Hi everyone,

I have been real busy lately and I just wanted to ring out 2009 with wishes to you all for a very Happy and Prepared 2010! I will be posting new blog posts on Family Preparedness in the New Year. I think this is a vital topic and I apologize for abandoning the writing these past few months… I have no excuses. (But I have continued to prepare)

Have a great New Years celebration, and watch out for the drunk drivers tonight, they are usually out in force.

Best Regards,
Rob

Please see my link on the left to The Ready Store. Click on the banner ad to check out what they have to offer…

They have many things that are good for your emergency planning, like food and other supplies. They also offer Free Shipping for orders over $100.

I just got three boxes from them today with some of the Mountain House freeze-dried food– some cans and some pouches.

I also got some of the A Pack military MREs for my 72 hour kit, and some of the emergency 116 hour candles and glow sticks.

Please click on the banner to the left for The Ready Store and check out what they have to offer…

I have had a number of people comment that I must be a very pessimistic person to worry about such things as financial collapses, hyper-inflation, earthquakes, fires, floods, terrorist attacks, nuclear meltdowns and other Armageddon scenarios…

The truth is that I am a very optimistic person. I just believe in preparation, and in dealing with reality as I see it.

I remember the 1973 oil embargo and how a bunch of sheiks in the Gulf cause gas shortages– long lines and high prices.

I was a teenager during the Carter years. I watched his pathetic leadership over a terrible economy with massive unemployment, high interest rates and stagflation… I watched this perfect storm destroy my father’s business startup due not to lack of orders but to lack of operating capital. I remember the Iranian hostages and feeling anger that our inept leaders couldn’t deal with these revolutionary terrorists…

Those were dark days for America, every bit as dark as it seems now, but I was always optimistic about my future and America’s future. I enrolled at Georgia Tech in 1980 to become a Helluva an Engineer!

In my first Quarter of college, Ronald Reagan was elected to the Presidency, and it really was like Morning in America… people were optimistic again starting with the release of the hostages coincident with his Inauguration (the first to face West towards the Mall and the country of America)…

It took some time to come to fruition, but Reagan’s conservative ideas led an economic recovery that lasted 20 years, based on lower taxes and less dependence on Federal Government… based on self-reliance and “Peace through Strength”…

Fast forward twenty years… the towers fall on 9/11… our economy briefly falters and recovers…

We have had massive fraud and government incompetence that led to the credit (and housing) bubble that is now crippling the world’s economies.

We have elected a Socialist as the President and given him a press full of myrmidons, and a liberal Congress eager to lick his boots…

But I remain optimistic about our future. Because we value freedom and self-reliance.

Most Americans know that there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. There is no free healthcare just like there is no Santa Claus. And the government can’t run anything efficiently. There is always long waits, incompetent service and piss poor attitudes, and it always costs twice as much as the private sector. Since we are so used to decent service and short waits, any attempt to nationalize vital services will end up in failure– sooner rather than later.

We just need a leader like Ronald Reagan to tell the truth to us, and lead us in the necessary direction. We will find this leader. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be tough times to get through– our past binges almost guarantee some level of pain. And unraveling all the promises made by past leaders will be hard.

But I believe in the ultimate resourcefulness of Man, and in our productive capacity. We just need the government to provide us national security, a justice system, and a transportation infrastructure and otherwise stay out of our way. This make take a while but there are still good days ahead. But we need to survive till they get here…

Is this really an emergency, or is this the latest power grab by our Federal Government.  See here for another view on this “emergency”. It appears that there is no basis for most of the “facts” supporting this decision…

For example the 1000 deaths is almost certainly a blatant misrepresentation of the actual facts. (go see the other view above) It makes sense to take steps to prevent a pandemic but “crying wolf” when the facts don’t warrant it simply makes it less likely that people will cooperate when it is really needed…

Here was the weekend announcement of the National Emergency…

President Obama declared swine flu a national emergency, a move intended to give hospitals and other medical facilities more flexibility in coping with the possible surge of infected patients, public health experts said Saturday.

The declaration, announced Saturday, allows U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to waive certain regulations or speed up the regulatory process if health providers are inundated with swine flu patients.

For example, an overwhelmed hospital might be able to set aside a specific wing for infectious patients, or even move people to a location outside the hospital for treatment.

The declaration also allows the health secretary to remove some of the red tape associated with treating patients on Medicare and Medicaid. That could be a major help to hospitals that are trying to move patients quickly in and out of health clinics, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, director of infection control at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

Swine flu has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States since April, according to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and infectious disease experts believe it has infected millions around the globe. In the Bay Area, 58 people had died from swine flu as of Sept. 26, according to the latest information from the California Department of Health Services. Seven of those deaths occurred in San Francisco.

Outbreak’s severity the same

White House officials were quick to note that the emergency declaration does not signify an increase in severity of the national H1N1 outbreak.

Obama’s declaration states that as the swine flu outbreak continues to progress in the United States, “the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities.”

Art Reingold, head of epidemiology at UC Berkeley, said the declaration doesn’t mean that the national outbreak is “any worse than it was yesterday or last week.” Instead, he suspects it was issued in part to help state and local governments manage an epidemic that could overwhelm already limited resources after public health budgets were slashed all over the country.

He added that the declaration, while not surprising, had to be carefully worded to avoid creating more anxiety about the swine flu.

“It’s difficult to get the right message across to people,” Reingold said. “There’s this balance between the flu is important and people should be vaccinated, but you don’t want an overreaction.”

In the Bay Area, many public health agencies have reported significant increases in flu activity in the first half of October. While health services aren’t yet strained by the increased patient load, public health experts said the president’s declaration comes as a relief.

“This might open up approvals for hospital procedures, and allow us to get our patients in and out faster,” Maldonado said. “Hospitals are tightly regulated. We won’t be exempt from those regulations, but our needs will probably be fast-tracked.”

Several local public health experts said they hope the declaration can be used to speed up distribution of the swine flu vaccine. The vaccine was supposed to have been available in large quantities in mid-October, but as of late last week, many communities – including most Bay Area counties – had very limited supplies.

Speeding drug distribution

In recent months, Sebelius has issued three declarations of a public health emergency to help ease distribution of U.S. supplies of antiviral drugs to treat people with the swine flu. At the local level, some counties may declare emergencies to help corner resources for vaccine distribution.

“Given the variables related to vaccine supply and the need for expanded resources at the municipal level, it’s not unreasonable to assume that a proclamation of emergency may be required at the local level to facilitate the distribution of vaccine,” said Vanessa Cordova, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to be talking about securing your home from criminal intruders.  I am glad that the picture on my last post gave some people a chuckle, it was not meant to be indicative of what you need to do to secure your home (yet).  Of course, if we got to a situation of complete anarchy and widespread starvation/looting then even this would not be enough because the criminals would probably just set our house on fire.

I am looking to protect myself, and help you protect yourself, from the common criminal who wants what you have in your home. 

With so many people without jobs, and so many people feeling that they deserve whatever they can take, it has led to an increase in home burglaries and car break-ins in many areas… 

Criminals are not all stupid, they will tend to go after less defended homes and neighborhoods before they go after well-defended ones.  So, if you don’t already have one in place you should help your neighborhood set up a Neighborhood Watch program.  The one in our area is called C.O.P.S. and we are sent emails whenever there is a break-in that occurs in our general area.  This is also the place where suspicious vehicles and door-knockers are reported and tracked.   Many break-ins are begun with a person dressed as a contractor in work clothes knocking on the front door of a residence.  If the party is home, he says he is mistaken and moves on.

If the homeowner does not answer they know that the home is vacant, and they can case the house and look for a vulnerable point to break-in. (we will discuss how to minimize these vulnerable points in the days ahead).’

Having a Neighborhood watch program gets the entire community aware of the crime in their midst so that they can have the proper awareness.  It also gives a place to report suspicious activity for patterns and so that the police can be alerted.  If a contractor knocks on the “wrong door” in our neighborhood, there is a good chance this would be immediately reported and the police could intervene.

For help starting a Neighborhood program, check out www.nnwi.org or www.usaonwatch.org

Three more things-

1. Talk with your neighbors when you will be gone for more than a day and let them know your plans… They can be alert for people that might pose as movers stealing all your stuff.

2. Don’t let your kids post on Facebook, etc. that you are going on a Cruise tomorrow and will be gone for a week.  This has led to numerous break-ins.  Keep these details to yourself till after your trip.

3. Leave some lights on (with timers if possible to turn them on and off simulating activity).  Maybe leave a radio playing quietly.  Leave external floodlights on as well…

And make sure that you lock your house (DEADBOLTS, not just the pass locks) when you leave.  And lock your cars in your driveway.  Seems obvious, but many people don’t do it…

Part Two will continue this discussion…

A great question from regular reader and all-around good guy Lynn Lane:

Where is the best place to stash extra cash, gold or silver coins? In house in a safe or safety deposit box at the bank?

Lynn, first of all let’s talk about safe deposit boxes…

Although these are good for some things, they are not very useful for emergency cash or survival gold and silver.

Why?  

In the event of a financial crisis, it is conceivable that banks could be closed and you might have no access to your assets.  And it might be a while before you can get back at them…

So, these emergency items needs to be stored in your home. But they need to be secure in your home. So, your home needs to be secure and protected and the valuables need to be stored intelligently. We will talk in future posts about home security which encompasses at least four major topics for discussion:

In the next week or so, we will talk about each of these topics in greater detail… as we continue to discuss the other items for our 72 Hour Emergency Kit…

Thanks for the great question, Lynn!  (and I look forward to discussing personal protection and self defense with you in greater detail with my readers)

PS: The picture is not intended as my recommendation for your home defense!  As one astute reader pointed out, this is not likely to pass most Homeowners Associations Bylaws because of the lack of coordinated colors.

There are many emergency situations where you may need to evacuate your home (Bug Out) or make some last minute purchases and the credit card/debit card system is not functioning.  In addition, it would not take long for all the cash in the ATM machines to be stripped clean.  This would leave you without a way to make emergency purchases like GAS…

(you are keeping your tank at least 75% full at all times, right)

So, you should always maintain a cash reserve in a safe place…

This is going to vary by individual, but at a minimum I would recommend you keep $300 in small bills (no larger than $20) on hand at all times for emergencies.  $500 or $1000 would be even better…

In addition, it is a smart idea to keep a $100 bill in your wallet for on-the-road emergencies.  Fold it up and tuck it far away in the wallet.  You may also want to keep a $100 bill in your car registration/insurance paperwork in your glove comaprtment…

Last but not least, your spouse and any children of driving age should also have this $100 bill hidden in their wallet/purse.  It is only for emergencies– and a new pair of shoes is NEVER an emergency.

And a roll of dimes and a roll of quarters in your glove box to make emergency phone calls at a pay phone (remember them) is another example of thinking ahead.  In an emergency, it very likely that cell phones will be overloaded or not functioning… (about half the payphones I see are $0.35 and the other half $0.50 so a roll of dimes and a roll of quarters helps at both price points).

Companies manufacture and sell a wide variety of freeze-dried canned foods that are designed for long-term storage.

The best known of these is Mountain House…

Their foods are cooked and then freeze-dried before canning…

“Freeze-drying” is a unique process that provides product characteristics that cannot be achieved with other processing methods. Fresh or cooked foods are flash frozen and then placed in vacuum chambers that are as cold as -50 F. As low level heat is applied, the ice evaporates without going back through the liquid phase, and removes approximately 98% of the product’s moisture.

This freeze-dried food is then packed in airtight #10 size cans. #10 cans are a little smaller than a gallon.  The filled cans are then nitrogen packed (the air has been replaced by nitrogen). The inside of each can is coated with a protective enamel, including the lid. This enamel helps protect the can from deteriorating elements.

As long as the can is not opened or punctured, the food inside have the longest shelf life available…up to 30 years!

After opening, they recommend using the contents with 2 to 3 weeks for best results and taste; using the convenient resealable plastic lid between uses. Treat any leftover cooked food as you would fresh food.

Some of their popular items include:

Entrees like Beef Stroganoff, Rice & Chicken, and Lasagna with Meat sauce (each can has about 30 servings)
Breakfast Items like Scrambled Eggs and Bacon
Canned Meats like cooked hamburger, turkey, chicken, diced beef
Fruits and Vegetables
Dessert Items like Blueberry Cheesecake, and others.

They also manufacture these foods in pouches which have 1-4 servings and which have a shelf life of 5-7 years.  These are very popular with backpackers…

These pouches make excellent additions to your 72 Hour Emergency Kits…

Aesop knew the value of preparation…

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. 

     “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”

     “I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”

     “Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “We have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

     When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger – while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for days of need.

Be Prepared.

That’s the motto of the Boy Scouts.

“Be prepared for what?” someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting,

“Why, for any old thing.” said Baden-Powell.

When a disaster hits– and you are without power and water– you are prepared because you have food and water and other supplies at the ready;

When someone has an accident, you are prepared because of your first aid instruction and supplies;

When the emergency services are overloaded, and others are calling 911 to try and get help, your family is safe and sound…

You are part of the recovery effort, not part of the problem…

Be prepared for life – to live happily and without regret, knowing that you have done your best. That’s what the Scout motto means.