As preppers we are always thinking about different ways to become more self-reliant and live like they lived 100 years ago. People who lived during the turn of the century lit their homes with kerosene and oil lamps, heated their homes with fire wood. If they wanted new clothes, they had to buy fabric and make them.

In today’s world this seems unfathomable with our “right here right now” mentality, we could literally never leave the comfort of our couch and get anything we need or want. If we don’t want to wait for something to be shipped, we can head out to the local store that probably has anything our hearts desire.

Living in the west in the early 1900’s was quite a bit different than living in the eastern states. The industrial revolution had started, cars and electricity were beginning to be part of their everyday lives, but out west it was a completely different story.

Lisa and I recently went to a western history museum in Montrose Colorado and other than being really cool to see how people lived back then, and the tools they used to survive daily life, a couple of things came to mind.

* We love to think about all the things we might need to survive and sort of grid down or SHTF event, but the saying “easier said than done” couldn’t apply more. We have the luxury of thinking about things we might need, and the luxury of waiting until it fits into our budget to get them.

In those days it was a luxury to have a new pair of shoes to wear, and even if they had the money for them, they still had to wait for the cobbler to make them.

* Community is more important than we think. As people began to move west with the hopes and dreams of striking it rich or just staking a claim to give themselves an opportunity for a better life it couldn’t have been done without the help of a group of people with different skill sets.

People relied on each other more than ever in the early 1900’s because it was impossible for one person to be the cobbler, the seamstress, the blacksmith, the farmer, the rancher and the school teacher. While all these skills can be learned, there just wasn’t enough time or money to become proficient in all these areas.

Just like today, once you get good at something that other people want, you go where they are and offer your services to make their lives easier. This doesn’t just go for the pioneers that settled the west, this is how we have survived since the beginning of our time on this planet.

Skills and Needs – When Today Becomes the Good Old Days

Most men who ventured out west did so gambling on the promise of riches caused by gold fever. I say men because contrary to what Hollywood would like you to believe there were very few women who ventured out west, more on that in a bit.

The real riches were not made by the would-be miners, the real riches were made else ware. Knowing that miners would need food, tools and clothing many skilled craftsman and merchants followed right behind them.

How does this apply to us? We might not barter, sell or trade our skills like they did in the old west, but we do trade our time for money which is ultimately the same principal. We learn a skill that someone else wants or needs, and we trade that for what we want or need.

When it comes to communications and prepping, we tend to think about 2 way radios and intelligence gathering. While both of these are important, they are only part of a good preparedness communication plan.

Communications starts with family planning, and being ready for whatever disaster that might come your way.

This week Lisa and I were on The Changing Earth Podcast with Sara Hathaway and decided to make this a simulcast and share the interview with Survivalist Prepper listeners as well.

Topics From The Show…

Family Practice and Planning: One aspect of communications that gets overlooked sometimes is communicating with our family and making sure everyone is on the same page.

We talked about putting together preparedness binders, and making sure everyone (prepper or not) understands what to do in a disaster scenario.

Disaster Dependent Comms: Your communication needs will be different depending on they type of disaster you are facing. Small scale disaster communication needs will be different that the long-term SHTF scenarios.

In a short term disaster we may need to act quickly, therefor shortwave radios and family planning and communication will be important. In a longer term event 2 way radios and group organization will be a bigger issue.

Intelligence Gathering: Paying attention to what’s going on around us will not only be important in a SHTF scenario, it’s important today. The more information we have, the better our chances will be.

Today intelligence gathering means paying attention to current events and threats that we may face. In a SHTF type scenario intelligence gathering could include recon missions, sentry’s or lookouts, group coordination, and many other things.

Survival Groups and Communications: We briefly covered why putting together a prepping group is a bit of a challenge, and even how a prepping group doesn’t have the be something we put together right now.

Going the lone wolf route is never a good idea, and teaming up with others will increase your chances of survival. In most disasters it will be human nature to find like minded people.

2 Way Radios: We went into quite a bit of detail about 2 way radios and what the best types of radios may fit your needs. Ham radio is what everyone in the preparedness community talks about, but it may not be the best for you.

We covered the different radio types like GMRS, FRS, MURS and even CB radio. I have an article that goes into much more detail titled “Ham Radio For Preppers. This article explains what you can expect from each of these radio services.

More From Sara

If you don’t already listen to The Changing Earth Podcast make sure and check ...

When it comes to preparedness, there is no end to the prepping supplies we “must have”. Some of these “must have” prepping supplies are actually “I really want” supplies.

An unavoidable aspect of preparedness and surviving any sort of disaster than might come our way is supplies and prepping gear.

While learning new preparedness skills can reduce the amount of supplies we need, preparing means getting things now before the time comes when we can’t.

Because there are so many different supplies that CAN help in a disaster, it’s hard to focus on the supplies that WILL help in a disaster.

In last weeks show Lisa and I covered an article I wrote and went over 6 of the 12 types of prepping supplies. This week we finish everything off with the other 6.

These prepping supplies are…

* Cordage* Multi Purpose Supplies* EDC (Every Day Carry) Items* Foot Ware and Care* Survival Guides* Cash On Hand

While this isn’t an extensive list of supplies you would want, it is a list of supplies that are “must have’s”. Once you have these bases covered, you can move on and fine tune your preparedness plans.

Survival Skills

Along with these prepping supplies we also went over the “force multiplying skills” that go along with them.

while the supplies themselves are great, having the right survival and preparedness skills will only make them more valuable.

It’s impossible to be completely self-reliant these days, but we can learn some of these lost skills and increase our chances if everything goes down the tube.

The Preparedness Experience Tickets Contest

In the beginning of the podcast this week I talked about the conference we have put together at The Preparedness Experience, and how we put together a contest to win some free tickets.

If you are interested in going to the conference you can enter that contest here. The contest ends in a couple of weeks, and you can visit daily to get more entries.

When it comes to preparedness, there is no end to the prepping supplies we “must have”. Some of these “must have” prepping supplies are actually “I really want” supplies.

We preppers tend to become gear heads fairly early into our preparedness journey. This is because it’s easier than ever to find these different survival supplies. The truth is, while all these trinkets and gadgets are great, not all are necessary for survival.

While no one knows what disaster might befall us, and which of these survival supplies might become the most useful, there are some core prepping supplies that will most likely become the most important.

Today, Lisa and I went into more detail about an article I wrote last week about what the most important prepping supplies are. We ended up having to split this into 2 parts because we wanted to cover each topic in detail.

As I said in the podcast, part 2 will be out next week, but you can read the article I linked to above to read the full list.

Feedback From the Preparedness Community

I didn’t want to just give you my ideas about what the most important prepping supplies are, so I asked the preparedness community for their feedback.

I received an overwhelming number of responses, and it really helped my take the pulse of preppers. Thanks again to everyone who responded!

In This Weeks Show

This week we covered 6 of the 14 most important prepping supplies. The article I wrote had 12 survival supplies, but after reading the comments and talking to Lisa, that list became 14.

We also covered some of the skills that go along with these supplies. Some of these skills are absolutely necessary, and some will make those supplies more valuable.

Fixed Blade Knife

Water Filters and Purification

Bug Out Bags or Go Bags

Fire Starting Supplies

First Aid Supplies and Skills

Self Defense Supplies

Again, make sure and read the full article and get a sneak peak into what part 2 is going to cover. While I tried to go into as much detail as possible in the article, Lisa and I dig a little deeper into each of these important prepping supplies.

One of our most popular podcasts here at Survivalist Prepper is the podcast we did about the challenges of bugging out. This week we decided to replay the podcast, along with adding some updated information.

This podcast was first published around 3 years ago. Since then our audience has grown, and we have quite a bit more information on bugging out and bug out bags here at Survivalist prepper.

At the end of these show notes I added some of our other articles and podcasts on bugging out that go into more detail if you are interested in digging a little deeper.

The Challenges of Bugging Out

As preppers we love to watch movies about apocalyptic scenarios and even TV shows like The Walking Dead. While these shows are great for giving us food for thought, bugging out will be more of a challenge than it is in these moveies and TV shows.

Below is a list of what we talked about in the show, and some things we need to think about if we plan on being realistic about what bugging out will really be like.

When All Else Fails

None of us want to bug out, or even rank bugging out high on our prepping priorities list. But the truth is, in some scenarios it may be unavoidable.

In the show we shared some of the responses we received from our audience about what it would take for them to bug out and leave all their prepping supplies behind.

A few of the responses included natural disasters, the neighborhood or home becoming unsafe overrun, as well as nuclear disasters and pandemics.

Bug Out Planning

Planning is one of the most important aspects of bugging out. Bugging out basically makes us a refugee, and we are far more likely to survive if we have a plan.

Having a plan not only means knowing where you are going, it also means taking into account your current personal situation and environment.

Bug Out Locations

We’ve all heard the statement “If you are planning on bugging out into the woods you are doomed.” While there are some people where this situation would be feasible, it’s not a good survival strategy for most of us.

Not only do we need to think about where we re going, but also our timing, escape routes, and other challenges we might face while bugging out.

Getting out of the immediate danger zone, avoiding hazards (including people) and picking the right time to evacuate all need to be considered depending on your geographical location, and disaster scenario.

Family Coordination

The answer to the question “what is the best prepper food” all depends on who you ask. This is because everyone has different needs and challenges. The perfect emergency food storage plan will be different for everyone.

Most people in the United States have never gone more than 24 hours without food and have no idea how it will affect them, and although we can survive without food for a few weeks, if will be our main priority long before that. So lets talk about some long term food storage ideas.

If the average person were to walk into your home and see a Legacy food bucket they would probably make some wild assumptions right off the bat. When you think about it, other than the shelf life and quantity, how different is long term food storage food than a box of hamburger helper?

Long term food storage, water storage and preparedness in general is nothing more than insurance for the future. What concerns me the most is not a nuclear bomb landing in my back yard, it’s our electrical grids vulnerability’s, economic instability and basic supply and demand.

Having a large supply of long term food storage food during the great depression would have been more valuable than gold.

Imagine you or someone in your family had lost their job for an extended period of time, with money being tight it would be a daily juggling act to pay the bills and buy food for the family.

If you had a six month supply of food stored that wouldn’t be such a huge hurdle, and would alleviate some of the stress you might be facing.

Imaging there was a natural disaster like an earthquake, or a hurricane like Katrina, if you had a few weeks of food stored that’s one less thing you have to worry about, and could literally be the difference between life and death.

My point is that long term food storage for preppers is not all about doomsday and does not make you a “doomsdayer.” Everyone is different and storing food for emergencies is just the smart thing to do. Some people store as little as a months’ worth of food, and some people store year’s worth, it’s really up to you what you decide to do.

Different Kinds of Food Storage

When it comes to food storage for preppers there isn’t a “one size fits all” method. How you build your food storage plan all depends on your wants and needs.

Some people like the convenience of the prepackaged long term food storage products, and some people get sticker shock when the see the price of some of these products.

The gray man mentality and situational awareness is about more than what you wear, it’s about everything you do that might make you stand out in a crowd. Being the gray man is about what you do and say on a daily basis, and who you say it to.

Throughout our daily live we do things trying to become the gray man without thinking about it. If you’ve ever tried to avoid eye contact with an annoying acquaintance or a street vendor, you have tried to become the gray man.

You can talk about operational security and situational awareness without talking about being the gray man, but you can’t talk about being the gray man without talking about operational security and situational awareness. Becoming unremarkable and unmemorable require you to understand your situation and act accordingly.

As I was growing up I was the gray man without even thinking about it. I was the quiet child that would always fly under the radar. My siblings were always busy talking, while I was always busy thinking about how to handle each situation.

Because of this I was allowed to do just about anything I wanted because everyone trusted me, and focused their attention elsewhere. Luckily I wasn’t a terrible child, but this did allow me to get in more trouble than I should have.

SPP289 Being the Gray Man & Situational Awareness (Replay)

This week in the show Lisa and I went over some of the things that help us become unremarkable and might help us blend into the crowd. We also talked about how the gray man theory changes depending on the situation you are facing.

Blending In

If you live in an urban area you might not want to be wearing cammo and carrying a tactical backpack or bug out bag. If you live in a rural area you wouldn’t want to be wearing a 3-piece suit and carrying suitcase. Fitting in means looking just like everyone else, and unremarkable in every way.

The same would hold true in a small scale or large scale SHTF event. If everyone else is starving and losing weight, yet you look as healthy as ever because you have prepared, you are going to stand out. If everyone is without power and they see light coming from your window at night, you will be a target.

Prepper Hate: There is also the phenomena that Selco called “Prepper Hate” that we need to consider.  This is when people form opinions about you according to their agenda, and rationalize stealing or harming you.

This might not be that big of a deal these days, but in any sort of disaster situation these people could say…

“They have way too much food; they must have stolen it”

“It’s not fair that they have food and we don’t, someone needs to make them share.”

These people could easily get other people on board with them and have no problem doing whatever it takes to feed their family…even if it means harming you.

In the show we mentioned when Selco was on the survival podcast and we recently had him on our show as well talking about

In any sort of disaster scenario we need to be physically ready to handle anything that gets thrown at us. Physical fitness for preppers is less about weightlifting, and more about endurance. It’s about being farmer strong.

Ok, when the SHTF your ready right? You have your bug out bag filled with everything you can possibly think of, you have a bug out location picked out that is only 10 miles away, you have picked a few different routes that you can drive there and a couple if you have to walk.

Or let’s say you have no plans to bug out and you have plenty of land to plant a garden, your water catchment system is top notch and you have some livestock that will help you be self-sufficient for a long time to come, so you’re ready for anything right?

A well thought out plan is vital to your survival when your life gets turned upside down. But running through scenarios in your mind burns 0 calories, and running for your life with a 50 pound bug out bag on will be far more challenging than you think.

SPP288 Physical Fitness for Preppers

Today’s show is a replay from a couple years ago when I had a friend Brian on talking about physical fitness for preppers. Brian is a retired vet, and a personal trainer among other things.

You can read more about Brian and what we covered in the show from the original show note here.

The Farmer & the Gym Rat

If you’re not prepared physically to travel 10 miles on foot, or you are not ready for some hard labor working on your homestead, your preparedness plan might not work out as well as you thought it would.

We don’t necessarily need to go to the gym twice a week and run on the treadmill with a backpack filled with 20 pound weights, but we do need to make sure our bodies are ready to handle the physical labor if it ever comes to that.

If you look at pictures of people during to the great depression you don’t see many people who looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rambo, you see that most people that weighed between 100 and 150 pounds. These people were not exactly healthy because of their situation, but they could probably out work most of us today.

If I needed help chopping firewood or raising a barn I would pick someone who lived 60 years ago over the modern gym rat any day, someone who is 250 pounds of pure muscle might be able to chop down a tree faster than a 150 pound man, but at the end of the day that 150 pound man who is accustomed to manual labor will out work the gym rat.

Why is this? Because the gym rat is used to a specific workout routine that usually involves working out for an hour a day. The men and women who lived through the depression had to work 15 hours a day just to survive and had endurance.

Basic Training

The military is a perfect example of this as well, when someone chooses to join the military they go through hell during basic training. They don’t just work out every day to get buff and look intimidating,

Creating Emergency Preparedness Binders will help you and your

family react quickly in emergency situations. A binder for storing important

documents, and an emergency procedures and supplies binder will be very useful

in any sort of disaster.

When it comes to emergency preparedness, there are 2 types

of binders that are important. An Emergency procedures binder, and a binder for

important documents. The importance of having an emergency documents binder is

obvious, but most people don’t have plans written out for what to do in a

disaster scenario.

Most of us spend quite a bit of time researching and learning about preparedness, so it can seem to be a little redundant to put that information we already know in a binder. The truth is, not only could that help us in a stressful situation, it could also help those family members that are not quite onboard with prepping.

SPP287 Creating

Emergency Binders for Preppers

Last week Lisa and I went over some family communications and disaster planning tips. This week we finish everything off with going over emergency binders for preppers and preparedness in general.

How you go about putting together a binder and what you put

in it are completely up to you, but there are a few key items that should be

included. Just like everything else in preparedness, our plans and procedures

will differ depending on our situation.

Emergency Procedures

Binder

Because we don’t get to choose when disaster strikes, and because rarely is everyone home at the same time, a procedures binder should be included in your preparedness plan. Just because you know everything what to do in different emergency situations, doesn’t mean everyone else does.

As you put together your preparedness procedures binder, put yourself in their shoes. Think about the questions they might ask, and things that would help them make better critical decisions.

A binder should have a list of where all the important items and supplies are, such as your lights out kit, generator, gas shut off valve, breaker box, radios, batteries, solar chargers etc…

A binder is something that they can read whenever they feel like it, and something you can reference when the subject comes up.  A binder is not only helpful in emergencies, it also serves as a learning tool.

The binder should read like a lesson, not be something they need to sift through to get the info they need. In an emergency situation time will be of the essence so the directions should be simple and to the point.

In the same vein as simple and to the point, a binder should have an index of where the information is located (page numbers) in the binder. Here are a couple examples of how an index should read…

* Emergency Supplies List (page 4)* Evacuation Procedures (pag...

Communications and disaster planning are some of the most important aspects of preparedness. What would you do if you were on your way to work and all the sudden the power in the city goes out? The more important question is what would your family and loved ones do?

We know that a power outage could be caused by several things ranging from a blown transformer, to a full blown EMP, but does your family know how to tell the difference?

The sad truth is that most people are extremely unprepared

to handle any sort of disaster scenario, and while we can’t help everyone, we

can make sure our family understands the basics at the very least.

SPP286 Communications and Disaster Planning for Preppers

This week Lisa and I went over some of the challenges we may face in a disaster scenario, and how to overcome those road blocks. Some of these are easier said than done, but important none the less.

In a disaster scenario time will be of the essence. If we

are spending that time getting everyone on the same page, we are not spending

it on the important matters. 

Family Planning & Preparedness

To begin we need to think about getting family on board with our preparedness plan, or at least understand where they stand. Are they on-board with you? Are they completely apprehensive? Do they show some interest?

The ideal scenario would be to have both husband and wife of the same page with preparedness, but that is not always the case. Being the lone prepper in the family is often the case.

Decide on the best approach to get their buy-in without overwhelming them. This means don’t start with Nuclear bombs and WW3, start with disaster scenarios closer to home.

Contrary to what the main stream media would have you believe, preppers come in different shapes and sizes. Figure out where you might get the most buy-in based on their personality, and go from there.

In some cases you just won’t be able to reach them. In this case you may have no other choice than to plan for them. When disaster strikes they will be all ears, but unfortunately it may take that to get their attention…as it does for most of us.

What to Include in Your Disaster Plan…

Your disaster preparedness plan is only going to work if everyone in the family knows what and where everything is. Decide on the best approach, and make sure everyone understands the following.

Phone Numbers Not Contacts: These days we may have a hundred phone numbers stored in our phone, but we know what a few of those actual phone numbers are.

Make a handwritten list of emergency contacts and important phone numbers. Make a few copies and make sure everyone has one.

Emergency Contact List: Along with the important phone numbers of family and friends, make sure and include any emergency numbers they will need.

Everyone knows 911, but do they know an alternative when the phone lines are overloaded and calls to 911 can’t get through.