I’m not prominent in the prepper community, my fan and this blog receive very little traffic and exposure because I don’t post a lot…I’m busy actually living the simple, prepper homestead life. I don’t always have time to write a post a day (or more) or share all the great information floating around out there, which is why I automated some of that both in the footer of this site, and as a stream of posts that automatically get posted on the fan page. I’m also not the typical prepper, I’m not a huge fan of guns, I don’t think that everything in this country needs to be simplified down to the black-and-white ‘individual liberty’ litmus test, and I believe that patriotism and the American Spirit should include a base level of dignity for the least among us (i.e. free preventative healthcare, etc.). I’m also not a Christian. These truths about me doesn’t tend to engender me to the prepper community at large, and I’m alright with that. If you can’t get passed any of your prejudices to recognize a fellow human being, that says way more about you, and lets me know you’re probably not someone with whom I really want to hang out.

So I’m not well known in the prepper community, and I’m not spending all my time on prepper-based sites, forums, etc., so I don’t get to see a lot of the negative stuff said about and too its members…until I started reading the comments on the various Facebook pages that share my article link. I was honestly stunned. I know there is plenty of back and forth between preppers and “nons” because each side views the other as making the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons regarding this whole “thing”. Plenty of conservative mud-slinging at the government, plenty of liberal mud-slinging at the gun-nuts. What really struck me the most besides how quickly some of the threads denigrated into name calling and bullying, was the amount of times commenters voiced their “disappointment” with the page admin posting the link, and how more “fact checking” was needed to stop this spread of misinformation. All kind of accusations followed, most of which weren’t actually ever said, implied, or written in the article or my original post on the Facebook page.

My fan page is run by me, just me. I post things that I believe are important. I don’t do exhaustive “fact-checking” on everything shared, I’m not a journalist, or media outlet. I usually do a cursory check as well as read the article I’m linking to see if it’s something with which I even agree. In this case, the article was accurate in everything it contained, the EPA does want to phase out the older wood stoves, and that does mean some unnecessary hardships for most of the people who heat with wood. The detractors were almost without fail liberals knee-jerking against dissension from the holy EPA, that’s the handy thing about public profile information, you can kind of tell where folks arr coming from…not always, but in this case, I’m pretty sure I’m more accurate than not.

What wasn’t talked about in the article, nor on the EPA information site for the program was that many building codes are informed by EPA regulation. That means the EPA doesn’t have to go door to door checking your wood stove, as soon as your house needs a code inspection (adding an addition, deck, selling it, etc.) it’ll be discovered and you’ll have to upgrade to keep your house “in code”. There is no mention of “grandfathering” older stoves. Also, you aren’t allowed to resell your old stove to help offset the cost of the new one. Sure, you may qualify for a tax break for the green improvement, and that’s a good thing, but now you have to scrap your old one, which seems wasteful to me.

What are your thoughts?

When helping these friends work on their food storage plans, we’ve usually ended relying more on commodity-style foods to avoid gluten-containing ingredients in entree-based kits. That means ditching the buckets red wheat, and opting instead for amaranth and oats, and also including more canned home-cooked entrees to ensure no gluten sneaks in. The plus side to going canning route is the significant drop in expense to assemble a prepper pantry over the course of six months to a year instead of shelling out more money for a huge kit.

Don’t get me wrong, for some folks, the kits are the perfect choice, they were for my family when we moved to our current location a couple of years ago because we have didn’t our productive gardens yet. That brings up the final component to their gluten-free prepper lifestyle, the fresh produce from their own gardens. I can stress enough about how vital the nutrition from fresh produce is for your body, especially during the stressful times during and the recovery from a t-plus event.

For those that don’t like to cook or aren’t adventurous enough to (wait, you’re a prepper and not adventurous enough to try cooking?) then you can find gluten-free #10 can food storage for various vendors, but I don’t think they are manufactured in a gluten-free facility, something which many celiac disease sufferers need because they’re just that sensitive to it.

I did find one place, an affiliate of the Prepper Guide since the start that actually does make gluten free food storage in a gluten-free facility:

Gluten-free Food Storage

That same story theme across the years has just gotten played out, but the deal was really sealed when I say Alex Jones for what he has really become, a loud-mouthed, vitriolic ass-hat who is concerned with nothing other than his own self interests. He used to promote a war against tyranny, now he acts like a tyrant; an immature one who is so scared of being proven wrong or having to back track on a position that he just shouts over anyone who disagrees.

The whole point of that interview was to give Alex a chance to have a sensible dialog with Piers Morgan, and it would have been the perfect opportunity to nail Mr Morgan with some tough questions, and Alex tried a tiny bit of that. That little effort at a journalistic dialog was lost in the noise and spit as Alex delivered syllable after syllable of less and less on-target information bordering on gibberish. He knows what “his” audience expects of him, and his megalomania self-induced cult-of-personality serving ego just couldn’t let that go long enough to become palatable to Piers Morgan’s audience, which would have been the really smart thing to do if Alex was at all concerned with ‘waking up’ more Americans.

Ranting at ones fans about all the things upon which you all agree is not as effective as tapping new audiences and introducing your message in a digestible format. I know my opinion matters little to Mr Jones or Mr Morgan, and it will have zero impact on Alex’s behavior or market share, but maybe, just maybe you, the one reading the post, will ask yourself why you listen to the people you do and how much of an impact their style of message delivery has on you and how you conduct your interactions with others.

I for one recognize the great importance of speaking with respect to those who want to understand what I’m doing and why I think and act the way I do. Even is they disagree with me, I can at least show that they’re talking to individual capable of courtesy and dignity despite our disagreements. I just think Alex Jones has become irrational from his unchecked ego, and will now end up hurting the truth movement, which by extension will end up hurting the prepper movement. What do you think?

I just read through this week’s edition of the APN newsletter. Something struck me as a stupid contradiction in it, which I thought I’d share. First, let me just say, I love what the APN is doing, and how they’ve managed to maintain most of the sanity through some rapid growth without letting the nut jobs, which usually end up polluting something like that, take over. I always feel the need to put up disclaimers whenever I voice my opinion because I find that most people only really support freedom of speech until is pushes them out of their comfort zone, then it’s evil, bad, in poor taste, I mean, my gosh, think of the children! You get the point.

A recipes for what I can only describe as deep-fried dough, was featured, including the advice of using peanut or vegetable oil to fry dollops of this dough. Now, I know it didn’t specifically state that this was for a SHTF scenario, but I think many people will probably think that whatever recipes are featured as something to eat, when on an APN resource, will probably assume that it’s alright to eat from storage food in a t-plus event. I know there will be plenty of people who disagree, but seriously, I’ve seen how most people act during an extended loss of power and other such scenario, and people can act really dumb. I guess the dislike of seeing fried dough recipes on a site dedicated to prepping (or it’s newsletter), stems from seeing so many major food storage kits come with hot chocolate drink powder and call it some kind of comfort. I don’t know of any rational prepper who seeks comfort in hot chocolate in their everyday lives, and thus would equate having some WTSHTF as a calming influence.

The contradiction comes two panels down, featuring the ‘infographic of the week’ which discusses healthy food, and features plenty of veg, a bit of actual chocolate, and other honestly healthy foods. These are the foods one needs to be eating as a prepper. Nutrition isn’t a cut and dry subject, I know that, and I’m no expert, but since I started prepping, and through that mindset have taken steps to improve my health so that I know I can actually do the physical tasks that may be involved with surviving a t-plus events. Vegetable and nut oils do not hold up when heated for cooking, animal fat works so much better. If you’re in the habit of using it before SHTF, you’ll be more likely to use it, and be healthier for the effort. The enemy to nutrition as far as I have seen in my changes in eating habits has been processed “white” carbs, which pretty much accounts for most of the aisles at your grocery store, and a lot of the #10 cans food storage kits contain.

Don’t take my word for it, do your own research, your mileage may vary.

So what’s helping us spend that credibility? The American Prepper Network is large enough now that it includes a wide gamut of examples of people who will both encourage the growth of the movement, and push people away from it. They’re the most prominent organization, and one I highly recommend anyone at all interested in ensuring the safety of your family and yourself in times of crisis. You don’t have to read too far back in my posts to recognize that I think the nuclear attack/zombie apocalypse end of the spectrum are freaks doing a disservice, but I don’t dismiss them entirely. Even a blind squirrel find a nut now and then, and these folks also have some a couple of good ideas in a vast ocean of really outlandish ones.

There are still plenty of people without power from hurricane Sandy, not an overly strong storm, but it just hit a susceptible area of the coast. FEMA and other organizations are doing what they can, but when you’re infrastructure is damaged, moving supplies and people becomes really tough and slow. So the way to avoid suffering as needlessly as some people are as a result of this is to have interim supplies on hand. Those will get you through until the cavalry arrives to set things right. If you own a home with a yard, you’ve got space to store it all. If you live in an apartment, you also have some space for supplies, you just have to be smarter about it.

A couple of observances from listening to interviews with people affected (I heard them by listening to DemocracyNow radio, the 4 major networks didn’t have anything remotely as valuable to say on Sandy):

• People panic when they cannot flush a toilet. I suggest getting an emergency sanitation kit, which includes a composting toilet/bucket with sawdust, etc.
• People panic when it’s dark. Get battery lanterns with rechargeable batteries, and a solar charger (Mine fits in my pants pocket and also charges my iPad!)
• People panic when they’re bored. Help your fucking neighbors, it’s the right thing to do. Don’t sit in your “self-made” castle like a dick.
• People panic when they feel like they’re in a disaster. Don’t sugar-coat information to “protect”, but make sure you’ve practiced your preps, and have some entertainment for everyone in your group.

Regardless, the US is going to be at least the #2 producer of oil by 2013, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. First, because the sources of oil the US has, meaning the private companies that sell to us, is expensive to get, so we will not see a reduction in gasoline prices because of this fact, buy might because of the news, since both facts and speculation control the price of commodities. We won’t even see a reduction if we hit the 15 million barrels per day by 2020 that analysts think we may, so what’s the big deal? Well, it would be a chance to reduce out dependency on foreign oil, at least for a while, and that time should be spent swapping our energy demand to something renewable and cleaner, period.

Even at 15 million barrels we wouldn’t make enough to cover our consumption, but what’s interesting is that we sell oil to Canada, who then sells it to China. Why aren’t we selling directly to China to reduce our debt to them? We also buy oil of Canada at a higher price than we sell to them…I’m not sure why we even have that swap in the first place. It seems logical to me that we should not put in the Keystone XL pipeline, something even Texans don’t want, and if anyone knows oil, it’s those guys.

All of this brings home an excellent point for preppers…stock your fuels, build your own grid, get energy independent at your homestead level. Forget the politics, logistics, and wishful think about low fuels prices. Instead, keep your nose to the grindstone, practice your plans, make your preparations, and set the example to those swayed by short-term news.

1. Weather related
2. Location related
3. Money related
4. Job related
5. Family related to one of the top 4

Zombies, economic collapse, vast right-wing or left-wing conspiracies, Obama, Romney, Clinton, Bush, rogue nuclear nations and such are all much, much, much lower on the list that most of the “preteppers” are yapping on about. I do recommend taking care of less likely events when you’re ready and if they honestly make sense to even worry about. I mean, zombies…really? Grow the fuck up. Government brain implants? Tin foil, bitches!

I’m not one to mince words nor am I an “expert”, but it seems to me that by applying a tad bit more logic than most of these yahoos, you and I are going to have the advantage to help our loved ones and any one else who needs it. What say you?

I know that the actual Taliban uses violence to achieve its goals, and the Tea Party currently doesn’t so save your breathe on the comments if that’s the point you’re going to bitch about.

After all, you’re the ones I’m talking about. You see, the ones who aren’t offended have already taken an objective, historically accurate look at the formation of our nation and have become just as frustrated as I have with the rest of you. We celebrate some important things in this country, and some important people, without every really knowing who they were or why we celebrate those things. In fact, we celebrate some pretty stupid shit in this country too, and I’m not talking about mediocrity; don’t even get me started on 4th place medals in the Olympics let alone ‘participation trophies’ in little league baseball!

That’s all for another post, and I need to stay on target here. Common sense. We’re sorely lacking it. I recently had to cut infowars.com from my news source stream because they’re more interested in sensationalism than bothering to get the facts surrounding stories lately. Whether it’s spreading the untrue rumors of black-clad 4-man goon squad shooting up the Sikh temple in Wisconsin or lizard people taking over the planet, he’s become the punchline. He’s gotten wrapped up in making the cash and becoming the squeekiest wheel he can be, I think his water source contains too much lead.

Now, I don’t hate him, or what he and his organization are attempting to do, but I think they’ve really lost their way. Just as I seriously doubt this country will face the type of collapse many ‘beans, bullets, and bandages’ yahoos are mongering about, I don’t think that he’s being entirely logical with his case anymore. He’s spread himself so thin that his bullshitwall has succumbed to the overload and now his brain is linked directly to his mouth. Alex, I doubt you read this or will see this, but reel it in just a tad. It’s time to refocus on the mission.

Now, about those founders. Hypocrites, the lot of ‘em. Most didn’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, most suggested one thing, while doing the opposite in their own lives. It’s called DoubleThink, and it’s replaced common sense in this country. Today, most of the conversation on taxes, from the Republican standpoint, is to lower them, and cut services which the liberal welfare queens are taking advantage of, but the fact is that the states and counties which require the most welfare handouts are “red”; that’s DoubleThink.

Most Republicans bitched about how long it took Obama to kill UBL, while George Bush is on record saying he doesn’t see the capture and bringing to justice of UBL as important, something he just doesn’t think about. Those same Republicans bitched at Clinton for he effort, but it turns out he’s the one who did the most to capture/kill UBL, even more than Obama. That’s DoubleThink.

I think it’s safe to say that politics has become DoubleThink, but if we go down that road as the citizens of this country, we’re all fucked, and it’s no one’s doing but our own. Not the ‘other’ party members, not our own party members. Just us.

I get emails every once in a while, I know I don’t do much with this site, certainly not as much as I should, excuse me for having a life. A recent one contained a serious amount of whining about how WTSHTF, all the mobile devices and such will be totally useless and that’s why they have the entire back catalog of several magazines in analog form (read paper) and how much better off they’re going to be.

To that I say, “what’s your fucking point? Do you want a “Commander Prepper” merit badge?” Shut the fuck up and prep on, bub. I chose the digital route because I have entire back catalogs of at least 5 times as many magazines, plus at least several hundred books. That’s not my primary source of working knowledge for WTSHTF because that’s stupid. Who in their right mind is going to try and find an article on building a bridge, a roof, extracting a bad tooth, etc when they need to get that shit done now? My go to knowledge is in my head, I practice it, I read more related materials every day to add, revise and reinforce this mental library. My digital device of choice is an iPad 1 gen, I use to read all this stuff, but I can search for anything I want to bone up on. I won’t have to grab that for most of the situations I’ll deal with, I’ll already have that knowledge in my head.

I also have spare battery, screen and solar charger for it. It’s in a tough case. It still a susceptible device, but so is paper. My iPad won’t rot when wet or even too humid, or fall apart from light or dry weather. Also, unlike the author of that email, I don’t think SHTF will actually be ‘Road Warrior” type stuff in my lifetime. I think it will be expensive food and water, but not lack of access to either because of complete change of environment.

What say you?