Got Preps?

 There are 64 days until the elections.  I am not a doomsday prepper or "the sky is falling" kind of man, but we could be in for some rough times in the coming months. I had rather have "things" and not need them as opposed to not having them and needing those items. It has been on my mind to post something on this subject for the last few weeks. I would hope most who stop by here are well provisioned already have enough items to sustain themselves for several months along with possessing the means to defend those items, themselves, and their families.  Should Trump lose, the "peaceful demonstrators" will probably feel empowered (they are already getting away with numerous crimes without consequence, including murder) and more than likely do what they do and that is commit  arson, loot, destroy property, rob and physically abuse the elderly, weak, etc. If Trump wins, the commies, anarchists, and BLM will have a colossal meltdown. Things will be very bad in the larger cities. It is possible we could see attacks on the power grid and other public utilities. There could also be a disruption in the supply systems we have grown accustomed too. We all saw the empty shelves/shortages from the panic buying after the "quarantine" and lockdown orders. The after effects of social unrest could be much worse than what we witnessed a few months ago. I came across this piece at Post Apo Vault . It is a good basic outline. The lists contained may not be for everyone and the author states that each person should tailor their preps for their own personal needs. This potential unrest would coincide with winter. That in itself is a huge consideration. What can be done to heat your home and keep your family warm?  Having means to protect family and supplies is a given. Gun and ammo sales are at an all time high. While it is still possible to obtain firearms and ammo, expect to pay a premium price. Clean drinking water is essential as is food . Some people require prescription medications. Plan accordingly. Forget trying to store fuel to run a generator. Besides being noisy, it simply isn't feasible. Something to consider though is solar panels, heavy duty batteries, and an inverter. Many things can be charged or powered this way. These items are nominal in price to purchase, free for the taking, and silent. The web is chocked full of some good information (some not so good).  Find what works best for your situation and don't get caught saying, "I wish I had of bought this" should the time come.  I look forward to hearing any other tips or suggestions in the comments. Good luck and Godspeed.

Jeffery

Stockpile for Apocalypse

Our world is very fragile. One small disaster can break the balance and cause a total collapse of the World.

Do you know what you should stock for emergency scenarios?

In this post, I will show you a list of things to stockpile for an apocalypse.

Prepper supplies tips you should know

You may already have a nice stockpile, but it’s not only about what you store – but also how, and most important – where to store it. Check my tips on gathering and storing emergency resources.

Good location for your emergency stockpile

Place where you will store all your resources ideally should be inside your home – in a garage or basement. It should be easily accessible for entire family since you are going to use it on a daily basis, not only when the apocalypse arrives.

Where should you hide your emergency storage?

While having main storage in your home is the best practice, you should also consider smaller stash of emergency storage outside of your house. Easiest and cheapest way for your second emergency storage is to keep it underground –dig a hole somewhere in your garden and put a PVC pipe or barrel that will contain emergency food, seal it good and you are done.

Rotate stored food

It is very important that food you choose for emergency storage should be the food your family prefers to eat. Make sure to sort your storage with shortest expiration date items at the front of the shelf, so when your family goes to your emergency storage to get food, they will always take the oldest one first. Otherwise, you will have old and expired food at the far back of the shelf, that will be eventually wasted.

Buy in bulk

While stockpiling your emergency storage, try to hunt for good bargains at supermarkets for the items that you frequently use – and buy them in bulk. Another good strategy is to get the survival stash resources at wholesale shops.

Choose the right container

For long-term storage, there are specific type of containers you should prefer – metal cans will be the best, glass jars and plastic packages second. Avoid buying paper enveloped food items, unless you plan to repack them to plastic bottles or another more sustainable container.

Make sure to get the longest expiration date possible

When restocking emergency storage in a shop of your choice, make sure to check and compare expiration dates of items, to always get the longest one possible. If you see that entire stock is close to expiration date, don’t buy larger amount and try another day after shop restocks their supplies.

It is also worth checking far back of the shop shelves since they use the same tactics as we suggest – to keep longest expiration date at the back of the shelf!

Should you eat expired food?

Eating expired food can cause some danger, and you definitely want to avoid any food poisoning during the apocalypse.

Depending on the type of food, you can safely eat expired one or get serious poisoning. If you don’t know what you are doing, avoid eating expired food, unless there is no other food left.

I won’t go into much detail here about food expiration, especially when I found this site that is dedicated to this very topic: http://www.eatbydate.com/ – I encourage to check that site and make a list of food you plan to store in your emergency stash, with information how long that food will last there.

Emergency Water Storage

Water will be your number one resource during an apocalypse. While planning it, you need to consider not only drinking water but also water that will be used for hygiene.

To be safe, consider that for one person per day you will need one gallon of drinking water. It may seem a lot, comparing to how much you and your family drinks today, but don’t forget you will also have to count water needed for cooking – you may no longer have tap water in your home.

Drinking water should be of good quality – bottled mineral water should be your choice.

For hygiene and other uses of water, consider collecting rainwater and get a well.

How many days without water should you prep for?

FEMA recommends that you have at least three days of water stored in case of emergency. This is fine in usual emergency scenarios, but we are preparing for an apocalypse here, remember? You should stock minimum two weeks supply of drinking water – in case of nuclear war this will let you stay at home and survive the worst radiation fallout before it decays to acceptable levels.

You should constantly try to improve your water prepping as you go by with stockpiling for the apocalypse. Start with two weeks and then plan if it would be possible to stock for one month, two months, etc. This will involve ordering dedicated emergency water containers since it won’t be too practical to just stock your entire basement with bottled mineral water.

Best bottled water for prepping

The best water for long-term storage is definitely bottled mineral water with high amount of O2. Gas in your water will significantly increase expiration date of water – yes, water has one as well!

Another and cheaper option to stockpile water for the apocalypse is to reuse glass bottles or those big 5-6 gallon water jugs and refill them with your tap water. It usually contains chemicals that keep water safe to drink, but you should check it’s quality before you decide to rely on tap water as your emergency supply.

How to store water long term

Depending on the type of water in your apocalypse stockpile, you should choose different solutions to ensure that your water storage will be good to use for years.

For all types of water you should avoid sunlight reaching the water – so it has to be in a dark place (for transparent bottled water) or in special water containers that prevent any light coming through.

• Bottled water with O2 gas – no special treatment is needed.
• Tap water – most tap water is already treated with chlorine, which will prevent any algae or bacteria from growing inside and will keep that water good long term.
• Rainwater and shallow well water – use chlorine tablets to avoid algae and bacteria growth inside.

Alternate water sources

You shouldn’t rely only on your emergency water supplies stored in your apocalypse stockpile. Even if you have a good amount for a month or two – it will eventually go dry, and without water, all your preparation for disaster will fail. To be fully safe in case of a permanent apocalyptic event, you should get constant source of water. Below list should give you an overview of emergency water supplies you should aim for.

• Deep underground water well with hand pump – you should test that water before apocalypse and check it for quality. Good source of deep underground water can keep your family alive for years to come and even if apocalypse won’t happen – having a personal deepwater well will help you save a lot on bottled water.
• Stream or a river – even if rivers will be contaminated, if you are close to one – consider getting purification system in place, so you will be able to gather water straight from the river and purify it before using it in your apocalypse stockpile.
• Rainwater collection systems – While not very useful before apocalypse – after one it should be your one of main sources of water. Consider that it may not be an option for several weeks if nuclear fallout will be in place, so don’t rely just on that source.
• Stove to convert snow into water – even if you live in a climate where snow is a rarity – you never know what will happen during the apocalypse. If the supervolcano erupts, scientists predict that it can cause another ice age on entire globe. You should be prepared for that and if you have plenty of snow – you will have plenty of water.

Emergency Food Stockpile

We’ve water topic covered already, so next apocalypse stockpile shelf should be filled with food that will get you going during difficult times.

Similar to the water storage, you should start with two weeks of food storage (if you don’t have any) and improve from there. I suggest to add new food to your emergency stockpile every week or two, so expiration date will be different and will let you rotate your supplies easily without spoiling.

Choose only the food that your family will eat – if you don’t like specific food (that is good for long-term storage) – ignore it. Apocalypse may never happen, and if you constantly waste money on food you eventually have to throw away – you risk that your entire preparedness will be questioned.

Try to avoid food that makes you thirsty – salty foods can last longer, but if you don’t have enough water in your storage, this may become a problem in case of apocalypse.

How to make your food last longer

There are several ways to preserve food. One of the best options before the apocalypse is to buy food that is already preserved and packaged for long-term use. Consider all sorts of emergency rations, canned food and dry food like rice, wheat, beans – as your primary food items you should get in first place.

Your dry food should be stored in air-tight containers. You can use glass jars or even reuse plastic bottles for that purpose if original container of your dry item is not good enough for long-term storage.

You should also learn about different preservation methods, so you can prepare your favorite food and stockpile it in your apocalypse storage. This topic will be covered in more depth soon in another topic since I really prefer to cook my apocalypse food supply on my own and it’s actually not that hard! It relies on Tyndallization process that was invented in nineteenth century and allows to store your cooked food long-term without a refrigerator.

List of emergency food to stockpile

The topic is broad, but I assembled a simple list of foods that are best for apocalypse stockpile. The list is sorted intentionally with items that are best for emergency storage.

1. Canned meats, fruits, and vegetables (don’t forget can openers!)
2. Flour/Wheat and Dry Yeast
3. Beans
4. Rice
5. Salt
6. Sugar
7. Honey
8. Dehydrated Milk
9. Noodles/spaghetti
10. Nuts
11. Peanut butter
12. Pasta sauce
13. Coffee and Tea
14. Canned juices
15. Cocoa and chocolate

Emergency Medications

I decided to place medications next to food stockpile since the same rules will apply to them. If you depend on any meds, you will have to rotate their use and make sure they are stored properly. Not all meds can be stockpiled (like antibiotics), but for any other medical supplies that are good to be stored long-term, consider buying a bulk amount of them. I prepared a short list for medical items that should be placed in your apocalypse stockpile.

• bandages (including gauze and bandage tape)
• alcohol-based hand sanitizers
• antiseptic wipes
• non-latex gloves
• potassium iodine
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Painkillers
• Vitamins
• Glasses
• Several sealed first-aid kits

Non-Food Emergency supplies

Your emergency supply list for an apocalypse should cover not only food and water but also other items that you will need to survive.

Store them in your apocalypse stockpile and try not to use them – they should be placed in a container and should be easily accessible whenever you need them.

Check my lists of emergency items for your stockpile that I’ve created for you.

Emergency must-have items

• Sleeping bags and warm blankets – since your heating may no longer work during apocalypse
• Spare batteries
• Flashlight, camping lantern
• Fire extinguishers – if you can afford it, get lots of big ones – fireman services will not help you during apocalypse!
• Matches, Flint, lighters and spare gas for lighters
• Can openers
• Knives (as a utility and as a weapon)
• Garbage bags
• Needles and thread
• Lots of duct tape
• Local maps (ideally with important locations marked like buildings, warehouses, water sources)
• Tent
• Compass
• Spare axes, shovels, saws, hammers
• Wrench and pliers
• Emergency power generators (including solar generators)
• Heaters (wood based)
• Camp Stoves
• Paper and pen
• Candles

Emergency Communication

• Battery radio or hand-cranked radio
• HAM radio
• Set of walkie talkies

Emergency Hygiene

• Dust masks and chemical masks
• Spare clothes, utility clothes
• Soap
• Foil ponchos
• Feminine supplies
• Toilet paper
• Moist towelettes
• Portable toilets
• Spare underwear

Entertainment during doomsday

• Books
• Board games
• Puzzles
• Cards

Barter Items

The last type of items that you should stockpile for apocalypse are barter items. Ideally, you should select items that have no expiration date and can safely wait for a disaster indefinitely. When SHTF, you will be able to barter them for food, meds or any other tools that your family may need.

Cigarettes

For people with nicotine addiction, apocalypse times will be hard. Take advantage of it and stockpile cigarettes in your emergency storage. They will be a great barter item that can be replaced with food or meds.

Alcohol

Stockpiling alcohol has many benefits. Not only it’s a good barter item, but can also be useful in first aid, purification, and entertainment.

Summary

Having a reliable, well-planned stockpile for apocalypse is very important for your survival. If you do it right – it will serve you also today, as a way to easily access frequently used items, often purchased at bargain prices at wholesale shops in bulk.

I strongly advise to modify the lists I presented here to match your personal needs – everyone is different and requires different items to survive, however, I hope I was able to give you basic ideas what should you get to your stockpile.