Month: September 2016

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Water, Water Everywhere

The 3rd item on my list is water.  This I divided into 4 main areas

  1. Water Storage
  2. Rain Water Reclamation
  3. Wells / Pumps
  4. Natural Sources
  5. Filtering / Making Water Safe to Drink

The number I’ve seen most often while researching suggests a gallon of water, per day, per person.  That allots for 1-2 quarts of water for drinking, with the remainder for food preparation and hygiene.  This doesn’t seem like a lot to me, especially since the most common food storage items are rice, beans, oatmeal, dehydrated products and so on — all which take a lot of water to make fit for consumption.  And when water doesn’t come out of the hose and I need to water my garden?  Or the toilet still works, but doesn’t pump the water back in so we need to add water to the tank in order to flush out our waste?

For a minimal 3 day supply for my family (As I mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and myself, a 12yo boy, 7yo girl, and my mom), I’d need to store 15 gallons.  A 90 day supply is 450 gallons.  If I wanted to have a years worth stored, at a minimal gallon a day, that’s over 1800 gallons.  Overwhelming!  I could probably find storage for a couple of 55 gallon water barrels, get a couple waterBOBs for my bathtubs (though you need to have some warning for those to be useful), but I don’t see anyway to store much more than that. So I’ll need to look into other ways to replenish water.

Contrary to what people believe, Oregon doesn’t really get THAT much rain.  In Portland, we average 40-44 inches per year, and its spread out over 150ish days.  Lots of other cities get more rain (We aren’t even in the top 30 of cities over 20k population!) but typically that rain is more torrential and comes from fewer days.  If you go east, Oregon is even drier.  South in the valley, they do get more rain (Corvallis makes the top 10), and on the coast in say Lincoln City, they average double what we see in Portland.  We get a lot of gray drizzly days, not pouring rain like they see in Alabama or Florida or Texas, etc.

graydrizzle

At any rate, I can expect to see 40 ish inches of rain per year, and each inch of rain typically results in collection of around .6 gallons per square foot of roof.  I don’t have all the details on my roof.  But if I had a flat roof (I don’t, its got multiple peaks), just based on the floor plan, its have 40×80 or so of roof real estate.  Because its peaked, there would be more because of course the peaks are the long sides of the triangle that would be made.  So to err conservatively, say 3,200 square feet.  If I set up one barrel on one of the 4 downspouts and it were roughly a quarter of that 3200, at .6 gallons and 40 inches of rain, one barrel here could collect more than 19,000 gallons per year.  That seems like a lot, but I can’t find an error in my math.  Of course I would have to be harvesting the water from the barrel on a regular basis.

I also checked into our longest dry spells.  Since 1999, the longest dry spell here was 51 days.  If you go back further, the driest spell on record is 71 days.  To make it through those dry spells I would need to have 255 and 355 gallons on hand, respectively.  I just determined that I don’t really have the space to store more than a couple 55 gallon barrels.  Even if the rain water reclamation barrel was used to store a third 55 gallons, that leaves me 90 or 190 gallons short to get through a potential record breaking dry spell.  That means in addition to installing a rain water barrel, I have to find a way to store more water, in a way that keeps it safe and drinkable as long as possible, handy enough that I can rotate it

Wells/pumps and natural sources of water aren’t an option where I am now.  I am wanting to have information on that in my preparedness binder though; it’s something I would want to think about if we ever do move.  And we may need the info to DIY if we were forced to bug out and fine a new place on the fly.

Finally, filtering.  There’s a lot of different ways to cleanse and filter water.  I’m leaning towards a Berkley filter for home and a UV steripen for the 72 hour bags.  More research to do though.

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Getting myself in line

Second on the main list for getting prepared to be prepared was “Self”.  This I Broke down into

  1. Self-Reflection / Mental Preparedness
  2. Health
  3. Fitness
  4. Debt Freedom / Frugality
  5. Cultivating a Community
  6. Skills / Training

1. Self-Reflection / Mental Preparedness

For me this is getting my head on straight.  Am I approaching this journey in a logical, non-hysterical, non-tinfoil hat kinda way?  Am I going to be able to remain calm and implement my plans, especially if the S does HTF? Can I control my anxieties and actually take things step by step and not get overwhelmed at the magnitude of everything there is to do?

2 Health

I’m overweight.  I have high blood sugar.  I am on various medications.  And I don’t sleep.

lose-sleep-lose-your-mind-and-health_52cd620e68f6a_w1500

None of these things are ideal in a “perfect” world, much less one where I have to work a lot harder to make sure my family has a fairly “normal” life.

3. Fitness

While tied to health, it isn’t entirely the same thing.  I need to get myself in enough shape to handle the chores and responsibilities of life in post-emergency world, no matter how short or long it might be.  If I needed to leave my home on foot, could I make it to a place I consider safe?

4. Debt Freedom / Frugality

I mentioned in a previous post that I thought some of my concerns may be coming from the fact that I feel the least financially stable that I have in a long time.  I’m carrying too much credit card debt and struggling to stick to my budget given some additional expenses.  There are a lot of things that I can do to alleviate some of this.  Pantry organization and meal planning will help here as well as being smart and making space for more storage.

frugal

5. Cultivating a Community

My family isn’t very supportive.  They are being a bit tolerant, but I know they think I am crazy, and are humoring me as long as what I am doing to prepare doesn’t cause them inconvenience or cost my family money.  Mom is helping with some organization.  She’s being a good resource for getting my raised beds ready for some garden experiments next Spring.  But she also has mentioned maybe I need an appointment with a therapist.  So.

It would be good to have other people to talk about preparedness and homesteading.  Folks that can help me find resources to prepare, who can teach me skills, or at least help me find where I can learn those skills.  I’ve looked into forums and meetups for like-minded individuals in my area.  Nothing very active, but I’ve put a few postings out there.  There is some kind of preparedness expo in this area soon.  As much as I don’t like to put myself out there like that — I think I will.  If I can swing it, I’d like to take an herbal remedy and salve making class from Nicole (from the second season of Alone, if you’ve seen that) and perhaps make a connection there.  I’ve looked into CERT training.

prepper-group

6. Skills / Training

Some of that above meets these needs too.  I can potentially meet people that make up the preparedness / homesteading community in the area, but also learn some good skills.  I’m also planning on some gardening next spring.  I have 3 raised beds, maybe 75 square feet? all told.  It’s not enough to feed my family exclusively by any means, but I think I can do enough to learn HOW to garden.  Maybe grow enough to do some canning.  I plan to learn vermiculture to support the garden, and done a bit of research in how to build a worm farm.  I’ve also picked up some supplies to practice sprouting and growing microgreens (that’s a whole post alone!).  There’s a LOT more skills out there, but these are the ones I am adding to my plate right now.

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Bind it up

While I am not finished with the physical labor of getting my home ready, I continue to work on my priority list, and prepare my emergency preparedness binder. It’ll probably end up as two separate books, but for now since I am organizing it on the computer, it’s all in one document, until I start printing and collecting the hard copies of things.

I divided the first section (Emergency Contacts & Plans) into 6 parts:

  1. Emergency Contacts
  2. Personal information
  3. Financial & Legal
  4. Home Inventory
  5. Medical Information
  6. Emergency Plans
  7. Resources

Emergency Contacts – this includes friends and family, kids’ schools, doctors, utilities, non emergency numbers for police, fire, insurance agent information

Personal information – A basic identification record for each family member, including a picture.  I am debating whether I want to include fingerprints.  Also birth certificates, passports, copies of drivers licenses, social security cards, adoption documents, wedding license

Financial & Legal – Information on all bank accounts, credit cards and home equity loan, car titles, deed to our home, copies of insurance cards.  I also have a zipper pouch to stash away some cash.  I can’t afford to put much in right now, but I’ll at least have some change for vending machines, or whatnot.

Home Inventory – A room by room list of major items to be replaced if we ever had to make an insurance claim.  Includes a large envelope to hold receipts for major purchases.

Medical – I prepared a sheet for each person to record vital stats, blood type, medical conditions, allergies, prescriptions, dietary issues, medical history and major procedures, copies of medical & dental insurance cards.  I also include a first aid quick reference sheet and information on where to find more detailed information in my survival library in case I am incapacitated and another adult needs to be able to find the boy scout manual or first aid book.

Emergency Plans – Our families fire escape plans, plans for how to retrieve our kids if the SHTF while they are at school, My step by step plan for the first hour after an emergency, evacuation checklist, and so on.  Maps, smaller local map printed from google with routes marked, as well as a larger Oregon map.  If we have to go further than that in an emergency situation, we are probably in trouble.  Will have more maps / atlas in survival library.

Resources – list of websites I reference often, notes on my neighbors (nothing creepy, and nothing they didn’t volunteer themselves, but in an emergency situation, I may not remember that so and so has medical training, or the dude down the street is a contractor and might be able to help if we need to board up broken windows, or whatever).

I plan to scan any hard copy only documents and keep a digital version of my binder as well, so I have it backed up on a thumb drive just in case something happens to my binder.

Security?  That’s a lot of personal information gathered in one place.  I’m looking for a lock box that will work, something light enough to carry around and have in my car when I leave home, and simple enough that even in the panic of an emergency I can remember how to get in it, but secure enough to deter the casual snoopy thiefy person.

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Thoughts, check! Home …

The second part of getting organized before I really get started stockpiling anything is making my home ready for it.  I’ve got one attic-y space that is relatively easy to access, and would be a good place for paper goods.  I need to get in there, clean it up a bit and make it ready.  I have a couple of oddly shaped small closets tucked into corners and such.  One upstairs would be perfect for stocking shampoo, soap, toothpaste, and other smallish items, but its got junk in it; I can’t recall the last time I opened that door.  Time to clean it out, ruthlessly.

My pantry needs a complete overhaul.  I actually had decent organization in it once.  If you read much about pantry management,  you’ll see that organizing by keeping like items together (i.e. canned beans all in once place, baking goods together, and so on) is often recommended.  And I did do that, when I was first building my pantry when we moved here a decade ago.  Over time, my pantry has become an extension of the junk drawer though.  I “lost” a shelf to games and science kits, another shelf to a bunch of stuff purchased to make oreo pops for my kids’ teachers – piles of candy melts, double boiler, molds and lollipop sticks, cellophane bags and the like.  The entire back third of my pantry is full of lunch stuff.  Not food, dozens of lunch pails, bento boxes, shelves FULL of bento making supplies.  Under the shelving on the floor is a mish mash of bags, beer (we don’t drink much; I am certain that at least one of those boxes is over 7 years old since its been in there since before my daughter was born (!)), and I don’t even know what.  I shudder to think how many food items buried in there are expired.  So, that’s another job to tackle.

And finally, there is the garage.  There are boxes that have been there since the move, and never opened.  That’s more than 10 years.  There are bins full of the kids’ old toys.  Some of them are worth keeping around for potential grandkids, extensive (and expensive to replace) classic toys.  I did get those all binned up and cleared another attic space (I have an oddly shaped bonus room with slanted ceilings and cubbies under a window, and its got 3 separate attic spaces, on either side of the room, maybe 4-5 feet tall, 4-5 wide, but all total, about 40 feet in length) for those.  I just need to get through all the stored stuff, and get it all into rubbish or donate piles.  Half our two car garage can be used for storage, but only for non-temperature sensitive items. It gets over 100 in there in summer and below freezing in the winter.

Not OFTEN, we actually have a very mild climate but it can happen.  We average about 12 days a year over 90 degrees and 26 days at 32 or below.  We also get a decent amount of rain, which bodes well for rainwater reclamation, we get precipitation (mostly rain, very rarely snow) ~165 days a year, for a total of ~45 inches.

Anyway, once I get the garage stuff sorted, I can get some shelving and get some storage space in there.

So those are my big projects to get done before I can really think about adding to my stockpile.

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Organizing my Thoughts

Every family is different.  You can go online and find all kinds of articles on what to do to prepare for XYZ, or how to be a prepper and get some step by step plan, with specific lists of foods and supplies.  But we are not cookie cutters.  Our geographic locations are different.  I’m in planting zone 8B; what I could do with a garden is a lot different from someone in zone 5.  Our families needs are different – I’ve got kids with special needs.  I don’t think starvation would even be enough deterrent to get them both to eat oatmeal or wheat berries. I live in a heavily populated area in general, but specifically, my suburban neighborhood is heavily wooded, surrounded by both state wilderness preserve and privately owned undeveloped lands.  My neighborhood was carved out of a hill in the mid to late 80’s.  We have very little flat land for gardening, surrounded by mature trees, with very steep roads.  I have a moderately sized pantry, but no place to centrally store preps in a single space.  I’d LOVE a space like the ones pictured below.  Nope.  Not in my world.

storagebins

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Our knowledge levels are radically different.  I wasn’t raised knowing how to can food, raise livestock, or even garden.  I don’t have any “handy” skills for tinkering with an engine or fixing plumbing or installing my own rain catchment system.  We didn’t camp much; I don’t know how to set up a propane lantern with those little mantle things or cook on a camp stove.  I’ve got a lot to learn.

I do know how to cook.  And cook well I think.  I have lots of basic recipes in my head.  You could toss me in a preppers pantry full of rice and beans and spices and canned goods and as long as I had a stove (I need to learn to cook other ways!), I could turn out a relatively tasty, nutritious meal.  So at least I have that going for me!

First, I had to think about who I plan to support with my supplies if ever an emergency strikes and the SHTF.  Besides my husband and myself, we have a 12yo boy and a 7yo girl.  Both my kids have different special needs, sensory issues, and a lot of food accommodations for texture and tastes.  My mom lives with us about half time.  So at a minimum, I should be planning on supporting 5 persons.

Then I came up with a list of major categories of preparedness.  Some of these things are critical for very short term (i.e. 3 days of supplies ala the FEMA recommendations), some are more relevant to a longer term, but still something we will recover from, others are more geared to truly long term preps – what would we do in the even of the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWOWKI)?  I consider those homesteading skills more than emergency preparedness, but still added them to my list.

This is a major undertaking.  And every list item breaks down more and there is so much information.  It can be overwhelming.

  1. Emergency Contacts & Plans
  2. Self
  3. Water
  4. Food Supplies
  5. Food Preparation off the grid
  6. Medical Supplies
  7. Medical Knowledge
  8. Sanitation & Hygiene
  9. Backup Power
  10. Keeping Warm
  11. Lighting
  12. Self-Defense & Security
  13. Financial Security
  14. Emergency Communications
  15. Create Survival Library
  16. Homeschooling & Education
  17. Skill Acquisition
    1. Gardening
    2. Composting
    3. Fishing
    4. Foraging
    5. Hunting
    6. Livestock
    7. Cheesemaking
    8. Food Preserving
    9. Homebrewing
    10. Soapmaking
    11. Candlemaking
    12. Herbal Healing & First Aid
    13. Sewing, Quilting
    14. Knitting, Crocheting
    15. Woodworking & Carpentry
    16. Handyman & DIY
    17. Outdoors Survival Skills – knots, shelters, walking sticks, etc
    18. Homemade Self & Home Care Products
  18. Prepper Projects
  19. Bugging Out

 

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Getting Organized

After the initial research (I can’t say I will ever be “done” researching, but I’ve got some general information in my head), I found I need to do two things before I can really do much about preparing.  I need to organize my thoughts and I need to organize my home.  The slightly anxious part of me, a tiny voice in my head that says “something is going to go wrong, you need to be ready!” wants to jump in and start buying and going all tin foil hat.  But I know that will just lead to wasted money and wasted time.

ORGANIZE word cloud, business concept

To organize my thoughts, I decided to write down all the major categories of preparedness, and start prioritizing what I feel is most important for my family.  Eventually, this will flesh out and become my emergency preparedness binder, but for now I am keeping it fairly simple.

Secondly, I gotta start organizing my home.  My pantry isn’t that large, and its a disaster of mostly disorganized, wasted space.  Half my garage is full of bins of things that wouldn’t be useful in an emergency, and has needed to be sorted into trash and donate piles for months years.  As for the rest of my home, with its limited storage areas — well, we just have Too Much Stuff.

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Take that first step… half step.. not quite a step. Let’s look where we are going anyway.

So what’s on the agenda after this “revelation” crept up on me?  Reading, research, re-reading.  I happen to have a kindle unlimited subscription, and there are tons of ebooks on Amazon about prepping and preparedness and homesteading skills.  Most are just a few dollars, but there are SO MANY of them, and the quality of the information and writing varies GREATLY, so I am quite glad that I could peruse them for “free”.   I also checked out books from the library (I particularly enjoy borrowing ebooks that I can download on Amazon and read with my kindle as well).  And of course, browsed online for more information. I played a lot of web site leapfrog.  Pinterest has lots of great preparedness boards, which would lead me to a site, which would link to another site and so on.

A word of warning — a lot of those sites are fear-mongering.  And then they want you to buy their ultimate prepping information materials.  I am particularly “fond” of the guy claiming his list of 37 must-have items when the SHTF is different, and the best.  He has professional looking videos, and then you get to the punchline.  He wants you to buy his ebooks for ONLY 49.99, and assures you that it normally sells for 200$, but he feels he must “do the right thing” and take a loss to get this information out there.  I found his list of 37 things online.  It’s no different than free lists all over the place.

Most of the sites have product links to their “favorite” supplies.  This water purifier or that survival knife or the freeze dried food kits from over there.  They undoubtedly receive a small amount of referral money if you buy from their sites.  And maybe it IS the best item for you.  Maybe it isn’t.  Research your options.  Don’t click and buy because they’ve managed to convince you the end of the world is nigh.

And those ebooks I read on Amazon? When it comes to “how to prep” or “the beginning prepper” or anything like that – I wouldn’t spend any money on those.  They are almost all the same.  And the information in them is no different than you can get on any prepping site.   They tell you that you need water, food, security, sanitation, medical supplies, communications, backup power and financial security.  They tell you how to calculate your needs and how to store them.  This info is out there on the web, I promise.

The exception I found were books providing information on projects and useful skills.  You give a fish to a man, he eats for a day, but teach him to fish and all that.  For instance, I found The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget  by Daisy Luther (note this is not an income generating link for me) to be a fairly useful resource, especially if you have no experience building a pantry.  She touches on topics I have researched in the past on frugal living, such as keeping a price book, the various types of pantries (i.e. hardcore bunker pantries, versus our day to day pantry that lets us eat well now on a budget), has not only lists of food to store, but how to store them, and several weeks of menus to eat out of the pantry.  My food storage and cooking skills are beyond what her book offers, so I wouldn’t purchase it to add to my hard copy library (because let’s face it, all the ebooks in the world won’t help if the SHTF and I have no power) but I did end up reading it cover to cover and added a few bits of information to my Emergency Preparedness Notebook (a topic for another day). And it inspired me to FINALLY clean out my pantry, re-organize it and take an inventory.

pantry2

My pantry looks nothing like this. But a girl can dream 😉

Books on gardening, canning, how to build an outdoor oven, raising backyard chickens, and other homesteading skill books — these can be worth the money where the basic Newbie Prepper books, IMO, are not.  You can find all that skill information online as well.  But unless you want to copy and paste and print it all out, or fully learn the skill NOW, those type of books are ones I will add to my physical library over time.  Borrowing them from the library or through kindle unlimited, several on the same topic, let’s me compare and see which one I want to add to my Amazon wish list to pick up as funds allow.

2011-08-26-emergencyprep

Finally, don’t visit one site, assume they are all knowing, and leap from there.  Researching for me has taken several months, and its astonishing how much conflicting information there is out there. (One site recommends a gallon of water a day per person.  another says 10 gallons per day — that kind of thing.)  And even when the information is solid, it may not be relevant or appropriate to your situation.  Take your time, don’t get overwhelmed, and then when you have a general idea of how you think things should look, dig deeper.

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Prepper Terms, Slang & Acronyms

vintage-prepper-encyclopediaShamelessly Stolen from a site, copied into a word doc without attributing, and now posting here, with a few changes, removals and additions but not enough to ward off plagiarism charges!  I need to see if I can find where it came from so I can properly credit the author.  Truthfully, since this site is set to discourage Google from indexing, and I haven’t “advertised” this anywhere; it’s unlikely anyone but me will actually ever use this as a resource.  Still, I should do it Right.

Prepping Terms and Slang

  • #10 can (noun): Specially formulated for long term food storage, a #10 can is approximately 7 x 6-1/4 inches. The specification refers to the
    can’s physical size and does not measure the can’s contents,  which may vary
  • 550 Cord: Paracord
  • 72 Hour Kit: Similar to a bug out bag – basically a kit full of emergency supples often carried in a backpack or some other easily carried container like a suitcase to help one person survive for a period of 72 hours.
  • Berkey (noun). A “Big Berkey” water filtration system is a name brand for a popular gravity fed water filtration system that looks a bit like a
    coffee urn. A berkey can remove fluoride and other toxins.     At some point, every preppers should own a gravity-fed water purification system, and this is the one to own.
  • C-Ration: Combat ration
  • Carrington Event: A natural EMP type of event, caused by a large coronal mass ejection (CME) of the sun.
  • Collapse Event: Any event that results in TEOTWAWKI.
  • Desiccant: A small package containing a hygroscopic substance that is used to draw out and hold moisture from the package that they are included in. Often included in food packaging to retain crispness and may help increase shelf life. People often mistakenly call these little packages “oxygen absorbers”.
  • Doomsday: This is a common term that many preppers use when referring to the day when a major breakdown in civilized society occurs which is brought on by any number of events.
  • Doomsday Prepper: Someone who spends time preparing for a major event that results in TEOTWAWKI.
  • Doomstead: Synonymous with a survival retreat.
  • Dutch Oven: Very versatile cooking pot made of cast iron. It is most often used for cooking on a fire instead of a traditional oven.
  • Faraday Cage: A shielding enclosure to protect electronics from electromagnetic pulses.
  • Food Grade Bucket: Food grade buckets marked HDPE 2.  Food grade buckets are white buckets made specifically for food storage. They will help store food for upwards of 25-years, keeping food airtight, safe and dry. Food grade buckets must be marked as such, otherwise they may contain chemicals which could leach into food.
  • Force Multiplier: A capability that, when added to and employed by a combat force, significantly increases the combat potential of that force and thus enhances the probability of a successful mission accomplishment.
  • Freeze Dried Food: Food that has been dehydrated for the purpose of preserving it by freezing it in a vacuum.
  • Gamma Lid: An air tight lid for 5 gallon bucket style food grade containers.
  • Gasifier: A device that is capable of converting wood chips to combustible gas that can be used as fuel for an internal combustion engine.
  • GO Bag: Synonymous with bug out bag.
  • Grid (noun). The framework of our electrical grid. It is the entire network of energy delivery electricity and communications by means of high tension lines. The grid is responsible for electricity, communications, food distribution, running water and toilets.
  • Hard Money: Money that is either redeemable into precious metals, or issued in the form of various precious metals.
  • Head: Slang for a toilet.
  • Heirloom Seeds: Non-Hybrid seeds that can be planted and replanted after every harvest.  These are open-pollinated seeds, but not all open-pollinated seeds are heirlooms.  Heirloom is a designation of specific types of plants grown by our anscestors.
  • Hydroponics: A method of growing plants in water instead of soil.
  • Junk Silver: Coins that have little or no numismatic value but still have a high silver content.
  • Kelly Kettle (noun). Kelly Kettle is the trade name for a chimney style kettle intended for rapid boiling. It’s also called a Benghazi boiler, Ghillie Kettle, Storm Kettle, Thermette or Volcano Kettle. Kelly Kettles use natural occurring fuels such as sticks and dry grass. They are ultra light boil water very rapidly. A Kelly Kettle is made of durable heat-conductive metal, usually of aluminum or stainless steel. You can do small batch, quick cooking (reheating) with a kit designed to be used with a Kelly Kettle.
  • Looters: People who haven’t prepared for emergencies who steal from others who have or steal from stores, business, vehicles, or other buildings.
  • Mall Ninja: Someone that values style and appearance over substance.
  • Martial Law: According to Wikipedia.org – “The imposition of the highest-ranking military officer as the military governor or as the head of the government, thus removing all power from the previous executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.”
  • Multi-Tool: A handy tool that contains many tools in one convenient unit – Similar to the popular Swiss Army knife.
  • Mylar Bags: Food grade bags made out of space age aluminum material which are used for long term food storage with the addition of oxygen absorbers or desiccants.
  • Oxygen Absorbers: Also known as “oxygen scavengers”. They are small packages that are added to pull oxygen out of a sealed container for long term food storage. This item is often mistakenly confused with desiccant packs.
  • paracord (noun): Paracord is cordage of specially braided sheath made of a durable, lightweight nylon kern-mantle rope (the same material found in a parachute chord). This general purpose utility cord  is  often braided into a bracelet with other multi-purpose tools to be used in case of emergency.
  • Peak Oil: Used to describe a time when the world’s oil supplies will go into a state of irreversible decline.
  • Pollyanna: A person who is in denial that TEOTWAWKI could actually occur and yet they remain unusually optimistic, even when presented with compelling evidence to the contrary.
  • Power Grid: The infrastructure that is built and maintained by local power companies for the purpose of delivering electricity to homes and businesses.
  • Preps: This is slang for the things that preppers have stockpiled or things preppers have done to prepare to be able to survive a major catastrophe.
  • Retreat: A place of refuge that is prepared in advance by preppers. Usually in lightly-populated rural areas. Sometimes referred to as bug out locations.
  • “Rule of Three” (phrase). A prepping term to describe how humans can live only three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. Preppers and survivalists have expanded the
    definition to include shelter (humans can live only three hours of  harsh weather exposure without shelter).
  • Seed Bank: A stockpile of seeds to be used after a doomsday scenario takes place.
  • Sheeple: People who blindly follow the majority of a population and are in denial about a possible breakdown in civilized society.  People herded like sheep by the Government. These people don’t question authority, they don’t prep, and they will be among the first to die in uncertain times.
  • Shelf Life: The useful life of product in home storage such as food storage or medical supplies.
  • Solar Flares: Similar to CME – an ejection of sun particles in the form of radiation.
  • Solar Heater: A device that is designed to heat a room or heat water by harnessing the power of the sun.
  • Solar Oven: A solar cooker is constructed of a highly reflective surface to harness the energy of the sun for the purpose of cooking or warming food.
  • Survival Cache: A hidden supply of emergency supplies – often stored in an air-tight and waterproof container.
  • Survival Seeds: Also known as heirloom or non-GMO seeds.
  • The Crunch: Another term used to describe WTSHTF.
  • Troll: Someone who intentionally posts disruptive or controversial messages in an online forum with the goal of simply causing an argument or chaos.
  • Vacuum Sealer: A device that is designed to remove all of the oxygen in a plastic or Mylar bag that is used for the purpose of extending the shelf life of food storage staples.
  • Zombie: The name for the unprepared and often aggressive looters and marauders who will want to take what you have stockpiled.  In short, Zombies are the unfortunate people who did not plan or prepare for a sideways world when WTSHTF. They are a direct threat to the security of Preppers because they will be desperate and will attack for food, water and supplies. They will look much like the zombies portrayed in movies. For example, they will appear famished as they not have eaten, and they will appear with scabs and wounds of infection because they have not had proper medical care.  Zombies are the “undead” and a very real concern.

Prepping Acronyms

  • ABAO: All bets are off
  • ARC: American Red Cross
  • ASAP: As soon as possible
  • BIB: Bug in bag
  • BOB: Bug out bag or bug out bracelet
  • BOL: Bug out location
  • BOV: Bug out vehicle
  • BSTS: Better safe than sorry
  • CCW: Carrying concealed weapon
  • CB: Citizens Band Radio
  • CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • CME: Coronal mass ejection
  • CQB: Close quarters battle
  • CYA: Cover your assets or cover your a**
  • DHS: Department of Homeland Security
  • DLP: Defense of life and property
  • DOD: Department of Defense
  • EAS: Emergency alert system
  • EBS: Emergency broadcast system
  • EDC: Every day carry (meaning the things that a prepper carries with them on a day to day basis)
  • ELE: Extinction level event
  • EMP: Electromagnetic pulse
  • EOD: End of days
  • EOT: End of times
  • EOTW: End of the world
  • EROL: Excessive rule of law
  • ESP: Extended stay pack
  • FAK: First aid kit
  • FD: Fire department
  • FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency
  • FUBAR: F’d up beyond all recognition
  • FUD: Fear, uncertainty, and doubt
  • FWIW: For what it’s worth
  • GDE: Grid down event
  • GH: Golden Horde meaning looters and marauders that will venture out of the city into the surrounding rural areas during a major crisis.
  • GHB: Get home bag
  • GMV: Genetically modified virus
  • GOOD: Get out of dodge
  • GPS: Global positioning system
  • HAM: Home amateur radio
  • HAZMAT: Hazardous material
  • HDPE: High density polyethylene – used to manufacture containers in order to take advantage of its exceptional protective barrier abilities. Most 5 gallon “food grade” buckets are manufactured from a form of HDPE known as HDPE 2. Make sure that any container you store food in is actually labeled “food grade” and not just HDPE 2.
  • HEMP: High altitude electromagnetic pulse
  • IFAK: Individual first aid kit
  • IMO: In my opinion
  • INCH: I’m never coming home
  • INCHK: I’m never coming home kit
  • KISS: Keep it simple stupid
  • LOS: Line of site
  • LP: Listening post
  • LTFS: Long term food storage
  • LTS: Long term shelter
  • MAD: Mutually assured destruction
  • MAG: Mutual aid group – people who meet for the purpose of discussing ideas and planning for emergencies in their area.
  • MOE: Measures of effectiveness
  • MOI: Mechanism of injury
  • MRE: Meals ready to eat – prepackaged food and water rations usually issued to military personnel but also often stockpiled by preppers and survivalists.
  • MSM: Mainstream media
  • MZB: Mutant zombie bikers – a general term used to describe thugs and looters.
  • NINJA: No income no job or assets
  • NVD: Night vision device
  • NWO: New World Order – according to Wikipedia.org, “As a conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian world government”.
  • OP: Observation post, original post, or original poster
  • OPSEC: Operations security
  • OTG: Off the grid
  • PD: Police department
  • PERK: Personal emergency relocation kit
  • PFAK: Personal first aid kit
  • POI: Point of impact
  • PSK: Personal survival kit
  • PTSD: Post traumatic stress disorder
  • RCS: Rainwater collection system
  • SAR: Search and rescue
  • SCARE: Social chaos and response emergency
  • SERE: Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape
  • SF: Solar flare
  • SFWF: Shelter, fire, water, and food – listed in the order of importance according to the beliefs of most survivalists.
  • SHTF: S**t hits the fan
  • SOP: Standard operating procedure
  • TEOTWAWKI (pronounced “tee-ought-walk-ee”) : The end of the world as we know it
  • TPTB: The powers that be
  • WROL: Without rule of law
  • WTSHTF: When the s**t hits the fan
  • YOYO: You’re on your own
by

Let’s just call it Preparedness Enthusiasm, mmkay?

So my husband thinks I’m in tinfoil hat territory.  My mom has encouraged me to go back to therapy for anxiety.  Why?  Because they think I’m turning into some kind of Doomsday Prepper.  I can’t claim that.  At most, I am prepping to be a prepper.  There’s lots of sites out there that can tell you how to do it, and I am not about that; certainly not now.  Instead I am just starting out and thought I would document a bit of what that looks like.

I don’t know exactly when it dawned on me that something could happen, and I wasn’t ready.

It wasn’t news reports of disasters such as hurricanes Katrina & Sandy, or the tsunami that struck Japan.

It wasn’t the NY Times article on the impending 9.0+ earthquakes due to the Cascadia Subduction (although I am in the PNW, and would be affected by that to the nth degree).  No flu epidemic caused me to panic. Or stories about polar shifts, CMEs and EMPs, North Korean nuclear capacity, or impending economic collapse.

It wasn’t getting mugged and realizing the world was a dangerous place (I wasn’t).

It wasn’t even when we got snowed in for 13 days on especially, unusually brutal winter (and it was mostly just those of us on at the peak of this hilly suburbia neighborhood.  We could only get out on foot, to hike up to the 7-11 a mile or two away to get milk for my daughter’s formula (and for this parenthesis in parenthesis, don’t judge. I couldn’t nurse)).

It wasn’t remembering what it was like when Mt. St. Helens blew up (I was 10) and I was living close enough that we had deep drifts of ash everywhere and it stunk and hurt your eyes and throat.

It wasn’t watching Doomsday Preppers and being infected with paranoia (I never even saw the show until I developed an interest in preparedness and read about it on some web site; then I watched some of the episodes on demand).

I wasn’t raised in this thinking.  I didn’t grow up seeing my parents garden anything, raise anything, can anything.  I don’t think we even had pantries in the homes of my childhood.  Just a cupboard or two of dried and canned goods meant for immediate consumption.

Part of it might be a little bit of worry (paranoia?) about what is happening in my country.  I am halfway convinced if a certain republican candidate takes the presidential election, his dishonest, misogynistic, racist, homophobic and sociopathic actions will set the world against us.  This election season already (rightly) lets the rest of the world look on us as some kind of joke.

Part of it might be that I’m not feeling financially secure right now.  My family has had a more than comfortable life.  My kids don’t really know what it is like to need (or even just want) something and not get it.  But unavoidable large expense after large expense recently has left us with more debt that I am comfortable fielding.

Part of it might be a desire to seek out a bit simplicity in my life. Looking around my home and coming to the realization that we just have too much stuff.  Unnecessary stuff. An urge for a bit of self-sufficiency, a return to simpler times. To make sure I am not raising future consumeriffic self-entitled assholes.

There was no defining moment, no concrete reason.  It just came upon me slowly, like a day that creeps up and it is suddenly morning when you stepped outside with a cup of coffee and a cigarette in the pre-dawn darkness.

I am not a “Prepper”, not yet.  But I do want to be prepared.