Prepping: Starting Simple

Well readers after a few hectic weeks where I have been stuffed to the gills with no fewer than four birthday cakes I am happily back to blogging.

This week however I am going to once again deliver a piece on prepping and how easy it can be. While the idea of prepping may seem a daunting task to the novice I assure that in the long run it is well worth it.

To begin there are seven primary things a prepper must have in abundance or plan for extensively to actually get started in the prepping game. In our modern consumer world storing up on these essentials can be as easy as 1,2,3 by going to cheap bulk mark stores like Costco and Walmart!
Though to begin here is a list of the 'must haves' when you begin prepping.

1. A clean and renewable source of water:

Water, the blood of life from the deserts of Arabia to the rivers of lower Canada. You can go for weeks without food but never more than three (and if you're insanely lucky, seven) days without water or fluids of some sort to help replenish your body.

The fact is that without this basic first step any attempts at prepping are sunk right from the start.

There are a myriad of ways for people to get a fresh, clean, renewable source of water from rain catchment to ground wells. This article is only a list of course but I will be going into other ways to get water another time.

What is important to remember is that you will also need a way to purify water as there is no stretch of water which is 100% safe from the contaminants of the modern world. Boiling, purifying tablets, even a rather simple charcoal and dirt water strainer is useful.

To use an example, I as a Canadian do not need to be overly concerned about fresh water. I live in a country where we have the most plentiful fresh water in the world! Now does that mean I can take it for granted? NO! I have to be aware of where my water is coming from, what possible pollutants could be going into the water, and what secondary advantages this water could offer me (fish, boat transport, ect).

Just remember, in a quick fix you can buy large 10gallon drums to store water in! Having at least ten of these fully stocked would be a good idea for a back up supply.

2. A safe place to lay your head:

Now if you have a fresh source of water you next need a shelter to protect yourself from the elements. Suburban home, old farmhouse, raised tent/treehouse, and hobbit holes abound for your choice in shelter.

A shelter is important as it gives you a place to call your castle (and depending on how you like to prep it will be your castle) and for you to store your supplies.

In designing (or buying) a shelter you must think about where you are prepping. Is it in a city? The country? The wilderness? Is it a warm climate? How are the winters? How much rain do you get annualy? What is the wild life like?

I am currently city prepping so I take into account what my home in the city looks like and I have a Bug Out plan in case the worst happens and I am forced to flee the city for my family home in the country. Its rather simple as plans go, with hopes for establishing a secondary stockpile of supplies somewhere else.

3. A good food supply:

Now I won't say a food supply is prep specific as food is a universal must, but I will say how you plan on prepping is going to effect how you prep.

The safest bet for an early prep is to have a six month supply of food stocked away (in emulation of the Mormon tradition) as a just in case idea. This can include canned goods, easily stored grains and vegetables and canned meat and blocks of salt.

Buying canned goods in bulk couldn't be easier if you go to places like Bulk Barn, Costco, or Walmart. You can set aside some money every grocery trip to get items that will store for up to five years and if stored right can last longer! A deep larder is just good planning people.

Now if you are thinking long term well that's another matter entirely and one which would require way more detail this this simple list post. Though there is one generalization I would make it is this, chicken's are a wonderful food animal and are great for eggs and meat.

Whatever you do don't forget about a personal garden! If you're tired of mowing the lawn go out and put that vacant space to good use! I personally reccomend this as most of the time you can get easy practice with growing items in a garden. It's good practice and most of the time it's good food.

4. Waste management:

This should be a must. Unless you have a generator which can run 24/7 continuously, at some point your toilet is going to break down. Now most toilets can still be flushed if you pour water into them or use the mechanism inside the toilet to auto-flush it.

However, what will you do if you can't make your toilet flush? How will you dispose of this human (or animal) waste safely?

The answer readers, ought to be fairly simple. An outhouse. This is the most ideal form of disposal when the toilet stops flushing. You will want to have a space marked for an outhouse on your property which is a) well away from your house and garden b) not going to interfere with your water supply. Unlike most animal wastes our own feces is not beneficial to growing good plants. Over time it will go back to nature but you will want to have a deep hole to let it do so for a while. Preferably three such sites in abundance in order to avoid overtaxing one area.

Trust me here, an outhouse may smell and have insects, but the alternative is much much worse to comprehend. I'd rather go in an outhouse than take a 'wild one' and worry about stepping in it later.

5. Toiletry Items:

This should be obvious. What happens when you can't get a good supply of toiletry items? What will happen when you run out of toilet paper? Feminine items? Toothpaste?

Stock up while you can readers. Remember how much of an inconvenience it was when you saw no one had changed the toilet paper roll? Think about how much worse it will be if you can't get any toilet paper for weeks on end.

The same goes for toothpaste and toothbrushes, deodorent, and of course soap and shampoo. There are many ways to make your own soap and find natural substitutes for these items. It should be a top priority amongst preppers to get these personal hygiene items in abundance in order to stave off disease, and of course, social problems from bad BO.

Soap stores essentially forever, and deoderant can be useful for a few years while shampoo will be essential (though you may not want to waste it every day) and simply feeling clean is a great mental boost after a while.

6. Necessary medical items:

Now this is important readers. Band-aids, lots of them! From painkillers to antiseptics you will want a well stocked first aid kit in your home. If God forbid you find yourself in considerable pain or having a minor wound which could get infected you will want it healed up as quickly as possible.

If possible you will want to be on good terms with your doctor so you can have some clue how to get help.

Since that is not always possible (like having a person who is skilled in medicine) you will want to have some rudimentary knowlegde of medical procedures and have some know how in order to look for the obvious signs of infection or illness.

There will always come a day when you just might not be able to go to the hospital so having at least the basics for first aid or how to set a broken bone could prove to be an indespensible boon someday. There are a variety of good books on the subject available on the market and I would personally suggest these three:

*American Red Cross First Aid

*Where There is No Doctor by David Werner

*Where There is No Dentist by Murray Dickson

They are good starter guides for prepping in the medical sphere.

Number seven however is something that many would say is essential but I would call a lesser consideration. Though I don't view it as optional since at the very least hunting is important.

7. A hunter's weapon:

The old US survival adage goes "Beans, Band-aids, and Bullets". This is true I suppose but contrary to many in the US who stock up on weapons to fight off looters and bandits I would only reccomend a weapon to hunt animals and push off the inevitable feral dog that will spring up.

No matter what your opinion on hunting/killing animals I view it as a necessary thing to keep a hunting rifle to at least bag the occasional deer, or shoot a pesky raccoon.

Hunting can be a great short term suppliment for food and meat if you can manage it, but it is only that, a short term solution. In a short prep scenario that means it is essential to have this as a back up plan in case your supplies run low.

For me driving off a wild animal or predator is more important (and likely) than pell mell banditry that many survivalists predict.

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So readers prepping is easy to start with! It is committment which is the key. If you can stick to it over time it is easy to stock up for tough times in bulk!

I understand prepping can be a daunting challenge, but as I said in my previous article on the subject, it is something that people ought to do. It is smart, forward thinking, and above all a good excercise in mental and family planning.

Until next time readers!

The Case for Prepping

Well readers I suppose many of you might start to consider me an odd duck after this post, but if that is the case, so be it. What I aim to do today is make a valid case for the idea known as survivalism. Now some of you may have passing aquaintance with the idea of survivalism and may have seen movies where so called 'survivalists' are featured.

For a moment let me sketch out the the typical mental image that people see when they hear the word survivalist. For most people the word evokes images of a man (usually in his late 40s early 50s) holed up in a bunker beneath his house surrounded by stockpiles of MRE's canned food and cradling an M-16 in his arms while checking his other illegally obtained weapons and waiting for the Soviets or New World Order to come knocking. Now while this stereotype isn't completely undeserved (as an unfortunate number of websites and authors show) it is only focusing on the extreme fringe of so survivalist movement. Many people who identify as survivalists have recently been using the term 'prepper' to differentiate themselves from this fringe. I myself use it as I am not in the process of prepping for a global collapse, but rather more local things.

More about me in a moment though. What people will find today is that may preppers are people who are members of the Green movement and want to get back to the land. Or they are simply people who live in areas that are at risk for terrible weather and other natural disasters (hurricanes and earthquakes and the like). Most people will simply have an emergency supply of food, batteries, and blankets to be used in case of a terrible power outage or storm. If you do something basic like that then yes dear reader, you are indeed a prepper. It's even just the little things that make someone a prepper, if you are preparing for any kind of freak hit mother nature can throw at you, you fall into the category of prepper.

Though now some of you may be asking 'Stienberg why do you prep? Surely you aren't afraid of the NWO nor do you need to fear the weather so much?' well readers I'm glad you asked that!

As I'm sure many of you will remember back in 1998 we had the mother of all ice storms which came down on us like the wrath of an inebriated and severely ticked off Jack Frost! For some readers who may not remember, or who would like to see how devastating this was I present you these:

This is some trees bent under their own weight from the ice (one having its branches totally ripped off)

No these aren't ice scupltures.

This is a twig, covered in two inches of ice, to illustrate just how bad this was.

Now I was just a little rascal at this time, but I do still remember three things in abundance. One was that a great big tree was literally uprooted and smashed across the road blocking part of the neighbourhood, the other was that our power didn't work for days, and that we eventually had to flee to my grandmothers house because it was to cold to stay in our own.

The problem grew so great and many communities (like my own) were isolated and the roads impassable from the ice sheets and debris covering them. Eventually the army was called in and I can remember how glad my parents were to see helicopters flying overhead and for a soldier to come and check on us.

That time dear readers, was bad. Some froze to death in their homes (especially the elderly) and many who did leave to stay with relatives who did have power, returned to find their homes looted by opportunistic scavengers (of both the four and two legged variety). Now it wasn't anarchy in the streets, nor a world ending disaster, but it made many people quite upset and uncomfortable and made me realize just how fragile our modern way of life is. My father for instance, has not owned a house without a woodstove since.

Now of course I was to young at the time to really appreciate these details. As I got older though, I began to really see the effects that a few days without power could have on people. Take the 2003 blackout for instance. I was again cast into a world of darkness and no power, but was thankfully warm as it was summer. So these memories have weighed heavily on me as I see how catastrophic man made screw ups can be.

From the time I was sixteen onwards I began asking myself what I could do in situations like these. So from there I began reading about disaster prepardness and storm shelters. What will surprise readers is that it wasn't any man made disaster that finally tilted me over the edge into full on prepper, but a fictional one.

I purchased the Zombie Survival Guide (and consequently have reviewd it on Amazon as MDStien) many years ago. I bought this book as friends and I had become infatuated with zombie movies, and all the post-apocalyptic aspects there of. This book really got me thinking, what if the power goes out for weeks at a time? What if I get caught up in a riot or other civil disturbance? And even, what if maybe, just maybe a horde of undead flesh eating monsters tries to force its way into my home? The last one aside (well I'd focus that on burglers really) these are very important questions. What will I do if I'm without power for a number of days, or what will I do if there is a critical shortage and I have to stock up on food for something, and even what if I'm stranded in the great Canadian wilderness?

These are all important questions people should ask themselves. It's little things like that which can throw our entire world into disorder. Especially with food, there's an old saying 'every country is three meals away from a revolution' and if an entire region were deprived of food for many days I can assure the reader that things would not end well.

I personally began scanning the web and blogosphere for websites which might help me prepare. Eventually I've come across two important websites which have given me tips and tricks to help prepare. One is the famous Survivalblog by James Wesley Rawles a well known author and blogger on the subject. His political leanings do however influence his writings and ideas about survival and he has a bit of a militia bent to him. That being said he also spends a considerable ammount of time on weapons and other self-defense ideas. However, his blog is an excellent resource for starting preppers, and his book How to Survive the end of the world as we know it, is a must have for starting preppers as it gives you an idea of where to begin, and where to go.

Now Rawles does have another book. This one:

Now understandably this may begin to sound alarm bells in some readers heads screaming 'militia fanatic!!' and while there are some elements in the book of this, it actually reads more like Red Dawn in Weirmar Republic Germany. The author is controversial because of his viewpoints and beliefs and this will certainly turn away some readers. Though it doesn't even read as well as a regular novel I can gaurentee it is chock full of excellent ideas and tips packed into a useful narrative. His non-fiction works and blog are much less controversial and could be easier to swallow, I merely reccomend this book to people who want to see what would be described as the best-case scenario for a prepper group put into print.

Now on another note, here is a blog that is a) more Canadian and b) closer to what I'd envisage as my prepping scenario dream. Modern Homesteading is a blog begun by Victoria Gazeley when she moved to her proverbial cabin in the woods and began a life of self-sufficiency and work. Now my proverbial cabin in the woods would look something like this but that's beside the point. Gazeley sets out her ideas on self-sufficient living, and how to prep in a Canadian environment and for a rural lifestyle. This resonates with me a) because I come from a very rural background and seek to return to it and b) because it is from a Canadian perspective and will thankfully avoid foreign politics and ideological banter. The blog offers so many helpful tips and advice that you would be hardpressed to keep track of it all.

That being said online resources are not the only resources that can be used. Amazon has a plethora of books and how to guides on things that can be essential for prepping, and I encourage readers to check some of these items out starting with this.

In the end dear readers I ask you to remember a few things. Being a prepper does not make a person crazy, it is something that almost everyone does to one extent or another (and some simply take it further) and that it is something we should all practice to some extent, just in case.

For now though readers I hope I have outlined the pros for a prepper mindset, and I can assure you I will be doing some more prep oriented posts in the future. Keep on reading and please give these issues some thought.

As a final note, I encourage everyone to think about Hurricane Sandy and many of the ill effects it has had when you consider prepping. If you don't think you can be affected by weird weather and natural disasters, you are oh so sadly wrong dear reader.

Paintball and the Stormrunners

Well readers it is summer once again and I am back to doing the 'sport' which I love most, or perhaps hobby would describe it better, and that is paintball. Paintball the one sport where you can hunt your fellow man for fun. I have been an avid paintballer for three years now (well three summers would be more accurate) and I have thoroughly enjoyed the sport. I started this amazing endeavour back in 2009 and have loved every minute that I have spent sweating and running on the paintball field. I'm even part of an amazing team! Check us out on Facebook!

So my dear readers today I would like to share some of my experiences and ideas of what makes a game fun and how you and your friends can make a good team and form together to both have a good time and shoot your friends without consequence (because come on what more incentive do you need?)!

So as stated I started out paintballing a few years back. My friends and I were all eager videogame players or real army enthusiasts. There were some of us going into the military or police work, and others who simply loved the Call of Duty series too much. Either way the idea of firing at one another in real life was too much of a good thing to pass up, so we all got together and went out to a little field a short drive from where I live and we had at it! Needless to say after a long, hot day of shooting at one another, cursing our rental guns, and incurring a significant number of bruises thanks to improving aim, we were were hooked. Afterwards we just had to go back again and play another game!

Thus was I to become a (part time) slave to paintball and all its attendant fun. I warn my readers right away, it is not a cheap hobby nor is it one that is for those who don't like a) pain b) being shot at in any way, or c) being cramped in an uncomfortable position for long periods or running pell mell. Now with that slight disclaimer out of the way I shall go on.

I love paintball for a number of reasons. Having a team, and a team of good friends to boot, is one reason among many. Our team started out as a random collection of friends frequenting some fairly inexpensive fields on weekends. Now we have our own Facebook page and merchandise (be sure to check out that link!!). They are all good friends or aquaintances who I talk to and get along with well. And in a shoot out it is no small thing to know you have friends who can back you up! So if one simply wanted an excuse to get together with friends or an event to meet up with friends that you don't see often (as is the case with me) then paintball really is an excellent event to go to! I enjoy bth playing with, and against my friends. We take it with varying degrees of seriousness. Some of us are hardcore into it while others feel it is a wonderful escape from the stress of things. I personally love it and take it as a challenge to be had and feel that it is a great way to unwind.

One key to having a good team is knowing you can rely on your team mates when you are playing with them (and sometimes against them as the case may be). They are the people you want at your back and they are the ones who will be watching out for you and giving you pointers when you need them. This can be people you have met infrequently or life long friends. But it is important that one know their team.

Some people say that everyone on a team needs standardized weapons. Some say its for the professional touch. I say we aren't a squad of soldiers so unless you all have the same weapons for a team gimmick of sorts it's best to go with what you like rather than what everyone else has. I for instance have a simple Tipman 98. A simple gun it was my first and I have grown very fond of it and it has never let me down when I've needed it. I do think that it is about time I upgrade to a better gun in the near future but for now I intend to play on with this particular gun for a while.

I also think I should add one more thing to finish off the article. When you are playing REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE RULES! For instance don't wipe paint off if you are hit, don't chrono your gun above the regulation level, and don't shoot people who surrender. Not only is it just dumb it invites retaliation if someone remembers. That and makes the game not fun, but a competition of who can be the biggest bastard. My friends and I always follow the rules and we have much better games for it. Remember, rules are there for safety and ensure you have a good time. Don't break them!

So until next time readers, I encourage you to get out and try new things and if you want to beat on your friends, don't do it with fists! Do it with balls!