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oh oh. and forgot. I also put my name in at work to learn first aid training. But waiting on them to get enough people at work to wanna learn. Might have to go and see if i can learn first aid at the red cross or somewhere in my area of town. Depends on how long it will take to gather people at our work to learn.
Good for you!! Sounds like you've been pretty busy and moving forward. Sounds like you might have also opened some doors with your dad that might not have been there before. That's a good thing, too.
The BOB is a critical piece of gear in my opinion. Cudos for trying to put one together for each family member. However you build your preps is good. That fact that you are building them is excellent. Let me offer a bit of advice to help you spend your money where it might do you the most good.
Do an audit to determine what are the most likely threats that you and your family face. House fire, flood, earthquake, etc. Once you've identified the most likely to the least likely then you can start fixing any gaps you might have in your planning for the most likely event.
For example, let's assume that a house fire is deemed the most likely. You might already have smoke detectors in place. If so, great. But you might be able to pick up some ABC dry chem fire extinguishers or whatever type are appropriate for you. I have one for the kitchen, a CO2 10lb one for the fireplace, and one in the garage. You might need to purchase second story escape ladders and place "Child Inside" stickers on kid's bedroom windows. Once you get the hardware in place then desktop your fire escape plan with the family. If you have little ones in your family do you what they will do if a fire alarm goes off? Without training they will hide. Usually under the bed or in the closet. That's what small animals do by instinct and so kids. Once you've desk topped the plan then do an exercise and walk everyone through the plan including where you want to meet once outside. Don't chose a tree or pole to gather around because the source of the fire may have been lightening and being around tall objects in a lightening storm isn't safe.
That's just an example but hopefully it will give you some ideas. Spend your money and time where it will do the family the most good and then work your way down the list.
I had to give you some rep for the work you're doing.
Looks like you're making great progress BF.
Thanks Crash & Rick. Yeah i think its a good start so far too. Yeah it was good to be able to talk with my dad about this stuff when i see him. He seems to be almost as excited as i am. Probably since we now have something kind of in common, and can talk about.
Great idea though about having to pretty much Stop, and figure out the most likely threats to our family first and work down from there. I've just been throwing stuff together when i see deals or come across some awsome ideas on here. I'm like all over the place and not focusing on one certain thing as much as i should. Since i do have quite a good start so far. I think i can sit back and relax a bit more and check out what is our ,most likely threats, and work from that. It was kinda stressing me out a bit lately since its just a fresh start and wanting to get stuff done asap. But i never even thought of preparing for the most likely events. Well i think i just got mostly carried away really with it all. Anyways I'll keep updating. Thanks again everyone.
Good job and keep chargin forward BF. Just remember, it is not a sprint. My main goal right now is to focus on medical. No matter what scenerio, if you're hurt or sick, things will be a whole lot worse.
Rick, just a thought about your fire safety ideas. I would omit the child stickers to mark windows. Home invaders look at those as a weak spot to enter a home. It also lets the child abductors and sex offenders know where a potential victim is located. Just my thoughts and experiences.
I think good thoughts, too. That's the nice thing about this forum is that ideas bounce around and you can wind up with some good synergy and refined ideas.
I added a better backpack to the kit, and about three more days of freeze dried food. Also picked up a Wild Edibles field guide by the US Army with over 200 color pictures, harvesting, cooking, and canning information.
I'm going to get the tents out this weekend, and Tie some flies.
I just got done canning 2qts of tomatoes. I also picked up eight pairs of fleece work gloces (.89 cents/pair) a pack of 500 strike anywhere matches, three more waterproof containers for said matches, two flashlights, and a couple more boxes of 12ga game loads. I also added a few more things to the first aid kits. Not too much spent, but a little more progress made.
Picked up a 100 foot of 550 Para Cord, another Survival Knife, and (2) Aquamira filter straws. Packed some canned Chicken, and ham in the food storage. Need to buy a .22. I am thinking the Remington 597. I also added some additional gauze pads, and two more rolls of gauze. I pretty well first aid, and cpr trained. I was EMT qualified in the Navy, and I have kept up my certifications in the civilian world. Looking for a good book on Medicinal plants.
Cut wood, split wood, haul wood, stack wood........about done processing last spring cutting....time to clear out a couple of more spots that need dead fall cleaned up.
Keep waiting for the little Harbor Freight splitter to crap out, so I can justify a bigger one (ar, ar, More power!), but the little thing won't die!
I picked up a couple of new +5F mummy sleeping bags for the wife, and I. Walmart $40.00 for the pair!
I have this week dehydrated 20 pounds of potatoes .. 10 pounds of pineapple ... picked up another 40 cans of stew .. also have make 10 pounds of onions into powder and made about 5 pounds of pemmican ... jerky tomorrow as we bagged a moose .. most of it is gonna be jerked .. some soaking now the rest in the freezer till time allows ...
can't find the christmas list ... whered it go ? did we draw names yet or am I just very lost here ? :(
Just very lost. Here it is:
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ange-III/page3
This might not seem like a huge thing to people on the forum, but I recently earned several different certifications for ski tech related things. Definitely will prepare me for situations in high altitude, cold weather conditions where a reliable source of mobility (and knowing how to use and repair it) will certainly come in handy.
Learning new stuff is usually a good thing. Learning new stuff that is useful is even gooder.
Congratulations. Knowledge is a great thing that no one can every take away from you. Everything we learn helps make us a better us.
This week we stock piled 100 pounds of rice, 75 pounds of dried beans, bought a bunch of #10 cans of fruit and various vegetables. When those get opened for what ever reason the left overs will be dehydrated.
Also in the works are buying a small chest freezer. With the deals we're finding at Smart & Final that thing will be full of meat, that and the rabbits that are being raised.
I have trouble keeping meat in a freezer. We just don't eat enough of it to warrant storing much. Regardless of how I prep it meat generally winds up freezer burnt before we use it. I've started canning more meat than freezing it. Obviously, if you have a larger family you can probably rotate quicker. With just the two of us I can't freeze a whole lot and keep it.
Rick - We had the same issue with storing meat in the freezer. We bought one of those little manual Zip Lock vacuum pumps (right next to Zip Locks on grocery store shelf) and have been extremely pleased with it. We've had zero freezer burn since using it.