Reliable Emergency SHTF Lighting Solutions

Editor’s note: Please welcome Daniel Major to the website. Daniel is the owner of Alpha Survivalist. According to Daniel,  “I’m not ex-Special Forces. I’ve no experience in counter intelligence. I’ve never had to survive 3 years as a castaway on a deserted island, and I’m not some wannabee apocalyptic zombie killer! It wasn’t until after … Read more

3 common disasters that could result in devastation

Editor’s note: PlanandPrepared.com welcomes Tony C to the website. Tony first realized the how ill prepared he was following the 2008 stock market/housing collapse. Tony vowed to change that, and has been preparing him and his family ever since. He’s a proud husband of 20+ years and a father of two boys. You can find Tony at Prepsurvivalguide.com

In a large part of prepper writing, people are told to prepare for major disasters. Events like EMPs, mass famine, financial collapse, martial law, or nuclear war get plenty of attention from our fellow preppers and advice regarding these events abounds. Most people’s view of a prepper is someone who expects only the worst in life to happen.

While this can be true, it is not always so. For example, I am not a big believer that we are going to go to nuclear war any time soon. I may be wrong, but I would love to be right.

What I am a big believer in is that things could go wrong every day. Some of these are not huge SHTF events (like a car running out of gas), while others can pose serious issues (like an elderly family member falling).

And more often than not, it is not the extreme events that cause disorder in our lives. The events that cause most of the destruction in our daily lives are when regular, daily occurrences go horribly wrong.

So to truly prepare for disaster, we must ask the question: what are common, daily scenarios that could go horribly wrong and result in devastation for myself, my family, and my loved ones?
The sad, yet true answer is that there are many common disasters that can quickly escalate to devastating events. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve divided the most common ones into three main
categories: health, location, and natural disasters.

Health

Health could be an issue where a seemingly minor pain can quickly become extreme or even life threatening. Imagine this scenario: My son was weightlifting a few months ago and felt a small twinge in his lower back. He’s a pretty stout fellow and is use to some pain. The problem is that he thinks he’s a really stout fellow and can work through the pain!

He was wrong.

His minor tweak soon turned to a full on muscular pull in his back. Not only was he unable to continue exercising, but he was walking funny, had trouble opening doors, and didn’t even want
to pour milk by himself.

His entire problem started because of a minor strain in his back. Now imagine if we had to bug out. Imagine if he had to defend himself, his girlfriend, or his mother from an attacker. Imagine
if he had to grow his own food.

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4 things you might not have thought about when prepping your home for a disaster

Editors note: Please welcome H. Davis to the site. H. Davis enjoys exploring the outdoors and loves reading up on new ways to prep his home (and car) for disasters. If you can’t find him online, you might be able to catch him at the gym or watching sports (Go, Broncos!). Follow him on Twitter at … Read more

4 Essential sleep tips during SHTF

Editor’s note: Please welcome Will M. to Planandprepared.com. William enjoys learning how health affects our bodies during tough conditions. This subject has been an interest of his since he was a little boy. In his free time, you will find him camping and reading non-fiction books. The work of a prepper is never done. You always … Read more

The Three Best Ways to Feed Yourself in a Survival Scenario: Hint – It’s Not By Hunting

PlanandPrepared.com welcomes Ben Ayad to the site. Ben is an IT project manager and founder of a newbie blog called outdoorstime.com. Ben loves outdoors activities and the nature that God has created, as any human being does. He shares what he knows about outdoors and the passion of other outdoors’ lovers who pride themselves in living off the land for extended periods of time in wilderness settings across the US.

Stockpiling food will not do you any good if you are forced away from your home in sudden SHTF situation. So you better have thought of other ways to provide food for you and your party.

Many people assume that in the case of a natural disaster, all-out war or rampant spread of disease that they will just get their gun and automatically turn into good hunters to provide for themselves. For some that is true but for the majority of others it’s not realistic and there are better ways of providing for you and the other survivors in your group.

Why is a not a good idea to assume you can provide for yourself by hunting? First of all it’s not easy even for experienced hunters to consistently bag game. Also, in a SHTF situation the game may become just as scarce as people. Not only that but you will probably not have a limitless supply of ammo for your firearm and you may need it for personal security.

So how do you provide for the sustenance of your group members? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Foraging

One of the quickest ways to gather food in a survival scenario is by foraging. Mother Nature does a nice job of providing you with an abundance of food just about any place you go or get stranded.
Foraging fruits and vegetables may not be as tasty and filling as a big slab of venison cooked up just right but it’s healthy for you and there is plenty of stuff around if you know where to look.

The big problem with foraging is knowing where to look for food. Even when you think it’s not there it usually is. Sure some foods will jump out at you like vegetables that you see growing and fruit’ hanging on trees but a lot of edible stuff is much less obvious. That is why you need to educate yourself in order to survive better in a SHTF scenario.

How to better educate yourself about foraging?

You may not want to put the effort into this but quite frankly the only way you will be able to find the abundance of not so obvious food sources that are out there is to educate yourself. If nothing else, at least take the time to throw a paperback book on identifying food sources into your survival preparedness pack.

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6 Things You Should Throw in Your BOV’s Trunk When Bugging Out

One of the things less talked about in bug out scenarios is the things you will take with you. For some reason, many don’t put a lot of thought into this, even though leaving one’s valuables behind is hard to understand. Sure, when you need to evacuate, you’ll have plenty of other things to worry … Read more