If you live in California you need to be ready. The Big One is coming.

The Big One Is Coming....Are You Ready?

The magnitude was 4.4 earthquake that rolled across the Los Angeles basin on Monday morning is a reminder to Preppers in California that you are all living on borrowed time. Its only a matter of time until you get hit with the Big One. Store Water. Store Food. Make sure you have an earthquake plan.

It could save your life.

Heat your house for free.

Free Heat. Tossing a hunk of pallet on the fire.

 Ok so nothing in life is free. But some things are so low cost its almost like free. So how do I heat my house for free? Well I simply went back to the tech our ancestors used for thousands of years. Wood. Think wood is not free. Well it can be if you are willing to work for it. And if you live in the right area.

I burn shipping pallets or skids as we call them around here. Yep shipping pallets are free for the taking at most factories and stores. One skid will heat my house for 6hrs so that would be 4 a day. However I let the fire go out when I am sleeping ( That's what blankets are for ) so its only about 2 skids to keep me nice and toasty for the day.

Now to be honest I do burn a little bit of wood that is grown right here on my farm but not much. Skids are thin cut wood and that burns fast. So when a break is needed from filling the stove I will toss a log on. I don't like to get up from the table when eating just to keep the fire going.

Getting ready to cut up my skids for today.

Now I realize this only works for some people. You must have a wood stove or fire place. You must have a truck, van or trailer to haul the skids home. And you must live close to the factories or stores that have the skids. Now gas is expensive so you don't want to make special trips to get your skids. I know each place in my town that has them so on a trip to the coffee shop I can grab the skids from the places that are along the way. When I go to the bank I know the hardware store around the corner will have some. I burn almost no extra gas to get them. You get the idea.

This will not work for everyone but it works for me and it reminds us that to survive we need to use what we can find around us. WASTE NOTHING.

California In Danger Of Running Out Of Water

California could burn in 2014

As the drought in California continues, many communities in the state could run out of water within the next 60 to 120 days, state officials have said. In some places wells are running dry while in others the reservoirs are nearly empty.

This is a reminder that everyone needs to be responsible for making sure they have a safe clean supply of emergency water on hand. You can only live about 3 days without water.

If people start to run out of water we could see civil unrest like protests and riots. And don't forget the fires. Firefighters rely on large quantities of water. If the water runs out the fires will just burn and spread.

  

Pandemic Protection ~ What Can You Do Part 1

Are You Ready For The Flu?

I have done a number of Blog Posts about the possibility of a flu pandemic but perhaps its time to talk about what you can do to protect your self if the worst happens. To protect yourself you must have an understanding of how the flu spreads.


Influenza or the flu as most of us call it can be spread several ways. One is when an infected person sneezes mucus directly into the eyes, nose or mouth of another person. Another is the airborne route when someone inhales the droplets that contain the virus produced by an infected person coughing, sneezing or spitting. And of course the good old dirty hands that our Mothers warned us about is one of the best ways to spread the flu through hand-to-eye, hand-to-nose, or hand-to-mouth transmission, either from contaminated surfaces or from direct personal contact such as a hand-shake.

So lets say you wake up one morning and you turn on the news only to find that health authorities are saying they have an outbreak or possibly a pandemic starting to spread around the world. What can you do? Well the first and most obvious precaution is to simply isolate yourself and your family from others as best as possible. Hopefully you have your supplies stored and ready so you don't have to run to WalMart and face all the possibly sick people. However if you do have to go out for supplies you can take precautions to mitigate the risk. Obviously a full military biological warfare outfit would be great but if you are the kind of person who has no supplies at home you probably don't have a biological warfare outfit in your closet. However you can at least dress in a way that will help lower the risk of catching the bug. You must cover your mouth and nose and eyes. A surgical mask or even a workshop dust mask will help stop the larger droplets from infecting you. Even something like a scarf or other cloth can lower the risk but it needs to be tight to your face. Swim goggles can provide good eye protection as they are tight fitting but any kind of large glasses are better than nothing.
Gloves are extremely important. Surgical gloves may be best but rubber kitchen gloves are not bad. Again anything is better than nothing so even work gloves or driving gloves can help.

Dispose of or decontaminate your clothing. It wont do you any good if you bring the bug home on your clothing so take it off outside and don't take it in. Burn it or wash it with disinfectant. You could boil it if you have the time. And don't forget that good old sunlight will often kill the bugs so just hanging out in the hot sun for a few days will help.

Decontaminate yourself. Get a shower with lots of soap and hot water if you can but even a cold shower is better than no shower. In fact you may want to shower outside first if you can. If you have a pool or hot tub take a dip in that. All the chemicals in the water will help.

Isolate yourself from the other members of your family if you can. If its possible you should avoid contact as much as possible. Consider living in the garage or the tool shed for a week or two. If you cant do that then try to isolate your self in an extra room like the spare bedroom.

Don't let your new supplies contaminate you. Wipe them off with disinfectant before any one handles them with bare hands. If you cant wipe them of remember that the bugs cant live on the surface of them for long. So every day the supplies sit out in the open the safer they get to touch. Two or three days will kill most viruses on most surfaces but twenty days is best. If you must touch them use gloves and wash your hands after.

Isolate your family from each other. You cant tell if any one in your house may be sick so its best if you can to have as little contact with each other as possible. I know this could be hard or even impossible in a survival situation but do the best you can. Avoid hugging, kissing and hand holding. Disinfect doorhandles and any other commonly touched surfaces as much as possible. Don't share eating or drinking utensils. In other words run your house like a hospital. It wont be fun but it could save your life.

Remember that people can have the flu and be spreading it to others and yet not look sick themselves. People who contract influenza are most infective between the second and third days after infection. Children are much more infectious than adults and shed virus from just before they develop symptoms until two weeks after infection.

Contact with outsiders should be avoided. But one cant always avoid this so if you are forced to have contact then you must decontaminate and isolate yourself from your family after. Remember the virus could be spreading in the air so stay as far away from outsiders as you can. No one knows how far a virus can spread in the air outside but most experts agree that if you stay 100 feet away from others when outside your chances of being infected are low.  
 

Bombing Manhunt Has Thousands Of People Trapped

Police Go Door To Door In Boston. The City Is Shut Down.

Thousands of people are trapped in their homes as law enforcement authorities cast a wide net that has virtually shut down Boston amid warnings the suspect was possibly armed with explosives.

Gov. Deval Patrick called on residents in the city and its suburbs to stay inside with their doors locked. After more than 15 hours, police officers in full body armor, carrying automatic weapons had finished about 70% of their massive door-to-door search of the area.

Now this will probably be over soon and only be an inconvenience for most people but it is yet another example of the need to be prepared. Non of the people of Boston were expecting this and I bet a lot of people are wishing they had things they cant get now. I can see people running out of diapers and formula for their babies. People who let their medication run low and are now worried about getting more. People who had very little food in the house who are now thinking they wish they had an extra can of beans.

Prepping is not just about the end of the world. Its also about being prepared for the unexpected small things.

How to fortify your castle (your home): Part 1

Ok. The hordes are approaching and you need to keep them out. What do you do?

We have all seen the movies. The Zombies are closing in and the frantic occupants of the house are trying to push furniture up against the doors and nail a few boards over the windows. Makes for exciting viewing but in reality that's not a situation you want to be in.

Now some furniture by the door might actually be a good idea at first. It's probably the fastest thing you can do, so go ahead and shove your piano in front of the door but you really need to have a fortification plan.

I don't know what kind of place you live in so I can't tell you exactly what will work best for your situation. Living on the 10th floor of an apartment building is different than an old farm house in the country.

So what I am going to do over a number of blog posts is share with you some of my fortification and defense plan. You can take what you want from it and change it to meet your needs.

Step one - get your guns!

Arm myself and my family members. I have set up my firearms storage in such a way that I am never more than 60 seconds from a firearm. Most of the time I can have access to a firearm in less than 20 seconds but as I am a big believer in safe storage of firearms some times it's just not practical for me to have guns all over the place.

Some people have said that if a person can get to a firearm in just a few seconds it can't possibly be stored safely. Well that's just not true. In today's safety conscious environment manufactures have come up with a wide variety of gun safety gear that's both effective and quick. On each of my firearms I have a three digit combination trigger lock and as I am careful to turn the tumblers to the same position each time I lock the gun it takes me 6 to 10 seconds to unlock the gun.

As well my gun cabinet has a 4 digit digital lock that takes me exactly 4 seconds to unlock. I suggest you do a few drills to see how long it takes you to get to your guns. This will help you work out any bugs and ensure you can get to your firearms as fast as possible. Remember to make sure that you use a digital lock for your guns that has a backup key.

If you have a digital only lock it could get fried by an EMP or the batteries could just be drained. It would really suck to have done all this work and then end up dead because your batteries were out of juice.  Now for you non-firearms owners you still need to think about weapon storage. And safety. Because by "weapons" I mean a sword, a bayonet, a baseball bat, pepper spray, stun gun and so on.

You may not need to lock up your weapons but they need to be readily accessible in an emergency. It will not do you any good to have a baseball bat if you can't find it when you need it.

Stay tuned to Zombie Apocalypse Survivor blog for Part 2 coming soon!

You're Hunkered Down, But What's your Bug-IN Plan?

We've talked about bug-out plans and bug-out bags. But what if your plan is to stay put. Perhaps you are already in a safe place, a place that can be protected and has a stockpile of food. You still need a plan to maintain and protect your family and food stores.

Think about what you need in a worse case scenario.

                       PLAN FOR THE WORST AND HOPE FOR THE BEST.

Store a minimum of one year's supply of food.

Have a way of getting fresh water.

Have a way of heating your safe place. Cut firewood now and store it for an emergency situation.

Develop a method of hunting for game. Do you know how to hunt? Do you have the necessary tools? Can you skin and butcher game?

Develop a protection and security strategy. Figure out how you are going to defend your home. What kinds of barriers or protection can you quickly set up in a worst-case scenario? Do you have sandbags? Or some other method of bullet proofing your home?

Decide on a method of cooking meals. Make sure that you have items you need for whatever plan you decide is best.

Bring more trusted people into your community. If the worst happens you will not be able to protect and defend yourself, your family, your property and your food stores unless you have several people involved as support.

Hide food supplies in other locations that you can access if necessary. For example what if the government is still functioning and stockpiling or hoarding of food is illegal. Do you want all your food stores confiscated? Make sure you have other food storage locations just in case. If you need to hide water too, do it. If you live in an area where water sources are plentiful, be sure you have contamination tablets hidden with your food.

Also you should have a fall-back location in case your safe place cannot be maintained. Not only do you need food stored at your secondary location, you need to hide (bury) food and water along your escape route from your primary safe place to your secondary location.

Make sure that every member of your family or community knows what their roles are and what tasks they are to complete in order to secure your safety location.

Do you have ideas to contribute? Use the comment area of this blog to post them. If you like this post feel free to tweet it or send it to Facebook or Google+  Share the link with other preppers if you find this helpful.

Preparing For an EMP with a Homemade Faraday Cage

An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse. If one occurs, it could knock out power grids for as long as one year.

That means your vehicle won't work. Your walkie talkies won't work. You get the picture.

To protect your electronic devices you need a Faraday cage.  But you can also make one. Here are some suggestions for a homemade Faraday cage

1. Buy a metal garbage can and store the devices in it. It should protect from the EMP surge.

2. Line a shopping bag or backpack with multiple layers of aluminum foil.