Welcome

Featured / brettfernau / 2 Comments

If you are interested in being prepared for the unexpected, the unpredicted, and the unpredictable events that may occur in your life, then you have come to the right place. Being prepared doesn’t just mean having the tools and supplies on hand to weather the storm, or the earthquake, or whatever disastrous event may happen wherever you are. It means that in addition to having the tools and supplies available to handle whatever comes along, you also have the skills and knowledge to make the best use of those tools and supplies to help yourself and those around you survive that event.

In this blog, I will attempt to teach you to be prepared. You will find here information, knowledge, recommended references and practical advice that, if learned and applied, will help you be prepared for almost anything that happens. For my part, I will try to present the concepts to you in a way that you can easily understand and apply. Your part will be assimilating the knowledge and practicing the skills so that when a disaster strikes, no matter what it is, you will know what to do.

There is a sequence to some of the articles presented here. Where there is a sequence, such as Preparedness for Beginners, I suggest that you learn “by the numbers;” in other words, start with Part 1 of a series and work up from there. In that way, you won’t be as likely to become overwhelmed by what you need to learn. Do this a little at a time, one step after another and you will build your skills and knowledge in such a way that they become part of how you live your life.

Luck favors the prepared. Take control of the world around you by being prepared for whatever may happen. As you acquire and become more certain of your skills and abilities, you will also become more confident, more able and more assured of your own survival.

One note of caution: Do Not Specialize! If you are already competent at one of the skills you need to deal with an emergency, build upon that skill and get yourself competent at the all of them: first-aid, search and rescue, self-defense, camping, cooking, foraging, hunting, carpentry, mechanics, wood craft, animal husbandry, gardening, etc. If you specialize, you are to some degree dependent. Strive to be self-sufficient. Work with your neighbors so that they are self-sufficient, too. You’ll all have a better chance of survival is each of you can do every task and then rotate those duties among yourselves.

Finally, enjoy your journey to self-reliance and independence. It is a worthwhile endeavor for its own sake, and even more so because it will enhance your survival and that of those around you. Be competent. Be prepared.

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What I Carry Every Day (EDC)

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On My Belt or In My Pockets:

10 feet of Paracord
Watchband-mounted compass
Whistle on key ring
Folding Knife
Multi-tool
Flashlight and extra batteries
Cell Phone
Glasses
Pen and notepad
Wallet w/ID, money
IFAC (Individual First Aid Kit):
Triangular bandage
Mylar blanket
Non-latex gloves
Wound dressings
Alcohol pads
Antibiotic ointment
Sting relief ointment
Cleaning towelette
Tape
Gauze sponges
Scissors
Cotton Swabs
Safety Pins

*See note below

In My Mind:

Knowledge of first aid, search and rescue, organization, fire suppression, etc.

Awareness of my surroundings and an ability to innovate, improvise and adapt to conditions

The balance of my away-from-home gear is carried in my nearby Get Home Bag.

* Note: When and if Conceal Carry Weapons permits become available in Los Angeles, I will add a handgun to my EDC kit.

Morale in a Post-Disaster World

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You’ve got your food and water reserves put away. You’ve got plans made that you hope will help you deal with the chaos you will face when a disaster happens. You have ways to cook when the grid goes down. You’ve looked at what your sanitation needs might be and you’ve got a way to deal with them on a temporary basis. You’ve talked to your neighbors and you have an idea of how prepared they are. You also feel that even those neighbors who are minimally prepared will not likely pose a danger to you and your family. Probably what you haven’t looked at yet is how grim the world will seem after a major disaster.

Survival in a grid-down urban environment will not be fun. In fact, it will be quite dangerous. You will need to use everything you know and every skill you have practiced to keep yourself safe, clean and fed. Post-disaster survival will be your new full-time job and it will be hard work, very likely the hardest you have ever done. There will be little or no leisure time. You will find yourself busy twenty-four hours a day with the necessities of life. Depending upon the magnitude of the disaster you could be without almost all public utilities which include electricity, gas, water, phones, and cell phones. Without electricity, the gas station can’t pump gas into your car, you air conditioner and heater won’t work, your phones won’t work, your computer won’t work, and when the sun goes down it will be very, very dark. Your water pressure is dependent upon electric pumps, so very soon you will be without water. Without water there will be no baths or showers, no way to water your garden, and no way to flush your toilet unless you use the water you have set aside for drinking. You will have to live off of the supplies you have had the foresight to store for just such a contingency. There will be people who don’t have supplies and they will come looking for yours, so you will also have to think about how to keep your supplies so that you do have something to eat and drink. As I said, it will not be fun.

Perhaps your worst enemy will be your morale and the morale of those around you. Apathy and despair will not help you survive. You will need to be alert, aware and fully functional to stay alive. How are you going to maintain a survival attitude when faced day after day with the problems of finding somewhere to dispose of your sewage, of dealing with the bodies of those who die, of dealing with the scavengers who would kill you and take what you have? It would be very easy to give up. Those that do will quickly succumb. You will have to do better than that.

How will you keep your morale up? Realize one thing, right now. You are already way ahead of anyone who hasn’t given a thought to being prepared for a disaster. Just by looking at what you might have to endure and what you might need to survive, you have taken a big step in the direction of handling anything unexpected that might befall you. Morale is dependent upon your ability to do something about the situation in which you find yourself. If you can do something to help yourself and those around you, you will have no problem with morale. If you can create a hot meal and feed your group, everyone’s morale will improve. If everyone keeps themselves and clean as possible, still maintaining adequate drinking water supplies, morale will improve. If everyone has a job that helps the group survive, you will have no problem with morale. Morale problems will only arise with those individuals who refuse to do their part, who don’t contribute to the survival of the group. If you have a group where everyone has a job and is working hard to help each other, you will have no morale problems.

As a part of getting prepared, you ought to talk to your neighbors. Find out what skills they have. Help them get started putting their supplies together. Begin forming your survival group. You can’t survive alone; there will be way too much to do. You will need lots of help. If you’ve laid the groundwork for survival after a disaster by getting yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbors prepared, then you will have that help. You will have a group with the ability to do something for themselves in the event of a disaster. As a bonus, you might find that the morale of your whole neighborhood has improved as a result of your efforts to help everyone be prepared.