Conservatives Defending Liberty

Where do I get started? That is the question that People ask all the time when you say start preparing for the worst or bad times. Many if not most people have not really not given a ton of thought to the idea. More and more people are starting to get concerned with the direction they see things going and they want to know where to start. A person told me this and it made a lot of sense once I looked at it that way, so I decided to take her advice and start at the beginning. People want to be able to survive when things go bad, if that makes you a survivalist welcome to the club, your not alone by a long shot. People and companies are selling all kind of things now and some are better than others, but here is the thing, if you really end up needing a survival kit its going to be a life or death situation and finding out you came up short is really gonna suck. Don’t let anyone tell you the 72 hours kits are the be all end all answer, it is a good start but that’s about it. The federal government and the Red Cross have been telling people to get a kit together but they stop short of telling people that help may not make it to you in 3 days. Then what? What you don’t want to be is a refugee. If you have no food or other supplies the next stop for you will be in a line somewhere, no thanks. All I’m getting at here is that buying supplies is not going to be cheap and I hate to see people waste money and they think they are prepared for what ever may come and they are not. Sheltering in place is not bugging out, sheltering in place means hunkering down for an extended period of time and you need supplies for that.

To start we will assume you live in a suburban area, not down town New York and not somewhere 20 miles behind Casper Wyoming. I would prefer Wyoming by the way. The first thing you need to do is to get yourself a good 72 hour kit together. This kit should be enough for you and who ever you need to take care of, to make it at least 72 hours, 3 days, without getting food and other supplies from outside help. You can go to several sites that have them pre-made or with a solid back pack you can make one yourself. I like doing it myself so I know exactly what I have and don’t have. A few tips here, ensure you have at least 1 multi tool, have at least 1 roll of duct tape, toss in extra batteries for radio’s and lights. Make sure you use a one size fits all approach, have a couple extra foil blankets in case you need them, extra waterproof matches and an extra lighter is something you must have. If you are using a store bought kit, check everything in it twice, think about your food and water in the kit. Could you survive for an extra day or two should it be needed? The idea behind these kits is that it will take at least 3 days before organized help will be able to get to you. If possible keep a kit in your vehicle, believe it or not, this is where you are most vulnerable. At home you will probably have access to extra blankets or food from your kitchen but on the road, you only have whats in your vehicle. Get yourself some NP-95 face masks, make sure you have one for every member of your group. If you know the proper use of a gas mask its one thing, if you don’t they will just get you hurt or killed. The NP-95 face masks will not stop chemicals but they will help with dust and falling particles, they can also stop a threat like Anthrax.

Once you get the basic 72 hour kit together your on your way to 14 days. These kits may be to big for anything other than at your home. At this point you have plenty of MRE’s or other freeze dried foods and water boxes or packets. 5 gallon plastic jugs of water  or bigger are in this type of set up. Remember, this is really the basic minimum you should have. The 3 day kits are good for being on the move but at home, at least 2 weeks is the way to go. If you are in a situation were you believe you may have to bug out, the 72 hour kits are fine but for sheltering in place you will need more, much more. Survival is all about just that, survival. You need food, at least two solid meals a day. Water, a gallon a day per person for extended periods is a minimum. You can go a couple days with less but after 3 or 4 days you will need access to more water on a daily basis. If you are at home shut off the water lines going into the house, isolate your hot water heater and you have a good source of drinking water for a while anyway. If you have children pack away some comfort food for them, it could make a big difference for them and in turn for you. Going past the basic kit is where things get hard. You need to have in mind the number of people you are dealing with and then give yourself a cushion of a person or two. If you do this, you should be good to go. Remember things like hand can openers, extra fuel for your camping stove or do you have a first aid kit at all? If not, guess what? You better get one together. In there put some extra medicines like blood pressure pills, your blood pressure is sure to go up under stress and this will be stressful. Have a couple extra bottles of alcohol and some things likes Tums, or other sour stomach meds. Again, think about the situation you could be in, upset stomachs will abound.

If you have children make sure to have some kind of time consuming things like games or books. Computers may not work, and no television to keep them busy will work on you. You will have other concerns like trying to get good information on whats happening, have at least two radios for this, one as a back up. You may or may not need to worry about security, we can look at that subject along with weapons later. That alone is a whole other story. If you make it to the two week level, move on to 30 days. To tell you the truth this is where you should be. 30 days seems like a long time, its even longer without food or proper water or heat or shelter. We are not talking about Red Dawn here, we are talking about John and Jane Public with 2.8 kids. In the future I will cover things like weapons in detail. I will try to assemble a good solid list of commonly missed items when people start getting supplies together. The important thing to understand here is that the 72 hour kits everyone is pushing is not the end, it does not make you safe. Its a solid start, but they have their place. Even Glenn Beck is pushing emergency food on his radio show, whats that tell you? This is serious stuff, money is tight and most people just can’t run out and buy $2500.00 worth of MRE’s and store them in the basement, if you can fine. If your like the rest of us, its a one step at a time process. I will try to get you a little shortcut here or there along the way. Just don’t buy into the 72 hours fix, because its not. Having a 3 day kit is great and you need it, don’t fall into the trap of thinking your prepared now because you bought or assembled that kit. Being prepared isn’t crazy, not taking it seriously is crazy. The government is not going to come riding in on a white horse and save you, do what American’s have always done, take care of yourself and you will feel better for it. Knowing you can handle whatever comes your way is a good feeling.