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Imagine this is your home…

A darkened house in the suburbs of Columbus, around eight on a cold winter’s evening.

A little girl is snuggled under a blanket, next to her mother on a couch.  A couple of candles throw shadows against the family room walls.

“Mommy, where’s Daddy?”, asks Kayla.

“Honey, like I told you before, Daddy went on his business trip to Chicago before the power went out a week ago.  It’s not easy for him, but I’m sure he’s on his way home right now.”  replies her mother, Melissa.

“Well I hope he hurries up – he told me he was taking me to McDonald’s when he gets back!”

Her mother laughs, but inside she worries about her husband John and their own situation.  When the lights first went out, it seemed like an everyday outage.  Maybe the ice storm had knocked down the power lines, or maybe the cold weather had overloaded the system.  But now with the stores closed “for the duration”, and no news of help on the way, Melissa didn’t know how long the food in the pantry would hold out.

John had a hobby as a prepper, she knew, but she didn’t know exactly where anything was, or what the plans were, so she was hesitant to start rummaging around.  But now she was getting desperate and scared for her and her little girl. What should she do?

Could this scenario happen to your loved ones?

While some ideal families may work together to prepare for emergencies, many of you may be in my situation.  My kids and wife have their own activities and interests, so they look at me a bit oddly and are mostly uninterested when I bring up my prepping actions and purchases.  I have ended up being the sole person in my family responsible for preparing.  Despite their reactions, I want to make my family’s life easier, safer, and less stressful should I be sick, dead or otherwise not around when the SHTF.

Here’s what I’ve done:

  • Labeled all supplies and equipment, and kept them organized.
  • Prepared an Emergency Planning binder, with a separate section for each of my family’s needs.
  • Reviewed the contents with my wife.

My binder

Section A: Short-Term Emergency

Eight days or shorter for our family.  Foods need only be heated, lots of convenience foods and bottled water.  Life would be kind of like camping.  Each need is covered, same as in the Long-Term section, but some details differ.

Section B: Long-Term Emergency

Life would be very different and more difficult, so I made a separate tab for each need:

  • Food –This section contains a menu based on the food I stored, a short cookbook with recipes adjusted for our situation and family size, and a food inventory spreadsheet with amount stored, portion size, calories, etc.

I also detail how to prepare for life after our family’s food stores run out.  An example from our binder:

  1. If power goes out and LED flashlights don’t work with fresh batteries, immediately go to the corner store and buy as much food as you can carry with the emergency cash.
  2. Use our saved seeds to plant a large garden (as large as possible), with precedence given to foods that can be stored/preserved. Spring and fall growing seasons can provide a lot of food.
  3. Our stored wheat, barley and beans can be planted, eaten or sprouted.
  4. When protein supplies run low, hunting and snare use will be necessary.  Use the shotgun, or the stored snares.  Meat can be cooked fresh, salted and cured, jerked, or ground and dehydrated. See the meat preservation cookbook.
  5. Wild plants can be collected – dandelion leaves, young plantain leaves, spring cattail heads, as well as apples, persimmons, and pawpaws in the fall. See the wild edible plants handbook.
  6. Foraging in stores or houses is a last resort, because of the danger involved.

Even though I think I know how to tell if an EMP attack has occurred, my family doesn’t, so I gave explicit instructions as to what to do, since we only have 4 months of food stocked up so far. I also have guidebooks for them to use to plant, can, and other vital functions that I know how to do, but they don’t.

  • Drinking Water – how to filter and treat rainwater with pool shock, how to assemble and operate a water filter.
  • Hygiene & Sanitation –how and where to construct an outhouse, handle trash, wash clothes and dishes, and keep healthy.
  • Defense – a list of weapons, ammunition, and how to use them. Since my wife doesn’t shoot, this will be a tough one to communicate in writing, a very good reason to store more food, so my family doesn’t have to search for food outside during potentially dangerous times.
  • Power – including how to operate a solar-powered battery recharger for lanterns and other battery-operated devices.
  • Shelter – discuss what’s needed for basic house maintenance (shingles, plastic sheeting, plywood), and basic fortification with stored materials.
  • Heating – use of kerosene heaters, wood-burning stove, and where to safely collect firewood.
  • Medical care – inventory of first aid kit, medical supplies, and use of emergency medical and dental handbooks.
  • Communication – walkie-talkies are all we have, so that’s an easy one.
  • Transportation – Any vehicles, their fuel and supplies.

In summary, the best way to help your family prepare for when SHTF is by having them involved in the preparations.  But in case they aren’t yet receptive to this message, in case you aren’t around, or just to make the job easier in a very stressful time, it’s best to write down your family’s emergency plans now stored only in your head.

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Imagine this is your home… A darkened house in the suburbs of Columbus, around eight on a cold winter’s evening. A little girl is snuggled under a blanket, next to her mother

I came across an article on the INCH Survival site that was originally posted in May. In this article, the author discusses the pro’s and con’s of joining a survival group as opposed to simply going it alone. The article raises some good points, but the concept isn’t only for survival groups. Anytime you are dealing with other people you will have to accommodate their personalities. You will get their strengths and be subjected to their weaknesses. One thing I thought about after reading this post was for a lot of us, our families will be our survival groups and I don’t believe they will act any differently than friends or strangers in the same scenario.

Consider this, a disaster has occurred in the United States and virtually everyone is affected. There is no hope anywhere and no assistance. For all practical purposes you will be on your own for shelter, security and survival. Family members will likely bond in times like this so your survival group might be Aunt Doris who never really saw you much more than at family events. Another member might be your second cousins that you only know through Christmas dinners and word of mouth. Does the fact that these people are blood relations change how they will act in a crisis? Are family members any more trustworthy than your neighbor, or a stranger?

I personally don’t believe the Lone Wolf will ever last long in a major crisis. Could they hang tough and make it through the first/worst part of the disaster because they have some training, resources and the will to survive? Probably. I imagine a lot of people would, but eventually anyone who cares for their survival will want to be part of a larger group and all the problems of people together in bad situations will be shared regardless of your relations.

I think a valid thing to consider is how you as someone who is interested in Prepping will adapt when your sphere of influence or responsibility grows due to a tragedy. Have you given this any thought? Knowing what you know gives you one set of advantages, but the same people you swore you wouldn’t become (the sheeple) could easily be part of your group and under your care without you even trying. This isn’t so much a debate about who will share supplies as it is relationships with other people in crisis. When those people are your family, what considerations will you be forced to consider as the leader in your group?

Read the article: The Lone Wolf VS The Survival Group and let me know your thoughts.

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I came across an article on the INCH Survival site that was originally posted in May. In this article, the author discusses the pro’s and con’s of joining a survival

 

Unwanted as they may be, emergencies do occur and they are never planned. Amid the chaos that reigns during a natural, technological and even human-caused disaster, there’s a high chance that families become separated. While adults may deal with such a situation easily, children will surely have problems adjusting to the unique challenges that finding your loved ones may present. Here are some helpful tips for preparing your children for family separation in the case of emergencies and disasters.

There is a multitude of situations when children may become separated from you, their siblings, their teachers or their caregivers. But first, what should you teach your children about disasters?

Preparing Your Children for Disaster Situations

There’s a delicate balance that you must strike between telling your children enough to keep them safe but not so much as to alarm them. Ideally, you should have several such conversations with your kids and begin by describing disasters as occurrences that may cause damage or hurt people. Start by telling them that even smaller events, such as storms or power outages, may have grave effects if families are not prepared.

Also, calmly speak to them about the things that happen during a disaster, for instance, phone lines not working and electricity outages. That’s why they should always have certain items on hand and know where to seek help: firemen, policemen, paramedics and other emergency officials are there to help and your child should feel safe enough to approach them.

Create a Family Disaster Preparedness Plan

It’s paramount that all members of your family know what to do in the case of an emergency. The Red Cross and FEMA recommendations suggest that all household members take part in the discussions. Make sure that all members understand when emergencies occur, the different types of emergencies as well as how each member responds in such a situation.

Choose rendezvous points that anyone can reach: right outside your home in the case of a fire or a specific place in the neighborhood if you must evacuate as well as an out-of-area location if you’re not together. Remember that it may be easier to call long-distance in the case that local phone lines are overloaded, so make sure that every member of the family calls in with your out-of-town contact to let everyone know they’re safe.

Make sure to discuss everything in detail, including evacuation routes, final destination (be that a hotel/motel, a friend’s house or an out-of-town relative) and contingency plans. Having an emergency preparedness kit is the whole family’s responsibility, so make sure to plan what your kit should contain and periodically check that everything contained therein has not exceeded its expiration date.

Having Self-reliant Children Even When Separated

A familiar situation is a situation that your child will better deal with. So practice, plan ahead and keep your children informed. There are some things that your children should carry with them at all time or should know the whereabouts of:

1. An emergency ID card

Ask yourself the following question: in the event of an emergency, if you are separated from you child, do they have an item that would tell a rescuer who your child is, whether or not they have any food or drug allergies and other relevant information? If no, consider preparing an emergency ID card or bracelet. Of course, you’ll think that most children undergoing treatment for specific medical conditions already wear medical alert bracelets. But there’s other valuable information such as their names, address, home phone number, parents’ names, emergency contact information, as well as distinctive features.

2.Emergency contact information and useful phone numbers

It’s safe to assume that children will be frightened during emergency situations. That means that the likelihood that they won’t remember their parent’s phone number is also high. Make sure that your child always carries a list of emergency contact information such as parents’ names, telephone numbers, out-of-town emergency contact information, social security number, home address as well as the names and contact information of nearby relatives to call if no one is reachable.

3. Cellphone with power cord and extra battery

Nowadays, even five-year-olds own smartphones, so you’d only be packing an extra battery and the power chord. However, it’s strongly advisable to include a second, old-generation phone in your kid’s emergency school bag: their batteries last a lifetime and you can save important phone numbers in the phone’s memory in advance.

4. The whereabouts of their emergency stash

Many preparedness-savvy parents have packed an emergency kit or backpack for their children and it is stored in their locker. Make sure that your child knows where that particular emergency stash is located and how to get to it.

5. The whereabouts of your caches

I know many families who have also stashed, hidden or buried small caches of essential survival items along specific routes, including their children’s travel route to and from school. Explain to your child where those caches are hidden and make sure that they understand that the items are to be used in emergency situations only. Granted, it may seem extreme, but you never know whether such a preparedness item cache won’t offer your child the supplies they need.

6. Have a family password

Picture the following situation: a stranger walks up to your child and tells them that mommy or daddy asked them to pick them up from school and take them home. Your children should be well prepared for such situations: have a family password that only family members know. In the case of an emergency, make sure that the person taking care of your children knows that password.

7. Teach them the way home

                                        Teach your child how to get home.

Take the time to teach your child their way home: you can either print a simplified map of the area and walk together to and from school for several consecutive days to make sure they’ve memorized the route. It’s a good idea to also provide alternative routes. Either way, this strategy serves a double purpose: you’ll know they have multiple options for coming home and where to start searching for them.

8. Know how and when to dial 9-1-1

Your children should also know when to dial 9-1-1. It may save their lives, the lives of others or even your life in the case of an emergency. But this requires you to explain what 9-1-1 is and when they should call there. Also, make it clear to them that they should first be safe before dialing 9-1-1: in the case of a fire, for instance, they should first leave the house and then call 9-1-1. Teach them what to say, what information to include and practice different scenarios so as to reduce anxiety in the case of a real emergency.

Remember that children depend on a daily routine, so when that routine is interrupted, they may become anxious. Take your child’s fears into consideration when planning for emergencies and play games so as to overcome them.

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  Unwanted as they may be, emergencies do occur and they are never planned. Amid the chaos that reigns during a natural, technological and even human-caused disaster, there’s a high chance

Have you ever known someone who has a glum outlook on life? Maybe that isn’t the right term, how about fatalistic? I have some people in my life that I call ‘Eeyores’ from Winnie the Pooh. I don’t really call them that but you know what I mean by the term. Eeyore on the surface seems depressed and resigned to whatever fate brings his way. Rather than object to any of his circumstances, Eeyore says “its ok. I’ll learn to live without it” in a very somber tone that sounds as if he is half asleep.

What in the world am I talking about a cartoon character for? There are so many people who have the same attitude when it comes to great tragedies or crisis. If you try to talk to them about Prepping so that they are better able to weather any type of calamity, they will sometimes answer that they would “rather die” than live in a world that you describe. It is amazing to me that so many people would simply die rather than try to live and struggle to survive.

Even animals instinctively want to live and will go on living as best they can until they breathe their last breath. Oh sure, I know someone is going to send me videos of depressed monkeys or something but as a general rule, animals don’t know how to do anything other than try to survive. Why are humans so much more willing to give up when faced with adversity? What is it about crisis or the threat of a bumpy road enough to make some people throw their hands up in the air and simply quit?

What makes someone quit?

I’ll state right now that I am no Psychiatrist, but we have all faced periods in our life when we quit something. It could be as simple as a diet, an exercise program or smoking. It could be we quit running when we hit a wall – the key is that all of us have quit doing something. We are all quitters, well technically speaking. Becoming a Prepper doesn’t mean that you will never quit. It doesn’t mean that you won’t at some point in the future meet an obstacle you can’t overcome or confront a situation that offers you no chance at winning. Being a prepper simply means that you are joining the fight and you are going to give it your best shot.

Extrinsic motivation occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity in order to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. The opposite of Extrinsic is Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic Motivation involves engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding; essentially, performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward. This is where I look at both of those terms and see how prepping falls into both camps.
If my hypothetical TEOTWAWKI event is a global economic collapse that thrusts the entire world into something worse than the great depression, I would have an Extrinsic Motivation to avoid going broke, to find a job, to provide for my family. By the same token, I would feel personally rewarded if I was able to survive during a depression while still taking care of my family. Whether the motivating force is external or internal I still am motivated to some action.

Do the people who sit there, who might even be members of your own family and say they would rather die than go through another depression know something you don’t? Unless they lived through the first great depression I doubt it. Even if they did live through the first one, their age might be a huge factor in whether they had the strength to live through a hypothetical second great depression in the first place. No, what about perfectly healthy people who right now say they would rather die than go through something like that? What makes them tick? Why would anyone quit before they ever started trying?

You have to have hope

I think that there are so many people out there who very simply don’t have hope. For whatever reason – maybe they had a bad childhood, or someone has let them down too many times or maybe everything they have tried hasn’t worked out. Some people just don’t have any hope in themselves. They don’t believe they have whatever it takes to make it through tough times. Either that or they know right now that they hate more than anything pain and discomfort and would rather end it all than go through something horrible.

One of my fears and I am sure it is shared by every parent is that something would happen to one of my children in a SHTF event. I take prepping personally because it is one thing if your child dies tragically in a freak accident; it is another if they die because you didn’t do something right. Prepping for me is a never ending act of trying to take advantage of anything I can so that I am able to provide for my family should a crisis visit our street. I don’t know what will happen, but I know that whatever I can do to protect my family I will. That is my hope that they will all be safe. My hope is that I will have made the right preparations or that I am attuned to what is going on well enough to see danger approaching and take the right steps. My hope is that we are lucky. My intrinsic motivation is that my family, myself included live no matter what we face.

Could we all end up with some crisis that takes lives on a scale so epic it completely eclipses the horror of all the great tragedies in the past combined? Maybe, but that can happen regardless of what I do. My hope is that everything I am prepping for now will make things better regardless. Maybe when it is all said and done I will die during or because of the event I am trying to prep for. That’s OK because we all die eventually but I’m not going without a fight. It isn’t like I want to die; I want to live for a very long time. I would even want to live through some great tragedy even if, God forbid some of my family did not. Like I always say, I never hope to find out.

Preppers are motivated by external events to protect their internal interests. The simple act of prepping means you have hope. When I talk about prepping for some event, those Eeyores will say how I have some pessimistic view of the future. “Why do you always think something bad is going to happen”? I don’t want anything bad to happen, but it does. You can’t stop bad things from happening and the answer isn’t to give up. Prepping is all about believing that you can make it through. Prepping shows that you have hope that the skills and steps you are making now will help you later. Prepping isn’t pessimistic worrying about the future. Prepping is an act of defiance against potential tragedy, it is looking rough days in the face and saying “I’m not afraid of you”.

Will anything bad happen like the global economic depression I mentioned or wars, famine or disease? I don’t know. I honestly hope they do not, but I am going to prep like they are. My family deserves that and they are my motivation and hope.

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Have you ever known someone who has a glum outlook on life? Maybe that isn’t the right term, how about fatalistic? I have some people in my life that I