The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 10, Issue 40
Fall is here and I'm loving it!
Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. We’re stalled on the garage project for another week or two, as we’re waiting for more supplies to come in. This gave me the opportunity to get caught up on some deadlines, as well as start in on a few new projects. I have a small surgical procedure coming up in about a week, and I’m trying hard to get ahead of the game so I don’t fall behind on anything during my recovery. We actually met our medical insurance deductible for once, so I figured I’d get as much done as possible before the end of the year.
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As I write this, it is unbelievably sunny and warm outside, almost 80F. I decided to take advantage of the great weather and set up the Jackery solar generator to charge. We’ve been using it quite a bit during the garage renovation and it works great!
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Prepper Tip -- If you have a shed, detached garage, or other outbuilding of some sort, consider filling a plastic tote with a few things, like a coat for each family member, hats, and gloves, that sort of stuff. This way, if you have to get out of the house in a hurry, such as evacuating from a house fire, you’ll still have access to warm outerwear. Depending on the situation, you might not be able to get to your trusty bug out bag in the trunk.
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As many of you know, I had some health issues earlier this year. I discovered I had a kidney stone at the very end of May, ended up in the hospital in early July with a septic infection stemming from the removal of said stone, and was finally deemed healthy again in August. Here’s a pile of most of the prescriptions I had throughout that timeframe. This doesn’t include anything I was given while in the hospital (IV antibiotics and such), and there are a few others that I didn’t have nearby when I snapped this pic. It also doesn't include many of the bottles I emptied along the way.
[Yes, for those of you who are observant, some of those bottles do indeed still have meds in them. I was taken off some of them and put on others throughout the summer.]
On the one hand, I’m very grateful to have access to modern medicine, as without it, things might not have gone my way back in July. On the other hand, I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping yourself as healthy as possible, within whatever limitations you may be facing.
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Despite the warm weather some of us are currently enjoying, the snow and ice are soon to come. For many of us, the winter season brings with it a fair amount of spare time. Sure, the holidays keep us busy, but we’re also not spending hours on end tending to gardens and keeping up on other outdoor chores. While I’m as much of a fan of vegging on the couch and watching movies while the snow flies as the next person, that should be tempered with some efforts to use time constructively.
Here are just a few suggestions to consider.
Inventory supplies and gear – trying to do it all at once is a recipe for frustration and probably failure, but if you take your time and break it into chunks, you can get it done. Going room by room is one approach. Another is to take it by category, such as Food or Medical.
Skill building – choose a skill that you want to learn and pursue it with vigor. You can make use of your local library as well as the endless resources online. Set a schedule and commit to devoting a certain amount of time each day or week toward this.
Declutter – one of the biggest issues many preppers face is simply a lack of useable space in their homes for storing what they feel they’ll need if an emergency or crisis hits. As with the inventory suggestion, don’t try to do it all at once. Pick one room or even just one part of one room at a time. Anything that’s going should be removed from the home ASAP, lest it find its way back in. Take anything still in decent condition to a thrift store and toss the rest.
Some of my own goals for this winter include spending some time playing with writing fiction, getting my Ham radio license (sadly, just haven’t gotten around to that yet), and paring down my home library before it collapses around me.
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FYI, I'm seeing reports that some pharmacists and related staff for Walgreens may be staging walkouts at the end of this month. Here's one news story about it, you're welcome to use the search engine of your choice to find others.
If you have any prescriptions that will need to be filled in the next few weeks, you might want to get that done sooner rather than later.
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Prepper Tip -- Sprouts are incredibly high in nutrients. They’re also pretty easy to grow, even if you live in a small space. There’s a fairly large range of seeds and beans you can grow for sprouts, but most people prefer the milder flavors of mung beans, alfalfa, and clover.
You can buy a special seed sprouting tray, but really all you need is a clear glass jar.
Rinse your seeds in clear water, then put them into the jar and soak them overnight. The next day, drain the water (use it in the garden or something so it doesn’t just go to waste). Keep the seeds moist by rinsing and draining the water two or three times a day. Avoid putting the jar in directly sunlight, but keep it in a location where it will get light regularly, such as a kitchen counter. In three to five days, you should see sprouts coming up.
You can add sprouts to salads or sandwiches, or just eat them as a side dish. This is an easy way to add nutrition to a bland diet, and they can be pretty tasty, too.
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On our hike this week, we could see that the trees around here are just starting to change. Fall is absolutely my favorite season and I love to see the color displays Mother Nature puts on for us.
Survival Tip – Be Realistic
[This is a tip I feel is important enough to share on something of a regular basis. I’m sure many of you have seen it before, but we have new people joining us here every day.]
If there is a single bit of advice I could pass along to my fellow survivalists and preppers, it is this -- be realistic. Understand that while working hard to increase your abilities is important, it is just as critical to understand your limitations. If you plan to bug out on foot, for example, and you get winded walking to the mailbox, odds are a journey of 250 miles isn't going to end well for you. Sure, once upon a time you could manage 20+ miles a day while humping a ruck. That was 30 years and 95 pounds ago.
I've lost count of the number of preppers I've met who have a good supply of heirloom seeds and plan to feed their family with what they grow but have never gardened before in their lives. They figure they'll just dig up a garden patch in the backyard, drop the seeds in the ground, and a few weeks later reap the bounty. It really doesn't work like that!
Or the ones who have stockpiled a ton of gold and silver rounds, booze, and candy, figuring they will just barter for whatever they need after a collapse. While planning for trade isn't a bad idea, sort of like hedging your bet, the whole point of prepping is to have what you need ahead of time rather than relying upon anyone else to have enough extra to share.
Or those who have invested in enough armaments to equip a small nation and plan to just...liberate...supplies as necessary from neighbors and such. This isn't Hollywood and you aren't Jason Statham or Dwayne Johnson.
Survival skills, like any other skill set, are perishable. They require regular practice to remain in good working order. Learn from your mistakes while you have the luxury of making them with little to no risk. Know your limitations while working to overcome them. Adjust your plans as you go along, taking into account your slowly increasing abilities. Think about it like this - a year from now, you'll wish you'd started today.
Above all else, though, examine your plans with an objective eye and give some thought as to how realistic they are. Adjust and adapt as necessary.
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.
You can find them just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:
Walmart
Sam's Club
Costco
Publix
Walgreens
Rite Aid
CVS
Tractor Supply
Fleet Farm
Barnes & Noble
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Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?
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