Hello, folks, instead of the usual what did you do to prep this week I thought that I would mix it up a bit this week with a 5 Bbullet Saturday instead. I got the idea from Tim Ferris.
What I’m reading —
I’ve read several things this week including old issues of American Survival Guide and Backwoods Home Magazine as well as The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn. This has to be one of the most interesting books that I’ve read. Once you start reading it it’s almost impossible to stop… even to eat or sleep, it’s that good.
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How many time have you ever wondered what you need to communicate in a disaster situation or what skill you need to have?
Most people consider that they only need a handful of devices on hand, but what are the most important electronic appliances that you will actually use? Some give a list based on their priorities but these are not always the same for everyone, as we each have our own criteria of what’s important and what is not.
Another problem worth mentioning is, that it’s one thing to have them by your side and a completely different story in using them. We all know how to change a battery, that’s true, but what other options do we have in case of a disaster and when these are not longer available.
Sometimes we can just rely on old, proven techniques and sometimes we can improvise.
With this in mind, we have put together a list of 5+1 articles that will help you out so let’s get started !
1. Ten Principles of Preparedness: #10 Communication
“In the second season of one of my favorite television shows, “Jericho”, there was a perfect illustration of what can happen if reliable communication does not exist (I recommend you renting this two-season series or at least catching some of it on hulu.com).
While communication is the last aspect of the Principles of Preparedness, this doesn’t mean it’s insignificant in any way. In fact, there’s a lot of danger, panic, relying on misinformation and chaos that can arise, all from the lack of communication.”
2. How To Modify An Am Radio To Receive Shortwave Broadcasts
“You can convert AM radios to receive shortwave frequencies between 4 and 9 MHz and used it that way for a while. You can make a like conversion on an AM radio you own. This can be really helpful when SHTF and you need to communicate.
Shortwave frequencies bounce off of the ionosphere and return to earth halfway around the world. It is easy to receive broadcasts from another continent; depending on conditions, time of day, signal strength, and target area for the broadcast.”
“From monkeys in the Amazon Rainforest, to dolphins in the Caribbean, to ants under your picnic table, all species rely on communication with each other for survival. Humans are no different – we rely on communication to both warn and inform us, especially in times of crisis.”
4. Light, Fire and Smoke | Emergency Communication Signals
“In ancient days, people communicated by firelight. Signal fires were the “in thing.” Not only did they tell friendly forces of a presence, or of success in battle, a large collection of fires also intimidated intended victims.
Fire and smoke have been used to communicate trouble or distress among people ever since. The invention of the telescope in the 1700s significantly increased the range of long distance silent communication—observers could see signals at far greater distances.”
5. Off-Grid Charging System For AA-AAA Batteries, Plus USB
“Off-grid charging for the AA or AAA battery and other consumer batteries can be accomplished with a combination of the right portable solar panel and battery charger to get the job done. When might this be useful?
While off-grid, camping, hiking, a remote location, or simply for your own preparedness.
While on the go, out in the field or backpacking, the following off-grid charging equipment will charge the most popular size consumer batteries (AA, AAA).”
6. Campfires From Scratch: No Boy Scout Juice Required
“Liar, liar, pants on fire! I discover at a young age that pouring Boy Scout Juice on sticks for a “quick” campfire was not real smart. Boy Scout Juice is a vague term which includes all sorts of liquid accelerants. We had gasoline at the cabin that day.
I can’t remember who to blame for this grand idea, Henry or Craig, but I vividly remember the low whoosh sound that transformed a flickering kitchen match into a flaming mushroom cloud billowing up my legs. Screaming and wild dancing, reminiscent of cartoon characters, commenced in a desperate attempt to extinguish my now flaming trousers.”
This article has been written by Edward Szalinksi for Survivopedia.
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I was reading another survival blog when the age-old Semi versus Bolt gun argument came up.”Our character is out wandering around after the Apocalypse ( Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse ) and is attacked by dogs. He gallantly fought them off with his SKS. And made the comment that he would have been dead if he had only carried a bolt-action.”
I wrote the Dog attack 3 articles series back in 1999 first published on Captain Dave Survival site. The basic concept was that today people love their dogs so much they would not put them down and let them go....
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I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. – Pablo Picasso
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It’s been awhile but the “Prepper News Brief” is back and now better than ever. Here you will find a collection of the latest news links and opinion on topics that matter to preppers, survivalists, and concerned citizens. We start today with a real TEOTWAWKI event that’s currently unfolding in Puerto Rico…
1.A Real SHTF Even in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico may be without power for months after Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory with powerful winds that downed trees, ripped the roofs off homes and turned roads into rivers with flash flooding. Sad, and praying for...
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There’s a lot of survival info out there on bug out preparation. Even FEMA has directives on evacuations. But that didn’t stop the recent hurricane disasters from destroying the best laid bug out plans and killing people in the process.
The problem is, everything you thought you knew about SHTF bugging out is probably WRONG! As Mike Tyson once paraphrased from an original historic quote, ‘Everybody has a plan…until they get punched in the face’.
With more potential weather disasters still threatening to thrash lives and properties by smacking down mercilessly on the South East Coast during the height of ‘hurricane season’, here’s how NOT to die during the bug out itself…
Don’t Rely on Government Orders
These recent Harvey and Irma hurricane disasters caused the end of the world as they knew it for so many unfortunate people in the aftermath, and were among the strangest storms in meteorology annals, but these were not the worst or deadliest coastal storms in history.
In the 1900’s, the best weather forecasting usually relied upon how much your joints ached and what you noticed when you looked out your window about as far as your eyes could see. There was no real warning in Texas when a Cat 4 hurricane blasted in with a storm surge that made landfall at Galveston, and took enough people by surprise to kill upwards of 8 thousand before they could escape.
In later years, local governments began to develop evacuation plans and emergency backup procedures for public safety by relying on modern weather prediction science to eliminate the element of surprise.
However, as usual, the government eventually botched up these strategies as well. When Rita thundered down to Texas in 2005 at a brutal category five level, the governor’s office issued mandatory immediate evacuation orders when it was all but too late for the greater Houston metropolis.
Over 113 people died and numerous injured when all was said and done, but the problem was that almost 100 of them were killed in the evacuation itself! Imagine trying desperately to survive but winding up driving in your own funeral procession?
Rita was such a gruesome bug out debacle that this time, during Harvey’s recent retro two step storm stomp on Houston, the authorities -and I use that term with visceral scorn- decided to ultimately leave it up to the individual citizen’s discretion to bug out, or not.
Houston officials made excuses, but the real reason they copped out was so that they could not repeat Rita’s flawed decision making mistake and be blamed for screwing up, if anything went wrong, Which, of course, could detrimentally affect future political stature.
The fact I’m going to try to get everyone reading this to accept is that you simply cannot depend on government information or timely help, especially in a serious evacuation scenario. They can’t even get in urgent supplies and relief effort moving fast enough because of all the ‘red tape’. Private volunteer first responders are doing most of the heavy helping at this point in time.
The truth about the government being ‘here to help’ is one of the dirtiest secrets in the great American Book of Secrets. The gruesome reality is that you are worth more to the Government DEAD, than alive. Especially if the IRS doesn’t make a lot of tax dollars off of you. In fact, you’re a spreadsheet liability if you’re on welfare, food stamps, or some other socialist dole program.
The bottom line revenue math is all the Govt really cares about. So between estate taxes and getting you off social security and medicare and you no longer using what clean air and water we have left in a government polluted world after you die…well, you get the graveyard picture?
The government’s sole (certainly not to be confused with ‘soul’ because they don’t have one) purpose in any major emergency is only twofold.
First preserve the safety of their own power elite entity, and then only make decisions that prioritize the strength of their political power base. This is the only reason that FEMA exists. On the surface, it appears to be a governmental humanitarian organization to really help the people for the benefit of nanny state propaganda.
But its primary function is to protect the government power elite during emergencies by controlling the masses or incarcerating them in the camps if necessary, to prevent the formation of strong enclaves of anti-government resistance due to an epiphany in realization that the government is mostly part of the problem, and not the solution.
All totalitarian dictatorship countries around the world have similar methodology backed by military force. Government FEMA evacuations should be the LAST resort for any knowledgeable well-prepared prepper. Because virtually all government sponsored evacuations are too little too late and amount to nothing more than another catastrophe in the making.
So first and foremost, your bug out success depends only upon your own plans and self-reliance skills. Forget about shelters or counting on neighbors being a good bet in any grand scale emergency. There are many media suppressed horror stories about the way these stockyard emergency shelters wind up in almost all cases.
During Katrina, these shelters were virtual prison dormitories that got so bad that security guards fled these sites that then turned into hell camps of violence, crime, rape, and death.
There’s some anecdotal evidence, but hard documented facts are long covered up by now, that one of the reasons there was a gun confiscation orders during Katrina were so that looting wars wouldn’t cause so much carnage that unfavorable mainstream media coverage would be bad for government business.
Never mind that the regular citizens would also be disarmed and at the mercy of violent criminals who still got their hands-on guns because they stole them from homes and people before the police did.
In emergency survival preparations, no ‘one plan fits all’. There are some basics, but generally plans vary and adapt according the demographics, area climate, magnitude and types of disasters. So we have some apostasy and schisms among preppers. We can have either ‘bugging out’ or ‘bugging in’, also known as ‘surviving in place’, for the same emergency.
To me and many other experts, ‘surviving in place’ is a euphemism for soiling all your clean underwear while waiting in sheer terror to see if you die or not.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Bug Out
There’s an interesting clash of aphorisms many of us learned coming up in life that our parents and teachers would mentor. You remember, ‘the early bird always gets the worm’. And my favorite, the legendary race between the ‘Hare and the Tortoise’, both of which are nothing as they seem.
The ‘early bird’ metaphor was really designed to get everybody up early enough to put in a long, hard day’s work as in ‘make hey while the sun shines’ so the government can milk more taxes out of you.
But the rabbit and the turtle race was nothing less than the power elite brainwashing you into believing that ‘slowly but surely’ was the best way to go in life. All the while the wealthy power elite was moving as fast as they could in life to take advantage of the most beneficial, but sparse, opportunities as soon as possible…while the rest of the masses of dumb asses would ‘snooze, and ya lose’.
It’s the same thing with bugging out. First know that despite the other placating but specious notion that prepping for ‘surviving in place’ would be a good alternative to bugging out has a lot of alternative following, however, it is simply wrong and stupid in most cases, and almost suicidal in some of the serious disasters like we’ve seen.
I realize too well that not everyone can bug out easily, or even at all. The critically injured, very elderly, or mobility disabled and travel disadvantaged come to mind first.
But if they reach out and develop a serious plan, way BEFORE the bad events so that they are prepared, it is not impossible for disabled persons to safely bug out. In fact, the strategy I’m about to reveal will accommodate the solution to a minimum amount of stress and danger and a maximum level of success.
Get Out of Dodge Way Before the Gunfight Starts
Think ‘fast, but not furious’. In these recent hurricane predicaments, the government’s entire emergency early warning weather system is ‘bass ackward’. They start off with a good advanced catch of a potential storm disaster-sometimes several days in advance, which allows plenty of time for safe evacuations and preparation, but this never happens!
What does happen to most people instead is a common syndrome that in my experienced opinion is sponsored by the ignorant control freak government disaster authorities, and contributes to the problems that reduce your chances of a successful evacuation. It’s called imminent fear induced procrastination.
They keep everybody focused on the track of the storm, like a gambler at a poker game of death, intently studying the other players, waiting to bet their lives on getting the winning hand, hoping that their luck changes on the odds that a hurricane hand can change dramatically at the last minute…
This causes a feeding frenzy to clean out the local food stores so they have enough to stuff down their pie holes as they stay superglued to their TV or computer screen, waiting for the metal monster truck to splat them like a paintball, when they could already be safe and sound someplace else.
This creates a mentality that ‘well, maybe it won’t hit us directly and we don’t have to do anything but have a few beers to calm down, while we wait it out?’ Or, ‘maybe it just won’t be so bad’?
Which wastes valuable time better spent hightailing it out on the road not yet critically infested with boiling road raging bumper to bumper traffic crawling slower and slower until…it grinds to dreadful stop. And now you’re trapped. In a potentially worse situation than had you at least prepared well to survive in place and not evacuated at all.
And then panic will set in. But again, the virtual reality is that almost everyone–with the exception of highly trained professional responders or experienced military operators–always panics. It’s unnatural not to panic in such terrifying life threatening SHTF situations.
But the simple procedures we’ll show you here will guarantee a much less stressful and safer alternative.
So the number one message here is don’t prepare for the evacuation by primarily planning to ride out the storm in place. This is only for persons whose original plan to bug out failed because for some insane reason they didn’t read this information and somehow couldn’t get out in time and/or then had no other choice.
And also, don’t just wait for the Govt holy decree telling to ‘get on your mark, get set, GO!’ and then proceed like the obedient lil’ doggies’ who then all at once get whipped along by the police cowboys, to join the vast growing herd of panic driven cattle heading for their last roundup, at the last most dangerous minute to FEMA CAMP corrals.
Instead, prepare to BEAT the storm AND the evacuation! In other words…
“The only sure way to not be a disaster victim is to NOT be there when the disaster happens!”
The Best Way to Bug Out
1. Have a Bug Out Location (BOL) in Advance
No serious self-reliant prepper should be without one, especially if you live in a major city or other very disaster-prone area. The best option, of course, would be to be already living in a safe rural area with well-prepared survival set up at your home.
The second would be a 2nd home or cabin somewhere more secluded that’s stocked and ready. The next option would be to have a safe, relatively remote, piece of empty land to pull your BOT (Bug Out Trailer) to and set up for a long-term stay.
Next have a small BOT packed and ready to rock at a moment’s hook up at your residence, and a designated BOL like a public camp ground or something to rent or go to for an extended set up in advance.
After that, well, improvise as best as you can. If you don’t have a trailer, you can be surprised what you can fit in a truck, minivan, or even a compact car for extended camping at safer location. If you have a good friend or relative in a safe location, that could work out well.
The idea is to know where you’re going, and be ready as best you can to move out immediately after you make your own decision to ‘go’.
2. Don’t Overplan the Escape Trip Itself
I see so many Bug Out Preps that are a waste of time. Bugging out is simply going from one place to another to avoid serious catastrophe. You don’t need to hire a semi-tractor truck moving van to take everything but the kitchen sink.
The critical point is not so much ‘How’ you do it, But ‘When’. If you leave early enough and know your best route to destination, you don’t need five alternative routes which will be just as dangerously congested as a main one if you leave too late.
The idea is leave early enough so that your Bug Out resembles more of an anytime weekend getaway drive to the country! No stress, no shutdowns, plenty of gas along the way, and so on. If you leave early enough you can probably stop for dinner before you reach your BOL! You don’t need extensive prepping or a plan B, C, or D, if you have a good plan A.
3. When to Move Out!
And that’s the critical analysis. The short answer is that ideally, if there’s any chance at all that a hurricane will affect your residence, you want to be sitting and watching the weather radar on your TV at your Bug Out Location while the storm is still off far enough off the coastline.
In other words, If I lived in Florida near the ocean in the path of hurricane Maria AND it was aiming directly at my town, and just saw what it did to Puerto Rico early this morning, I’d ignore the weather reports hoping that Jose would somehow deflect Maria’s landfall.
By now I’d already be about six hours into my bug out, calmly cruising across the Northern Florida State line, blowing kisses and waving the bird at all those hungry gators and snakes, at the normal speed limit. I’d be heading further inland to a safe location where I’d be sitting in front of the TV safely and comfortably, watching all the destruction and praying for the poor souls who didn’t make it out in time.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry. You can always come back if it missed your area. But if you check in to Hurricane Hotel by trying to ‘survive in place’, you might just never check out?
It surprises me that so many don’t quite grasp the fact that major metropolitan areas will always be a death trap in apocalyptic scenarios.
They will rapidly breed everything from scarcity of every necessary life sustaining essential, to neverending disasters from criminal anarchy, to disease by unsanitary conditions, such as are now happening in Florida, to intense, systematic looting and murdering.
That’s why having a well thought out BOL is so important. Sure, you don’t need one way up in mountainous no man’s land just to escape and hole up from coastal storms, a couple hundred miles inland on elevated terrain would work for that. But it would be more prudent to put in a little more effort, and have a BOL that fits all or at least most catastrophic events. Maybe a group effort with family and friends to minimize cost?
The big cities and most of the smaller ones will be uninhabitable if the so-called long overdue massive power outage, total economic collapse, nuclear war, or out of control plague or pandemic hit us.
Bugging out, smartly, and sooner rather than later, is the ‘only way to go’!
This article has been written by Mahatma Muhjesbude for Survivopedia.
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Editors Note: Another guest submission from Mitchell, founder of Musket Hunting, and another timely article as hunting season is upon us. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award like Mitchell, as well as being entered into the Prepper Writing Contest AND have a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, then enter today!
After hunting your award-winning deer, you don’t have to throw away the hide. Tanning the hide, with this simple procedure, will help you to preserve it. You will have a nice hide that you can use as rug, a fur coat, or for home decorations. Here is a simple way to tan the hide of a deer or any other animal that you hunt.
Materials Needed:
Some of the most important materials and tools you will need include:
Cut away all pieces of flesh that may be attached to the skin. Trim the ragged edges from the flesh side. If you cannot start the process of tanning within a day, you need to cure the pelt promptly. This will keep the hide from degrading and stop the hair from slipping in future. Curing also helps to improve the absorption of the tanning agents.
To remove flesh from the skin, lay it on a cool concrete surface or flat rock. Use a flesher or knife to get all the flesh off the skin so it does not rot. Do this immediately after you have skinned your deer. Be careful while scraping flesh so you don’t pierce or damage the hide.
Cure the Pelt with Non-iodized Salt
Salt the deer hide immediately after you take off the flesh. It will help to remove moisture and prevent flies from infesting the pelt. Hides should be tanned immediately after they are dried so they are not damaged by insects.
To salt the hide, lay the fur side down on a wide surface. Sprinkle fresh non-iodized salt on the flesh side. A good rule of thumb is to use a pound of salt for a pound of hide. Sprinkle the salt evenly and rub it into all the cut edges, the legs, neck and wrinkles. You can repeat this procedure in two or three days after the first application gets wet.
Dry the Hide
Position your hide so fluid can quickly drain off it. The salt you put will help to remove a lot of moisture from the hide. If necessary, you can hang the hide after you salt it until it is completely dry.
Soak and Clean the Hide
Soak your hide in the 10-gallon plastic container or garbage bin. Do not use a metal container because the salt and tanning chemicals can react with it. Keep changing the water until the deer skin is soft. In most cases you may need to soak it for one to two hours before the hide becomes soft.
After the skin softens, place it on a plywood board and work on it with your hands. Stretch out the skin on a board and then pull hide back and forth against the edge of your board. Dry skin has a shiny layer of tissue which needs to be broken up before it is removed with a dull metal saw blade.
When the skin is getting tender, you can add baking soda to the water, soak the skin in water and then stir it with the paddle. This simple operation will ensure that the skin becomes very tender and that the tanning solution is fully absorbed.
Remove Hair
If you want to tan the hide into buck skin, you should take the fur off before tanning it. Mix four quarts of hydrated lime with five gallons of water. Ensure that the skin is totally immersed and no air is trapped in the skin.
Keep the hide soaked till the hair slides off the hide with ease, especially when you use your hand to push it off. Some hides may take up to six days to shed their hair with this method. Then you can place the skin on a board and push off the hair with the backside of a knife.
Tan the Hide
You can achieve the most effective results by using tanning agents available in form of home tanning kits. But if you want to produce your own tanning solution, you may use any of these options: brain tanning, alcohol and turpentine, or salt and alum.
The commercial solution requires the least amount of effort, so you should try it first. You can buy a pack of hide tanning formula for $20 or less. To clean the hide and take off excess salt and grease, you should soak the hide in soapy water. Put on a pair of gloves and work the tanning solution into the flesh side of the skin. Apply pressure and some creative strokes so the solution can saturate the hide.
To use the deer’s brain to tan the hide, you need to take it out of the skull and preserve it in a refrigerator till you are ready to use it. Later, you can put the deer’s brain in a saucepan and add one cup of water. Cook the brains and the water until the brain becomes liquid. Blend the mixture with a spoon to remove all lumps.
After washing the hide with water, and mopping up the excess water with towels, you stretch the hide out on a table, pour the brain mixture on the hide and work it in with your hands. After rubbing in the mixture, place it in a freezer bag and put it in the fridge to allow the brains mixture to penetrate the hide.
Soften the Hide
To stop the hide from becoming too stiff, you need to soften it. You should remove it from the refrigerator and put it on the drying rack. Use a cloth to wipe the excess brain mixture and then soften the hide by running a large stick back and forth on it till it is soft and pliable.
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The attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, and the Death March are the worst nightmare a human person could imagine in his existence and no would ever want that to recur in this modern era.
War will always be the worst nightmare a person could ever think of. It can severely effect on the health and well-being of the country and the families living in the nation.
No matter where you live, a war, is inevitable, at some point in the future. It means to say that it is important that you are aware not only what it would mean if it will occur in your place, but also you are aware...
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You work hard to stretch your grocery dollars, but there’s no way around it – meat is expensive. When you find a good deal, or if you’re preparing for an emergency, you stockpile. Also, if you’re a hunter like most of the people in my family are, you probably bring in game meat.
Regardless of how much meat you have in the freezer – a lot or a little – when emergency strikes, you don’t want it to go bad.
“How can I store meat in Florida with no refrigeration? Your attic is not cool, your storage building is not cool, and if you go underground it is still only about 68°F if you are lucky. Can you please give me some ideas?
Thank You.
Frank “
Yes, Frank, you got it right! This isn’t much of an issue if you lose power because off a blizzard in Connecticut in February. That’s an entirely different set of worries, but keeping meat cold isn’t one of them. But if you lose it because of a hurricane in Florida or Texas or the Bahamas in September, you have a problem. I know it because I live in Florida too.
Once meat defrosts, you’re on a pretty strict time-clock, especially if you don’t have a fridge. There are, of course, refrigeration units that you can build that don’t need power, but chances are good that if you’re reading this, you’re probably a little too far behind the eight ball for that kind of info to do you any good.
Here are some tips that may help you get a bit more mileage before your meat goes bad. None of them are long-term solutions to refrigerating meat without power, but they’ll help you get through a little longer.
Freeze Jugs and Baggies of Water
If you know the emergency is coming and you have meat stored in your refrigerator, prepare. Block ice melts much slower than bagged, cubed ice, plus you’re probably not going to be able to lay hands on a bag of ice for two hundred square miles.
I save milk jugs and juice jugs (a couple of different sizes) and fill them with water. I usually fill some quart-sized baggies, too, then I freeze them. Typically, it takes a day or a day and a half for the milk jugs to freeze all the way through, and less for the smaller containers and baggies.
I realize you may not have much room in your freezer to hold the jugs, but since you’re only a few days away from the storm, Throw the frozen ones to the back of the top shelf of the fridge where it’s coldest and throw a few more in the freezer.
Basically, what you’re doing here is creating the elements for an old-fashioned ice box that will keep the inside of your fridge and freezer cooler for longer. For Irma, I froze 5 gallons of water one half-gallon and several baggies. You can also use them in coolers, and when it melts, you have drinking water. Double duty!
For that matter, freeze your milk, juice, and other perishable liquids to extend their lives and to have additional “ice” to keep the inside of the freezer, fridge, or cooler cold.
Use the Igloo Effect
Group food together into piles in your fridge or freezer. Doing so will keep it all colder longer. This is something you can do before a major storm as part of your preps.
Make a few smaller clusters that you’ll use in one day, then you can just pull them from the freezer all at once and close the door for the rest of the day.
Dry Ice
Dry ice is -140 degrees F. That’s cold enough to freeze your skin instantly, but it’s a good thing when it comes to power outages because 50 pounds of dry ice will keep a fully stocked 18-cubic-inch freezer cold for two days and it’s not that hard to come by.
I know that there are places in Miami and Tampa in Florida that sells it, and I’m sure that there are other places, too. Plus you can order it and have it delivered. May be a worthy investment if you have a ton of meat.
Make a Clay Pot Cooler
This is actually a really good idea and can be made pretty much on the fly if you have two unglazed terra cotta pots – one bigger than the other.
It works no matter the size of the pots; as a matter of fact, it’s based on the same premise as modern refrigeration: evaporative cooling.
Here’s also a Survivopedia article that walks you through it, even though it’s a simple project, I would hypothesize that if you used extremely cold water, the temp inside the pots would drop significantly, too.
Don’t Freeze it to Begin With
Yes, I realize this is a case of pointing out the glaringly obvious, but it’s only glaringly obvious because you’re sitting there with a freezer full of thawing meat and no idea what to do with it.
The bottom line is that without refrigeration, your meat is going to be bad in a few days, and in the heat, there aren’t many viable options for keeping meat cold other than electric refrigeration. Store meat in other ways – can it or dry it – if you want to have it for emergencies.
If you’re worried about wasting it, the only real solution is to cook it up and what you don’t eat, give away.
For Irma, a bunch of us got together and had a huge barbecue. Not only did it keep us from wasting meat, it gave us all a much-needed morale boost and some leftovers to throw in the cooler. Also, keep your coolers in the shade to extend what little bit of cold you have left for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, there aren’t a ton of options for keeping meat cold for longer than a few days in hot regions without refrigeration. Heat trumps ice every time.
But there are ways to do it, same as our ancestors used to do it. Check the banner below for more!
However, I hope that some of these tips helped at least a little bit, and if you’re in this situation, please share it before you just let it go to waste. In those situations, there’s never a lack of people who could use it.
If you have any other suggestions for keeping meat cold in hot climates without refrigeration, please share them with us in the comments section below.
This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia.
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Editors Note:A guest contribution from Ukrainian to The Prepper Journal. A very interesting article on security from the real world, happening every day, as we here are bombarded with stories of “political correctness”, paid demonstrators and fake news. I have only made minimal corrections to the English grammar as the authors English is far superior to my Ukrainian!
Here is his bio unedited:Here is my story just to prove that it is my own experience: I was sent as a deputy commander of task group to the East of Ukraine two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. According to our mission, we camped for indefinite duration in the forest approximately 70km away from the battle line. We had to hide in the forest not to be spotted by drones and stay there as long as the equipment we were watching over was not needed closer to the battle line. We had to count only on ourselves, and we had to post security guards around and be able to perform all the time dismounted patrolling as it was impossible to build any fence around such a huge territory. We were supplied with provisions (food/water) and fuel, but all the rest was made with our axes and shovels.
Surviving in a community after TEOTWAWKI is what I choose. This is the only way not just to survive but to have the possibility to live on and save your family and future generations, to be able to farm and rebuild our world step by step.
“No, I can do it alone, I don’t need anyone to protect my loved ones” – this is a typical first mistake that I hear from young and ambitious people who have never lived in a forest alone. I have done just that. I cannot imagine living in the wilderness alone and being responsible for the lives of my wife and children when other people or gangs will be trying to take away our food, medicine or worst of all – my daughters! As you can read in other article presented here, the number of people looking for your provision will be quite large. So, if you want to be secure, you can build a fence or a wall or just hide in the house, but to be ultimately secure, this is useless. Hungry people are armed and no less clever than you. The only thing that can stop them is by being armed and ready to repell an attack.
How Does One Function Without Rest?
How long can you be awake even sitting in a corner of a room or cave watching the corridor or entrance? Without resting, taking time to prepare meal or to go to the toilet? What will you do if someone tries to ferret you off?
People we know these answer: according to studies we were provided within our military courses, the average trained soldier will no longer be operational on the fourth day without sleep. If there is any possibility to sleep, the picture is as follows:
30 minutes per 24 hours – operational availability lasts from 3.5 to 4.5 days
1.5 hours per 24 hours – operational availability lasts from 6 to 7 days
3 hours per 24 hours – 91% of soldiers are fully operational not less than 9 days
4 hours per 24 hours – 93% of soldiers are fully operational not less than 12 days
5 hours per 24 hours – 96% of soldiers are fully operational not less than 90 days
The term “operational” means that you can run (not far away), shoot and work. But it is hard to concentrate, make a decision or keep your emotional stability.
6 hours per 24 hours is the minimum time required for a decision-making person to be in an adequate psychological state
7-8 hours per 24 hours is enough for 98% of people to keep optimal muscle tone and and their mental stability.
Don’t try to compare the table mentioned above to your current life; it has nothing to do with a life in peace that you have today, without the added stresses of a loss of the ROL and while you access to everything you need.
So as you see, all people are helpless during the period of sleep. It is clear, isn’t it? Let’s go further – work in pairs. It is still not a solution, but of course if you are the only two who survived in the group, it is the only option.
The “Gamer” Mindset
I would like to talk about what we need to organize a functional and proper defense for a long period with the possibility to work and rest enough for all. So let’s start from the beginning (or the end of the world as we know it).
Those who play real-time strategy video games know that to control the territory, you need to put a unit there. The unit usually has a 360-degree observation zone and maintains control all the time. In the case of an attack or an enemy spotting, the others are automatically informed about it. This has nothing to do with reality where everything is up to human beings. First – humans have a slightly over 210-degree forward-facing horizontal arc and can concentrate only for a short period of time. Second – in the case of an attack, you (sitting in a camp) will never know about it if the “unit” does not send you a signal. Even in the 21st century, it is a challenge not to miss one of the outpost guards being eliminated unnoticed, so, in reality, without any radio or electronic communication, only the sound of a shot or screaming can be a signal in the real world. To prevent that, you have to provide an advantage to the man on the post. You have to provide an edge to better insure the possibility of seeing the enemy first. Third – only in games are units are always armed and know where to run. In real life you have to teach people how to cope with panic and where to run. Forth – one shot indicates just an alarm, possibly a direction, nothing more.
According to an old USSR manual on guard duty, the patrolling course of a guard post has to be organized with a telephone handset placed every 50 meter and connected with quick-reaction alert unit. Everyone in the same Verizon text-sharing group will be the first thing to go when the SHTF. But in a case of instant danger to life a soldier on sentry he has to shoot first and only then to report. For the quick-reaction alert unit the shot is a signal to move forward to the attacked post, if they have determined which post on the single shot. A second shot fixes this BUT also lets others, enemy know exactly where they need to go as well.
More specifically, let’s simulate a real-life situation when you have to protect only one access point to your position/bunker/shelter (theoretically it can be a long corridor or tunnel, where the other side is blocked, or a staircase serving your story). You need at least two reliefs by 3 people. So, in total, 6 men are needed to guard only one direction/sector 24/7.
I would like to explain this assertion. To have one man all the time on an observation post, you need at least 3 men for a day. And in three weeks, those three men will be ill, indifferent to any danger and trying to fell asleep anywhere according to studies, as they will have no possibility to sleep more than 4 hours per day. Their possibility to react quickly and to work will start to decrease dramatically by the end of the first week. Their heart rate will be approximately 20 bpm higher than normal. In conditions of constant threat, those three men will face mental disorder by the end of the second week.
When I was sleeping less than 5 hours per day, working during the daylight and administrating the camp at night, it was hard to stay calm, in one week my reaction was slower, I experienced headache and was angry with anything that wasn’t as I expected it to be.
Giving them one day of rest is the best way to avoid all these negative consequences. So with two reliefs, with three people in each, you have a very extended period (up to year or more) for securing one post. BUT don’t expect these 6 people to do anything else. Every day three of them will use any free time to sleep/rest/eat/toilet and return back to the post while the second group prepares for the next day, sleeping approximately 7-8 hours and not being able to do hard physical work more then 3-4 hours per day (cleaning, repairing, cooking, etc.).
So you can’t rely on them if you need to build or go out on patrol or to gather supplies. After such exhausting work, they will hardly be able to go to the post and stay prepared.
You may say that only two men per day are enough for one post and that they can sleep 6 hours, changing each other whenever they want and as they like. But I have some arguments why it is impossible.
First, you don’t have any communication devices (no electricity to recharge), so while “unit A” is sleeping and “unit B” is on the post, the third (“unit C”) is preparing and moves to the post. All the time in such a routine two of them are ready. Only one can rest. This is a way not to be killed while sleeping. The way and the process of changing is usually not more than 15 minutes if the post is 5 minutes away. Before exiting, “unit C” wakes up “unit A” and leaves. In 10 minutes “unit B” has to come and only then “unit A” can sleep one more hour. If nobody returns – it is a signal for fight for “unit A”. Then “unit B” has 30 min for eating/drinking/toilet before he is ready to go to sleep, sending “unit A” to change “unit C”. Thus you see that such a routine gives the possibility to control all the process by all three men without leaving any of them alone. And in my case (as I experienced such a routine in a forest in winter), we needed one man tending the fire in the tent and controlling the tent.
Second, waiting for an attack is really exhausting, as the watching man has to listen, watch, smell, keep silent and feel his weapon ready for use. The watchman has to be replaced on the post every two hours by the next if we want to have efficient protection, as it is based on the reaction of a human, not a robot. If the weather is bad (very cold and windy/rainy), the changing time cannot be more than one hour.
Third, two people only create a great risk if one falls asleep, gets assassinated unnoticed, or leaves the post in unusual circumstances.
In my experience, we used “one man on a post” only to protect some important objects inside the camp as an additional measure (to protect our ordnance dump etc.). But to afford protection from a real outside threat, minimum two people on a post (double sentry) are required. This dramatically increases the observation quality of the sector and decrease risks to lose one man in a covered attack.
The approach “two men per one post” is widely used and requires 6 men per one relief. 12 men are needed for one post protecting for a long period. And once again, I want to underscore that it is only for protection; no other serious work can be done by those people.
What Does All this Mean for Preppers?
That brings us to the understanding that in case we need to make a really efficient protection of a small settlement, we have to surround it by observation posts. Let’s imagine the ideal camp on a paper (in reality, it can be really hard to find such a place). There is a post on every corner of the square and, what is really important, eye contact of every post with their neighboring two posts.
The area conditions matters; in fact it is the most important in planning the protection line. Across a field you can distinguish the head of a person at a distance of 400 meter (apx. 1/4 of a mile), while the color and details of clothes can be seen from 250 to 300 meter. Eyes as spots are seen from 60-80 meter. During the night, a normal person talking is heard from a distance of 200 meter. So, depending on the skills and weapons you have and the threat you expect, the distance between posts without any communication devices can vary, but it is reasonable to make not more than 200 meter distance between two posts to be able to control each other and the line between.
For example the Nazi World War II Eastern Front military headquarter located in a pine forest about 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) north of Vinnytsia (Ukraine) was surrounded by 36 outposts placed every 200 meter. Of course it was just a first line of defense; there were also tons of barbed wire, concrete, bunkers and ditches but they were preparing to protect against guerrilla forces and commando, not from “just hungry armed people”.
Let’s move on. You can easily spot the movement of man’s arms and legs from a distance of 700 meter so the field in front of the post has to be not less than that to use all your capabilities sitting in a prepared firing position. At the same time, people on a post can’t use open fires because that is like an advertisement for the enemy. For example, at nighttime, smoking a cigarette can be spotted without any optics from the distance of 400-500 meter, one stroked match is visible from a distance of 1500 meters (apx. 1 mile), and a common fire on a ground can be spotted from 6 to 8 kilometers (apx. from 3.7 to 5 mile). That is one more reason to change people every two hours, as they can’t warm up/dry with fire or smoke on the post.
I lived in an organized armed group that was cut off from civilization, living in the forest and waiting for enemies to come from any side. I was responsible for the security line around the camp and, due to the obstacles, this was really close to “surviving conditions”. The only difference – we had walkie-talkies but were expecting radio jamming, so we exercised old military procedure when no electronic devises were used.
Our military tactic is very simple to remember – spot first, shoot first, hit first. To perform that all you need is an open area and 24 hours of eye control of it. Our day’s efficient shooting distance of average combatant was 500 meters with open barrel sight. You have to see the enemy from a longer distance and be in well prepared watching post not to allow them cross the line of 750 meters (the efficient shooting range with simple old optics).
According to method we used, let’s count what is needed for the permanent protection of the camp with four posts.
If we have 4 posts with at least 2 people on it to make a simple square, that makes 8 men standing. You have to change the watchman every 2 hours (if the weather isn’t very cold, otherwise only one hour without rotation). For 3.5 hours for sleeping in the night you should have 3 pairs of guards. One day of “square” guard without patrolling is 4*(2*3)=24 people. Complete the cycle of endless protecting routine of the camp would theoretically require 24*3=72 soldiers. Why theoretically? Because in practice some of them will be injured or become ill in the first two weeks and should be replaced.
Then you need a commander, who has to control the process and to check all the posts. This makes plus 3 better trained trusted men (one for 24 hours, usually it is sergeants/officers).
So in total: 4*(2*3)*3+3=75 people is needed for protection and the same time each relief is able to work every third day. So you have an ideal model when there are enough people to guard and work every day.
Of course you can do the same task with two reliefs, in case of a lack of personnel, and you can put only one man per post. But you should be ready that they will not able to work efficiently, fell like a boiled rag by the end of the first month, and your defense will be extremely vulnerable.
If you expect the guard to be in good condition, you have to give them two days with 7-8 hours for sleep. And the same time they will be able to work hard for one day and complete light work for another one.
“Light work” means day-to-day work. When I was administrating our military tent-camp in forest, we were supplied by food/water and lumber. Even with that, we had a lot of work to do:
The place for toilet has to be dug and replaced time to time (in my case once per two week)
Cast-iron stoves need a lot of wood to be filled, so we spent not less than 3 hours per day for chopping (five stoves inside tents and one for water heating in a washing tent).
Someone has to cook
Someone has to keep the fire all the day in cold weather and time to time in warm weather if the humidity is too high inside the tents (shelter)
Everything in storages has be taken away for airing and drying very often and brought back, as living in nature is not suitable for our stuff
You have to organize place for washing and warm up water there every morning and evening; you need at least one man to clean that place and one to bring water to the tanks and make fire/warm it
All weapons have to be oiled and cleaned after any use or once per week just because you don’t want they become rusty
Days after rain are totally full of work for tent settlements – you have to dry everything and to dig drainage flows again
You have to repair and build as much protection systems as you can. This is not impossible to finish, as there is no limit to make it perfect or even enough using wood and soil (unless you have enough concrete for your needs)
We had separate tent for the sick with medics looking after them; that’s also serious work that HAS to be done.
“Hard work” – in our case it included going to the fighting line, patrolling the area and nearby villages, etc. After TEOTWAWKI , that would include, as I see it, expeditions for loot, provision and anything else you need but can’t produce.
I have tried to explain how to organize a 24 hour protection system and how many people you need. You might not agree with me, but I have just described what I have experienced, which worked very efficiently for more than half a year. Of course you may introduce patrolling and add more posts, but now you can imagine the approximate number of people you need.
I think there is no need to say that in the case of attack, all people in a settlement “resting and working” take arms and run to prepared defensive positions and reinforce the posts.
Editor: And, as always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award as well as be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of threeAmazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.
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Let’s begin today’s article with the sad story of Christopher McCandless, the quintessential hipster whose decomposed body was found by moose hunters 25 years ago on September 6, 1992 in the close vicinity of Denali National Park.
This guy who became famous after a movie was made based on his diary has died of starvation inside a rusty bus that was used as an improvised shelter (prior to him) by dog mushers, trappers, and various other outdoors enthusiasts.
A note was found which reads:
“I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE. I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU,” CHRIS McCANDLESS
Obviously, eating a diet based on berries and unicorn tears in an outdoors survival scenario is not the best idea in the world, as Christopher McCandless discovered the hard way. This guy died a horrible death by starvation, because of his naive and idealistic view of the world.
The thing is, Christopher McCandless died of starvation in an area that was bursting with wildlife, but due to a lack of skills and imagination, he chose to try to live (if you can call it living) on an ascetic diet.
An autopsy determined that at the time of his death, he weighed a mere 67 pounds and he had almost zero body fat. It has been speculated that he might have poisoned himself by eating wild potato seeds.
However, the lesson to be taken home is that one can’t rely on weeds and seeds for survival in an outdoors SHTF situation.
I mean, okay, eating the inner tree bark, pine cone nuts, acorns, pine needles, leaves, weeds, and other plant-based foods may keep you alive for a while, but in the long run, you’ll get exhausted and maybe even poisoned if you don’t know what you’re eating. Our bodies are not designed to function properly with that stuff (we can’t digest cellulose, for example).
Not to mention that staying healthy and powerful on a raw-vegan elf/squirrel-based diet is nearly impossible because your body needs more protein than you can gather from pine nuts, if for no other reason than you burn more energy extracting them than you gain from eating them.
Even if, theoretically speaking, most people can live for weeks in a row without food, you’ll not be able to do anything of value while starving. And most people are totally clueless when it comes to what to eat when there’s no McDonalds nor a 7-Eleven around. In a survival situation, you’ll require all of your strength and stamina to stay alive. As a friend of mine nicely put it, can you fight a bear while on a grass diet? Forget about it, right?
When it comes to survival eating, one must pay attention to details, especially if you’re an outdoor enthusiast. Don’t get me wrong; I am not downplaying the importance of plants and veggies, but eating grass and berries is not enough.
A true survivalist should master the skill of correctly identifying edible plants in the wilderness. In a survival situation, you don’t want to take any chances such as eating a mushroom or a plant that may poison you.
What to Eat Then?
With only a few exceptions, one may eat anything that swims, flies, walks or crawls the Earth. People confronted with the dire straits of starvation have resorted even to cannibalism, not to mention eating leaves and bugs for nourishment. A survivor must go past his or her personal bias and eat what is available to stay alive.
Plants
When it comes to eating wild plants and fruit, the first lesson to absorb is how to stay away from poisonous stuff. The first rule of wilderness survival eating is to stay away from what you don’t know. If there’s any doubt, don’t eat it. If you’re not the “botanical dude/dudette” type (you don’t have a mental list of wild edibles), the general rule of thumb is to stay away from plants with:
fine hair
spines
milky sap
thorns
seeds inside pods
beans and bulbs with a bitter/soapy taste (read alkaloids)
grain heads with purple, pink or black spurs
plants with 3-leaved pattern.
Obviously, you can learn a lot about edible plants, but you’ll have to go study the phenomenon thoroughly. And speaking of edible plants, there is one plant that may keep you alive indefinitely, and I am talking about cattails.
Check out this article for further reference. Cattails are an awesome survival food and they’re easy to find, as they grow spontaneously near ponds, lakes and rivers.
Bugs
Though it’s off-putting to think about, when discussing a balanced survival diet, insects are an excellent source of protein and they also contain some of the most important nutrients required by your body, (besides protein): fat and minerals.
Edible bugs are an awesome survival food, provided you can get past your preconceptions. Regarding commonly found edible insects in North America, here are a few:
grasshoppers
crickets
locusts
caterpillars (including when in larvae stage/moth)
ants
June bugs
termites
mealworms
centipedes
Stay away from brightly colored insects, as they may be poisonous. Generally speaking, insects will provide you with 65% to 80% protein. Compare that to beef’s puny 20% protein, and you’ll see why insects are recommended by many survivalists. Insects can be consumed raw or in a stew. Or, you can mix them with edible plants.
Other Creatures
However, when it comes to putting meat on the table, the name of the game is fishing, trapping, and of course hunting. Having the skills to set traps, snares, and nets will keep you alive and kicking for a long time in any survival scenario imaginable.
It’s important to realize one simple thing: if you don’t have the tools for hunting large game, you should focus on smaller animals. They’re easier to catch and also they’re abundant. And speaking of small game, fish is an excellent source of fat and protein, and basically all North American fish are edible.
The same goes for amphibians (read frogs, check out this piece) and most of the reptiles. You can DIY nets, fishhooks, and traps for catching fish in a survival scenario.
Field-expedient methods include using wire, needles, and pins (any piece of metal actually) for making fishhooks. Alternatively, you may use coconut shell, bone, plant-thorns or seashells. Another method for catching fish is to use fish traps and gill nets. Finally, there’s spearfishing, but you would require Rambo-like skills for that.
Next, all species of birds are edible (including bird eggs), but if you plan to capture birds, you’ll have to master the art of trapping, snaring, or laying bird traps. In a survival scenario, trapping is the most feasible method to maintain a steady supply of fish and other fresh meat on the table, provided you know the rules of engagement, meaning you are educated on the lifestyles and habits of the animals you’re hunting.
Snares, pitfalls, and deadfalls are among the best known and easiest to improvise traps. Check out this article for further reference.
Another method for hunting small game would be to use a slingshot or a bow and arrow, but you’d require advanced skills in order to use them in a comprehensive way, i.e. you’ll have to practice long and hard with a bow and arrow or slingshot before being able to put meat on the table.
Obviously, if you’d ask me, I’d never go out in the middle of nowhere without my .22 rifle and copious amounts of ammo.
Now, it’s your turn to share your survival food tips with others in the dedicated comment-section below.
This article has been written by Chris Black for Survivopedia.
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“In the second season of one of my favorite television shows, “Jericho”, there was a perfect illustration of what can happen if reliable communication does not exist (I recommend you renting this two-season series or at least catching some of it on hulu.com).
“You can convert AM radios to receive shortwave frequencies between 4 and 9 MHz and used it that way for a while. You can make a like conversion on an AM radio you own. This can be really helpful when SHTF and you need to communicate.
“From monkeys in the Amazon Rainforest, to dolphins in the Caribbean, to ants under your picnic table, all species rely on communication with each other for survival. Humans are no different – we rely on communication to both warn and inform us, especially in 
“In ancient days, people communicated by firelight. Signal fires were the “in thing.” Not only did they tell friendly forces of a presence, or of success in battle, a large collection of fires also intimidated intended victims.
“Off-grid charging for the AA or AAA battery and other consumer batteries can be accomplished with a combination of the right portable solar panel and battery charger to get the job done. When might this be useful?
“Liar, liar, pants on fire! I discover at a young age that pouring Boy Scout Juice on sticks for a “quick” campfire was not real smart. Boy Scout Juice is a vague term which includes all sorts of liquid accelerants. We had gasoline at the cabin that day.
The attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, and the Death March are the worst nightmare a human person could imagine in his existence and no would ever want that to recur in this modern era.
Here is his bio unedited:
