New here, need some quick references

**Alw282** · 10-17-2014, 12:18 PM

In light of the recent Ebola outbreaks I have been forced to take preparedness more seriously. We bought a travel trailer and some acreage out in the country two years ago and have been meaning to get more done in terms of survival and emergency preparedness. In saying that, can anyone give me their favorite books/guides on these things below? I dont want to have to buy several things to find the best one. Thank you!!

-Good trustworthy water treating supplies/tablets
-Trustworthy survival food company
-Good Texas (Houston area) survival medicinal, edible and poisonous plant guide/ book
-Good general survival and primitive living type book

Also What else besides canned foods are good survival foods to buy up at a grocery store before a crisis?

What are methods of mosquito and tick/flea repellant/protectant once the spray is used up

**crashdive123** · 10-17-2014, 04:57 PM

Welcome to the forum.

Good trustworthy water treating supplies/tablets

I like several methods of water purification. Filtering is near the top of my list. When choosing a filter, make sure it does what you want it to do. A big part of that will include the pore size of the filter. The larger the pores, the larger the "stuff" that can get through. Here are a few references on filters.
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/...o/filters.html
http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advi...ckcountry.html
http://www.prm.nau.edu/prm280/water_filters.htm

Another method I like is purification tablets or drops. There are a lot of choices in this arena.

Still another tried and true method is boiling.

Trustworthy survival food company

My recommendation is to drop the word survival when looking in this category. Think long term storage. Beans, rice, canned goods, dehydrated food, freeze dried food, etc. For me, the preceding covers a lot of what I store. Take a look at the bulk food sections of local stores. Do you have an LDS store nearby? The LDS church has been involved in long term storage a lot longer than those marketers that are using the word survival in their sales pitch. Here is some good information from them. https://www.lds.org/topics/food-stor...upply?lang=eng

Good Texas (Houston area) survival medicinal, edible and poisonous plant guide/ book

Not in that area, so I'll let others steer you toward something that may be helpful.

Good general survival and primitive living type book

This forum is a great place to start. We regularly talk about different publications and share links to useful information. Dig in and look around. Ask away if you run across something specific or cannot find what you are looking for.

Also What else besides canned foods are good survival foods to buy up at a grocery store before a crisis?

I am a firm believer in storing what you can that you already eat. What do you have now that will keep long term? Here are a few things I store quite a bit of, and use on a regular basis so there is no need to worry about them going bad. Starkist Albacore Tuna (foil pouch), canned chicken breast, canned veggies, rice, beans (lots of varieties), etc.

What are methods of mosquito and tick/flea repellant/protectant once the spray is used up

I do store quite a bit of spray, but when it is gone....

long sleeves, long pants, hat, head net. Light colored clothing. They are at their worst at dusk and dawn, so avoid if possible. There are also localized treatments that can be done to an area or yard that will reduce their presence for a bit.

**Rick** · 10-18-2014, 09:58 AM

Welcome home. Boiling water will always be your safest method of killing nasties. You only have to bring water to a boil. Parasites and virus are all killed at around 168 degrees F. However, since we don't carry thermometers in our pocket bringing it to a boil ensures we have gone beyond their survival threshold. Boiling it longer just wastes fuel. Then follow Crash's advice. As to books on primitive living take a look at The Encyclopedia of Country Living. It's a wealth of information. Of course, Mother Earth News in on the internet thingie, has thousands of articles and it's free. For mosquitoes and ticks I like DEET. Anything above 50% is sort of a waste. The amount of DEET tells you how long it is effective for not how much strength it has. I know that's confusing but do a search on DEET and you'll find tons of information on percentage vs. how long it lasts. Around the camp fire, pine cones tossed in the fire will keep mosquitoes at bay. They don't like the terpins in the smoke.

**LowKey** · 10-18-2014, 05:34 PM

When you say land in the country, a travel trailer and "survival" how prepared do you want to be?
Is your land arid or forested? Plentiful water? Do you have a well drilled? Do you have an outhouse dug?
Is the land fertile enough to grow on?
Do you have a section cleared that could be a garden?
Have you thought about bringing in native fruit/nut bearing trees and shrubs and planting them around the property? Preferably nothing that needs spraying or heavy maintenance upkeep.
Is it a small piece of land or acreage? Have you thought about planting feed plots to attract wildlife? That could be something as simple as scattering winter wheat if it'll grow there.

Water treating, while good old boiling is good for killing bugs, you might want to get any water on your land checked for chemical contaminants (pesticides, heavy metals, arsenic, etc.) Boiling just concentrates those.
Do you have enough wood or gas/propane to be boiling all your water?

Water filters are great but be sure to stock up on filter elements. Some are only good for a few thousand gallons, others might do up to 10,000. Always prefilter for sediments to make your microfilter last longer. Some are flushable up to a point.

A great book for primitive living is Carla Emery's "Encyclopedia of Country Living." Very practical.

I let someone from TX come up with a plant book for you. I only know plants from the northeast and none of my books will work for you.

Stuff to buy at a grocery store that a lot of people don't think of would be things like baking powder, corn meal, vegetable oil, salt, herbs and spices, instant things that mix with water like jello and puddings, dried potato flakes, any of the Knorr's mixes you might like.

If you are planning to move to this property, free range chickens will go a long way toward dealing with any tick problem you might have. When choosing chickens, if you have a choice, get ones that are as close to heirloom breed as possible, ones that haven't had their instincts bred out of them. Another way to deal with ticks would be to put flea collars around your boot ankles. I used to do this when I was a wetland mapper back in college. Wearing socks you could tuck your pants into helped too, even if it wasn't very fashionable. The ticks around here crawl UP. We don't have too much trouble with any that might fall DOWN from above.

Lemon Balm rubbed onto your clothing will keep mosquitos away for a while. Eucalyptus works too. Put up a bat house. Or several. If you do, please build one to Bat Conservation Int'l specs rather than buying those cheap slat things some catalogs sell. And please install it in a good location for bats.
http://www.batcon.org/index.php/reso...ll-a-bat-house