Posted on 09/29/2012 9:57:00 AM PDT by JoeProBono
No matter how much I beg, some of you, no doubt haven’t done anything to prepare (you know who you are). I don’t know what else to do. All I can do is give you the information, it’s up to you to act. No one can do it for you.
No doubt some of you are intimidated by my repeated suggestions of storing and using whole grains. If it doesn’t come from the supermarket shelf it’s strange and unfamiliar and you want no part of it. Fair enough.
But you still need to prepare. Here are ten things that you can do right now that will make you better prepared than probably 90% of the population.
And everything is available at your local shopping center – so it’s easy. You can do all ten steps at once or divide each into a separate week and shopping trip. But you need to get it done as soon as possible.
Keep in mind that this is only a starting point and isn’t presented here as a completed list.
1. Head to the nearest Wal-mart, Kmart, Costco or whatever and pick-up 20 lbs of white or brown rice and 20 lbs of pinto beans. White rice has a better storage life while brown rice has more nutritional benefits – your choice.
2. While you’re there grab 5 lbs mixed beans, 5 lbs of white sugar, 5 lbs of iodized salt, one gallon of olive oil (can be frozen to extend shelf-life), 5 lbs oats, 10 lbs each of white or wheat flour and cornmeal.
3. Now head over to the canned foods and pick-up 20 cans of canned fruits and 20 cans of canned vegetables. Be sure to buy only those brands and contents you normally eat and nothing exotic. No need to shock the senses.
4. Now over to the canned meats. Pick-up 20 cans of various meats, salmon, stews, spam and tuna. Again buy only those brands with contents you normally eat and nothing exotic.
5. Okay. Now to the to the peanut butter shelf and toss two 40-ounce jars in the cart. The listed shelf life is just over two years and each jar has over 6,000 calories. Peanut butter is an excellent instant survival food.
6. Over to the powdered drink mix – go on I’ll wait…Okay, pick up two 72 Ounce Tang Orange drink canisters (provides 100% of the US RDA vitamin C requirement per 8 oz. glass). Also grab six 19-Ounce Containers of Kool-Aid Drink Mix.
7. Off to the vitamin and supplement aisle, pick up 400 tablets “one a day” multivitamin and mineral supplements. I buy this brand at the local Wal-Mart - comes in 200 count bottle for $8 each.
8. Now to the department we all love – sporting goods. Go to the camping aisle and pick up 4 five gallon water containers. Fill with tap water as soon as you get back home.
9. While you’re there buy 250 rounds of ammunition for your primary defensive weapon. More if you can, but this should be a good start. Also a good universal cleaning kit.
10. And lastly pick up the best LED flashlight you can afford, extra batteries and bulb. Also grab two boxes of wooden matches and several multi-purpose lighters.
Don’t forget to date, use and rotate – remember first in first out. Let’s get started.
What would you add to the list?
Bump...
they require you to produce a driver's license and record your name and DL# and forward same
MSP's firearms unit then runs a criminal history check on you looking for people that are prohibited from owning firearms and then use hits to get search warrants
problem is they are catching people who have legally purchased firearms prior to a retroactive application of several statutes
WHa..WHAT!? Holy crap! Nice job! But I need to say, that there must be a threshold number of guns and rounds that the governement will use to tag the person as a crazed right-wing gun nut, no matter how sane and good, and then take all they have. Disperse some of that so they can’t take it all, should it happen.
Of all the things we buy for SHTF Hydrogen Peroxide, while an excellent tool, suffers from an absolute “Use by Date” deficiency.
When you buy H2O2 keep in mind it will absolutely expire and its efficacy will deteriorate exactly 3 years from when you buy it.
I mark the bottles in permanent ink of when I bought it and write in big “type” its expiration three years from that date.
Can’t tell you what to do with it when it expires but, I have tested 3 year +1 day H2O2 and it’s absolutely a dud.
So I also write the date 2.5 years from when I purchase it on the bottles.
Writing those two dates lets me make an informed decision about the efficacy of the product before I decide to use something else or grab a bottle that is within the “Use By”.
” require you to produce a driver’s license and record your name and DL#”
Not good. here I just walk in, put some cash down and walk out with a box or two of ammo, though I tend to use Big5 sports stores when they have a sale.
http://www.sgammo.com is good
if you want to do online (i assume mastercard, etc. would rollover if asked to by the feds)
Prolly from bugs, bed bugs? Good repellant.
What I'd give for a basement like that.....
All ya need is a shell—muscle, clam, but not oyster! Yeeouch!!
The good maple syrup in glass jars will also last many years.
“Preppers List : 10 Things To Do Now!”
Preppers List: 1 Thing To Do Now!
Move to another country.
Put the rice and flours in the freezer to kill the bugs.
I usually use ammoman or cheaperthandirt
and I realize that the CC companies will simply roll over...but the difference is LE would need a search warrant to get at the information
Walmart is simply providing it because it was asked to do so
someone will end up suing them
I never see ‘crunchy granola bars’ on prepper lists. Folks, you can live off of granola bars and peanut butter if the true collapse comes and having a fire would give away your position/cooking. No, it’s not grand fair, and I wouldn’t reccommend trying to live off of same for more than a couple of weeks, but granola bars are not expensive, an be purchased in large boxes at places like SAM’s or Costco and they keep very well in individually wrapped tow bar packets.
I buy the Nature Valley Crunchy Oats and Honey thirty packet boxes. Also, rolled oats (store brand of Quaker style quick breakfast oats) in large cylinder boxes are a great way to store oats you will use and require only water to reconstitute the oats. Add a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter and a handful of raisins and you have a complete nutritious meal.
The multi-vitamin supplement is a great idea, and having a couple of large bottles of D3 5000 IU around doesn’t hurt, especially if you anticipate ‘staying in’ a great deal during a catastrophe.
Btt
I have been an advocate for pistol caliber rifle and handgun pairing for years now. There are excellent and yet inexpensive carbines in 9mm and .40 cal (using Glock magazines), as well as lever .22 magnum, .38 spl, and .357 magnum weapons available. Nice to have same ammo for both pistol and rifle, with the rifle adding some to the feet per second of the rounds giving them more hitting power. A .357 lever rifle will bring down just about any North American mammal, except maybe griz or Kodiaks.
Got a bag of brown rice that's seven years old and doin' fine. Add vinegar to the list.
For 8 calibers, there are only 11 firearms; not exactly an armory, but a well-represented, very, very choice collection of Class IIIs (suppressors, full-auto) and other goodies. 1911.45(2)/.357SIG(1)/.357Mag(1)/.223x45(3)/7.62x51(1)/.50cal(1)/12ga(2).
95% of the ammo was bought OTC at my FFL’s over past 11yrs, for cash, so there’s no records. Good advice, though, about ‘dispersing’ a fair amount of it. I have a 20ac Farm, so it’ll be easy to hide.
Little tricks.
I have Petzl’s and I also have Cree head lamps. The Cree’s run 300 Lumen and programable down to 60 lumen.
More light is better but programming for lower and more appropriate lighting is better for me and gives me the ability to conserve battery.
The other thing I’ve done is taped a piece of Velcro to my Cree 900 lumens and another piece on my hats, shirts and the straps of my packs.
Gives me the advantage of carrying a great lighting system that can be attached for hands free where I need them and is less confusing (for me) in terms of working.
Drawback: my lights use the 18650 batteries which are recharchable but can also two 123’s for each battery bay. I have a ton of 123’s and couldn’t care less if I burn through them.
I also have ten 18650’s for each light tool. My main lighting uses only one 18650 and produces 700 lumen, even though the manufactuerer says it produces 900. I tested them against a major brand name and deduced they produce slightly less than the major brand, who claims 900 lumen.
So I have ten 501 Cree, which take only battery.
two Fenix TK35(900 lumen, or their claim 860 lumen)
and I have two Cree 3800 lumen lights. Great lights if you need to find someone, blind someone or just need to show off but, not really usuable. 3800 lumen is like holding a headlight in your hand and if you shine it on something close you will go blind from the throw back of the light bouncing back. You can lower it to 120 lumen or something like that but, at this point I like it for just showing off)
I know 18650 batteries are new to a lot of people but you need them and they are rechargable, so buy extra and keep em charged, even for the lower lumen lights.
Nothing like running around in the dark, suddenly losing your massive light tool and having backup power.
If anyone wants direction on these lights, feel free to ping me.
I won’t say the “Best part of” of these lights is just how in inexpensive they are compared to major brands and the amount of power you get proprotionaly ....Wait, I will.
They are better than major brands in terms of output.
I mean, if you want to buy a major brand like Fenix that’s fine. Hell, I have several and rely on them but, if you want more bang for you buck buy the Cree off brands.
Fenix 860 lumen is $100 bucks +.
The Cree’s are $13.00 bucks and deliver only slightly less light. The footprint is also completely and totally smaller.
If you take the Fenix it has a terrific feel and will blind everything but a zombie.
It’s slightly less than the size of a bottle of Coke.
The Cree, however, is slightly smaller than a candy bar. Think “Rolo’s”. Puts out amazing light.
I’ve also tested these “junky things”. I’ve dropped them, thrown them and dropped em in H2O”.
They work great and are 10% of the cost of a similarly performing light.
In terms of charging the batteries I have a cheap ass household charger and works just fine with my “mobile” solar charging system by “Goal Zero” solar charger.
The Cree
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