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

'Net Loss

In the news today, there was an article about some 20 year old dying from a blood clot that formed after he had been sitting in the same position playing X-box for hours on end. I thought it was an interesting way to die, if really pathetic. I immediately leapt onto my Facebook page to make sure all my friends knew about it. Ditto for MySpace and LiveJournal….

Except that I didn’t, because I don’t belong to those social networking sites. Aside from the blogging I do here, and a presence on a few discussion boards, I don’t use social media. I don’t have a YouTube channel, and I don’t want one. Personally, I think they are detrimental to being properly prepared.

Overall, I think that many aspects of social media and the internet as a whole are negatives when it comes to preparedness. I agree that the net is an excellent way to meet other preppers and share ideas, but at some point it becomes too much of a good thing. If you wanted to, you could spend your entire day surfing survival sites. A dozen different web pages will teach you how to make fire, the best B.O.B. to build, and a thousand other things.

Unfortunately, you’re sitting there reading about it and not doing it. For far too many people, reading and talking takes the place of actually getting things done toward achieving a certain level of preparedness. Worse yet, while they might well read articles about how important it is to be physically prepared, they are sitting in front of a computer screen instead of being active and getting fit.

We’ve become a culture of observers and not doers. We have come to believe that answering our e-mail is equivalent to accomplishing a task like growing a garden or building a shed. Reading about gardening or woodworking is as far away from actually practicing those skills as you can get.

It is likely that you have all the info you need, and that more surfing, discussion boards, and downloading will just get you more of what you’ve already got. Now you need to take that information and put it too use: grow a garden, build a chair, learn to weld, or whatever else makes your socks roll up and down. Turn your damned computer off and get out there. The more time you waste here means less time to practice and prepare.

The other aspect of social media and the web is illustrated by the picture that heads this article. While it’s great to find others into survivalism and prepping, it’s unlikely that they live next door or even in your town. In a major crisis, it is the people living across the alley, next door, or down the block that you really need to know, not some faceless net friend. Contacts and your social network in real life are the ones that will be there to see you through, not all the people you ‘friended’ on Facebook.


It’s just common sense

A Matter of Degree

Another African nation is in the news lately. Somalia is enduring what has been called the worst famine in a generation, and millions are at risk. Drought is the primary cause, although there are contributing factors. There is little likelihood that sufficient aid will reach those in need quickly enough and in sufficient quantity to save many.

What relevance is this to us in affluent North America, you may ask. After all, what do we have in common with a war torn impoverished country in perpetually crisis ridden Africa? As it turns out, we have plenty. We just aren’t seeing the extremes….yet.

First up is climate change. I really don’t care if you think it is anthropogenic or a natural turn of earth’s climate. Perhaps it is both. The undeniable fact is that unless you are deliberately obtuse, we are facing changes in climate. A quick example is the fact that previously, you might see two or three +20C nights on the prairies, now there are roughly 20 per year, which means there is that much more energy for violent thunderstorms and other extreme weather events.

We have seen two very difficult, wet spring planting seasons on the prairies, and now we are gripped in a heat wave. Much of the southern USA is in a long and extreme drought. While we haven’t seen extreme crop failures as yet, growing conditions are changing, which bring new challenges to farmers.

Somalis are without significant government aid on any level. Here in North America, we have seen the inadequacy of resources available to deal with Katrina, and elsewhere with New Zealand and Japan. Compounding that, we are seeing governments at many levels trimming services to balance budgets which may leave what services there are stretched too thin too be of any real use.

So far, we don’t have the civil wars that plague Somalia. That could change if and when conditions worsen, either here or in the US. There is already a de facto movement to create a group of US states that would be a ‘redoubt’ against hard times, and a half serious idea has been floated to have counties of California secede and create a new state (one that incidentally would vote overwhelmingly Republican, but I digress). I doubt any American government will allow the first, and the second civil war would be on. Note also that warfare doesn’t need to involve governments. The escalation of gang warfare in many large cities can be as dangerous as any regular war.

Inflation is a problem in Somalia. Food prices have risen 270 percent in a short time. Worldwide, food prices have already been on the rise, and if we have a financial event of the right magnitude, it might well spark an inflationary spiral in the more developed nations.

Not that I’m saying that we have the trials that the Somalis are facing, far from it. I just want to point out that what they have in the extreme, we already possess the seeds of in some small way, and while things are pretty dang good over all, things can go from good to bad in a short period of time.

Take a minute to be thankful we live in a rich country that provides us the opportunity to put back supplies and equipment for hard times. Then get busy doing it.

We aren’t immune.

Originally posted July 24, 2011 @ CPN

Review: Dual Survival Season 2

The bloom is off of the rose. Season 2 of Dual Survival has run its course, and I have to say, while I sort of liked the first season for various reasons, the second leaves me wondering if I can somehow get the time back I have spent watching it.

The disillusionment started right off of the bat in the first episode. For some reason, they decided it was a good idea to demonstrate how to cauterize a wound using black powder. So Dave Canterbury slashed his own arm, and Cody Lundin dumped on the powder and lit it off. It did cauterize the wound, although I wonder if the procedure caused more additional trauma from burning than it was worth.

Furthermore, the slash was not of a severity that couldn’t be treated with direct pressure and an improvised wound dressing. Not that I am advocating Canterbury maim himself for television, but I am concerned that they may leave the impression that cauterization is the treatment of choice for a wound of such limited severity. On top of which, it ticks me off that in none of their scenarios (in which they play the part of the typical persons) does anyone ever carry a first aid kit. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some CELOX coagulant in a first aid kit? On the off chance you don’t happen to be a black powder hunter with powder horn at the ready?

Overall, the series continues the well-worn format of hypothetical situations used by almost every survival show out there. The pair proceeds through a variety of situations, but there is little of novelty or interest in them. What originally promised to be differing viewpoints of how to tackle a survival problem seems to have degenerated by the last episode of the season to two cranky old men bickering. The differences that arise seem to have little to do with their varying styles and more to do with the personalities involved.

Canterbury is very much the push-on, hard charger type of personality whereas Lundin is innately cautious. I believe that over two seasons, the difference in personalities is causing friction, and indeed, some of the talk-to-camera asides are far less respectful and civil than in the first season.

The difference in style is wearing to the viewer as well. Watching Canterbury make a high risk descent down a steep valley had me half cringing and half hoping he would fall a punishment for his bull-headedness. Frankly, I can do with a little less testosterone and a little more common sense and information.

Lundin’s insistence on bare feet and shorts is becoming similarly annoying. He might get away with this behavior in his home turf in the American southwest, but it strikes the viewer as pig-headed stupidity as he gets his legs and feet damaged in multiple shows in varying terrains. If bare footedness was such an advantage, shoes would not have been invented over 5,000 years ago.

There isn’t a lot of new information in the second season. Follow rivers downstream to find civilization, stay dry, and stay hydrated and so on. Lots of the basics any show of this type has presented, and very few new concepts or ideas.

While I felt the show was, overall, worth watching in the first season, I can’t make the same recommendation for the second season. I really feel that if you took the twelve hours watching this show a would take and instead spent twelve hours practicing any survival skill at all, or even spent it organizing your preps, it would be time far better utilized.

Unfortunately, the show seems to have been renewed for a third season, so I’ll be watching at least twelve more hours of it.

Originally posted July 24. 2011 @ MPN