I Love the Whole World...

... and all it’s craziness
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da

Remember that Discovery Channel commercial? Well, if you want to love all the craziness, now is the time, especially if you live in the Eastern U.S. Not only did they get a fairly strong earthquake last week, they are also dealing with Hurricane Irene clawing its way up the Eastern seaboard. Both the earthquake and the hurricane are not as bad as they potentially could have been, but bad enough.

The earthquake was interesting, not so much for it’s occurrence (in fact, earthquakes happen in the eastern part of the continent with fair regularity) but for what it says about the geography of eastern North America. The earthquake, while reasonably mild in terms of intensity, propagated over a wide area due to the rocky nature of the terrain. Now imagine that same earthquake but stronger. The magnitude was 5.8, but imagine it ten (6.8), a hundred (7.8) or a thousand (8.8) times stronger. It’s rare, but it could happen.

Less unusual, but still rare is Hurricane Irene. This is the first hurricane to make landfall in three years, and the first in decades to claw its way up the eastern seaboard. It has killed at least eight people and left two million people without power. The category of this storm? A One, and a weak Category One at that, although it is a very large storm in area. But now consider what would happen if Irene had held up as a Category Three as it was previously, or even gained intensity as it ran towards the coast?

Luckily, both earthquake and hurricane have been mild, and are atypical events. At least that’s what we like to think. In reality, over the span of geological time, they are regular, not at all unusual events. It is merely our personal, short time line that makes them seem so, but bigger and badder things are in fact inevitable across the planet.

As the commercial said: “ The World is just…awesome.”

It is indeed. Make sure you’re prepared just in case some of that awesome happens where you live.

Boom-de-ah-da!

Originally posted August 28, 2011 @ CPN

Good luck with that....

Something that pisses me off completely is the concept of bugging out. I read article after article about this perfect bugout vehicle. They range from some idiot’s concept of a super SUV, to some other idiots converted school bus. Pulling a trailer to boot!

Leaving aside the obvious, which is that all of these on road vehicles are stopped by as little as washed out bridge over a small stream, there is also the issue of how big a target you are.

“A big fat school bus pulling a trailer? Nah, I won’t hit that“, says the bad guy. “There won’t be anything good in it. Let’s let it go by…”

Right. Pull the other one.

But for all the lack of realism in the vehicular bug out camp, there is an even worse set of assumptions out there. There seems to be a whole lot of people that think they will play Davey Crockett and just walk off into the woods with their trusty rifle and their ‘possibles’ bag. These live off the land types are largely ridiculed, and for the most part, justly so. It’s just not realistic to believe that you can carry enough in a pack to survive more than a week or two without some sort of re-supply.

This is where a third set of assumptions come into play, whether as a primary bug out plan or as a Plan B from a failed vehicular bug-out. The assumption in both these plans is that they can walk to their retreat, cache, or what have you. They believe that walking can get them and their family out of trouble. But can they?

Aside from the obvious issues of attackers, weather, and supply, most of these folks are gravely over-estimating what they can do and carry on foot. For starters, we’re likely not walking the major roads. In fact , if you’re planning on walking roads at all you’re likely going to come to a bad end. This means you will be walking ploughed fields, bush, mucky bottom land, slopes and rocky trails.

And that’s where the problem starts. Not everyone can make good time in these conditions. Much is dependent on age and conditioning. Let me give you an example. A friend and his 10 year old just hiked a fairly difficult trail in my area. The trail is 8.3 km long and it took them six hours to get to the end. My spouse and I hiked the same trail a day later and it took us less than half the time to complete the same distance.

Obviously, hiking with kids will be a lot slower process. But there were other factors at work. The spouse and I are used to carrying packs and are seasoned, well-conditioned hikers. We have experience on rough terrain, and I was using hiking poles which helped me hike faster with less fatigue.

Age, injury, and conditioning all have an effect. Age we can’t do much about, but conditioning is under our control, and through conditioning, we can control some of our risk of injury. I believe in our car oriented world that few people have the fitness and conditioning to make the sort of hike I just made, never mind one that might take weeks or even months to accomplish.

Bugging out on foot isn’t an impossible, or even a bad plan. Sadly, far too few are preparing properly to walk to safety, even though they are planning on it. A few things you can do:

Practice. Walk your route with a loaded pack.

Get conditioned. Walk, run, swim, whatever it takes to be active and fit.
But remember that the best conditioning is doing what you would actually need to do.
It’s just common sense.

For Women: Fitness

While many survival writers emphasis fitness, it somehow seems that all they write about are men and fitness, never women and fitness. Generally, in articles written for women, fitness seems to be more about having firmer thighs or a shapelier butt rather than building strength or endurance. In reality, women interested in survivalism and being physically prepared need to take specific steps in order to get ready for the demands of a crisis.

A very important aspect for women is upper body strength. This is a must have in the area of self defense, in my opinion. If a woman lacks the strength to land an effective blow, her ability to defend herself is limited. Additionally, the ability to escape and evade, or simply to travel distances with a loaded pack can be limited by a lack of upper body strength.

The easiest way for women to increase strength is to either use resistance machines or by weight training. Since women do not produce the amount of testosterone necessary for the type of hypertrophy seen in male body builders, the chance that they will wind up with a body like Arnold is highly unlikely, unless they take steroids ( a stupid thing for anyone to do) or are exercising to the extreme. They will see some increase in muscle size, but think of a result like Jillian Michaels rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Overall, an increase of up to 40% in strength is absolutely possible for women.

In my opinion, in addition to overall strength for self defense, a woman should also aim for a minimum upper body strength that will make it possible for her to do a few chin-ups or pull-ups, or be able to climb a rope if necessary.

Endurance training is another area that women should look at. In our modern society, we drive everywhere, and few people are used to walking any sort of distance. The survival minded woman should be able to walk fairly long distances, and preferably over uneven terrain with a loaded pack. Walking paths and sidewalks in the urban environment are a fine start, but do not resemble the difficult terrain that would likely need to be travelled during a bug out or escape and evasion. Train with a full pack wherever possible to build strength and to get used to the weight and balance of the pack.

There are other areas women should train towards. Speed is important, both in evasion and combat. Flexibility is also important, and often an area men neglect, giving a woman a possible advantage. There are of course lots of side benefits to better fitness: feeling better, looking better, and increased confidence.

Women should incorporate martial arts training into their fitness program as well. There are lots of martial arts styles, and each will have its particular demands that the body needs to be trained for. Additionally, sports such as parkour and obstacle running impart skills that while ensuring the highest level of fitness, will also impart skills that may one day be live savers.

Fitness, and survival fitness in particular are areas women should not shy away from. There is little to be lost except perhaps that muffin top, and much to be gained by training hard to become as strong, fast and quick as possible. Maybe even your life.

Originally posted August 17, 2011 @ MPN

Thin Veneer

No doubt that last weeks riots in Britain will have many knee jerk survivalist types pointing to those events as proof that the veneer of civilization is a thin coating over our more savage natures. It will be used as the justification for urging preppers to bigger and better weapons for protection. And on at least one blog, the hit and run killing of three men has already been touted as more ‘nanny state’ wrongheadedness, as if being armed would really have made a difference to the three men run over.

All of which is really just so much bullshit. As far as the thin veneer of civilization crap goes, there were as many acts of selflessness and honourable behavior as not. The vast majority of London’s population was NOT rioting, nor was the majority of people in other British cities affected. A small specific demographic comprised the bulk of the rioters, and the unrest was relatively quickly contained, and would not have lasted as long as it did were police not trying to be ‘sensitive’ and avoid escalating events.

As far as bigger and better weapons? How many guns can you fire at once? If you have one decent weapon per family member then short of automatic weapons, you are close to being as armed as you can be effectively. Sure, you can get the bigger clip, or the heavier caliber, but if 20 rounds hasn’t solved the problem, will 30 be enough? Better to spend less on weapons and more on getting you and your family out of densely populated areas where riots are possible.

Finally, as far as an armed populace is concerned, think about several hundred or thousands of armed looters and rioters running about the streets. What would the police casualties have been in London had the rioters been armed? How many more innocent bystanders would have died?

Of course, the gun types will tell you that an armed populace could have helped out. Sure. The truth is that armed or not, few people willingly put themselves in harms way out of altruism, regardless of Hollywood mythology to the contrary. Police and military personnel are trained to do what they do contrary to their instincts. If it was natural for all, they wouldn’t need the training.

However, if a riot does come to a neighbourhood near you, there are things you can do. One of which is be armed, whether with a baseball bat or a firearm. There are numerous reports of shopkeepers deterring looters during the los Angeles riots due to their presence. On the other hand, remember that nothing material is worth your life.

Buddy up as quickly as possibly. There are reports out of London that whole streets got together to deter rioters. If one person with a bat is a deterrent, twenty or thirty are much more so. Be aware that if you use excessive force, and the temptation to do so may be very great, you might be the one in trouble rather than the looters.

Another viable strategy is to get the hell out. Again, all things material are replaceable, the lives of you and your family are not. While it might be tempting to do the ‘manly’ thing and face up to unrest, in some situations you will serve your self and family better by getting to a place of safety.

As a long term strategy, make sure you aren’t where riots will be. Past history has shown that rioting usually begins in areas with harsh economic and social conditions. Almost anyone can find themselves in that kind of situation, and almost anyone can get out of them with the right mix of motivation and effort.

Remember that every situation is different, and thus your response needs to be geared to the particular situation in which you find yourself. Make a plan for dealing with civil disorder, with options that put the safety of you and yours as the prime objective, no matter what situation you are dealing with.

It’s just common sense.

For Women: Self Defense

It’s a common scenario in most movies. The female lead, whether tough as nails cop or helpless homemaker, is at the mercy of the physically bigger and stronger male villain. Usually, she is saved from beating, rape, or death only by the intervention of the hero, generally an equally strong male who will defeat the bad guy in a no holds barred physical confrontation. Nice in theory, but art unfortunately does not imitate life, and in reality it is likely up to the woman to save herself.

Ideally, the lady in question will be armed to the teeth. Again, the reality may be that she is not and must defend herself as best she can without weapons, or only with what comes to hand. Given the disparity of size and strength between male and female, the odds are heavily against the female winning such a contest.

While there is no guarantee, women can shift the odds in their favour. One way is by becoming fitter and stronger, about which more in an upcoming post. Another way to even the odds somewhat is by taking training in martial arts.

There are several benefits to doing this. Strength, speed, and flexibility can all be improved while training in the martial arts, although usually not enough in my opinion. I still think women must go to extra lengths to obtain the strength necessary to fight effectively.

Another benefit is to ‘untrain’ them. Whether you believe it is in a woman’s nature to be less aggressive, or it is the role society trains them to assume, it is a truism that women tend to be less forceful and less likely to react physically to threats. Martial arts training will help with that.

Finally, martial arts techniques will give a woman the training and techniques that will make fighting for her life a viable option rather than a hopeless gesture.

So, what sort of training is appropriate? First, although the sort of ‘rape-proofing’ self defense class that is usually offered to women might be an okay starting point, it should not be considered anything more than a warm up to more effective training. The unfortunate thing about many of these classes is that there is an assumption that escape or assistance is eventually available. Nor do these sort of classes advocate deadly force.

There are a lot of classic martial arts, but some will not transfer well to either life or death combat, or to the size and strength of women. Some ‘harder’ styles of Karate for example, will not work well for a woman facing an aggressive male. Other styles can take excessive time to master, have arguable effectiveness, or are perhaps too ‘sportified’ (e.g. judo) to be useful. However, rather than create a tedious list of what not too take, I’ll get right to the point.

I believe the overall best martial art for women is Krav Maga, the unarmed combat system used by the Israeli armed forces. It has emphasis on continuous motion, aggressiveness and speed. It also teaches techniques for dealing with attackers with weapons, and places some emphasis on improvised weapons. I believe the importance it places on violent action to end a confrontation as soon as possible is of most benefit to women, both psychologically and physically.

Jeet Kune Do would be a close second choice, due to its emphasis on speed and effectiveness over technique. Unfortunately, both it and Krav Maga are eclectic styles and not widely available everywhere.

In fact, a woman looking for martial arts training may have very limited options. In choosing something to learn (since almost any martial art has at least some utility), try to find one that involves full contact. Again, women are trained not to be physical, and practice in hitting and being hit will at least benefit the mental preparedness side of things.

Regardless of the martial art, look for the techniques that have application in real life combat. Even a sport like judo will teach at least one or two throws and chokes that may be useful. It is the same in any other style. Avoid the complicated, look for the simple and effective. Even boxing has something to offer, if only to teach speed and precision in punching.

Women should (at least in my opinion) try to avoid styles that have a heavy emphasis on grappling and groundwork, two areas that they will likely be at a disadvantage. Weapon heavy styles are also to be avoided, as the likelihood of you having your weapon of choice at hand when you need it most is not high. But if grappling or weapons styles are all that you can find, take them. Any training is better than none at all.

Even with the best training in the world, there is no guarantee that a woman trained in a martial art can defeat any attacker. You can be guaranteed that with training, her chances are orders of magnitude greater.

Originally posted August 07,2011 @ MPN

Watching for Storms

Well, wasn’t that an interesting week? Major drops on stocks across the world, a downgrade of the US bond rating from AAA to AA+, and the continued debt crisis in Europe. Is it the end of everything? Is the shit hitting the fan? Should we bug out now?

Not hardly. By and large, the crises gripping the financial world haven’t come home to roost quite yet, although I would guess that some are winging our way. The sheer size and inertia of the world banking system means that a lot of the crud happening now may take days, weeks or months to have an effect on Mr. and Mrs. Average Canuck.

In fact, while analysts wring their hands about the US downgrading by Standard & Poors, the ‘slack’ may already be out of the stock market and little more may happen. On the other hand, Monday may see a bloodbath in financial circles. No one really knows for certain. Not that it will cause an immediate collapse of any kind.

The problem is that it’s one more straw. Events keep loading up, and we are looking at a possible confluence of events that might cause more problems than the sum of the parts. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before in history. A little reading will teach you that this has happened before. Economic collapse plus crop failure plus Mother Nature have combined countless times in countless variations to cause hardship for the human race somewhere. We’ve always bounced back.

The problem now is that where once a disaster in one part of the world left the rest of us unaffected, that is no longer the case. Epidemics are no longer constrained by distance, economic collapse by isolation, or political unrest by indifference. In our highly globalized and interconnected world, what happens there sooner or later has an effect here.

No need to panic, but there is a need to watch out for a number of problems combining to cause one that one perfect storm of events. Keep prepping, don’t obsess over the perfect plan, just keep working at getting better prepared. As I’ve said elsewhere, don’t get so caught up polishing the handrails that you forget to launch the life boat.

Originally posted August 07, 2011 @ CPN

Get Cookin'

Recently I’ve been reading books about food. I’ve read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (reviewed below), The Food Rules by the same author, and am a good way into The End of Food by Paul Roberts. These books are examinations of how we eat, what we eat, and how our food is produced.

One of the things that has struck me through this reading is that the food industry has continuously tried to ‘add value’ to foods so that they can charge more for their product. That’s fine as far as it goes, but with the advent of fast food, microwavable meals, and all the toaster or oven ready foods out there, there has been a disturbing cultural change in our society: No-one knows how to cook!

So what does that mean for a prepper? It may well mean that having stored wheat or flour, that person might not know how to turn it into bread. They might not know how to safely prepare and cook a chicken. They might have a years worth of food, but can they do anything more than open cans?

It might not seem like the most earth shattering of problems, but let’s look at it. Sooner or later in a big enough crisis, even the most prepared prepper is going to be out of canned/prepackaged/premade food. At that point, they need to be able to convert raw foods into edible meals. Without the skills to butcher, can and cook those straight from the garden, field or forest products, how successful are they likely to be? At best, you will wind up wasting a lot of food while preparing barely palatable meals. At worst, you might starve in the midst of plenty, make someone sick with parasites, or even kill someone with food poisoning.

Not only are the nutritional aspects important, there is the very important aspect of the emotional and psychological aspects of food. We all understand the concept of comfort food and how it can be used to buoy us up in an emotional crisis. There is also the aspect of long term morale in a family or even a larger group. Eating bad food day in and day out will have a negative effect on morale, and will in turn affect your group’s cohesiveness and ability to accomplish other tasks.

Thankfully, the solution is simple. Just learn to cook. You needn’t become a Cordon Bleu chef, just a competent cook. Learn the basics of cooking baking, canning and butchering, and you’re well on your way. As you learn to master basics, you can experiment with more elaborate meals. Make a point when learning to use the same foods as those you’ve stored so that you are familiar with the ingredients you’ll have available.

There are benefits right now to doing this. You’ll likely be eating a lot less prepared and restaurant meals and more home cooked meals which can be healthier and save you money. But most importantly, you’ll have a skill that enhances the prospects of survival for yourself and others. Surviving doesn’t have to be about trying to quell the rumblings of your belly with a cold can of beans while you fight off despair, it can be about fresh bread, good meals and good morale.

It’s just common sense.

For Women: Backpacks

As I mentioned elsewhere, there is a tremendous lack of writing in the preparedness and survival field for women. The first area I’d like to discuss is packs specifically for women. Backpacks seem to form the basis of everybody’s B.O.B., but no-one looks at what might be necessary for the woman or women in your group to carry loads safely and effectively. By safety I mean without injury, and by effectiveness, I mean the ability to carry a meaningful load over distance without undue fatigue or effort.

There are a number of physical characteristics that need to be taken into account when choosing backpacks for females. Women tend to have shorter torsos, curvier hips and bust, and tend to be less broad in the shoulders, proportionally, than males.

The first thing to look at is torso length. Women’s shorter torsos can make it nearly impossible to get a good ‘fit’ on a pack that is too long, even on a highly adjustable model. Better brands of packs come in varying torso lengths, and should be sized to the length of your torso, whether male or female. If your local sporting goods store doesn’t know what you’re talking about, find a store that does, and that can help fit you.

The second issue in getting an effective woman’s pack is in the hips. Generally speaking, a woman’s hips are bell shaped, as opposed to the more cylindrical hip structure in men. A good woman’s backpack will have conforming hip-belts that allow most of the load to ride on the hips comfortably. Look for a pack that rides relatively low on the hip bones, where women are most able to bear the weight. It is hard to over-emphasis the importance of this area of fit. A heavy pack with a standard belt can leave startling bruises on the hips, as well as making the wearer too sore to continue.

Also, a proper woman’s pack will be contoured anatomically to give the best fit over the chest, making breathing easier as well.

Finally, women are narrower through the shoulders than men, and a woman trying to use a pack designed for a male will often find the shoulder straps too far apart for proper fit and load bearing. Again, a well made woman’s backpack will have shoulder straps set closer together.

Another factor to consider is internal vs. external frame backpacks. Since women tend to sway at the hips more when they walk, the overall stability of the pack on the wearer is an issue. Generally an internal frame pack tends to hug the body more, giving better balance and stability in rough terrain.

When choosing a pack, go for one that has a good amount of adjustability in both harness and in keeping your load stable, especially with packs that are not crammed full. For lighter applications, a lumbar or large fanny pack might be a good choice, as it too keeps the weight low on the hips and close to the body.

There are a variety of sizes and brands available. Gregory makes a women’s expedition pack with an 80 to 90 liter capacity (see picture above), and there are a number of multi-day packs in the 60 to 70 liter range from both Arc’teryx and Gregory. There are also a number of companies making daypacks in the 15 to 35 liter range as well as packs in 35 to 55 liter capacities specifically for women.

We all hope it will never come to it, but one day the ability to carry enough supplies and equipment to sustain you may be the difference between life and death. Having load bearing equipment that is suitable for a woman to do so might be the difference between her life and death.

Originally posted August01, 2011 @ MPN

Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma

I haven’t reviewed a book on this blog yet, but I’ve just read one that I think everyone should read. It is called The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. It is an examination, or as the book says, the natural history of four meals. Fancy words aside, the book takes a deep look at several of the ways we North Americans eat.

The first area of the book looks at processed food by way of looking at the ubiquitous role corn plays in the food system. The second and third look at factory organic and small organic, while the fourth meal concentrates on foraged and hunted food.

There are a number of things in this volume that should be of interest to those of us involved in preparedness. The first section of the book alone with its look at the lengthy and convoluted supply chains and intensive processing required to create ‘modern’ foods should be a wakeup call with regards to both food security and food quality.

Even the organic ‘factory’ farms get a good look, and while we are all told how much better organic is, you’ll find that it is again a business of a few large corporate entities that are as vulnerable as the conventional food system is to disruption, and only better for the environment in a qualified way.

The third section of the book was of the most interest to me with its look at ‘small’ organic farming. The model under examination attempts to keep outside inputs to a minimum, and seems the most sustainable of the models discussed.

The fourth and final section I found interesting to a lesser degree, but even it had some interesting points to make about the skill sets needed in foraging and hunting.

You aren’t going to find a lot of how-to’s or definitive paths to follow in this book. What you will find is material that may lead you to question how we eat now, and how we may (or may not) eat in the future. It is thought provoking material that challenges some of our basic assumptions about how we produce our food.

If all this book does is make you do something about having a more secure food supply, then it will be well worth the read.

Originally posted August 01, 2011 @ CPN