What Are Your Survival Objectives ?

     

Somewhere between being ready for three days alone, and being ready for seven years alone, is probably where most people should be.

  It is not really possible to prepare for survival objectives without first defining what you plan to do.

Is your objective to merely remain alive through a short term or longer term regional difficulty ?

Is your objective to remain comfortable with all your modern day creature comforts through an unanticipated disaster until the grocery stores open once again ?   This is the objective of most preppers. They seek to maintain the modern lifestyle, to which they have become accustomed. They wish to maintain comfort throughout a short duration interruption of some type.

This is not really my objective.  I have always approached preparedness with a different personal view.

Over the last thirty years my objective has been to remain alive throughout a variety of potential natural or man-made disasters for the purpose of rendering aid to my children, some of whom have medical issues.  Because no man is an island, and because we all depend upon others in some manner or another, my objective has also been to render reasonable medical and other aid to people well known to us following such a disaster.     Certainly, because my children have specific medical needs, and many of my neighbors do as well,  I require more supplies than someone whose basic objective is solitary survival.

 

Anyone, licensed or not can gather plenty of 4x4 and 2x2 gauze and tape.  Simple basic medical preparedness could well be the most important kind.  Exotic supplies may not be necessary for most issues.

            I have shared my personal perspective because it is important when gathering preparedness supplies to carefully define in advance what you need.    If you spend money on a vehicle which can evacuate six and you are a widow who owns a ferret, you may have misappropriated assets.    Everyone's assets are limited, regardless of your present perception or misperception, as the case may be, of wealth.  Money comes and money goes, much faster than we can hold on to it.  Reversals in health alone can turn us from being wealthy to being a pauper within a year, and insurance often will not pay for the best care or for some of the best treatments deemed experimental at that particular juncture in time.

           Stop gathering supplies for a moment, just long enough to truly assess your objectives.   Are you in a small enough rental home that you could not stockpile and remain there anyway throughout a protracted emergency ?   If you are, then perhaps the better objective would be collecting less, remaining mobile from that location, and saving for a home elsewhere.

           People who are in a permanent home, one that is paid off have the luxury of gathering and layering preps.  However, they are vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods and forest fires that could decimate that home and those preps.  They might also make the mistake of heavily leaning on sheltering in place without giving adequate attention to planning for a family evacuation, especially with animals.

           Those who are in a rental home might feel that they can't gather preps as they might wish, because ultimately they must move them.  However, they may have the advantage in that they may be able to relocate and evacuate their family and possessions more easily than those who see themselves in a permanent base and have stocked accordingly.  Each of us have an advantage of some kind with regard to our locations, our settings and our homes. Play to those strengths !



 

Make sure that both sheltering in place and family evacuation plans are made for your pets also.

          What are your objectives ?      Under what circumstances would you shelter in place ?
What would it take for you, your family and pets evacuate prior to being told to do so ?   Where would you go ?    Before stocking up and spending a lot of money on preparedness supplies, vehicles, or anything else, consider these truths, and craft a personal plan.    Your plan needs to be personalized and may not resemble the plan of your brother or your neighbor. Those with pets certainly won't have a plan which mirrors those without.

               How long could you and your family shelter without obtaining supplies from other locations ?   Remember that a journey of a thousand steps starts with one step, and then just a few more.

     More information on this at:

  Rational Preparedness: A Primer to Preparedness (The Book)

Hazards in Immigration

I never thought I would say this, but I am glad my British aunt is no longer alive to see this. I think she would cry, especially after working so hard during WW II. There is nothing wrong with legal immigration, if you have the space and the money, but Britain had neither. May other nations learn this lesson.

A Reprise: Spices and Their Value

  

This week, someone asked me to reprise the post on the value of spices.
This week, following the deaths of those who were simply enjoying an evening in a brasserie or a Cambodian restaurant in Paris, we should give thought to how much we eat out, and also whether our children should accompany us on the outing.
 This week, this post which originally appeared in May of 2015 has new relevance.





  There are many times, during emergencies, power outages, flu pandemics, or even during civil unrest that eating out becomes unwise if not dangerous.  Yet, many American families have stocked kitchens, and live a life that requires that they eat out multiple times each week.   This post is one of a several pronged attempt to examine this practice and gradually make some changes which allow eating at home as a safer, less expensive, and potentially a more pleasant experience.
 


          In the last post I explained that learning to cook was not a skill set I mastered early in my marriage.  Consistent with that, I thought that a collection of spices was an extravagance.  I did not learn until much later how important having a supply of spices and knowing how to use them, really can be.

            In the US, in the past twenty years or so, families have developed a bad habit of eating out with their children at least once a week, and often much, much more. We tell ourselves that we don't have time to cook, but often, we eat out because the food simply tastes better than something we think we might make at home.  Proper seasoning of food may be one of the reasons we might have this misperception.

           In addition, spices are not simply an extravagance. Spices not only can provide an interesting an appetizing draw to food, for only a few calories, if any, but they can provide vitamins and significant amounts of trace minerals.   Nutmeg for example is metabolized as magnesium !  Most of us could use additional dietary magnesium.   Many studies bear out the great value of dietary spices.  Although I am not personally a fan of Indian food, we know that many cancers are quite rare in India, in part because they spice their food with a particular set of spices which are now proven to benefit health.

The following is a listing of just a few spices and how you and your family can incorporate these in your normal diet


Nutmeg:

In reasonable amount used as a seasoning, many cultures from Asia to Europe use it.   I like to use it on top of hot chocolate and on baked custard, but many cultures use it on vegetables also.  Some cultures use it on potatoes, and other on vegetables like Brussel sprouts.  In any event, you are taking on additional magnesium while you are enjoying a tasty treat.




Cumin

   Cumin is also a spice which has bee widely used throughout the world for hundreds if not thousands of years.  It can be used ground, as I do, or in the seed form also.  It can add an earthy, warm taste to soups, stews and even chili.  There is scientific data which suggests that it is mildly antibacterial and antiviral and aids with digestion.




Turmeric

       This spice is used in South East Asian cuisine in both vegetable and meat dishes.  India also uses it broadly. There are too many health benefits to list in the form of a brief blog post, and so I will encourage you to research these yourself.



Cinnamon

         From French toast to flavoring your own oatmeal and healthy oatmeal cookies cinnamon  is of great benefit.  Some use cinnamon on certain potato, sweet potato or carrot dishes also.




Ginger

         From flavoring meats, poultry, to salads, ginger can provide that inexplicable something that the Asian restaurants know so well.   Ginger is also said to be an excellent way of settling a stomach.



Chili powder


              The important take away point is that being able to produce tasty food which makes eating in public during difficult times less of a necessity is an important preparedness skill.  Going out to eat should be rare, and the times you do it should be chosen.  Not only is eating out costly, but it does eating increase your exposure to the hazards of other people in difficult times (like civil unrest, for example). It exposes us and our families to potential for food  poisoning.   No matter how nice a restaurant might look, there is always the potential for food poisoning.


Cardamom

               A fairly expensive spice, this is used in teas. It is also a fantastic addition to certain breads. There are positive health uses.


               This post does not encourage you to build a spice cabinet for hundreds of dollars by Friday.  What I am saying is that bit my bit, preppers especially should begin, one by one, to gather salt, pepper, ginger, chili powder, freeze dried chives, and all manner of spices you believe you would use.  I have also bought large long term containers of powdered chicken gravy and beef gravy.   CVS and Wahlgreens also stock some low priced spices.  I am quite sure that these may not be the very best of spices available, but sometimes, when we wish to try something we have never used before, a dollar or two is all that we should spend.    Badia is also a brand of spices sold fairly inexpensively in grocery stores.  Sometimes it has a stronger flavor than other brands, but it is inexpensive and is especially good value if you enjoy spices often used in Mexican food.     There are also combinations of spices which you might invest in.  I am particularly fond of Montreal Steak Seasoning, and now there is a Montreal Chicken Seasoning also.

This was a coca cola bottle holder turned into a spice rack.

                In the interest of good health and in spending more time eating at home, for both economic and practical reasons, we owe it to ourselves and our families to begin to gather spices and experiment as to how to properly use them.   Some time ago my husband returned from a business trip in Mexico with a wonderful recipe he learned from the hotel.  A chicken breast is split and fried gently in olive oil and salt and pepper.  Then cumin is shaken on front and back of the chicken and it is cooked until it is golden brown.  Unusual and delicious !   We owe it to ourselves to learn more about spicing.


If you are unable to locate a spice you would like to try, this is an excellent source of all spices:

http://www.myspicesage.com




Regarding Reporting Food Poisoning After Eating Out   (A State by State Reporting System)

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/find-your-health-department-to-report-food-poisoning/#.VVsiFVI1fTo

Regarding Food Poisoning:

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/03/food-poisoning-it-was-likely-a-restaurant-worker/

In Support of Paris, France

               

Much of Paris today still has police cars and ambulances. People have been asked to remain at home and to clear the streets.

 


        Yesterday was a Friday the thirteenth.  I am generally not terribly superstitious, but over the years I have had some unusual bad luck on these days.  I don't hide under the covers, but I have learned not to schedule surgeries for family members on these days, and not to transact business on them. I was uneasy yesterday, and so I played "catch up" on animal and farm tasks and did some Christmas gift planning.

                     Last evening as I finished spoon feeding my infant grandson, my husband called and asked if I had heard about France.   I immediately turned on France24 to learn that six or seven sites in Paris and in a Northern suburb of Paris had been simaltaneously attacked by terrorists.  I uttered a quick prayer for all of those caught in a terrorist nightmare.

                      Overnight, a lot of information was provided by France 24 and by Sky News. Regular news programming had been preempted.   ISIS has claimed responsibility for these particularly barbaric cowardly attacks of civilians.  As of the moment of the writing of this post, 129 are dead, a couple of hundred people are injured, and 80 people are in critical condition. Some people remain unaccounted for, as of this date. My thoughts are also with friends of ours who are in the security and anti-terror business and who find themselves in France at this time.   As a result, there is a partial closure of the borders of France and what amounts to martial law in Paris and its outer suburbs.   The French are rallying and providing overnight accomodations to those who were caught without transport home last evening when transportation venues were closed. They are also providing blood to the specific hospital which distributes blood products to the hospitals who require this.

                     Our prayers are with those who were injured or killed in these attacks last evening, and with those who witnessed them.  Our prayers are also with the families of those killed, injured or missing.   May God bless France in this very difficult time.


Prior posts concerning France:

http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2015/01/with-compassion-and-solidarity-for.html