Monthly Archives: April 2014

April 10th, 2014
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Top 10 Items to Include in Your First-Aid Kit

This guest post was provided by Lewis James, a trained and experienced emergency medical professional. He provides some insight into what to include in your first-aid kit. For more tips and information on first-aid kits, check out his blog over at www.unflinchable.com

While your first-kit should be tailored to your specific situation, here are the 10 basic items that should be in every first-aid kit:

1. Tourniquet

I recommend the SWAT tourniquet as it is very simple to use and is a versatile item for your first-aid kit. It can be used as an elastic bandage to wrap a sprained ankle, it can work as a pressure dressing on a wound, and can obviously be used as a tourniquet in extreme situations.

2. Gauze

Don’t just toss in a couple 4″x4″ gauze pads and call it a day. You can get a package of compressed gauze for a couple bucks that is the equivalent of 39 pieces of 4″x4″ gauze! The best part is, it is very compact! Pack as much gauze as you can fit in your kit. QuikClot gauze could also be added if you have the space.

3. Tape (or Steri-Strips)

Tape is a necessity for every first- aid kit. You can use it with a small piece of gauze to make a band-aid or use it to secure larger dressings to a wound. I personally carry a pack of large Steri-Strips (4″ x ½”) instead of tape because they are much stickier and do a better job of holding wounds closed. You can use them like tape to hold gauze to a wound as well. Tape can do all the same things, I just prefer Steri-Strips in a compact first-aid kit.

4. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl)

This can be used to treat allergic reactions. Some people will say to carry an EpiPen, but if you don’t have a prescription for one, do NOT carry it! Epinephrine is a dangerous drug! Obviously, if you DO have a prescription for an EpiPen due to a severe allergy, you should have one with you at all times.

5. Ibuprofen

This is used to relieve pain, inflammation, and fevers. You could substitute Tylenol or another NSAID, I just prefer Ibuprofen because it’s a little stronger.

6. Aspirin

This is similar to Ibuprofen in that it can reduce pain, inflammation, and fever. Because aspirin is also a mild blood thinner, it can also be used to reduce the risk of a stroke or a heart attack, which is why I recommend packing it in addition to Ibuprofen.

7. Antibiotic Ointment

When you’re dressing a smaller wound, it’s a good idea to put some antibiotic ointment on it to reduce the risk of infection. This isn’t a substitute for cleaning the wound though! Wound cleaning is still a vital part of first-aid.

8. Gloves

You need to have gloves in a first-aid kit to not only protect wounds from further contamination while you’re dressing them, but also to protect yourself in case you are treating someone else.

9. Tweezers

Ever tried to pull a splinter out of your hand without tweezers? Pretty difficult! Tweezers can also be used to pull out ticks. As a side note, the plastic tweezers that are usually included in first-aid kits are useless! Get some real stainless-steel ones.

10. Safety Pins

Safety pins are one of those items that can really help you out when you’re trying to “MacGyver” (improvise) first-aid gear. For example, if you need to make a sling out of a t-shirt or piece of fabric, safety pins will be very helpful in making it secure.

Conclusion

Those are the 10 items that I recommend you keep in your first-aid kit. There is gear you could add to give you deeper capability, but this is a very good foundation. These 10 items alone make a solid, small, and lightweight first-aid kit that would be perfect for your survival kit or bug-
out bag! These items are the core of every first-aid kit that I have, including even my vehicle first-aid kit.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: tacticalintelligence

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April 9th, 2014
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Federal Snipers Train Guns on Family For Filming Cattle: “Outside the Bounds of Designated First Amendment Area”

This is what it has come to. Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars explains.


(Pictured: Cliven Bundy walks by a first amendment area set up by the Bureau of Land Management near Bunkerville, Nev.)

Federal snipers with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) trained guns on members of a family yesterday after they dared to stop and take video footage of cattle outside the bounds of a designated “First Amendment Area,” before arresting one of the men for non-compliance.

The cattle were being rounded up by BLM officers as part of a crackdown on Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who has refused to pay “grazing fees” demanded by the feds as a result of a re-classification of 600,000 acres of federal land in northeastern Clark County which Bundy claims has been in his family for generations.

Some fear the dispute could turn into a Ruby Ridge-style violent standoff because Bundy has said he is prepared to become a martyr for what he perceives as a constitutional stance against tyranny.

As we reported earlier, the feds have now started rounding up Bundy’s cattle in the name of protecting a supposedly endangered species, the desert tortoise, forbidding Bundy from interfering or even entering the vast area. The case is quickly turning into another iconic battle between big government and a besieged family.

Fears that the confrontation may turn violent and concerns that Bundy is drawing increased support from liberty activists and the local community prompted the feds to tape off two ridiculous “First Amendment Areas,” outside of which free speech in support of Bundy is banned. A sign placed inside the area reads “Welcome to Amerika – Wake Up” alongside a hammer and sickle logo.

When Bundy’s family members violated that rule yesterday in an attempt to peacefully document the cattle roundup, they were met with a barrage of loudspeaker warnings and four BLM snipers with their guns trained on the dissenters.

“Several members of the family had gone out for a drive in several vehicles to try to monitor the ongoing federal action to remove their father’s cattle from the range,” reports the Moapa Valley Progress. “They were not travelling on recently restricted federal land, but were travelling along the state highway looking north across the valley for signs of cattle, Ryan Bundy said.”

“He was doing nothing but standing there and filming the landscape,” Bundy said of his brother Dave. “We were on the state highway, not even off of the right-of-way. Even if they want to call [the area that we were filming] federal land; which it’s not; we weren’t even on it. We were on the road.”

None of the family members were armed, but as soon as Dave Bundy began filming the cattle in the distance, 11 BLM vehicles each with two agents arrived and surrounded him.

“They also had four snipers on the hill above us all trained on us. We were doing nothing besides filming the area,” said Ryan Bundy.

The family were told to leave the area via loudspeaker because they had violated the crudely established “First Amendment Area”.

“They said that we had no first amendment rights except for up by the bridge where they had established an area for that,” Bundy said.

When Dave Bundy didn’t immediately heed the warning and return to his vehicle, a dog was set on him and he was subsequently arrested.

“He was filming and talking on the phone, I don’t know to whom,” Ryan Bundy said. “It happened pretty fast. They came down on him hard and had a German Shepherd on him. And then they took him.”

When Dave Bundy’s father Cliven attempted to contact emergency response in both Mesquite and for Metro in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of his son, he was told to, “get off the phone or he would be arrested,” according to Ryan Bundy.

Should the Bundy case escalate any further, what has up to this point remained a largely local news story threatens to explode into a national controversy – re-igniting resentment over big government and a federal bureaucracy increasingly trampling on the rights of the American people to be left alone.

RELATED: Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

Via: shtfplan

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April 8th, 2014
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5 Reasons You Need A Storm Shelter in Your Home

Tornado and hurricane season are rapidly approaching, leaving those of us who are standing in the path of possible disaster to consider how prepared we truly are.

No one wants to be left ill-prepared for when devastation day finally arrives, but too often we hesitate when it comes to investing in the safety of our houses when it comes to storm shelters.

The cause of this hesitation is that there are a lot of questions surrounding the legitimacy of storm shelters; mainly these concerns address the value, need, difficulty, versatility and overall soundness of these safe havens.

It is important to be informed when making a choice about something so important, so we put together a list of reasons why we think you should get a storm shelter for your home.

First, some tornado preparedness tips:


As you can see in this infographic, there are some states that are more highly impacted by tornadoes than others. If you live in one of these regions, a tornado shelter is much more likely to be necessary than it might in other places. However, no matter where you live, having a shelter is always a great idea. Read on to find out why you need a storm shelter in your home.

 

Here are 5 reasons to add a storm shelter to your home-

 

 1. A Storm Shelter Will Increase Value to Your Home

A lot of people complain that storm shelters cost an arm and a leg. Though the initial cost of a storm cellar might seem outrageous, there is some evidence that has come to surface that storm shelters might actually be cost effective. Storm shelters have the ability to create a net benefit in cost analysis by adding value to your home. Real estate agents in Oklahoma estimate that the addition of a tornado shelter could increase your home’s value between $1,000 and $2,000. Some even equated storm shelters to a kitchen renovation. The return on your money, depending on your area, could be 2/3 of the original cost of installation. In real estate terms, that’s a pretty fair investment.


2. Your home might be susceptible to devastating wind patterns.

Tornadoes generate wind that can and will damage most homes they meet. As evidenced by this video, tornadoes of all sizes and magnitudes have the potential t seriously damage your home and harm your family.

 

 

 

 

3. They are easier to install than you would imagine.

An underground storm shelter can be easily placed in your garage. The build may take up an entire weekend, however the overall installation is made easy with some know how and good tools. This video breaks down exactly what steps you need to do in order to successfully implement an underground storm cellar.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Storm Shelters are not confined to only being constructed underground.

Contrary to popular belief, there is reason to believe that storm shelters above ground are useful also. Joseph Dannemiller has constructed 15 years’ worth of research at Texas Tech University’s National Wind Institute that demonstrates the safety of above-ground storm shelters.

 

 

 

 

5. Storm Shelters Actually Work

This grisly image below just about sums it up. With the exception of the storm shelter, all forms of infrastructure were completely obliterated by a F5 Tornado in Moore, OK. The storm shelter survived the devastating winds, and remained the lone survivor amongst broken wood and shattered glass.

 

While conducting the research to determine whether to get a storm shelter, make sure to keep this information in mind.

As storm season approaches, you might have to make your decision sooner rather than later.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.
via: survivalring

 

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April 7th, 2014
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Venezuela Enforces Fingerprint Registry to Buy Groceries: What to Do Before Rationing Starts in America

Note: In recent weeks the country of Venezuela has implemented everything from price controls to rationing in an effort to control the hyperinflation that has gripped the nation. All attempts at controlling demand and ‘hoarding’ have thus far failed, prompting government officials to issue directives requiring biometric verification for the purchase of foodstuffs. What’s happening in Venezuela is a clear example of how government first causes the problem, often leading to panic, and then points the blame at everyone but themselves. Officials claim that unscrupulous merchants (who have been forced to sell goods at prices lower than they have acquired them) and the hoarding of food by individuals is to blame for the shortages.

The solution, of course, is more government, and in this case that means registration of fingerprints and other personal data in exchange for permission to purchase food. Be assured that the same plans are in place right here in the USA. In fact, we already have an electronic mechanism of exchange in the form of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. Should the worst happen and the US dollar crashes at some point in the future, those who failed to prepare (or, hoard as the government would suggest) are destined to forced registrations at their local post office or other government entity. Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper explains what’s happening right now in Venezuela, how a similar situation could unfold in the USA, and what you can do to prepare in advance.

For those looking to implement a frugal and highly effective strategy in advance of food shortages or currency crisis we suggest taking a look at Daisy’s book The Pantry Primer: How to Build a One Year Food Supply in Three Months.

Also check out another option from us here: A Year of Supplemental Food Storage for $300 for a family of FOUR !

(Pictured: Amateur photo: Venezuelans line up for miles in an effort to acquire food during hyperinflationary food shortages – March 2014)

 

Venezuela Enforces Fingerprint Registry to Buy Groceries: What to Do Before Rationing Starts in America
By Daisy Luther

What if you were forced to “register” in order to buy groceries?  And what if, through that registration, the food you bought could be tracked and quantities could be limited?

That’s exactly the plan in Venezuela right now.  The AP reports that in an effort to crack down on “hoarding” that ID cards will be issued to families.  These will have to be presented before foodstuffs can be purchased.

President Nicolas Maduro’s administration says the cards to track families’ purchases will foil people who stock up on groceries at subsidized prices and then illegally resell them for several times the amount…

Registration began Tuesday at more than 100 government-run supermarkets across the country. Working-class shoppers who sometimes endure hours-long lines at government-run stores to buy groceries at steeply reduced prices are welcoming the plan.

“The rich people have things all hoarded away, and they pull the strings,” said Juan Rodriguez, who waited two hours to enter the government-run Abastos Bicentenario supermarket near downtown Caracas on Monday, and then waited another three hours to check out.

Checkout workers at Abastos Bicentenario were taking down customers’ cellphone numbers Monday, to ensure they couldn’t return for eight days. Shoppers said employees also banned purchases by minors, to stop parents from using their children to engage in hoarding, which the government calls “nervous buying.”

Rodriguez supports both measures.

“People who go shopping every day hurt us all,” he said, drawing approving nods from the friends he made over the course of his afternoon slowly snaking through the aisles with his oversized cart.

Reflecting Maduro’s increasingly militarized discourse against opponents he accuses of waging “economic war,” the government is calling the new program the “system of secure supply.”

Patrons will register with their fingerprints, and the new ID card will be linked to a computer system that monitors purchases. On Tuesday, Food Minister Felix Osorio said the process was off to a smooth start. He says the system will sound an alarm when it detects suspicious purchasing patterns, barring people from buying the same goods every day. But he also says the cards will be voluntary, with incentives like discounts and entry into raffles for homes and cars.

Expressionless men with rifles patrolled the warehouse-size supermarket Monday as shoppers hurried by, focusing on grabbing meat and pantry items before they were gone.  (source)

Last year in Venezuela, it became a crime to “hoard” food, and the country’s Attorney General called upon prosecutors to crack down on “hoarders” by imprisoning them for the “crime”.

Some people may read this and think to themselves, “Why on earth do I care about what happens in Venezuela?”

You’d better care, because this is our future.

Already the Obama administration has moved the pieces into place on the board to be able to appropriate supplies from anyone, at any time.  Mac Slavo of SHTFplan warns:

It should be clear from the laws that are already in effect that the government has given itself a legal pretext for confiscating anything they so choose in the midst of an emergency.

Should an emergency befall the United States, the military, national guard, and local police operating under orders from the Department of Homeland Security will have carte blanche to do as they please.

In a widespread emergency where supply lines have been threatened and millions of Americans are without essential resources because they failed to prepare, the government will swoop in and attempt to take complete control.

They will enter our homes and search them without a warrant. They will confiscate contraband. And they will take any ‘excessive resources’ that you may have accumulated. This includes food, toiletries, precious metals and anything else emergency planners and officials deem to be a scarce material. (source)

Just think how much easier it would be to do so if every purchase you make is tracked and documented for future reference.

How Much of a Footprint Are You Leaving?

Now, think about those “loyalty cards” that every grocery store in North America promotes when you go through the checkout. Have you noticed how much more those are being pushed lately? Could there be a nefarious purpose to that?  I doubt the person at the cash register thinks twice about it – if these actually are data collection tools, it is something put in place by people far higher up the food chain (pun intended) than the staff of your local supermarket.

I strongly recommend you think twice about collecting “points” – the discounts may not be worth it if it means that your stock-up purchases are in some database, easily accessible to the NSA.  If you feel it is imperative to have one of those cards, consider using a pseudonym and false address.  You really don’t want to provide an inventory of your stockpile to the government. Some cards, like the one from Target, for example, even take it a step further and link to your credit card or debit account.  I can’t even wrap my brain around giving out that type of information to the person who rings up my paper towels and garbage bags.

To take this even further, if you haven’t been convinced yet that you need to begin producing your own food by gardening and raising micro-livestock, this should solidify the importance of not being totally dependent on “the system” for what you eat. Looking at the drought conditions across America’s farmland, is it a stretch of the imagination to think we could soon be facing rationing like that which is currently happening in Venezuela?  As the middle class gasps its last breath here in America, we may soon be faced with a situation where only the wealthy can afford to avoid rationing.  By becoming independent from the purveyors of food, you can assure that your family will not go hungry at the whims of a government who really doesn’t care.

Plan of Action

Here are a few things that you can do to pre-empt feeling the effects of a system like the one in Venezuela before such a change occurs on our own soil. Start now to leave less of a footprint for the government to follow.

  1. Plant a garden.
  2. Grow food indoors in sunny windows.
  3. Consider an aquaponics set-up in a spare room.
  4. Raise chickens and meat rabbits.
  5. Stock up NOW on long-term staples like grains and beans, before limits are instituted.
  6. Buy heirloom seeds – lots and lots of seeds.
  7. Practice careful OPSEC (OPerational SECurity) when making large purchases.
  8. Store longterm food supplies in more than one location. That way if you lose some of your supplies to thugs (government or other varieties), you still have supplies to fall back on.
  9. Learn to preserve food.
  10. Stock up of preservation supplies like lids, jars, etc.
  11. Do NOT use so-called “loyalty cards” or memberships to make large purchases.
  12. When ordering large quantities of supplies, consider having them mailed to some place other than your home.
  13. Use cash or prepaid VISA cards purchased with cash to make large purchases.
  14. Don’t tell others about your supplies and purchases.
  15. Teach your children not to discuss things like food pantries and preparedness.
  16. Don’t store your supplies out in the open for anyone who comes into your home to see. Stash your 5 gallon pails away in closets, under beds, or in the basement.
  17. Disengage from the system by purchasing from small local farmers.
  18. Use the barter system whenever possible.  When money was tight and I lived in a place where I couldn’t grow much food, I worked on a farm harvesting vegetables in exchange for produce that I could preserve for my family.
  19. Change the way you eat – go with a local, in-season menu that is far more difficult to track than grocery-store purchased items.
  20. Learn to forage. Even in the city, you might be surprised at how many things can be found growing in your own back yard or falling off of the trees in a local park.  My children and I picked up one small bag of walnuts a day at a little park down the street one year, resulting in almost 15 pounds of shelled nuts by the time we were through.

Whatever your plan, don’t delay. We need only to read the many articles predicting a food shortage this year due to poor weather conditions to see the writing on the wall. You must become responsible for your family’s sustenance if you don’t want to suffer at the hands of those in power. I have no intention of standing in line for hours with my “ID card”, only to be allowed to purchase a small amount of highly inflated food.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

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April 6th, 2014
post by policysup | | 0

10 Non-Power Tools You Need for Survival

Guest post By Doc Montana, a contributing author of SurvivalCache.com

 

I knew we were in trouble the moment I saw the Black and Decker battery-powered adjustable wrench.  I’d encountered screwdrivers with dead batteries, saws without extension cords, and drills with easily over-heated motors, but an electric wrench?

 

Frankentools

Even the Craftsman electric hammer wasn’t as frightening as a AAA-powered wrench. What was the world coming to?  Since that time I have considered what essential but simple tools have crawled their way out of the primordial tool box and evolved into electric-powered, motor-driven, battery-dependent versions that grind, drill and saw through anything in seconds as long as their copper circulatory system has a steady flow of electrons.  If the Grid goes down, the these highly advanced tools are collectively no more useful than a bright yellow bag filled with boat anchors.

Most people have experienced the failure of an electric screwdriver and have quickly remedied that situation, so manual screwdrivers were too obvious to make this list. But how about the other essential non-power tools necessary to rebuild society, or at least repair your domicile after a hurricane or civil war? Here’s a list of 10 non-power tools to have handy when the grid hits a speed bump.

What You Need


 

1.Cross-cut saw:  Very few people today have tried to cut through a large tree with a handsaw, and with good reason.

Branches, yes, but trunks, never.  Now imagine a SHTF situation where you can’t use or don’t want to use a noisy, smelly chainsaw.  Not hard to imagine actually, but as you look at the tree blocking the road, laying across your roof, or soon to be turned into your bug out cabin, you’ve got a lot of sawdust-making ahead of you.  This country was built with cross-cut saws, and while not as efficient as their internal combustion descendants, a pair of muscles and a sharp cross-cut will make short order of any tree outside our national parks.

Cross-cut saws come in one and two person versions that differ by length and handles. If you live in a place where you know you will need to cut trees, the two-man version is best. For some strange twist of physics, twice the manpower is more than twice as fast. But if space is an issue, the one-man version is smaller and a makeshift second handle can be bolted onto the end of the blade if needed.

 

 

 


 

2. Hacksaw: Most of us are quick to grab our reciprocating saw like a Milwaukee Sawzall (the Kleenex of such things) for just about every non-precise cutting task whether pipes, plywood, or plastic.  Even fire/rescue folks have their trusty lithium-powered Sawzall on board to cut future hospital patients out of their current predicament.

Useful hand hacksaws come in two classic sizes, 10 inch blades and 12 inch.  The standard looking solid-frame hacksaw uses a 12 inch blade while the mini saw uses the 10 inch. For the price, I recommend at least one of each, and you can use 12 inch blades on the mini versions, but it’s easy to break the non-supported portion of the blade if you’re not careful.  And even if you do snap it in half, just keep using whatever piece fits in the saw.

 


 

 

3. Standard Hand Saw: This is the traditional looking saw with a wood handle attached to a slightly triangular blade tapering as it goes from grip to tip.  They come in various lengths and tooth sizes, and of course, price points.  The useful length of a hand saw tops out at about 30 inches, but a 26 or 20 inch blade works very well for most tasks.  I have a handful of 15 inch saws floating around and they work as good or better than most camp saws when you don’t need to carry the saw in your pack.

As the teeth get smaller, it is easier to cut because less material is removed with each stroke.  So the there is a tradeoff between cutting speed and necessary muscle.  If  you are in a region with harder woods, go for a tooth count above 10.  If your world is more of softer woods like the pine forests of the west, then fewer than 10 teeth per inch will serve most needs just fine.  Either way, the high-carbon steel will rust and pit if left alone outside.

 


 

4. Large Hand Drill:
Hand-powered drills seem to be something that has fallen off the radar of most folks due to their proliferation in antique stores.  Oddly, the same “antique” hand drill can be found in larger hardware stores for less money.  Hobby shops often have a few on hand as well, but either way, there are plenty of options still in production.

Larger hand drills come in two popular designs. One looks like a bigger version of the standard small hand drill which is little more than a vertical shaft with a geared-crank wheel attached to the center, a handle above it, and a chuck below it.  The other design called a brace drill looks like a bowed shaft of metal with a chuck on one end, a spin-able knob on the other and a rotating grip in the middle.  Either design will allow you to place a considerable portion of your body weight on the shaft while drilling, but the cost of the more complex geared version increases exponentially as it goes up in size.

Brace drills are much less expensive and often have a ratchet mechanism like a socket that allows drilling in confined spaces where a complete revolution of the offset handle is not possible. Most brace drills have chucks that take up to half-inch bit shafts, but reduced-shaft wood bits give your brace drill up to a two inch diameter drilling capacity assuming you have a bit that size, let alone a need for a hole that big and the time to drill it.

 


 

5. Small Hand Drill: Most household drilling jobs will settle for a hole one-quarter inch in diameter or less which just so happens to be the capacity of smaller hand drills.  It is very easy to snap off small drill bits when using a larger drill so small hand drills are essential if your drilling needs require holes pin to pencil-sized.  Small hand drills do not generate as much torque as the larger versions, so both small and larger hand drills are necessary since one size won’t drill all.

Most of us, myself included, have many powered options when it comes to drilling holes and driving screws.  But charging a 28v advanced lithium power cell is not the same as charging a cell phone battery with a crank-powered emergency radio. Without a gas-powered generator or a roof covered in solar panels, power tools are not really tools at all.


 

6. Battery-free Battery Tester: These days, batteries can sit on a shelf for a decade and still have some useful juice left in them. Even the Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables are good after a year in the drawer. But how will you know if the cache of batteries you just discovered is any good. And as you know, one dud in the device kills all the others.

A battery tester that does not itself use a battery won’t give as reliable a reading as a powered tester, but still it is a helpful reading for most situations. The powered versions can test the battery under load, but most folks use a tester to give the thumbs up or down to any given battery. Just make sure the particular tester you have can test all the batteries you use including 12v CR123 and 3v button cells.


 

7. Battery-free Circuit Tester: Why would you need an old-school circuit tester if there is no electricity? Simple, how do you know there is no electricity? As one of the cheapest tools on this list, it is also one that could save your life. Since the indicator light won’t kick in until the volts approach three figures, its not going to work for car batteries. But that’s what a screwdriver is for right? You know, shorting the battery to check for a spark.

If you plan on building an off-grid solar panel array, you will need a multimeter with decimal-level voltage and amperage capabilities, but for encountering the errant wire or circuit box the old design works fine. In fact, you can go years on traditional battery-powered voltage detector, so toss one of those in your 72-month bag as well.


 

8. Hand-powered Grinding Wheel: From plow blades to hatchet heads, nothing makes sharpening large metal easier than moving the stone instead of the blade. Even at just a few hundred RPMs, the spinning stone will spit enough sparks to set your shop on fire if you’re not careful.

The spinning inertia of a hand-powered grinding wheel is only enough to do very small tasks. For any job of substance, the cranking must accompany the grinding so for those times, which happens to be all the time, an additional hand or two is helpful. And spinning the grinding wheel might be the most post-apocalyptic fun a kid can have.

Due to the extremely high chance that a speck of stone or metal will fly into your eye, your kid’s eye, or your dog’s eye, exercise caution by putting a transparent barrier between any living cornea and any remotely conceivable missile trajectory launched from the other side. If you need to use a hand-cranked grinding wheel then I sincerely doubt a hospital is just around the corner.


 

9. Hand-powered Air Pump: In case you didn’t know it, you can use a bicycle air pump to inflate a car tire.  It will take you a long time, but nothing is preventing it except maybe the wrong valve connector-which is an easy fix.  Motorized vehicles use relatively low pressure tires with cars, trucks and motorcycle tire manufacturers suggesting something in the 25-45 psi range. But vehicle tires are also incredibly high volume spaces to fill compared to bicycle tires.  Most bike pumps are designed for lower volume but much higher pressures, some over 200 psi.  Either way, you’re SOL if all you’ve got is one air compressor and zero electricity.  No matter how many hours of pumping it takes, a bike pump will get the job done.  Raft pumps, on the other hand, are designed very high volume but extremely low pressures like 2 psi, so don’t bother going there except for air mattresses, and rafts of course.


 

10. Scythe: In addition to being an authentic Halloween prop, the scythe is an indispensable tool when you need to mow down weeds so you can reclaim a gardening plot, or turn over a field after harvest.  At it’s simplest, a scythe is little more than a wooden shaft with a pair of handles, one in the center and one at at an end.  On the opposite end is a long narrow blade attached perpendicular to the shaft. From there it can get complex with numerous variations in shaft shape, handle design, and replaceable job-specific blades.  No matter how modern a scythe’s design becomes, it is still quite recognizable as such since its function and use have never changed, only its comfort and efficiency.

Long after the lawn mower engine has seized and the push mower’s blades are too dull and chipped to cut anything, the scythe will keep going since using only the tools listed above, you could easily build yourself a new scythe from little more than a solid branch and a leaf spring.

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Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

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April 5th, 2014
post by policysup | | 0

Outrage Over Gun Free Zone: “The Very People Trained To Take Out Armed Attackers… Are Disarmed.”


Here is a great article from our friends at shtfplan.com.

On Tuesday morning my good friend Ed Thomas and I sat down for breakfast at the local IHOP in Killeen, TX about 10 minutes from the entrance gates of the Fort Hood military base. Ed, who is one of the folks behind The Daily Sheeple news web site, is a retired Army veteran who spent nearly two years in the middle of it all while in Baghdad, Iraq. As is generally the case when Ed and I get together, we discussed a whole host of topics, one of which happened to be the 2009 Fort Hood shooting involving Nidal Hasan.

Not being a military man myself, I wasn’t quite clear on the inner workings of Fort Hood, a base at which Ed was stationed for quite some time and grew up around pretty much his whole life. I hit him with a barrage of questions surrounding the 2009 ordeal, and asked him how it was possible that a single lone gunman could kill 13 people and injure over 30 more, especially given that he was on a military base in the middle of Texas, a conceal-carry state.

His answer was simple.

“Fort Hood is a gun free zone, just like our schools.”

There are some 50,000 people stationed on the base at any given time (military and civilian), making Fort Hood essentially a small city packed into about 200,000 acres, which incidentally makes it the largest military base in the world. With that many people in one place, it becomes a numbers game. Eventually someone is going to snap, just like they do in the civilian world. And like many parts of the civilian world, the only people allowed to carry guns on base are personnel operating under the umbrella of the military police – who are the first responders for various incidents at the massive cantonment.

According to Ed, the military police face the same problem on this base as law enforcement officers face in any American city. When an active shooter is on the loose, they’re minutes away, giving the perpetrator vital time to execute his mission.

Wednesday morning I jumped on a plane heading back home. As soon as I landed and turned my phone back on, I had several texts from Ed.

“You’re not gonna’ believe this,” read one of them, “we were just talking about this YESTERDAY.”

“Active shooter on base. No real information at this time. Whole city is on lock-down.”

The incident is now becoming much more clear. What we know is that four people are dead and many others injured. The shooter was a non-combat service member. Perhaps the only good news was that the shooter took his own life, potentially preventing many more casualties.

Upon learning of the incident, I immediately thought back to Ed’s comment. Fort Hood is a “gun free zone,” and the incident itself was eerily reminiscent of other recent shootings at gun free zones like the Sandy Hook elementary school and the Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

You rarely hear about mass shootings in places where guns can be legally carried. And often, when a shooter with mass killing on his mind enters one of these facilities, he is put down by a law abiding citizen. One example of this was when an active shooter had executed two parishioners in a parking lot at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs back in 2007. As the shooter entered the building looking for more victims, armed security guard Jeanne Assam drew her personally owned concealed weapon and took him down. The shooter, now injured and unable to move, put the gun to his head and killed himself.

Giving law abiding citizens and trained military members the ability to carry their weapons may not prevent every gun death, but they could certainly limit the number of victims. One person with a gun could have prevented the Aurora theater shooting or the Sandy hook massacre, and saved scores of lives in the process.

In the aftermath of yet another Fort Hood mass shooting, this very argument has become a hot topic of discussion today, especially across the social network sphere, much to the chagrin of those who have, once again, begun calling for a nationwide ban on firearms.

Chet Cannon, a host on MTV, showed his outrage over the incident and echoed the sentiments of many proponents of self defense and personal responsibility via his Twitter feed when he noted, “Trained military in a GunFreeZone rendered helpless, again.”

Trained military in a #GunFreeZone rendered helpless, again. The law only protects you from honest people! #FortHood

— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) April 3, 2014

But not everyone agrees with Chet.

Shannon Watts, the founder of the gun control group “Moms Demand Action” believes that the solution isn’t allowing military service members to carry guns on base, but to disarm them.

When will Congress take action to end the war at home? Pray for #FortHood
#momsdemand
#gunsense
pic.twitter.com/41bbdvBdAS

— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) April 3, 2014

Apparently, Ms. Watts is not aware that Fort Hood’s soldiers have already been disarmed.

Those in and around the base immediately lashed out and made the point that there are thousands of soldiers at Fort Hood who have been trained to deal with these kinds of threats, yet they were essentially handcuffed by the restrictions.

CJ Grisham was on base while the incident unfolded and he voiced his frustrations online during the lock-down and shelter-in-place order:

I can’t help but get pissed off when there is an active shooter on a MILITARY BASE and Soldiers are told to “shelter in place.” It’s so antithetical to what we do for a living. The response should be, “find the bastard and mow him down!”

His frustrations boiled down to one simple argument:

Oh the irony that there is an active shooter on Fort Hood and the very people trained to take out armed attackers…are disarmed.

— CJ Grisham (@cjgrisham) April 2, 2014


We will no doubt hear renewed calls from the anti-gun crowd in coming days and weeks demanding that the President take action to curb gun violence.

The problem is that there are over 300 million guns in America, and perhaps billions more worldwide.

It is simply not possible to put the genie back in the bottle. You can outlaw guns in America today and seize every weapon from law abiding citizens. But that will not solve the problem.


Those who want to do harm to others will find a way. They could, for example, purchase ATF-provided weapons directly from drug cartels operating out of central America. They will happily send their wares into the United States for a profit. In fact, illegal weapons suppliers may well be helping to lobby Congress for gun bans just so they can expand their trade.

Gun bans, as is evident with this most recent Fort Hood shooting, will not work.

Twenty people were killed or wounded in Fort Hood yesterday.

Had just one of those people had a firearm then maybe most or all of those deaths and injuries could have been prevented.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

via: shtfplan

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April 4th, 2014
post by policysup | | 0

How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House?

In summer 2006 Judy Alexander embarked on an experiment to see how much food she could grow, and how many neighbors could benefit, from the garden around her house. Check out her homegrown rainwater collection and irrigation system – watering her 60+ edible crops. Meet the bees, the chickens and the worms. And catch her joy in producing so much food for so little effort.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

via: thesurvivalistblog

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April 3rd, 2014
post by policysup | | 0

Poland Calls Up Army Reserves: “The World Stands On the Brink of Conflict”

Though not much is being said about the the Ukraine in U.S. mainstream news circles, the tension in Europe is being stretched to a near breaking point.

A few weeks ago the country of Estonia warned that their sources indicated that the Russian Army was are preparing an invasion of the Western-supported Ukrainian government. The President of the country’s provisional government has since deployed at leas 40,000 troops to its Eastern front as a countermeasure should Vladimir Putin’s 80,000 strong military cross its border.

In Poland, which sits in a region that has been party to just about every European engagement in modern history, leaders are concerned with the possibility that a Russia/Ukraine conflict would spill over to its country.

According to a report from The Week Polish military reservists are being called up by the thousands, presumably to prepare for the possibility of not just spillover, but all out military confrontation with Russia.

At least 7,000 reservists have been recalled to the colours for immediate exercises lasting between 10 and 30 days.

They’re told by the Polish authorities that the call-ups are “routine”: but the men say they haven’t been asked before and they’re well aware of the growing alarm in Warsaw at President Putin’s aggression. Three weeks ago, their Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called a press conference to warn that “the world stands on the brink of conflict, the consequences of which are not foreseen… Not everyone in Europe is aware of this situation.”

…

But in the worst case scenario of a truly revanchist Russia, Poland certainly has the borders from hell.  Starting from the top, it abuts Kaliningrad (the Russian exclave on the Baltic carved at the end of the war from East Prussia), Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.

None of these borders relies on any natural barriers like rivers or mountain ranges – they are just lines on a map drawn by Stalin in the full flush of victory.  No wonder the Poles are feeling vulnerable.

And we should be worried, too. Poland is both a Nato and EU member.  We are bound by solemn treaty to defend her in case of attack.  Violation of Poland’s territorial integrity was after all why we went to war reluctantly in 1939.

…

Poland is one thing but there are other states in Russia’s shadow who are members of both Nato and the EU. Would we fight for the vulnerable Baltic states should President Putin turn the screws on them?

This is the first time in Poland’s history that they have called up their reserve troops, so whatever prompted the mobilization is likely of serious concern.

As cited by Before It’s News Glenn Beck reports that Vladimir Putin is now preparing his forces for an assault on other former Russian satellite countries as well.

Anybody who is in a former Soviet state sees the writing on the wall, that Putin can go in and do whatever he wants and nobody can stop him.

What happened two weeks ago with Russia, Putin on Monday said ‘I’m not going to annex Crimea. We’re just going in to help them keep the peace.’

By Friday, four days later, he signed the annexation. He could tell the world didn’t care, so much so, that he just signed it.

…

Here are your choices… do nothing and look at possible World War III because what you’re going to see is that Russia will start to sweep across its former satellites and then possibly more, and we will have the situation as we had on our hands in World War II, and that is probably England will come to us and say “you’ve got to be involved otherwise this thing is going to be on your door step.”

So, you can either sit it out or do nothing… which will end up probably in World War III, or hopefully a cold war.

Or… you can get involved in World War III [right away]

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

via: shtfplan

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April 2nd, 2014
post by policysup | | 0

The 1 Minute Shopping Spree – Mental Exercise

 

Next time you’ve got a minute to kill in a random gas station or corner drug store, here’s a little game I like to play.

The balloon has gone up, the crap has hit the fan and you have only a minute or two to buy any last minute supplies–either to help get you home or help get you through the hard times to come. Now, how much cash do you have in your pockets? What would you buy?

What would be useful? What would sell out first? What do you think people would overlook? What would you need the most?

Do you have enough cash on hand to get what you’d want? Fill up the tank with gasoline and the trunk with bottled water? Extra water and food for the trek home?

Pretty easy to put into practice. Give yourself a budget, pull up the stopwatch on your phone, give yourself a minute or two and see how you do. Does it take you longer than planned? How well did you do?

Making your plans dependent on a last minute trip to the gas-n-gulp is unwise, but it doesn’t hurt to put some pre-thought into making the most of an opportunity if it presented itself.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

via: teotwawki-blog

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April 1st, 2014
post by policysup | | 0

Borders On Lock Down as Ebola Spreads: “We Will Lose Many People”

One of the world’s most terrifying viruses is multiplying. Thus far at least 70 people have died from the Ebola virus in Guinea in recent weeks and though officials have taken steps to shut down the country’s border it may already be too late. The deadly strain of hemorrhagic fever has reportedly already spread to neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The virus is normally acquired as a result of the butchering of or consumption of meat from bats or monkeys, which has prompted Guinea’s government to issue a ban on, among other things, the sale and preparation of bat soup. But because the virus can be spread from human-to-human via feces, blood, saliva, or sweat, it’s possible that the virus is now spreading through the general population.

Frighteningly, while the virus has historically be contained in rural areas of Africa, the latest outbreak has spread to Conakry, Guinea’s capital city of two million people.

As noted by Underground Medic, the strain of virus detected in those that have already died has been confirmed as the Zaire strain of Ebola, which has a fatality rate of 90%.

The disease has traveled 526 miles from Nzerekore to Conakry since Wednesday. It is a highly infectious disease and there are fears that community spread has already occurred.

With an incubation time between 4 and 21 days, and an average mean of 16 days, the amount of people an infected person has come into is considerable. Public transport is often overloaded and crowded living conditions give the disease ample opportunity to spread.

Reports indicate that the virus was largely isolated to Guinea’s low-population regions but one individual who got sick was transported to the country’s capital by his relatives. That person subsequently died, but he or those transporting him may have affected others.

Because of an incubation period that can last nearly three weeks, it may be difficult to identify those who have contracted the virus, which is one reason that officials in Africa, Europe and the United States are watching closely:

What governments and clinicians fear is a person incubating Ebola travelling through an international airport, infecting people from around the globe, before boarding their flight. With the average incubation taking 16 days tracing contacts of an infected individual would be a logistical nightmare. Many believe it would be an impossible task as airports only hold names of those booked on flights, not friends and relatives who are seeing them, and thousands of others off on their journeys.

After three decades in the health care environment I am not easily scared by bacteria and viruses. Out of all the diseases that are capable of doing us harm, Ebola scares me the most, in fact it terrifies me.

Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University is equally concerned:

What normally happens is that international groups like Médecins Sans Frontières come in and cordon off the area, use a variety of diagnostic tests to exclude the worried well from truly sick, and try to interfere with some of these funeral practices. Then the episode dies out.

But [this outbreak] seems to have moved. It’s not as well contained as we would have hoped. I anticipate we will lose many people, but it will be a self-limited outbreak. We’ve lost less than 70 people. But it’s terrible.

The Ebola virus seems to remain isolated in Africa for the time being, but if one infected individual boards an international flight to Europe, South America, Asia or the USA then all bets are off. With cramped quarters on an airplane over a period of several hours you could potentially end up with scores of cases, and most of those infected would have no idea. From there we could have a spread of deadly contagion unlike any we’ve seen in modern times.

If even a single case pops up in the United States or Canada it could cause mass panic, and for good reason. Nine out of ten people who contract the virus would likely perish.

Those in high-risk communal areas like schools, offices, sporting events or mass transportation systems would be the most likely to acquire and then spread the virus.

The following video reveals the reach and rapidity of pandemic spread originating at a major international airport:

The models rely on the concept of ‘effective distance,’ and the belief that contagion now travels much more quickly and effectively between busy airports in different countries than between cities and more rural areas in the same country.

The maps show various routes travelling from a given airport which is the source of the contagion (in this case London Heathrow).

Circular diagrams show the radial distance from the disease source and the expected spreading path a contagion phenomenon will take – including other airports that might become gateways for the disease. (Exclusive News)


 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

via: shtfplan

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