This book is written by our own fellow FReeper 'The Duke' and after review I highly recomend it as and excelent Primer for beginners as well as a good reference book for all Preppers.
Duke's goal as he states in his book is to merely save lives! I see him as a fellow watch who has bonded himself to to oath to blow the trumpet should he see the sword coming.
The book is very complete with everything from basic preparations to recomendations for forming a community government after a SHTF event.
The Duke has no axes to grind and no agenda to promote and his goal like mine is to see that as many people survive as possible, so that we can recover from any event quicker and stronger than if we had not prepared.
By being able to stand alone, we strenghten not just our own position during SHTF, but that of others as well. Every resource we provide for ourselves mean that much more of what limited resources any First Responders may have can go to those in more desperate need. Those preppared can even help by being first responders providing help in many ways.
Many are times shtf has come, but the world does not end, things merely change. As preppers its our job to make sure we have what is need to make it through those changes.
'When There is No Fema' is Kartographer recomended as a GOOD addition to anyones library.
Preppares’ PING!!
Read, practice and make friends.
I don’t know what other people are paying for ammunition, but Walmart had a case of 1200 rounds of 9mm for $497.00. The back was facing me so I couldn’t find out more details about what brand and how many grains.
Bought a new steel rack for (more) basement preps, better organized them, too.
Made a list of weak points to address this spring and summer. I've got the basics covered, now it's a matter of fine-tuning and adding capacity (more garden space, rain barrels, etc)
Working at making more local Prepper contacts - church, neighbors - and how to communicate with each other when the SHTF.
No, $32.00 is too much for a book. I’d like to know what he says about using swimming pool water, but not at that price.
Today I replaced the batteries in smoke alarms and gun safes, so that they will always have plenty of life (the old batteries go into flashlights rather than getting thrown away). I also updated my “Emergency List” of last minute purchases to make if it appears that things are about to turn bad.
Leading the list:
MANY gallons of cooking oil (short shelf life, so it’s always nice to have more)
Socks and underwear (again, elastic goes bad, and it’s nice to be comfy)
Toilet paper, wipes, and tissues (lots of bulk, and while I have a year’s supply, more would be nice if I had warning)
Insecticide and rat poison (shelf life, again)
Plywood and 2x4s (bulk again)
More seeds (shelf life, again)
Antibiotics (shelf life, once more)
Multivitamin supplements (shelf life)
More bleach (shelf life)
Chocolate, coffee, tea, spices (shelf life)
More soap, detergent, and cleaning supplies (bulk - to share with neighbors)
I don’t need more food for the calories or for variety, nor do I need more equipment for self-defense, water purification, cooking, hand tools, reference or entertainment books, or batteries. I am (thanks in large part to this group) pretty well prepared other than items that are bulky or that expire.
My weak areas:
- Only about a third of my neighbors are people I trust to be helpful. Some may surprise me by becoming useful, but many will not be on my side if things go badly.
- I’m 20 miles from a city of 600,000. I think that’s far enough that relatively few refugees will make it, but close enough that those who do come will be dangerous and experienced at looting.
Any thoughts? Does anyone else have a last minute list?
Hi Kart ... thx much for recommending my book. It’s the result of 3 years burning the midnight oil.
The main web page is http://nofema. com for anyone who might be interested. You can view the table of contents and first 20-or-so pages from the preview.
I have come up with something, though. I ended up splitting it into 2 things instead of one, because of the way the flavors interacted. One is a chocolate/custard shake, the other is a soup.
Chocolate Custard Shake:
2 cups whole milk
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
UP TO 1/2 cup sugar (optional)
Heat the milk and cocoa together until the milk just starts to boil. Be careful if doing this on the stove, it can scorch easily. In a heat-proof dish, whisk the egg. Set the dish with the egg in a bowl or pan of hot water. Don't get the water too hot, you aren't cooking the egg yet, just warming it. When the milk is just starting to simmer, remove from heat and whisk it quickly into the egg. Chill, and add sugar to taste.
A couple of points:
-The heat from the milk is enough to cook the egg, so you don't have to worry about eating a raw egg. In fact, if you don't whisk it quickly enough you may find bits of poached egg in your milkshake. These bits don't hurt anything, but they can be unexpected.
-If you don't want chocolate, you can use brown sugar instead of white, and add vanilla and a dash of nutmeg to make eggnog.
-If you add a few tablespoons of strong coffee to the mix, it makes a very tasty mocha.
The Soup:
2 cups carrots, thinly sliced
1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 oz beef (about 2 walnuts worth)
3 cups diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cup peas
1/2 tsp ground flax
1 or 2 bullion cubes, and other seasonings to taste (I like parsley, thyme, and summer savory)
Brown the beef. Add carrots, bullion cubes, and enough water to cover, and simmer until the carrots can be pierced with a fork. Rinse the quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer, then add to the soup and simmer until soft and translucent. You might need to add more water to keep the quinoa from sticking. Add remaining ingredients (they don't take as long to cook as the carrots and quinoa.)
According to my calculations, this should provide all the nutrients necessary for one person for one day. Some of you might be noticing the problem already: After adding enough water to keep the quinoa from sticking, this makes about 3 quarts of soup. It is a very tasty soup, but even if I stuff myself I can't eat that much in a day! I'm still tinkering with recipes to see if I can shrink it down some without sacrificing nutrients, but, I'm starting to wonder if the “recommended daily requirements” might be exaggerated some.
I'm also tinkering to come up with more flavors. About halfway through the first day, I was really craving something different. I don't have a lot of time to experiment at the moment, but I might see if I could use part of the quinoa with the egg and milk to make something like rice pudding. I also want different flavors of soup, like split pea or chicken.
I stopped by IKEA yesterday and picked up four tea candle lanterns and a large package of tea candles. These are much safer than regular candles, cheaper than oil lanterns, and help you save your flashlight batteries for true emergencies.