Several times, people either in jest (and some seriously) will ask if I am paranoid because I take prepping so seriously.
The answer, near as I can figure, is no, not paranoid. But I have an extremely good sense of inquiry and I like to see how pieces fit together. So should you if you’re planning to navigate the coming 10 years and do so in a “Survive and Prosper” mode.
A couple of headlines from the morning news flow should be a good starting point: Anything on North Korea and the present still-warming nuclear brinksmanship between India and Pakistan.
People forget that the Kashmir region is still some of the most contentious real estate in the world. Right up there with eastern Ukraine (which the EU wants desperately because of the energy reserves of the Denepier Basin), Gaza because of location, location, location, The DMZ between the Koreas, anywhere on the border of the “civilized world” and the NGC (new global caliphate) that now spans from West Africa to at least Pakistan and on out through Indonesia with northern territory in places like Syria and Turkey – and in fairness, Germany), and of course there are others.
Now you would think at first blush that such wars over land mass would not be much of a prepping item, but it is in three important ways.
1. Many of these places have the potential to escalate to a) wide conventional or b) theater nuclear. Recall the US and Russia had the time buffer of 20 minutes in the Cold War. In the India-Pakistan case, there is just 5-minutes. You can loose 100-million people pretty easily with a misstep. More important from a Prepping standpoint, do you have any clue what the winds aloft from that part of the world are? In other words, have you gamed out where a 50-nuke exchange over Kashmir would make landfall in the USA?
2.A second consideration, once you get past direct fallout, is to look at immediate government response. How do you game that? There are some scenarios, such as a terror attack on American nuclear plants here on the homeland, that would have roads shutting down all over the place. This would be done (ostensibly) to “contain” the suspects. As a practical matter, we know that is like blocking off one haystack and then looking for 1 to 20 needles. Caught in such restrictive movement scenarios, what is your plan to get to your “safety spot” if the roads are closed by officialdom? Where you are right now may be your bug-out place.
3.Last there is the “ripple.” I mean assuming the global economic doesn’t melt down in the next couple of weeks thanks to Deutsche Bank customers being the actual cause now of the pending financial crisis. Even if the bank had a muddle-through course at one point, they don’t have one now as customers are reported yanking funds. Bank runs are perilous things. Once they amp up, it’s hard to turn them off. Imagine a stampede just getting underway. Any number of apples held out to the herd will mere see the apples (and the person holding it) trampled. Which is where the DB mess is this morning.
Against the daily headlines, then, we have several Reality Check questions to be asking.
Do we have enough resource right now, right here, to face 5-years of uncertain future?
I know we don’t.
The Reality is that no one, except a few dozen of the Richie Rich types have laid out that kind of plan. And they won’t be sharing.
All any of us can do is look at the headlines and seek answers to questions most Americans never ask – which is why America is so horrifically unprepared.
Do the odds of a nuke exchange seem higher now?
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists maintains the Nuclear Doomsday Clock over here. As of this morning, it is “three minutes to midnight.” I would not be surprised, though, to see the clock moved up to the 2-minute warning area as global craziness propagates.
From where you are right now, is your safest move from a fallout perspective to move north, or south, from your present position if North Korea attacks the South using nukes?
Well, then, how long do you have to make that north or south decision in the event that Pakistan lobs a few into India and that triggers massive retaliation.
Bonus points: How many minutes, days, hours do you have?
Triple-Feature Bonus: Does that trigger an EMP event over a) Europe (ergo war over Ukraine as long as distractions are rolling), b) EMP to hobble the USA, or c) None of the above, it will be chemical and biological next…
This is not to say prepping can ameliorate all risks. It can’t.
But you can partially offset the risk by considering environmentals and other items like knee-jerk reactions to anticipate.
Get it right and you will sleep well. Get it wrong and you too can be a “World Leader.”
And dumber you should run for public office.
Last Days of Summer
I made some of the best chicken on the barbie last night in a long time. With the hellish days of summer about gone, I did the slow-cook routine. Took an hour and fifteen minutes, but the result was melt in your mouth chicken hindquarters.
One of these days I need to sit down and write The Carnivore’s Bible: The art of tender meat.
I LOVE protein snacks but the way you get there is using a couple of the simple rules I’ve found over time.
Some meats like to be seared like hell, then slow cooked but only until medium – anymore and they go shoe leather.
Others like to be slow roasted (or braised) long enough for connective tissue to break down. Pot roast is a great example..you can’t make a good one from scratch in an hour no matter what kind of pressure cooker you use. It’s all a matter of time and heat, both gently applied with a good order of persistence.
The secret to any poultry, which everyone know (or should) is to soak in a good brine of saltwater for at least overnight in the fridge.
Then cook on a very slow BBQ until the last half-hour and then slather sauces on top, continuing to cook slowly until the sauce stops being runny, and then flip and do your final “saucing” on the un-basted side.
Saucing yourself a bit is acceptable, too.
Last days of summer, by weather not calendar, are coming, so it’s time to really focus on top quality BBQ’ing so the joys of good taste will drive you to next season’s first lighting.
OK, enough… go have a great weekend and remember: Weekends are when we get to
“work for our own account” – not The Man, so don’t waste it!
Write when you get rich, too…
KFC CHICKEN RECIPE https://youtu.be/kuV06VZepyQ
I’d rather use my mom’s old recipe – she couldn’t cook, I can’t either but this seems to work . . .
Get pan hot enough to ‘bounce water’.
Mix flour with salt and garlic powder to taste.
Break eggs, stir same.
Wet chicken parts with egg, drench in flour mixture.
Cook until done, turn over at least once.
Of course it helps that I’m not ‘particular’ about food. Ha! And I doubt that in a WWIII situation anyone else will be!
“Several times, people either in jest (and some seriously) will ask if I am paranoid because I take prepping so seriously.
The answer, near as I can figure, is no, not paranoid.”
God I can relate to that one.. years ago.. I went through a really bad time.. food was non existent there wasn’t food stamps as we know them.. times were tough..
I always made sure we had at least a months worth of food in the cupboard.. everyone teased me.. my wife teased me..the why do you feel you have to have it..
then what around two thousand.. the company that my wife worked for decided to cut out all the higher earning employee’s.. she had been there for decades always faithful.. she was without a job she was and is the sole wage earner for our home.. downsized..
it was horrific.. of course everyone thinks.. oh you have unemployment.. nope only if the company wants to pay it.. you are not entitled to unemployment..
food stamps.. oops once again.. nope.. we own our home had a car that was less than ten years old.. we could sell that and live off of the proceeds.. the guy at job service said I hate to say this but from the age of fifty to sixty five your in a window where your unemployable.. one she hasn’t had any other jobs than the one she had.. she was a high wage earner.. lesser jobs realize you will be looking for a higher income.. and you have no other job skills than the one you have.. it was horrific.. she was strong.. showed her strength but when she thought no one was around you would see her break down into tears.. we weren’t able to get any benefits from any of these give away programs..
Luckily I had enough in savings to get us by barely and I had prepped.. we lived on the food that we had in the cupboards.. it saved us.. needless to say.. my wife now assists me with my obsession..
you never know..
On another note.. old people that experienced the last depression and its horrors always had food stores.. my parents experienced it.. when they sold out.. I lived there my whole life and didn’t have a clue they had what they had as they hauled it out ..
for the young kids today.. most of those that experienced the depression are gone.. the kids today haven’t had to experience any of it.. its just wise to have some set aside..
That was an excellent anecdotal story, anon. I very much can relate and appreciate that I am in good company when it comes to preparing for our personal worsts. Thank you.
thanks.. that was one hard year.. the first time around sucked big time.. the second sucked as much.. but it wasn’t as hard.. the first time I would gather grain dropped by farmers and beat it in an old iron pan with a rock for a crude gruel.. the second time it was.. well go to the shelf and pick something out.. the tough part on the second run.. was I expected it to be instantaneous.. when tough times hit.. it doesn’t.. it comes slow.. kind of like gas going up.. goes up till it hurts then goes down to just above where it was when they went up.. sea saw method.. the first time around the heat was off it was winter no winter clothes we would open the hall way door so the heat from the apartment hallway would enter.. the second time.. I had a stock pile of coal.. to put in the coal furnace for winter heat.. made my own beer.. etc.. so skills learned.. cheese making beer making etc etc.. skills to get you by give you the few things .. trade milk with a farmer for finished cheese and eggs.. second time was way easier.. but bills still come in.. electricity house payment.. in the mormon church they say to have six months.. that is wrong you should have at least a year maybe two.. they say six weeks of food.. we had over a years worth on the shelf.. it barely got us by.. so pay off your home.. learn every skill you can.. Now my wife helps me with this.. along with Gaye and her site.. http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/
Interesting thing.. my niece got hit with a tornado in tenn.. she thought.. fema would help.. I told her don’t expect it.. then a flood hit her wiping out what was left.. in the end.. her family asked for emergency help.. what happened was they heard stories about how wealthy people in her community were getting nice size grants and loans to help them relocate.. they weren’t wealthy.. so the grant they got was twenty dollars for relocation etc.. put it in perspective as to what you could expect god forbid the bad happened and you ended up on the worst end of the stick….
speaking of prepping.. I am amazed that no one has brought up the recent events with the USA and china and russia.. and just how close we are to having to use those stores.. also.. its right in the timeline for my 2017 prediction.. if its the 15th – 30th of March.. then I can say.. Nailed it.( but to be fair I am giving it till august ) . I sure hope and pray that everyone will be teasing me that I am an idiot to think such an event could happen..
the reason the fifteenth for almost seven years. I would wake up in a cold sweat from a bad dream right at 3:15..since I take great stores in dreams..
Brines/Marinades
Lemons, Limes, barbecue dry rub.
Sake, Marin, sweet white miso paste, ginger, pineapple slices inserted into chicken.
Perfect Margarita
Valencia Oranges, lemons, limes, agave nectar, high end tequila, ( Don Eduardo)
You make an excellent case again that with our present world population nothing, we complain about, can be fixed. Prepping will NOT help 99.99%
We may or may not be able to help the 99.99%, but it’s a dead certainty that if we don’t help ourselves first, we’ll be part of the problem and totally useless to anyone else at all.
Yes, prepping WILL help because many more scenarios always leave survivors. Preppers are the ‘Mothers’ to kick-start what comes after.
IMHO a kamado makes the best BBQ. I run mine low & slow at 225 for fall-off-the-bone ribs.
BTW Amazon has a WiFi temperature probe so you don’t have to keep lifting the lid.
Buy the best and cry only once, Komodo Kamado…in my dreams ;)
The opposite of prepping is to take your life, health, and well-being, and that of your family, and blindly entrust it to an anonymous stranger who may, or may not, arrive after a personal or regional disaster, in time to save you and yours. I’ve never understood either the principle or the ill-logic (sic.)
I would say one should prep for those events most likely to occur while also taking into the account the cost. For example, most of us drive every day. A spare tire is pretty cheap. For small money you can buy a spare and remove the risk of being stranded due to a flat.
Personally, I think for most of us our greatest exposure to risk is due to weather events and loss of power. That’s what we see the most of. Prep for that – extra cash (cash is always king!), batteries, lights, backup power, coolers, first aid, food, water, filtration, sanitary needs, simple communications, cooking, heating, extra blankets, etc.
Once that is done move to the more remote risks which are more expensive and harder to prep for.
Will this all effect the world world? WTSHIF….I’m in New Zealand. Should we be prepping here as well? Do you think it’s still wise to keep money in the bank?
Why is it that the term “Our Nation” has degenerated into “the homeland”?
Words have power.
Just fired up the smoker this weekend. Whole chicken, turkey legs for red beans and rice, ribs were the best we’ve done. Experimenting with vegan things, we found someone who smoked tomatoes, onions, garlic an zucchini. All for a tomato soup. Can’t wait to try it! Just the smoked tomatoes were fantastic!
Oh, and bring on the bombs. F**d up world we have, eh?