The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 10, Issue 34

National Preparedness Month -- Week 2

Sep 06, 2023

Hey folks, thank you for checking out the newsletter this week. We dropped our son off to his college dorm last week. He’s a junior this year and he decided he wanted to go with a single room this year, no roommate. freshman year, he roomed with a guy he knew in high school, then sophomore year it was a random assignment. So, he was ready to have a room to himself this time around. Me being me, as we’re helping him unpack, I asked if he had remembered a flashlight. He had three of them – one for pocket carry, one that sits in a drawer near his bed, and a third that’s backup. First aid kit and a few other prep-related odds and ends were also present and accounted for. That’s my boy!

The past two years, he came home every weekend, as we only live about 30 minutes away. This year, we’re expecting he’ll not be coming back quite as often, and that’s perfectly fine. We’ll miss seeing him, of course, but kids grow up.

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I have some fantastic news to share. We finally have subscriptions available for Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide magazines! You can order either/both of them at this link. Subscriptions will start with the currently available issue. You can also order just the current single issues at that same link.

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Prep tip: Consider setting up a tote in a shed or other outbuilding with a set of spare clothes, outerwear, footwear, and other absolute must-haves. If your home is damaged by fire or other means, you may still have access to that tote.

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I wrote this a while back for an article on food storage, specifically the importance of it as related to hunger and group dynamics.

“In addition to the physical issues that come about when our bodies start to consume themselves in earnest, such as dizziness and fatigue, there are some psychological and personality changes that occur. Think back to the last time your significant other wasn’t just hungry but hangry. Now, imagine that being the norm rather than the exception, and there isn’t a candy bar in sight.”

Mental well-being is something that’s rarely discussed in the prepping world, at least as compared to things like stockpiling supplies and making sure you can defend what’s yours. The thing is, the better prepared you are physically, meaning supplies as well as overall health, the easier things will be mentally in a crisis. I’m not suggesting that a big pile of supplies will make everything sunshine and rainbows. But if you aren’t stressing about food and water, that frees up mental energy to tackle other issues.

The point of preparedness is doing all we can ahead of time to make our lives easier in a crisis. If reducing the risk of someone in your family being hangry all the time, so much the better.

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Prep tip: Carrying a pocket flashlight can be beneficial if the power cuts out when you’re at work or you’re out shopping. Those big box stores can get pretty dark when you’re away from the front doors.

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The past week was quite busy on the work front. I wrote a few articles for Backwoods Survival Guide, as well one for Field & Stream and another for a magazine to be announced later. I also worked on the article list for a couple of future issues of Backwoods Survival Guide and Prepper Survival Guide. This might be a little “inside baseball” for some of you, but with the move to a new publisher for those magazines, I’ve been given access to a much larger look at the publishing calendar. Previously, we worked literally one issue at a time and didn’t start planning the next one until the current one was almost ready to go to print. Now, we can plan further ahead and work on multiple issues at once. It’s more juggling on my end, but it means our contributors get more time to finish their stories, which is great.

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Prep tip: Tinder is usually lightweight and can be easily moved by wind, often just as you’re ready to spark it up with a ferrocerium rod. Put down a small piece of duct tape, sticky side up, and put your tinder on that. Not only will the tape help keep the tinder in place, duct tape will also burn furiously once ignited. Fold one end of the tape over so it sticks to a log or whatever to keep it in place as you work.

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Did you know you can sign up for a free trial run for my Patreon feed? There are two levels. For $5/month, you get three posts a week delivered to your inbox. For $8/month, you get a post every single day. All the details are found on my Patreon page.

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Prep tip: Strengthen your exterior doors at home by replacing the hinge screws with ones that are at least 3 inches long. This makes the door harder to kick in.

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This is a great little video on different types of cordage and how to pack them in your kit, courtesy of my good friend Craig Caudill.

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Prep tip: Skills trump stuff, but skills + stuff is even better. It doesn’t need to be an either/or proposition.

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Our hike this week was rather warm, around 92°F and a bit muggy. The nature preserve we’d planned to visit had no parking available, so we headed to a nearby state park and hit a trail there. The route we took was a little hilly and between that and the heat, we were both a little knackered by the time we got back to the car. Good exercise, though.

Survival Tip – Bugging Out with Pets

When it comes to emergency evacuation, we spend hours poring over our plans. We carefully assemble our packs and plot numerous routes to our various potential destinations. We brainstorm any possible problems and come up with ways to handle them. But, what about our faithful four-legged companions?

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there were numerous reports of dogs found still chained to posts, having been left behind when the owners bailed. Sadly, most of those animals were found well after they’d already perished, drowned in the floodwaters.

If you have pets, you have an obligation to include them in your emergency plans, which includes bugging out if that becomes necessary. For the purposes of our discussion here, we’re going to concentrate on dogs and cats, simply because they are the most common pets in the United States. However, many of the suggestions will be applicable to whatever other critters you keep.

Where Will You Go

One of the most basic elements of a successful bug out plan is knowing where you can go if disaster strikes. To be clear, in the vast majority of likely scenarios, hunkering down at home is likely to be your safest bet. However, not one of us knows exactly what the future holds, so it is best to cover all your bases.

Most situations that require evacuation will be local or perhaps regional at best. If you’re able to drive, say, 30 miles in a given direction, you’ll likely find restaurants, motels, and other services are running without interruption. Even if you plan to ride out the crisis at the home of a family member or friend who live in the next county, take some time to check out other accommodation options, just in case.

Call around to motels to find out which ones will accept pets. Despite rumors to the contrary, businesses are not required by law to make exceptions to their pet policies in a time of crisis. Don’t count on them to make any deviation from their standard rules. Once you’ve identified a couple of places you could go, program their numbers into your phone and add them to any written emergency contact list you might keep with your kits. Worse comes to worst and you do need to take off from home, call the motel as soon as you can to make a reservation. If nothing else, spending a night there will give you breathing room as you plan your next move.

What to Bring

Depending on the size and number of the pets you’ll be bringing, you could either set up their own bag or just add their supplies to your own. There are a number of different carry systems that can be worn by medium or large dogs that would allow them to at least take some of the load. Failing that, you’ll need to find room among your other packs.

Water

A collapsible water dish (and another for food) with a couple of bottles of water will be essential. While some animals seem to have a more robust digestive system, one that allows them to consume water and food that we might not be able to stomach, the last thing you want is to have to deal with a sick animal on top of everything else. Having a supply of clean water will go a long way toward preventing that.

Food

Some people have expressed the idea that they’ll just feed their animal leftovers of their own meals. There are a couple of problems with this plan. First, it is rather bold to assume there will be leftovers to be had. You’ll probably need all the calories you can find for you and your family, let alone having to share some of them with a pet. Plus, many of the foods we eat aren’t good for our animals. They may be high in sodium, for example, or have other ingredients that could make them sick or worse.

The other plan that crops up from time to time is the idea that they’ll just let the animal hunt and otherwise fend for themselves for food. If your pet has known nothing but a largely sedentary life, you cannot reasonably expect them to suddenly be expert hunters. (Of course, we can say the same for the pet owners as well.)

Your best bet is to pack and carry a supply of food for your pets, at least enough for a few days if not longer. One key here is to stick with the food your pet eats regularly. Many animals get an upset stomach when their food is switched. This is why if you’re going to switch brands of their daily food, it is recommended you do so gradually, mixing the foods together for a while to allow them to get accustomed to the new stuff.

If your pet eats mostly dry food, pack individual servings in sealable plastic bags. This makes it easy to portion it out as you travel. Plus, should something happen to one of the bags, such as it somehow gets waterlogged or breaks open, you’ll have the others to use rather than lose the entire supply at once.

On the other hand, if canned food is on the menu, when possible stick with single-serve cans. Most canned pet food must be refrigerated once opened. If you’re on the move, that’s obviously not going to be possible.

Restraints

No matter how well-behaved the pet might be in normal times, stress can do funny things to them just like it can to us humans. Make sure you have a good leash and collar for each animal. Even better than a collar would be a harness as they tend to be more secure, as well as more comfortable for the animal. A muzzle might be a good idea as well, just in case.

A crate is important, especially for cats, assuming they aren’t leash-trained (yes, that can be done). Even if you never normally use crates or cages for your pets, some motels that accept pets might require them. Should you end up having to make use of an established emergency shelter, they might require them as well.

Medicine

If your pet is on any sort of prescription medications, make sure you have an emergency supply packed with the bug out gear. You might go so far as to have a conversation with your veterinarian about a supply of pain relievers or other medications that might prove useful in an emergency. They know your pet’s history and can advise you accordingly. If you’ll need an oral syringe or other device to administer the medicine, make sure you have it stored.

Records

While you’re at the vet, ask for a full copy of your pet’s record. It should show all immunizations as well as known allergies and other potential issues. Keep this with your bug out pack so you can prove Fido is up to date on all shots, should that come up somewhere along the line.

Make it a habit to take a photo of you with your pet at least a couple of times a year and store that photo somewhere you’ll be able to access it easily, either by printing a copy or by stashing it in cloud storage. If you’re separated from your pet, this will help searchers find them as well as help you prove ownership.

Our pets provide us with unconditional love. Don’t let them down.

Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide

For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for both Prepper Survival Guide and Backwoods Survival Guide magazines. Here are the covers for the current issues that are available in stores right now.