Poor Richard's and Mama Donna's Prepping for Plain Folks

  HAVE AN AWAY PLAN: PART I The odds are that the average Ann and Andy will be away from their home when an event hits. That is because most of us have to earn a living so we will be either commuting to or from, or be at work. If we aren’t doing that then we are shopping, out with friends, at movies, sporting events, etc., or we are taking the kids to and from school or be at some school event. We might even be on vacation somewhere. I know. That conflicts with the PC image of the “prepper/survivalist” huddling in their home a step away from their bunker. It also happens to be reality. There are exceptions, of course, where the event can be seen coming (the slow train wreck) such as icy roads, heavy snow, wind or rain storm or tropical storm, school is canceled and your boss might actually let you stay home (LOL! Yeah, right). But many events hit without warning ( bolt out of the blue)   such as earthquakes, tornados, some flash flooding, power outages, , bridge/high...

  In an emergency situation the location affected may have an area that was directly hit by the floodwaters, tornado, earthquake, chemical spill or terrorist act that is generally referred to as Ground Zero. Between that area and where the grid is still up and running normally is usually an area no so hard hit, but without power, water or other aspects of the grid. We call this the RAGE . RAGE stands for the Relative Area of Grid Effects. If you are in this area the general rule of thumb is that you are on your own for the first 72 hours. That is why we start new preppers off with learning how to cover these first three days or so. BASIC:   (FOR NEW PREPPERS) THE FIRST 72 HOURS:   WATER             What does enough water for 72 hours look like? For 2 adults, at the maximum standard of 1 gallon per day , per person, for all purposes, it’s 12 - 2 Lt soda bottles thoroughly cleaned out and refilled with tap...

              For those of you looking for our Friday edition, we are changing the format of this blog to dealing with Self-Reliance.             Starting Monday, September 14 th , we will do a series of short articles dealing with the basics of self-reliance from the view of one who has never prepped before.             We will not now, or ever, resort to scare tactics to get people into “prepping” or self-reliance. But if all around you, be it the virus, wildfires, riots, the election or just more common hurricanes and other more natural events, has made you stop and want to know how to give you and your loved ones a fighting chance, we will be here.

GETTING STARTED IN PREPPING    THE MOMENT OF TRUTH             “ Bullfight critics, row on row, crowd the massive Plaza de Torus. But there is only one there who knows the moment of truth, and he is the one who faces the bull…..” Robert Graves             We come now to one of the most difficult aspects of prepping, especially for the new prepper, the thought of actually having to defend your home and family from an invader.             Mama Donna and I have a deep respect for human life and for people in general. We are realistic, however. If during normal times, we have an invader, we will retreat as reasonably as we can and call the police. We will resort to defensive measures if there is no reasonable alternative. If I have to fire upon an attacker I will go for the legs and feet to incapacitate ...