The Basic Essentials

[edina]

Most of the time when people start getting serious about actively preparing for emergencies, for disasters, for survival, they will most logically start with the basic essentials

This is usually where they will begin thinking our their plan, organising their thoughts.  They will make lists, and list of lists, and then sit with these lists and try to prioritise them and decide how to follow-through on the actions.  At this point they will often try to make a budget to purchase items from their lists, or schedule in their day the tasks they want to do to prepare. 

I've seen this activity spontaneously develop in various blog posts, and in emails.

This is what this space if for.

Have you ever visited any of the Prepper sites. This is what happens on many of these sites.  And I feel these are important actions to take, especially if you haven't been able to organise your thinking, yet.

Here, you can do this with a twist, you can be open about your wide range of beliefs in ET info, prophecy, Pole Shift scenarios, conspiracies, it is very open here, while you make your deliberate plans of action.  And, you have witnesses, other people to support you when you get stuck, and to encourage you in your actions. 

I hope you take advantage of this, we are all in this together....

PS, I will be editing this post as we go along, cross linking relevant information from the Survival and Food Storage groups to the conversations here as they evolve.  There will be a lot of repetition here, this is a space for you to take ownership of your ideas, and plans, based on what you're thinking is right for you.

[edina]

Sometimes when people are getting started on actively generating their unique action plans they get writer's block. The mind sort of pops into oscillation and it is difficult to know where to start.

I'm posting this article from SurvivalBlog here to help people new to this process jumpstart their own action plans and thinking processes. I was in the Air Force, and we used those pilot checklists. In fact, the military had OI's Operating Instructions for nearly everything. The Survivalist/Prepper movement uses the acronym SOP, for Standard Operating Procedures. Many of the wealthy people of our country, as well as, successfully operated corporations use this process as well. Some people have even become millioniares selling instructional courses for how to set up your own SOPS in a person's company, or as a prepper. This post here is free, and the opportunity for you to start developing your plan in a supportive environment here is also free. Only you can set the value of this, for yourself. I'll keep posting here from time to time, to help nurture this process, for myself, and anyone who wants to join in... :-)

Letter Re: Aviation-Style Checklists for Survival, by Andy W.

Letter Re: Aviation-Style Checklists for Survival, by Andy W.
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In the 1940s, the accident rate among aircraft in the United States was horrendous, especially for small private aircraft. Many lives were lost and airplanes mangled due to often preventable causes. By the mid-1950s, the accident rates had dropped by 30-50%, depending on what numbers you look at. What happened to make such a dramatic change? The answer is the prevalent use of checklists for all phases of flight. Every aircraft today, from a tiny Cessna to a giant airliner, has checklist for every procedure from preflight inspection to securing the aircraft after parking.

Checklists are important for a few reasons. The first is human nature and complacency. If you do something often, it goes into muscle memory and you don't really have to think about it anymore. As a result, you might start to take shortcuts. How many times have you gotten in your car and realized that the radio was turned up way too loud, or the air conditioning left blasting from the previous hot afternoon? It's because your complacency in driving let you forget these minor details of configuring your car. You don't really need a checklist for driving, because most of these minor changes don't have any impact on safety and are more annoying than anything else. However, forgetting to set the flaps or change fuel tanks on an airplane can have dire safety consequences, and so good pilots use checklists on every single flight.

The second reason checklists are important is stress. When your airplane's engine is on fire and smoke is filling the cockpit is not the time to be deciding on how to handle that type of emergency. That time is when you (or better yet, the aircraft designer) are calm and not under any stress or time pressure. In those circumstances you are far more likely to make sound, correct decisions than when your heart is hammering and your hands are shaking.

A final great, and often overlooked, reason for checklists is that it gives your mind something to do. Instead of bouncing around, trying to figure out a coherent plan, your brain is given a very linear progression of small tasks to accomplish. This keeps you from getting panicked or freezing up, because all you have to do is follow the list. Your mind won't have time to ponder how scary or dangerous your situation is, because it's preoccupied with the checklist tasks.

Checklists for Survival

Survivalism has many of the same aspects as flying does -- it's a potentially dangerous activity that requires specific actions to accomplish successfully, and has very small margins for getting those tasks wrong or out of order. Because of this, I think aviation-style checklists are an excellent resource for survival in a wide variety of circumstances. I do not think that survivalists should use a set of generic set of checklists generated by someone else. You know your circumstances and resources better than anybody; for this reason it's very important to develop your own checklists that take these into account. A childless couple living in the suburbs will have vastly different checklists than a large family living in the country, and what may work for one may be a sure-fire recipe for failure for another.

So how does an individual or family develop checklists? First, try to be specific about the circumstances where the checklist applies. "Natural Disaster" is too vague for a checklist, but "Forest Fire Near Home" is specific enough to be very helpful in that circumstance. You could also have "at home" and "away from home" checklists, since the response to an EMP (for example) would be much different depending on if you are at home or not when the event happens. You can also reference one checklist from another (i.e. "if condition X, go to Y checklist). This means you'll end up with a bunch of checklists. If you look at pilot shops (sportys.com and marvgolden.com are a couple online) you can find checklist binders and similar ways to organize your checklists.

Try to lay out your checklists in small chunks that don't require much thought. Anything that requires decisions should be broken down into sub-tasks as much as possible. The goal is to have all your decisions already made. And order things logically -- for example, it makes no sense to put "check fuel level" after "leave home." Check the fuel first, when you might be in a position to do something about it.

A Sample Checklist

Here's a sample based on our forest fire example. Don't criticize it too much, I'm just pulling it off the top of my head!

Forest fire near home:

1. If heavy smoke is present, wear filter mask or respirator and goggles.
2. Family in vehicle 1 -- send to nearest safe area.
3. Move vehicle 2 to locate for rapid egress from area.
4. Turn on outside water spigots.
5. Using hose, spray water on roof and walls to retard fire damage.

If smoke becomes heavy, or flames are visible, use rapid bugout checklist.

Hopefully this gives folks some ideas on how to use and organize their checklists. The more scenarios you can envision and make checklists for, the easier it will be to have a plan for something when it happens. You might be able to adapt an existing list to an event for which no list exists, but that requires more thought than we'd like to expend under stress. Finally, let me stress this is not a magic wand that will make all things go smoothly, but it does increase your chances of doing to the right thing at the right time, and in my mind that is worth a whole lot.

[Alex Cortes]

Love the thoughts, thank you.

[edina]

Thanks Alex, :D

Alex Cortes said:

Love the thoughts, thank you.

[edina]

Well, I guess being able to take a shower in a rustic retreat is pretty basic, and it can do a wonder to improve a person's mood.

 

Here's what I discovered.  You can get a one, or two gallon Flo-master plant spray mister.  They do make shower head type adapters for this, but I have discovered that it is not necessary.  The gauge can be left open to mist the body, until of course the pressure runs low, then just hand pump the pressure.

 

One gallon can last about 10 minutes, 2 gallons about 20 minutes.

 

Another option would be a five gallon bucket with hole punched in the bottom.  This could be a dual purpose bucket if you wanted to use it also for filtering water, as a rock, charcoal and sand filter. 

 

I do know someone who just uses recyled cans.  He punches holes in the bottom and fills it as he uses it.  It is very masculine, it works.  He seems quite happy with it all.  :)

 

Has anyone else thought of some easy simple ways to create a shower in a rustic setting?

 

 

[Tammy Fielder]

My military survival training and my childhood spent on the farm has been awakened again by this group.  I have put together "Bug-Out" bags for me and each member of my family.  Here are some of the items I have put together:

Dried beans and rice- if the game and fish are low, well dinner is still served

Boxed meals and sides (bags too)- lightweight and easy to make

Tent

Fire starters- magnesium sticks

Shake up flashlights 

Crank radio

(No batteries means free from worry)

Survival blankets (the aluminum foil looking ones)

Tools

Seeds for garden

A lot of camoflage patterned fabric (great for hiding)

Tarps

Camping gear (utensils and plates)

Assorted knives (combat and survival type)

Bows and arrows (no need for ammo, easily refilled)

Area maps from here to my safe spot (terrain maps)

Compass (if there is a pole shift not much good)

Just a taste of my gear so far.

[Tammy Fielder]

You first have to set up a water collection system. The best way is in a tree.  Make it a cone shape with a tarp.  Put a heavy rock in the middle to weight it down.  You can then attach a hose with a garden sprayer to it.  

edina said:

Well, I guess being able to take a shower in a rustic retreat is pretty basic, and it can do a wonder to improve a person's mood.

 

Here's what I discovered.  You can get a one, or two gallon Flo-master plant spray mister.  They do make shower head type adapters for this, but I have discovered that it is not necessary.  The gauge can be left open to mist the body, until of course the pressure runs low, then just hand pump the pressure.

 

One gallon can last about 10 minutes, 2 gallons about 20 minutes.

 

Another option would be a five gallon bucket with hole punched in the bottom.  This could be a dual purpose bucket if you wanted to use it also for filtering water, as a rock, charcoal and sand filter. 

 

I do know someone who just uses recyled cans.  He punches holes in the bottom and fills it as he uses it.  It is very masculine, it works.  He seems quite happy with it all.  :)

 

Has anyone else thought of some easy simple ways to create a shower in a rustic setting?

 

 

[Alex Cortes]

About time I came back to visit this section nice post thanks for the info everyone.