Day to Day Survival

     I prep for disaster as a lifestyle choice.  I don't want to be that person on the news interview who reports, "He was such a quiet guy...who knew there were so many bodies in the back yard?!!"  or the on who honestly said'"I just didn't see it coming!"  He was talking about the tree on his house after a heavy storm.  Now, this guy had a southern accent.  So, he wasn't from another region of the country and should have been aware of the severe and sudden rainstorms in our area.  I mean, seriously, we are famous for them!  And, about the neighbor with the graveyard next door?  Well, that's just crazy!  

     My car is packed with the tools of my trade, all the light bulbs ever issued to my car, an emergency tool kit, the spare tire and jack and a bug out bag, or you could call it a get home bag.  Better than that, as a prepper, I can tell you where the stuff is and I can reach it even faster.  In my house, if you need something you just say, "Gram where is the....?"  and I can tell you.  If I bought it, I know where I put it.

What Tools do you carry in your Tool kit?

www.efficientenergysavers.com

     This is not true for many other people.  Today, I walked into a regular client's home and she told me all heck broke loose.  There had been a flood over the weekend and she was sure the place was falling apart.  She asked if she had any fans or flashlights in her house because the "guy" needed a fan and a flashlight to work of the plumbing.  I told her there was a ceiling fan in every bedroom in her house and there were nine flashlights from amglites to 500,000 candle power flood lights in the closet under the stairs next to the seal-a-meal in the box.  (new in the box!)  (never opened, I've been dusting it for three years!)  Imagine!  She lives in her home, and has no idea where her stuff is.  Occasionally, she texts me to ask!  I don't mind if it is something I put away, but mostly, it is something she just forgot, but, she knows I know!

www.zazzle.com

     For years, I have known and loved this woman and also known in a real SHTF situation, she will be almost useless.  She will put her kids in the car, she will become harried and frustrated while her husband tries to save things and grab things and think what they need, where they are going, how will they exist?  She will blow the horn and point as the roof comes off the house with him still inside and the kids in the back seat arguing over the volume of the DVD in the machine.  

online.ccfa.org 

     The terrible thing is this is a highly organized, powerful woman who can move mountains!   Her sister-in-law became ill, needed surgery and before she recovered from her reconstructive colon surgery, this lady raised over a million dollars for colon cancer research!  She worked that phone like a Jedi's lightsaber!  A million dollars for research and more!  All this while working from home, raising three active kids and keeping that high strung husband moving forward.   

     And, she doesn't know where the flashlights are!  I gave the plumber such a look when I handed him the maglite and told him to leave it on the counter so he didn't lose it like he lost his!  

     In an emergency or on the job everyday, you need to know where your stuff is.  You need to be able to put your hands on the important things.  You need to have an idea of what you will need, where you are going and be able to get it done!  During a rainstorm, is not the time to wonder if the roof will hold.  During a tornado is not the time to wonder where the safest place in the house is to be.  During an armed assault is not the time to wish for a better plan.  If the economy crashes, it will be too late to horde and panic shop.  

Cities with the most break-ins - Yahoo Homes

homes.yahoo.com

      Years ago, this family found the neighbors had been robbed.  They got on top of the safety issue.  They got an alarm, they put in solar powered motion lights outside, the lit up the dark corners of the property and they stopped flashing their wealth by leaving boxes for new things on the curb.  Unfortunately, they have removed trees with lights in them, tossed solar walkway lights when the batteries died, and forgotten to watch as they once did.  They actually walk out of the house with the doors unlocked and the alarm on stay.  It is as if, no one in the neighborhood has been robbed in awhile, so no one will!!??? ever??!!

     Sure, I have to shake down my car every couple of weeks to get the bragging rights for this story.  I go to a quiet place and pull out everything and toss trash, bent boxes, things I don't need.  I organize the contents of the car and the products I need for work.  I check the status of the get home bag and I vacuum the car just for fun!  But even on a messy day, I can grab a flashlight without asking the hired help!  

     Shake down your home, your vehicle, your life.  Get to know where your stuff is, and put it back neatly in that general area when done.  Don't be that bewildered  guy on the nightly news acting all surprised by a sudden change of routine and wondering where you are going to stay or what you are going to do next.  Get prepped!

A Light in the Dark

     There was a program featured on Oprah some years ago that tried to get a laptop for every child in the third world.  It was One Laptop Per Child.  I was struck by the first pictures of the effect of a small portable computer on a village on another continent. Often, these portable educational devices were the only source of light in village without electricity.  

     As a mom, the first thought I had was, Is that safe?  Did that light draw attention to the little hut? Could they protect themselves from attack?  It kind of freaked me out.  The fundraiser insisted they were all low jacked so the device couldn't be stolen.  But, I have seen some awful human behavior in my life and a lojack does not protect you from a machete strike.  

     Imagine being the only light in the dark for hundreds of square miles.

     Often during storms and after, we are without electricity for long periods.  The nights are darker than dark.  Then, in the dark, a light will shine out.  A neighbor with a generator, a friend with a collection of solar lights, whatever the source, the light shines in the darkness.  
  
  I have heard a man curse his neighbor across the street because one had a generator and one did not.  The talk was crazy!  They had similar incomes, homes, expenses, but you would have thought the man with the generator had eaten his neighbor's dog!  We heard all the dirt that ever occurred between the two for twenty years.  And, the cause?  One had lights and a generator.  One did not have a plan.


     During a blackout, this is not the time to leave on the porch light.  Even if you have a generator and plenty of light to spare, you may think you are helping others by shining a light of hope.  You are shining a target.  You are sending an invitation to the less 'connected', you are painting a target.  

    In an apartment complex, imagine, if you are the only one with lights, you are the only point of interest.  You may think you know your neighbors, but you just wait.  Let the lights go out and be the only one with light and see who comes knocking on your door.   In my neighborhood, generators are stolen at night while they are still running!  

    I have been the target of talk, myself, when I took my landscape lights indoors one night a drunk took out a light pole.  It got back to me that I was too rich to live in my neighborhood.  Outrageous!  If I were, I wouldn't live here!  I wouldn't be blogging about saving money and prepping on a shoestring!

    In any disaster, if you are staying in, get some black out curtains.  They will be worth the investment.  Blackout curtains allow you to sleep in the day if you are working a night shift.  They can keep the baby calmed for several years, always sleeping in the dark.  They can spare your good drapes from the burning damage of the sun.  They offer added insulation and the first line of security in the darkness.  In World War II blackout curtains were the law!  A house light can be spotted from the air and that light would lead the bombs to your front door! 


     Tips for blackout curtains:
If you can see light coming in during the day, then light can be seen coming out in the night. 
If you have a nice insulating pair of rapes, you can add a liner to make sure there are no thin spots.

54'' Wide Hanes Drape...

$8.98

Fabric.com

Overstock.com offers blackout curtains, they are locally available at your Bed, Bath and Beyond and your thrift store often has cast off curtains with years of life left in them.  

Have a light in the dark.  I encourage it.  Don't be the only light in the dark!

Top Ten Overlooked Prep Items

     A lot of discussion occurred in my family over the issue of toilet paper.  Each person announced their opinion with the certainty of their own name.  Will stock, won over the will use water and a cloth or the leaf theorists.  Once that was settled, the debate flared up over do you store with the roll in or out?  and if it is out, do you vacuum seal or just press it down into a plastic box and bungee cord the lid on?  It was amazing to me the time and steam devoted to toilet paper! 


     Recently, I was going through a list of prep supplies and realized, there are some items even I have overlooked.  Now, don't get all excited, I am not going to talk weapons and ammo. I am not the expert and this isn't about that.  I have NOT overlooked that issue!  I am talking about the day to day prep items that we use in daily life and just for some reason, don't prep them.

      For example, I am a hairbrush snob.  I have long hair that knots up in the back under certain weather conditions.  I found the absolutely perfect brush that works without ripping out my hair.  It was called the Flair brush by AVON.  Note: I used the phrase was called!  After years of happy use and regularly replacing the brush through my local rep, the powers that run Avon, "new and improved" it.  I held on to my last real flair brush until it broke in half and the bristles fell out.  I looked for another brush that worked as well.

     I have since found a product I like and cost less now than those brushes cost back then (the 70s).  I bought six of them.  I have one in my car, one in my bedroom and four are packed away for posterity.  It doesn't seem like a big deal until you have , no brush for your long stringy knotted up hair, then it's important.  Isn't that the motto of preppers everywhere?  It is better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it.

     This is my list of top overlooked items preppers could reconsider.

Brushes and combs
Shoe inserts
mess kits and/or eating utensils
can openers (stock more than one)
measuring cups and spoons for home use and work uses
nails and screws and the nuts and the nuts and bolts needed to fix things
Mason jar lids and bands-even if you have a gross of jars and a gross of lids and bands, what about next year?   Stock more lids.
Eyewear and protective eyewear.  If you wear contacts get a pair of glasses too.
ear protection-
power tool back up batteries and backup batteries and backup batteries
a spare pair-spare pair of glasses, spare pair of hearing aids, spare pair of binoculars, pants. socks. shoes, boots.....Two is one, one is none.

Things that do other Things

     Today, I was cleaning in a well stocked home.   I tried to get a single roll of paper towels off the top shelf when a pile of coffee filters came tumbling down.  The homeowner's mother said not to worry, just throw them out as they were from a large bulk purchase and now they had hit the floor, they were tainted.  Well, I had mopped that floor and they were not tainted and I do believe the five second rule applies!    Even if I never make a pot of coffee, I can find a use for a large lot of coffee filters.

Coffee Filters
  
Coffee filters are lint free, so, they are great for wiping glass like your eyeglasses or for cleaning small parts like jewelry or watch crystals. 

They are a filter and you can use them to filter loose tea from hot tea, to filter gravy, you can filter oil (either frying or motor oil)  and reuse it.  

Put a filter in the bottom of a plant pot to keep the dirt in and let the water drain.  

Put a spoon of baking soda in a filter, gather the filter and secure with a rubber band and place in smelly shoe.  

Put a good sized glob of yogurt in a filter then gather and secure it with a rubber band and hang it in the fridge to let the moisture frip out to make greek style yogurt or hang longer to make a soft cheese.

Use a filter to separate china in a stack or to separate iron skillets as they absorb moisture, they can reduce rust.  

Here are some other things that do Other Things:

Egg Cartons

Separate nuts and bolts or sequins and pins to unclutter your workbench or craftbench or desk.
Paper cartons buffer sound.  Staple them to walls before recording your music or just to keep the noise next door, next door.

www.learn2grow.com 

Start seedlings in a carton, if you use paper cartons, dampen the carton well then plant the entire section when transplanting the saplings.

Paper cartons filled with dryer lint then drizzled with wax make a great firestarter.  You can also use sawdust instead of lint.

Use styrofoam egg cartons as shipping and packing material instead of peanuts.

We cut the sections into flowers and used them to warn of kids that the Spanish Bayonet was a dangerous and spiked plant!

Newspaper

www.things-to-make-and-do.co.uk

Make paper logs.
Make fuel briquettes.
Make degradable plant pots for starting plants.

Make dark paper.  You can bleach it back to lighten the ink, but dark paper is paper, too. 

innerchildfun.com 

Soak the paper in water, add some starch or glue and use as clay to make paper sculpture, to fill in cracks in windy walls, to fill holes in drywall before painting, or as a substitute for wall paper.

Use as insulation against cold inside coats or clothes, to line a worn pair of shoes in the field.
Use as a table or work space covering to protect the surface.

Make a basket. Check the site at the right to see other things even a child can make from a bit of newsprint.

As an educational tool.  Have the child with the lazy eye color in all the letter 'a' in an article.  Then, on another day the letter 'e'.  They get better and they learn to focus on the tiny letters.  

As an educational tool, find a word that only appears once on the page and give a reward when the child finds it, you will be surprised how much they read! (treat at my house was, possession of the remote control or choice of dinner entree).

Pipe cleaners 

explosives.wonderhowto.com 

Okay, I will grant you that pipe cleaners clean pipes, but there are other things that are cylindrical.  

Pipe cleaners are a must have for weapons cleaning, take a piece of cotton, twist the end of a pipe cleaner around it's middle, then add more pipe cleaners to add length.  

They are a great substitute for that missing twist tie! 

You can use them to organize that jumble of wires behind your computer. 

You can use them as you would a zip tie to make a bamboo trellis.

They can be used to bunch and gather crazy stuff in the junk drawer.



Look through your trash.  What could you make with the things you toss out every day besides the thing they are supposed to do?  In my trash right now is a blown out sock.  That is a cleaning cloth, a rag doll body, a weapon when filled with rocks.  I am from the south.  I have actually suggested someone should be struck with a sock full of rocks!  Yeah, I said it. 

Lots of things do other things.  What were you going to throw out that had another purpose?