Category: Daily Living
In the rapidly changing world that we find ourselves in today, it is more likely that
catastrophe can strike anywhere at anytime and anybody. For this reason, being
prepared is crucial, and could end up saving your life. Of course, this fact is elementary
and is probably known by many. The issue comes in the actual execution of this simple
but crucial idea. In my first post under this topic, I would like to discuss having what I
referred to as a bug out bag. A bug out bag is very simply a backpack that is packed with
essentials should the need arise for you to evacuate your home or in the event that you
were not able to get back home from work or any other destination you might currently
find yourself at. Bug out bags are fairly simple and reasonably cheap to assemble, and
they could very well one day save your life.
So what is in a bug out bag? The number one essentials for a bug out bag include non-
perishable food, potable water, matches, a means of communication, a light, and some
cash money. However, wait must also be considered. For example, if you were an
emergency and you found yourself without a vehicle you would then need to carry your
bug out back. For this reason, your bug out bag should not be too heavy.
I would like to discuss different simple and effective ways of stocking A regular size
backpack with everything you might need to survive for at least three weeks and without
exceeding a 50 pound weight limit. First is food, for my bug out bag I have decided to
pack protein energy bars. These bars will be the essential food for my bug out bag,
however there will also be some packs of peanuts and candy bar or two for calories.
These items are light and take up a relatively small space inside of your bug out bag, but
remember that you do not want to get carried away and pack so much food that you do
not have room for anything else.
Next is potable water. 1 gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds. A human can
easily use a gallon of water in a single day. Therefore it is rather impractical to actually
put water in your bug out bag. However, you should at least consider carrying 1 gallon of
water inside of your bug out bag for drinking. Along with this supply of emergency water,
I have decided to put in a few water purification tablets and a personal life straw water
filter. Now that we have water and food nailed down, it is time to get to the rest of your
bug out bag.
Now let's discuss fire and light. In today's world, some people would laugh at the idea of
needing a way to build a fire in emergency. The sad but true fact is, that 90% or more of
the current population in the world have come to rely on the consumption of natural
resources for electricity and that may not help you in an emergency. So, fire.
For fire, I have decided to pack a water tight container with a box of matches, a zippo
lighter, and a container of lighter fluid. These items together wait a little over 1 pound.
Now, for light and communication. In today's world, most people carry cell phones. So
phones are a decent means of communication, and by no means am I suggesting that you
should scrap yours and event of an emergency. However, cell phones are also capable of
failing. You could find yourself in an area with no reception or any other number of issues
that could before communicating with the cell phone. Furthermore, cell phones run on
batteries and eventually the batteries die. So, for my bug out bag I have decided to pack
a solar cell phone charger, and a short wave radio. The radio I will store and a Nother
water tight container along with spare batteries.
And for light, well most cell phones and shortwave radio's come with a light function, this
light is not terribly so powerful and consumes battery. So, I will pack a mag light. Mag
lights are very useful, they are bright, little heavy, and fairly reliable. In fact, many police
forces and army and military personnel use mag lights as a source of light when operating
in dark areas. So, that is fire, water, food, light, and communication taken care of but
now your bug out bag should weigh anywhere between 20 and 30 pounds depending on
how much you have packed. It is not a bad idea to have a little emergency cash in your
bug out bag as well. For my bug out bag I have $250 in emergency cash stowed in a side
pocket. At this point, the more resourceful and physically fit individuals may consider
packing some sort of portable shelter. From my portable shelter I have decided to use a
small pup tent, it weighs about 5 pounds and compressors down to a reasonable size and
fit in my backpack. I will also carry a machete, and a small but will sharpened fixed
blade knife. These implements are crucial in survival situations, they can help you get
through tangled undergrowth, cut up firewood, and various other things.
For the final few pieces of my bug out bag, I have decided to pack a first aid kit, spool of
fishing line, if you sewing needles, and a braille compass.
This is my bug out bag, I would urge everybody to have something similar and to be
prepared in the event of an emergency. Please feel free to post your thoughts and
comments
I would like to now talk about a stay at home emergency kit. These kids can be more
expensive, in fact they should be. They will contain more items, and take up a little
space. So for my stay at home emergency kit, the first thing I have decided to get is
water. I will have 24 gallons of fresh drinking water, this water will be for drinking
purposes only. I have also set up a rain water collection system, this water collection
system is essentially a 55 gallon drum placed at the end of a ring gutter which fills up with
water when it rains. I will use this water for washing and flushing toilets. Now, for food. I
have decided to get a supply of MRE or meals ready to eat. These meals are actually kind
of a joke in the military, as they aren't very tasty. But, they are used by the military and
they are used for one simple reason. They are easily cooked, just add water and they are
relatively small light and portable. I may even consider putting some in my bug out bag.
So with food and water taken care of, I will now move to first date. Because I live alone,
my first aid kit can be fairly basic and small because it is needed for just one person. You
should take into consideration how many people live in your home when building this kit.
I have also gone a little bit of the extra mile to build a hydroponic vegetable farm which
will grow and already is growing fresh fruit and vegetables for my food. I have the
system outside, because I live in a mild climate, and because I live in a small home so I
don't have space for it inside that is basically it from my home emergency kit, water food
and light. I neglected to mention the flashlight, as I assume that most people already
have a flashlight in their home somewhere, however it would be a good idea to get spare
batteries and some means of charging those batteries. For my battery charger, I have
devised a system using a stationary bicycle. Most stationary bicycles have a fan on the
front of them, as you pedal the fan turns and blows air. However, from my stationary
bicycle instead of a fan I have connected a cars alternator to the belt. So as I pedal the
bicycle, the belt turns the alternator which generates electricity. This electricity is pumped
to a inverter, which converts it into a low-voltage and useful means of running a battery
charger. This simple yet effective means of generating electricity serves two purposes.
One is obvious purpose of giving me electricity, the second and useful part of the system
is that it creates a means for me to get exercise. I am also a ham operator, so my radio is
equipped with a few car batteries wired together in series, this system is also charged by
my bicycle charger. And for fire, I love fire. Fire is probably one of the basic building
blocks of civilization. For my fire, I have simply gathered up a woodpile. I also have a
system with a steam powered turbine, which can be used to generate electricity on a
slightly larger scale if needed. I got the idea for a steam generator by studying an old
model train set I had, which ran off of a steam engine. It is not terribly energy efficient,
but will work in the event of an emergency. And there you have it, a stay at home
emergency preparedness system. Most of the things that I engineered such as the
stationary bike generator, and the steam turbine, can we built relatively inexpensively.
You can find ways of building these things on DIY websites. And that is all I have for my
home emergency preparedness kit, please feel free to post thoughts and comments.
In this post I would like to talk about Amazon. For someone like me who lives in a small
town, Amazon is a great place to get items that I would not normally find at the local
store. Are use it to find a lot of the equipment I need for preparing any emergencies. It
is where I bought the components for my bicycle generator, my steam turbine, and my
rain collection system. Amazon is a great website for finding things that you might need,
for example first aid kits, radio equipment, and yes food. So, if you are building your
emergency kit and you need things that you cannot find locally, Amazon would be a really
good place to look. And that is all for this post, and probably for the rest of the day. Just
remember, it is better to be prepared before catastrophe strikes so you're not struggling
to figure out your plan during a catastrophe.
You mentioned a short wave radio. In today's environment, that would be wasted space. Short wave has nearly ceased to exist. A small portable AM FM radio would servy better. They do make such radios that you crank to generate power, instead of using batteries.
Because am fm radios are OK if you want to listen to music. However, they won't do you
much good if your phone goes out and you still need a means of communication. actually,
I would suggest to everybody that you should get your ham operators license. Of course,
this may sound like another waste of time. However, the ham radio operators license is
fairly easy to obtain provided you study for it, and it could be useful when communicating
over a handheld radio. For example, a non-licensed radio operator can only transmit
maybe 5 W of power, where as a licensed ham operator can transmit more than three
maybe even four times that I forget it's been a while since I've taken the test. Anyway,
they're pretty handy if your cell phone goes out or if you just need a back up means of
communication. I will give you an example, I have a radio base station in my house that
is capable of transmitting with 75 W of power. Without my ham license I would not be able
to transmit even 1/4 of that power. My handheld radio can transmit 35 W after I beefed it
up a little. Furthermore, all ham radios and many other regular issue radios are capable
of turning in to the NOAA weather radio. This could be incredibly useful, if your
emergency has a bad weather aspect.
Problem. Do you carry your bag with you daily, or only when or if you hear a storm or something is on the way?
I live in Colorado, and I can leave my home in the morning with fair weather, but by evening not be able to get home due to heavy snow easily.
I tend to feel it better to prepair my home so it can deal with harsh weather to the best of my ability anyway.
Sometimes even that doesn't help. Mother nature rules.
some very good tips here. thanks for taking the time to post them. Especially in the wake of Harvey and the turbulence in America right now, I can certainly see the use in being prepared for eventualities.
Yes, good tips, but I do wonder if the bag must be carried.
I depend on public transportation, so if we have a heavy blizzard, and it has happened, if I don't leave a place before it gets bad, I can get stranded. That hasn't happened to me personally, but family members.
I have had to use my cellphone to get out of the cold a time or two, due to public transit stopping, so in winter, I always dress just in case I must be outside a long time.
First talking about, I like to keep my self aware of the weather forecast. Of course, I've
never seen a 100% accurate weather forecast so this is only a best guess scenario.
However, meteorologist or write more than they are wrong usually. Also, I normally carry
a slightly reduced version of my bug out bag if I am not leaving far from home. The bag
that I carry pretty much everywhere I go is just a small bag containing not much more
than a first aid kit a survival knife and a few protein bars. I usually keep my regular bug
out bag at home, unless I am going to be going farther away. This is because mostly
anywhere I go to I remain within walking distance of my house. Of course I consider
walking distance probably about 18 square-mile area, but still. Basically I said that to say
it is not necessarily an issue if you do not have your bug out bag with you at all times, but
you should consider keeping at least a few of the supplies on you at all times, because it
is never predictable what mother nature or what some crazy guy in North Korea might
do!
By the way, is it just me or or most of the ego maniacal want to be world leaders really
short? Right, anyway, have a good night.
Have a wonderful evening, I think I'm going to kick back and enjoy this thunderstorm.
I don't need a light.
No, guess not. Smile.
Might help others who don't have one though.
I carried extra gloves, hat in my backpack, and that has come in handy because people refuse to dress for winter here.
I still disagree about short wave. It may depend on what country you live in, but in the US the Emergency Broadcast system joins all functioning AM and FM stations together to send information, news and alerts in natural or any other kind of disaster. Some weather radios do have emergency alert functions which can cover all kinds of emergencies. But they do depend on batteries. A crank AM FM radio is the most versatile.
Interesting and relevant topic.
For monitoring conditions a good radio is sufficient. SW Radio operators have the ability to transmit and relay messages though which is unique. Given a situation in which cell towers are down, messages can be relayed in and out of effected areas that may otherwise be cut off. Ham radio is not for everyone, but it’s not a bad idea to know someone who is into it, in the event of an emergency.
Actually voyager, while you might not need a light yourself, having one might help you if you were ever lost. The light could pin point your location.
Good point and come to think of it, they make wearable lights that make the wearer very visible and weigh almost nothing. I have a plastic dog collar that flashes.
Just a quick question, where'd you store your fallout shelter with all of this. If Kihm Jung decides to blow us away all of the survival gear in the world won't do us much good.
Just a piece of America if he can get his missles to work.
I had the same thought, if you happen to be unlucky enough to live in a strike zone, you will survive or you won't, but your gear won't be much use.
The people in Japan some survived, others didn't.
I sincerely think we should go back to the old days when leaders had to actually go to war and lead. They'd think twice about serten things I believe.
This is a pretty comprehensive list, if you do have time to prepare, to standby, and wait for some things to happen. there are times where you need to flee in seconds, or sudden unforeseen situation happen e.g. earthquake etc etc. I suppose, it is good to make sure that you always have your phone charge, and have your important identity with you. even if you pack everything, but if you don't have any official identity, or if your phone battery is flat, and your power bank battery is flat, it won't be any use. Also, most of the items on the list requires you to have some means of power connection. Which is great, if you can get to a power station, or access to one. But more important, do your regular checkups, and make sure that whatever you have on your survival list are fully charge, or fully functional. One of the item on the list is radio. well, if you have a radio that need power to operate, but can't be operate by battery, is useless. For example, I have friends that have first aid qit that is at least 5 years old, all the cream and medication and whatever you need in a first aid qit are either harden up or expired. what is the use of having a useless first aid qit if you can't keep it up-to-date? :) #justsaying