When comes to prepping, people write all kinds of hogwash on the net. Sure, I could sight-in a Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle it I had to. Or, I’d call my friend Steve who teaches the fine art of “reaching out and touching” when he’s not senior-level IT’ing.
On the other hand, people don’t put a lot of emphasis on the “real risks” we all take for-granted. Here, gloves for all occasions are a must.
Just last weekend, I failed to prep correctly and sure as hell, the problem came back to bite me…literally.
The power was down on one side of our AC to the shop building. That meant checking the main panel breakers because the ones in the shop at the solar power center all checked fine.
I went out, forgetting momentarily that a nest of wasps (yellow) had moved into the conduit area on the underside of the main panel. As soon as I opened the panel, a cloud of angry yellow buzzers came after me. Suddenly, like an electric shock, here comes the pain wave from my right hand. “Damn!” And 200 more cuss words unfit for print.
What had gone wrong?
Three things: I didn’t put on a loose-fitting shirt and a jacket over. Then, I failed to put on the camo insect helmets we each have. But, the worst of it was no gloves.
“George, keep moving, there’s a cloud of them behind you…”
Elaine and Zeus the Cat were 30-feet away. For her to see them?
By now, I was moving pretty good. A list of actions followed in quick succession: First a good washing of the finger (ring finger right hand) and 3-minute soak in ammonia. Then, a change-up to apple cider vinegar…and this was quicly followed by 50 MG of Benadryl. Since I’m taking doxycycline for the post-operative eye, no chance of infection. A check with the USB microscope? No stinger. An ice pack for half an hour and good to go (though the Benadryl took the “edge off” the rest of the day.
I was (hopefully using past tense) Stupid. Because right there in the shop was the “ounce of prevention” I chintzed on.
I’m showing you two types of gloves here – both of which are necessary for solid prepping as I see it.
The first are leather working and canvas backs. We bought a case of these at Harbor Freight years go….and we’re still not out of ’em yet. The case was 20 or 25-pairs. We’re now down to the last 3-4 pairs- taken 5-years. You can still get them, too. See here to order. They come in a 5-pack for $8-bucks and you can’t beat that with a stick.
Under them in the picture are over-the-elbow welding gloves. These come up a good-ways on your biceps. They are more pricey ( see NUZAMAS 1 Pair of Welding Gloves, 58cm/ 23-Inch Length Shoulder Split Cowhide, Foam Lined, EXTAR LONG For Mig, Tig Welders, BBQ, Gardening, Camping, Stove, Fireplace for $20-bucks a pair at the ‘Zon). But, there are many things you can do with them on (reaching into a beehive with no smoke, for example) that may be suicidal done any other way.
Billions of Nitryl Gloves, Too
We usually have 2-4 boxes of 100 pairs of the ubiquitous blue nitryl gloves around. For food prep, Elaine’s taken to the nearly-clear – latex but un-powdered – gloves in the kitchen.
On the electronics bench, there’s always a fresh box of what?
Try Venom Black Nitrile Exam Gloves, PF, LF, XLarge, 90/Box for $20 bucks which pencils to 0.44 cents a pair. There are 100 in boxes of the smaller sizes.
These are amazing for anything electrical or where you need clean (as in no fingerprints) to be the outcome. Like when you’re putting up sheet glass. Gives you better holding power, too.
Prepping Glove Review
Leather, Canvas-backed: Anything outdoors. Working in the garden. Also in the shop if there may be seasonal visitors like scorps and black “widders.” Buy a ton of ’em. Give ’em out to grandkids. Show them how shovels work and how with gloves on, you get fewer blisters.
Open-finger Gloves: Easy! Take a pair of the leather/canvas gloves and lop off 2-inches from the end of each finger. Note to mindless millennials: Remove your hand, first.
Welding Gloves: Anything right on put to a pole cat can be handled with welding gloves on. Extra long 23″ gauntlets prevent your arm from being ripped off. Good to where when shoving a pill into kitty or poochie. Panama Bates used one for feeding hawks pieces of chicken. Place on the back of glove and hold still. Wear something on your neck and eye protection. (Otherwise our legal dept. will give us the bird!)
Nitrile and Nitryl: How do I love these? Let me count the ways: Keeps lead off hands when cobbling up electronics. Provides some minimal shock protection but we keep one hand in the pocket and clean Sketchers keep the volts in the equipment, too. Machining, putting glue and paint on anything in the shop. Keeps pointing finger clean when using spray paint. You won’t pick up diseases while skinning wild game. Picking up that dead coon or possum is less likely to transmit anything. Mixing paint. And on and on…
Kitchen Gloves: Yeah, sure, you like Michael Ninn films, but seriously? Check the kitchen gloves they use on the inside before you buy a million of them. I bought some dollar store specials long ago. I was deathly allergic to the flocking and powder. After 5 minutes of use my fists were bigger and Mohamed Ali’s hands. I was flocked.
Kevlar Cutting Gloves: If you live in the wild, or seriously plan to, be sure and get some cut-resistance Kevlar or steel mesh gloves. How do you think those guys on fishing boats come back with their hands intact (most of the time, anyway)? Fisheries Supply or the ‘Zon, both Seattle institutions.
A $9-dollar alternative? Cut Resistant Gloves / Cut Gloves – Cutting Gloves for Pumpkin Carving, Wood Carving, Meat Cutting and Oyster Shucking – Cut Proof Gloves with Level 5 Protection (Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large)
Baseball Gloves: If your bug-out plans end in Havana or San Juan (Puerto Rico) then maybe. Otherwise leave these home. Keep the bat handy, though. Got a lot of cavepersons through, lol.
Game Gloves (electronic): If you’re prepping, be serious. No electronics that doesn’t serve a grid-hard-down purpose. Finding the hidden door to Level 15 won’t fill the stomach.
Boxing Gloves: Hell no. A .22 round is much lighter and is faster than any left-right combination ever.
Inflatable Gloves: Well, these kind of look like a glove if you’re half a bottle into it: Inflatable- plastic hand & wrist air splint- 32 in. – 1 ea. for $18-bucks.
Mittens: We always like mittens over fingered-gloves for really cold weather. When all the digits are in a mitten, then synergistically keep each other warm. Mittens to go at 5-below! (Burma shave)
And last, but not least: In order to ensure you will continue to have meat on the table, archery gloves and a wrist-guard.
Write when you get rich,
George@ure.net
Hey George, I like to use a calf skin glove, I buy them small the first time you put a new pair on is a little tuff but once you stretch them out they are like a second skin it makes working with small parts much easier the other thing I do after stretching is superglue the seams(after you take them off) makes them last about 3 times as long. Also when buying leather gloves you want to make sure the seam on the index finger is internal, if it is external the glove will wear out faster.
Great points – and justifies veal picatta, lol
There is only one problem with that, I have yet to find any place west of the Miss. that knows what good veal is! The last I had still had whip marks on it!
Gloves.. first here is where I get a lot of my stuff.. I would go down and buy my 4 by 4’s at the regular medical supply.. about 13 dollars plus shipping for a box of oh twenty lets say.. https://www.medicalsupplydepot.com/Wound-Care-Products-1/Gauze-Sponges-2/SORB-IT-Drain-and-I-V-Sponges.html
So.. I thought heck why not get them another way..
https://www.shopmedvet.com/product/gauze-sterile-4×4-12ply-2-s-25pk-bx-412STRL
https://www.shopmedvet.com/category/Nitrile-Gloves
they offered free shipping at that time for any orders over I think 25 dollars.. so I ordered some gloves face masks and about twelve dollars worth of 4 by 4’s… what seemed like lightning speed the shipment arrived.. in my mind I seen a small box this huge box arrived.. I thought what in the heck could be in this.. I hesitantly opened it thinking something might just jump out since it was big enough for me to fit in.. and what do I see.. a life time supply of 4 by 4’s and gloves and masks.. the difference between buying supplies for human use and animal use. the same exact product..
I was amazed my wife thought I was nuts even though I told her I had to order thirty dollars worth of stuff to keep from paying shipping LOL…
so the price of one box of gloves could have been three box’s..
I also have given some thought to the bug out camper.. something I think is just crazy.. why a camper.. where you going to go.. etc..
then I thought of a guy I knew that was one of the brains up at B D ( the place the builds the stuff that should scare the hell out of everyone) out east.. he had contacted me and we ended up becoming friends.. anyway.. he use to razz me about my solar power because I bought ours when it was ten dollars a watt..( now you can put up a system for under a dollar a watt bargain at anyones level and if I can do it as a bottom feeder.. you sure the heck can..the same thing with AED’s I now have two.. wish batteries were cheaper though LOL) anyway.. he thought I was nuts.. we would chit chat on various subjects he thought that I was nuts for wanting to keep the furnace on in a storm power outage.. He would brag about this beautiful setup that he had on his place a nice backup generator that auto kicks in when the power was out.. etc.. lives in a gated community with their own patrols really safe.. then a hurricane hit.. his generator kicked on and he had juice.. he bragged to me at its efficiency.. LOL LOL LOL ( smart ass me said thats great) then a couple weeks in.. he ran out of fuel.. his used fuel not natural gas.. ( they keep the gas lines open in a catastrophic event) he thought what the heck he would run down and get some only to discover that all the gas pumps work on what.. electricity LOL no longer are there the ones like we had when I was a kid that you hand pumped up the fuel.. and he like everyone else was scampering.. he called me said he apologized for razzing me.. it was almost a hundred and twenty degrees in his house they were cooking..
so the camper.. average weight without any of the stuff you would put in is about three ton’s.. I can tell you from experience.. ( one of my hats was material handling..) I use to pull pallets of six ton’s.. you have to push off with both feet at the same time.. gentle pull to get it moving once it is moving you can continue on.. I pushed with one foot first once and jerked.. sprained my Achilles tendon.. ouch swelled up huge like a soft ball at the back of my foot hurt.. well lets not go there.. so remember this when you and the Mrs have to pull this thing.. why would you have to pull it you may inquire..
the most logical way to take down the USA is by a series of EMP’s like it or not the greed and stupidity of the power companies sets us up for that.. if they would be smart our country could be extremely secure instead they want profits and control.. they could have both if they would just think out of that stupid box they are stuck in.. ( oops sorry a rant ) so a few placed blasts knock out the majority of the usa. simple clean and leaves the countries land available for producing food and goods..
this one is being real lenient
the national figures done by a report for nasa is a lot bleaker.. https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/54229/death-rate-after-emp
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Catastrophic-Effect-of-an-EMP-Attack-or-Severe-Solar-Storm-5-13.pdf
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/DOE%20EMP%20Resilience%20Action%20Plan%20January%202017.pdf
there is a reason why communities were made to purchase emergency mobile crematoriums ..
so once it happened.. then let it set.. best time during the winter or close to winter.. then take over the country in spring in time for harvest..
on average a pickup will get if really good fifteen miles per gallon.. so one tank full is how far you can travel with a camper.. ( that remote bugout hideaway gets further and further in the back grounds)
cities would be chaos at best.. just look at what goes on during a riot now amplify that by a thousand..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th8ptZkp-cQ
live in a nice neighborhood affluent..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfbWsjeePKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYZcaYx7TgI
consider the us..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nGYkEBDjX8
these kids start out at a quarter million and a quarter million is poverty level.. sad..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6dODE0khUw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG0_KiM9Mv8
the struggles of traveling wagon trains comes to mind.. just follow the mormon passage to utah .. it is an eye opener.. and now imagine you have a camper..
my thought is rather bug in.. you have a great piece of property in the outback.. hotter than I would ever like but hey each to their own.. what you need is a source of water.. food.. ( stay away from GMO ) and power.. you already have solar.. ground it make sure your roof it metal and ground that in the event of an emp over head and a auto cut off if there is a surge in the line votage coming in.. then dig your self a nice sized green house.. and shades for the hot summer sun.. put a beehive in an adjacent room with one opening towards the top so that bees will have to enter or exit above your head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRqE_v58Sd4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W25lWtHOHWA
your set..
Now if a person is in a city and will need to escape the ghettos.. then..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_NnY_yYwuc
https://www.bubbletent.us/product/outdoor-inflatable-tent-for-advertising/
https://www.google.com/search?q=inflatable+dome+tents&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS796US796&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=yD8spfijSdxU5M%253A%252CYxanG2_yqx8B4M%252C_&usg=AFrqEzdoDOdXyBFBwJ4CRM_IrH51JUxw3A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxtPrcj-XcAhUN84MKHV9MA-wQ9QEwBHoECAEQDA#imgrc=yD8spfijSdxU5M:
if you want some luxury.. and willing to push or pull… this one you could get twenty miles a day out of..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN–EToYVDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QRRc3A76gs
this one is my favorite.. you can get one fabricated fairly easy.. and it would be pretty much undetectable like a high hide..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkW7HZYLnmY
something more on the line for a bottom feeder..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiejAhol4Ps
those are just my opinions.. a camper is not a wise decision unless things stay the way they are.. and the dollar stays stable and still usable..
For cold weather, I used an Alpaca glove liner under waterproof gore-tex gloves. Worked very well especially when playing with the kids in the snow & during snowball fights. I could throw snow balls like a machine gun or like a mortor when they hid behind the car.
George, I hate gloves, but sometimes they are absolutely necessary. Good ideas and good article. Sorry about the wasps. You may want to remove them at night, suitably dressed.
Since you’re the guru regarding towers and high voltage, perhaps you might mention the ideal grounding of metal roofs for lightning/EMP protection. Also, I have an unused(as yet) 40+ foot tower from a previous owner who was a HAM radio operator. It’s up there and probably acts as a lightning rod. I’m wondering how to put cameras on it without them being destroyed by lightning strikes. The same thoughts apply to anyone that plants a utility pole in the ground to mount cameras, since it’s high and pointed. I’d hope that continuous metal from above the camera(s) to ground would be enough, but I may be missing something. I can run camera wires in EMT and a partial metal camera enclosure at the end. Any other ideas? Obviously, there would be a DVR on the inside and always on.
Regarding a camper: If you’re planning a class B rig(my personal preference), the guts should be removable as a unit so the rig can be used as a regular van for transportation. My second preference is the truck camper, if your pickup truck is in good enough shape for long distances. I don’t like class A rigs since their maintenance/upkeep and parking/insurance/registration costs exceed their utility, IMHO.
When I think ‘hand protection’ the thing that also comes to mind is ‘eye protection’, as in if you are doing something, you best be able to SEE what you are doing.
(As a child I would get razzed for wearing glasses – however . . .)
A good pair of sturdy glasses should be able to handle ‘garden variety’ activities – but to be safe though expensive prescription eye protection can be got. My preference is a face shield – worn over the glasses – as I guess I am vain.
If it indeed does crash here, protective gear may get hard to find. One consideration may be dirt bike body armor if the social situation gets out of hand- (Think ration lines at the grocery or being swept up in one of those “protest demonstrations”). Some sort of hard hat or a full face motorcycle helmet to protect one’s noggin could actually save your life. If you take a hard hit in your thought-box, you are going to be seriously impaired for any other activities. Upper body cycle armor over or under your clothing could save a few broken ribs or a spinal fracture from making you totally dependent even if it were only a few weeks or months. Just a few thoughts from an old guy that knows how much longer it takes to heal at this age.