Keep your smart phone

Unless the end of the world is due to a massive EMP, there is a good chance your smart phone will be useful.

Handy Features

 Camera
Most smart phones have a camera, which is good for capturing useful information, maybe more than you want to write down, or something that only a picture can capture.

 Video Camera
Like the camera, but video allows you to record an event, or perhaps a message.  You might want to use the videos as a log of the events.  Capture a message to loved ones or your thoughts as you go about your struggle to survive.

Notes
Jot down some important notes, keep track of supplies, instructions to find a cache you've hidden perhaps or just a journal of events.

Manuals & Books
Electronic versions of books (stored locally on the phone) could be handy.  The Red Cross has some First-Aid Apps that are just digital versions of the manuals you might already have.  They have one for pets also.  Maybe your favorite book on survival in the wilderness, or a cook book for wild game.  Books are always handy.

Compass
It's probably not as reliable or easy to use as a good old fashioned compass, but it's better than nothing.  You're not going to be able to use your phones navigation apps if the networks are down, and even if you have the maps downloaded locally to the phone, the GPS system will become unreliable after a couple of weeks if no one is keeping it updated.  So depending on the nature of the end of the world, that might be a concern.

Music
Maybe you have some music on your phone.  Music can boost your spirits, and help make a boring situation more enjoyable. 

Alarm
Maybe you want to get a couple of hours of sleep, setting an alarm might be important.  And right with alarms is the time itself.  Maybe you need to know the time (although that might be the last thing you care about) Your smart phone can certainly do that.

Flashlight
It's not the best light source in the world, but if you need it a smart phone can either shed glow from it's screen or the flash (usually an LED) can be pressed into service as a flashlight.  You will probably need an app for this, but you should have one anyway.

These are just a few uses.  There is a good chance if you sit and think about it, you'll come up with some more on your own.

Power Saving

If you are using your smart phone, it's probably a good idea to take some steps to save power.  Many smart phones have assorted power saving settings you can access to maximize battery life.  Using those will extend the life span of your battery.  Another thing might be to put the phone in Airplane mode, which is to switch off all of it's transceivers.  Some smart phones have a dedicated setting just for this, others you might have to turn those functions off individually.

Turning the brightness of the screen down can save power as well, or setting it to adjust depending on the ambient light if your phone supports that.

Turn off some reminders.  No sense in letting your phone remind you of your coffee date with friends if it's the end of the world.  Unless these are new friends and coffee date is your code for scavenging run.  Anything you can do to conserve power will help.

Recharging

If the world comes to an end, the way you recharge your phone might need to change.  You might be someone who already lives on solar and battery power, so this isn't new to you.  For the majority of us though, we get the power for charging our phones out of the wall of our house.  And that might not be an option.

Solar Panels & Batteries

Portable solar panels are pretty common, and they can be pressed into service to charge a phone.  What I find works better is using the solar panel to charge a battery that you then use to charge the phone.  It makes it so that you can use the phone during the day (when you will likely need to) and charge a battery with your solar so that you can charge the phone at night using the battery.

Manual Chargers

There are a few hand crank chargers on the market, and assorted devices that turn physical labor into electricity you can use to charge devices.  My experience with these has been varied, but I don't find many of them to be super effective.  It might just be the models I've used, your mileage may vary.

Plan Ahead

This is all about planning ahead and being prepared.  Make sure to examine your options for Apps, chargers, external battery packs, and all of that now while you have the electricity and infrastructure to do it.  That way, if the world comes to an end, you'll have the tools you need to continue using your smart phone as an effective tool.

Until next time, keep prepping!

Situational skills....Which is all of them.

You have begun to seriously dig into the Prepper thing.  You have started training with firearms, working on your wilderness survival skills, you've got good gear, but not too much because you know skills are more valuable than gear.

Can you knit, or crochet, or sew a shirt, or mend a sock, or weave fabric?  There are skills that probably have not crossed your mind.  Most of us don't think about where we're going to get shoes after a SHTF situation, and I mean well after.  Day to day wear and tear I go through a pair of combat boots in about two years.  Those are good quality boots and I'm not living in them, putting miles and miles on them like I might need to in a SHTF type of situation.

You might think that it's not going to be a problem, and that might be the case.  But, what about your shirts and pants.  If you have a plan to wash your clothing then you can certainly extend it's lifespan.  for how long though, I mean eventually people will need new cloths and shoes and those skills are going to be as important as any others.

Like everything skills are situational.  When you are cold and need to start a fire being able to cut fabric, mark a seam, sew a seam, and so on will not be all that important.  But when someone needs some clothing mended, or made from scratch, those skills will be important.

It's obvious that some skills will stop being useful, at least for a time.  Computer programming, probably not very useful in a SHTF situation.  Maybe ten years later, but not likely 2 years later.

Obviously you can't have every possible skill.  There is a limit to how self-sufficient you can actually be.  This is another one of those points when we bring up how important it is to become part of a community.  Pooling resources, and skills are a resource.

Take stock of your non-survival skills.  Are you good with engines, or maybe you know how to frame a house, or perhaps you can make a quilt.  where are you weak, and where are you strong.  It will help you figure out what you might need when SHTF happens.

The ultimate bug out vehicle

There are a ton of posts about the ultimate bug out vehicle.  Campers, trucks, jeeps, you name it and someone has a blog post or video about their version of the ultimate bug out vehicle.

Like everything else in the TEOTWAWKI world, this is a personal choice.  What is your current situation, are you an urban dweller who lives without a car or are you perched on your little slice of heaven and have to drive to the mailbox. 

Look at your situation.  Can you afford a fully tricked out four-wheel drive road warrior vehicle, or should you just invest in a good pair of boots?

Buy the boots.  Even if you buy the off-road beast, buy the boots.  Things happen and you might just end up having to rely on Plan B.  If Plan B is a good pair of boots at least you'll have them.  Well, if things go right you'll have them.

When you do buy the boots, make sure they fit well, then put some miles on them.  You do not want to have to rely on a brand new pair of boots if you can avoid it.  Make sure to break them in with some walking.  Maybe put on your best 'Gray Man' outfit with your new boots and take a walk in your natural habitat. 

You want to make sure you can walk comfortably in the boots, at least as comfortably as anyone can be under whatever unpleasant circumstances have put you on the move.  Even a couple of miles at a stretch is better than nothing.  Maybe take a friend or your special other and play Pokemon Go while you walk.  What's more Gray Man than walking and staring at your phone right?

In the end, a good pair of boots might end up being your ultimate bug out vehicle.  Maybe not by choice, but simply because you have no other option.  Do your homework and make sure you get a solid pair that will last.  They might be your last pair of boots for a while, and you don't want to skimp on them.

Remember, think critically, act decisively, and never stop learning.

Sheltering in an abandoned structure

So you've bugged out.  You've gone some distance and you are planning to stay at a new location for some time.  Maybe a few days, maybe a week, maybe forever.

I've been thinking about some of the things you might want to do, and things you might not want to do.

Shut everything off

If there is a chance that services might come on (water, electricity, gas) you might want to give some thought to securing those systems.  Turn off the water main, shut down all the individual breakers as well as the main and if you can, shut down the power at the main switch outside.  Shut off the gas main as well.

If the services were to come back on you wouldn't be caught off guard by water blasting out of a ruptured pipe or gas suddenly flowing from an open appliance valve. 

Scope things out

You will obviously do some sort of recon of the site before you occupy it.  But once you are inside, take some time to do a complete sweep.  Go room to room, take stock of the state of the the structure, any supplies or resources that are present, and any remains.  You're going to want to remove anything hazardous if it's safe to do so, like dead bodies.

You want to know the location as well as possible so that in the event of a conflict with others you have home court advantage if at all possible. 

Be prepared to leave

If someone else comes along, a potentially stronger force, be prepared to abandon the site and move on.  Everything in this sort of situation is a resource management issue.  Is the fight you may have to put up to keep a place worth the resources the place provides?

Have an evacuation plan.  You had a bug out plan (we hope) that got you out of your home and this far, make sure you have a plan to bug out from here.  This might require more planning and recon, but life in a world that isn't governed by the rule of law and the 24 hour news cycle is all about planning and recon.

Have another spot in mind

If you can, have another location in mind to jump to.  This sort of goes along with being prepared to leave and having an evacuation plan, but it's more also.  You will have done your local recon as part of setting up where you are.  Part of that will also be picking other spots to jump to.  You should know those locations, perhaps have supply caches near them, but not be set up there.  They are potential fall back sites so you should have already shut everything off and scoped the place out.

If you have to fall back to one of these sites a quick recon will tell you if it's safe, then you can move in.  Probably not for long though, since you had to abandon your primary site to some other group.  They will begin to occupy and scout the area, so you will probably be moving on and beginning this cycle all over again.

It might not be an enemy

You may have had to abandon your primary site for reasons other than hostile people.  Maybe a tree came through the roof during a storm, or it was flooded by torrential rains.  Having an alternate site to fall back to is just as helpful under these situations as well.

Conclusion
Do you have any additional advice or pointers?  Let me know in the comments.

Simulate a bug out? Drive the beltway!

I've spotted a number of YouTube videos recently where some folks have simulated a bugout.  I've considered how I might realistically do that, with the caveat that I live in the Baltimore/Washington area.

They always tell you that the roads will be jammed, and if normal Friday traffic is any indication I can assure you that the highways will be packed in the event of some sort of event that people feel a need to run from.

So I thought about how a vehicular evacuation might look and what sorts of things you should do if you plan to use the roads to bug out.  I will probably talk about walking out in another post at some point.  This is just things to put in your mind if you plan to evacuate your area by road.

Highways
I've seen bad traffic here on the main highways on the best of days.  You compound that with a general sense of panic and you're going to have a mess.  If you have no other way, then prepare to be sitting there for a while.

I recently drove a hybrid vehicle while we were on vacation.  Those have a bit of an advantage, assuming you're not running any climate control systems, when they're sitting in stop and go traffic.  Even some all gas vehicles now will shut off when you're sitting in traffic.  So if you have a hybrid as an option and there is no compelling reason to take something else, the hybrid might be a good option for the sheer gas savings it might offer in stop and go traffic.

Be prepared to eat, sleep, and ..... other stuff on the highway.  So pack your supplies accordingly.  You might be on the road, slowly moving, for hours, possibly days.  Be prepared to swap off driving duties, which pretty much rules out doing this sort of thing alone.

Back roads
If you can, plan a way out of your area using secondary or tertiary roads.  Be prepared for these to be congested too though.  You will not be the only person with this idea.  Drive your route, with a partner.  You want to have a map, an actual physical map, so you can mark every single spot that could be a bottleneck or congestion point.  4 way stop, mark it.  Two lanes go down to one, mark it.  You want to know all the likely problem points on your route if you can.  And every gas station, cafe, convenience store and diner.  These are all points where you might be able to get supplies, but more importantly they will be places that people will be.  And people are their own problem.

Fuel
Many people in the prepper community say to never let your fuel tank get below 1/2 a tank.  This is a good idea in general, but especially if you live anywhere that evacuation is a real possibility.  Hurricane prone areas are a good example.  You want to have a spare supply as well.  A gallon or two at least, and you do need to rotate it because gas can go bad.  I suggest a 5 gallon can if you have the space.  For most people five gallons of gas is around half a tank.  That's probably between 125 and 150 miles depending on the car and type of driving.  So if you try never to let your tank fall below the half mark, and you have a back up supply of about half a tank, you should be able to get a respectable distance, even with bad traffic.

Final Thoughts
When operating on the idea that you will bug out by motor vehicle, be prepared for it to be a long and possibly boring (or dangerous) adventure.  Do a few dry runs in different weather and make sure to note things that might become issues should you actually have to evacuate with the masses.

What sorts of things have you considered about a motor vehicle bug out?  I'd like to know if you have any advice or stories about your practice runs and how they went.

Educational value of video games

I have recently been playing a zombie survival game called State of Decay.  It's an older game from a few years ago but was recently redone and released as State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition (YOSE).  It's not the typical zombie survival game.  Yes you kill zombies, but there is a lot more to it.

One of the things that made me think it might be a useful tool was that you need to manage a good number of things in the game.  You have a survivors group and a camp.  The initial camp is at a church in a small neighborhood.  You have people and you need resources.  There are ways to have the radio operator help find specific resources.  Have some of your survivors help you scavenge, or perform upgrades to the base.

Surviving any sort of long term emergency situation is a matter of resource management.  People, water, food, ammunition.  We manage most of our lives with our computers and smart phones now, but if those things aren't going to be available what will you use?  The game imagines this is a journal, a little notebook where you keep track of the people in your group, your resources, and important events. 

Part of the resource management is telling you how much or a certain resource you have, the maximum amount you can keep on hand easily, and how much you're consuming per day.  The game breaks it down into just a few things.  Food, Ammo, Medical Supplies, Building Supplies, and Fuel.  So it's fairly simplified, but it works for the game.

I started thinking about how this sort of resource management might work in a real life situation.  Obviously it might be hard to know how much of something you have, but there are some things that you will be able to tally easily.  Water, you generally know how much a person needs per day.  Food might be a little trickier, but you can certainly get a general idea.  Is it enough to know how much of something you have, I think so in some cases.  Take fuel and ammo.  You probably don't know your daily consumption of fuel, except perhaps for a generator.  Ammo might just be a matter of keeping an accurate count of usage.  Granted, in the heat of a conflict counting bullets might not be on your priority list, but certainly afterward you will be able to take a count and know your consumption if you knew your load out.

Another thing about the game is that things are spaced far enough apart and your carrying capacity is small enough that you will need to use the many cars that are in the game world.  They can be a formidable weapon against zombies, but doing this (or driving badly like I did early on) damages the vehicles.  There are ways you can make repairs, or just leave that flaming truck on the side of the road and take the next car.  But in a real life situation, how will you take the next car.  In the game they're mostly unlocked and apparently have the keys in the ignition.  Obviously not how it is in the real world....usually.

So there it is.  State of Decay has given me a few more things to think about with regard to a long term emergency situation.  If you like video games, and even if you don't, it might be worth checking out.  Remember, surviving the zombie apocalypse isn't just about killing zombies.

What ways have you thought of for keeping track and managing your resources?  Let me know in the comments.

Tent or poncho shelter?

Shelter thinking.
Your environment will largely dictate the sort of shelter you need.  If you live in the tropics you might be able to get away with a rain fly or a tarp as a shelter year round.  If you live in the arctic circle.....move.

Seriously though, what you will need for shelter in conjunction with your Jump Bag will depend heavily on your environment but there will be other factors at play as well.

Solo or Family.
If it's just you and the weather is favorable you can probably do fine under a poncho with a light blanket or sleeping bag.  Something to keep the rain off and stay warm and you should be fine.  You might even have a tent if you want to carry one. 

If you're part of a larger family unit that is executing a bug out, this might not work.  Small children may not fare well in the open or with limited protection from the elements.  You need to think about this when you develop your shelter plan for your Jump Bag

Some of the things I've read suggest that a bug out from an urban setting requires less consideration for shelter since the environment already has plenty of places to shelter.  And I suppose this will be true to some extent.  Abandoned buildings, underpasses, parks, all of these locations might provide you shelter from the elements, but shelter is more than that.

Shelter is both protection from the elements and also protection from detection in a bug out situation.  As I've mentioned before a disaster tends to bring out the two basic kinds of people.  The best, and the worst.  You might feel safe in your tent in the city park, but if someone with less than noble intent decides that you might have something they want, your tent will not provide any real protection.

Consider camouflage when thinking about shelter.  It doesn't matter if you're using a poncho as a hasty shelter, or a tent, give some thought to cover and concealment.  This obviously doesn't apply to a situation where you might be looking for rescue.  Then you want to be seen, by rescuers at least.

Options.
There are all manner of ways to shelter yourself from the elements.  Assuming you've given thought to camouflage then let's focus on the actual shelter stuff.

I intend to use a hammock if possible with a rain fly.  If this isn't practical I can always find a bush, burrow into it's branches and wrap up in my poncho liner and rain fly. This should give me cover and concealment as well as some shelter from wind and rain.  When I was in the Army I slept in worse conditions, and in case of emergency I would like to think I can do so again if the need arises.

I have a tent in my truck.  My Jump Bag is in my truck most of the time, and lately I've put the two man tent in there with it.  I can decide when the situation warrants if I want to carry the tent or not.  If I'm with the truck, and I need to camp, and the situation seems safe enough, I can put the tent up. 

If you don't have a hammock, or a tent, then you need to think about something.  You can get a tarp, one of those blue tarps you see everywhere.  That shouldn't set you back too much.  There are a number of YouTube videos that can show you how to create a lean to or rain fly using these tarps.  As for something to sleep in, a blanket is better than nothing.  A wool blanket, maybe one from the surplus store, is a good inexpensive solution.  Wool if a great fabric for use in the out of doors. 

Shelter is one of the big three.  Food, water, shelter.  The thing is that most people don't think it's as important as the other two.  Depending on your environment it might be the most important.  You can survive days without water and perhaps weeks without food.  In adverse climate, you can be dead in minutes.

What's your shelter plan for your Jump Bag?  Let me know in the comments.  I'd love to know what you're going to do and why you've decided to do that.