Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. If you happen to live in or near Muskego, Wisconsin, I’ll be leading a presentation tonight (Wednesday, Aug 12) at their library. It runs 6:30PM-7:30PM. In person only, no virtual option for this one. The topic is How to Prepare for Disaster. You can find all of the details here.
* * *
My new book, Common-Sense Everyday Carry, was supposed to release at Amazon last week. Unfortunately, there was some sort of mix-up with their warehouse and now they’re saying it will be available as of August 18th. You can still order it from Gun Digest Store if you’re in a hurry.
* * *
There are many things that negatively impact our ability to make sound decisions. Fatigue is a big one. Another is being overwhelmed with information, sometimes referred to as analysis paralysis. Or you feel like you’re under immense pressure to make a snap decision.
One more is hunger. I don’t mean you’re just feeling a little peckish, either. I mean you’re not just hungry but hangry. Remember those Snickers commercials where the person would be acting like an absolute monster, then they’d immediately calm down and turn to normal after eating the candy bar? It’s silly, but that’s actually kind of a thing that exists. I think it might at least partially be a blood sugar thing.
Here’s the thing. If you’re in a bad spot and the decisions you make could have very serious consequences, it might be beneficial to have something with you to snack on and boost that blood sugar a touch. As such, consider always grabbing a protein bar, trail mix, or something similar to toss into a pocket or your pack every time you hit the trail, just in case.
Along these same lines, you know who the absolutely worst people are when they get hungry? Kids. Parents, you know I’m right. Make a point of keeping snacks available when you’re away from home. You won’t be making good decisions when you’re stressed due to listening to hollering and wailing from the back seat.
* * *
I had a couple of new articles go live this week. My review of the Victorinox Huntsman Swiss Army Knife is on GearJunkie. I also had a story about hiking tips for hot weather at GAT Daily. Both are free to read.
* * *
Food for thought - While having emergency gear with you and being proficient with its use is absolutely important, even more critical is understanding that the best scenario is one in which that gear goes unused. In other words, if the conditions are sketchy, don’t push your luck simply because you think you have what it takes to survive.
* * *
August is National Emergency Management Awareness Month, which is followed by National Preparedness Month in September. This is a great time for emergency management (EM) teams to connect with the people at ground level in their communities. Here are some things we’ve been doing locally to promote resiliency and preparedness.
Monthly classes and presentations – we’ve partnered with a number of local folks to present high-quality information on topics like pet first aid, storm spotting, Stop the Bleed, and sheltering in place preps. The classes are free to attend and people really seem to enjoy them.
Annual Resiliency Expo – next month, we’ll be holding our 2nd annual Preparedness & Resiliency Expo. One of the local high schools is giving us quite a bit of space and we’re coordinating with a number of county and local level agencies for speakers and presentation booths. It’s all free to attend, and we’re not charging for booth space, either.
Social media posts – a few years ago, I wrote up a series of 30+ short posts with tips and advice on family level preparedness. I share them one-a-day throughout September, and I’ve also sent that list over to a couple of different EM teams to do the same.
I strongly feel that there’s a significant gap between many EM departments and the folks at ground level. Think about it like this. If a disaster strikes the community, every person who was prepared is going to reduce the overall drain on the limited available resources.
If you’d like to chat about some of the things we’ve done here or brainstorm ideas that might work in your area, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you don’t work in emergency management, you’re welcome to share this post with your own local EM team.
* * *
For our hike over the weekend, we went to Moraine Hills State Park, near McHenry, Illinois. We’d never been there before, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We took the Lake Defiance Trail, which runs a bit shy of four miles. It was a nice walk, but very hot when we hit sections with little or no shade.
Survival Tip — Home Health Care Concerns
We preppers can get so focused on natural disasters and the like that sometimes we forget about prepping for how life changes over time.
Many of us are sort of caught in the middle these days. We have children we’re raising while we’re also helping our parents navigate the last stages of their own lives. It can truly be a struggle to keep our own sanity intact.
Without going too deep down the rabbit hole, we had a lot of issues with my dad for the last several years of his life. He gradually lost mobility and ended up spending about two solid years living in an electric recliner in his living room. By all rights, he should have gone into assisted living, but he refused to do so. Because of this insistence, he needed home health care. At first, this was pretty informal. He hired a woman who lived nearby to come to the home a few times a day to cook meals, clean the house as needed, and attend to his hygiene needs. After about 18 months, we switched providers and he had a different caregiver, one who actually lived in the home with him until he passed.
If you’re facing a similar situation with an elderly parent, here are some things we learned the hard way. Please understand that I’m just hitting a few high points here. This is a huge topic that cannot be covered in just a single essay. My goal here is simply to get you thinking if this situation might be down the road for you.
Power of Attorney – one of the initial priorities should be getting the POA paperwork in place. You may not need it right off the bat, but it’s better to have it ready to go, just in case.
Inclement weather – have a plan for what you’ll do if the caregiver can’t or won’t drive to the home due to bad weather. Depending on the patient’s health issues and overall condition, you might end up having to make the trek yourself to make sure they’re okay if you live somewhat local.
Background checks – make double darn sure the agency providing the caregiver has done a comprehensive background check on the person. The first caregiver my dad hired end up robbing him blind before we figured out what was going on. Seven years after he passed, she still owes nearly $17,000 in restitution, which we’ll probably never see.
Monitoring – I highly recommend installing cameras throughout the home so that you can monitor the care your loved one is receiving. I have serious concerns about things that may have happened with my dad with a couple of his caregivers, but we had no way to effectively monitor the situation at the time. Today, there are plenty of somewhat affordable options for in-home camera systems you can access remotely.
Insurance – talk with the insurance company about what they will cover…and be prepared for them to say not much. Get familiar with their coverage before you actually need it, and see what you can do about adjusting the coverage ahead of time. Be sure you are named as an authorized representative in their file so there aren’t delays in accessing the information you need.
Managed Care Organizations – these are generally non-profit agencies that work with patients to get them the benefits to which they’re entitled, such as aid from state and federal programs. However, they aren’t always awesome to work with. I had to fight tooth and nail with them sometimes to get them to do what they were supposed to do.
Watch out for predators – that caregiver who was stealing from him? She almost got his house, too. A friend of her and her husband’s wanted to buy the house from my dad and they arranged a meeting with him. I found out about it at the last second and managed to get there myself. The “offer” was to buy the home for what he owed on it, which was maybe a third of its actual value. Then, they’d let him continue to live there until he died, but paying rent to the tune of about $1,000/month, which was more than he was paying for his mortgage. Tell you what, it was only with supreme willpower on my part that all of them left with their teeth intact.
I firmly believe that prepping should go well beyond just power outages and supply shortages. The same attention we pay to our food cupboard at home should be extended to all of life’s little, and not so little, curve balls.
Backwoods Survival Guide Magazine
For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for Backwoods Survival Guide magazine. Here is the cover for the current issue available in stores right now.
You can find Backwoods Survival Guide just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:
Walmart
Publix
Walgreens
Rite Aid
CVS
Tractor Supply
Fleet Farm
Barnes & Noble
Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?
I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.