Prepography
The Art & Study of Self-Reliance
Situational Awareness – An Introduction (1,347)
Don’t Be ‘That Prepper Guy’ (885)
Fan of the Ammo Can – Top 10 Uses (637)
Prepping with Garage Sales (577)
OCOKA – A Key Survival Acronym (538)
Snake Eater – How to Field Dress a Snake (520)
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Mineral Oil (514)
Top 10 Initial Steps to Preparation (510)
Prepper SALUTE Report – An Observation and Reporting Tool (337)
Jefferson’s Top 10 Commandments for Living (316)- Best Prepper Caliber? (314)
- Difference Between .223 Caliber & 5.56mm (312)
The World Owes You Nothing – Today’s Quote
Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain
Prepping with Garage Sales
It’s that time of year again when people turn their yards and garages into second hand stores for a day or a weekend. I hate looking at other people’s junk but I love some of the deals I get when I’m Prepping with Garage Sales.
In our neck of the woods garage sales generally start at about 8 a.m. on Thursdays and many of the towns and subdivisions set aside just one weekend a year or one weekend a month for garage sales. I don’t tend to do a lot of research ahead of times but the local paper and Craigslist will give you a good set of marching orders. I tend to stop at garage sales that are along my way as I’m driving except for the city garage sales which are worth going out of your way for.
Weaning From the National Nipple – Today’s Quote
The task of weaning various people and groups from the national nipple will not be easy. The sound of whines, bawls, screams and invective will fill the air as the agony of withdrawal pangs finds voice.
Linda Bowles
The Quartermaster’s Report – X CALIBER Shotgun Gauge Adapter System
Andrew’s Note: Today we introduce The Quartermaster and The Quartermaster’s Report. The Quartermaster brings us information on cool gear and equipment as well as the availability of cool gear and equipment. Today’s report is on the X CALIBER Shotgun Gauge Adapter System.
Ever wished you could carry one gun and have it shoot multiple calibers and guages? I’m not talking about .38 Special and .357 Magnum either…I’m talking about a tool that can hunt grouse as a 12 Gauge shotgun but quickly convert into to a 7.62×39 to drop a deer and even to .22 Long Rifle to bring down a squirrel…well now you can.
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Mineral Oil
Top 10 preparedness uses of mineral oil…mineral oil is a colorless, odorless and tasteless liquid byproduct of petroleum refinement. Mineral oil is often used for it’s hydrophobic properties which means that it repels water. Mineral oil is non-conductive and will also air. Mineral oil doesn’t expand when heated which is why it’s often used for hydraulic and heating (like space heaters) applications. There are a number of different grades of mineral oil available including ‘food grade.’
Mineral oil can be purchased at pharmacies, grocery stores, pet shops, veterinary supply houses, hardware stores or online but you should only stock and store ‘food grade’ mineral oil to have the most potential uses and reduce the risk of using the wrong type for your application. Some grades that aren’t as refined are believed to be carcinogenic so stick with ‘food grade.’
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Mineral Oil: Continue reading
Jefferson’s Top 10 Commandments for Living
Andrew’s Note: Jefferson didn’t mean these as a replacement of the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments but as his own ‘Ten rules for living.’ Jefferson’s 10 Commandments for Living still translate remarkably well after two centuries…not unlike some of his other works…
- Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
- Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
- Never spend your money before you have it. [Can you imagine President Jefferson's views on the current state of our National Debt.]
- Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap. Continue reading
Prepography Android Application
Main Screen of the Prepography Android Application
Example of the Prepography Android Application’s RSS Feed
Today I’m pleased to announce the release of our first application for Android phones and tablets. The Prepography
Android Application can be found HERE in the Google Play Store or just search the store for “Prepography.”
The application provides an RSS Feed, a shortcut to the website and shortcuts to our articles on the 10 Fundamentals of preparedness that we describe as Full Spectrum Preparedness. The application is pretty responsive but the RSS feed option does take a few minutes to load the first time it’s selected.
Sample of Prepography’s Main Page as Viewed with the Prepography Android Application
The application will be enhanced from time to time as we develop more tools for the preparedness minded so make sure to sign up for the automatic updates. I’d like to include some checklists as well if I can adapt those I use personally for more generalized use. Maybe some readers will have some enhancement ideas as well.
Of course we’ll add the Prepography Android Application to our Online Tools Library as well…
I hope this application makes it easier to access the information provided at Prepography. I almost forgot to mention that the Prepography Android Application, like the website is provided for FREE. Enjoy!
Michael Bloomberg Knows What’s Good For You
Michael Bloomberg is a former businessman, media magnate, the Mayor of New York City and the 10th richest person in the United States. He’s so sure that he knows what’s good for you that he’s willing to use all the power that he has at his control including his wealth (estimated at $25 billion net worth), his media darling status, his influence and the mechanisms of government he controls to make many of your everyday choices illegal.
Some of the decisions he doesn’t think you’re qualified to make for yourself include…. Continue reading
A Better Way to Tax?
After spending entirely too much time this week (not to mention a year of keeping every receipt and logging every business, charity and military mile driven) and getting ready to spend WAY too much money filing my State and Federal Taxes I thought I’d do something I’ve never done before and appropriate today’s article from another website….it’s OK they want to get the word out…what follows is a brief introduction to a tax program that just makes so much sense the only reason we haven’t done it is because special interests wield so much power in our seats of government. Ladies and gentlemen there is a better way to tax…The Fair Tax…
While I’m partial the Flat Tax proposal as well I think it’s a harder sell because so many voters have been sold on the idea that the more successful you are the more of your labor (as a percentage of your income) should be taken from you (isn’t there a word for forcibly taking someone’s labor?)…don’t get me wrong…the only thing rich about me is my imagination, my friendships and the love of my family…but I aspire to be wealthier and don’t believe that the harder someone works the more they should be indentured to government. The Fair Tax takes that argument away because it taxes consumption (it also treats investment and dividend income the same as earned income)…and the more you make the more you are able to consume…but you could just as easily consume little and save…which is good for society as well.
The FairTax Plan Continue reading
Aesop on Self Reliance – Today’s Quote
The gods help them that help themselves.
Top 10 Prepper Mistakes
The bad news is that I’ve made most of these prepper mistakes…the good news is that you can learn from my mistakes:
- Focusing On Just One Type of SHTF Event: Admit it…you have a prejudice towards one or two types of SHTF events. For some it’s economic collapse or Civil War II…for me it was electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or coronal mass ejection (CME). If you focus just on one type of event in your preps it may leave you more vulnerable if you guess wrong…as in if you prep for a two week power outage and experience a 24 month period of unemployment. If you guess wrong you also run the risk of overwhelming yourself…take my CME example…if I focus on prepping for a CME the level of preparedness required stretches out to years… if you get it into your head that you have to prep for years then you’ll become depressed if you’ve only achieved months of preparation. You should celebrate each prepping milestone, not beat yourself up because you haven’t achieved everything you want based on your pet scenario…keep building to years but do it as you can and don’t beat yourself up…every little bit counts.
- Focusing On Just One Type of Prep: New preppers and fair weather preppers often focus on just one type of prep. By far the worse culprit for the type of prep many focus on is Security. There’s something addicting and exciting about firearms and firearm accessories in particular. Think of the Full Spectrum Foundations as links in your preparedness chain. Some preps are definitely more important than others but unless your entire ‘chain’ is strong the weak link will bring you down. I’ve heard otherwise intelligent (and I thought moral) individuals proclaim “I don’t need food, water, etc. because I’ve got guns and ammo so my family won’t have to go without.” Moral arguments aside if you think you’re a tactical ninja and can take what you need by force all you have to do is look at what happened recently to the battle tested former U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle…combat ready doesn’t mean invincible. Conversely, if you focus all your energies on your Food preps and neglect Security then you won’t be able to protect yourself, your family or your preps from even the most unseasoned, but armed hooligans.
- Not Fully Integrating Your Family into Your Preparedness Activities: This can be tough…and depends primarily on the foresight, moral strength and awareness of your spouse. Many, including prepper spouses just aren’t ready to confront the reality of our current lifestyle’s fragility. If your husband or wife is tolerant you’re lucky, if they’re an active participant…count your blessings. Integrate your family into your preparedness activities (or dual use hobbies) to the greatest extent possible without sacrificing your relationships. I’ve seen prepping tear families apart and I’ve seen it bring families even closer together…it’s all up to you….that is you and your family.
- Continue reading
Stealth Prepper – Top 10 Reasons
Today I’m running a Best of Prepography article on Stealth Prepping that first ran in July of last year. I’m rerunning this today in response to a request I saw over the weekend at another preparedness site encouraging folks to publicly identify themselves as preppers in an attempt to shatter the Doomsday Prepper narrative that the media usually attaches to those prudent enough to prepare. I understand the reasoning…it seems that anytime a criminal is found to have more than one firearm or a deep larder they’re labled by the news media as another crazy prepper or wacko survivalist. I hate that our movement is having it’s reputation tarnished but I’ll bet you got into prepping for your family…don’t risk everything you’ve accomplished (or intend to accomplish) with your preps by ‘going public.’
Being a ‘Stealth Prepper’ means keeping your preparations to yourself and practicing what we call OPSEC (Operational Security) in the military. The journey towards self-reliance and preparedness for life’s unexpected situations is exciting…you will want to celebrate your successes and discuss how to rectify your failures with like-minded people…but don’t do so until you put a lot of thought into who you’re talking with, who they’ll tell and so on. Here are the Top 10 Reasons to be a Stealth Prepper:
- The words “I won’t tell anyone” are almost always a lie, even if said with proper intentions at the time. Keep your preparations to yourself.
- You will be ridiculed in good times by those well meaning people in your life that think nothing bad can ever happen to them… or that the authorities will always protect them from danger…in other words the sheeple.
- You could be inundated by requests for ‘assistance’ in hard times that will have you weighing the well being of your family against that of strangers, acquaintances and friends.
- You can’t afford to buy enough for ‘everybody.’
- You don’t have enough space to store for ‘everybody.’ Continue reading
No Police Response to 911 Calls Anymore
The next time you call 911 because you need a police response you might be referred to ‘another department’ that will take your police report over the phone…at least if you live in one of the safest (if you believe gun control reduces crime that is) cities in the country…Chicago. It’s scary to think about no police response to 911 calls…
Chicago authorities are revamping how police respond to 911 calls in hopes of freeing up more officers to respond to the most serious crimes.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that starting Sunday officers won’t respond in person to lesser crimes. Those include vehicle theft or incidents where the victim is safe and doesn’t need medical attention.
Those calls will go to another department and police reports taken over the phone.
The move is expected to make the equivalent of 44 police officers available and comes as the city has seen a spike in murders.
via Chicago police changing response to 911 calls | Fox News.
Knots a Prepper Should Know
Andrew’s Note: A prepper buddy of mine has been experimenting with and teaching himself knots recently…got me to thinking about what basic knots a prepper should know and as I do for many prepper skills…I went to look for military wisdom on the subject that I could apply to the art and study of preparedness…Prepography. The following information is from TC 21-3 Soldier’s Handbook for Individual Operations and Survival in Cold Weather Areas (Approved for Public Release).
USEFUL KNOTS
A rope is only a limp coil of hemp or nylon. It is useful only when you are able to attach it to itself or another object. The six basic knots described below will fit all your needs for tying rope together or onto equipment or personnel.
Continue reading
101 Prepper Resolutions for the New Year
It’s that time of year again…namely a New Year. Happy New Year and here is Prepography‘s New Years Gift to you…a cut and paste list of 101 Prepper Resolutions for the New Year. Don’t try to accomplish them all or you’ll just frustrate yourself, but pick a few or come up with some of your own to continue on with your preparedenss journey in 2013. We’ve grouped the resolutions according to the Full Spectrum Preparedness Doctrine Fundamentals, 10 for each Fundamental and a bonus resolution to achieve 101 Prepper Resolutions. Continue reading
How Long To Prepare For?
In the article, Introduction to Full Spectrum Preparedness Doctrine we briefly discussed the ten fundamentals of preparedness, how they overlap and interact as well as how each fundamental has four aspects. Today we’re going to establish some conventions to aid us in our future discussions of how long to prepare for.
I’m working on a probability model (if you’re a mathematician and want to help please contact me) to help those readers that are mathematically inclined chose how long to prepare for…but for today’s discussion we’re going to simplify things a little and talk about preparedness time horizons. For convenience, I’ve broken the time horizons down into ‘Preparedness Levels.’
While there’s no reason a person, family or group couldn’t prepare to different levels in different fundamentals…you should keep in mind that your overall preparedness level is that of your ‘lowest level’ preparedness fundamental. For example: if your family is prepared to Level III, Weeks in every fundamental except Health (where you are prepared to Level I) than your overall preparedness level is Level I, Days.
Aspects of Full Spectrum Preparedness Fundamentals
Take a look at the graphic to the right to remind yourself of what the aspects of the Full Spectrum Preparedness Fundamental are. You can review the 10 Fundamentals of Full Spectrum Preparedness HERE if need be or look at the Graphic towards the end of this article.. Keep in mind as you read about the Preparedness Levels that different aspects become more or less dominant at different Preparedness Levels and factor that into your preparedness planning.
Preparedness Level 0, Unprepared
You and your family are unable to get through the next 72 hours without making purchases, borrowing from others or seeking charity. Perhaps your life sustaining prescription is about to run out, your pantry is almost bare or you don’t have a source of safe, potable water if the tap suddenly stops working. Continue reading
It’s Not This It’s That for Preppers
Sometimes preparedness is about seeing the potential alternate uses of everyday items, sometimes preparedness is about keeping the ‘end’ in mind while dealing with the ‘ways’ and the ‘means.’ These were the inspirations for another article in this periodic column on Prepography called… It’s Not This It’s That (INTIT):
- It’s not a 2 liter soda bottle, it’s half a day’s water waiting to be filled and stored (after being washed out of course)
- It’s not an ammo can it’s a portable ammo can grill
- It’s not a pair of eyeglasses, it’s a last ditch fire starter when you add some sun (prescriptions vary so test yours)
- It’s not a paracord bracelet, it’s ~8 feet of cordage capable of holding up to 550 lbs.
- It’s not steel wool and a 9 volt battery…it’s another last ditch fire starter Continue reading
Dog Packs and the 3 S’s
Dog Packs
The county where I live is a relatively short drive from a more populace metropolitan area. Because of our proximity to the city there are some additional preparedness steps that I must take to make sure that I can keep my family safe and sound in the event of civil unrest, a crash, a crunch, or a natural or environmental disaster. One of the potential problems with a TEOTWAWKI event that we must prepare for already happens in my county (to a much lessor extent) and maybe it happens in yours as well. I’m speaking of course about dog packs.
It’s not just a country problem either, I’ve read a number of stories in the last year about dog packs overrunning parts of cities as well. As the economy gets worse more and more people are abandoning their pets by ‘releasing them into the wild’ and, at the same time cities are cutting back on essential services including animal control.
In the county where I live this problem is aggravated by two factors. The first is that we are just too close to the city so ‘city folk’ tend to drive out and abandon their animals to the ‘farm life.’ The second factor is that we have numerous city transplants who move into the county on a few acres and think that they need to have two, three, or even four dogs now that they ‘have room to roam.’ These folks often don’t know that they need to pen their animals when they aren’t home to keep them from roaming onto the neighbor’s land. These pets and strays band together to run/ruin livestock by driving them to injury or into barbed wire fences. We’ve even had packs and/or animals big enough to bring down livestock.
As if destroying someone’s livestock isn’t bad enough (no cow is worth less than $1,000 in my area and bulls can be worth much more than that), some of the urban packs I’ve read about have taken to attacking people (mostly children).
- 1 dog is a stray
- 2 dogs bear watching
- 3 or more dogs are a pack and revert to pack behavior
As bad as this problem is now or develops into as the economy falters, expect it to get much worse in the event of a disaster or TEOTWAWKI event. There will be real danger from desperate, underfed dog packs made up of former pets who look on you as a potential replacement for Kibbles ‘n Bits. Take appropriate steps to protect yourself, and especially your children and grandchildren.
The 3 S’s Continue reading
Prepping Consequences of the Election
I’ve received several inquiries today from concerned preppers asking what changes they should make to their preparedness plans in light of the recent election results so I gave some thought to the prepping consequences of the election and here’s what I’ve come up with…
First off, by a margin of roughly 2.5% (popular vote – as of the writing of this article) the citizens of the U.S. have chosen a path that clearly encourages dependence as opposed to self reliance…make no mistake though, the Republicans would have been better…but not by orders of magnitude. For those in the depths of post-election depression let me point out that this country survived over 12 years of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s equally flawed economic strategies. A huge portion of our population continues to work hard in spite of an ever increasing tax burden, adapts to changes instead of giving up, and finds ways to succeed instead of being frustrated into paralysis by red tape and institutional favoritism. This country still has the biggest economic engine in the world idling under the hood and the most stable and successful form of government (but for some reason we always impose parliamentary governments on the countries we conquer).
So back to the question at hand…what are the prepping consequences of the election? Continue reading
Vote for Big Government, Not REALLY BIG GOVERNMENT
Prepography is devoted to preparedness and self reliance. You have the chance to encourage us to be more self reliance as a nation because today we exercise the franchise we’ve inherited through the blood of our forefathers (as well as the 15th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution). As my regular readers know, I’m not a fan of either of our state-sanctioned political parties but I believe our choice this year is clear.
Our choices are between a vote for ‘big government’ or ‘really, really big government.’ When faced with these options I encourage you to vote for the lesser of two evils and cast your vote for those pesky big government Republicans.
Starting tomorrow, or whenever the Supreme Court has declared the winner…it’s time to begin lobbying our President-Elect or President-Reelect, Congressmen and women, State and Local officials to start the process of dismantling The State of Entitlement we’ve created and get the U.S. back to work!
Vote against Bread and Circuses…or at least as close as you can get…
