I and S - Improvise and Scrounge

Improvising and scrounging are two very important skills to learn for preparedness and survival. One of the things I have tried to drill into the readers of my newsletter is to do the best you can, with what you have NOW!

In the recent past it was my belief that money was the primary limiting factor on an individuals preparedness plans. However, now I believe that attitude, creativity, and doing the best with what you have now are as or more important than money

Yes, it would be ideal if you could buy a 5-year supply of Mountain House freeze-dried meals in the # 10 cans. However, most people won’t have the money to do that. However, there is nothing stopping most people from buying 1 or 2 cans per month.

Improvising is doing the best you can with what you have now. So lets say that purchasing 1 or 2 cans per month of Mountain House freeze-dried food is too much. You can stock up on dried beans and grains like rice. Buy them in bags at your grocery store and put them in plastic pails with lids on them secured by Gorilla tape.

Scrounging is when you actively search for something you need. Usually if you find what you need, there will be an element of barter involved.

For those of you who are Star Wars fans, you will remember C3PO, a protocol droid fluent in over 6 million forms of communication. Another droid who never made it to the big screen but was in some of the Star Wars books was M3PO, a military droid. Image C3PO in olive green instead of gold. In addition to M3PO’s military training, he was loaded with commodities trading software so he could “scrounge” for what his unit needed when deployed to some backwater planet. Earth could become a backwater planet during several TEOTWAWKI scenarios such as a 1 mile wide asteroid hitting the planet or even a limited nuclear war between the United States and Russia or China.

So how does one learn to scrounge?

First, you’ve got to know your area and know your neighbors. If you don’t know your neighbors and your area, scrounging is going to be difficult. If your neighbor Jack is a welder, you know he’s probably got welding equipment and welding rods. If your neighbor Bill is a carpenter, you know he will have hand tools.

Problem: You need some welding done on your trailer. Jack, the welder will do it in exchange for a large hammer. What do you do? You find something you have the Bill wants and trade that something to Bill the carpenter who gives you a big hammer. You give the hammer to Jack, the welder and Jack does the welding needed on your truck.

The previous example is a good reason to get to know your neighbors and what they do for a living and what skills they have.

Learning your area is also important. Learn what items are in demand in your area and learn who has them. Stockpile these items if possible or have some good or skill you can trade for them.

The Fundamental Law of All Preparedness

The fundamental law of all preparedness is Murphy’s Law, which states: “Whatever is the worst possible event that can occur will occur, and it will occur at the worst possible time.”

Learn it, live it, love it, because it is the truth.

In virtually any situation , if you determine what is the worst possible event that can happen, prepare for it to the best of your ability and to the degree that your money allows, you will usually be on fairly stable ground.

For example, when you go out in a boat, what is the worst event that can happen? Sinking. And when is the worst possible time that it can occur? The time you have no life-jackets on the boat. Therefore, it’s good to make it a rule to always carry a life jacket for each person on the boat. Yet people go boating all the time with no life jackets. Why? They lack something, and that something is what I call RATIONAL CAUTION.

What differentiates RATIONAL CAUTION from paranoia is that rational caution is proactive, paranoia is reactive. A person who has true paranoia see’s danger coming from every direction, but yet such a person rarely if ever studies their situation and apply Murphy’s law to their situation. Such a person is almost never proactive. There are exceptions, but as a GENERAL RULE (a general rule is a rule that applies between 7 and 9 times in 10) most paranoids are almost totally reactive.

Simply put, rational caution makes you sleep better at night, while paranoia keeps you awake

Some Basic Preparedness Questions

1. How much potable (drinkable) water do I have in storage and how long would it last me and my family if all other sources of water were gone? Ideally, you want to have 2 gallons per person per day. If most of your stored food is freeze dried or dehydrated, raise this amount to 3 gallons per person per day.

2. What chemicals and/or devices do I have to make non-potable (non-drinkable) water fit to drink? Chemical treatments include chlorine, iodine, and hydrogen peroxide. Devices may include equipment to boil water, charcoal filters, reverse osmosis devices, ultraviolet light system, and distillation apparatus.

Most everyone has the ability to boil water. Boiling will not remove the particulate matter in non-potable water, but it will generally kill most micro-organisms. Boil the water for 10 minutes.


3. How much stored food do I have and how long would it last if all outside sources of food were gone AND all sources of electric power were gone? HINT: This means all frozen food and foods requiring refrigeration are GONE. (Freeze-dried food is the best for long term storage, but it is expensive relative to other foods for storage. Canned goods are the option many people will have to use.)

4. How much essential medications do I have on hand and how long would they last if all sources of them were gone? (Essential medications are over the counter and prescription medications you take on a daily or near daily basis.) If you take a lot of prescription medications, this may be a very important issue for you. For Prescription medications, most insurance companies will pay for only a month’s supply at a time. There are ways around this I will address in a future issue.

What about over the counter medications you use on a regular basis? How long would your supply last if you were cut off from all sources of these medications?

5. Do you own any firearms? If yes, do you know how to use them? Are they reliable? Guns that have not been shot in 50 years should be considered unreliable until proven otherwise. What about ammunition? How much of it do you have?

With regard to preparedness I CONSERVATIVELY estimate that for every 1 person who is prepared, there will be 199 who are not prepared. When a crisis comes (and it will), those who did not prepare are going to come to those who did and try to get help. Some of those seeking help will ask. Some will not be so polite and they will try to take your preparedness supplies. That is why firearms are so important.

Understand the following and understand it well. You are under no moral obligation to help those who could have prepared but decided not to prepare. Perhaps they spent all their extra money on SUV’s, etc. YOUR PRIMARY DUTY IS TO YOUR FAMILY.

WHEN THE UNPREPARED COME TO TAKE THE SUPPLIES YOU STOCKPILED FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, YOU MAY HAVE TO USE DEADLY FORCE. THIS IS WHY FIREARMS ARE SO VERY IMPORTANT IN ANY SURVIVAL PLAN.

Some will no doubt say that such a stance is un-Christian. If you believe such a stance is un-Christian, I suggest you read 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8.

One of the best recommendations I can give you is to keep your preparedness efforts secret. Tell your other family members, including the kids, to keep your preparedness efforts secret. That way, when a crisis comes, you may not have to worry about the unprepared trying to beat down your door.

6. What supplies do you have for energy? Generators are good, provided you know how to use them and they are reliable. What about natural gas? Do you have cylinders or tanks of it and heating devices that run off it? There are a lot of fuels you can use for energy-gasoline, diesel, kerosene, propane, methane, liquid propane, and white gas. Each fuel type has its own advantages and its own disadvantages.

You have 3 main areas of concern here:

1. Energy to run essential electric and communications equipment.
2. Energy for cooking and for some water purification systems.
3. Energy for heating and cooling.

Generators are a great investment if you can afford them. Many experts agree that the most reliable generators for long term use (day or weeks) are the diesel kind that run at 1800 revolutions per minute. When choosing a generator, you want to get as much power as is needed to the degree your money will allow. However, don’t plan to run everything in your house during a crisis. Plan to run only the essential items.

Don’t get me wrong. If you have a lot of money you can buy a generator system that will run EVERYTHING if the power goes down, but you are going to spend a good amount of money to get such a system.

One of the best investments you can make for cooking is a wood stove, provided you live in a region where wood is abundant. The Coleman Company also makes a wide variety of cooking devices that run off small, portable propane cylinders or Coleman fuel. These cooking devices are so small even an apartment dweller can store them.

Energy for heating does not have to come from electricity. Many companies make space heaters that run off propane or other gases. Your main area of concern when using these systems indoors or in areas that are not well ventilated is the buildup of carbon monoxide gas.

7. How much CASH money do you have on hand?

In a crisis, you can work off the assumption that checks and credit cards will not be honored. The more severe the crisis, the more this will be the case.

Start putting back a little bit of cash every month. Even if it is only $5.00 per month or less, that is a start. Put it in a secure place and in a place where it is safe from fire. In a crisis, this stockpile of cash will come in handy.

Ethics-Helping Those Who Cannot or Will Not Prepare

There are some people in this world who do not see or understand the value in being prepared. The people who make up this group represent about 99 percent of this planet’s population. Because such people make up such a large group, it is very dangerous for the people who do prepare to believe that the people who do not prepare will have no affect on us should a crisis present itself.

You may be thinking: “Who cares? They had their chance to prepare, and they didn’t!” Well, life is never that cut and dry. Also, the question is one of ethics, doing what is right. What really is the point of surviving if your going to have to live out your days with people who are moral cretins? Indeed, if that is the world we who prepare will have to inhabit after a crisis, we had better come up with methods to purchase and store lots more ammunition.

So who do you help and who gets priority. In answering this question I look to the Judeo-Christian Ethic.

1. Your first duty is to your spouse and your children. If you are serious about preparedness your spouse and children should already be covered to the extent that your funds will allow.

2. Your parents come in second after your immediate family. Your parents may not have believed in preparedness or they may not have had the money to prepare, but the reason they did not prepare is irrelevant. You have a moral obligation to help them in a crisis. However, what defines “help” is indeed a tricky issue. Also, keep in mind that your duty to your spouse and children DOES take priority over your duty to your parents, per my interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Ethic.

I wrote in an earlier issue of this newsletter that one of the best policies to adopt is to keep your preparedness activities secret. Don’t discuss your preparedness activities with anyone except those people who are in what you might loosely refer to as a “network” of others involved in preparedness in your area, and even then be very careful. Teach your children not to discuss your activities like food storage with other children. In a crisis, the unprepared will come and beat at your door the same way the unbelievers came to the door of Noah’s ark when the rain started.

With that in mind, if your parents live close to you, say 50 miles or less, taking them into your own survival retreat is probably the best course of action, PROVIDED they can keep their mouths shut. If they are inherently more concerned about the survival of their own family over the survival of others (non-family), a quality shared by virtually all rational people, you are probably on safe ground. However, if they are of the type that spout off mindless religious mantras such as “All people are equal in God’s eyes.”, (A TRUE statement when taken in it’s proper context) then you are going to have problems. Simply put, if your parents have the “egalitarian socialist ethic”, and they will tell everyone they talk to about you cache of food and supplies because doing anything else would be “unfair”, you are better off helping them out from a distance, by giving them food, medicine, money, and supplies but NOT bringing them into your survival retreat. Keep in mind however that if they are the type who tell everything they know to everyone, once they realize you have supplies, everyone who has any contact with them will also know you have supplies. So your BEST option for helping in such a situation might be to give them food, medicine, money, and supplies anonymously.

If your parents live a long distance from you, say over 200 miles, giving them any real help in a big crisis is going to be hard. My advice is to plan ahead. If your parents who live far away are not in the habit of being prepared, the Christmas season provides a wonderful opportunity to help them. Potential Christmas gifts in such a situation might include generators, a supply of freeze dried food, emergency medical kits, books on preparedness, water purification equipment, cold weather clothing, propane cylinders and heaters, pump action shotguns with 1000 rounds of ammunition, you get the idea. IMPORTANT: DO NOT BEAT THEM OVER THE HEAD WITH THE PREPAREDNESS SERMON-A MAN CONVINCED AGAINST HIS WILL IS OF THE SAME OPINION STILL.


3. Your siblings, brothers and sisters, come in 3rd place, and all of the warnings and suggestions I gave in the section on parents apply here.

4. Your extended family comes in 4th. This includes aunts, uncles, and cousins. Again, all the warnings and suggestions in the section on parents apply here as well.

It’s doubtful, neigh impossible, for a single member of a family who did prepare, to effectively help all 4 groups without killing their own family in the process. If you can help your parents and siblings, you will be doing far more than most. Always remember who takes priority over who.

Assuming it would actually be possible (it isn’t) to help all family members including extended family, one would now be faced with the question of what type of help, if any, should I give to non-family members who did not prepare? Keep in mind that from this point on what I am discussing is largely theoretical.

If one group came to mind, it would be those non-family members who were not able to prepare themselves because of severe mental or physical disability. If you were to find yourself in a position to help such a person without compromising your family, then help them. Why? Because they are entitled to our help by right? No. Because it is simply the decent thing to do. I would also add that as a student of preparedness, this is the one group of the non-prepared that I would have sympathy for, and more importantly, empathy for, in a crisis.

After those who were not able to prepare because of severe mental or physical disability, it is probably the right thing to put the poor next in line. By poor, I mean those individuals who had no money to prepare because just surviving normal day to day living took all of their money. I AM NOT speaking of individuals who were “poor” because they lost all their money at the casino’s, or on other self-destructive activities.

Excluding those individuals with severe mental or physical disabilities and the poor, essentially everyone else you will deal with in a crisis had some chance and ability to prepare, but chose not to. Maybe they lived in a house that was too big. Maybe they had expensive vehicles. Maybe they had expensive recreational activities. Maybe they were simply stupid, or worse yet, intelligent but purposely ignored the facts.

When dealing with those who could have prepared but chose not to, there is really only one guiding principle: Be a decent human being guided by rational self-interest. Rational self-interest is not an immoral concept, as many people would have you believe. In fact, during and after a crisis, it is perhaps the most ethical position one can take when dealing with those non-family who were unprepared by choice. Why? Because there is no reasonable way one can judge who among this group is more worthy of help. Sure, you COULD judge them by what they say, but their action of non-action, being unprepared when they had the means to be prepared, speaks louder than anything they can or will say.

Remember, I said be a decent human being. Do not exploit the position of such a person, but DO engage in value for value transactions when dealing with those who are non-prepared by choice. If you help them, make sure you get some kind of benefit in return. Benefits are not always concrete things like food and supplies. A benefit might be technical expertise. A benefit might be intelligence. A benefit might be something as simple as the advise from an older person with more real world experience than you. Just make sure you get SOMETHING of value in return for your aid.

When crisis comes, you cannot sacrifice for everyone. If you attempt to do so your preparedness efforts made for your family will amount to nothing. Family comes first.

With this in mind it seems no surprise to me that one of the goals of socialism is to destroy the family unit, and replace the family unit with the state. The Most High God established the family unit as the foundation of society. So if anyone tells you that you should sacrifice the preparedness you made for your family for the good of the unprepared masses, remember whose side such a person is on.

Thomas Jefferson’s Ten Rules

We would all be much happier if we followed these.

1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend money before you earn it.

4. Never buy what you don’t want because it is cheap.

5. Pride cost more than hunger, thirst, or cold.

6. We seldom repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

8. How much pain the evils cost us that never happened.

9. Take things always by a smooth handle.

10. When angry, count to ten before you speak:if very angry count a hundred.

Applying the Nez Perce Survivor Rule of Three’s

The Nez Perce Indian tribe was the first group to fully develop the survivor rule of 3's. Preparedness author Ragnar Benson describes the rule of 3's like this: “The Nez Perce discovered that for everything really, truly important to life, three separate and distinct methods of supply must be developed.” That quote was from Ragnar’s book Ragnar’s Urban Survival: A Hard-Times Guide to Staying Alive in the City. To my readers who do not own a copy of this book, I give it the highest recommendation. You should own this book even if you DO NOT live in the city, as it is a treasure house of practical information about all aspects of preparedness and survival.

Comment: It is my opinion that Ragnar Benson and Duncan Long are the two best survival and preparedness writers on this planet. If you have the money, I recommend you purchase and read every book they have published.

Lets now study how we can apply this rule to the most fundamental survival supplies. Remember, that for each topic covered, you want to have at least three methods readily available.

Water Purification

Method 1-BOILING-This is the most basic way to kill micro-organisms in water. In issue 1 I described a basic, bare bones survival kit. One thing I mentioned was a small stainless steel ceramic coated pot for boiling water. If you boil water for 15 minutes, you will kill virtually all of the micro-organisms in the water. Some say that 15 minutes of boiling is overkill. However, I doubt that any of the people who say 15 minutes of boiling is overkill have ever experienced giardia (pronounced jar-dee-ah), also called “beaver fever” because the organisms that cause it are found in the fecal matter of beavers as well as other animals. Giardia is very unpleasant. Boiling is the bare bones water treatment method, meaning virtually anyone can afford the equipment to do it.

BOILING IS THE BEST AND MOST RELIABLE METHOD FOR KILLING ALL STOMACH AND INTESTINAL PATHOGENS THAT ARE ACTIVE IN MAN THAT CAN BE CONTRACTED FROM WATER.

Comment: The drug of choice for treating giardia (beaver fever) is the antibiotic metronidazole, sold under the trade name Flagyl.

Method 2-WATER FILTERS AND PURIFIERS- There are several means of treating water that utilize technology.

The KATADYNE FILTER SYSTEM is one of the best on the market. Most of the Katadyn units will filter micro-organisms down to the size of 0.2 microns. This level of filtration will remove giardia and cryptosporidian, two of the most common causes of waterborne illness. Katadyn makes units small enough for one person and units that can treat water for a large group. The Katadyn website is www.katadyn.us/ .

The STERIPEN is a device that purifies water by using ultraviolet light. You put the pen in a glass of water, turn it on and stir the water for around a minute. This device also kills cryptosporidian and giardia. This is an excellent item to put in your personal survival kit, but I do not think this unit is practical for large scale water purification. The Steri-Pen website is www.steripen.com . The companies toll-free phone number is 1-888-826-6234.

The MIOX unit is a device that works like this: Place some table salt and a small amount of water in the unit and turn it on. When turned on the unit runs an electric current through the salt solution, causing a chemical change in the solution. The solution is then poured into the water you want to purify. I do not know the specific chemical change that takes place when the electric current goes through the water, however, since table salt (sodium chloride NaCl) is used, it is almost a certainty that the chlorine atom is separated from the sodium atom by the electric current.. The manufacturer claims the Miox unit is effective against crptosporidian and giardia.

The Miox unit and the Steri-Pen unit are very small and easy to transport, but they are expensive relative to boiling. Depending on where you purchase them, these units could cost from one hundred to two hundred dollars. The various Katadyn systems start at prices below one hundred dollars, but larger units can cost more than one thousand dollars

Method(s) 3-CHEMICAL TREATMENTS- There are numerous chemical treatments that can be used to purify water.

CHLORINE BLEACH (CLOROX)-Standard Clorox bleach has 5.25 percent available chlorine. The active ingredient in Clorox bleach is sodium hypochlorite (NaHOCl). WHEN USING CHLORINE BLEACH FOR WATER PURIFICATION, MAKE SURE THE PRODUCT YOU BUY HAS NO SOAP, SCENTS, OR PHOSPHATES IN IT. If it has any of these present, it should not be used for water purification. Many companies add soap or scents to their chlorine bleach since the most common use for chlorine bleach is cleaning.

Warning-chlorine bleach (Clorox) does not kill giardia and cryptosporidian.

If the chlorine bleach you are using has 5.25 to 6.00 percent available chlorine, use 8 drops per gallon to treat water if the water is clear. If the water is cloudy use 16 drops per gallon.

Note: Over a period of a year, chlorine bleach loses about 50 percent of it’s water purifying power. If your bleach is over one year old, you will need to double the numbers from the previous paragraph. IF CHLORINE BLEACH IS GOING TO BE A BIG PART OF YOUR WATER PURIFICATION PLAN, IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO WRITE THE DATE YOU PURCHASED IT ON THE CONTAINER WITH A PERMANENT MARKER. This is not a perfect solution because you will probably not know how long the bleach has been sitting on the store shelf. You can minimize the problem this poses by purchasing your bleach from establishments that sell it in large amounts, where the stock of bleach will be constantly depleted and replaced.


CALCIUM HYPOCHLORITE-Calcium hypochlorite is used mostly for treating the water in swimming pools, but it can be used for making drinkable water. Unlike sodium hypochlorite (Clorox), it is a solid, not a liquid. To disinfect water, add 1 heaping teaspoon of calcium hypochlorite with 2 gallons of water. This mixture will produce a chlorine solution of 500 milligrams per liter. Add 1 pint (16 ounces) of this chlorine solution to every 12.5 gallons of water.

Warning-calcium hypochlorite does not kill giardia and cryptosporidian.

CHLORINE DIOXIDE-This product is marketed by the Katadyn company under the name Micropur Purification Tablets. This product is effective against bacteria, viruses, giardia, and cryptosporidium. I really like this product and I recommend you use it over any of the iodine treatments we will cover next. Chlorine dioxide’s ability to kill bacteria is relatively unaffected by pH values between 4 and 10. It is also effective for washing vegetables. IF YOU CHOOSE ONLY 1 CHEMICAL WATER TREATMENT, THIS IS THE ONE I RECOMMEND. The Katadyn website is www.katadyn.us Their phone number is 1-800-755-6701. Comment: This product takes 30 minutes to kill giardia and 4 hours to kill cryptosporidian.

IODINE TREATMENTS-A warning about iodine treatments: It appears that while iodine can kill bacteria, viruses, and giardia, IODINE IN THE DOSES RECOMMENDED BY THE MANUFACTURER WILL NOT KILL CRYPTOSPORIDIAN. Therefore, I do not recommend iodine treatments of any kind as a first line water treatment. Iodine treated water can be toxic if the iodine crystals are not removed before drinking, and some people are allergic to iodine.

Fire

Fire is so essential to survival I believe you should have not 3, but at least 5 ways of making it. There are 3 items you should have in every survival kit.

1. A BIC TYPE DISPOSABLE LIGHTER. Ideally purchase a pack of 2 or 3 and leave them in the plastic until they are needed.
2. A ZIPPO TYPE WINDPROOF LIGHTER and a bottle of lighter fluid and a pack of extra flints.
3. 4 BOXES OF WATERPROOF MATCHES.

It’s a good idea to keep these three items in a zip lock plastic bag. If you store your kit in your vehicle and you park your vehicle in a hot area, you will need to check the Bic type lighters from time to time as the fuel will evaporate over time even if they are in the plastic package. The same is true for the lighter fluid for the Zippo type lighter.

Comment: In survival situations, there is no point roughing it simply for the sake of roughing it. In fact, such action is stupid and has the potential to get you killed. It may be good to know how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but don’t plan on using such primitive methods to save your life or the life of your loved ones. When emergencies occur, you will be stressed enough, so don’t make things harder than they need to be by resorting to primitive methods when there are more effective methods available.

Lets look at some other sources of fire.

LIFEBOAT MATCHES-these matches are virtually impossible to blow out once they are lit. However, the downside is that they are very hard to strike. Once lit they burn for 7 seconds or so. They are also waterproof, but do not use these in place of the waterproof matches I mention in the 3 items for every kit. These things are just too hard to light. They do have their place if you live or are traveling to an arctic environment with high winds.

FIRE GEL-also called fire paste, this product comes in a tube a little smaller than a toothpaste tube. It has the thickness close to that of pancake syrup. You simply squeeze the gel onto the item you want to burn and light it. I think this is a very good product, however, you should keep your tube of fire gel in a zip lock bag as if the tube leaks, you do not want it to spill into your survival kit.

CHEMICAL FIRE-There are several chemicals that can be stored separately that will spontaneously burn when combined. One such combination is potassium permanganate (KMnO4), a solid, sugar (sucrose), a solid, and glycerine, a liquid. When these three chemicals are combined, they spontaneously burn. If you choose to use this method, each chemical should be kept in an unbreakable container with a secure top.

THE BIRTHDAY CANDLE THAT CANNOT BE BLOWN OUT-Most of you have probably seen these gag candles at a birthday party. The person blowing out the candles on the cake can never blow these out. If you can find these, GET THEM. A candle that cannot be blown out can be very effective in building fires, especially in high winds.

PARAFFIN/SAWDUST FIRE STARTERS-These fire starters can be purchased or made at home. They contain paraffin wax that is impregnated with sawdust. They are excellent for getting a fire going. One of the benefits of making them yourself is that you can make them in any size or shape you like.

To make them yourself you will need a double boiler. A double boiler consist of two deep pots, one larger than the other. The large pot is filled with water. The smaller pot is placed into the larger pot filled with water. The larger pot is heated and the water in it transfers the heat to the smaller pot, in which you will put the paraffin and sawdust. You DO NOT want to put a pot with paraffin wax in direct contact with a flame, as a fire will result. That is why you use the double boiler.
Once the double boiler becomes hot, place the paraffin in the smaller pot and allow it to soften to a liquid. Once the paraffin is in a liquid state, add the sawdust to the mixture and stir until you get a homogenous mix. While the paraffin and sawdust mixture is still liquid, pour it into whatever mold you have selected. Some people use ice cube trays, but you can use a mold of whatever size and shape you choose. IDEALLY, YOU SHOULD DO THIS PROCESS OUTDOORS. DO NOT OVERHEAT THE PARAFFIN AS IT WILL BURN IF YOU OVERHEAT IT.

PROPANE TORCH-These are the small brazing torches that are found in hardware stores. You simply screw in a cylinder of propane and light the torch. While used mostly for brazing copper pipe, there is no reason they could not be used as a fire starting tool, especially in wet conditions. The small torch and the cylinder would take up little space in a large survival kit, and in wet or snow conditions this item would make fire building much easier.

COMMENT: Don’t be afraid to improvise when it comes to preparedness and survival. If something like the propane torch mentioned above works, USE IT! There are no set rules in this whole preparedness and survival thing. Use what works! If you have an idea that seems crazy, test it! If it works, use it!

Food

You need 3 sources of food. Some of your food will be in the form of stored food, some of it will not.

FREEZE-DRIED FOOD-This is the best food for storage. It is more expensive than some other stored food, but if it is economically possible, this is the best food to purchase for long term storage. Mountain House is the best freeze-dried food company in this writer’s opinion. That does not mean that other companies that produce freeze-dried items are of poor quality. Mountain House cans are made of stainless steel and are coated with a substance similar to nail polish to seal any micro-defects in the stainless steel. Mountain House claims these cans can stay fresh 20 years or longer if they are unopened and stored in a cool, dry area. I believe their claim. Also, Mountain House freeze-dried food is very good. In emergencies good food can make a big difference in the morale of you and your loved ones. Remember to factor in the amount of water that is needed to reconstitute freeze-dried food in your water storage plan.


MRE’s-Meals ready to eat, the standard ration of the U.S. Military. At least one U.S. military man has called them “meals ready to exit”. Also keep in mind that like everything else the military purchases in large amounts, MRE’s are produced by the lowest bidder. If you are going to use MRE’s as part of your food storage plan, I suggest you buy them from many different suppliers, thereby minimizing the chance of getting a bad batch of MRE’s.


DRIED BEANS AND GRAINS-I discussed this in the last issue of the newsletter, and for some of you, this may be an option you will have to go with. If you combine the right beans with the right grains, you can get a complete protein, just like that in meat. If dried beans and grains are going to be a large part of your food storage plan, I suggest you supplement your diet with vitamins, especially vitamin B-12.


DEHYDRATED FOOD-Given the marginal difference between the cost of freeze-dried food and dehydrated food and the fact that both require water to reconstitute the food, I advise that you do not use dehydrated food. The quality and storage life of dehydrated food is less than that of freeze-dried food.



GARDENS-If you have the land to do it on, I advise that you plant a warm weather garden in the spring and cold weather gardens in the fall.. Include vegetables that you like to eat. Some plants I consider essentials include:

hot peppers-for seasoning bland food and for their high vitamin C value-8 times that of citrus fruits
tomatoes-good for stews, soups
potatoes-another source for vitamin C, also a very filling food
carrots-good source of vitamin A

One excellent book on survival gardening is Gardening when it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon.

Fertilizer is important for gardening if you live in an area with nutrient poor soil. In crisis situations, you should work off the assumption that you WILL NOT be able to purchase commercial fertilizers. Therefore, you may have to make your own. The book I listed above has a recipe for making fertilizer.

You can create a simple but effective fertilizer by using wood ashes, ground animal bones, and dried animal blood. It’s a good idea to put such a mixture directly into the soil instead of applying it directly to the plants and the soil surface since it can burn plants due to the high nitrogen content of the animal blood.

GREENHOUSES-If you have a large home in the city, you can easily turn a room in your house into a green house. This will give you the ability to grow fruits and vegetables all year long. You can also make a greenhouse by adding on a section to your house for that purpose. Adding a section onto your home for a greenhouse can be expensive, and it is not for everyone. However, if you love gardening, this is an option worth studying. With a greenhouse you also have the option of using hydroponics, growing plants using water/nutrient solutions but with no soil. Hydroponics is not cheap, but those who use this method for gardening say their produce taste much better than anything grown in soil.

LIVESTOCK-For those of you who live in the cities, this is not a good option. However, for those of you who live outside the cities this is something worth considering. The main issue is deciding what livestock to raise.

Ideally, you want livestock that is low maintenance, but “low maintenance” is relative to other livestock. However, I think it is safe to say that unless you are already in the business of raising them, beef cattle are out. The same goes for dairy cattle.

Pigs are a good option. In times of low food, pigs can fend for themselves to some degree. They are more intelligent than dogs and have a sense of smell better than a dog. Purchase as many as you can comfortably maintain. In determining what is comfortable you have to consider how much money you have to spend for feed and medicine and how much time you have to do all the things that are necessary for the pigs upkeep.

Chickens are another option to consider. Guinea hens provide an intruder early warning system in addition to their egg production and their food value. There are many companies on the internet that sell chickens and all the equipment and medicine to raise them.


AQUA CULTURE-I’m talking about ponds. If you have a lot of rural land, ponds are an excellent option for a reliable food supply.
Fish-There are a large variety of fresh water game fish you can stock your pond with. However, digging and setting up a fish pond is something you will probably need expert help with. Once set up though, you will have a fairly reliable source of food. There is some routine maintenance involved such as water testing.

Turtles-If you have a fish pond and you decide to add a turtle pond, you are going to have to put a fence around the turtle pond to keep the turtles from getting into your fish pond and eating the fish. However, there is not a lot of maintenance required for a turtle pond. Alligator snapping turtles are a good species to consider putting in your turtle pond. They grow very large producing a lot of meat. They are very aggressive, all the more reason to have a fence around the turtle pond. A little known fact: 4 tablespoons of turtle blood have as much nutrition as 10 eggs.

The turtle pond will need to be stocked with some fish so the turtles will have a source of food. Frogs will also naturally migrate to a pond and they will also serve as a food source for the turtles.





WILD GAME-LAND ANIMAL-In my last issue, I wrote an article about a preparedness fantasy some people have. In that fantasy they get their gun and go out and kill wild game to feed their family during a large scale crisis. In that article, I explained why that just won’t work. However, one can look at wild game as a food source of opportunity. If it appears, there is no reason not to take advantage of it.

Taking advantage of it requires the right guns. A rifle chambered for the 30:06 Springfield caliber can take down any animal on the North American Continent when loaded with a cartridge that has a Swift A-Frame bullet. The Remington Safari Grade ammunition is loaded with this bullet.

For smaller game, the 12 gauge shotgun is your best choice. The key here is to get 12 gauge shells of varying shot size so you can kill small game as large as turkey all the way down to game as small as doves. I say it is your best choice because in addition to killing small game with the correct size shot, it can kill larger animals if loaded with buckshot or slugs.

When going after wild game that presents itself, remember the survivor rule of thermodynamics: Never expend more energy to get the food than you get from the food. For example, lets say you kill 2 quails and get 500 calories of food from each of them for a total of 1000 calories. However, you stalked them for 3 hours in the cold and rain and burned 1500 calories. You burned 1500 calories to get 1000 calories. Do you know what you got? Nothing? No, you got worse than nothing. You got 500 calories closer to starvation because you burned 500 calories more than you acquired from your hunt.

YOU WILL NOT BE A SURVIVOR IF YOU RUN AROUND IN THE WOODS ALL DAY LOOKING FOR GAME. IF THE GAME PRESENTS ITSELF, TAKE IT, BUT DO NOT MAKE ANY GREAT ENERGY EXPENDITURES TO GET IT.

If you are not a hunter, it is a good idea to find out what wild game is available in your area and to study the behavior of those animals.
Understanding the behavior of the game will increase your chances of successfully killing it should the opportunity present itself.

WILD GAME-AQUATIC ANIMAL-Rivers, lakes, ponds, and the oceans are full of food-IF you have the tools to take it. A good rod and reel are the bare minimum tools you will need to take fish, but the rod and reel is not the most energy and time efficient means of doing so. Nets are far superior, and you get a much greater return for the time and energy you expend. In most areas, nets are not allowed, but remember, we are talking about emergency situations. If you have the means, purchasing and storing nets is a good idea if you live close to any bodies of water that contain fish.

COMMENT-There is a website called Buckshot’s Camp that sells an excellent emergency fishing kit.

In my state, Alabama, it’s common to see trot lines whenever you are boating in rivers. The trot line is a fishing method that requires little energy. You simply deploy the trot line, leave it, and come back periodically to check it to see if fish have taken the bait.

Fish are not the only aquatic animals. Most survival experts DO NOT recommend hunting alligators or crocodiles for survival food, and while I do not consider myself an “expert”, as a general rule, I have to agree that hunting these animals is more danger than it is worth. But there are exceptions. In areas like Louisiana, Florida, southern Alabama, southern Mississippi, and southern Georgia, there are a LOT of alligators. While I don’t recommend anyone go into the swamps to try to kill one, if the opportunity presents itself in an emergency situation and you have the proper tools, take it. For example, if you live in one of these areas, and during an emergency you find that a gator has wondered onto your property, you have a very good opportunity to get a lot of food with little energy expenditure.

So what are the proper tools for taking a gator? Firearms. Rifles of at least .30 caliber (.308, 30:06) or 12 gauge shotguns loaded with 00 (double ought) or 000 (triple ought) buckshot should be used. Long barreled hunting revolvers in calibers of .44 magnum and above can be used also. Head shots are essential, and you should shoot multiple shots to be safe. However, these animals have very small brains, so multiple shots to the body between the two front legs and the two hind legs are equally essential. DO NOT SHOOT THE TAIL-THIS IS WHERE THE MEAT IS LOCATED. After you shoot the animal, wait for a while before approaching it to be sure it is dead. Before approaching, it is a good idea to throw rocks or large sticks at the animal, again to make sure it is dead. IF YOU APPROACH THESE ANIMALS, AND THEY ARE NOT DEAD, THE ODDS ARE VERY GOOD THAT YOU WILL BE.

When making the decision whether to approach or not, ask the following question: “ Did the animal die in a hail of gunfire?” If the answer is anything other than “yes” you are treading on very dangerous ground.

A few other safety items come to mind when dealing with alligators and crocodiles:

1. If an alligator or crocodile is on land and a good distance from the water, you may try to take it if you have the correct firearms, however, DO NOT TRY TO KILL THESE ANIMALS IF THEY ARE IN THE WATER, AT THE WATERS EDGE, OR WITHIN 50 YARDS OF WATER. Why? 2 reasons. First, where there is one of these animals there will be more. If you get close to the water the animal crawled out of, you will be in danger because there will be more of these animals in that water. Second, these animals move somewhat slow on land, but in water they can move very fast and move in a very stealthy manner. Taking these animals in water is exceptionally difficult even for professionals and requires a group of people. It is simply stupid for one individual to try to take an animal of this type in water.

2. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE FROM THESE ANIMALS. In the above paragraph, I said these animals move “somewhat” slow on land. This does not mean they move so slow that you can be careless. THESE ANIMALS ARE DANGEROUS ON LAND. A swipe from the tail of one of these animals can break the bone in your thigh. Do not get closer than 30 yards to these animals unless you are sure they are dead.

3. Always keep in mind that these animals kill and eat humans on a regular basis.

The tail is the part of these animals you want to take. The meat from these animals tastes like something between chicken and fish.

Comment: If you are going to use a rifle to kill these animals, I recommend ammunition loaded with the Swift A-Frame bullet, such as Remington Safari Grade ammunition.


I hope this article has, if nothing else, started you to thinking about how you can apply the Nez Perce Rule of 3's to your own situation.

Sugardyne-The Poor Man's Antibiotic

Monday, March 22, 2010
Sugardyne-The Poor Man's Antibiotic

Warning: The following treatment is for use when professional medical care is delayed or outright unavailable due to any number of emergency or catastrophic situations. Always seek professional medical care when it is available.

In any survival or emergency situation, there will almost always be wounded. Because of this, infection control is of paramount importance. In an ideal situation, modern antibiotics and antiseptics will be available. But what about the less than ideal situation? Is there anything one can do to treat infection? Yes. All you need is providone-iodine solution (Betadine) and table sugar (sucrose). With these two ingredients, you can make a treatment called Sugardyne.

I first learned about Sugardyne when reading the book Ditch Medicine by Hugh L.Coffee. It is an excellent medical book for any preparedness library, especially for those who have emergency medical training. The book focuses on medical treatments in the field under less than ideal circumstances. It is available from Paladin Press, a company whose catalog is a must have for any student of preparedness.

Sugardyne is a mixture of granulated sugar (sucrose), the same stuff you put in your coffee and tea, and a solution of providone-iodine (Betadine). This mixture is placed directly into wounds. This product was manufactured for a short time by Sugardyne Pharmaceuticals of Greenville, Mississippi. It is my understanding that the company was forced to close by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This was supposedly done to “protect” the public. Despite the fact that we are all now “protected”, do not be alarmed. Sugardyne is easy to make.

When making Sugardine, the providone-iodine (Betadine) liquid should be added to the granulated sugar in amounts so that the sugar takes on the red color of the providone-iodine liquid, but does not loose it’s crystalline form. You don’t want to add so much providone-iodine liquid (Betadine) that the sugar turns to syrup or liquid. Why? Because of the scientific basis for this treatment. High concentrations of sugar are deadly to infectious bacteria because the high concentrations of sugar cause osmotic shock in the bacteria. In simple terms this means the sugar pulls water out of the bacteria, dehydrating them, and this inhibits their growth. So if you add so much providone-iodine (Betadine) solution that the sugar crystals go liquid, you won’t be able to tell when to put in new Sugardyne. As the Sugardyne pulls water out of the bacteria by osmotic shock, the sugar crystals become liquid, letting you know its time to add new Sugardyne.

Before using Sugardyne, the wound should be cleaned and debrided as with any other wound. After this, the Sugardyne should be placed into the wound. Again, after a period of time, the sugar crystals will become liquid. When this occurs, the liquid should be washed out of the wound and more Sugardyne crystals applied.

Warning: When the Sugardyne crystals inside the wound become liquid, it is essential that the wound be cleaned and fresh Sugardyne crystals be added. If left in or on a wound, the liquified sugar crystals will encourage bacterial growth.

Deep wounds are treated differently than surface wounds.

DEEP WOUNDS- pour the Sugardyne mixture directly into the wound. Again, when the sugar crystals turn to liquid, the wound must be cleaned and more Sugardyne crystals applied.

NON-DEEP WOUNDS-treat with gauze impregnated with providone-iodine solution (Betadine) with a layer of Sugardyne (about 1/4 inch) applied to the side of the gauze that will come into contact with the wound. Again, when the sugar crystals turn to liquid, it is time to clean the wound and apply a fresh bandage with fresh Sugardyne crystals.

If you have sugar but no providone-iodine solution (Betadine), you can use the sugar by itself. Just make sure you put new sugar crystal in the wound after you rinse out the sugar already in the wound that has turned to liquid

I want to again emphasize that this treatment should not be attempted when professional medical care is available. With that said, it’s worth noting that there have been many anecdotal reports of Sugardyne healing wounds that have been unresponsive to standard antibiotic and antimicrobial therapy.

So what should you do if you fall into that category? You have a wound that is not healing despite standard treatment. I recommend you do the following:

1. Talk with your doctor (M.D. or D.O.) about a trial using Sugardyne. If possible, go to an internet search engine like google.com and type in the word Sugardyne. You will find a large number of articles. Print them out and give them to your doctor. Doctors are very scared of lawsuits due to predatory lawyers, so if you want them to try something new, you need to present them with some basic information about Sugardyne and the scientific basis of it’s mechanism of action, killing infectious bacteria by osmotic shock.

2. Have your doctor run some standard blood test to check for diabetes and low thyroid. Diabetes and low thyroid are two major problems that cause poor wound healing.

3. Increase your intake of vitamin C through the use of supplements. Vitamin C is the precursor of collagen, a substance necessary for proper wound healing. Take 1000 milligrams of timed released vitamin C with every meal. If you can get it, take the vitamin C in it’s non-acid form, sodium ascorbate. (When vitamin C is taken as sodium ascorbate, there is no need for the timed released form.) Vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate is available from Bronson Pharmaceuticals.

Posted by Kevin J. Swindle at 5:28 PM 0 comments Links to this post