Tag Archives: disaster preparedness

FOWD – Characters Are Too Real

by Woodsbum

Gunguy ran across this article and forwarded it to me. I will include the text from that article here and then run through my commentary:

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The most political show on television today involves shambling ghouls that feed on human flesh and the meat puppets who try to avoid being feasted upon. “Fear the Walking Dead,” the “Walking Dead” spin-off set at the beginning of the zombie outbreak, offers us a view of the liberal, sensitive type of people who put Obama into office and – probably inadvertently – demonstrates the utter moral and intellectual bankruptcy of everything they believe in.

Modern liberalism is an unfortunate byproduct of civilization. The fact that our lives are not largely devoted to hunting and gathering food and fighting off marauders who would rape, enslave, and/or kill us, allows a large segment of our society to forget that this is the natural state of man. You didn’t have liberals in the Dark Ages because a liberal would last about ten seconds, expiring with a spear through his guts after telling the local warlord that he disapproved “of this patriarchal, phallocentric, cisnormative power structure.”

Now, of course a substantial number of Americans pay tribute to humanity’s past by understanding human nature and often by preparing to confront the forces of chaos. These people are conservatives. We conservatives expect problems, and expect that we will have to solve them ourselves. We generally know how to hunt, to gather food, and we have guns and know how to use them. And we understand that society always – always – teeters on the edge of falling apart.

Liberals don’t – in fact, they actively reject the notion because to accept it would require a complete rethink of their assumptions and premises. A couple of years ago, I got into a lengthy Twitter spat with Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall, who proudly identified himself as not of the gun-owning “tribe.” By this he meant that he did not feel the need to own weapons or to perform the most fundamental task of an American adult – to defend his family, community, and Constitution with his life – because some unidentified others would appear and do so for him.

He went on to mock the notion that society could ever collapse, which I found amusing. As one of those others who magically appeared to save the rear ends of hipster-bearded betas like Josh, I spent three weeks in the burning chaos of Los Angeles with the Army suppressing the 1992 riots. Don’t tell me things can’t go super bad super quickly.

The liberal characters in FTWD would probably earn invites to sip pumpkin-infused craft beers at Josh’s loft. The two main adults work in a public school, and their parenting style consists of catering to the whims of a drug addict son and the most obnoxious TV teen daughter since the hated Dana from the first few seasons of “Homeland.” When the apocalypse gets underway, yet another son decides to hang out at a street protest over police brutality sparked when the cops cap a homeless guy-turned-ghoul – apparently #UndeadLivesMatter.

In keeping with both the nature of their characters and with “The Walking Dead’s” traditions, the characters fail to communicate basic information to one another – you know, useful insights like, “Hey, the dead are rising and eating people, so you might want to look out for that.” They also undertake poorly thought-through, emotion-driven schemes that always end badly – in other words, they channel Obamacare.

Their tactical skills are distinctly limited. They never post guards, and they never look where they are going. Sure, part of that is the fact that if the characters were smarter and more capable, the threat, and therefore the suspense, would be lessened. But the other part is that these folks are not only soft-headed but soft-hearted, and therefore make bad, dangerous decisions. They talk about keeping their “humanity,” but what they really want to do is keep up residence in the expired liberal Eden that hard men carved out of a savage, hostile continent generations ago.

That’s why we get a scene with the father figure blowing his stack because a supporting character showed his activist son how to use a scavenged shotgun and daddy just doesn’t dig firearms. Naturally, none of these people have their own guns, much less the willingness to use them. At the end of one episode, their incompetence and weakness places another character in danger – a zombie they should have iced attacks him – and he is saved when a National Guard infantryman appears and puts a 5.56mm M4 round through the ghoul’s noggin.

Memo to Josh Marshall: That Army character’s left shoulder unit patch belongs to the real life 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which I served in in Southern California. That’s my tribe, dude.

We will see where FTWD goes – already the show is turning on the military characters, the only characters who seem capable of exercising common sense, for their lack of sensitivity and feelings. There are a lot of feelings in FTWD – we in the audience always know exactly what the characters are feeling because they can’t shut up about it. But it’s clear that the focus of the show remains on the characters’ maintaining their “humanity” in the face of chaos, but what the writers really mean is maintaining the characters’ urban liberal illusions.

That’s why it is the most political show on television now – at least until the original “Walking Dead” revs up again in a few weeks. It’s because every episode demonstrates the utter meaninglessness of the liberals’ obsessions in the face of a world where monsters are real, where the monsters are ISIS and the mullahs instead of zombies. So lock, load, and stop babbling about your feelings, because you can’t coexist with someone who is trying to eat your head, or to chop it off. Nonsense like “microaggressions,” “nonjudgmentalism,” and “fairness” can only exist in a world built and defended by macroaggressive, judgmental, and unfair people who carry guns and don’t hesitate to use them.

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Being a fan of the Walking Dead series, I was all about jumping on board the “Fear of The Walking Dead” bandwagon. From the very first episode, I have been on the fence. Even though I love the zombie premise, seeing idiots barely able to survive life let alone the apocalypse, and find Hollywood’s take on disaster preparedness very similar to watching a train wreck I am having issues with being able to get through an entire show without screaming at the TV. Like the article says, these progressive types have no clue and expect everyone to bow down to their needs so that their “humanity” can be spared.

Rather than this being an anti-this, pro-that, I hate blah, political rant or slanted post I wanted to examine the really interesting aspect of this show and how these people are represented, however.

Let me start off with this: I believe everyone has a responsibility to themselves and their families to be prepared in case something happens. I don’t care if it is a loss of a job, illness that caused hardship, a massive earthquake or the zombie apocalypse. The source doesn’t matter to me. I just feel that any responsible individual should make preparations in case something happens. Anyone that doesn’t is just planning on being a drain on society as a whole and obviously doesn’t care about their family. That is my opinion based upon the idea that adults should act like adults. Anything less is therefore childish.

If you are still with me and haven’t gotten completely ticked off at my thought process, let’s continue: Hollywood in general is a very artistic and progressive type place where those that produce entertainment live out their lives differently that those that work normal 9-5 jobs. Whether you agree with their politics or not, the fact is that they tend to push their beliefs upon the general population through the entertainment they produce. Take for example the animated movie “Open Season.” Hollywood in general doesn’t believe in hunting or true conservation of our natural resources so they produce movies like this to make kids hate hunters as well. Almost every movie with hunters depict them as blood thirsty savages that are ready to kill anyone or anything they come across. Of course anyone with half a brain knows, this is completely removed from the truth. Most hunters are very moral, law abiding citizens that believe in something that motivates them to spend days on end in the woods trying to procure their own food. So if Hollywood is showing how these progressive families really are and how they think, what is their real agenda?

The fact that the main characters in this series are very progressive types that will inevitably have to turn hard and callous to survive makes me wonder how the producers and writers will progress the story line. The Army is already being set up as the bad guy as of the last episode. People without signs of being infected were being gunned down in the streets, so obviously this foreshadows some future confrontation with the military. Couple that with the way they took various different “problems” to a different location to be dealt with as needed, you can see where the next few episodes will be going. How these progressives take the fact that those people who they placed their entire faith in are turning out to have different agendas will be very interesting to say the least.

Of course these characters will end up having to become survivors and self sufficient. How this happens and how much of their “humanity” is left after they get a reality check might be what the show is trying to explore.

What really interests me is how the viewers will perceive the failure of progressive ideology. Of course liberal ideas don’t work unless a totalitarian culture exists. You can’t get those types of programs started and keep them running unless you have a large slave population (middle class that doesn’t qualify for any welfare programs) to fund it all. There is just no way. Will the viewers that support liberal programs come to realize this? How will they respond? Will more people become adults and start to protect their family?

I really don’t know any of these answers, but I am happy to see how this show might just possibly address the misguided beliefs that many who depend 100% on the government possess. It will definitely be a fun ride if I can handle the stupidity of the main characters long enough for them to pull their heads out of their hind quarters.

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Feed Family Of 4 For 1 Year at $300 Cost

by Woodsbum

My aunt forwarded this link to me about putting enough food back for an entire family. I thought that some might like to see this recipe and article.

Before I start, as I always do, I put out there that I don’t think of myself as a “prepper.” In my life I have seen enough hard times to know that everyone should put things back to cover themselves and their family in case of hard times. Times such as a job loss, downturn in the economy that makes meeting bills almost impossible, weather issues where resupply of food isn’t timely, etc. There are just too many instances where having food and supplies put back is necessary. I guess if you are waiting for the end of times, this article would be good for you too.

I would also like to point out that I AM NOT A NUTRITIONIST AND DID NOT WRITE THIS ARTICLE. If you have any comments against the veracity of this article then follow the link that it come from and argue it out with them. It is important to mention that even if you only do this for supplemental purposes, you can use the dried beans for a multitude of other purposes. Dried beans can be ground into flour and uses as such or even ground up with water to become a butter or oil substitute.

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This plan is THE fastest, cheapest and easiest way to start a food storage program.  You are done in a weekend. AND there are no hassles with rotating.  Pack it and forget.  It’s space efficient – everything is consolidated into a few 5-gallon buckets.  You’ll sleep content in knowing that you have a one-year food supply on hand for your family should you ever need.

 

With the exception of dairy and Vitamin B12, this bean soup recipe will fulfill all your basic nutritional needs.  It won’t fill all of your wants, but using this as your starting point, you can add the stuff that you want. 

 

All of the food and storing supplies listed below plus 2 55-gallon recycled barrels to be used for rain catchment cost me $296, including taxes.  I purchased rice, bouillon and salt from SAM’s Club.  You can buy small bags of barley at the grocery, but if you don’t mind waiting a few days, special ordering a bulk bag from Whole Foods was cheaper.  All of the beans I purchased from Kroger’s in 1-lb bags.  Buckets, lids, Mylar bags and rain barrels were from the Lexington Container Company.  Their prices are so good, with such a great selection that it’s worth a drive even if you are not in the local area.   I went on a second-Saturday of the month because that’s when they host free food storage courses taught by Suzanne, an energetic, delight of prepping wisdom.  http://www.lexingtoncontainercompany.com/

 

What you need:

8 5-gallon buckets

8 large Mylar bags

8 2,000 cc oxygen absorbers

8 gamma lids

A handful of bay leaves 

90 lbs. of white rice

22 lbs. of kidney beans

22 lbs. of barley

22 lbs. of yellow lentils

5.5 lbs. of split green peas

5.5 lbs. of garbanzo beans

1 lb. of salt

A big box of beef and chicken bouillon. 

A measuring cup

 

 

What you’ll do

Install the gamma lids on the bucket and insert Mylar bags.  Place 2 or 3 bay leaves in the bottom and fill the buckets, adding more bay leaves after each 1/3 to full.  Place an oxygen absorber in the top.  Label buckets with the contents and date. 

 

Fill

  • 3 buckets with rice (shake it down good.  Get it all in there!)
  • 1 bucket each of kidney beans, barley, and yellow lentils
  • In 1 bucket store the split green peas, garbanzo beans, salt, measuring cup and bouillon.  (I removed the bouillon from the box and vacuum sealed it as bouillon contains a small amount of oil.)
  • Yep, that’s a total of 7 buckets, so far. 

 

I place a broom handle across the bucket and wrap the ends of the Mylar bag over the broom handle to give me some support.  Then slowly and smoothly run a hot iron over the Mylar bag to seal all except the last 2 inches.  Then I press out as much air as possible before sealing the remaining 2 inches.  Make sure your Mylar is completely sealed from end to end.  Now, stuff the bag into the bucket and rotate the gamma lid into place.    This will protect your food for about 25 years.   You’ll have excess Mylar bag at the top.  Don’t cut it off, that way if you have to cut it open to get into it, you have enough bag remaining to reseal.

 

Where you’ll put it

It’s pretty easy to find a place for 7 to 8 5-gallon buckets even in the smallest of apartments.  Discard the box springs and lay the kid’s mattress on top of the buckets, line the back of a large closet with the buckets.  I made a couch-table by stacking buckets two high between the couch and the wall.  The buckets are about 6” taller than the back of the couch.  Add a shelf and drape and it looks fine; a convenient place for a lamp and books.  Get creative.

 

Making your bean soup

Measure out
·        8 oz of rice
·        2 oz of red kidney beans
·        2 oz of pearl barley
·        2 oz of lintels
·        1 oz of split green peas
·        1 oz of chick peas/garbanzo’s

 

Add 6-7 quarts of water.  Add bouillon or salt to taste.  Then add any other meats, vegetables, potatoes or seasonings you have on hand. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for two hours.  You should have enough to feed 4 people for two days.  This is thick and hearty.  You will be warm on the inside and full with one large bowl.  Kids usually eat half a bowl.  

 

When the emergency is over

This system allows you to open the Mylar bags, retrieve as much of the ingredients as is needed and then reseal everything after the emergency has passed.  Just be sure to replace the ingredients used so that you always have a one-year supply.

 

The 8th bucket – other stuff I would want

This list isn’t included in the $300.  This falls into the “what I want” category.  As money and resources became available, I’d just go crazy adding all of my indulgences, starting with coffee!  You can add what you want, but I’d fill it with:

  • Dry onion.  Let’s face it, what’s bean soup without onion! Sprinkle on the onions just before serving.
  • “Just add water” cornbread mix packets.  I just can’t eat bean soup without cornbread.
  • Beef jerky and Vienna sausages.  Add protein and zest to the bean soup
  • Instant oatmeal.  Do you really want bean soup for breakfast?  Freeze the oatmeal for 3 days before packing to kill any bugs.
  • 10 lbs of jellybeans.  Now, don’t laugh – it’s a bean.  Jellybeans don’t melt like chocolate might.  The high sugar content is quick energy, and a morale booster – with just enough of a high to help you over the really bad days. Easter is about here – stock up!

 

 

Before you fill the 8th bucket

Buy small bags of the ingredients and fix a big pot of bean soup for dinner.  Eat the leftovers the second night, and 3rd night, until it’s all gone.  Find out now – rather than later – what your family might like to add to it.  Anything tastes great the first meal, but quickly becomes boring after the 3rd or 4th repeat.  Don’t wait until the emergency happens to discover what you SHOULD have stored in your 8th bucket. … Maybe some Beano!

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Again, I am not saying that I believe there will be some “End of the World as We Know It” type event. I am saying that everyone has a responsibility to take care of themselves and theirs in case of a disaster so planning ahead is a very responsible thing to do.

I will be putting this pile of chow together in the next few months to enhance my current food supplies. One doesn’t know what may or may not happen so having the extra food on hand if uninvited guests show up, things go bad for a long time, or you just want to outfit your camper with a food cache this recipe is a good way to do that inexpensively.

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SHTF – What to do? (A Gunguy Rant Translated)

by Woodsbum

After hearing yet another rant by Gunguy about how inflexible and single minded most SHTF posts/videos/sites are, I decided to translate and turn his opinions into a post. Gunguy loves to do research and analyze people’s disaster plans as a way to make his all the better. We are constantly talking about and evaluating throughout the day as a way to escape the normal drudgery of our mind numbing work tasks. As you can guess, we get on various subjects and spend several hours debating the validity of whatever topic we chose for the day. One common theme I find in our discussions is whether “so-and-so’s” disaster plan is a better one that “what’s-his-name’s.” This post will cover one of the best points Gunguy has ever made about people’s disaster plans.

“People’s disaster plans are too rigid. Their plans need to be more flexible. They need to be more adaptable.” – Gunguy

One prime example of this was a post made on AR15.com. The OP of the post was talking about his bug out plan. He felt that his best option was to grab his AR and bag to get away from any natural disaster he might encounter. After answering some questions posted by other members of the forum it was discovered that the OP actually lived on an island. His bug out plan was really not valid because he had no place to really bug out to.

A different example is one of Gunguy’s friends planned on bugging in if something happened. This friend had 2.5 gallons of water put back, planned on eating his goldfish if need be and had a complete tactical outfit to wear if he had to go walking around the streets looking for supplies.

Both of these disaster plans really get Gunguy started. He can go on for quite a while about how single minded these people seem to be in their planning.

Now, I grew up fairly rural overall. I can hunt, fish, do some gardening, and live off the land fairly well. I would be one of those people that actually could grab their preps and live in the woods for an extended period of time while supplementing food stores with hunting/gathered items. I would be more apt to grab my gear and run into the hills so that I don’t have as much to worry about when it came to looting in a city setting. That is where my comfort zone truly is. Gunguy’s is the exact, polar opposite. He grew up in a HUGE city, hates sleeping in the dirt, and has never hunted game. When we discuss disaster plans and SHTF scenarios, I have found that our backgrounds and comfort zones have really increased the amount of holes we find in various disaster plans we find online. Now Gunguy get’s a “country boy’s” take on the bug out scenarios that are based around heading into the hills to live. This tends to increase Gunguy’s blood pressure as his ranting about their short sightedness in their planning.

Let’s discuss the way that people push certain gear and products. I am looking at a website right now that talks about getting propane heaters that can last for around 4 hours per disposable propane bottle. He has 12 bottles put back from what I see pictures. This will give the person bugging in about 2 days of heat in a disaster scenario. We have areas in my state that lose power for that long every winter. His 2 days of heat is no where close to long enough to keep him warm in a disaster situation. Unfortunately, his site gets quite a few hits and thus many people will think that one case of propane bottles is more than enough to outlast a SHTF scenario. There are no secret formulas on how to survive if something bad happens. Common sense, your skills, your preps, and your ability to use all those tools will be what saves you. Test out whatever gear you get and make sure you are more focused on the skills needed to use the gear than the gear itself. That expertise cannot be taken from you at gun point where your backpack or food stores can be taken.

Let’s also discuss the ignorance of people with regard to living in the woods. I have yet to see ANY website that really discusses the over dependence upon matches and lighters. Why would I carry something that is inevitably going to get wet (thus useless) or won’t work if it gets too cold? The much smarter and better choice is to use a firesteel/ferro rod or flint and steel. You can get one of the H60 firesteels for around $25 that will work when wet, can light fuzz sticks with a single strike, and doesn’t have to be in a certain temperature range to be effective. Even though this is common sense to us “country boys” people are misguiding their readers by making them think that matches in a waterproof container will be all that they will ever need. Where I live you can’t carry enough matches to build a fire every night of our winter weather. You are lucky if you can get them to last 1 week of camping let alone a SHTF scenario.

Gunguy’s main argument centers around the idea that all people need to test out, plan for glitches, and be prepared to change or move your location/plan/preps as the situation dictates. Ironically, watching a few episodes of Doomsday Preppers will teach you this. Just listen to the “Practical Preppers” recommendations. Most of them include a backup plan in their list. It seems that each one of the guests on the show really don’t take heed of the advice, however, because they all seem to only dive more deeply into their current plan or mindset.

The more I look at the examples that Gunguy points out to me and the more into the whole “prepping” thing I get into, the more sense he tends to make. If I plan on grabbing my gear and running away, I should also harden my home in the event that I have to bug in. Under the same pretense, he does have his bug out bags in the event that he has to get out of his home. He, however, tailors it more to his needs and expertise. His bug out bag is affectionately referred to as his “Spend 3 days in a hotel somewhere else” bag.

Whatever your plans are or where your expertise lie, I merely suggest (and I would think Gunguy would concur) that you meld the two. Don’t plan on taking off to the hills if you can’t build a fire or impromptu cabin from fallen logs. At the same time, don’t plan on bugging in if you are new to a city and don’t know how to spot bad high crime areas without a Google search. Keep yourself within your areas of expertise, but DON’T depend solely on your comfort zones. Learn about the areas you don’t understand or have no experience. Build a plan based around both types of prepping. Someday you might find yourself stuck in a situation where you do have to either drain water from a boiler or start a fire with sticks and stuff……..

Stay safe!

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