Sorry about that

Yes, it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been struggling with an injury to my knee. It's got me thinking about medical issues post-shtf. We tend to focus a lot on injuries involving bleeding, or at most a broken bone. However, the more likely injury that doesn't involve bleeding is a sprain. It's a lot more serious than you think.

A sprain leaves us in pain. In fact, it's more painful than a break (personal observation). In some instances it's a lot more painful. My injury was a sprain of a knee ligament and it made life difficult, to say the least. A trip to the bathroom was torture and included a knee brace bandage, a walker, and post-trip heating pad. Just trying to sit up was something to be avoided. At some point you have to make that trip and then grab some kind of pain pill.

Now, there's no chance at all that you're going to bug out with a walker strapped to your BOB, so we need to consider alternatives. I plan on adding a pair of knee braces. Not the cheap kind. They need to be ones that have some kind of metal structure that will keep the knee aligned in its normal position, yet allow the knee to bend. We also need to think about the elbow and wrist. Each will have its own specialized appliance (as they're called). Throw in a dozen heavy-duty wrap type elastic bandages and that should be enough to keep you and your group able to move. You'll be screaming in pain, but able to walk, as long as the terrain isn't too rough.

That is about as much as you can do while maintaining mobility. You can't carry a walker or crutches and move through the woods and over streams. It's not an ideal solution. If you're bugging out solo and a sprain happens, you may not be able to stand this level of pain. It's been 4 weeks and I still can't move my leg normally. There are certain spots that are painful to the touch. The only treatment that did any good was to stay put in bed. The less stress you put on the leg the better. Usual healing time is 6 - 8 weeks. I wish you luck in figuring out how to deal with this scenario. About the only thing I have come up with in a bugout situation is to travel with a group and be prepared to have them drag you on a travois. This is going to leave one hell of a track and ruin your average speed, but I don't see a lot of alternatives other than abandoning the injured party. Probably not an ideal solution, especially if that's you.

Good luck in this scenario and may you never have to deal with it.

Those Basic Questions ... The Other Side

There are lots of basic questions from noobie preppers. There doesn't seem to be any way around them. I will have to cover it, though it will take a while and many posts.

Let's talk about something seldom discussed: what IS a prepper?

I suppose we have to mention the tv show "Doomsday Preppers". The people shown are preppers, but in the same way that the 'Real' Housewives series is anything like your family. Call it 'extreme prepping' if anything. I'm sure that those people are proud of what they've got done. Rightly so, in most cases. Their setups took years and a lot of money. But don't look at them and get depressed because you don't have anything like that.

A prepper is a person who looks at today's world and sees good reasons to be worried. A prepper expects some event to disrupt the normal world to the point where everyday society and law and order breaks down. A prepper will have an organized stock of food, water, and basic necessities to keep them and their families in good shape during the event. Even if that event lasts for years.

Such prepping takes a dedicated spirit, a plan, and time. That's what allows the average prepper to build up their stores.

Now on to those questions.

One that usually comes near the top of everyone's list is weapons. That's also the thing that causes the most public panic. "Oooo, watch out! They're stockpiling weapons and we'll all be killed by these gun nuts!". Nothing could be further from the truth. In almost every scenario preppers try to prepare for is the chance that there will be gangs trying to loot in their search for food or valuables. Any plan has to include some way to protect themselves and their families from armed looters. And, being preppers, they believe in having spares of everything they can. The new prepper will typically ask what gun to buy. They get an answer they don't expect: buy what you're comfortable with. If you're comfortable with just a pistol, then get that. If it's a pistol, two rifles, and a shotgun, then get them. Remember, if things go bad, you're going to end up using them as hunting weapons to put food on the table.

Then follow through! Don't sit them in the corner and consider that part of prepping over. Not at all! The very first thing to do is to learn to use them safely, take care of them, and then get good at shooting. Guns do no good if they're dirty. You're not going to do any good unless you can use your weapons and actually hit something. Among the parts of buying a pistol will be a mandatory training class. Please consider a class for your rifle and shotgun as well.

Right after that will come the question: well, what do you own? I'll admit that I own a pair of shotguns (12 and 20 gauge), a pair of .22 caliber rifles, and a .22 caliber pistol. Consider that more than half are inherited. I would still like to get a bigger rifle as a long range gun. .22's are good, but not for big game. Just as the shotguns are fine, but not at long range.

That's one layer of protection. A less drastic one is tasers and pepper spray. Frankly, I have no use for tasers. They don't affect everyone equally and sometimes not at all. It's easy to miss with them, they're single shot, and take a relatively long time to reload. All in all a bad idea.

Pepper spray, on the other hand, is fairly effective, cheap, and you get more than one target per can. A better choice all around. And they can be used on aggressive animals, too.

People will also ask about knives. That choice is too individual to discuss here. One choice is fairly clear (to me, anyway). It should have a carbon-steel blade. It will be easier to sharpen, hold an edge longer, and can be used with fire starter tools to produce sparks. Even if you make the right choice in guns, a knife is a tool as much as a weapon, be it skinning an animal or cutting up supper.

That's it for now, see ya later!

Tick...tick...tick...

Coming to you from a place too damn close to Cleveland Ohio.

At this point, we know all we need to in order to make decisions. It's true- it's not time to panic, yet. Yet my feelings and prepper instincts don't give a damn about facts, so I'm ignoring my own panic.

I did go out and get three two and a half gallon containers of water and four half gallons of double-strength bleach. I feel that I can justify this as part of my normal prepping. I guess I could have waited for a sale, but this outbreak possibility makes it worth it.

These are the kind of things that make me frustrated that this house does not have a big basement. In my defense, the house was my wife's before we married. And our house sits atop bedrock, making a basement both difficult and very expensive. The lack of flat land makes anything more than our house and garage impractical (at best).

Anyway, if any more infected appear in the region it will be time for further action.

System Shock

One subject that few of us regular folk have mastered: EMP protection. I could have spent a while condensing the information on the web site of this link but that would have been a waste of time. The author has exhaustively covered the subject. I'll let him speak for himself.

http://www.futurescience.com/emp/emp-protection.html

His article is full of links to outside sources of info about hardware involved and other items of interest to preppers. One link leads to a list of EMP myths. Very interesting stuff you won't find elsewhere.

He really covers the two most likely sources of EMP 'attacks'- a solar flare and an intentional nuclear detonation. Personally, I find the solar flare a bigger threat. A flare can easily cover the entire globe and leave us all in the dark. The only 'good' part is that we will have 2-4 days' warning of the arrival. That can make a critical difference, as we scramble to shield our delicate electronics. And if we're lucky, some shelter for ourselves.

Tool Time

Now. Ineed to bring up a subject- tools. Iread prepper forums and I see lots of posts on peoples' plans for water, guns, and food, as if that is all we'll need to worry about. I, on the other hand, have devoted a goodly chunk of space to tools.

I think that after TEOTWAWKI we are going to need our tools more than ever. I know that I'm a pretty fair hand at most things. I can build anything from a garden to a house, given materials, time, and TOOLS.  Know what I mean? So save room on the ark for tools, they can be the only ones around. You won't be running down to Lowe's if you need something. That includes nuts, bolts, washers, nails, screws, and a host of other fasteners and connectors.

Before someone comments, I know that there will be people forging nails, but will they be near you? And, will they feel like sharing? As noted above, there  are lots more that can't be home forged. Even screws and bolts need steel rod as a start. Heavens, we may have to rely on scavanged items, cause I doubt there'll be new steel made for a long time.

Now start thinking about ALL the consumables. Think about saw blades, razor blades, all the sanitary supplies, over the counter drugs, prescription drugs, car/bike/trailer tires, electrical wire and cable, and on and on. Go write a list (eek! And paper and pencils/pens!) of all the disposable/consumable things you need to live and work at whatever trade you think will make you valuable in an agrarian society. Remember: the more valuable you are alive, the less time you need to waste on self-defense!

The Short of it

I've given a fair amount of thought to this over the years. I still consider myself a beginer. I'll write things down as I go. Maybe it will help some other beginer and maybe more experienced types can point out where I stumble.

Looking back, I find that I've been making contingency plans for things going to hell in a big way for over 40 years. Watching Doomsday Preppers let me see that #1 I'm not crazy, and #2 There are others out there who feel like I do. Maybe we'll all end up 50 years from now alive and in good shape, but I have no intention of leaving it to chance.

On the plus side, there are a lot more tools out there for people like us. There are two tags hung on us: preppers and survivalists, and I'm not sure I like the connotations of either one. Let me get this clear: I don't expect the world to go to hell, but I don't intend to let such a possibility steamroller me, either. So... if you have to hang a tag on me to be happy, then feel free to call me s prepper. I surely do intend to prepare for whatever I can. I don't have much for resources, my wife doesn't believe in prepping and we don't have a lot of space for huge pantries, so this will be an exercise in worst-case scenarios.

What I'm doing is picking up a couple of items as the budget allows. So every couple of weeks, I will pick up something on my list of must-haves. Oh, yes, I do have a list. A huge one, of course. You realy do need one. Thank goodness we now have computers to help out. It certainly does speed up things.