What to put in a "Survival Kit"

[45nut]

Links to suggested products would be nice..[smilie=1:

I have the gun and ammo part taken care of,,looking for info on a 2 week kit to assemble. First Aid is covered, food isn't really.....:coffee:

[imashooter2]

Bug out kit for the car or a stay at home kit?

Are you located city, suburbs, country or rural?

How do you heat? Power?

Just you? Family? Old folks, kids? Health?

[45nut]

Bug out kit for the car or a stay at home kit?

Home stand


Are you located city, suburbs, country or rural?

20 miles out of a small town

How do you heat? Power?

wood heat

Just you? Family? Old folks, kids? Health?

me and the alarm system,,sentry dog. figure on just hoping the storm passes thing. 2 -3 weeks. I have a bunch of empty gallon jugs of water to re-fill. trying to think outside the box.

[45 2.1]

http://pub35.ezboard.com/bplainsmanscabin.html?

[MT Gianni]

try to get some 5-6 gallon jugs from a swimming pool chlorine supply, rinse very well, fill, leave in the sun for 4 days then dump it out and do it again 3 times. Makes a great long term water storage. Look at food dehydraters for drying vegetables and meat, buy dry beans and rice . Try to store all this in a freezer until SHTF. If you need to leave have sleeping bags where you can grab them fast and clothes for the season. I would leave a small suitcase/backpack in the end of the closet to throw stuff in rather than store it loaded. Gianni.

[woody1]

me and the alarm system,,sentry dog. figure on just hoping the storm passes thing. 2 -3 weeks. I have a bunch of empty gallon jugs of water to re-fill. trying to think outside the box.

Are you on a well? My pump is wired for my generator and I keep gas stored for it. I figure also I can recharge the deep freeze when running the pump and/or run pump when recharging the deep freeze. Regards, Woody

[nighthunter]

This is a real good subject to be discussed here. Food, water and heat are probably foremost in importance followed by first aid and comfort. I agree that planning for the amout of people being planned for is quite important. Whether they are male or female might have some impact on the planning. Is 15 or 30 days a reliable window to plan for or do we need to look at maybe 6 months? Immediate medical conditions are going to require a personal approach on individual needs. I'm going to have to do some thinking on this and will post again with the ideas I come up with. In the meantime lets hear from others.
Nighthunter

[dragonrider]

This link can give you some ideas, cataloges are free also.


http://www.beprepared.com/default.asp?sid=INEM130&EID=ALL0207a&eicioi=27694

[45nut]

Thanks for the ideas folks, keep'em coming.

[Ivantherussian03]

After that katrina mishap last year. I have given this a lot of thought. You have to be your own rescue operation; you cant count on anybody saving you. Where I live has made very resourceful.

I have vetinarian book for first aid to dogs. I have an ok first aid kit, but not as good I need.


VHF- hand helds and base station- they talk about 9/11 and other disasters you will hear all circuits are busy. Base stations can reach 30 to 40 miles plus easy, farther still in the right conditions. Hand helds typically work on line of sight as a basic rule, but there are exceptions to rule. They can reach 5 miles fine.

battaries (I use rechargables)

Substantial first aid kit and manual

Tools
rope
axe
hand saw
blankets
drnking water

a cheap small radio ( am/fm/sw) uses double aa- It is just reassuring to have some intellible noise. Grundig makes a nice model for $40 bucks. The battaries last for months. (I have nice rather Grundig radio(am/fm/sw/air traffic) set up with 3 attenas. I can listen to short wave from all over the world )

coffee press _ In AK the power goes out alot. It just more civilized to be able to have a great cup of coffee, with out any power. I use mine all the time. Go to Amazon.com type in coffee press.

one phone not the corldless kind-I mentioned before the power goes out alot here. The lines have seperate source of power. Cordless phone draws from the wall. The old fashion draw power from the phone line. I can talk on the phone when the power goes out, most people cant.

candles
matches
a safe light source latern of some kind, which I still need.
pen lights ( Ihave 4, one by the bed, in my coat pocket, one in my traveling bag, and a spare.)

You can prepare and spend all kinds of money. I find simple is better.

I am anxious to read the ideas of others.

[imashooter2]

Since you are staying at home, everything gets easier.

Shelter is taken care of. Wood heat means you aren't dependent on utilities or power. Just make sure you have adequate stocks of dry wood ready to go. If you are injured, you don't want to have to be cutting and splitting wood.

Next on the list of importance is water. If you want to store your gallon jugs long term, get an eye dropper and put 2 drops of chlorine bleach in each one after you fill it. Even then, be sure to swap out the water every year at the most. Figure you'll want 2 gallons a day for drinking on the minimum. More for sanitation, but that can come from rain barrels or whatever.

Speaking of sanitation, where are you going to dispose of your waste? Flush plumbing is unlikely to work without power. A cat hole in the back yard will work, but I like a little more comfort in my old age. A chemical toilet would be nice. Got plenty of paper? There are lots of substitutes, but genuine TP is a comfort you shouldn't do without.

Food... easiest is a reserve of what you eat today lightly supplemented by canned meats dried foods like powdered milk. Rotate it out by eating it.

A camp stove to cook the food would be handier than trying to cook on an open fire. Have fresh fuel available in sufficient quantity to last under heavy use.

Candles or oil lanterns with fuel. Extra wicks for the lanterns. A couple of good LED flashlights with extra batteries. LED lights last much longer on a set of batteries than the old incandescent bulbs.

Moderate first aid gear. Splints, bandages, antiseptic. Any prescription medicine in quantity to last the duration. A big bottle of antacids. There is likely to be some heartburn if the troubles should come.

There's lots more... Look at your lifestyle today. Everything you do, ask yourself how you'd do it with the power off.

[Maxthompson]

We're staying put, We always have at least a months worth of food in the panty, much more if we can keep the freezer going. Whenever dried or non perishables go on sale buy four and put up two. It's amazing how quickly you can stock up. Beans and rice in five gallon sealed drywall buckets will keep about forever and feed you a long, long time.

we cook with propane and heat with wood. our 200 gallon propane tank gets a fifteen gallon fill up twice a year. We're set for a good long time.

www.backwoods home.com has a neat $25 survival kit plan this issue.

Mike

[fourarmed]

Gallon milk jugs are not a great choice for long (?) term water storage. They break down. 2-liter soda bottles are better. In a hot climate, you can use extra freezer space to freeze and store them. If the power goes, they help maintain your freezer temperature for a while, then you can drink them.

[Bret4207]

We did 15 days and very, very long nights without power during the ice storm of '98. Since then I have extra wood on hand for warmth, and we have a generator. Food isn't too much of a problem, provided you like fresh chicken, lamb, etc. Good neighbors are a help.

On generators- My Devilbliss is currently down. Turns out the gas lines crack and leak, the fuel pump is plastic garbage and the carb is gunked up despite the addition of Sta-Bil, so it has to go to the shop. I have my eye on a big Cummins powered 3 phase 30KW job. Yeah, right....

[No_1]

Just being you and the dog make it much easier. The dog won't complain and if you do, nobody hears it. All prior suggestions are great. Let's talk about your shelter. Is it big or small, many rooms or few? Generators are nice but they have maintenence, fuel and break downs. More than likely it will not work when you really need it.

Ever read about "being off the grid"? Check this out --> http://offgrid.homestead.com/

Being off the grid is a way of life for some who like the remote areas. It can cost you a lot but with a lot of thought it can be affordable and the results last a lifetime. Don't try to build it all at once, figure out what you really need and do that first then add more later. Solar power if very cool. You do not need a huge panel because it does not take much to charge a bank of deep cycle batteries. Those batteries can provide light and also a source of power for radios. They can also run power inverters to provide 120 volts but be careful to plan your power needs as you can run a bank of batteries down pretty fast. Solar power heats water too. Not sure how popular pools are up in your neck of the woods but way down here we use solor panels on the roof to help heat the pool water. If your water supply can be pumped by a 12 volt pump through the panel, more than likely you will have warm showers at the end of the day.

You said you will heat with wood. Is that a pot belly stove or a open fire place? Pot belly stove is efficent heat and provides a good cooking surface. When I was a bach kinda guy, all my cooking was stovetop so a oven is mute. Open fireplace, hang a dutch oven or cook pot.

Food, anything you can add water to will pretty much do and will last forever until you need it if it is sealed from bugs. Dried meats will last forever too.

Meds, for you and the dog. Think of antibiotics and anything that will get rid of the nasty virus you picked up from bad conditions. Do not forget the meds the Doc prescribed you.

For more ideas, look at sailboats/campers and the way they are setup to survive when they cannot "hook-up". The conditions they endure are also exteme but in a different way. They use propane for the water heater and fridge. A big bottle suppling those will last a while.

I could go on for days but I think you get the idea. Let us know what you do and please show pictures.

Robert

[DLCTEX]

500 gal. Propane tank, well, generator, gas grill with side burners,keroses lamps, candles, matches, chainsaw, spare gas, extra canned goods and staples, meats and vegetables in freezers, small propane cooking burners and lantern with spare cylinders, plenty of wood in surrounding woods, extra meat on foot and wing outside the back door, etc. has kept this country boy surviving through weeks of power outages due to tornados and range fires, road blocking snow, and substation expolsions. DALE

[walltube]

take nothing for granted. Unless you have made prior arrangements with trusted friends and neighbors, do not 'advertise' what supplies and survival tools you have stashed away.

Be prepared to defend your home as if your life depended upon it. It probably will. Desperate people and looters will take your stuff and your life too.

If you are able to get some Mil-Spec MRE, do so, a very long shelf life.

The above comes from the mouths of those who survived the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleenz and Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

All the preceeding posts in answer to your question, 4nut, are sterling advise from Sterling Men. I swear, what a fine assemblage here.

Y.T.,

Walltube

[Ivantherussian03]

Here in the Bush Alaska, a power failure can kill people. Fuel is expensive, electric power can be unreliable, many houses are built with seperate systems. They have an oil furnace, and a wood stove. The kitchen stove uses propane. Electric power runs everything else; I even realized this year I need a electric heater for when it is really cold out, anything below -20 and house is cool. At -40 it is chilly in the house because the furnace cant keep up.

At -40 were lucky if any thing works. So much for modern technology:roll:

and another thing, I am how for being prepared; it bothers when people are not.

A older man once told me, "you can jog your way to heaven, but your still going die!"

[schutzen]

45Nut, I noticed you are in Oregon. How close are you to a seismic fault/activity zone? If you are in a seismic area, forget about the well. Odds are a major fault will take it out. If you question this, look up the history of Reelfoot Lake Tennessee. A homemade sand filter, a large box of alum, and a little chlorine bleach are cheap. You can turn a mud puddle into good, pure, palatable water. Just a little food for thought from the New Madrid Fault Zone.

[felix]

Schutzen, what town? I am from New Madrid, but living in Fort Smith now. ... felix

[schutzen]

Felix, I live in rural Western Kentucky about 35 miles east of New Madrid and 20 miles west of Paducah KY. My mailing address is Cunningham KY.

[MT Gianni]

A hand held water purifing pump costs about $50 and will keep enough water clean to cook and eat with for months. If you live by a river it is a lot nicer than giardia. Gianni

[Kraschenbirn]

Actually, never had to give much thought to a "stay-at-home" survival kit. My wife and I are wilderness (read "primitive") campers and store our essential gear (except for our sleeping bags, of course), pre-packed, in the weatherproof trail boxes we load into our Jeep Wrangler or canoe for back-country excursions. We're only a mile or so outside of town but I still make it a point to keep a minimum of 10 gallons (16 hours continuous running) for the generator and a couple of gallons of fuel for our Coleman Stoves and Lanterns. (If we'd need more gas, I'd just siphon it from the tank of the wife's commuter car.) Also, we're just about at the tag end of the city water mains and our tap water tastes lousy so we've usually got two or three 5-gallon containers of filtered drinking water and a case or two of Gatorade liters on hand as well. Ordinance and ammo? Include her hardware, and we could outfit a pretty fair SWAT team (less the Class IIIs) with a few odds and ends left over.

Bill

[doc25]

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/ good place to go looking.

[45nut]

I am a new member there. A ton of good info.
I would like to thank those contributing to this thread.

[Ivantherussian03]

what radio frequencies do police and fire use for their radio communications?

VHF or CB?

I did find out why people in Ak use VHF. VHF travels farther than CB.

[threerivers]

Years ago I bought a 16 foot beater camp trailer. I use it for a lot of things. For the last 10 years during the summer I take it about an hour drive from home and park it in the forest. Usually along a creek on the edge of a meadow. Basic gear and food in trailer. On weekends the wife and I pack fresh food and head for the trailer. We relax, fish, hike and scout for deer and elk. Sunday afternoon we cut a pickup load of firewood and drive home. Every few weeks I move the trailer to a new location. This is also our hunting cabin. When not in the forest the trailer is parked at home fully equiped with food for 10 days. During an emergency my first choice would be to stay at home. If that is not possible, this trailer makes a good second choise. Three years ago our home was threatened by a forest fire. We did not have to leave. But within a few minutes I could have hooked up the trailer and driven to a safe place. Once there cook a hot meal and go to bed. This is not for everyone but has worked for us and expands our options.

[Hunter]

I keep a Colt Gold Cup Trophy and a few extra magazines in my survival kit along with other lesser important components.

concentrated foodstuffs, water purification, a flashlight, radio, a blanket, a quality knife (I suggest a Buck 110), first aid kit, and a good plan.