned and refilled at least every 3 months. I store my barrels in the basement and draining them means many trips upstairs unless you have a pump or have positioned the drum ahead of time where it can be drained.
My solution is still a work in progress. Two fifty five gallon drums plumbed directly into the cold water line of my house (in the basement where they wont freeze in the winter) with a Toilet style float valve that lets water in as needed. I have a RV style 12 volt pump on the outlet side that is a "pump on demand" connected to my main bathroom toilet tank upstairs. Whenever the upstairs toilet is flushed, the pressure releases on the line, the RV pump kicks in and refills the toilet tank. When the level of water in my barrels goes down, the valve from the main line opens and refills the tank. This continually rotates the water in my tank making it nearly maintenance free. Should there be a disruption in water service, I close the main valve to the outside and can use the RV pump to access the water as needed. If you know that there is going to be a disruption in water for an extended period of time, its always a good idea to shut the water off anyway to keep the water in your pipes from draining back into the system. Also, place a plastic garbage bag over the drain in your bathtub and all your sinks and then fill them with water for emergency use.
Once your main valve is shut off, you can still access the water left in your pipes by opening the lowest valve in your home, you may have to open another valve higher up to let air in.
As far as a back-up heat source goes, There are not many choices. Wood heat is ideal in my home because my property borders on forest service land and wood is readily available. Not everyone has this luxury. Problems to overcome are fuel, circulation and venting. A propane or diesel fuel heater can work in a pinch, but you must be able to vent the carbon fumes to the outside. I have gas heat in my home as the main source, so a generator connected to the furnace will work as long as the natural gas supply is not interrupted. A propane furnace with a tank near your home would work with a generator as well. Each individual will have to access his or her own situation and budget and then make adjustments as nessesary. The benifits of a wood stove are that you can cook on it and the sight of a fire has a calming effect to a worried group. Also there is no generator needed or gasoline to feed the generator.
High dollar solutions are solar or Geo-thermal pumps, neither is of any use in my area so I have not researched into it.

The End of Mankind

It seems the more I watch T.V. or read a newspaper, the more faith I loose that people of the United States could ever survive a major disaster or catastrophe such as the one they are dealing with in Haiti right now. Many of us assume that if they were to be in an area where a major earthquake, flood, or other disaster struck, then the National Guard, the Red Cross, and their neighbors will be on the scene within hours to give us food, water, shelter and then help rebuild our homes and our lives. Wrong.
A perfect example lays in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on the Coast of Louisiana. Certain areas received a fairly fast response, while many others were simply "cleared" by Military troops to stop "looting"... But I digress.

Turn to any channel on television and you will see people so wrapped up in their lives and completely oblivious to anything or anybody around them. "Reality TV" is filled to capacity with idiots chasing money, fame and fortune at all costs. They scream and cry if someone doesn't replace the cap on the milk jug in the 'fridge. Now I know producers highlight these "disasters", but what percentage of the American population subscribes to this way of thinking?
If you get the chance, PBS had a great special called "Frontier House", where 3 family's from different backgrounds (one rich, one middle class, and a single fellow with his father) were placed into a 1860's setting and had to survive a summer in the Montana prairie. The outcome is predictable, what was not predictable was the fact that these families KNEW ahead of time what they were getting into, yet one family of the three (33%) was mortified that they could not bring modern makeup and toilet paper. Stating "I can't live without make-up!".
Now I know there are those that will step up to the plate and can pull through when they have to, but how many of these will turn on their neighbors and steal, or even kill to get what they need to survive? There are those in the survival movement who stockpile nothing but guns and ammo. I suppose they count on others to stockpile for them and they will come and take it later.
It is my honest opinion that those Americans that are already used to "going without" will be the ones most likely to survive a long term emergency. Those of us that have missed a meal once in awhile are more likely to be able to cope with missing another one. There is a good portion of the American population that will have a severe time with the prospect of not knowing where their next meal will come from. There are even those who will starve because the food available is not something familiar to them.

I guess my point to all this ranting is that each of us has to step back from our lives and look at it from the outside in. If your reading this, then you must be at least somewhat concerned. If you simply lost electricity for 3 days during a winter snowstorm, how would you cope? More importantly, how would your family cope? Your own physical and mental preparations will make the difference between a inconvenience and a tragedy.

You cant make a Corvette out of a Pinto

Over and over I see where somebody somewhere will buy a piece of equipment, whether it be a rifle or a radio, and then attempt to "upgrade" it and make it "as good as the one that cost 3x as much."
I am definetly in favor of saving money and making due with what you have, but there are some things that cannot be compromised. On a recent forum I subscribe to, a person had bought a $500 rifle, dropped $1500 into some custom fabricated parts, and swore his rifle would hold up to any other rifle out there to 1000 yards. This may be true, and I dont doubt the honesty of the person, but for $2000 I could buy one hell of a rifle that has been tested, tryed and true.
Lets say the starter on your car went out, so you go to your local auto parts dealer and get all new parts for that starter. Brushes, solenoid, etc. and you take the next several hours rebuilding that starter. When your finished, you have basically a new starter...basically. When all is said and done, you have spent nearly as much as a factory remanufactured starter, several hours of your time, and no warranty what so ever. Yes, youve saved a few dollars, but is your time worth anything, and are you proficient in autoelectrics enough to let your daughter drive that car?
The other point I'm trying to get across (hence the name of this blog) is that even if you drop a corvette engine into a pinto, its still a pinto. Its not going to handle like a corvette, nor look like one. A Pinto body was never made to handle that kind of horsepower and speed, the same as some rifles were never made to handle larger calibers or MOA accuracy. You can spend hundreds of dollars to modify anything, but most (emphasise the "most") times, you will spend more time, money and energy on modifying something that was never ment to do what you are attempting to accomplish. Even if you save a little in the end, will that product be as reliable as if you had spent a little more to begin with? Remember, the products that we are discussing here, may be the difference between life and death for you and your family.