Michigan Preppers Network

2012-02-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

Doomsday Preppers, the 3% Solution

I, like many
of you, watched the start of the new season of Doomsday Preppers. One thing
struck me after watching the two hours’ worth of shows, the low odds that the
“experts” felt the preppers were preparing for. Hyper inflation, EMP, Madrid
fault earthquake, California earthquake, riots, terrorism, and all the others
reasons that folks prepare were listed rather low as a probability.
Ok, I
understand that some things are well within the realm of possibility, but low
in the realm of probability. Just because something can happen doesn’t mean it
will happen. Elizabeth Shue could leave her husband and become my mistress, but
really is that ain’t gonna happen. Possible but not probably.
I am going
to pick a number out of the air to use as an example. My number may be close or
way off, but for this effort we will use it anyway. Let us say that the chance
of any event happening is only 3%. Earthquake,
3%, terrorist attack, 3%, hyper inflation, 3%, and so on. That is a low number
yet still within the possible range. Now, make a list of all the things that
can happen. Add EMP, riots, peak oil, drought, global warming, super volcano,
and all the rest of the things we have ever thought about. To my line of
thinking we should now add all of those 3%’s together and we get a fairly high
odd of SOMETHING happening. It doesn’t have to be something far-fetched like a
Lake Michigan Tsunami wiping out western Michigan. (Probably a lower number
than 3% chance.) All we have to do is realize that something can happen.
Ten,
fifteen, maybe twenty different things are mentioned as reasons for prepping.
If you add that 3% to each one it doesn’t take long to get to a 30%, 40% or 60%
chance that something can happen. Those are not great odds. Even if my 3%
number is off we can still be looking at a fifty-fifty change or even one in
four chance of something bad happening.
If I were
telling Nat Geo my reasons for prepping it would not be one thing alone. I have
taken the shotgun approach for my prepping and plan for a multitude of possible
events. The fortunate thing for me is that most of the preps overlap and
preparing for an earthquake on the New Madrid fault is similar to prepping for
a Michigan snowstorm. As far as me saying anything to Nat Geo I can tell you
that ain’t gonna happen either. My wife and I talked about those people having
their preps filmed and names on TV. As far as I am concerned that would be the
same as a drug dealer wearing a sandwich board with an ad stating: Crack, Meth,
Weed, your choice, $20.
I am glad
that Doomsday Preppers is out there. It shows us that we are not alone. I am
not sure what the yardstick is that the “experts” use to evaluate the preps of
the shows profiles, but it does give us a yardstick to judge our own reps on. I
noticed several of the folks profiled said they did not reveal everything to
the show. I just fear that some OPSEC is not enough and those folks have put
themselves at risk. Do not make that mistake yourself.
Wolverine
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2012-02-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

Living Off the Grid?

Being laid
up like I am I have had a chance to catch up on some reading. One book I
finally got to read is called Living off the Grid by Dave Black. The book put
me off the first time I tried to read it with a lot of touchy feely stuff about
saving the earth by using less energy. I got passed that this time around and
read with some interest the ideas Mr. Black put forth.
I also
started thinking long and hard about my feelings and thoughts about going off
grid. Now my wife will tell you that I would just as soon go to war with the
local Edison as not. It is a long story but they are a bunch of lying stealing
SOBs and if this were a hundred and fifty years ago I would tell them to come
armed the next time they see me for I plan to shoot ‘em on sight. But, this is
not the old west and I can’t do that so I just bite my tongue and hope they go
away.
Anyway, I
like so many of you, have dreamed of going off grid and getting rid of that
Edison bill. I can imagine telling them to come get their poles off my land; I
don’t need them anymore. In a real good day dream, I take the poles myself and
use them to build an elevated deer blind.
Mr. Black
laid out a lot to think about when it comes to going off grid. The type of
house, direction it faces, and material it is built of all make a difference in
your cost and ability to go off grid. Common sense says an earth shelter house
in a south facing hill will heat cheaper than an old farm house sitting in the
middle of a windy field.
My farm
house is of new construction. It is not one of those McMansion with seven
different roof lines and walls that jut in and out nor does it have huge
windows. I built my house with one roof line and square walls. The builder
fought me every step of the way, he didn’t think I should build what I wanted
but rather he wanted to build something that had “style and resale value.” I
could not make him understand this farm was in the third generation of
ownership and my boys already have plans to live here after they are done with
their military careers. That notwithstanding, I did several things right
according to Mr. Black and a bunch of stuff wrong.
I did right
when I built the outside walls with 2X6s for extra insulation. I also built it
with all brick to keep it both warmer in winter and cooler in summer. I also
insulated several inside walls so we could cocoon down to one large room if we
needed to.
I did some
major things wrong too. My house has only one window on the south side, and my
house runs North/South not East/West. I get no solar gain during the winter
from southern windows and I can’t put solar panels on the roof because it
doesn’t face the south with the biggest part of the roof.
The biggest
drawback to going off grid that I see is the cost. I only did a guesstament
calculation so I could be off by a lot, but this is what I got. To start, I
need solar panel and or wind turbines, or both, enough to cover the fact that
Michigan doesn’t have all that much sun generating days. I also need stands or
towers for same, storage batteries, invertors, and of course wiring. Based on
the amount of juice I currently use (no pun intended) I would need to spend in
the neighborhood of thirty thousand dollars.
Ok, for the
sake of argument let us say I have that much. (I don’t, trust me on that.) If I
spent it on going off grid I would save a little over one thousand dollars a
year in Edison bills. Not a great return in my book.
If I put it
in the bank I could make maybe 2% or around $600 which would cut my bill down
to about half.
Or, and here
is the plan I like, I could take that money and buy about ten acres of farm
land which goes for around three grand an acre right now around here. Even if I
shared the land and stayed a “gentleman” farmer that much land would produce
about two thousand dollars a year in crops payment. Not only could I knock off
my Edison bill but pay the taxes or about half of my year’s gas bill for
heating the place. It also gives me long term investment potential if TSHTF
with the ability to raise more food crops to sell locally.
Yeah, I
would like to be off grid if we go to TEOTWAWKI, but even then sooner or later
the solar cells will need replacing as will the batteries, so eventually I will
be just like everyone else.
Mr. Black
gave me a lot to think about in his book that is for sure. He also points out
that even if you are off grid the rest of the world is not. If we have a major
event that knocks out the power grid all the items that are produced with the
grid will be lost. How will we buy new solar panels or batteries?
Yes, going off grid would be good in some
cases, but not all. Before I would take that step I would sit down and run real
accurate numbers and make sure that it was a good investment to go off the
grid.
Wolverine
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2012-01-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

The Price of Procrastination

Last summer
my work partner and I stopped at a Mexican specialty market that had a small
restaurant in the back. We ordered our lunch and walked around the store
checking out all the imported items. I spotted a bottle of coconut oil for
cooking. I have heard that the US no longer allows the sale of coconut oil
because of the high fat content, but that it is really some of the best oil for
certain items to be cooked in to give them good flavor. I decided to go back to
the store and buy a bottle for my supplies.
We got our
lunch and after it was set in front of us we realized this was no Taco Bell.
This was true south of the boarder fare. It was ok, but not to our taste for a
lot of repeat business. We left and I forgot to grab the oil.
Fast forward
six months. My partner retired from work and I am off with my shoulder surgery.
I had to see the doctor today and run several errands. One of those errands
took me by the Mexican store. I went in a looked all over for the oil. I could
not find it anywhere so I finally asked a clerk. Sorry, they no longer sell
coconut oil was the answer. I screwed around and missed my chance to buy
something I know I could use with my survival supplies.
How many
times have you done that? You see a box of cheap ammo, a good set of tools, or
maybe you just keep putting off filling those gas cans for a cheaper price? We
all find it easy to delay certain things and spending money is one thing that
is easy to delay. I could make a long list of things I have delayed over the
last few years.
If we hope
to have ourselves well prepared for those possible events coming on the horizon
we need to make sure we don’t keep putting off important item acquisitions.
Make that list of items you need and carry it with you in a small notebook. If
you spot an items and cannot buy it right then write down the store and
location so you do not forget where you can find it again.
Being prepared
is an everyday chore. It doesn’t have to be drudgery, it just takes small
amounts of action on your part to stay ahead of the curve and not pay the price
of procrastination.
Wolverine
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2012-01-18T16:04:00.000-08:00

The Old Tractor

When I was
growing up on the farm my Dad worked in the factory and farmed the acreage. He
got laid off more than he worked in the factory. It seemed like he spent a lot
of time in the fields. Dad had bought a used 1939 Allis- Chalmers WC to work
with right after he and Mom married. It was about the perfect size for our
acreage.
The tractor
pulled our two bottom plow, set of disc, our drag, had a set of cultivators
that mounted to the tractor, a belt drive wheel that ran a large circular saw
and the neatest little air compressor that mounted near the hitch for blowing
up tires and such. Dad could do about anything with that tractor. He pulled
stumps and brush, hauled wagon loads of stuff around and would borrow Uncle
Bill’s combine to harvest crops. Growing up my sister and I always figured Dad
was a super hero and his super power was common sense. He had that practical
farmers approach to solving problems.
After Dad
got the millwrights job in the city and work became steady he stopped farming.
I wasn’t smart enough or ambitious enough to take over and farm so we shared
the land out. Later on Toolman and I tore apart most of the equipment and sold
it for scarp. The old tractor got sold at auction after the folks died and that
was the end of the farming for us. We still rent the land out and I became a
“gentleman” farmer.
I wish I
had kept all of it. That ’39 tractor would work even after an EMP. The
equipment would let me farm the place by myself after TEOTWAWKI and let me haul
wood up to the house and cut it with that saw. We might have to harvest by hand
and toss the corn into the wagon, but we could harvest none the less.
I have been
seeing some shows on RFD TV about old tractors and it sure makes me wish I had
been smart enough to farm this place has a kid and kept the equipment instead
of selling it. Talk about 20/20 hindsight, I sure can see clearly now.
Carhart
Warrior has a nice tractor and will help me out any time I need to use one, so
it isn’t that critical right now that I acquire a tractor, but I can see how
having an older model tractor with some minimal equipment sure would be handy
for any prepper with enough land to justify owning one.
Would I
trade a couple of $20 gold pieces for one right now? No, but see me after the
balloon goes up and that might change. Until then I will use my garden tractor
for small chores around here and use other means to harvest wood, till the
garden, and do my chores. If I ever have opportunity and preparedness come
together I might pick up an old tractor. If any of you have any experiences
with them to share feel free to drop me a comment.
Wolverine
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2012-01-15T05:36:00.000-08:00

An Outrageous Charge

Last summer I stopped at a church rummage sale
and found a one man cross cut saw for sale there. They wanted ten dollars for
it which I thought was a great deal, a new saw like that would cost over $175.
The saw I bought had a broken D handle, but I figured I could make a new one or
trade it off with another handle from a saw I had.
The other
night I was going through a couple of back issues of Countryside magazine when
I spotted an ad for a company called Crosscut Saw Co. out of Seneca, New York.
I checked out the website and lo and behold I found they had D handles for
sale. The cost was $18.50, almost twice what I paid for the saw, but even at
that I figured it was a good price. I also found they had a manual on their
website on the use and sharpening of crosscut saws. The manual was only $4, so
for $22.50 I could get my saw fixed and sharpen it. I really like the idea of
having a saw I can use that will make far less noise than the chain saws I
have.
I printed
out the order form and filled out the top part and then went to the bottom and
filled in the shipping cost part. I could not believe what I was reading. The
cost to ship my two items from New York to Michigan was going to be $24, more
than the cost of the items.
I triple
checked everything and sure enough, that is the cost. I even thought about just
ordering the manual but the $4 manual would cost just under $10 to ship. Not
only no but No #^@(& Way!
I went on
line and found several sites that explain how to set and sharpen a crosscut
saw. I am not sure the cost per page of printing out a dozen or so pages, but I
will bet it is a hell of a lot less than the $13.50 it would cost to order the
manual alone. My Survival Bible just got thicker with more information I want
to have in case we go grid down and I cannot look something up on-line.
Seriously
folks, how can anyone send that kind of money for items like that? I ship large
boxes to both my sons in the service and they do not cost that much. I would
order the manual for say an extra two bucks for US mail cost and that would
more than cover it. The handle in a puffy envelope wouldn’t be more than three
or four dollars postage. Screw Crosscut Saw Co.! I will make my own handle. I
will find another way to learn to sharpen my saw. I will save myself fifty
bucks too.
Wolverine
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2012-01-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Eat Like a Wild Animal

I mentioned last post about Dick Proennke and his living in Alaska for most of his later
life. Like so many folks that spend time in nature he made a lot of
observations. I found the following quote most interesting.

“…this business of fishing can turn serious pretty quick when a man is hungry.
I have learned something from the big game animals. Their food is pretty much the
same day to day and I don’t vary my fare too much either.
Food is fuel and the best fuel I have found is oatmeal, beans, and fresh fish, and a
caribou or porcupine stew once in a while. I just season simple food with hunger and I have never felt better in my life.”

While he has a vast area to hunt and fish in that no other human hunts and fishes he
makes a good point about survival eating. Based on what he talks about we could
store a large amount of oatmeal and beans and have most of the meals he talks
about. Imagine not having to store seventeen different five gallons buckets of
food to get by on when hunger will make the two different flavors taste mighty
fine. Who needs freeze dried cobbler and potato flakes? Sounds good doesn’t it?
One minor problem. If you watch the two movies you will see him prepare numerous meals.
Shortly after he makes that observation in the second film he shows his meal,
flap jacks and blueberries with some kind of syrup. He plants a garden with
onions, carrots, and potatoes. Now I realize those are the types of veggies you
would put in a stew, but while he says simple fare he has more than just
simple. He also talked about bush pilots visiting and dropping off supplies and
cookies along with letters. Several times he shows making his sour dough
biscuits too.
Reality seems to be that we do need a bit more than just the basics for a well and
nutritious life. Add to that the rigors of a wilderness lifestyle and maybe
those seventeen different buckets of food are just the ticket.
While it sound good to run into the woods if
the balloon goes up the reality is that you need more that you can carry unless
you truly plan to eat like a wild animal.
Wolverine
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2012-01-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

Personal note. I am able to use my arm and write on
the computer a lot earlier than I figured I would be able to. I still will have
a lot of re-hab to do before I can return to normal activities, but I already
feel I am on the road to recovery

Individual or Team Work?

My son called
and told me about the second part of a movie that was going to be on so I taped
it. I got a chance to watch Alone in the Wilderness Part Two while I am home recovering.
If you are not familiar with the Alone in the Wilderness movies, they are
documentaries about Richard Proennke (1911-2003). In the late 1960s Dick
Proennke moved to an area called Twin Lakes in Alaska and started living as
many of us have dreamed of doing. He built his own 11X14 log cabin and a cache
house and lived on his own for nearly 30 years.
Dick wrote
and filmed his daily life in Alaska. He hunted meat, raised a garden, cut
firewood, made nearly everything he used in and around his cabin, and was very
self-sufficient. Unlike Henry David Thoreau, Proennke lived a very deliberate
life for many years. For any preppers that feel retreating to the woods and
living there is something they want to do I suggest that you watch the two
movies and read his book. There are a lot of good things he can teach us.
In the second movie Proennke makes the
following observation:
“I don’t think a man knows what he
actually can do until he is challenged. I do

think man has missed the deep feeling of satisfaction if he has never
created something

or at least completed something with his own two hands.
We have grown accustomed to working
on pieces and parts of things instead of taking

things to completion. The emphasis seems to be on team work.
Now I realize that man working together
can perform miracles, such as sending a man to

walk on the surface of the moon, and there is definitely a need and a
place for teamwork. I

would be the last to argue that point.
We need each other, but never the
less in a jamb the best friend you have is yourself.”
What I read
into that is that while Mutual Aid Groups and a team for support is ok, you
need to make sure that you can stand on your own as well. That is why acquiring
so many different skills is emphasized on so many of the blogs. How many times
have you seen the quote: “A human being should be able to change
a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building,
write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying,
take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Robert A.
Heinlein. There is something to that.
Wolverine
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2011-12-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

More Odds and Ends
My boss asked me to attend a Red Cross seminar for him the other day. He knew I would get more out of it than he would and it was a good excuse for him not to go to another meeting. Since I like that kind of stuff I jumped on the chance and learned a few things I want to share with you.
The seminar was meant to show employers the services the Red Cross offers, for a fee, to help them keep their employees trained. The main training that the RC offers in the first aid and CPR certification. Many organizations like my employer are mandated by the state to have certain classifications and percentage of employees trained. The RC not only offers the training but also makes a clearing house for record keeping for those folks.
According to the RC for every dollar that is spent on training and preparedness the return is between $4-$6. First Aid and/or CPR given to someone within the first few minutes of need can increase their chances of survival by up to 40%. They state that first responders are an average of 15 minutes from arriving on the scene. For those of use that live in the hinter boonies the VFD is even a longer response time.
One interesting thing I learned is that you can take refresher courses on line to keep your skills fresh. You still need to get re-certified every two years but the on line skills lab will help keep you sharp between sessions. The Red Cross offers a number of classes that might be of interest and useful to preppers. They might be a good resource for you to check out.
My wife and I cleared out a bunch of the deposit bottles and cans we had in the garage. We came up with over thirty dollars from them. I also cleared out the newspaper for recycling and loaded up some trash to dump off at work. We want to get the junk out and have more room to move around in there. Heavy winter coats and the shovels for clearing snow always seem to make it tighter during the winter.
Toolman is clearing out his garage for a different reason. He e-mailed me the other day to tell me he found the wrench he couldn’t find a month or so back when he borrowed mine. I have the same problem. I borrowed a book from him once and it took me over three years to find it. It got put in a box for storage and moved to the basement. One thing I find is that my lack of organization cost me valuable time and money when I can not find something I know I have. I am always trying to improve on it.
One of my Labs is always trying to catch any of the critters that hang around the farm. He will spot one from the deck door and whine to be let out. He howls enough to scare the bejeezus out of anyone in the township and makes a mad dash for the critter. The critter runs away long before he can get to them. Well, up until today. He spotted a rabbit out by the field. I let him out and the rabbit sat for minute until it realized the dog was bee-lining for it. The rabbit went to hop off and it couldn’t move. The poor thing’s legs slipped on the ice and it fell over and rolled. It was still trying to stand up when the dog slid to a stop over it.
I have always told the dog that I didn’t know why he chased those animals; he wouldn’t know what to do if he caught one. Well, I was right. He stood over the rabbit and just sniffed it. He looked back at the house and wagged his tail and then nudged the rabbit off the ice and watched it hop away. My wife was terrified the dog was going to kill the “bunny” and dashed out to stop the carnage. Nothing to stop. The dog finally caught something and proved to me he has no idea what to do with something he caught. I laughed for a long while watching everything unfold.
I will not be posting until after the first of the year. I am getting surgery on my shoulder to repair a rotator cuff that has been bothering me for a long while. I am not even sure how it happened but suspect it wasn’t one event but rather the cumulative effect of my years yanking on wrenches and moving heavy items. Look for me to return sometime in January or February with weekly postings.
Wolverine
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2011-12-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

Now More Than Ever
Have you seen any of the articles on the fact that you can be a terrorist if you have over seven days food supply stored? Coupled that will weapons, ammunition, and fuels and you could well be on the inside looking out.
Now, I must say I really question that. First of all, think about all the non-prepping people you know. How many of those folks have a freezer full of food. Surely that would more than seven day’s worth. How about the people that get paid only once or twice a month? When they shop they usually buy for the time frame between paychecks. They will have more than seven days food supply on hand. Any Cowboy Action shooter will have a nice arsenal and supply of ammo. I am sure you get my point; just about anyone can fall in that category.
Now, IF the rumor about that is correct just how in the hell can it be enforced without having half the population locked up? I suspect that there is more to this then we now know.
Look, how many times have you read about some poor guy that got in trouble and police raided his home and found a large number of guns and “thousands of rounds of ammunition.” The raid had nothing to do with guns and ammo but the guy is crucified for having them. Go out and buy a couple bricks of .22s and you too will have the same thousands of rounds of ammo headline. Toolman and I used to shoot up between five hundred and a thousand rounds on a Saturday afternoon. Needless to say in order to do that we need to have that much ammo on hand.
Prepping is hard enough without people going off half cocked about something they “heard”. We can all make a long list of stuff we have heard over the years that we can not verify. I for one would love to get my hands on that 100 mile per gallon carburetor I have “heard” about since the late 1960s.
I refuse to let them scare me into not prepping. I am not a terrorist. I spent the better part of fourteen years wearing a uniform and training to protect my fellow citizen and my country. My supply of food, guns, ammo, and fuel does not make me a terrorist, my intent to harm does, and I do not have any intention of causing harm unless I am defending myself or my family. As an old friend of mine used to say, “Don’t let the bastards get you down!” Stay positive and keep prepping, now more than ever.
Wolverine
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2011-12-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

Detours Ahead

Remember a couple months ago when I told about the note from Vince asking about bugging out of the city? I want to re-visit the bug out theme for a minute. Recent events have made bug out plans something you should review.

If you live near Southeast Michigan you have probably heard about the flooding on the River Raisin. This is one of the wettest years in history and the water levels all over are up. With the rain that got dumped on us last week the river is swollen over its banks and traffic has been closed down on two bridges over it. Michigan routes 223 in Blissfield and M-50 in Dundee were closed at the River Raisin bridges. That is two major routes away from large cities.

I grew up in that area so I know several back road routes that would get me out of the area. Someone that is not from the area will have to rely on the posted detours to travel out of the area. What type of bottleneck and hazards can you see there?

Bridges are a choke point in travel, plain and simple. If you have any on your bug out route you may want to take the time now to figure out ways to avoid the population centers and most used routes. While you are doing that you need to make sure that you have the extra fuel you will need to travel the extra distances. If I had wanted to go into Dundee I would have had to travel thirty miles extra, one way, to do so. Most of that would have been over rough country roads too.

I know this sounds redundant, but being prepared means being in a constant state of preparedness. You have to constantly re-evaluate your preps, your emergency plans, your stock of supplies, and generally keep your preparedness at the forefront of your thoughts.

One time my oldest son and I, on a whim, took a farm lane across country for a few miles. We stayed off the main road and traveled dirt lanes across a couple of farms just to see if we could. Probably not the smartest thing we ever did, but it was a real learning experience. We wouldn’t do it again except in an emergency. However, we now know what to expect if we do and some of the hazards that it could evolve.

On a different topic, my youngest son and I were talking the other day and he informed me that one of the guys he went to college with is now starting to get involved with prepping. I want to take a minute to say welcome Jonathan glad to have you aboard. Next time you come to the farm to shoot we can talk more about prepping.

Finally, this is coming to the end of the year. You will be reflecting back on what went well, went poorly, and on what you need to do in the future. Always be encouraged that as long as you are prepping you are ahead of the game. It is the poor sheeple that do not think anything bad will happen that are the ones I worry for. I have no doubt that while there may be holes in our preps that when the S hits the F we will find each other and shore up our holes and get through what is coming. Just keep doing what your doing and we will make it, even with detours ahead.

Wolverine
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2011-12-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

It Is Up to You

I finally watched a couple of shows I had taped a while back. Both shows were from the National Geographic channel. One show was called Electronic Armageddon. It was a look at what might happen if an EMP bomb went off over America.
I must admit I was surprised at the depth the show went into. I frankly never considered that the EMP would shut down factories and processing plants. Food and fuel production would cease and there would be months if not years before supplies could again reach the population. It sure did make few months of food storage look pitifully inadequate.
The other show I watched was called Aftermath: The World without Oil. It looked at what we had in store if the world runs out of oil and we can no longer make fuel, plastics, and all the vital items that petroleum products allow us to produce.
Both shows paint a bleak picture of course. Our whole lifestyle will end as we know it. Both shows hinted that we would have to revert back to an “older” type of lifestyle where things were done much more locally. Fruit from California and Chile will be a thing of the past. Fresh seafood from the Eastern Seaboard will be but a memory. Even if they can find there way here the cost will be prohibitive.
One thing that frosted my cookies was the fact that several key parts that will be needed to bring us back up to speed after these events are no long produced in this country. Key electrical gear comes from overseas. If the world loses juice then how will we get those parts over here?
We have politicians arguing whether we should cut spending or raise taxes. Neither of those parties seems to have our best interest at heart. Why would you argue to raise taxes and tell me you are thinking of me? Leave me my money and that will help me. If you in Washington and Lansing really want me to believe you have my best interest at heart why don’t you figure out a way to protect the gird, find ways to reduce oil use or increase our own production, and help me keep more of my money.
They say that there is a stretch of road up near Detroit that was put in during the 1930s and they have never touched it since. When the built it they over engineered it and because of that they have not had to resurface it or do anything to it. If they had done that to all our roads how much money would we have saved over the last thirty years? Imagine driving all over Michigan, or any state, and not having construction zones and slow downs. That folks would have our best interest at heart!
As preppers we look ahead and see any number of assaults on our lifestyle. It could be an EMP. Loss of oil, hyper inflation, or simply losing our jobs. We are better prepared than a lot of our peers and could really be ahead of the game if those clowns in the capitols would actually put themselves last and represent the people as they claimed they would. Keep prepping folks because it sure looks like it is up to you.
Wolverine

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Friendly Bandits

2011-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

Most of us that write for the preparedness blogs touch on the same subjects over a period of time. We extol the virtues of having water, food, fuel, and defensive measures. You can not have too much in storage. You can not predict how long an event might last, how many folks will show up looking for support, or if you will even be able to reach your supplies. A flood or a fire can wipe out everything you have worked years for also. I recently discovered another way I was losing supplies; I had a case of friendly bandits.
The first time I noticed I had been raided is when I went out to the barn to fill the tractor so I could mow the lawn. I should probably remind you that I store my emergency gas supplies in cans in the barn. The cans range from 6 gallons to one gallon. I date each can when I fill them and I use them up from oldest first. They get cycled through in about every two years. Once emptied a can is placed on the floor with the date tape removed so I can fill them when prices dip. Since we had had a price dip a while back all the cans were filled and ready, or so I thought.
I grabbed the oldest five gallon can off the shelf and it was empty. Oh crap I thought, I had a leaky can. I grabbed the next oldest can and it was empty too! Before I was done I had four empty cans. I was down twenty gallons of gas and prices have just jumped. I was pissed.
While I mowed the lawn I kept going over it in my mind and decided that all the cans didn’t leak. I asked the family and my oldest son confessed that he had a bad case of the “shorts” and filled his car with the oldest gas. I didn’t care that he used the gas. I use some too when I have the shorts. What bothered me was that he didn’t tell me so I could refill them when prices were low. It also left me with a false sense that I have more stored fuel than I really did.
When we moved back to the farm I put a shelf in the basement for paper products. I loaded the thing with paper towels, paper plates, napkins, and some toilet paper. When loading the paper towel rolls I noticed that the price on the rolls jumped ten cents at a time and I started at 49 cents a roll and ended at .99. It reminded me that if you buy a lot of bulk early on you save a lot of money long term.
A few weeks ago I saw my wife had bought some paper towels. It made me realize that I had not seen her buy any before. I checked the basement and all the paper towels were gone. Over the last few years my wife used up all the stored supplies and was just now buying a few at a time. Once again what I thought was a nice inventory of a much needed supply was not at all there.
It has always been difficult to get my wife to see that she needs to keep supplies up. She figures we are saving a ton of money using up stuff we already have. We don’t fight tooth and nail over prepping, but she doesn’t see the same future that I do. I will have to be the one that goes out someday and buys a large number of towels and puts them someplace where I can get them when the emergency happens.
Over the last year I have used up one of my cans of Coleman fuel and not replaced it. I mentioned before that my kerosene has been used up over the last few deer seasons and not replaced too. Even I am guilty of using supplies and not replacing them.
While you may have really good preparedness and solid plans in place, make sure that you keep a finger on the pulse of your supplies or like me; you may find you have lost some things to friendly bandits.
Wolverine
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Packratting

2011-11-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

I am a packrat. My wife has informed me of this fact on a regular basis over the last thirty years. Still, I like the fact I can go out to the barn and look up some old stuff from years gone by and make sure my memory is correct. I also enjoy stumbling across a box of old magazines and re-reading some of the stories. I recently found a pile of True magazines from the late 1960s. There was a long article about Euell Gibbons in it and how he hunts wild food. I made a copy of the article and shared it with Tonto. Thirty year old info is still good today.

Toolman and I share a collection of the early Mother Earth News magazines. There are a lot of useful article in them about home made equipment and how to about raising your own crops and animals. A lot of this info might be needed if we go into a long term TEOTWAWKI situation. Toolman dropped them off the other day. He is cleaning out some stuff in the house and needed to move them here. They will go on the shelf in the barn with the old issues of Backwoodsman, Countryside, Backwoods Home, Backhome, and a few others. All of these magazines hold very useful information that might come in handy down the road. I like to store these old magazines because they are EMP proof. Also, I may not be able to remember all I need to on a subject or I might not even care about raising chickens right now but will if they become critical to survival. I can then go back and read up on them.

If you read the blogs long enough you will see most of us post about books and reading martial every few months or so. That is because they are important to long term survival. I probably will not be around to help out the grandkids if we can keep from sliding over the edge for another decade. However, the supply of books and magazines I have left behind just may help insure my family’s survivability multi-generationally. If all that takes is for me to be a packrat, so be it.

Wolverine

Spending a Saturday Prepping, Sort of

2011-11-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

Toolman, Tonto, and I escaped responsibilities Saturday and we loaded up and went to a pair of gunshows, a Fiber show and did some shopping. It was the first time we have all been together in a while. It was too bad E couldn’t join us.

We hit the first gun show and what we discovered was prices where up again. One example I can give is this. My Dad’s deer rifle was a Winchester ’94 in .32 Winchester Special. It is now the gun my son uses for deer hunting. It is not that common a caliber and when ever I see some at a cheap price I buy it. I picked up a couple of boxes for $15 three years ago and Two years ago I found it for $18 a box. This gun show I saw it from $22 to $28 and a couple older boxes were marked higher for their “collector value”.

Tonto wanted to pick up some extra magazines for one of his sidearm’s and the only one he found the guy wasn’t $30 for it and could not guarantee that it would work in Tonto’s model. Toolman could not find the items on his list at any price. I saw some very rough, rusted, ammo cans fro $5 each, the kind we used to pay a buck for. I did find a half box of .30-30 rounds for $3 which I thought was ok.

One booth had a lot of books that would be of interest to anyone building a survival library. Three different Country Wisdom volumes, several books on raising livestock and some on butchering said livestock. Another booth had a nice array of medical supplies that might be good to have for TEOTWAWKI. Gunshows still are great places for finding gear; just realize that prices are going up all the time.

We stopped at Dunham’s to look for a couple items. I found a box of .22s on sale for $17. That is the cheapest I have seen on a brick of .22s in a long while so I bought one. I noticed one lone box of M-1 carbine ammo and I picked it up. I about fell over looking at the price. I showed Tonto and his jaw dropped. Toolman came over and had the same jaw dropping reaction. Forty-five dollars a box!

Next door to the second gun show was a “Fiber Show”. We had no idea what a fiber show was and decided to walk over and check it our. Toolman opted to stay in the van and eat a polish dog so Tonto and I walked over. There was no charge to walk through so we did. There were a lot of animals there, each which produced a nice fur for yarn. Tonto explained that his girlfriend has a sweater and pair of socks made from alpaca yarn and she just loves it. He was half looking for another pair of socks for her. The highlight of the show for us was the camel they had on display. Tonto and I got to pet the camel. I asked the guy that was controlling the thing if he ever rode the camel. He said he rode it a lot. I asked him if that made him a camel jockey. Some woman standing there whirled around and gave me a dirty look, not appreciating my joke. Oh well, Tonto laughed.

We did find that there are a lot of different models of spinning wheels and saw the possibilities of spinning yarn and making clothes as a barter item especially after TEOTWAWKI. We didn’t spend enough time there to really get a clear picture of what the fiber show was about and probably need to look into it more

After the gun shows and fiber show we returned to the farm and Toolman brought out his new Ruger LRC in .357. He had an accident at work and with his hand in a cast he could not cock the slide on his semi-auto so he got the little Ruger to carry. We all managed to punch some holes in the target with it and Tonto said that the stainless model had much better control than the aluminum model he shoot a couple weeks ago at the range.

It was nice for all of us to get together again even if it was only for a short time spending a Saturday prepping, sort of.

Wolverine

Alternate Plans for Staying Warm

2011-11-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

I will admit that over the last month or so I have not had preparedness at the forefront of my mind. I was enjoying the fall days and busying myself with small things like trapping animals for my mother-in-law and reviewing old articles on prepping. Last Sunday my wife and I sat watching the news and saw the tons of snow that was dumped on New England and my wife turned to me and stated she sure was glad that didn’t happen here. It sort of jotted me that indeed it could happen here and I had not set up several of my back up plans for staying warm in a power outage.

I have written several times in the past about the PACE system for preparedness. I first heard it referred to as PACE over on Joe’s Viking Preparedness blog which for some sad reason he seems to have burned out on and no longer posts. Anyway, PACE is an acronym for Primary, Alternate, Contingent, and Emergency. It is a layers system of plans for any part of an operation. It was refined by Special Forces but has been around in many forms for years. Our family had the “One’s good, two’s better and Three’s is about right” plan for as long as I can remember.

A couple quick examples would be lighting, Primary, throw the switch, Alternate, propane lantern, Contingent, kerosene lantern, and Emergency, candles. For water you plan might run something like, draw from well, used stored bottle water, filter rain water, and boil any water you can find. I think that gives you the idea.

Since I live in Michigan and it gets a mite chilly from time to time I have in place a PACE system for heating. Now, this is not the plan I want to eventually have, but it is the one I have now. Like many of you, I dream of the day I can pick up a good woodburning stove that will heat and let me cook on it. Until that day arrives that is not an option and my plans need to reflect my reality.

My primary heat is my furnace which runs on propane. My wife and I have been fortunate enough to pre-pay for our propane the last few winters so we can count on it being full most of the time. If we lose power for a long term reason I have a generator I can hook up to the power and make sure the furnace works.

My alternate heat is still the propane, but what will happen is my wife, myself, and the dogs will cocoon down to the family room and heat it with the gas fireplace. It keeps that room warm and we can stay in there for most of the time we need to. Our kitchen is in the opposite corner of the fireplace and if it gets real cold in there we can turn the burners of the stove on and heat both corners making the room nice and toasty.

Years ago when we lived in the city my wife and I heated the house with kerosene. We found it kept the place nice and warm and since we bought kerosene as we used it the large heating bill from the gas company never showed up. We kept that heater and that is our Contingency plan for keeping warm. To be honest with you, right now my kerosene stores are way down and we would not be able to heat for a long period of time before we drop to our Emergency plan. We have not replaced the kerosene we used while deer hunting the last few years because I keep waiting for the price to come down. When we lived in the city K-1 kerosene was just under $2 a gallon. It is now double that and I keep hoping it will come down. Tonto and I have several places we check the price on and share the info. Now that I have my gas storage completed I hope to at least buy several more can full’s of K-1 for the future.

As an aside, several years ago I stopped at an Amish farm and asked the folks how much kerosene they used in a years time. The guy told me that they used about a hundred gallons for lighting and cooking. They use a kerosene stove during the summer for cooking on. They do not heat with kerosene so you can guess that you would need several hundred gallons stored away for heating and lighting.

Our gas fireplace can be converted to a wood burning fireplace with an hour’s work and a few tools. Once I fill the heater with the last gallon of kerosene I will be converting the fireplace over and we will then be heating with out Emergency plan.

As a guy I work with once told me, “It is easier to get warm than it is to get cool”. Staying warm in the dead of winter can be easier than cooling off in the ninety degree heat of summer. If you come into a room from the outside when it is well below freezing even a 50 degree room is warm.

I am sure that you have heard that the experts have all predicted that this will be a really bad winter with lots of cold and snow. If they are correct than now is the time to make sure you have some alternate plans for staying warm.

Wolverine

Spreading the Word about Prepping

2011-10-26T15:46:00.001-07:00

I got a message from one of the Michigan readers the other day. He expressed a concern that many new preppers have mentioned. In essence what he asked was, how do you deal with people that think you are around the bend when you mention prepping to them?

Being a prepper draws a lot of raised eyebrows and comments to your face and even worse behind your back. I do not know if you have seen Momma Bear in the Mitten posted from time to time on the blogs, but she is family. When she first started prepping she was like an evangelist for prepping and now everyone in the family makes cracks about it. Since I started prepping back in the 1970's very few know I do so now. Look at prepping like selling Amway, you are either a believer or you run and hide from the idea of someone tiring to recruit you. You are not trying to get people to sell soap and make money but rather you are trying to get them to prep for dire times. It still breaks down to whether they are believers or not.

I had a guy from work come up to the farm one Saturday so he could try out his new pistol. I broached the subject of prepping to him and now all he does is go around work telling people he is coming to my farm if the world goes to hell. You have to be selective in who you talk to about prepping. By rights the guy should have been a good candidate for prepping based on all I know about him, but I sure missed the mark on him.
Sure, it might be best to keep your mouth shut and say nothing, but most of us want our friends and family to survive and be there. Another thing I have found is a lot of people are prepping but they do not think they are preppers. I have one cousin that has a back up generator, stored food, and a few other items to help out in an emergency, but she doesn’t think she preps. Prepping comes in many degrees, some of us running on high go ahead and others slightly above idle.

Do not let the sheeple get you down. Keep prepping because you know it is right to do. My family has been ready since the 70's and we still keep prepping even though so far we have not had TEOTWAWKI. It is like the guy falling off the skyscraper, as he passes each floor he says, so far so good. Sooner or later he will not have “good” anymore.

Wolverine

A Couple of Updates

2011-10-19T16:14:00.001-07:00

The rabbit we rescued was not a good fit with our home. Every time one of us held the rabbit she would pee all over us. The dogs did not bother the rabbit other than they would smell her as she moved around the kitchen, but the dogs bothered the rabbit by being around at all. One of the cats looked at the rabbit as a nice lunch. My wife spent hours sitting on the floor petting the rabbit but the rabbit would shy away from her most of the time.

My wife mentioned the rabbit to her boss and he told her if we wanted to get rid of it he and his wife would love to have it for their 14 year old daughter. We discussed it and made the choice to make a gift of the rabbit to the girl. Today the rabbit is well cared for, and hops to the girl when she gets home from school. The boss told my wife that the rabbit shows affection toward the girl, has the run of the house and is a great fit for their family. Everyone is happy, so I guess it is win- win as they say.

The walnuts are gone. Carhart Warrior loaded them in the dump bucket of his tractor and drove them back to the woods where the squirrels are having a fall banquet. Now, fat squirrel I like a lot better than walnut so this could work out to be win-win also.

I trapped a second opossum at my Mother-in-Law’s and this one is “as big as a dog”. This one was re-located to a drainage ditch half way between the city and our farm. No, I did not dispatch this one; it was smart enough to get the hell out of the cage when I opened the door. However, I did e-mail Bill and told him we were having special hamburgers at half-time Saturday. (He is the one that found the critter at Mom’s.) He declined the invite for some reason.

My finally trapping adventure at my mother-in-law’s resulted in one fat raccoon. We left him go at a metro park. As soon as the cage was opened the coon was headed into the woods as fast as his legs would carry him. Now one of my wife’s co-workers is talking about maybe having me trap a skunk she saw in her yard. I will think on that.

Thank you to all that left a comment and let me know I was not alone out here. It helps a lot to know I have at least some support.

Wolverine

Odds and Ends

2011-10-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

My wife started to get a tooth ache so she called and made an appointment to get it looked at. I went along for the ride and while she was in the chair I did something I have not had a chance to do in a while. I went dumpster diving.

I started with a walk through a car wash looking for money. I found sixty three cents. I then headed behind a grocery store to check for any “loot” I might find. I hit the jackpot as it were. I found several canned goods in the dumpster. I got some beans, tomato juice, cream of mushroom soup, tuna fish, steak sauce, a large package of mushrooms, half a dozen boxes of pudding/pie filling mix, and the surprise of the evening was a two pound jar of peanut butter and six jars of jelly. I had the makings of several meals at least in part, and lunches for a couple weeks as long as you like PB&J sandwiches.

We lived on dumpster diving several years ago and my oldest son did most of his “shopping” by DD when he was in college. There are a few things you need to know about eating from a dumpster, but the worst part is the image folks have of it, not the food you get. If I had been prepared for the DD I would have gotten a lot more stuff too.

I went back and re-read some of my earlier posts here and I am wondering if Ken, Treesong, and several others still read regularly? It sure would help keep me going if I got a few more comments from the posts. I sometimes think I am writing only for myself anymore.

I have another bumper crop of walnuts this year. I wish I knew some way to put them to good use. I would give or trade with anyone in the area that wants some. If you live in Monroe, Lenawee, or Washtenaw County and want a bunch of walnuts let me know.

My wife wants to go on a day photo safari this afternoon. We ran some errands this morning and she as already taken several shots of a log cabin and some nice color foliage. Our next stop is an old mill and who knows where else.

My mother-in-law lives in a big city and is plagued by a possum “as big as a dog”. I set two live traps last week and caught a possum Tuesday. She was thrilled we got the culprit but we still set the trap since the one I caught was smallish. Trapped it did not look “as big as a dog”.

I post once a week. I send my post in on Thursday and it goes up when they have time. Once in a while I struggle for a post but most of the time I have two or three in the can ready to go. It is not a killer pace I have set for myself. I wonder why there are so many blogs out there that have not posted in months? I check about a dozen blogs on the weekend that I have not seen an update for in a long while. Even guys like Joe over at Viking are not posting regularly anymore. I will admit I could not do a daily post, but come on, since July?

Somehow I left my cell phone in my pants and it got washed. It was an old dinosaur of a phone but it worked for me until I washed it. I hate this new phone like you can not believe. If you have something that does the job for you and you may not be able to replace it, guard it jealously.

I need not remind you that winter is coming. Have you got your back up heat sources ready in case you need them? Are you ready for a week without power or being snowed in for a few days? The great fall weather we are having now will soon be replaced with the cold and snow of winter, so do not let your guard down. Keep prepping and being ready for the worst, just in case.

Wolverine

Is it Truly a Year’s Supply?

2011-10-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is my fourth or fifth attempt to write on this subject. It just never comes out the way I want it to nor does it convey what I am trying to express. I will try again and see how it goes.

We always hear and read about how much folks have supplied. This guy has two years worth of food and the other guy has six months of gasoline. Have you wondered how they know those numbers?

Over the last few years I have kept track of several things I use daily to see just how much I would need for a year’s supply. Just before we moved to the farm I found a store going out of business that had three bottles of shampoo on sale for a ridiculously low price, three for a dollar I think it was, maybe 50 cents each. Anyway I figured that would last me most of the rest of my life. It turns out that one bottle will last 24 months. My second bottle is about used up and except for the time I was in the hospital and used the shampoo they gave me I have pretty much stuck with my “supply”.

My wife and I each use a separate bathroom for showering and well, other stuff. One roll of toilet paper will last me two weeks. I have tracked this for a while and that is my average. The other day I was in the bathroom changing out a roll of toilet paper. I knew it was Friday because I change out the toilet paper every other Friday, almost like clockwork. A four pack of rolls is good for about two months in my bathroom. Six to eight packages of toilet paper should last me one year. My wife goes through a little more in her bathroom. Add in the additional usage from guests and the boys home on leave and the total of rolls we use in a year is right around 100 rolls. Call it a case of toilet paper, 96 rolls. I no longer have that much in storage, but I did a few years ago.

It is very easy to underestimate the amount of an item you hope to have a year’s supply of. When we moved back to the farm I loaded a shelf in the basement with paper towels. My wife and I looked at the full shelves and decided we were good for at least a year. Six months later we were buying towels again. Underestimating some items is no big deal, but if you have made a short guess on your food supply you might be in for a long hungry time until crops grow. Or if you heat with wood and you figure two cords is enough and you need four, you will be down right cold or working in the subfreezing weather trying to cut wood.

It is an easy task to track usage. Make that list and write down how much of something you use. Once you get a handle on it the task of maintaining a year’s supply of anything gets easier. If you know you need 96 rolls of TP for the family for a year once you reach that you can move on to other items. A few times a year you stock up and forget about that item again. It takes a load off of your mind and helps you feel like you have accomplished something.

Start with a few items and keep building on the list. Before long you will know the peace of mind of having a year’s supply put away. The more items you do that with the more peace of mind you will have as we race toward TEOTWAWKI.

Wolverine

Shangri-la or La-La Land?

2011-09-29T17:54:00.001-07:00

To many preppers the retreat is almost the same as Shangri-La. They view their cabin in the woods, lake side cottage, mountain top retreat or desert hideout as the safe place they can go to and live in peace. I do it myself sometimes. We think of all the great reason we can live there and never truly look at the problems we will have to overcome as well. Game will always be plentiful, gardens produce bumper crops, the water will flow and be pure, and only trusted, invited, guests will show up. Paradise to be sure.

An acquaintance of mine dropped by the house a while back. He had come by to discuss deer hunting on my property and see how I did last year. During our conversation he mentioned how bad the economy was and how he had a fall back plan. I didn’t tell him I was a prepper but I did probe him on his plans.

He had just returned from a week or so stay up north at his in-law’s cabin. He told me how great it was up there, good fishing, great weather and he saw a lot of game there too. He told me his plan was to head up there if things went to hell in a hand basket.

That scenario is common. His is not the first time I heard that plan and I actually heard a guy a work tell a similar idea to that last week. Looks like the woods will be crawling with survival minded folks once the balloon goes up. Anybody see a problem with that?

During the Depression game was hunted hard and heavy for a meal on the table. My mother used to tell me about how she would come home from school, pick up her .410/.22 over under Savage and walk the railroad tracks behind her home looking for anything they could make a meal out of. She would kick up a rabbit once in a great while, but the wild asparagus and the fruits she found were mostly what they had. She told me that she would sometimes see others walking the track hunting too. Most days she just enjoyed a long walk. My father also told me stories of the Depression that were very similar. He would walk to school carrying a 12 gauge double barreled shotgun and walk the fence rows to and from school hunting and trapping. It was not unusual to see several boys skinning game under the willow tree behind the school. Can you imagine seeing half a dozen boys walking up to school with a shotgun today?

I have written several times about my grandfather and his brother going to a cabin in the Huron National Forest back in the late 50s or early 60s and planning to live off the fat of the land for a while like they did as kids. He always ended that story with, “The fat of the land is pretty damn lean!” They found very little game, the fishing was poor and they ended up going to town to dinner more than once.

If your plans include heading for the hills you might want to have a serious think session with your plans and make sure that you have everything in place. My cabin is ok for three seasons but without the generator and propane we would freeze to death in there. If I had to bug out to there in late fall we would be in a world of hurt. Because of crime and break-ins we have not pre-positioned a lot of supplies there either. Tonto is always giving me crap about that too. He even put a cache up there as an experiment a few years back to see if it would survive a couple years in the ground.

Take off the rose colored glasses and give your woods retreat a long hard look. It could be pure folly to have that as your primary prep plan and find it was all a nice fantasy.

Wolverine

Thoughts on a Problem?

2011-09-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail a while back from a Michigan Preppers reader asking for my thoughts and advice on a problem he faced. The guy, I will call him Vince, lives in the suburb of a large city. Picture a nice home in Wyoming and working in downtown Grand Rapids. Vince is concerned on how he will be able to get out of town and to a safe location.

My suggestion was buy a good county map and/or city map that you can plan escapes route with. I had five different routes out of the city to the farm. I also practiced driving them from time to time to make sure they were still open, nothing had changed, and I knew about how much time I could make them in under ideal conditions. Mark the routes with different colored highlighters and make sure everyone knows each route. I always assumed my wife and both boys would have to find their way to the farm by themselves. Also, there is a lot of good information out there on having a meeting location and a common contact in the event of some need.

Maybe some silver rounds will buy your way through a road block or two, but I wouldn’t count on it. If they think you have more they might ambush you for any food, gas, women, or valuables you have. A ironic drawback to bugging out is that it is most likely you will load up with as much of your supplies as you can. The more you carry the more attractive you are as a target. That is why so many recommend pre-positioning your supplies at a retreat.

My plans used to revolve around my sons being at school, my wife and I each at our places of employment and all of us meeting at the house to leave for the farm. Not always practical like the time the factory down the street from the house had a “hazardous spill” and it was between school and home. The boys were trapped at school and we could not get to them. In case you didn’t know it Murphy is a prepper too.

Vince didn’t include a lot of details in his question, but with just the bare bones info of needing to bug out of a city to your retreat posses a lot of possible answers. How many of you face the same challenge? I often wondered if I might have to force my way out of the city maybe having to threaten or shoot at the boys Scout leader or soccer coach in order to get out of town. We never know how others will react or in all honesty, how we will react. For those of you that live in the city and plan to bug out, how do you have it planned?

Wolverine

How will it turn out?

2011-09-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, let me get this straight. The State of Michigan is asking one body of state government if it is ok for another body of state government to tax the people getting a pension. Gee, I wonder how that will turn out.

Wolverine

Visiting Bill

2011-09-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Stopped in and visited with my Brother-in-law this weekend. I write his name as Bill because spell check drives me nuts when I write Bil. Besides, it is a good Opsec name for him. He has become more and more preparedness minded over the years and now figures his sister’s husband is less nuts than he first thought.

When I stopped by he was just getting ready to burn up a bunch of downed limbs from last weeks hail storm. He also burns all of his mail that has any personal or account numbers on it. He feels no one else needs to know any of his account numbers. We talked about the different ways we keep our numbers private and how we sort to burn. He has one waste basket all his stuff goes in and he burns it in an outdoor fire ring. I put all my “to be destroyed” envelopes and documents in an empty dog food bag. When it gets full I take it out and burn it in the burning barrel. That way I can not make the mistake of tossing it out as garbage. I know a couple of guys that run everything through a shredder before it leaves the house. Regardless of the method used, make sure you keep your account numbers and SSN to yourself. Always think Opsec.

Bill asked me to take his propane tank to be filled. He lives in a bigger town and it cost nearly $20 to fill a twenty pound tank. My rural company fills mine for just over $12. That is a big savings. He also told me he was on the lookout for one more tank. He has two now but felt he should have a third in case he needs one for cooking during a power outage or some other reason. I told him I had just acquired an empty one that he was welcome to if he wanted it filled. Made him happy and I was glad I could help him out.

Bill also told me that he found some larger cans of chicken on sale for a dollar a can. He put ten cans back in his food storage so he had some protein put away. We talked about several ways to prepare it so it didn’t get boring eating it as a survival food. Bill is a great cook and has good ideas on survival cooking.

We had a nice visit around the fire with an absolutely clear blue sky overhead. It was a beautiful morning for us and pleasant to exchange some ideas and information. He has always said that he plans on coming to the farm when TSHTF. Knowing he has a solid plan of action, knows what to bring, and that he will be an asset makes him more than welcome.

On that same line of thought, I emailed my cousin that lives in Roanoke, Virginia today and asked what preps she had taken for the visit of hurricane Irene. My cousin is not prep minded and I figured her answer would be a good counter point to my consent prepping thoughts.

Part of her reply was this: I have had my basement waterproofed since water leaked in 5 to 10 yrs ago with another hurricane. As far as provisions, I keep a couple gallons of water and otherwise plan to hunker down with one of a few friends who are "prepared." Oh, yes, and I have also had all my trees trimmed so that hopefully, unless blown really far, no limbs will fall on the house.

I suspect that her couple of gallons of water is just that, two gallons. She did not mention food storage at all. No back up lighting, no way to heat if needed, toward the end of her e-mail came the conformation I expected: In case of long term power outages, my prepared friends have generators.

It gets mentioned on preparedness blogs a lot; open up a dialog with your friends and family about prepping. Her preps are to go live with someone else that she knows does prep. How many of your friends and family have that exact prep in mind? Your thirty day food supply could fall to a week in a hurry if several people come to your retreat. I feel very fortunate that my friends and family are at least somewhat prepped. I know that my wife’s brother is not only prepped but has a plan to show up with food, arms, and prepared to help defend the farm. I learned all that because I opened up dialog with and spent time visiting Bill.

Wolverine

Some Randomness

2011-08-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

Toolman stopped by the other day and dropped off some scrap metal for the pile. I have ended up making a trip to the scrap yard four weekends in a row. I have used the money to top off the fuel supplies. I am still working on filling up some more kerosene cans, but most of the other stuff is completed. One thing I do regarding fuels is keep two five gallon cans of diesel fuel here. I do not use diesel fuel but the neighbor does and I want to make sure we can fire up his tractor if we need it. Also, there are a ton of ancillary items that you need to keep on hand to make sure your vehicles will keep running; things like oil, gas treatment, brake & steering fluid, and anti freeze to name a few. Storing supplies for when TSHTF can have many layers for total preparedness.

Toolman told me that the seeds I gave him grew well and he has been harvesting crops for a couple weeks now. Good to know that even those older seed packets will produce a decent crop of food.

I had to kill an hour the other day so I walked through a small flea market. I found some ammo cans there. I probably did not need to add more ammo cans to my stock but when the guy was willing to take $7 a piece for them I took them all. Ammo cans used to be a couple bucks each and then two for five and then they went to five bucks each. The last year or so they have gone up to ten each at all the gunshows I have hit. I feel they will make a great trade item down the road and well worth putting some extras back now.

Any of you readers in the southeast corner of the state might wish to stop by Worley’s Outpost. It is a new “bulk food” store that also sells freeze dried foods, silver & gold, MRE’s and other prepper supplies. I talked to the lady while at the flea market for just a minute and hope to visit the store in the near future. It is on Stearns Road on the corner of Jackman. I do not know the owners nor do I have any affiliation with the store, I am just passing on the info for any preppers that might want or need it.

As we prepare for uncertain times and events we sometimes get complacent. Tonto put in a nice garden this year and had kept us updated on the progress all summer long. He wrote last week that he would likely be busy as hell for a few days canning all the tomatoes that were about to come in. Last Thursday night a sever summer storm came through his area and the hail came down like a snow storm. His garden got “shredded” as he put it and he lost most of the above ground crops. He sent photos and you have to feel for him. Imagine if TSHTF and that happened just before winter; no food storage for Tonto and his clan. It is another reason to have back-ups for your back-ups.

We rescued a rabbit last night. Poor thing got abandoned in a house in Toledo. It was left in a cage with no food or water. The floor of the cage was a solid mass of rabbit pellets and the poor creature had to sit on a wooden piece to stay out of the crap. Some people should not be allowed to have kids or animals until they show they can take care of themselves.

Wolverine

Doing Some Seedy Things

2011-08-18T18:35:00.001-07:00

I have mentioned several times in the past about picking up different items at flea markets, gun shows, and garage sales. I find wandering a flea market to be a relaxing way to spend some time. I don’t feel a need to buy something every time I go and if I haggle over a price and can not get it for what I think is fair I walk away, not hard feelings.

I rarely go looking for a specific item, but I do read through my prep notebook before I do go just to put the items I am looking for fresh in my mind. About the only item I am always looking for is cheap ammo. I bought eighty rounds of .30-06 Remington rounds for five dollars a couple years ago. I do not even own a .30-06 rifle but figured I could trade them if nothing else. I buy any cheap ammo I find. I usually manage to find some shotgun shells for around a dime each if I bargain well.

I stopped at a flea market a short time back and picked up a box of seeds. The box had three hundred and thirty seed packets in it. I offered five bucks for it. All the seeds were from the year 2004, so there is a likelihood that some of them will not work, but out of 330 packets of seeds I should be able to grow enough for a few meals.

Of the 330 packages of seeds there was one package of flower seeds. Everything else was a vegetable. I found 33 different types of vegetables in the box. I put away one pack of everything for myself. I then went through the piles and took one of everything that was left and made three different bundles. I gave one bundle each to Tonto, Toolman and E. My neighbor, Carhartt Warrior picked out a bundle of the ones he wanted.

The rest of the packets will be put away and saved for barter next spring. Yeah, I know they are old seeds. I also know that most of the seeds I have planted over the years have all been from older stock. My folks would buy out old seeds every fall and we would use some each spring. Some of the stuff we used was a decade old and they produced well. I offered some to folks at work and only one person refused any seeds because they were “old”.

I do not know what the rate of germination will be, but even if it is only 25% I will have one hell of a crop.

Speaking of seeds I was talking to Blondie the other day and he mentioned that one of the guys he works with has a small garden of heirloom seeds going. Blondie made a deal to help with the garden for some of the food and some of the seeds they gather. I am going to mail him am article I have in the Survival Bible on how to save seeds so he can make sure they get good ones for next planting.

Being a prepper can sometimes mean having flexibility in shopping, storing, and looking for different ways to insure you have the supplies you may need. That including doing some “seedy” things from time to time.

Wolverine

Stumbling Forward

2011-08-10T08:00:00.001-07:00

What is the difference between survival and living? Come on, you know what I mean. You stay alive in both cases, but in one case you carry on some semblance of life. A debris shelter and a rabbit over a flint and steel fire is survival. A wood stove in your house with a meal cooking on it is living. Be honest with yourself. Which would you rather be doing after the balloon goes up? I for one do not want to be setting deadfalls if I can preplan ahead and buy traps and snares that work better. I have books on wild edible foods, but a garden would be better.

The old saying is that forewarned is fore armed. You are reading the prep blogs so you can have yourself better prepared for any future problems. It is important that you maintain a steady progress toward that magic point where you feel totally prepared. I personally doubt I will ever reach that point, but each week I get closer to it and feel better about my family’s chances.

A lot of e-mails and phone call were traded within our small group of preppers. The events of the Dow drop and the riots in London have made us step up our awareness. Tonto pulled the trigger on some planned purchases, Toolman came by and dropped off some “trade goods” and checked our supplies of defensive martial. E has kept us posted with some internet news articles from around the globe. My farm is one of several “fall back” locations for Tonto and Toolman. If things get beyond what they feel they can handle at their locations they are likely to show up here. All of these plans have been discussed already and everyone is kept in the loop. (E has a farm fall back location in Central Ohio waiting for him or he would be welcome too.)

While none of us feel we are totally prepared and ready we do know that with the help and support of each other we will weather the coming months, or we will band together and defend our supplies against all odds.

All of the talking, reading, planning, and prepping everyone has been doing is starting to look like “money in the bank” as it were. I hope that my fellow Michiganders are ready. Always remember that even when you stumble it is in a forward direction, so when all else fails, kept stumbling forward.

Wolverine

Basics

2011-08-05T05:47:00.000-07:00

If you follow most any sport you will hear the coach or players say at some point that they are not playing well and that they need to get back to the basics. Everything that is successful is built on a strong foundation. Building a good preparedness plan needs to be built on the basics too.
What are the basics for survival? Listen to the Rules of Three and you will find that is pretty much the list, in order of what you need to do for preparedness. You can live three seconds without thinking, three minutes without air; you can survive three hours without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food and three months without hope. There you go, a nice guideline.

Since you are reading this blog and hopefully others it is obvious that you are thinking and working on your survival, so you have that covered. I will also assume that you are not reading this underwater or in a vacuum and you have good air to breath. (If you are reading this on a computer powered by a running generator in an enclosed space refer back to number one.)

Why is shelter listed above food and water? Because the elements can kill you. The news this week has been about a number of folks that have died because of the massive heat wave sweeping the Midwest. We hear the same stories every winter too. Have a safe shelter is the highest priority in places like Michigan were the weather can affect you at both extremes.

Most of us have our home or apartment as our primary shelter. A tent stored away with camping supplies may be your back up for shelter. Whatever your future plans are, shelter in place, bug out, or pray for FEMA, make sure you include in your plan a way to shelter you and your loved ones from cold, wind, rain, and heat.

Water is essential for survival. Keeping hydrated is a key to personnel health and should be strived for. I live in Michigan and the state once bragged that in Michigan you are never more than eight miles from a lake, river, stream, or pond. Your home and bug out kit should have a good water filter so you can walk to one of those sources and drink to your hearts content. Plan ahead in your survival for several ways to filter and purify water.

Whether you have wheat to be ground, MREs, bags of rice, or Raman noodles, food storage is one of the prep items that gets a lot of attention. Over the long haul food will be the “make or break” item for a lot of preppers. If they do not have enough to bridge them until the system recovers or resets then they might become part of the Golden Hoard and be out looking for a meal. I am not sure what is the correct amount but feel that six to twelve months worth of storage can not be too far off.

Those are the basics. Once you start on the list you can fine tune it and add as you need to. Once you have your shelter plans you can add extra ways to heat it, you can plan for a generator or solar power, you can harden it against attack and a lot of other things, but first, you need the basics of a simple shelter. Preparedness has many levels. You can go into great depth or you can keep it simple. Regardless of where you take it, for a good preparedness foundation you need to start with the basics.

Wolverine

The Best Defense

2011-07-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

The Outdoor Channel has a lot of interesting shows on it. Hunting is a part of a lot of preparedness planning and you can learn a lot about hunting from The Outdoor Channel. One show they have might surprise the preparedness minded community too, they have a show on preparedness!

The Best Defense is hosted by Michael Bane and over the last couple of years they have moved the show to survival/preparedness segments. Water filtration, food storage, defensive shooting, weapon choices and bugging out have all been topics covered.

The show is run several different time slots on Wednesdays. If your cable system offers The Outdoor Channel I recommend you check out a few of the shows and see if you don’t want to add watching The Best Defense you your list of prepping options.

Wolverine

Survival Questions

2011-07-25T07:18:00.001-07:00

Survival Questions

Has anyone ever heard of Bright Fuel? I made some phone calls last week looking for white gas. One place told me they sell Bright Fuel to the Amish in the area instead of white gas. It works the same according to the guy on the phone. $4.65 a gallon, which is way cheaper than the $9.95 a gallon for Coleman fuel. The drawback for me is that it is half a state away and the smallest unit I can buy is 55 gallon drum. Based on the figures I have been able to come up with, my guess is that 25-30 gallons will last around a year for my family. It would be nice to have a 55 gallon barrel for trade and charity, but it also makes my family a target for those that want what I have stored so they don’t have to pay for it. Next time I am at my retreat/cabin I will ask the Amish in the area where they buy there white gas. I should just e-mail them…

I read a short blurb in the Parade Magazine about life in Zimbabwe. One of the “rules” that was passed by the dictator was that no one was allowed to plant a garden. It was felt that a garden would hurt the economy since you would be buying less food. In that country $4 US will get you 10 million dollar notes. You have to wonder several things at this point. If they passed that rule here, how would you hide a garden? Pot growers might be able to give some ideas here. How would that rule effect your survival plans if it was against the law to garden?

We all know we all read almost all the same blogs and magazines. Face it; we all see the same names mentioned in the comments. It is great we are a “close” community. Have you noticed that some/many of the sites have come up with different ways to produce food post SHTF? They are all good ideas too. Everything from smelt fishing, dumpster diving, hunting, trapping, gardening, and learning to live off the land. With so many different ways it just might be that we might not keep bumping into each other while getting the food we need.

Have you priced gas cans lately? I was in one of the big box stores the other day and saw that 5 gallon cans have jumped up to near $15 each. I asked the guy behind the counter why and he told me that it was because of the new law in California. The new cans are “spill proof”. A buddy of mine told me with the new push down nozzles that people are spilling more gas and bending tanks and equipment trying to fill them. When I told the guy behind the counter I was glad I had a bunch of the old gas he told me to “hold on to them, they are like gold”. I had been buying them at garage sales and flea markets over the last few years, cleaning them up and filling them. My gas storage is not near what I want, but at least I will be able to pour it into my truck or tractor as needed.

Am I the only one, or do you too have the feeling that the S hitting the Fan fluctuates? There are times I feel that I have mere days before something in going to bust loose and then things settle down and the S seems awhile away. I still am trying to get my priorities squared away as soon as I can so it will not matter, but I am sometimes surprised that the stress ebbs and flows.

This question comes up every time there is a spike in the price of gold and silver. Is it better to sell off junk/scrap gold and silver with the prices high and turn that cash into survival needs like food and ammo? I read some place that it is the junk stuff that barters best in a collapse. As much as I would like to take all the bracelets bent rings and other precious metal items and turn them into a pile of Mountain House food or cans of ammo, I wonder if I am better served having small trade/barter units of precious metals?

I did an experiment the other week. I sent my brother in law an e-mail giving him a SHTF scenario and asked him to list what items he would grab from his house if he had to bug out of town and come live with us at the farm. My brother in law is not totally survival minded, but he is not against the idea of having some plans either. I figure my brother in law is one of the people that will show up post SHTF. Giving him this exercise will open his mind a little and give me a chance to send him a priority list of stuff to bring, just in case. This might be a way to get your “maybe show up” people to start thinking about what to bring instead of just showing up. Tell them you are working on an article for the web so they will respond.

I just want to throw these out there and see if I can get some help puzzling them out.

Wolverine

Duplicate Supplies

2011-07-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

How and why we have seconds, thirds and more of supplies is sometimes a mystery. I mentioned a few entries ago that I had a shovel and matches in every out building. I did not go out and buy three or four shovels and purchase a load of matches just have one hand. Those items grew slowly over the years. One of the shovels I have has a broken handle. It was being used to pry on a rock or stump and the handle cracked. My father glued it back in place and then wrapper the handle with some wire to strengthen the crack. As long as we only use it in the field were having looser soil to work that shovel works fine. The other shovels have arrived on the farm from various sources. I think one came home from a farm auction as part of a group of stuff my Mom bought. Another came from my Grandfather’s place after he passed away.

The Special Forces teach the philosophy that “two is one and one is none”. Having back-ups are important in most aspects of life. When we find ourselves in that future SHTF situation having extras of any supply might turn out to be a life saver. I might be able to trade extras for items I didn’t think I might need.

I am not suggesting that as a prepper you need to have duplicates of everything nor am I suggesting that you go out and start buying double of items. What I am saying that if life presents you with a second of an item at a good price, or better yet, free, it doesn’t hurt to put it away. I for one am a big proponent of duplicate supplies.

Wolverine

I Will Handle It

2011-07-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

I am not general known to write long foul-mouthed rants. Just don’t think they really get the full message across. However, a couple of things have converged to make me want to symbolically take pen to paper and express a concern.

I went to Detroit Metro Airport the other night to pick my youngest son up. Blondie, as he is known in my circle of friends. He is an Infantry officer in the Army. He was home for a few days before he starts a three year billet far from home.

Anyway, as I was waiting for him to grab is duffles and head for the truck a guy in a newer SUV pulled up in front of me and jumped out. As he headed into the terminal I saw his back up lights on. Crap! I sure didn’t want his empty car backing into me but I couldn’t get is attention. Traffic was jammed three deep around us and I couldn’t move. I was trapped!

Trying to decide what to do left me with no more option then I had already thought through. What I did notice was that the back up lights went out, as did all the lights on the car. Double crap! Another one of those new fangled safety things. I hate those #^(*!@%$ things.

I will no longer tell someone their lights have been left on in the car. I am tired of being laughed at with, “Oh those will go out later, IT”S a NEW car”. I saw a car up at Houghton Lake earlier this year with the lights on and they looked like they were dimming but I was dammed if I was saying anything.

Another thing I do not need or want on my truck is having to stomp on the brake to put it in park. Do not let your kids play in the vehicle, how hard it that? I also want my lights out when I turn them off and on when I want then on. I am very capable of deciding that all by myself. I did it for years and didn’t smack something in the dark because I forgot to turn on the lights or have problems walking to the door in the dark and getting in the house. Make it an option for those timid souls that afraid of the dark. Also, I will lock the #^(*!@% doors if I want, I do not want the car doing it when I put it in drive. And that seat belt alarm bell, cram that up someone’s…well you know.

Since my wife doesn’t often read this blog I can admit this out loud, I am a control freak and hell yes that means controlling my lights and driving too. I have great confidence in Wolverine. He has always done well and trusts his gut. My gut tells me now that all this safety stuff is going to make us more enslaved later on. I think I would much prefer to rebuild an old 1960s pick-up and not have all the new safety $#!+ on it. Yeah, before you ask, I hate seat belts too. Actually, when I was younger, like in my teens and twenties I always wore my seatbelt. Once they made shoulder straps mandatory I rebelled and said hell no! Yes, I have gotten seat belt tickets and still refuse to kowtow to some government that insists IT knows more about my safety than I do. I am alive today because I wasn’t wearing a seat belt, twice! I will take care of Wolverine thank you very much.

Part of what started this rant is a commercial from some TV show that asked what I would do if I saw someone doing this bad thing. My answer is not a damn thing; I do not want to get sued. Why would they purposely put people in a position to have to act? If they did that to me it would be my last effort to jump in and help anyone. I hate bullcrap and that is what that is. Makes me wonder if the guy in Toledo a few weeks ago that jumped in front of the car trying to escape after the passenger hit someone and got dragged to his death was trying to do the right thing or get on TV. (Just a rant, he did the right thing and died for it, a tragic shame.)

I am one of those people that wants to keep control of things in his life. I do not turn things over to others to handle, period. I do not use electronic banking and do not own a debit card of ATM card. I go to the bank when it is open. If I screw up and miss getting my money, MY FAULT! I don’t need or want twenty four hour access to my money. A lot of preppers are that self-reliant kind of folk that understand my rant and just might feel the same way. We need to start telling the people in government that are trying to help us to butt out, we will handle it. As for me, I will handle my problems and safety, I trust me so much more than others.

Wolverine

Alert Today Alive Tomorrow

2011-07-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through the channels looking for a good western the other day and I spotted this movie listed. The title caught my attention so I looked at the guide and found that this was a Civil Defense (CD) movie made in 1956. The main crux of the movie was to get the people fired up to volunteer for either the CD or Red Cross so they would be ready to help out when the H bomb hit.

I watched it twice, missing a lot the first time through. Like I missed the part about “pressing into service” any one of several items that the government might need to use. Ham radios were one of the items mentioned. I hear confiscated when they say pressed into service.

The film was shot in Reading, Pennsylvania and showed some of the locals going through various phases of training. First Aid was pushed. The projected figures from the film stated they wanted 3000 people out of every one hundred thousand trained competently in FA. They were training motor bike clubs to be messengers and Auxiliary Police. Fire suppression was also a big concern; the most civilian casualties in WW2 came from fires caused by bombing.

Most of what the film covered was a lot of the same items covered in the modern CERT classes. When I lived in the city I took CERT and later became a CERT instructor. It is good training and helps you stay more self-reliant in the event of a catastrophe.

Jay Bonafield produced the film for the RKO-Pathe company and it was only a little over a half hour long. If it shows back up on your Turner Classic Movies you might want to watch it and see how far prepping has progresses since 1956. I originally thought it might have bomb shelter building and that sort of stuff but still it was interesting to see some of the roots of making some of us more prepared.

Wolverine

The Travel Trailer as a Retreat

2011-06-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Like so many folks did, I bought a copy of M.D. Creekmore’s book, Dirt Cheap Survival, One Man’s Solution. I read it and loaned it to Tonto to read. I had intended to write a review a few weeks ago but put it off. I really doubt that any review I do on the book would be much different then any of the others you might have already read.

I was discussing the book with a friend of mine that lives in Missouri. He is also a writer of outdoor and survival articles. I mailed my copy to him to read and also mailed my old copy of Brian Kelling’s Travel-Trailer Homesteading Under $5,000.

Both books tell how the authors converted a travel trailer into their main living quarters. They have a similar approach to wanting to live frugally and not have the monthly expenses that drag most of us down.

Creekmore’s book has a little more detail on the power system he uses to live off grid. Kelling installed his own septic system and Creekmore uses a composting toilet system. Kelling has to haul water and pump it while Creekmore has a spring for his supply, but still has to pump it. Between the two books you can get a good idea on it what it would take to make a travel trailer your permanent home as a retreat.

Tonto, Toolman, and my sons all have had numerous discussions on my place as a retreat. There are a ton of pluses for moving to the cabin if TSHTF, and a few negatives as well. We take a generator up for deer season and use it to heat the cabin but most of the time the cabin is an “electric free zone”. The big drawback to my trailer as a retreat is that without power it is very hard to heat the place. It is fine for eight months out of the year but we need power to run the furnace or we freeze during hunting season. We have looked into wood stoves and other sources of heat but the trailer just doesn’t have the room for anything other than what is there.

Kelling wrote his book based on his place in the desert while Creekmore is snug in the hills of Tennessee. You would need a little from each book to make a travel trailer retreat in Michigan. If nothing more than allowing your mind to have an academic debate about living in a trailer for survival I suggest you read either of the two books, or better yet, both.

Wolverine

This is the original article I did when I got my travel trailer placed up north. This was originally on Jim Dakin's Bison Survival Blog 6 April 2008

A Survival Retreat for Under $1000

Call it a survival retreat, hunting cabin, or summer cottage, a place away from the crowds and turmoil of the cities is a dream most of us share. Some folks plan out a survival retreat in such detail that long-term storage, over lapping fields of fire, and fuel supplies are worked out. Others, like myself, approach it as a vacation spot that can be readily converted if need be to an alternate living location.

Back in the late 1960s my family had a small two-room cottage on a lake in northern Michigan. The cottage had no electricity, no running water, or no heat. What it did have is nostalgically called a “bath with a path.”

This cottage did however provide what we needed. A few steps from the back door was a pump with clean, clear, cool water. All that was needed was a strong arm and a few minutes to fill the bucket. Cool summer nights were warmed by the glow of the fuel oil lantern that was hung over the dinner table. This lantern produced enough light to fill the cottage and allow card games to be played well past a normal bedtime. The heat from the lantern warmed the place and fuel was cheap. Dinners were usually planned around the nightly campfire, but the old propane stove would serve if needed.

During those periods of time that my father was laid off from work we would spend a week or two stretch of time at the cottage. Living was easy and cheap. Fish from the lake provided many meals and nuts and berries from the woods around the place were gathered and baked into pies. Fall small game season produced meat and poultry in the form of rabbits, squirrels, pheasants and grouse. My Dad and I talked often about living up at the cottage if the world went to hell in a hand basket.

After high school and moving into the world of college and working, my trips to the cottage were few and far between. Usually they were only to go up and help Dad secure the place from the last break in that occurred. Sadly, I let the cottage fall into neglect and vandals took care of the rest. Broken doors and windows let the weather in and after a few years the cottage became uninhabitable.

Mom kept the land after Dad’s passing and I started taking my sons there for a few weekend camping trips. Soon the idea of getting the cottage back in shape was talked about, but the northern winters did a good job of making the place beyond repair. With the approach of Y2K and talk of chaos renewed my thoughts of a survival treat. I discussed this with some buddies of mine and ideas of small barns to large military tents were discussed. Like the old saying about when all is said and done, there is more said than done, Y2K came and went and still nothing was done about the cottage.

One of the guys that I had discussed the ideas of a cabin in the woods with called one fall afternoon and suggested that I drive out to his campground and look at a travel trailer that they were giving away. Giving away, free for nothing, giving away? Yup, just make sure it is gone before Halloween.

My youngest son and I drove out and looked at the place. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Although it was a 1955 travel trailer, the interior was clean and bright. The wood finish on the walls was unstained and the place showed signs of good upkeep. I drove home and talked the idea over with my wife and my Mom. The wife had to agree for us to take it, and my Mom had to let us put it on the lake. Both agreed, and my sons and I started planning on getting it up north.

My wife and I agreed that a budget of $500 was all right to spend. We knew that we couldn’t build a lawn barn to use up there for that much money.

Calls to find a mover to haul it north for us were made. Prices ranged from $700 to over $3000. I was taken aback by this and did a total rethink. The guy that helped us find the trailer to begin with suggested I try the guy that moved his out to the campground he was at. That turned out to be a cold trail, but I did find a company in Indiana that was willing to do it for around $200, PROVIDING, I put new tires on it so that it would be pretty much guaranteed to make the trip.

They no longer make the same size tires for travel trailers that they made in 1955. After countless phone calls to any kind of a place I could think of I was referred to a place that dealt with a lot of farm equipment. They informed me that the size I wanted was no longer made but they did have a cross-reference tire that should work just fine. $135 later a pair of the tires were mine. The bad news was I needed them put on the rims and the rims were still on the trailer, 60 miles away. Several more phone calls to repair stores and a place was found that would put them on at the site, but the cost would be around $200.

Getting the tires on proved easier than anyone led me to believe. Even though they were old fashion split rims, the job took just under an hour and the cost was around $170. This put the cost of moving the retreat at the $500 level we had agreed would be reasonable for our budget. I was very pleased and at 11:30 in the morning I left the north central Ohio campground headed for northwestern Michigan.

Thankfully the trip was uneventful. Ben, the very nice driver that the transport company assigned to the job did an outstanding job of getting the trailer to the lake and spotting it where I wanted it. We had to chop out a couple of small trees to get it parked in the sheltered area I wanted, but the job went easy and we were done before darkness set in. The last act of the night was to finish putting the lock and hasp on the door of the trailer before I headed north to my friends cabin for the night. I figured it was easier to drive a little farther north and stay at a buddy’s cabin than make the long drive home.

Mediterranean, Southwestern, early American and assorted other styles of furniture are discussed in the finest design magazines. We settled on what my sister termed “early garage sale.” The propane stove came from a travel trailer that was being scraped out. The chairs for the kitchen table came from the roadside garbage pickup in the neighborhood. The table was a gift from my sister’s basement. Some pots and pans and silverware came from the local Goodwill store. Two sets of bunk beds came from a buddy in the Reserves that worked for a college that was recycling the bunks they had in dorms. The picture pump for the well came in trade for some home repairs done for a neighbor down the street. All in all the cost of the retreat was under $600. Some expenses that will be incurred soon: a new coating on the roof to insure it stays water-resistant and plywood shutters to secure the windows during our absences.

We now have a three-season retreat that allows us to fish, swim, hike, and hunt in the outdoors. We can practice our survival skills, such as fire building and outdoors cooking, and not look like we are doing much more than having a family campout.

We are away from crowds and turmoil of the city. Our friends and family think of it as our “vacation” home, but we know that in a time of crisis we have a survival retreat to go to, and under $1000 cost.

Wolverine

Doing No Harm

2011-06-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

I read around a half dozen prepper blog sites every day and during the week I catch up on a little over a dozen regularly. Each offers something for me or I wouldn’t read them. Sometimes it only makes me think a little. Everyone has their own motivation for reading the blogs. Sometimes two separate postings will mesh to really make my mind work. Such is the case of a couple of recent postings by Commander Zero and Natog.

Notes from the Bunker is Commander Zero’s site. CZ asked the question about “what if…” you had all your supplies, and the world never went to hell? Thirty or forty or more years from now you can buy all the food, gas, and ammunition you want. In other words, the whole prepping thing turns out to be a bust.

Natog over at TEOTWAWKIAIFF also wrote a post about the dualaility (sp?) of prepping for the future and living in the here and now. Natog preps for the bad things he thinks are headed this way, but also has to keep up current training and certifications for his job to maintain his income. Frankly, that is a valid concern and something that needs to be addressed. Face it; your personnel survival is dependent on a steady income.

Being that I have gray hair and am long in the tooth as it were this is not the first time this subject has come up. I can not remember if it was Howard Ruff or Harry Browne that first wrote about it, and I am not going to dig through my old stuff to look it up to be sure, but back in the 1970s the answer was simple. If nothing happens then you go ahead and drink your stored water, eat the food and use the supplies. Think of the money you will save by not buying food for a year or so.

I know there are those that think only yuppies can prep correctly and there is a camp that figures anyone that has two silver rounds to rub together is an upper crust survivalist. The truth is that most of the preppers I know get up every day and go to work and hope to make enough money every week to stay ahead on the bills and add to the supplies so that if TS does indeed HTF they can protect their family. For them it is the same as making the car insurance payment or the house insurance or any of those other things we do to protect our family.

Like Natog I have to go through annual training to keep my job. Frankly, some of it is a pain in the ass. We live in the here and now. We work now, not in the future. We need to do those things that keep us employed and if that means taking a certification class or going to training then we do it. Losing your job is a personal SHTF situation as several preppers I know have experienced, Right MBitM?

My wife and I are approaching retirement. While we look forward to having more time to pursue things we have talked about for years we also have to balance that against the bills we need to cover each month and the items we will use up and we can not replace. There are no easy choices in prepping if you choose to do that as part of your lifestyle. All you can hope for is to make those choices that do no harm.

Wolverine

Surviving a Hostile City, a Review

2011-06-10T16:21:00.001-07:00

Tonto and I went to a gunshow a few weeks back and ran into one of the authors of Surviving a Hostile City, Book 1. Retired SF Sergeant Major, Kent Alwood is the author, along with Lorna Dare. We talked with Mr. Alwood for a few minutes. He has several books geared solely for prepping to survive in the city. Each approaches aspects of sheltering in place while in a large town.

The book has twenty chapters covering a lot of the normal concerns that come with sheltering in place in a big city. Alwood covers food, water, medical needs, MAGs (Mutual Assistance Groups), hunting & trapping, and Gangs to mention a few. There are a couple of chapters that may cause the faint of heart to have convulsions. One such is on animals in survival. Very few people would look at the neighbor’s poodle as a future meal. Alwood simply mentions that and others as a possibility. In other parts of the world dogs and cats are “ranch animals” to some extent. I extreme conditions you might surprise yourself on what passes for a meal.

Another chapter that will more than raise eyebrows is his chapter on cannibalism. He gives a fairly straight forward thought on the prospects of eating fellow humans to stay alive. He is not some Jeffery Dahmer or Alfred Packer that eats others for some psychotic reason but rather states that it might be the only source of food left to keep you alive. He also states that if you do resort to cannibalism you are most likely as good as dead yourself since you have to be at your lowest ebb to turn to eating another human.

I like the approach that Alwood has taken in his book. His “I live in a city and I am going to stay and survive here” approach gives you a lot of the meat you need to put together just such a survival plan. Since my preparedness plans revolve around sheltering in place at the farm I have used many of the same ideas Alwood presents in the book.

One drawback to the book is that he has broken a lot of the chapters down into other volumes he plans to bring out in the future. His book might have been a little better if he had added more to this volume and put more knowledge into one book.

Wolverine

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Keeping deer from eating your garden

2011-06-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

Keeping deer from eating your garden
by Hunter

Over the years I have had to deal with deer eatting my gardens and have come up with some ways of at least making it not worth their while. A few of the things that I have used are as follows.

1) Eggs and dish soap. I put three or four eggs in a blender with some dish soap once mixed I add to a watering can with the rest filled with water. Then I cover the pole beans that are growing on my fencing. If I keep up with this every week or more if heavy rains and watering I find that the deer will leave them alone. I have also used this methode in open gardens and have had simular resaults. works well on bunnies and bugs to.

2) mouse traps and peanut butter. Take a dozen or so mouse traps and drill holes to run a wire through and hand them about two feet off the ground. deer love peanut butter but are not to fond of the mouse traps hitting their nose. The same idea can be used with an electric fence by smearing the peanut butter on the wire for the deer to lick off.

3) fencing, I have used the high 6ft fence with good resaults

4) deer follow trails at least to get into your garden area, if you remove as many theings that the deer nibble on around the edges and use tactics around the boarder of your land in will help reduce the number of deer that cross your land. Trim lower limbs that deer eat on and find cover in. If you have dogs use there droppings up and down the trails the deer have been using to get onto your land. supply the deer with something they like that draws them away from your garden area. Create obsticals.

5) Motion activated lights and radio. It is nice to have the lights turn on and a radio play when you are enjoying the garden in the evening hours but with it on a motion activated system the deer will be surprised. To set this up get a two light motion activated light unit and one screw in outlet to plug in a radio ot tape player.

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Fire and Water

2011-06-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Fire and Water

The people of Monroe have been under a boil advisory for a few days now. Apparently there are some bacteria in the water and it needs to be boiled before it can be used. I am sure that a week or so ago very few people in Monroe thought much about their water. They just walked over to the tap and drew a glass full and drank it, no fuss no muss. The same can most likely be side for the folks in the Midwest. One day they had homes and jobs and family and the next an F-5 tornado took everything. Now the survivors have to boil water to drink and they are without power and resources to do that in a lot of cases.

How about you? Have you thought about what you will do for emergency drinking water? With all the rain we have had here in Michigan the last few weeks the ditches are full and there is a lot of standing water, but it has to be treated before it is safe to use. Does your BOB have a water filter in it, or tables, or just matches for a fire? Water ranks high on the list of human needs so make sure you are putting some thought into how you will prepare you and your family for this life giving item.

I made a great find the other day. I walked in an out of the way store and happened to spot a pile of Strike Anywhere matches on the shelf. The three pack bundles were marked three dollars each. I broke out a twenty and took the whole lot. Strike Anywhere matches are harder to find now. Most everything in kitchen matches are the new Strike on the Box kind.

I transferred the boxes of matches into several large glass jars I had in the barn so they are now sealed in a dry enclosure to insure they will stay working for years to come. One other note on matches. When I hit the rummage sale where I bought the crosscut saw I also picked up a coffee can full of box matches for a dollar. I put some of those in several locations around the farm so I would have matches close at hand if needed. A dozen book matches in a jar with a lid can turn out to be very handy. I have some in the barn, the outbuildings, the garage and the basement. I feel that is one of those low cost prep items that can prove to be a life saver under the right conditions.

You need to make sure that the basics are covered in your preps, so start with two of the most important basics, fire and water.

Wolverine

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When Is An Emergency Big Enough To Use Supplies?

2011-05-29T08:37:00.001-07:00

I just experienced one of those things that leaves you in total awe of how some people think. Now I do not know about you but hate people that can not think for themselves and parrot a company policy as their reason for not thinking. Even though most people do not think so even the military wants its enlisted folks to think and operate with independence when it is needed. Not so the managers of such stores as Big Lot’s. Let me set this up for you.

The wife wanted to run down to the store for some stuff she forgot to pick up shopping. I wanted to stop at Big Lot’s for a couple of items they carry that are close to two bucks cheaper than anywhere else so I rode along with her. We got our items and were standing at the check out when someone came in the store stating that a car was on fire in the parking lot. The car on fire was parked up by the front of the building, maybe eight feet away at most.

Some facts where quickly established, i.e. the people in the car were out and safe and 9-11 had been called. The cashier looked out the window and came back and grabbed the microphone and announced that a red car next to the one on fire should be moved. A couple minutes later an older woman came running up and looked to see if it was her red car. It was. She started screaming at the cashier for not making the announcement right away. Well lady, the cashier made it as soon as she discovered the problem. Older Woman ran out and jumped in her car and moved it, right in front of the door to the store. Mind you she could have moved it out away from the danger zone but she decided that she needed to park right by the door for her quick escape later? Older Woman then came running back in the store bitching like crazy she had left her purse in the store and it was probably stolen. I told her we had been watching it for her and it was safe.

While Older Woman was moving her car someone asked the store manager for a fire extinguisher. Store mangers response was, “It is against store policy to use fire extinguishers.”

WTF! I couldn’t believe my ears. A guy stepped up and said he was a fireman and if they would give him one he would put out the fire. Again the policy was stated.

Like I said, I hate that kind of mentality. I stated out loud to no one in particular but really for the manager, “It cost less than $20 to fill an extinguisher and hundreds of dollars to repair smoke and fire damage.”

Some young kid walked up and handed the fireman an extinguisher. The manager started to say no but stopped and the fireman walked out with it. Just as he reached the door a loud boom was heard from the car and the flames leaped higher.

By this time my wife and I had managed to get everything checked out and paid for so we got out of there. By this time most people in the store had run up to the front and when they heard the explosion they bolted for the parking lot and were leaving. The Fire Department was arriving as the wife and I left.

Had quick action been taken more than likely the car fire would have been minimal and surely no explosion would have occurred. The explosion was not large in terms of throwing fire and debris around, but enough to make the fireman stop approaching and using the extinguisher.

Several years ago my oldest son was driving his brother’s truck and it caught on fire after some road debris was picked up when he drove over it and caused something to spark under the hood. He whipped the truck into a parking lot, sprinted into the building and grabbed an extinguisher and went out and put out the fire. He did not ask if it was policy or not, he acted and saved the truck. I stopped the next day to pay them for the use of it and they waved us off stating they were glad it was there and it helped. That is how someone should react to an emergency. They did not worry about policy but rather results. They were genuinely pleased that my son and the truck were safe.

Part of my job at work is to check the fire extinguishers monthly and hold the safety drills. Maybe because of that I am closer to the value of having those items handy. In my life I have used fire extinguishers several times to put out a small fire that was soon to be a big out of control fire. Those things save lives and property.

As an aside I hope that your preps include a good quality fire extinguisher and not one of those Kidde ones that has plastic values. I bought good metal reconditioned ones from the company that does ours at work. Like I said earlier, a $20 refill is a lot cheaper than building a new home. To steal the tag line from Riverwalker, “Got fire extinguishers?”

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Some Random Thoughts

2011-05-22T09:20:00.001-07:00

It looks like spring finally arrived in Michigan. As I write this we have had a couple weeks of temperatures in the sixties and even a few days of sunshine. I finally mowed the yard for the first time. I found a few morels too. You can not have too many mushrooms.

I built a composting bin last week. I had a lot of grass after the cutting so I decided to make a compost bin and start using it. I had helped a friend from work with hers so I knew it was time to make mine too.

I clean up all my scrap metal around the farm twice a year. I load up in the spring and try to make a trip just before the snow flies. I usually put the money from that into rotating gas from storage. If you have the space scraping can be a great way to pick up some extra cash for prepping.

Have you heard the Dodge commercial on TV where the announcer talks about what a great car this one would be after the apocalypse? You would be able to out run zombies chasing you in it. It worried me that prepping has become so main stream that it is in commercials. Once “everyone” talks about something it seems to go south so after.

I found some Heirloom seeds on sale at Menard’s the other day. I picked up half a dozen packages for putting back. I discovered mice had gotten into the supply we had at the farm sometime after Dad passed away. They will be sealed and put in the freezer for now to help keep their life a little longer.

I have been clearing a lot of brush on the farm this spring. I seem to clear a lot of brush on the farm period. I used to use a double bit axe but switched to an older single bit this spring. I do not like it nearly as well as the old double. I should do a story on the double bit axe. In my early youth my grandfather knew some old lumberjacks that were kids when his father ‘jacked near Manton, Michigan. These old boys showed me a lot about using those double bit axes. To this day I find that very few folks know the real reason there are two edges on an axe head. I surprised the hell out of a museum curator by knowing that tidbit of information.

Speaking of lumbering as it were, I stopped at a church rummage sale a few weeks ago and bought a single man crosscut saw for ten bucks. (A sawbuck in old time terms and sort of an irony if you ask me.) I like the idea of being able to cut up some wood without the noise of a chain saw. I can see a need for that after TSHTF.

Wolverine

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What Kind of Learner are You?

2011-05-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for garage sales. I should not be, but I am. I ran across one this morning on my way home so I stopped in. I like to look for survival supplies at garage sales and flea markets, mainly because they can be bought cheaper there. At this one there was a twenty pound propane cylinder, full, for $5. That would normally be a great deal but this tank had the old valves and could not be refilled. I already have several of those and just did not feel I wanted to store another “one time use” tank.

I did buy one thing though. I found a DVD called Liquid Gold, Gathering and filtering waste vegetable oil for fuel. The thing cost fifty cents and I figured that would be good to have around if things go to hell in a hand basket and I need to make fuel for the neighbor’s tractor.

As an aside here, my neighbor has a Ford tractor that runs on diesel. I do not have any equipment that uses diesel but I keep some on had for him. Tonto gave me another five gallon diesel jug the last time I was at his bunker compound and I will fill that and have it around for the neighbor. I have one of the best neighbor’s in the world and I want to make sure that his equipment can function if we need it. You might want to think about that if your neighbor has some equipment you might need to use in the future, have spares for him.

I tend to be a visual learner, meaning that I learn best by watching something. If I can follow up the watching with hands on training I can usually master a skill fairly quickly. Reading something is ok for me as far as learning, but it is probably my second weakest form. Auditor learning does not work as well for me as the others. I wish I had known all this when I was in high school and college, it might have helped me.

We all know that if we have TEOTWAWKI we will be learning new skill sets. It would be in your best interest to find out how you learn best and make sure that it works for you if you need a skill. A book on trapping might be fine for you, but your wife or son may need a DVD to learn. YouTube has given us thousands of chances to see and hear how people are prepping, but grid down it may no longer be an option. You can always fire up a generator and watch a video or DVD or sit down and read a book. Figure out the ways you learn best and prepare yourself, it just might save your life.

Wolverine

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A Good Survival Tool

2011-05-06T11:33:00.001-07:00

I have been doing a lot of spring work here on the farm and I happen to notice that about every other day the tool I need for the job at hand is the Number 2 round nosed shovel.

I would recommend that this be one of the first tools you acquire for your survival situation. It does not matter if you are sheltering in place or bugging out this tool has a lot of uses. The obvious job is digging. You can bury a cache or dig it up, make a latrine, use it as a weapon, clear snow, fight fires, and hundreds of other uses.

I heard or read that a guy used his shovel as a frying pan while out in the woods. The military E-tool is designed for chopping as well as digging. There is even the story of a Marine that used his E-tool as a weapon after he ran out of ammo and dispatched several enemy soldiers and lived to receive a medal of valor for his actions.

I keep a shovel inside the door of each of my outbuildings so that one is handy if I need it. One has the tip broken off from trying to pry a stone out of the ground and one has the handled glued and wrapped with wire to keep it useful. Even while not in perfect condition they are very useful.

It is not fancy or complex, but sometimes it is the simplest of tools that are the most useful. Make sure you have a good Number 2 shovel in your arsenal of survival tool.

Wolverine

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Survival is Like Baseball

2011-04-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

Survival is like baseball, it can be complex or simple, your choice.

I am a baseball fan. I truly love the game. I listened to George Kell and Ernie Harwell call the games every weekend as we traveled up north to the cabin. We left home about the time the game started and headed home just as the Sunday afternoon game started. It made the drive easier to deal with. I also played the game in high school although I mostly road the pines. After my wife and I got married and settled into life in the city we bought season tickets to the local minor league team and spent many a night watching baseball under the lights.

Baseball can be a very simple game. Throw the ball, hit the ball. Baseball can also be very complex, the game within the game. There can be intensity watching a runner lead off first base, trying to judge the correct distance that will give him time to get back on a pick-off move or make the break for second in time to steal the base. Forcing a throw to first by the runner can make many things happen, most of them bad for the field team. The pitcher can balk, throw a wild toss, or make a throw home that the batter can smoke. The first baseman can drop the ball or miss it entirely. Does the pitcher try a pitch out and hope to catch the runner? Can the catcher make a good throw to the bag? All of these things are part of the game. They make it interesting to watch and study.

Prepping can be the same way, simple or complex. Store some extra food, feel prepared. Or, you can change your lifestyle so that you are constantly in a state of preparedness. Growing and canning food, storing water, filters, and buying a Big Berkey. Putting away gas, kerosene, propane, and other fuels for lighting and cooking after TSHTF all add layers of preparedness.

Having season tickets doesn’t make you a better fan, just a more involved one. Having more storage than the next guy doesn’t make you a better prepper, just a more prepared one. Don’t get caught up in having the most, the best, and the newest stuff, just get caught up in the idea of understanding someday you will need to be self-sufficient.

Wolverine

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Survival Bible

2011-04-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

Survival Bible

I do not remember where I first heard about a Survival Bible. I sure do hope it was not something Tonto told me about or he will want another royalty for this article!

The Survival Bible (SB) is a very simple concept. As you are building your supplies and knowledge about survival you keep a hard copy of things you think might be good to have. I started building mine by ripping out magazine article from places like Outdoor Life and Field & Stream. Most of my early savings were things I could teach the Boy Scouts on campouts. From there I started saving important information that I might need after TSHTF. There was a nice article about trouble shooting chain saws and how to keep them running well. That went in the section of my SB with a pamphlet I had on how to fell a tree. Along with a print out on which woods make the best source for heating.

I am a great believer in reading as a source of information. I understand you can only gather so much from reading and you need to put what you have read into action to truly learn a skill. I also know that I can not remember everything so I keep these articles to use as a reminder tool.

I put most of the stuff in clear plastic pages my son got from a dumpster at college. They keep the pages clean and easy to read. I bought a package of dividers and have different sections marked off. Tonto has several three ring binders that he uses for his SB. He also has a ton of stuff stored on a thumb drive.

I sometime clean out an old article because I have something newer or better. I recently found a book on soap making that cost a dollar at a garage sale. I took out the couple pages I had on soap making. The book is much more in depth.

Some things you keep may not be something you would normally think you would want. One such section I have is on turtle trapping. I have only tasted turtle once that I can remember and can’t remember how it tasted or my reaction to it. However, I have four or five articles on turtle trapping and cleaning. I doubt I would ever kill a turtle during normal times, but after TEOTWAWKI they might be an overlooked source of meat. I have eaten snake and found it very edible so I suppose if I need to feed my family with turtle I can do that. All I need to do is check my Survival Bible.

Wolverine

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The First of Several Book Reviews

2011-04-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

The First of Several Book Reviews
First, the proud father stuff. My youngest son graduated from IBOLC and is now a full fledged Infantry Officer in the United States Army. He had ROTC in college and wanted to try his hand at a military career. It was a great honor for his Aunt and I to attend his graduation and I felt very proud awarding him his Blue Infantry Cord. (I would have liked to given him my old green and yellow MP cord, but he wanted to take a different route.) He is now preparing for Ranger School and his dad is so damn proud of him he could just bust.

Ok, now the prep stuff. While we were in Georgia for his graduation we went to an out of the way eatery, the Four Winds Restaurant so my son could have a Ranger Burger. While there I spotted a book for sale by the cash register and picked it up. The book was called The Fugitive Forester by Joel Robertson.

The back of the book made a statement that the protagonist “gives real meaning to the term ’survivor’.” I do not read a lot of fiction but this one made me think about buying it so I did. It was fourteen dollars and I think the book is self-published.

In a nutshell, the main character is falsely accused of murder and instead of going to jail he sets up a plan to fake his own death and try and find the real killer. (This just screams for an OJ reference but I will reframe.) He pre-plans his death and places several caches in the area to help him survive.

The book could be a guideline for anyone that is planning to head for the woods in the event TSHTF or your plan of choice is to hide in the woods. The author describes several caching methods and ideas for supplies.

It wasn’t a bad book as it goes. There were several spots where some editing was missed, grammar and typos. There were also several things that just don’t ring true, like the Army leaving a supply of ammo and MREs setting by the side of the road for pick up later.

The book was good enough for me to stay up late one night during the work week to finish it, so that should say something for it. While not a step by step guideline for escaping to the woods reading this book will give some ideas that can be followed up on for later use.

Since prepping should not be all consuming in our lives we can take a break and read some fiction and still get some prepping knowledge at the same time. If you can find a copy give it a read, you just might enjoy the book. The publisher is listed as Brentwood Publishers Group, 4000 Beallwood Avenue, Columbus, Georgia 31904.

Wolverine

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Recent Accomplishments

2011-04-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

Recent Accomplishments

I like the standard Friday post that Mickey Creekmore does, “What did you do to prepare this week?” By thinking about what you have done it gives you an idea on what goals you need to set for next week and it helps you realize that you have made steps in the right direction.

While I always reflect on what I did accomplish I rarely write about them outside talking to Tonto, Toolman, E, and my boys. Some things I would rather not share with the world. However, I thought I would share a few things with you and make a suggestion that might help you focus your prepping a little better.

I built two storage racks in the basement. I finished one the first few months I was here and had the other started and in parts. I finally finished getting the racks done. I built them so that they would double as bunk beds if we were forced to stay in the basement for some reason. I added sleeping bags and pads to the supplies down there so we will be able to sleep.

I sorted out some older MREs and sold them to Tonto. My son has gotten some newer ones from his training so we upgraded and rotated the stock.

I picked up three survival related books lately too. I read Creekmore’s book on his trailer set up, picked up the book “Surviving a Hostile City, Book I”, by Lorna Dare and Kent Alwood. Tonto and I ran into Kent Alwood at a gun show and chatted for a bit. So far it is an interesting book and I will tell more about it after I finish it. The last book came to me as a PDF file and is called Life, Freedom, & Survival” by James C. Jones. I got this from a couple of the officers in my old unit.

I bought a larger chain saw than the one I had. It is used but runs nice and will do a better job. With it I finally got limbs and trees cleaned up from the ice storm a while back. I have several dead or dying trees that I still need to cut down and get rid of and I have two nice Maple trees I want to transplant before they get any bigger.

Since my son took a lot of my gear for Ranger School I need to fill in some holes. In order to do that I sorted out a lot of extra gear and have it ready to sell. Just don’t know if I want to try and garage sale it or take it someplace and dump it all at once.

I have most of my seeds bought and need to get the garden going. As I write this we had snow today so it will be a little while yet.

Tonto and I hit a community garage sale and picked up several good survival supplies. I got a bunch of candles for a buck and a flashlight and gym bag for a buck. The gem of the day was the 300 watt inverter that Tonto found there. It has made me more aware to look for an inverter at other garage sales.

Did you happen to notice that almost everything I listed lead me to note something else I needed to do? Here is a suggestion that might help you focus your prep needs. Go to Rawles Survivalblog and read some of the profiles. After you have read a few write out your own profile. Re-read your profile and see where it shows weaknesses and strengths. When I did that I shared it with Tonto and he wrote back what he saw I was lacking in. One thing he noted is my need for more and newer fruit trees. If you have a trusted friend have them read yours and you read theirs and help each other improve what needs to be worked on. It is a good thing to know what you did for prepping this week.

Wolverine

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SELF- Reliance

2011-04-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

SELF- Reliance
My boss and I got to chatting the other day. He is a 5th Degree Black Belt in a Korean style of karate. He teaches at a college in the area and does a lot of seminars. Our HR department conned him into teaching a self-defense class for one of our annual in-services. He had stopped by to see if I was signed up for that class.

I have over seven years of martial arts training. My foundation style is Korean Tang Soo Do, and I have colored belts in Chinese Kempo, Japanese Isshinryu, and have studies several other styles. I never did earn a Black Belt in any style. I told him that I wasn’t taking the self-defense class. I told him that we should be teaching a self-reliance class to the group too. He asked me to explain, so I posed a question to him. We have had a lot of blizzards this month and it is possible that at some point we could get snowed in at work. If that happens how are we going to get fed, sleep, and take care of daily needs? He thought about it a minute and responded that maybe we should have something in place for such an event.

My response was a second question. “Can you defend me in a street fight?” Oh course not he replied, unless I am with you, and beside, you know how to defend yourself. Exactly I said. It is called self-defense, not everyone defense. It is also called Self-reliance, not everyone reliance. I explained that I kept enough food and stuff in the truck to last me from two to four days. I had a good sleeping bag and could shelter back in the maintenance shop for a while and be comfortable. I doubt more than a few other people could do that. As the security and safety director he should be pushing for people to have their own preparedness supplies in their vehicles so that if something happened they would not be a burden.

I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes. He of course suggested the vending machines for food. I asked him if he thought a candy bar and Hostess cake were good enough for a dinner and what about those that didn’t manage to get one out of the machine before it ran out or broke down? At certain times of the day we have well over three hundred folks on the complex. It is hard to convince people that they need to prepare, as I am sure you well know.

My boss’s first thought was how to take care of those people, not how to teach them to take care of themselves. Self-reliance is becoming more and more scarce in our everyday thinking. He thinks about self-defense and encourages it for people but not self-reliance. We need to get people to be a little more self centered; it isn’t always a bad thing.

Wolverine

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A Water Storage Idea

2011-03-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

A Water Storage Idea

This is one of those things that will work for some folks and others will think it is a dumb idea. All I can say is that it works for me.

Long story so bear with me. Several years ago between my son and I we found three deposit tickets for Primo water jugs. In this area the stores have a rack of three and five gallon water jugs that they sell for $6 for the three and $7 for the five gallon jugs. I had several empty jugs from a bottle water company in the area that was cheaper than the Primo so I bought three five gallon jugs and stored them away for emergency water.

I got home from work one afternoon several years ago when we still lived in town and found that the city had post a boil water advisory on our neighborhood doors. I broke out one of the jugs and we used it for everything except showers for the next few days. It worked great and the one drawback was it took two people to draw water, one to tip the heavy jug and one to hold the receptacle.

A few weeks ago I finished building a storage rack/ bunk bed in the basement and decided that I wanted to add more water jugs to the supplies. My son was home on leave and needed to run some errands in the old town so I drove and we got to chat for a while. Before we left I dug out the old tickets for deposit and decided to pick up the three jugs they would allow me to get.

We loaded them in the cart and took them to the counter to pay. I handed the lady the three tickets and $21. She tried and tried to ring it up but the computer scanner would not take the tickets. She took off for the office and my son went out to check the machine that accepts empty jugs to see what it said about the tickets.

The lady returned with a new ticket and explained that the ones I had were very old. I just said we don’t go through a lot of water fast and let it go at that. My son returned and flashed several tickets at me from behind his palm. We had one of those family conversations with just our eyes and he put the tickets in his pocket.

The lady finally got the tickets read into the scanner and handed me my change. We put the jugs in the truck and headed home. My son pulled out the tickets and counted ten of them. They had been sticking out of the machine when he walked up to it and no one was anywhere around the machine.

I gave several of the tickets to Tonto for his use and have some here for Toolman next time I see him. Each of us will have some nice clear clean water stored away for a time of need.

Seven dollars a jug is not unreasonable for a jug of water and a lot better than the $14 it would have cost with deposit. Yes you can store rinsed out bottles and use camping jugs, and buy small bottles and yada, yada, yada. I know all that. What I did works for me. The jugs store well, can be divided up so each family member has one to take with them if needed. I can make sure the animals have water without having to run it through my filters and extend their life.

You may check a machine for months before you find a deposit ticket, or you may find a bunch the first time like we did. If you do you can buy some water and store it away. It is just an option open to you to try.

Yes, I wish we could have traded in those tickets for the cash value. We could have bought a lot of food with $70, but the store only uses the tickets for deposit, no cash value. Having good drinking water is a high priority and this is one way you might accomplish that. Check it out and see if it works for you.

Wolverine

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Michigan ready to ban burning of household trash

2011-03-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Michigan ready to ban burning of household trash
Posted by Atreus

This is the first I've heard of this. I don't burn a lot of household trash except for items that need to be shredded to protect myself from identity theft.

I wonder if this mean I can't burn the small limbs that fall out of the trees on my property that I rake up in a pile and set on fire or have a campfire in my back yard anymore?

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110321/NEWS01/303210004/Michigan-ready-ban-burning-household-trash-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

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The List of Lists

2011-03-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

Don’t tell Tonto, but this is really his idea for a post. I steal some of his good ideas from time to time. I know Rawles refers to his list of lists from time to time, but Tonto was doing it long before Rawles came along.

It is a simple concept really. You get a small pocket notebook and keep it with you. In it you make a list of items you are looking for. What I do is keep items separated by category in my book. On one page I will have my needs in ammo and firearms items. It might list .308 hunting rounds, .32 automatic pistol rounds, a can of Rem Oil, new .22 cleaning brush. When I am at a gun show I can look over my list to make sure I am looking for those needed items.

Besides firearm related items your notebook can have categories like food staples, tools, books, gardening supplies, lighting needs, and on and on. I doubt any two preppers would have identical notebook entries, but a lot of them will be similar.

As you read the blogs and have conversations with other preppers you will get struck with ideas for things you would like to have for your preps. You simply add them to your notebook.

Another list I keep is the chores I need to get done around the farm and retreat. Writing down those things makes them more like goals to accomplish and helps get them completed.

As I get older I find that a lack of organization cost me money in not having things at my finger tips like I should. The list of lists helps me remember what I need and where it is when I do get it. Good luck in keeping your list of lists.

Wolverine

P.S. Anybody notice the similarity between Michigan Roads and that game Skittle Bowl where you roll the ball into the rings and win prizes? Think about it. You drive the roads trying to keep your tires out of the big pot holes and if you have to hit a hole you want it to be the smallest possible. You don’t get prize tickets, your “prize” in not having tire damage, not needing a wheel alignment, or no front end suspension damage. The roads in our township are really bad this year and I think we would be better off if we had left some roads gravel instead of paving them a few years back.

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Modular System for Prepping

2011-03-11T12:00:00.001-08:00

Modular System for Prepping
From: Wolverine

I have stated many times that my major plan for a SHTF situation is to shelter in place. Like all well prepared folks I do have a back up plan. We have a retreat in Mid-Michigan that until it becomes the retreat it is a vacation cabin. We visit it for hunting, fishing, photo safaris with the wife and just plain old recharging the batteries from the stresses of life.

If we find that we will have to head for the retreat it could be a total mess if I didn’t have a plan in place for bugging out. I will be the first to tell you that my bug out plan is half-fast as it were. One thing I do have though is several modular units that I can load and go with.

I also use the modular system for smaller scale preparedness also. Now that we are still in winter I have my warm module in the truck. It is a small gym bag that holds all my winter clothes, polypro underwear, wool hats, gloves, warm socks, and a couple other things to help me stay warm. Every fall it goes in the truck and I have it with me at all times. If I get stuck I can dress warmer for outside work. I can not dress for only outside work everyday, my job is both inside and outside work. I layer for the day. When deer hunting at the cabin I wear the polypro and wool the whole week. Having it all in one place makes it easier to find and move.

I have several first aid kits with me at all times. I carry an old military first aid bag that has a smaller first aid bag inside that I can pull out and use. My CERT bag also has a smaller first aid kit in it that I can pull and go with.

I find those small size gym bags to be great for making modules out of. They hold plenty of any one item and are easily carried. Having soft sides they can be stuffed into tight spaces and don’t stick out like a military MOLLE system does.

I recommend that you look into making up your own modular system so if you have to bug out you can grab and go quickly and the items you need are already gathered and in one place.

Wolverine
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Michigan Preppers Roll Call - All Preppers Please Check In

2011-03-07T05:46:00.001-08:00

The American Preppers Network is conducting a network-wide roll call. Whether you are a member or not please check in and let us know what you are doing to prepare.

This is a good opportunity to network with other preppers near you.

Michigan Preppers, to respond to the roll call please follow this link:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=9264

Reply to the Roll Call and let us know what you have been doing to prepare.

If you are not yet a member of the forum you can register here for free:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

Building a Survival Library Part Three: Top Ten Survival Books

2011-03-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

Building a Survival Library Part Three
Top Ten Survival Books

Actually I am not that big a fan of “Top Ten” list because my ten favorite any things never make the list. Like so many things that appear on blogs, the purpose of this list is to get you to add and subtract from it. Maybe you have a really good survival book I have not heard of or one that I remember as being good is outdated and sucks. That happens. I started reading survival books back in the 1970s so I am sure some have changed or no longer can be found.
Another thing that can tilt the list is your own personnel prejudices on survival. If you are one that plans to head into the Huron National Forest and live off the land your best books will be more toward that goal, while the family in Oceana County that have 87 acres and a good home and outbuildings are more likely to have shelter in place preferences.
I fall into the latter category. I moved out of the city and back to the family farm a few years ago. We kept the farm stocked and ready all the while Dad and Mom were alive and it was our retreat. After Mom passed my wife and I moved “home” and now our retreat is our full time residence. I will not lie to you; there is a great sense of relief now. I wish I didn’t have the debt we ended up with because of choices we had to make, but all in all, this is where I want to be if TEOTWAWKI comes calling.
In no real order, ten books I would keep over the others are as follows:

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.

The Guide to Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour

The Outdoor Life Complete Book of Camping by Leonard Miracle and Maurice Decker

Storey’s Basic Country Skills

Country Wisdom: The Art of Successful Homesteading by the Editors of Countryside Magazine

One of my seven or eight Wild Foods guidebooks. (Hard to pick just one, they all have info I want.)

One of my half dozen Mushroom Field guides. (Man, do I love Michigan mushrooms with a good fire grilled steak.)

Where There is No Doctor by David Werner with Thuman and Maxwell. (I believe you also need a good first aid book to go with this book.)

Making the Best of Basics by James Talmage Stevens

My “Survival Bible”, all the stuff I have printed out that I think I might need and want on hand if we ever go grid down.

My guess is that most of these books you already know about or have at least heard about. The only one that may need any explanation would be my Survival Bible. It is simply any article that I have read and printed out or cut out of a magazine that I believe I will want to look back on and re-read at some future date. A good recent example would be the Grub and Gear article by Alaskan Trapper over on Survivlblog.com about his list of supplies for a winter of trapping. It will make a good checklist for my wife and me to check making sure we have all the items we might need to hold up even longer than we plan on now.

Ok Michigan let us see some of the additions and subtractions you would have. I wanted to put my old Poor Man’s James Bond on the list, but frankly I rarely look at it anymore.

Wolverine

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DNRE and the Q1 Buck Pole: Regional Deer Regulations

2011-03-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

DNRE and the Q1 Buck Pole: Regional Deer Regulations

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Building a Survival Library Part Two

2011-02-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

I mentioned checking out the local library for magazines that have good survival information. While you are at the library check out the books that you might find useful. In order to do that you need to figure out what information you might want during an event or if TEOTWAWKI hits.

How are you on hunting and trapping? How about gardening? Oh, foraging for wild edibles? Building a chicken coop or digging a well? As you can see the list of items you may wish to have knowledge on runs the gambit. Since my major plan is to shelter in place and I know my farm and surrounding area fairly well from years of woodsrunning I already have a good idea where the wild edibles are. However, if we trade for a few chickens I will need a lot of info so we can protect them and make sure we can eat eggs regularly.

Go through the list of things you want to learn about and then find those books on the shelf. If things go to hell you may wish to run down to the library and check out those you really feel are important to your survival. I had a list like that years ago, but over the years I have managed to find most of the subjects in books I have acquired. Last week I stopped at a used book store and picked up two books, one on hunting and one on gardening. I bought the gardening book because it had notes hand written in it about different vegetables grown around here. Someone took the time to note what fertilizers worked best and what was the best time to plant certain items. I don’t have to work nearly that hard now to figure out what they already shared with me.

Over the years I have acquired numerous books for my survival library. I found the Reader’s Digest Back to Basic books at a garage sale for a buck each. Those books are chuck full of info that a prepper sheltering in place can use. I had Toolman’s copy in my library for a years and he was happy to get it back. On a field trip to Lehman’s Non-electric store in Kidron, Ohio I bought a copy of Carla Emery’s book, Encyclopedia of Country Living. I gladly paid full price for it. Tonto was with me and was jealous I picked up the last copy they had. It took him a couple years to finally buy his copy.

I was at the library in Edmore one time. I stumbled on John Seymour’s book on self-reliance and called my wife with all the info and had her order it from Amazon. I still refer back to it from time to time for information.

I paid 50 cents for a book on soap making. In a long term survival situation I am sure that will be useful knowledge. I have four or five books on mushroom identification, and I am always looking for a copy of the one Toolman’s father has on them, it is the best I have seem. His father knows more about identifying mushrooms then anyone I know.

I have a couple dozen books on wilderness survival. Most of them I picked up for a buck or so. I probably don’t need another one but if I find one cheap I buy them. I figure they might make good trade material for anyone of those survivalist that have the plan to head for the back country and survive off the land. (Note to Michigan readers. My grandfather and his brother both headed for a cabin in the woods to live for a while and their comment when they came back was; “The fat of the land is pretty damned lean!”)

I find most of the survival and self-reliance books I have at gun shows and used book stores. I think it was a used book store in Mecosta that had a whole section on self-reliance. That was the first time I every found that kind of section in a bookstore. There is one in the UP that has a nice section on self-reliance but they don’t call it that.

The drawback to a large survival library is that it is not very portable. Books are heavy. All the knowledge there is can not help you if you can’t get it when you need it. Fire and flood can render the best survival library useless in short order. Stored improperly they can be ruined by a silverfish infestation.

Ok Michigan, how about everyone send in a list of four to eight books you feel are essential for a survival library? Might be interesting and helpful to a lot of folks.

Wolverine
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Building a Survival Library

2011-02-17T20:35:00.000-08:00

As I started to lay this post out in my mind I realized that it will likely be a two or more part post. There is so much to say when it comes to building a post SHTF library. If you add to that a list of books the post could go on and on.

I started building my survival/preparedness library back in the 1970s. Some of you old-timers like me may remember the Survivalist Expo that took place in Jackson, Michigan back in the 70s. Toolman and I attended. There was a lot of info and a couple of 20 year-olds were slightly out of place, but not totally. We picked up copies of most of Kurt Saxon’s books and a lot of handouts.

We traded the books back and forth for a while trying to make ourselves more survival ready. I was lucky in that my folks, being Depression era children, embraced a lot of the survival ideals and we already had stored food and the farm was fairly close to being self-sufficient back then. When Carter got in office we did a lot of things to prepare for long term survival. Dad and I both bought a same make and model auto, a Toyota station wagon, so we could keep one running from parts of the other. Toolman’s family lived in town and they were still pretty self-sufficient.

We made a lot of “mistakes” back then. The Ruger Ranch rifle, Mini 14 was very popular and touted as a great survival rifle. We bought a pair of them and after shooting one of them for an hour we sold them just as fast as we could. We felt our big accomplishment was buying 30 thousand rounds of Blazer .22 ammo and one hundred rounds for each of the other rifles we owned. Our plan was to hunt deer for meat. Yeah, like that would have worked out well during TEOTWAWKI.

Another thing that Toolman and I did for our joint survival library was buy every issue of Mother Earth News we could find. We have over 80 issues out of the first one hundred. (On a personal note, the issues past one hundred and twenty are not worth having.) I still feel that those old MEN are worth having. We have a few doubles of early issues and our plan was to trade or sell those for the ones we are missing.

Sometime in the early 1980s I discovered American Survival Guide. I bought every issue I could find and was able to find some older issues a different guns shows and flea markets. I have four large boxes of ASG and value them highly. While they do get a rap for having a lot of “product reviews” that are nothing more than three page ads they do have a lot of info that is still useful. One thing I did was go through a stack and photocopy out the articles that I felt were the most useful. I put all of them together in a binder and have a “survival bible” I can refer to when needed. ASG is another great tool to have in a survival library.

Other magazines that can prove very useful in rough times are outdoor magazines. Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Sports Afield, Fur-Fish-Game, and Michigan Out-of-Doors to name a few. I occasionally get a special in the mail that lets me subscribe to one or the other for ten bucks a year. For a dollar an issue I will do it. After I have gone through the issue I cut out any article I think is useful for the survival bible. Tap’s Tips usually have something good. I have the February OD in front of me right now. In this issue there is a one page article on beating hypothermia, a section on predator hunting, and a two page article on water purification. Using a little broader thinking you can take an article on camouflage for deer or predator hunting and apply it to what you might do to stay hidden during a SHTF event. An article on the best late summer or ice fishing spots just might help you put food on the table after an event.

Another great magazine for preppers is one called Backwoodsman. (Full discloser, I write for them under my real name.) Backwoods Homes is trying to fill the void left by ASG when they went out of business. A new comer on the market is Complete Survivalist. Back Home as some good Homesteading tips from time to time.

I love magazines. I usually hit a Borders or Barnes and Noble twice a month and check out all the latest issues. You can go broke buying all the issues that are out there so I get very selective. Also, my wife works for a large library system that gets a lot of magazines. If I need a copy of one I will have her bring it home. Use your library for all it is worth.

Wolverine

Next week part two on building a library.

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Scrounging

2011-02-10T15:06:00.001-08:00

Toolman, my son, and I had a nice time at the cabin deer hunting this year. Unfortunately we didn’t get any deer. My son came home on leave from the Navy for the week and I was really hoping he would get a nice shot anyway.

We had cut a deal with one of the neighbors up there earlier this spring and the guy built a nice deer blind on the point of a hill on our property. He uses it during bow season and we use it during firearms season. Toolman and I were very impressed with the blind and want to build one down here on the farm and another one up north at the cabin.

Being cheap we have kept our eyes and ear open and have come up with over half the material we need already. My latest coup was getting enough 2X6s to the floor bracing. A buddy at work told me he had some scrap lumber the wanted to get rid of. I never asked the size or how much I just told him I would come and get it. He said no, he would bring it into work. The next week he backed his truck up to mine and we tossed a bunch of treated 2X6s in the bed of my truck.

There are a ton of useful items out there that people are getting rid of all the time. It takes little effort to put the word out that you need something. The surprising thing is that it will show up sooner than you think.

Oh, and I need a few pieces of metal roofing for the two blinds, if you have some to get rid of just give me a call….

Wolverine

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Storing Gas and other Fuels

2011-02-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

From: Wolverine

I bought a used Stihl chainsaw from a guy at work. He told me it needed a new air filter and he recommended I not use it a lot until I replaced the old one. I stopped at the local Stihl dealer and picked up the filter. While I was in the store the guy ahead of me in line asked the dealer if he had any old gas cans in the back. The store had a large display of gas containers in several sizes, but they were all the new safety valve ones.

The dealer laughed at the guy and told him that all the old gas cans were sold long ago. The guy lamented that fact and complained about the new safety cans. He said that he has been hitting garage sales and flea markets all summer and fall and just can’t find any old cans.

I must have had a half smile on my face because the guy asked me why that was funny. I told him that I started buying up all the old gas cans I could find five to ten years ago and they are now like gold. He nodded and wondered if I wanted to sell any. The dealer told me that I had made a smart move.

When they first started talking about having mandatory safety valves I decided that I would pay one dollar per gallon of gas for a can. I ended up paying a lot less than that most of the time. I bought two five gallon cans for a buck at one garage sale. My favorite cans are metal two and a half gallon cans that are sort of half rounded domes. I scored several of them for two bucks a piece last summer.

All totaled my gas cans hold over one hundred gallons of gas. I keep them full, but do use them from time to time if prices spike way up. I try and make sure I cycle through the gas every two years. When I buy gas I put a blue tape label on it with the date, 8-10, 1-11, or whatever. I also have close to fifty gallons of kerosene stored in metal five gallon cans. My stored Coleman fuel is left in the one gallon cans it is sold in.

One hundred gallons of gas will not last all that long in a SHTF situation, but it will allow me to run the tractor and chainsaws for a spell.

Before you ask, no I do not put anything in the gas. I have a bottle of PRI-G but I have found that if I use gas before the third year starts I have no problems. I make sure that the cans are air tight which I think helps a lot.

The last time I filled a lot of cans I used our Kroger fuel points and lowered the price thirty cents a gallon. I have heard that they have change the way they do that now. If not, I recommend it as a way to acquire cheaper gas to store.

While they are hard to find in the quantities I bought them a few years ago, I do recommend that you look for good gas cans and store up some fuel. If nothing more, try to get enough to fill the vehicle at least once so you don’t have to rely on a station if we have a large power outage or run on the station. Do you remember the run on gas a couple years back? I was on my way to the cabin when I found out about it. I filled up outside of Alma and assured myself enough gas to get home with if I couldn’t get more.

It is sort of ironic, but it seems like every situation that a prepper tries to be ready for has happened in the recent past or will happen in the near future and yet people still tell us we are not right with having a preparedness lifestyle. That’s ok. I will just keep doing what I have been; it sure seems to work out for me.

Wolverine

Acquiring Supplies

2011-01-26T19:59:00.000-08:00

From: Wolverine

Friday night I got a video clip from Tonto showing how to make a buck saw for backpacking or around the retreat for the low cost of $9. Tonto is a very clever survivalist and prepper. I have learned a lot from that man over the years and even stolen a few of his ideas for postings. We both have the plan to shelter in place when TSHTF, we just have different ideas on what we will be able to accomplish. We also both plan on having wood as a heat and cooking source once the grid goes down.

I finished my errands in very good time so I did stop at a flea market. I was elated to find a Bear Cub recurve bow there. My boys broke mine a few years back and I really miss it. I wasn’t able to buy the last couple I saw; they had nearly $100 price tags on them. I bought the replacement for $40. The bow is part of my survival strategy so it was important to replace it.

While wandering around the different stales I spotted an old style buck saw. No one was at the booth but I was able to check it out and saw it had a $12 price tag. I figured that for a sawbuck I could walk away with it. I called Tonto and asked if he was heart set on making one of those buck saws or would he like one for ten bucks? He told me that an old one for ten was great so I went back and looked up the booth owner.

Those of us that are cheap tend to bargain prices more often than not. I asked the booth owner what his best price was on that saw. He thought a few moments and told me he would take $8 for it. I paid the cash and left.

Yes, we can all save money and make our own supplies. There is a certain satisfaction in being very self-reliant. There is also satisfaction in being able to acquire a good quality survival tool for a very reasonable price.

After I got back to the farm I went out to the barn and double checked my buck saws. That leads me to a question for you guys. Were do you buy buck saw blades that a 30 and 36 inches long? I wouldn’t mind having a couple spares. I checked the local TSC and they didn’t have any larger size blades.

There are a lot of lessons here. Communicate your needs with your network of friends and support group. They may be able to help you save time and money in finding supplies. Supplies can come from any number of places, from the local Tractor Supply Company, flea market and garage sale finds, or building them yourself.

It is always good to keep yourself thinking about how you will handle your needs after an event than waiting for the event to start. Shelter and heat, water, food, and security all need to be planned out well in advance. Just how much will an $8 buck saw be worth if we go grid down and half of Michigan is cutting wood for heat? It is never too early to start acquiring supplies.

Wolverine

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Acquiring “Nails”

2011-01-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

Years ago I used to work as the night maintenance guy for McDonald’s. It consisted of a lot of cleaning and prepping equipment for the next day’s busy business cycle. It wasn’t my dream job that is for sure, but it did allow me to get “maintenance” experience that lead to my current millwright job of the last 29 years.

While I worked nights I would have the radio playing. I will be dating myself here and I doubt ten percent of the readers will know this, but I always had Jay Roberts’ Music ‘Til Dawn on WJR radio. There was a PSA that played four to six times a night. It started out with the old Ben Franklin piece;

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
for want of a horse the rider was lost,
being overtaken by the enemy and slain.

Forty years later that still sticks with me as to the importance of small detail. When I was an MP instructor in the reserves one of the things we drilled into the students was “Attention to Detail!”. It is the small things that make a difference.

Being a prepper means that you need to have the ability to handle lots of hiccups in our daily lives. It could be just a school closing on the day you absolutely have to be at work. It could be a blown light bulb in the lamp you need to do some work with. We make a quick phone call to one of your trusted friends that are part of our mutual support group and drop the child off on the way to work or we open the closest and pull out a spare bulb and keep on steppin’.

The thing is, of course, that it takes planning and work to be able to do that. You have to be friends with folks to develop a network of support and you have to plan ahead and buy extra items for those quick repairs. Those are the nails as it were.

Being a prepper isn’t always an ammo can full of bullets and a pantry full of canned goods, although that is part of it. What about a supply of spices to cook and bake with? Spare everythings are important if they are no longer available at the store.

On little thing that my wife and I do to help keep all those little things in the house it this. Since Michigan has a bottle deposit law we turn our bottles in once a month or so. We then pick up items we want to store up with the deposit money. Since that money was already spent we look at it as “free money”. Between what we pay deposit on and the bottles and cans I pick up we generate about $7 a month. Not a lot of money but enough to add all kinds of items to the larder.

Make a list of the items you would want extras of and then start picking them up with small amounts of extra cash. In time you will find that you have a lot of “nails” around to keep from losing the shoe, the horse, and the rider.

Wolverine

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Rual King Sale

2011-01-14T19:45:00.005-08:00

Here is a special emailed to me from Getting Started

Do You Live in IL, IN, KY, MI, MO, OH, or TN

.. then I have a deal for you.

Rural King has a sell on 5-gallon buckets. These buckets are the thicker .90 mil buckets, they are thicker and stronger then .75 mil buckets. The cost ...

$1.99

Now, I don't know if these are food-grade buckets, so caveat emptor.

Now, the bad news.

The sale ends Sunday; the buckets have a painted Rural King logo; and the $1.49 lids are flimsy.

Let me say this again.

The on sale lids are flimsy. If you plan to stack the buckets, you will need to buy a .75 or .90 mil lid.

Link:

Rural King - Store Locator

http://www.ruralking.com/store-locator/

Rural King - Weekly Ad

http://www.ruralking.com/weekly-ad/

P.S.

Just so you know, I just paid over six bucks for some buckets and two bucks for some lids from my local supplier.

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So congress read the Constitution: Well, isn’t that special

2011-01-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Marti Oakley, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

I tried watching the swearing in of the new House for the 112^th Congress. I couldn’t stand it. Standing on the steps outside the House, was one of the greatest collections of career liars, thieves and thugs ever publicly assembled, sprinkled with a few new-comers who probably believe they are actually going to affect a change in the District of Criminals.

By the end of January, these newbies will have been thoroughly indoctrinated and will have had the law laid down to them about how things really work in the District. The newbies will resurface along about February with their talking points memo’s in hand and will dutifully be spouting the party line and will have totally dismissed any notions they may have had about “changing” the way the District does business.

Next I tried to watch the changing of the Speaker of the House. In these moments I am always amazed at the ability of the players to stand in front of not only the House members, but the American public thanks to all the camera’s present, and to deliver vacant and pointless speeches, the words of which sound like they should mean something . . . but really don’t.

Nancy Pelosi had the gall to speak about defending the Constitution. This from a woman who has single-handedly violated the provisions of that document on so many occasions it is staggering. Now she thinks the Constitution should be defended. Apparently Ms. Pelosi suffers from some form of congressional alzheimers or maybe she just has selective memory.
John Boehner took the gavel as he assumed his new position as speaker and talked about “openness, transparency and honesty”. Words I believe were taken from Obama’s now infamous remarks during his campaign. Yeah…..I’ll be looking for John to deliver on that one.

The grand coup’ in all of this, the zinger meant to incite the public, to make the American people believe was a new day with new leadership that was really going to listen to the American people and a leadership that held the Constitution in high regard, promising to uphold it at all times …….was the reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House. While this reading of America’s most historical and profoundly important document was read, congress men and women chatted with one another and I believe a few might have napped.

Not one congressmen, not the outgoing speaker or the incoming speaker, said one word about repealing any of the egregious assaults on Constitutional rights and protections that were contained in numerous pieces of legislation that they themselves, in many instances, voted to pass
Having watched these stage shows put on by both the House and Senate for more years than I care to admit, I was none-the-less taken back by the unmitigated gall, the phony posturing, the vacant speeches and remarks that were capped with the reading of the Constitution. Call me cynical, but I get the uneasy feeling this was some kind of insider joke. Maybe this is Congress’s idea of fun. I don’t know.

Here’s what I do know: We have allowed ourselves repeatedly to be conned by people we elect to office. We believe the speeches and the declarations, but once they are in office, they forget who they work for. Or maybe they never had any intentions of working for us to begin with.

The truth of the matter is that no matter what their intentions, corporations, lobbyists and other forces that we are just now learning about pull the strings. The fact is, we are subsidizing a political body that has ceased to be anything other than the facilitators for corporate takeover of all parts of our lives while subjecting us to agreements with foreign governments, international bodies and foreign organizations, populated by people who have no interest in seeing this country thrive and survive.

My question is this: Why do we continue to pay them?

After all, if you look at the money trail attached to each and every bill you see that they all garner millions in funding from the corporations who run the government; a donation no doubt meant to influence their votes.

I did not hear the out going speaker or the new speaker make any mention of ending this influence buying by corporations, and it was never mentioned either before or after the reading of the Constitution.

Speeches and vacant promises aside, there will be no change in the District of Criminals. The only thing that has changed is “who holds the gavel”.

Marti Oakley is a political activist and former op-ed columnist for the St Cloud Times in Minnesota. She was a member of the Times Writer’s Group until she resigned in September of 07. She is neither Democrat nor Republican, since neither party is representative of the American people. She says what she thinks, means what she says, and is known for being outspoken. She is hopeful that the American public will wake up to what is happening to our beloved country . . . little of it is left. Her website is The PPJ Gazette

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Saginaw, Michigan Will Be the City Government of Beijing

2010-12-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

If you’re wondering what China plans on doing with that $2 Trillion plus in US dollar cash reserves, then this may be part of the answer: To read report follow the link below:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewforum.php?f=422&sid=8c192cc997c9a656df72

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Swine flu pandemic outbreak sweeping through Britain even though 70 percent were vaccinated last year

2010-12-27T05:13:00.000-08:00

(NaturalNews) A swine flu pandemic is sweeping through Britain despite the fact that 70 percent of Britain's over-65 population was vaccinated against swine flu last year. This year, that number is nearly the same -- 68.5% -- but flu vaccine proponents insist that until everyone is vaccinated, the flu will continue to infect people.

What these vaccine advocates absolutely will not admit, however, is how many of those who are sick with the flu this year also got vaccinated last year. This little detail is left out of every mainstream media report on vaccines and the flu. They simply refuse to mention this all-important number, leaving readers to leap to the incorrect conclusion that only those who were not vaccinated get sick with the flu.

Most infected patients were previously vaccinated

That assumption is false. In fact, of the 450 critical care beds in England that are now occupied by flu patients, I have no doubt that most of those infected patients are people who received flu vaccines in the past.

Such statistics are never made available to the public or the press, of course. To release such statistics would expose the Great Lie of the vaccine industry: That flu vaccines simply don't work on 99 percent of people!

In fact, the people who are most susceptible to catching the flu are precisely the very same people who get vaccinated. Why is that? Because vaccines weaken the immune system in the long run, leaving you more vulnerable to future infections. They deny your immune system the opportunity to practice its own adaptive response to invading microorganisms or viruses, thereby causing your immune system to atrophy in the same way that a wheelchair-bound person will experience leg muscle atrophy.

The immune system is a lot like a muscle: Use it or lose it!

But flu vaccines provide weakened viruses to the immune system (along with other preservative chemicals that can be extremely dangerous to neurological health). It's sort of like working out your muscles at the gym but having your trainer do all the heavy lifting for you. Obviously you're not going to have very strong muscles in the end because your body won't need to invoke a very strong adaptive response.

The same is true with vaccines and the flu: If your body is exposed to weakened flu viruses year after year, it gets lazy and weak, and when it one day comes into contact with a full-strength virus circulating in the wild, it's not in good enough shape to handle the challenge.

Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in Britain

At the same time this is going on, a person who is vitamin D deficient will also have an alarmingly weak immune system response because vitamin D activates the immune system to do its job. In people with extremely low vitamin D levels, even vaccines containing weakened viruses won't solicit an antibody response. But instead of testing patients for vitamin D deficiency and prescribing that with the vaccine, conventional medical doctors and contagious disease authorities robotically urge everyone to just "get multiple vaccine shots" as if following one failed vaccine with yet another failed vaccine will somehow make them both work.

That's idiotic, of course. And the other idiotic thing about all this is that if people had sufficient levels of vitamin D circulating in their blood, they wouldn't need seasonal flu vaccines in the first place! That's because a strong, healthy immune system with lots of circulating vitamin D is universally effective at halting ALL seasonal flu strains, with near 100% success in those with vitamin D levels between 50 - 70 (ng/dL).

The three main reasons behind Britain's flu pandemic

So the real reason Britain is suffering a swine flu pandemic right now is actually three-fold:

#1) It's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Britain is so far north (of the equator) that the people living there aren't currently generating any vitamin D whatsoever. This makes virtually the entire British population ridiculously vitamin D deficient throughout the winter.

#2) The majority of the British population has been subjected to flu vaccines in previous years, weakening their immune systems and making them more vulnerable to this year's flu strains.

#3) The flu strain itself is so successful in the wild precisely because so many Britons walk around in chronic states of immune suppression (from vitamin D deficiency, chronic stress, poor dietary habits and so on). This creates a "viral breeding ground" which encourages more rapid virus mutations that make vaccines obsolete anyway.

The question you are not allowed to ask vaccine quacks

The vaccine-pushing quack medical community believes that if they could magically convince 100 percent of the people to get vaccinated, they would have this problem licked. In their own minds, they have unscientifically convinced themselves that a vaccine equals automatic and full protection against a flu virus.

And yet even they won't dare ask this simple question: Of all the people sick from the flu who are right now lying in Britain's hospital beds, what percentage were vaccinated against the flu last year or this year?

The answer to that question will expose the outright fraud of the vaccine industry because the answer is a very large number. No one in the medical industry dares ask that question, of course, because they realize that delving into the actual re-infection rate of flu vaccine recipients would expose their quackery and fraud, causing yet more people to lose faith in vaccines which are, after all, sold based entirely on misplaced faith and clever propaganda.

The flu vaccine propaganda, of course, demands that people never be allowed to collide with the scientific facts about how many people who are vaccinated against the flu still catch the flu anyway. (The flu re-infection rate.) That's why you will NEVER see an honest answer to this question released by hospitals, vaccine companies or vaccine-pushing doctors.

Keep taking your flu jabs, everybody. But don't ask whether they actually work, because that question isn't allowed to be asked in the cult of medicine that dominates the sick-care landscape around the world today.

We wouldn't want actual science to interfere with a really profitable con job now, would we?

Monday, December 27, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030845_Britain_swine_flu.html#ixzz19JfOYEgc

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Feds target airline pilot for exposing TSA security sham on YouTube

2010-12-27T05:10:00.000-08:00

A Sacramento-based airline pilot is the subject of a federal investigation for exposing what he says are serious flaws in the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) airport security protocols. According to ABC News10 in Sacramento, the 50-year-old pilot who requested to remain anonymous says that TSA applies its strict screening protocols to passengers and even flight crews, but ground crews are freely able to access secure areas with a simple card swipe.

"As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce," the pilot explains in his video, as he shows an entrance to a secure area. "It's only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here."

The pilot has worked for his airline for more than ten years and had been issued a federal handgun to carry with him in the cockpit. But after blowing the whistle on the serious security breaches taking place at the airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies shows up at his house to confiscate the weapon, and they also asked him to give up his state-issued concealed weapon carry permit.

On December 6, the pilot also received a letter from the TSA explaining that "an administrative review into your deputation status as a Federal Flight Deck Officer has been initiated," a move that he believes is a warning from the Feds saying not to mess with the system, unless you want to face the consequences.

According to the same ABC News10 report, the pilot's airline asked him to remove the videos from YouTube shortly after he posted them, but portions of the videos captured as part of the ABC News10 report can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwLG...

Monday, December 27, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030844_airline_pilot_TSA.html#ixzz19JiD3qDl

Sources for this story include:

http://www.news10.net/news/article....

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Michigan Preppers Roll Call

2010-11-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

The Michigan Preppers Network is conducting a Roll Call on our forum. If you are a prepper please check in.

* Here is a link to the Roll Call:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=6201

You have to be registered to check in. If you aren't registered please join here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

* If you are a HAM Radio Operator check in here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=6219

* If you are an A.N.T.S. member please check in here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=618&t=6220

Looking for Preppers near you

2010-09-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

The Michigan Preppers Network Welcomes our Newest Members:

Fieldcraft
Hello all! I am a new member to the network from Michigan. I have been a prepper for years and have made preparedness one of my hobbies. I have learned to integrate preparedness into my life and each time I camp, hunt or just walk in the wilderness (rural or urban) I take the opportunity to hone my skills, learn more about survival and enjoy life. I am fortunate that my family is on-board with me in my preperations which is the single-most important element in my on-going preparations. We are currently looking at bug-out properties in Northern Michigan since bugging-in is not an option due to our homes proximity to larger population centers. I look forward to sharing and learning here as well as meeting like-minded people.

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=563&t=5745

MichiganLover
Hello Michigan Preppers,

I just signed up on the APN forum and then found the Michigan section. I know a lot of us are pretty private people and don't necessarily want to announce to the world where we are, but it's nice to know there are others like us. I look forward to being in the forum and hopefully seeing more Michigan preppers.

Regards,

Trish

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=4416

JeniGirl
Hey there Preppers!
I have just moved back home to Alpena to get ready for whatever the future holds.
Looking forward to chatting with like-minded individuals!
JeniGirl

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=563&t=5741

Exploder
Hello,
I am from the branch county area. Looking to meet like minded people.

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=5551

b a
New from Michigan. Always looking for more great information.

b a

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=563&t=184&start=315

johnorvis
My name is John and live in central western Michigan I have been preparing for about 2 months ans could use all the support and tips I can get

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=563&t=184&start=315

Ladybug
Hello to all the Michigan preppers.
I sure hope you guys are out there!
i am prepping from the eastern part of Michigan.
Looking for like minded preppers

To post your welcome please follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=4773&p=45898#p45898

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How To Join The Michigan Preppers Network

2010-09-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Come learn survival, preparedness and sustainable living with us!

The Preppers networks are all about volunteering our knowledge and skills with each other. We share ideas, tips and basically network with each other to survive any type of disaster whether natural, man made, or economic. Information that you learn and share with others will help everyone learn how to find "Freedom Through Teaching Others Self Reliance."

Joining the Michigan Preppers Network is simple, and most of all, it's Free! To join, just follow these few steps.

1) Register to become a member of the American Preppers Network www.AmericanPreppersNetwork.net The registration page is here: http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

2) Once you have your account, go to the index page of the forum and do your first post by introducing yourself in the new members area. http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/index.php

3) Once you know how to do posts, visit the Michigan forum and introduce yourself. The Michigan forum can be found by scrolling to the lower section of the index page where you will find a list of states, or you can go directly by following this URL: www.MichiganPreppersNetwork.net

4) After you've visited the Michigan forum, follow this link to learn how to join the Michigan Preppers Network group:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=564&t=2738

APN's success depends on your contributions. If you would like to donate to our organization by becoming a Gold Member you can join the APN Gold Members club by following this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/page.php?p=apn-gold-membership&sid=5b241e92a767cdfbe7a345c54dd55127
Gold Membership is only $5 per month. For a list of Gold Member benefits go here

Thank you for your support!

My Long Absents Explained

2010-01-30T18:02:00.001-08:00

I want to apologize for my long absents, but it could not be helped. To tell the whole story, or at least just the highlights of it, I need to go back to the week before deer hunting season this year.

I had a doctor’s appointment the Friday before the opener. I went and my doctor wanted to put me on a new medicine. Now, I tend to be fairly hardheaded and not easily persuaded into anything I am not ready or willing to tackle. We talked about it and I was adamant that I not start the new meds until after deer season. That turned out to be one of the better decisions I ever made.

My buddy and I had a great time at the cabin. We didn’t see many deer and only one shot was even attempted. (Toolman missed.) Toolman had gone up the week before and repaired the furnace and re-wired the breaker box so we could hook up a generator. First time since I have owned the place we were warm and had lights for deer season. We can’t wait for next year.

Anyway, the week after I got home I went back to the doctor and started the new medicine. One week to the day after I started it I had a reaction to it and ended up in the hospital for a week. (I can not imagine what it would have been if it happened while I was up north hunting.)

I know very few of you know me personally, but those that do know I do not take drugs of any kind and never have. I hate taking an aspirin for a headache and rarely do. When the attack hit me I was begging for drugs. They gave me some pain medicine that had me seeing things. At one point I was in a cave instead of the hospital and I saw long dead pets walking around the room. I was messed up!

I got released from the hospital a week after I was admitted and came home. I spent several weeks trying to sleep in the chair, the guest room bed, and the couch, usually all in one night. I was lucky to drift off for an hour at a time. I couldn’t eat either. I have lost over forty pounds since then. It is good for me, but I feel weak and not like my old self.

I could not sit and use the computer much more than read a few e-mails at a time and answering them was a tough chore. I write free-lance articles for several magazines under my real name too and I couldn’t write anything, I just couldn’t sit at the computer, it hurt too much.

My wife was a rock for me and she proved yet again that marrying her is the best decision I ever made in my life. I could not have made it home alone without her and my son whom happened to be home from college for this ordeal.

My thoughts on survival and preparedness changed a lot during that time. All I cared about was getting my health and strength back. I had to change my diet and now a lot of my stored food is no longer “healthy” for me to eat. Ironically, one of the last things I wrote for this blog but forgot to send in was a receipt for the breakfast I make up at deer camp and Sundays here on the farm. I can no longer eat that breakfast now, all the stuff in it is bad for me.

I am now almost back to my old self. I will be returning to work in a week or so and my life should start to get back to normal by spring. I am not sure when or even if I will be writing again for a while. Needless to say I am way behind on lots of stuff.

Anyway, that is why I have not been around in a couple months. Let’s hope someone else steps up and adds some stuff for the Michigan Preppers.

Later,

Wolverine

Basic Guide to Knives

2009-11-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

Re-post courtesy Riverwalker's Stealth Survival

Knives come in a multitude of shapes, sizes, types and functions. Knowing the basic types and styles of knives available will allow you to determine which knives will best suit your own needs. The following is a very basic description of several different types and styles of knives that are available.

Fixed Blade Knives

A fixed-blade knife is a solid piece of steel anchored to the handle. This is a type of blade that is usually the most trusted for the tougher jobs and more rugged use. For most hunting and camping activities, a fixed blade knife will be the best choice. Fixed blades are durable and hold up to the elements well because of their straight, simple construction without any of the various folding-type mechanisms. In fixed blade knives, the knife blade is one piece of metal that runs the length of the knife. When the knife blade reaches the beginning of the handle, it can either taper into a “rat tail” that is surrounded by the handle or continue as a tang that is covered on either side by handle pieces or what is commonly referred to as “slabs”.

Folding Knives

Folding blade knives are generally not quite as durable as fixed blade knives, but provide safety and the convenience of compact size. Folding blade knives come in a variety of configurations, some of which may even lock into place. Locking folders allow much of the same confidence of a fixed blade while letting you close the knife blade into the handle for safety.

Pocket Knives

Old fashioned pocket knives are still high on the list as everyone’s favorite. These can be great to carry in your pocket for all the times you might need a knife. Not all models lock in an open position. This does not affect their main use as a basic knife for a variety of uses. Some pocket knives offer multiple knife blades for different uses.

Lock Back Knives

A lock back knife is a type of folding knife that locks in an open position. Locking folders provide much of the confidence of a fixed blade knife when open; yet they enable you to fold the blade for your safety and carrying convenience. A lock back gets its name from a rocking lock plate visible on the back of the handle. Opening the knife blade causes the “rocker” to lock against the blade so that it locks open. Pushing down on the “rocker” at the back of the handle releases it. This enables you to close the blade. Lock back knives generally require two hands in order to close them.

Single Hand Operation Knives

Many knife users are looking for the convenience of a knife that opens and closes with one hand and that also provides additional safety by being locked when open. For climbing and activities where one hand is occupied, a knife that can be operated with a single hand is considered essential by many people. For other types of activities, a single hand knife may be simply a personal preference. There are many types of knives that allow single hand operation. It is important to choose one that fits your activities. This type of knife is often referred to as a “one hander”.

Liner Lock Knives

A liner lock knife is a folding knife that locks open by means of a tensioned metal liner inside the handle. This is similar to a lock back knife. Opening the blade will activate the lock. Unlocking is achieved by placing your thumb on the front part of the liner and pushing to the left. This releases the blade. A liner lock enables you to close the blade with one hand. A thumb hole or thumb stud in the knife blade is typically used to allow single hand operation.

Frame Lock Knives

A Frame Lock knife operates similar to a liner lock. The main difference is the lock is a tensioned part of the handle frame with an open channel. When the knife blade opens, the frame lock moves into the handle opening and locks against the blade. Pushing to the left releases it from its “locked” position so you can close the blade.

Assisted Opening Knives

Assisted Opening knives are the ultimate in knives offering the convenience of single hand operation. They also use a liner lock for locking the blade open. To open, release the safety, and then push the blade release ridge. After the knife blade starts opening, the assisted opening mechanism completes the knife blade opening, which releases the liner to lock the blade open. To close, push left on the front of the liner lock to unlock it, close the knife blade and engage the safety on top of the handle.

Special Note: These knives are illegal in many areas. Check the applicable laws in your area.

Due to the complex and changing nature of knife laws, it is your responsibility to investigate and comply with all federal, state and local laws relating to the possession, use, or transport of knives.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Survivalist 101

2009-11-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

Re-post courtesy Riverwalker's Stealth Survival

The term survivalist is a label placed on a part of our society that has been largely ridiculed for a number of things. We’ve been called “whacko gun nuts”, “food hoarding freaks”, and just plain crazy. Perhaps if we did a better job of informing people of our true objectives, people might have a better view of survivalists and what we are attempting to accomplish.

What makes a person a survivalist? Does surviving a bad car accident or a serious illness make you a survivalist? No. It makes you a survivor and in most cases it makes you very lucky, but it doesn’t make you a survivalist. A true survivalist won’t trust his or her life and the life of their family to luck.

A true survivalist doesn’t trust luck to always be in their favor. A lot of people have “bad” luck, as well as “good” luck. What makes a person a survivalist is the enduring mindset and preparation ahead of time that makes them refuse to be a victim. The mere thought of being a victim of something that could have been avoided with a little advanced preparation is totally repugnant to most survivalists. They don’t trust their luck to see them safely through an emergency or natural disaster. They put their trust in their skills and abilities. They make advance preparations to deal with the everyday occurrences that can affect their life and their family. They simply refuse to become a victim of circumstances, whether natural or man-made, by being knowledgeable about how they can be avoided or minimized to limit the effects on them and their families.

Too many people prepare for the simple things because they refuse to realize that it’s the bigger events that will cause the more serious problems. They carry a spare tire in their vehicles because they refuse to be a victim that has been stranded by a flat tire. Why? Because they fear the ridicule they might suffer if someone found out they didn’t have a working spare tire. They will probably wind up with several labels as a result. They may be called silly, foolish or perhaps just plain ignorant. A true survivalist would see this in a different light. They see it as a failure to prepare in advance in order to avoid being a victim. They know that a flat tire, late at night, and in the middle of a cold, dark night in a strange area or neighborhood could be a life threatening event for them and their family. Tires go flat and cars break down all the time, but what if it happens at the “wrong” time and in the “wrong” place? Are you prepared to survive? Or will you become a victim?

Do you fear the label “survivalist”? Labels are really good things when you think about them. They tell you what’s in the food you eat and the drinks you consume. They tell you what’s in the books you read. They allow you to recognize family and friends when you call them by name. Labels are a good thing!

My name is Riverwalker. I am a survivalist and I refuse to be a victim!

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Simple Survival Tips - Ammo Cans

2009-11-20T09:19:00.001-08:00

Re-post courtesy Riverwalker's Stealth Survival

Just curious to see if there are a lot of people out there who use ammo cans for storing "stuff" besides ammo. If the seals are good, they are pretty much dust-proof and water-proof. They're usually pretty sturdy and are good for storing lots of different "stuff".

Here are some of the different items I've stored in ammo boxes:

1.) Nail, bolts, screws, etc. - they don't get rusty

2.) Sandwiches and drinks - sort of a survival lunchbox

3.) Tow chains - sturdy ehough to hold the heavy ones

4.) Misc. tools - whatever I could stuff in there

5.) Ammo and gun cleaning kits ( I think this is the intended use!)

What have you used your ammo cans for other than ammo?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

A Different Way To communicate

2009-11-14T08:21:00.001-08:00

I am packing and getting everything ready for a trip north to go deer hunting. Putting meat in the freezer is a yearly goal of my personal survival plan. Sorry for the short article but I need my time spent other places the next couple weeks.

I see an earlier post deals with communication. I like using a hand held radio. I always tried to be the guy carrying the radio, even when it was the big PRC-25. When the newer small units came out they were great. “Papa Mike Oscar, Papa Mike Oscar this is Romeo Papa Two, do you copy?” (Provost Marshal Office this is Roving Patrol 2) Yeah, good times.

But what do you do when your batteries are long passed dead, or you need to remain silent at your post, but still need to pass on information? A friend of mine told me how his Special Forces team handled that problem, hand signals. Now how do you send hand signals that can be seen from a distance? Easy, just like is done every Saturday all across the country, use football signal.

Think about it. You can use touchdown, both arms in the air, to mean people coming. Crossing both arms over each other like incomplete pass can mean no information to relay. There are a lot of signals you can use, from several sports to mix it up and you can make them mean whatever you need them to mean.

That can also be adapted to other uses as well. “I saw a deer headed toward you” could be illegal procedure. “It’s a doe” could be holding. “I’m cold and headed back to camp,” could be face mask. Shouting through the woods is never a good idea, but if you per-plan your communications you can help your success. Your communications are limitless if you care to figure out the signals in advance.

Wolverine

Sharing the Wealth As I Understand It

2009-11-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

The President, then a candidate, told Joe the Plumber he wanted to “spread the wealth around.” Several of his top Czars have been quoted as having a strong desire to have a “redistribution” of wealth in the country. In other words, they want to take from the haves and give to the have not’s.
OK, so let us see how that would work out on a small scale and then we can expand it to the whole. Let us say that the Lions are playing football. In the second quarter the Lions rack up a total of 124 yards offense and hold the opponent to 8 yards offense. Barry Sanders rushed for 62 yards, and Bill Simms ran one play for 22 yards and a TD. Bobby Layne tossed three completions for the remaining 40 yards.
Now, as I understand it we need to spread the wealth around. So Barry has to give up enough yards so he and Billy are the same. The three passes need to be evened out so that Eric Hipple and Milt Plumb each get some credit. After all that would be social justice.
In that quarter the team scored two TDs and a FG. Yale Lary kicked two PATs and one FG. Barry scored one TD and Billy the other. Points are fairly even at 5, 6 and 6. But wait. What about the guys on defense. Alex Karris and Night Train Lane both feel they should get some points too. After all they held the other team to 8 yards. Maybe the center should get a point for hiking the ball to the holder, who gets a point and the kicker only gets one point for kicking it. Now that seems fair doesn’t it? Sims and Sanders can pool their two TDs and each player on offense can get one point. Of course defense is upset and as soon as Rodney Pete goes under center Nick Petorcelli steps aside and the defense goes in and the QB gets creamed. As he is getting picked up off the ground his “team mates” explain that unless he tosses each of them a pass he will meet every blade of grass in Briggs Stadium.
Now that the Lions have everything equal for all, let’s work on the whole league. After all, Joe Montana got to go to a lot of Pro Bowls and Eric Hipple didn’t. How about Eric gets in a couple of Pro Bowls so he doesn’t have to make his living selling guitar lessons after football? Why should Jerry Rice always go to the Superbowl, it is not right that the rich get richer. Down with the elite, up with the common player!
And what about the fans? Why should some fat cat get to sit in a box or on the fifty and the poor slugs have to sit in the upper deck end zone? I say we are all entitled to fifty yard line seats, hell make it field passes, and first come first served, no a lottery, no a bid, no … oh hell, just make it fair!
At the end of the season every man woman and child in America gets their free Superbowl ring along with their refund check. Illegals can pick theirs up at any city hall. After all they are entitled too.
Ok, that is how I understand sharing the wealth. I guess there is no room in our society for those that are successful. The CEOs that toss the ball for the company and get rewarded for it and the running back managers that make the company work get paid more just like in the NFL. There are linemen that are important, just like the workers that make the widgets. They all work together, hence the term “teamwork”. For whatever reason some guys have been blessed to be better at some jobs than others. I believe the bible calls it talents. Do not waste time on wishing you had the CEO job, learn to use your talents so that you become the highest paid for that talent. We can all make a ton of money.
I heard Rich DeVos speak once. I have been lucky enough in my life to meet, talk to, and listen to several folks that are/were on the Forbes 400 list. DeVos made the statement that there is not a finite amount of wealth. The poor do no get poor because someone else made money. Wealth is created and anyone can create it and become wealthy. The poor become poor because they do not do those things that the wealthy do to get and stay wealthy. The quarterbacks will always be the guys in the spotlight and running backs will always be talked about. You can not spread the wealth around in football and you can not spread the wealth around in America. You need to do your thing and educate yourself on becoming wealthy. Do not wait for the President or congress to do it for you because rest assured, if they do they will be first in line for the most and the rest of use will get hind tit.
Wolverine

When Did You Become A Prepper?

2009-10-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

I had a discussion with a couple of people that were just getting into prepping. They asked me when I first became a prepper. I normally answer that I started back in the early 1970s.However, I made a trip to a gunshow a county or so away today and while I was driving home I got to thinking about prepping and when I started. What prompted those thoughts was seeing a single canteen setting on a table for sale. It reminded me of the old World War One (dated 1918) surplus canteen that sits on the floor beside me as I type this. It was the canteen that my grandfather always carried in his truck on every trip we ever took. After he died I took the canteen and carried it in my vehicles for a lot of years. I replaced the old worn out canvas cover that it originally had with a “newer” World War Two cover.

I realize now that making sure that canteen was full and in the truck was preparedness. I can still hear my grandfather saying to me, “Have a drink on me.” as he would pass me the canteen while we were driving to any of the camping or fishing spots we traveled to while he was alive.

We traveled Michigan a lot back then. Back in the day there was a spring next to the road on M-66. We always stopped there on our way north and filled the canteen with that spring water, after we had both drank our fill from the spring. (Michigan decided to tear out the spring and let a high school get built there instead.)

Having a canteen of water was a very small thing, but it was an important part of our trip preparations none the less. I now look back on that as the roots of my preparedness beings. I guess the steps I took in the 1970s were just a maturing of the canteen and expanding to making sure I had a lot more bases covered that just water. All an eight year old boy needed back then was a canteen of water and his grandfather.

I even laugh at myself when I think about what I did for preps back in the 1970s. I sure had a long way to go before I could be considered prepared based on what I did then. One big step for me then was to acquire 100 rounds of ammo for each of our rifles and pistols. Today at the gunshow I picked up an additional 40 rounds of .30-30 and 50 rounds of an oddball pistol round, both for a very good price.

Being a prepper is not only storing away ammo and filling a canteen of water. It is gathering skills and knowledge, materials and supplies, building a strong network of friends and family that are like minded, and having faith in God and yourself that you /WILL/ pull through any coming calamity. Hopefully that is why you come here and check us out, so you can help yourself prepare. When you started does not matter as much as the fact that you are now walking the walk. Just keep the faith and keep prepping. It can start with as little as a single canteen.

Wolverine

Supply Depots After TSHTF

2009-10-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, the fan was thoroughly and squarely hit and life changes forever. Your idea to shelter in place or bug out worked like a charm and you are now relatively secure for the time being. However, you discover that Murphy is a survivalist too, and his law jumps up and bites you in the butt. You discover that several tools or supplies you thought of before the fan got hit were never put away for later use or broke, or the kids left them out and they are ruined. Where do you get them now? Face it, every store, shop, big box store and hardware place will be wiped clean. Trucks will not be supplying replacements.
I would suggest that you think outside the box. (Yeah I know, I hate the phrase too, but it does convey the message.) I work in an office building. You know the place, desks, phones, file cabinets, and more paperwork than you can shake a stick at. I am the maintenance guy. I move the desk and files around when needed and fix the plumbing, repair the electric, and solve problems. You might be surprised to see the amount of tools and supplies that are stored in the maintenance area. Since we have trees and brush on the grounds I have saws and axes. There is copper plumbing and fittings, roof patching material, and hand tools of all kinds.
Almost every large office building has a maintenance shop and guys that do the work. I have discovered over the years that even people at work in the building are surprised we have so many supplies. Janitorial has their supplies too, soaps, toilet paper, cleaners and the like. These are items that a year after TEOTWAWKI will be useful. I am willing to bet that most readers never thought of those places for getting supplies.
Understand one thing up front. I am not talking about going in and stealing from work. What I am saying is that there might be places overlooked by MZB and looters that will allow you to help yourself out when TEOTWAWKI hits.
Since I am the maintenance man I have made a list of items that I have at work that I might need. The list is in the back of a notebook I keep in my desk. I have the list so I don’t forget something or if I need one item I know it is there and where to find it. I included supplies from the nurse’s station too.
I would never jeopardize my job of 25 plus years for a few thousand dollars worth of supplies, but if we have full blown TEOTWAWKI then I have a place to acquire supplies for use or barter. Go look up your maintenance guy, buy him a coffee and ask him to show you his workshop. You may be surprised at what is there.
Wolverine

Have you looked around work?

2009-10-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned being prepared at work for an event that might “lock you in.”
I have touched on that theme several times over the years. It seems that a lot of preparedness minded folks skip over the idea of being prepared at the workplace. Oh, they have their BOB in the car, but they do not necessarily have items in the BOB that will work for sheltering at the workplace.

Think of it this way. I will bet that you built your BOB around the idea of walking home if TSHTF while you were at work, correct? You have a map and compass, several fire starters, shelter cover of some kind and a cooking kit with some trail food. How close am I? Hell, folks that is basically my BOB too.

Here is the difference. I have loose items in the truck for just such a case as getting stuck at work for a couple days. I carry a sleeping bag in the truck that I would not hump on a trek home in an evacuation. I have several meals, MREs, cans of soups and beans, and a few items of clothing to change into if need be. When I was stuck in Detroit for three days I did not have a change of socks. By the third day I hated my socks but could not wear my work boots without them. Now I carry spares of those and a few other items. (I am also smart enough to wash them out a night now too.)

I have a steno notebook in my desk at work that has a list of all the items I know are there that I might need come TEOTWAWKI. I always have to explain that I keep the list in case the world goes to crap and I need supplies and I have a shot at getting them from work. I would never, ever steal those supplies from work. My nearly thirty years of employment is not worth risking over a few hundred dollars worth of goods. I have the list for a TEOTW situation, or if I get stuck at work.

Let’s say a train derails near your worksite and your company is forced to shut down all the air intake equipment and the police seal the building from the outside and quarantine the whole place for 72 hours. Drat, my example just stopped me from going out to the truck for my BOB! Ok, now what?

Have you really looked around where you work for survival items? How about that fire blanket, would it keep you warm enough to sleep? Can you get water from the drinking fountain or do you know where the water jugs for it are kept? Is there a nurse’s station, first aid cabinets, or first aid kits around? Who has access? Is there any way to get food other than breaking into vending machines? Are there coffee filters around that can strain water if need be? The questions go on and on.

You should give work a good going over and see what they have in case you ever need to hunker down there for a few days. Remember that in a Michigan winter you will want warmth long before you want food. It doesn’t matter what survival situation you are in, the rules of three always apply.

Wolverine

Next Friday I will re-post my original work place post from the April ’08 Bison.

Why I Would Not Serve

2009-10-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

I was at work the other day and one of the managers asked me about joining a county wide committee that would cover emergency preparedness. I told her no. She of course asked why, after all I had completed over a dozen FEMA courses, was a qualified CERT Instructor, and seemed to be knowledgeable on the subject. I told her that those were the reasons I couldn’t serve on that committee.
I have been into preparedness since the 1970s. I have read and written on survival for a long time. I have very clear goals and plans for survival. If we get snowed in at work I can stay for two to four days just on the supplies in my truck. I have already scoped out my workplace for water supply, food supply, off grid heat and light, and know where I would go during everything from tornado to nuke attack. (I assume you have also done this at your place of employment?)
When I hear the county talk about preparedness they are never thinking of the individual, but rather ”the people”. They talk in terms of shelters, not sheltering in place. They talk about Red Cross shelter management and food service, not off grid cooking. They want to take care of the most people they can at one time, not help each family be prepared for self-reliance. I am a self reliance guy, I would much prefer to see everyone take care of themselves as they see fit, not move to a shelter for someone else to take care of. My kind of thinking does not go over well at those meetings, I know because I did sever on that committee several years ago.
As I talked to the manager about my thoughts on preparedness and the priority list I would approach I saw her eyes glaze over and her mind wander away. I do not know how to write this without it sounding way too egotistical, but I know too much about preparedness to serve on a committee like that.
If we got snowed in at work most of the office wonks I work around will be breaking into the vending machine for food thinking that is ok. I will dig out my BOB from the truck, my sleeping bag, and a few other items and go out to the maintenance barn and cook my dinner and go to sleep warm and comfortable. I will of course be an A-hole for doing this because no one else has planned for just such an event. They know that those things just don’t happen and they will always be able to get home to food and shelter. They should have been with me when I got snowed in at work in Detroit many years ago.
I made a list of events that I have seen happen in just the last decade. I could go back to the 70s for my list, but the truth is the list about repeats itself every ten years or so. Just a few of the local events I listed are:
Black out and power grid loss in Eastern US
Major snow & ice storm that shut down schools and work for two days
Train derailment that caused evacuation of houses for more than one day
A riot in the town I work and at my son’s college
Major flooding that caused loss of life and homes and closed many businesses
Factory accident that caused chemical release that evacuated homes
And from around the country and the world:
Tsunamis that wiped out coast lines. (Do you think the Great Lakes can have a tsunami, we are on an earth quack fault line you know?)
Wide fires that burned out of control for days
Hurricanes that wiped out major cities
Bombing and terrorist attacks
Ok, so just which of those events is the county committee suppose to prepare for? Hell, which ones are we to prepare for? As a preparedness type individual I know I can prepare for all of those events and be ready to bug out if I need to. The county templates are open shelters and provide food. Past that they do not have a clue. How can they? They have not read what we read nor thought about much past the cost of housing and feeding the multitudes.
Every one of the preparedness folks I know all have the same goal, protect their family and shelter from the storms of life. Oh, some want to head for the National Forests and live off the land and others want to set up a small compound where they are king, but even those do not want or need the county, state, or federal government to help them.
How about you? Do you want help from the county or would you rather handle it yourself?

-Wolverine

A Michigan Asset and CYA

2009-09-30T20:38:00.001-07:00

Michigan as a great asset that her citizens can use to good advantage and a lot of the info can be of useful to preppers. I am talking about the PBS program /Michigan Out-of-Doors/.

Each week Jimmy Gretzinger and Jenny Olsen come into our homes with stories of hunting and fishing. They also have stories that deal with trapping, bird dogs, hunting stands, shooting, and just about every outdoor activity you can think of.

I like the information the show gives me so that I can improve my field time to be more productive. If the time ever comes where the meat on my table has to come from the woods I want to make sure that I can provide for the family. I enjoy watching the trapping episodes too. I have traps, stretchers and lure, but I have never had the time to run a line. My knowledge of trapping comes only from reading and watching, but being a visual learner, watching how it is done helps a lot.

I would recommend that you add watching /Michigan Out-of-Doors/ to your preps. It is sort of like chicken soup, it couldn’t hurt.

On a related topic, I hope that if you do take to the woods for hunting/fishing/trapping as part of your survival plans you have the correct licenses. I fished for thirty years on a Michigan lake and never saw a DNR officer. Never bought a license either. I now make sure that I buy a license every year for deer hunting, trapping, small game, and fishing. It has come in handy several times and saved loosing a nice rifle, fishing gear, and heavy fines. The DNR found that lake I fish and I see them there several times a year now. Got stopped once with a rifle in my truck. I told the guy I was headed to a friend’s farm to hunt woodchucks. When I showed the hunting license I was allowed on my merry way. (The gun was cased and empty per Michigan law.)

The reason I do this now is that a friend of mine from the reserves shot and killed a skunk on his place. The Ohio DNR found out and he ended up with a fine since he did not have a small game license. It didn’t matter that he was on his own place. I do not want those kinds of hassles with MDNR shooting woodchucks on my own farm. For the money I spend each year it is cheap insurance.

One other story to add. I fellow I know buys his wife a trapping license each year. She has a long drive to work early each morning. She stops and picks up any road kill raccoons, muskrats and the rare fox on her drive. When I last talked to the guy her fur check was near $700 and about paid for her yearly gasoline bill to go to work. Without the license she could not legally keep the critters she picks up. Just another reason to make sure that you CYA with the correct licenses.

Wolverine

Open Letter to Michigan Preppers Network

2009-09-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

Michigan. God how I love this state. As I sit and write this it is a beautiful Saturday morning. Michigan and Michigan State will both be playing football as well as lots of other state schools. The warm afternoons and bright blue sky will have the squirrels and rabbits moving about the woods preparing for winter. Fish are slowly working their way to deeper waters in our lakes and rivers but a mess of them can still be caught. This is the time of year that you see folks finishing collecting the goods from their gardens and working late canning and preserving for the coming winter. Farmers are looking at the crops trying to judge the best time to harvest for the best yield. If you watch people you will see a lot of them look up into the deep blue September sky. It is unspoken when they do, but they all know that those cloudless skies are a foretelling of the coming winter.

A lot of people in our great state are prepping and yet they are not “preppers” as we know them. It is part of growing up here; it is part of the rural work ethic and part of the fabric of our heritage. Take a drive out in the very rural areas of the state, out were the villages are small and the farms are large. Look at the farms as you go by. See the gas tanks sitting by the outbuildings? See the large gardens? See those three guys, looks like a dad and two sons in blaze orange vests and shotguns headed out for a hunt? How about those stacks of firewood, do you see them? Looking at those items from a prepper’s point of view the case could be made that every farmer in the state is a prepper. In some respects that is true, but only to the point that we have that prepping heritage. (Yes, I know this same heritage applies to most Midwestern states as well.)

The weekend on several blogs seems to be the time to reflect on what you did for prepping that week. It makes you stay focused on your long term goals and makes you think about the short term action needed to reach those goals. You are forced to ask yourself if you did anything to help yourself reach that state of independence we all strive for.

So with all these thoughts I ask myself one question. Why is it that with a network of preppers and multitude of items and skills that go into prepping the Michigan Preppers Network has only had two postings since the 30^th of April! Are we not willing to share ideas, not willing to talk about our goals, hopes dreams and plans of action to reach those goals?

I readily admit to being a lurker on this site. Before this site started I have been writing on several of the other sites and stayed with the ones I had been with. I figured that I might try my hand at a contribution or two down the road, but I wanted to see the tenor of the site tone before I did. Appears to me the site is tone deaf.

Information is the life’s blood of anything. For prepping we all need to have those short notes that remind us that there is a great way to freeze rabbits for later, or that Jay’s has shotgun shell on sale dirt cheap or that the DNR has a warning on deer harvested in Montmorency County. (Examples only folks) The exchange of ideas creates synergy, a multiplying of knowledge. Each thought helps build on the next until problems can be solved and things accomplished.

Ok, the dirty little secret is that most of us have a Michigan public school education and are not thrilled with the idea of writing. That is ok. We will all promise to not make fun of anyone that hits the wrong key or doesn’t use spell check. You do not have to be a great writer to share information and contribute. Beside, give the editor a chance to do some work cleaning stuff up.

When I started writing for the other blogs I used the pen name Wolverine not for the football team, although I am a fan, or some comic book character, but rather because I am from the grand and glorious sovereign state of the Wolverine, /Michigan//!/ I am proud of this state, warts and all and Lord knows she has some serious warts right now. Maybe those are even more reason to make sure we share information with each other. Come on people, let’s start using this site and help each other. If everyone that reads this site were to write just one short article we would be able to help each other many fold.

Later,

Wolverine

“Emergency Communication....What Works???”

2009-08-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Original posting at Canadian Preppers Network

Edited and re-posted at American Preppers Radio Net

How people communicate with one another when land line phones, cell phones and the internet are at best unreliable or nonexistent, is one thing that seems to get very little attention and is wide open to speculation.
A small group trying to survive hard times (which, depending from your viewpoint seems inevitable) will need to have a plan to communicate with each other. Aside from carrier pigeons, or smoke signals, there are modern options to consider and prep for. Three most readily available are GMRS or FRS radios, CB radios, and Ham radio.

GMRS/FRS: These radios are good for short distances with little terrain interference. Used as pagers/communicators inside a building or a camp, GMRS/FRS radios offer low-cost & convenience. Small and easy to carry, GMRS/FRS radio family biggest drawback is their range. While fine as a group communications tool, they lack the ability of medium or long rage communications.

CB radios: Around for several years as an offshoot of Ham Radio,CB does not require a license and, unlike amateur radio, it may be used for business as well as personal communications. Enjoying a boom in the mid-seventies and are readily available today, CB radios are still the main short range communications choice for Truckers.
You can find CB’s fairly cheaply at yard sales and flea markets. Mandated by regulation as a low power device, the range on these radios is much greater when combined with a signal amplifier, or “Linear” Amp. It is not advocated using a linear amp, however for the most part, enforcement of the restrictions are few and often only when an illegal stations signal interferes with other communication methods. Long distance communication is possible when atmospheric conditions permit.
CB radios come in many different forms, ranging from legal 40 channel/4 watt models, to a grey-area type of “export radio”, that skirts legality by being built for ham radio use, but are easily modified for the CB band. Operating within the 10-12 Meter HF Band, CB radios need a longer antenna than UHF/VHF GMRS/FRS radios. The unregulated “outlaw” nature of CB radio often fills the airways with raucous and foul language. At times, it’s best to keep small children out of the radio shack when the CB is on.

Ham or Amateur Radio: Offers the farthest operating range, and broadest array of communication modes, from voice communication, to text, photo, video, and digital telemetry. Requiring a license to operate, ham radio is well organized and self regulated.
Ham radio is fairly cheap to get started in as there are many used radio bargains around. New ham radios cost run from hundreds, to several thousands of dollars, but with frugal shopping, one can set up a rather nice base station and talk all around the world.
Some of the best ham antennas are homemade, simple to conceal, wire antennas strung between trees. This type set up is very portable if need be, and can be setup almost anyplace. Mobile ham rigs are available that can talk all over the world... A typical ham might check into a long distance radio net during a morning commute, rag chew with regular’s everyday from Florida to Canada and make contacts from east coast to west coast hams with ease.

Choosing a way to communicate outside normal everyday methods, can be a daunting task. So much of it depends on your needs, but how you apply your limited resources, and for what return is inconsequential as long as your ability to get your message heard at a critical time can be assured. For further help in weighing options and to learn more about what choices are available, these websites can be of some help.

Original work by W4DMH refined by KI4HEE

CB/Ham and Other

Ham Radio In US

Ham Radio In US

Ham Radio In US

Ham radio in Canada

Ham radio in Canada
(C) 2009 W4DMH.com

CQ CQ CQ MIPN CQ CQ W4DMH CALLING CQ QRZ

2009-06-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

OK now I have done it in true DX fashion for all you HAM'S out there.
I know others that read this will be real confused now but I would really like to hear from you HAM'S out there so I figured I would write in a language you would understand. We need to get HAM'S involved here so we can try to get a net going to help with off the grid communication among the prepper networks. I know there are many Ham's already involved in the prepper network and many more that read so please come forward and help us with getting this going. Now that all the people that read this (that are not HAM'S) are confused let me add one more slang that only the HAM'S will understand.

73 de W4DMH

PS Please email me so we can get to work on this. wvsantaclaus@aol.com
_________________
God Bless all from the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia
Santa

*****UPDATE******

From W4DMH Dave aka Santa

To everyone that has showed an interest in the HAM radio net

Just to let everyone know Bob KI4HEE from South Carolina and myself Dave W4DMH held a test run Thursday night on 40 meters at 9:00 PM Eastern Time or 0100 UTC time.

I am sorry that I did not get this info out but this all came about by email at the spur of the moment. It was a success even though I do not have the proper antenna in the air for 40 meter. I will cure that this weekend however. Bob will be posting the results on the South Carolina Page on Saturday June 20 2009. I invite you all to read that to see how the impromptu net turned out. For a spur of the moment thing, I think it was great. This little test run proved to me that if we try we can make this work.

I will let you know when this all gets worked out for sure but for now I believe we will try this on Thursday Nights from 9 pm to 10 pm Eastern time or 0100 to 0200 UTC on the frequency of 7.245 or there about for any that wish to come join in or just to listen.

Thank you all for your interest in the American Preppers Network Ham Radio Net. Hope to hear you soon.

73 All
W4DMH
Dave aka Santa

A NOTE FOR ALL BLOGGER'S
Fell free to copy and post this on your blogs

Posted by American Prepper at 8:36 PM 0 comments

Swine flu in here!

2009-04-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

There are two confirmed cases of the Swine Flu in Michigan. So what do you need to do to prepare? You need to know the symptoms and they are:

fever, headache, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle aches, chills and fatique.

The Swine Flu is spread like any other flu. Such as coughing and sneezing, you can also catch the flu by touching something that has the flu virus on it such as subway rails, ATM's, door knobs, or opening a door.

There are prescription medication that will help the flue from reproducing in your body.

How to prevent it: avoid contact with sick people, if you get the flue stay home and avoid contact with people, cover your nose or mouth if you cough and sneeze, and most importantly, wash your hands!

The CDC says you cannot get the swine flu from eating pork.

How to prepare your family - I am not sure how fast spreading the swine flu can be, but it does seem to spread very easily and pretty quickly. I would take a good inventory of your food stock in your house and make sure you have enough food and water for at least 30 days - this may sound extreme, but if a bad outbreak comes here to Michigan you don't want to take a chance of running out of food.

Stock up on those medical supplies:
kleenex - even if you do not use disposable products it never hurts to have something on hand if you do get sick so you can throw away what you wipe your nose with.

Over the counter meds- These are good to have on hand to help subside the symptoms of the flu. Although it won't cure the flu they sure can make you feel better while you have it.

Hand sanitizer - really important to use many times throughout the day to keep your home sanitized.

chicken noodle soup - even just the broth will make you feel better! Hopefully you have this at home already canned, but if you don't, stock up on soup at the grocery store.

The most important thing to remember is use common sense.

preparing for power outages - lighting

2009-04-08T22:57:00.001-07:00

Now would be the time to prepare for our wonderful power outages that is very common in the spring here in Michigan. Make sure you have backup light options that can be used off grid.

Candles - stockpile on those candles! The worst time to realize you are out of candles is during a power outage! So, don't think you have enough, get up and take an inventory and put them in a spot that is easy to get to. The last thing you want to do is fumble around in the dark trying to remember where you put your emergency supplies. Candles are a good supplemental light. They are widely available and you can get them at a decent price. Remember, when purchasing candles to see at night, the wider the diameter of the candle, the more light the candle will give off. Tealights or votives will give you a little bit of light. Three pillar candles that are 3" in diameter will give you enough light to brighten a room pretty well. The bigger diameter, the more light the candle will give off.

Lanterns - another easy to get item, the cost is a little more. Coleman lanterns are a terrific way to have alternative lighting during a power outage. They give off good light and are easy to use. Make sure if your lantern uses a flint that you have extra's on hand.

Light sticks - a little harder to obtain, but always good to have on hand, and great for power outages. Unlike candles or lanterns, they are easy to light, most all you have to do is bang them on your hand and they light up. Cost can range from $10 - $100.

Flashlight - A good ole' fashioned flashlight is a must for your emergency supplies. This tends to be one of those items you know you have, but aren't sure where it's at, and when was the last time the batteries were replaced? If it was last year make sure the current batteries didn't leak and check to make sure they are still in working order. While your at it, stock up on extra batteries.

Crank lanterns - This is a lantern that can take batteries, or it has an internal battery that works by using a handcrank on the bottom of it. With this option, you don't have to double check on your battery stock, you will never be in the dark with this this handy lantern! Prices can start at $30.00

Spring is a good time to review your emergency lighting situation. The two easiest things to have readily on hand are light sticks and a crank lantern. Both products don't require accessories such as batteries.

Interactive message board

2009-04-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

The American Prepper's Network now has an interactive message board where you can post questions or answer questions.

Lots of topics are covered, please visit the link below and check it out!

http://americanpreppersnetwork.iboards.us/

increase in Consumer's Energy and DTE electric

2009-03-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

This comes at a bad time for most of us. On March 23rd two major utilities announced rate increases for Consumer's Energy and DTE Energy. These two companies are the two leading utility companies in Michigan.

Consumer's Energy announced an 11% increase starting in May, which according to my local paper will raise your bill about $10 per month.

DTE announced they will raise their rates in July, resulting in a 11% increase, which will raise your bill about $7.00 per month.

The state agency who is in charge of regulating utilities is the Michigan Public Service Commission. These rates will automatically increase if this agency allows it.

I have e-mailed this agency to ask them to give Michigan residents a break and not increase the rates and I encourage you to do the same. It is important at times like this to voice your opinion and tell your story of why it would be a hardship if the rates increase.

Here is the web site for the Michigan Publick Service Comission.
http://www.michigan.gov/mpsc

follow up on organic gardening

2009-03-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

This was a comment that was felt by American Prepper that I felt should be posted here. It further explains, better than i ever could, the dangers of this bill.

keep reading further, wait till you get to section 206 where "food production facilities are regulated" Food production facilities are excluded from the same regulation as Food establishments, but fall under separate regulation under section 206. Now, As in the definitions: food production facility' means **any** farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation. That is so broad that it could include hobby farms and even gardens. Let's say you have a couple rows of grapes. Can that be a Vinyard? Lets say you have 5 goats and a horse on a 5 acre piece of land. can that be considered a farm? Now go to section 206 Here is just a small part of it, this is where it gets scary

SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.(a) AUTHORITIES.—In carrying out the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with respect to food production facilities, to—
(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;
2) review food safety records as required to bekept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;
(3) set good practice standards to protect thepublic and animal health and promote food safety;

***Notice this part**

(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.(b) INSPECTION OF RECORDS.—A food productionfacility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator—

Plus there's tons more very restrictive legislation. This is an evil bill Co-sponsored by the wife of someone who works for MonsantoNot to mention, even if it did specifically exclude gardens, hobby farms and organic farms, the cost would be so enormous that our already high food prices would go through the roof....If Monsanto favors this bill, it cant be good.

How to read legislation 101

2009-03-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

There has been talk on the internet that organic farming is under attack by the House of Representatives and the Senate. Because of the recent Salmonella outbreaks from Peanut Butter, the federal government feels the need to regulate the nations food supply more accurately. This is good,, right?

Maybe. First off, don't believe everything on the internet you read. It is best to go right to the source. To understand what laws are being put in place it is important to know how to read the bills before the House and Senate This post will briefly go over how to look up the bills and how to read them. For those of you who want to jump right to the legislation the link is below.

To look up bills you are interested in keeping up on go to the web site www.senate.gov . Click on Legislation and Records. The search engine to look up bills on the senate web site is called Thomas. Click on the link for Thomas and a page will come up where you can search either by bill number or by the word or phrase. You can also look up any bills in your area by searching under your representatives names.

Link to the house

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.875:

The link to the senate did not work for this bill.

How to read a bill is important to know. Once the bill you are looking for comes up, click on Text of Legislation. This is where you can read the bill. It's important when you are reading legislation that you read over and understand the Definitions in the bill. This is where they define certain words such as what they define as "Food Establishments" in bill H.R. 875. What we consider Food Establishments is not neccessarily what they do. For example in the bill H.R. 875 they have five different definitons of Food Establishments. Then they have a different definition for Food Production Facility. We are primarily interested in paragrah 13(b). This is where it lists exlusions in the bill. Here is an example:

(B) EXCLUSIONS- For the purposes of registration, the term `food establishment' does not include a food production facility as defined in paragraph (14), restaurant, other retail food establishment, nonprofit food establishment in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer, or fishing vessel (other than a fishing vessel engaged in processing, as that term is defined in section 123.3 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations).

So now we have to look at Paragrah 14 to see what they define as a Food Production Facility. Here that is:

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term `food production facility' means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

So, from how the bill reads they are excluding the places listed above. As of right now, our backyard gardens seem like they are safe. This is where it gets a little sticky. Just because this is how the bill reads now does not mean this is how it will be passed. It has to make it through the House and the Senate and each commonly change the wording as the bill progresses, which is why it is important to keep up on things that may affect you. The link to the bill is above, you are welcome to read it over and come to your own conclusions and i welcome your opinions.

This is my view point only, but this is how our gardens, farms and orchards can come underfire. Legislation such as this is how it starts. For this reason, we need to keep up and be aware of how these bills affect our daily lives.

There does indeed need to be oversight to the facilities that provide food to the majority of the US citizens, we just have to watch to make sure they don't violate our right to be self sufficient.

A terrific time to purchase a home in Michigan is now!

2009-03-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

yep, you read that right! There couldn't be a better time in Michigan to purchase a home. With foreclosures at an all time high and predicted to go higher, purchasing a foreclosed home is something to think about.

Aside from how many horror stories you have heard about purchasing a foreclosed home, if you do your research, contact a knowledgeable realtor that deals in foreclosures and get the home inspected you will have an idea of what you are getting into. The thing you don't want to do is jump on the first house you find. Due dillegence is vital.

How to purchase a foreclosed home confuses people. They contact phony ads in the newspaper, get the runaround and give up before you start. Folks, it can be easier than that. HUD has a web site that you can go to and browse foreclosed homes in your area. The link to Michigan foreclosed homes is at the bottom of this post.

HUD inspects foreclosed homes before they list them on their web site. When you do a search by zip code and price range HUD homes for sale will come up. To find out what their inspections revealed click on Property Inspection Report. This will tell you what they found. You will still want to get your own inspection done by someone you hire yourself. Also linked on the property pages is HUD registered brokers. What most people don't realize is on some HUD homes you can get a mortgage or a loan - imagine, purhasing a three bedroom for as little as $10,000 in the city. Or as little as $50,000 with acreage in the country.

Purchasing a foreclosed home can bring you one step closer to self sufficiency. One major accomplishment that most people have a problem attaining is not having a house payment. If you are renting, think about all the money you are paying every month to your landlord, wouldn't you rather pay a mortgage company and eventually own the house? These days in Michigan, this is easier than ever.

Here is the link to the Michigan HUD homes. Just follow the link, type in the zip code you want and the price range. Remember, do your research!

http://www.mcbreo.com/st_mimain.htm

Getting ready for summer gardens!

2009-03-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

Now is the time when we are thinking of starting our gardens. The growing season in Michigan, depending on where you are, starts at the end of May and runs mid way through September. With survival in mind plan your garden. This post is going to go over what type of seeds you will use and how to plan for your family.

Most people who garden purchase plants or seeds from the local garden center. If you plan to start most of your garden by seeds, plant them inside now to let them get a good start. By the time the end of May comes they will be ready to put in the ground. As far as seeds go there are two types of seeds you can purchase.

Hybrid seeds - Hybrid seeds are a cross polinated seed that is genetically produced and chemically treated to produce vigorous plants. Seed produced from these plants will rarely give more vegetables of quality the next year. Not really what a survivalist is looking for.

Heirloom Seeds - Heirloom seeds are what some people refer to as True Seeds, they are open pollinated, not chemcially treated and not genetically modified. The result of using heirloom seeds means you the same quality plant year after year. The seeds are not sterile seeds which means you can save the seed from your vegetables and use the seeds year after year. The plants will be better acclimated to your enviornment, since they were produced in your climate. This is what the surivialist is looking for!

Using Heirloom seeds means once you have a good seed collection going, you won't need to purchase seeds or plants the next year - a self sustaining garden! You will have to keep in mind to plant extra vegetables. Those extra vegetables are what you are going to save your seed from. For cucumbers, for example, you would carefully cut a cucumber from one end to the other. Scrape the seeds out of the cucumber, wash them off in cheese cloth, set them on a counter and let them dry for about two weeks. After two weeks your seeds should be good and dry. Put them in a small brown envelope, label and date the envelope, then store in a cool dry place. Some people store their seeds in the freezer, I personally just store them in a cupboard and have had no problem. I order my seeds from The Seed Saver's Exchange. The directions for saving seeds are on the back of every packet.

Planning what you are going to grow in your garden.
Planning a garden is usually alot of fun. You go through your seed catalog and dream about what you are going to plant. When it comes down to actually filling out your order keep in mind what your family eats. If none of them like Green Beans, don't plant any. Plant what you eat and eat what you plant is my philosophy. Every year I do plant something new just for fun, but we usually end of eating it. As you plan your garden think of food you can preserve. The first year I planted a garden I planted alot of Lettuce, much more than my family could eat. That was alot of wasted garden space for two reason's. The first one, I planted way to much, the 2nd reason is you can't preserve lettuce. Instead I could have planted carrots, beans or more tomatoes.

The following year I planted my garden with these things in mind. We tend to use alot of carrots. I use it as a vegetable for dinner and in various soups I make and can. We also eat alot of green beans, you can bet the 2nd year i planted beans on the circumference in my garden, and in every flower bed I had. I always grow Beefsteak tomatoes because they are excellent on hamburger's or just to eat. I plant a 2nd type of tomato called Amish Paste because it is an excellent tomato to make spagetti sauce and tomato sauce. So as I plan my garden i try to keep in mind what vegetables we use, but also vegetables we use in other things.

Every year I plant potatoes. You can make quite the meal out of potatoes and rice! There are companies that carry seed potatoes. I encourage you to check these companies out. I personally purchase organic potatoes from our local fruit market to plant. There are no shipping costs and organic potatoes are not chemically treated. Potatoes are amazingly easy to plant. You just cut the eye off the potato, with a chunk of potato along with it and put it in the ground.

Here is a few links to a few Heirloom companies. I don't endorse any of these companies but these will give you a good start to researching Heirloom seeds

http://www.seedsavers.org/

http://rareseeds.com/

www.Heirloom.com

If this doesn't change your mind,,,,,

2009-03-02T17:45:00.000-08:00

The D. word - Will the recession become something worse?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/ap_on_bi_ge/the_d_word

Above is an article that was on the news section of Yahoo. This is exactly what I have been telling my friends about. If you talk to a senior who lived through the depression they will tell you during the depression people did not know they were in a depression, they just knew times were hard. The depression wasn't called a depression until the late 1930's.

This article is something to pay attention to. The government will not tell you we are going through a depression because this would cause panic. Today the stock market is at it's lowest in over a decade, unemployment is skyrocketing and jobs are scare.

For an interesting perspective keep an eye out on the History Channel for a show called Crash. It compares the era before the depression and now. Very intereting.

More money saving tips

2009-02-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

Below is on the comment section of the site, I thought I would repost the idea's here because they are terrific, and important to remember.

A few other tips:
Whenever we put something in storage, we write the expiration date on the lid/package with a Sharpie - it makes it a lot easier to find the date in the future Then we organize by that date. That way we can rotate things that are approaching the expiration date.

Don't forget to buy some toiletries whenever they're on sale. You might still want to brush your teeth or wipe your butt once in a while!

Your right, hygiene is very important.

Thanks for contributing to the site,, your idea's are always welcome!

Financial tips on how to stock up

2009-02-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest parts of stocking up is being able to afford the extra supplies. To get your finances in order you have to budget. You have to know exactly what is coming in and going out. Some people say they budget, but yet, can't tell you how much they actually spend a month in groceries, they have a budget for groceries, but never actually keep reciepts and add up exactly what they spend. Do it for a month and you may be surprised, i was. For one month I used my debit card for all purchases including food, pop, candy, gas, eating out and any errands with the exception of monthly bills, which were checks. At the end of the month I added up our expenses in seperate columns. I spent $100 more on going out to eat then I thought and i spent $300 a month extra in groceries than i had budgeted for. And i spent $50 more a month in gas than I budgeted for. That was $450 more in one month than I thought. i always thought I was pretty frugal until that time. If you don't like to use your debit card and pay cash for everything, put all your reciepts in an envelope and save them for one month.

My next goal was to cut out things I considered a luxury. This was hard. I had to define what is a want and what is a need. I've had the same spending habits for years, but I made a decision, I was going to cut the expenses for my family. We cut out eating out completely, I cut out all comfort foods, i made a grocery list and did all my errands that day instead of running somewhere everyday. This really helped cut down our expenses. Once we knew our actual budget we started going back out to eat once per month. We put back about $75 a month into eating out and comfort foods - after all, you can't give up everything! All I'm saying is be selective.

My next goal was to tackle our food bill. I spent alot of money on the kids food. As i looked over my grocery reciepts I found alot of things I could make instead of purchase. All these years i just bought their food at the grocery store and because life was always busy I never gave it a second thought. I bought some Amish cookbooks and started cooking alot from scratch. Including most of the snacks we eat in the house. Here is some of the money saving tips I have done to cut down our budget.

-cookies/snacks for the kids

-their cereal in the morning

-I learned to water bath can for their fruit

-I learned to pressure can for stews and soups

-I bought a clothesline ( retractable to take up less room - this saved $30 a month on the electric bill)

-I freeze left over meals that can be reheated another day

-bought a food saver to package flour, salt, etc.

-made my own jam

-bought powdered pudding instead of pudding cups

-made bread from scratch instead of buying specialty loaves

The last item is a catagory in itself and deserves some attention. The biggest monthly spending expense I cut out was purchasing commerical laundry soap. This is my biggest beef against consumerism,, purhasing commercial products and paying more but getting less quantity. Instead of spending $25 a month in laundry soap, I now spend about $40 a year, simply by mixing it myself. Here is the recipe,

1/2 cup of Borax
1/2 cup of super washing soda
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha. - you can use Ivory if you can't find fels naptha

Grate 1/3 of the Fels Naptha into a container with your measured out borax and Super Washing Soda. Mix ingredients together and use.
The directions say to use 2 tbsp. of soap per load. I use about 4 tbsp. per load.

If you research making your own laundry soap there is a recipe for making your own liquid soap. I would suggest to you not to use it, which is why it is not listed here. From my reserach, you cannot melt down commercial soap (like fels naptha) without releasing harmful chemicals into the air. We want to cut down costs, but not to the risk of our health.

Using these cost cutting measures enabled me to purchase anything at the store while the items were on sale. I make use of the 10 for $10 sales, save-a-lot for some things and Sam's Club for basic staples. Now, I only purchase food items while they are on sale, using coupons help also.

If anyone would like a recipe for anything either leave a comment or e-mail me and i will be happy to share with you. If you have a cost saving measure you have found useful, e-mail me and i will post it on here to share.

Our next topic will be gardening and we will focus on Hybrid seeds versus heirloom seeds.

Rain barrels in Michigan

2009-02-26T10:55:00.001-08:00

I am thinking of getting rain barrels this summer to help ease the water bill with summer watering for the garden. If you have a water purifyer the water it can be for a lot of other uses. My problem was any water barrel i found was over $100 each. To expensive.

I was looking over Craigslist and came across someone who was selling them for $58 a piece. In one month one water barrel will pay for itself. I am reposting the ad (with permission from the owner) in case anyone in Michigan needs one. He will be in Ann Arbor March 21st in the early afternoon. Here is the ad:

These heavy duty rain barrels have a SOLID BRASS faucet at the bottom so you can connect your garden hose, an overflow on the side and a hole in the top where you can connect your downspout. The overflow on the side can be used if you want to connect 2 or more barrels together.
These are CLEAN, plastic 55 gallon FOOD GRADE barrels. ** They have never contained anything but food grade products, EVER.
Every rain barrel comes complete with all hardware installed, just add water! The standard color is blue. Also available painted in green or brown to match your house or trim for just $64.
Shipping them individually is very expensive, so here is what I am going to do. I will bring down a trailer load, from West Michigan. I'm not looking for cash upfront, just a verbal commitment and how many you want. I will drive down to Detroit if enough folks show an interest. At that point you you can buy one, two or as many as you requested, and pay for them when you pick them up. Lets help reduce, reuse & recycle. They're great gifts for friends and family also.Only ¼ inch of rain is needed to fill a 55 gallon barrel. 55 gallons can cover about 100 sq feet with 1 inch of water. This can go along way in offsetting garden and lawn watering needs in the spring and summer when water consumption increases anywhere between 50 and 200%. Capturing rain water in a barrel before it hits the ground decreases storm water runoff , which carries pollutants from paved surfaces into our groundwater, lakes and rivers. You can save money by saving rain water - if your water is supplied by your city and you also use city sewer - more often than not the sewer usage is measured by your incoming water. So you are still paying sewer fees on the water that you use to water your lawn, your garden, and wash your car! SAVE RAINWATER, SAVE MONEY, SAVE the ENVIRONMENT! The barrels could pay for themselves in the 1st year.

sale-1038578784@craigslist.org

You can click on the link here to e-mail him, or you can e-mail me and i will get your order to him. Be sure to specify how many you will want and what color. Keep in mind BLUE is $58. GREEN or BROWN is $64

Why Prepare?

2009-02-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

Years ago when a person would hear the word "prepare" or "survivalist" various images would come to a person's mind. Maybe someone in a military uniform or a person stockpiling food, water and guns, and you would chuckle to yourself thinking you would never be like that.

And you may not want to be. But I will tell you something those people won't be doing. They won't be going hungry, they won't be standing in soup lines, they won't be defenseless when crime skyrockets, and they won't be struggling as much as other people when the government crumbles. Why? Because they prepared for rough times. Because they *prepared*. Not neccessarily for a government takeover, but in case of any situation. An economic collapse and financial collapse is deemed *any situation*.

If there was ever a time to prepare in Michigan, this would be the time. Unemployment is in double digits here, more people are applying for state assistance, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve started with the word "Recession" and changed it to "Deep Recession" the next word would be "Depression". Now is the time to take control of your life and future. Now is the time to prepare.

Michigan is going through a change that we haven't seen in my lifetime. Gone are the days of thinking we deserve certain luxuries, and gone are the days when a good excuse will get you out of a situation that you don't want to be in, and gone are the days of self entitlement, easy credit and the easy road. I keep hearing local people say " I can't wait until this is over". My question to them is "Who says it's going to be over any time soon?". And who do they expect to come in and make this mess go away? They never seem to have an answer.

The good thing is it's never to late to start preparing and providing for your family. If you have come upon this site and don't know where to turn, keep up with this blog and i will teach you from the beginning to end. When you get to the end you will wonder why you didn't start a long time ago!

Next topic will be getting your finances in order.

Welcome to The Michigan Preppers Network

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Thank you for viewing the Michigan Prepper's Network. There is finally a place we can come and have a virtual network in one place. I am very excited about this.

One of the most exciting things is this network is for all of us to distribute information to each other, for experienced prepper's to lend a hand to new preppers, and for new prepper's to know it can be done.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any topic you would like to see on this blog. If there is a topic you want to know about, chances are other people will want to know about it so don't be shy to speak up and leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail.
My e-mail is Michiganpreppersnetwork.com@gmail.com

Coming Soon...

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Kathy will be operating the the Michigan Preppers Network. Welcome Kathy!! If there' s anyone who would like to to be a Team Member and Contribute, Please leave a comment.

Michigan Preppers Network Authors

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Join our team and become a co-author for the Michigan Preppers Network!

Our current List of Michigan Preppers Network Authors:

katie (moderator)
scoutmaster (moderator)

Disclaimer

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