Wanna know how to start prepping? Look here!

[TheChief]

This thread is a resource for all newbies looking to start into prepping.

For the contributors, please take some time and provide guidance and then reference links rather than just post link after link after link. From a newbie's perspective, providing an experienced perspective in a narrative format goes a lot further to educating them than dropping a library full of reference material will when they are just starting out.

For the readers, let us know if it was helpful to you and what areas you would like to see more info in?


This is all a work in progress. As changes are made to my content, I will post a new date at the bottom and summary of those changes as a type of version control.

CaveatIntroductionthinkKnowledgeHandbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family, 3rd Edition - $20.74 - http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Pract.../dp/1475136536 . It is well accepted and was recently updated (May 2012).


Topics

• Mindset
• Goals
• Decision Tree
• Research
• Lists
• Water
  
• Shelter
• Food
• Cooking
  
• Sanitation
  
• Light
  
• First Aid
  
• Travel
  
• Navigation
  
• Communications
  
• Power
  
• Tools
  
• Defense
  
• MWR

Mindset

Thoughts

Words

Actions

Habits

Reevaluate

This is a type of lifecycle. You are never complete as there is always growth and new information that may change your plans and preparations.


Goals

What Type of Event

How Long

Preparation Location

Who Will You Save

To What Degree To Prepare

Decision Tree

http://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Decision-Tree

http://www.mindtools.com/dectree.html

NOTE: This is also referred to as a decision flowchart


ResearchListsWaterhttp://www.amazon.com/Gallon-Water-B.../dp/B0014HZU3U
or
Water Siphon --> http://www.amazon.com/Super-Siphon-H...d_sim_sbs_hg_4

Water Filters
Large capacity Water Filters
--> http://www.berkeyfilters.com/
--> http://www.katadyn.com/usen/katadyn-...ries-products/
or

Continued on Post 2

[TheChief]

Here We Go

Portable Water Filters
--> http://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-801361...3459859&sr=1-1
--> http://www.amazon.com/Katadyn-Vario-...3459719&sr=1-2

Also remember, water in your water heater and the pipes in the walls are safe to drink. To access the water in the water heater, look for a spigot at the bottom of the tank. To access the water in the pipes, open the faucet or spigot at the highest point in your home to prevent a vacuum lock, then open the lowest spigot in your home. The water should completely drain out of the pipes from the lowest spigot so have clean buckets ready to fill. Each home is different but you should expect one to three gallons in the pipes from the average home.

Water maybe very limited. Don’t simply throw it out. Look into creating a solar still and recycling your dish and wash water. Also, you can use a separate solar still to pull drinkable water from urine…yum

Bleach is a great material you can use to disinfect water. However, liquid bleach has a short life span of around 12 months from bottling. If you want to plan for long term use of bleach, look into calcium hypochlorite which is a powdered chemical that can be used to create a bleach solution which can then be used to disinfect water. Be very careful with using either option as the wrong amounts can cause serious injury, sickness and even death. Here is where the whole RESEARCH aspect comes in and using your head.

Quick summary --> http://survivaltopics.com/better-tha...sinfect-water/

Disinfection Methods and Instructions (from reputable sources)
--> http://phc.amedd.army.mil/phc%20reso...1-008-1004.pdf
--> http://water.epa.gov/aboutow/ogwdw/u...water-2006.pdf
--> http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/..._Flyer_508.pdf
--> http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_...ies/fs2_19.pdf


Shelter


Food
Storing food requires a bit of understanding and planning. Food is only good for so long before it spoils or loses nutritional value. There are many methods to storing food. You will need to determine what is best for you.

The least expensive method is to simply buy more of what you currently eat and rotate through your supplies. However, if you don’t regularly cook, eat canned goods or items that don’t need to be refrigerated or frozen, this could be a challenge. If you use this method, just keep in mind the refrigerator and freezer may no longer work so you are limited to shelf stables items and you will need to familiarize yourself with how long the various items are good for.

The most expensive option, and the longest lasting, are freeze dried meals. You can save “some” money by purchasing them in bulk. Freeze drying is a process where all the water is drawn out of the food while leaving the flavor and nutrients in. The food is left much smaller and lighter than the original food and if packaged properly, can generally last up to 30 years. One thing to note, if you buy number 10 cans of food, as soon as you open the can, the food will start the spoiling process from the humidity and oxygen in the air. So once opened, you need to eat all the contents before it goes bad. Each food type spoils at a different rate but the industry generally recommends eating all the food within 30 days of opening it. There is an incredible variety of both prepared meals as well as ingredients. Mountain House is considered by many as the top manufacturer of freeze dried meals.

A couple things to keep in mind:
1. With any pre-packaged kits of food, you need to check on the calorie count. Many of the vendors will sell a pre-assembled kits for periods of time to include; 72 hours, 2 weeks, 45 days, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year for one person or a whole family. However, they don’t always tell you the calories that the kit provides per day. Given a stressful situation, you may want more calories than you normally consume so always keep this in mind
2. Freeze dried food comes in pouches and #10 cans (think large coffee can). The pouches have a life span of 5-7 years. The cans have a lifespan of 25-30 years depending on temperature
3. When you get into the #10 cans, realize that the one can has 10-30 servings per can so you will be eating the same food every day. Once the can is opened you have between 2 and 4 weeks until the food spoils as it is exposed to oxygen and humidity
4. Prepackaged foods tend to have lots of salt in them. Lots of salt means lots of drinking water to flush it out of your system
5. Some prepackaged food such as Freeze Dried requires water to reconstitute into something edible

--> http://www.thereadystore.com/food-st...torage-10-cans

Stored food should be kept in a cool place as warmth can accelerate spoilage while cooler temperatures may slow it down. Garages go through severe temperature swings in the summer and winter that can damage the food. Best place to store food is in a basement or other place inside your home that does not experience high temperatures even with a power loss.

Protect your food from ants, mice, rats and other vermin that may want to eat it more than you do. Keep items off the floor and away from areas with vermin. Check you supplies regularly so you can determine if they have been infested. Think about storing your food in large containers like dog or animal food containers with air tight seals. If you can smell the food, so can vermin.


Cooking
What! Are you going to eat that beef stew or freeze dried chicken parmesan cold…yummy! Depending on the situation you may not have electricity or natural gas for your stove. So how are you going to boil that water for bathing, washing dishes, meal preparation or clean water?

Many of us have grills for the weekend barbecue that you could use though those may be too large and inefficient for long term use. Is your tank full? Have any spares? How much charcoal do you have? Keep in mind a barbecue grill is not very efficient and wastes lots of heat (which equals fuel).

There are more efficient and better long term stoves as well as many options for fueling them such as propane, gasoline, white fuel (Coleman), wood, alcohol, coal, bio-fuel, etc.

You could also use the siphon pump listed in the water section above to siphon gas from a car to run the stove safely. Just don’t use the same siphon for both water and fuel. They are cheap so get two.

Something else to look into are “solar ovens” or “solar cookers” that capture the heat of the sun to cook food. While these are not good at heating water, they can cook food for you albeit slowly. You can either purchase or make one. There are plenty of how-to videos online.

You could always just have a camp fire too. You may want to look up how to suspend a pot over a campfire though.

Take a look at what your cooking needs will be to best determine how you can meet them. Are you cooking for 20 people or just three. Can you get by only heating up a 12 ounce kettle at each meal or do you need something to bring a 30qt cook pot full of water to boil? Can you build a rocket stove in your back yard to make your fires more efficient? What about an oven for baking bread?

Rocket Stove --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmDYUrVHPWc and http://www.thediyworld.com/DIY-Rocke...e-Your-Own.php
Readymade Rocket Stove - http://stovetecstore.net/
Adobe Oven --> http://www.sunset.com/garden/how-to-...-oven/view-all
Earth Oven --> http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articl...ing-earth-oven
Stove (small) --> http://www.amazon.com/gp/B0009PUQAU
Stove (large) --> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009PUPX8
Dakota Fire Hole --> http://survivaltopics.com/the-dakota-fire-hole/
Campfire Pot Hangars --> https://www.google.com/search?q=camp...anger&tbm=isch


Sanitation
Light
First Aid
Travel
Navigation
Communications
Tools
Defense
MWR


March 23 2015 - Version – 0.02 – Added Research, Lists, Water, Food and Cooking

[Librarian]

An annotated list of thread links ...

First Aid Kits - this is a sticky in this forum.

Bug Out Bag - this is a sticky in this forum.

Definition: "A bug-out bag is a portable kit that contains the items one would require to survive for seventy-two hours when evacuating from a disaster. The focus is on evacuation, rather than long-term survival, distinguishing the bug-out bag from a survival kit, a boating or aviation emergency kit, or a fixed-site disaster supplies kit. "

Distinguished from a Get Home Bag (GHB) "Simply put: it’s a bag that you keep at your workplace [or in a vehicle - DeanW66], filled with all the gear you need to get you home safely to your family.

A Get Home Bag is not meant to be a Bug Out Bag (or Bail Out Bag). You won’t be required to live off what’s in your back for a few days (unless walking back home really is a 3 day journey).

[livinlocal]

Good idea.


*Reserved for links and info. I will be constantly adding links *

I am also going to add links to items I have, or will be getting for my BOB


A great portable water filter. Better then lifestraw

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FA2RLX2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1412731936&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40

[ElvenSoul]

Now if we could only make the newbs read before posting!

http://www.thehomeforsurvival.com/doomsday-prepping/shtf-tips/survival-prepping/

http://graywolfsurvival.com/1779/prepping-10-simple-ideas-start/

Chef start one for Bushcraft!

[DeanW66]

Distinguished from a Get Home Bagor in a vehicle, filled with all the gear you need to get you home safely to your family.

May I suggest the text in red as a minor definition adjustment?

walking back home really is a 3 day journey).[/indent]

Mine definitely could be.

[kaligaran]

May I also suggest adding these links to the list of threads:

Join CERT!

HAM Radio Information

What did you do today to prep?

Body Armor

CHICKENSSS!!!

Where to buy emergency food.

And of lesser importance but often comes up:
SHTF Novel List
SHTF Books (a second thread)


External links:
Here's a good starting guide broken into 52 lists (one for each week of the year) that scratches the surface of just about everything you can imagine.

[Librarian]

Anyone have a favorite thread for water storage/purification?

[Librarian]

bump

needs some more 'meat' (or, if you prefer, TVP ) before stickiness ...

[ElvenSoul]

How to use a compass

http://www.learn-orienteering.org/old/lesson2.html

http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/mapcompass.shtml

http://www.compassdude.com/compass-map-orienting.shtml

[Librarian]

Stuck - Chief, feel free to re-use the first post.

[ElvenSoul]

Managing your food supply

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/food-storage-101-rotating-and-dating/

https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage/longer-term-food-supply?lang=eng

http://www.thenewsurvivalist.com/long_term_storage_of_special_survival_foods.html

[ElvenSoul]

Start a fire

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/survival/fire/2006/10/seven-ways-light-fire-without-match

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-start-a-fire.htm

http://graywolfsurvival.com/3137/creative-ways-start-fire-without-lighter/

[ElvenSoul]

Knots and Cordage

http://www.itstactical.com/skillcom/knots/5-knots-you-need-to-know-how-to-tie-at-all-times/

http://www.animatedknots.com/indexrescue.php

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/weapons-4.php

http://www.survivalschool.us/survival-info/cordage/

http://imnh.isu.edu/exhibits/online/cordagediscoverybox/SubMenu_2/sub_menu2_CordUse_temp.htm

Tarping / Shelter

http://www.ddhammocks.com/tips/tarp-tutorial

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com/tarp-tipsto-make-your-emergency-shelter-secure-and-safefeed/

http://alicehikes.com/2014/04/setting-up-the-tarp-knots-guylines-and-poles-oh-my/

http://andrewskurka.com/2012/tarp-guyline-system/

http://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2013/05/survival-shelters-15-best-designs-wilderness-shelters

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/survival/shelter/2006/10/seven-primitive-survival-shelters-could-save-your-life

[ElvenSoul]

Water Filtration

Just so many products out now it is amazing.

But allways when in doubt. Boil that water!