Prepping report

[gadget99]

Hi All,

Not sure where to put this so am putting it here in the general thread.

Here is the deal.

We have achieved massive amounts of headway in our preps and are on track to being in great shape by Sep 2015.

I thought I might share the journey with you all if you are interested.

[Nemo]

Works for me.  But we will need details on how you got it going there.  And the tricks to make that great headway.

Nemo   

[DMCakhunter]

Congrats.

[JohnyMac]

Always interested Gadget 

With that written just be careful remember PERSEC (Personal Security) 

[JoJo]

I'm nowheres there but I'm working on it. Glad to hear you made it.

[Kbop]

 
so what's next?


I have a long way to go too!

[gadget99]

Great.. I will gather my thoughts and start.

[gadget99]

Hi All,

I figured I would make a start on this. (Be gentle)

This is the introduction, intended to set the context to this report.

First off. We are unique due to the fact that we reside in the UK. That has a huge impact on our prepping as opposed to if we were still living in the states.

As most of you know I had a 20yr career in the U.S. Army and retired in 2003. My job line was Airborne Infantryman. So this had a huge impact on the way we have prepped.

Now we live in a small city on the south coast of England. We are living a modest life renting in an Urban area. BIG difference to what you find in the U.S.

I will give you a taster of what I mean here. We live in a house that was built in the late 1800's. It is a three bedroom, one bath house. It is 16ft wide and about 50ft deep with two floors. The back garden is about the same size. So I believe that you can appreciate that space is at a premium. This has also had a significant effect on our preps.

Now let us explore the statements I made in my first post to this thread. I do not have a fully stocked retreat, bunker or castle. Sorry we are poor like most of you all. However we are in good shape. That means we are geared up to above the acceptable minimum and have about one year worth of sustenance.

I will be detailing what all of that means in follow on posts.

By the end of Sep. We will be in great shape. What that means is that we will be geared up to be able to provide for a few few others if required and have a basic three year sustenance package together.

Now I do need to explain something here. The infantryman in me has a HUGE respect for Murphy's Law. That means that we have prepped in a way that we can meet many different challenges. While our first option is to go dark and bug-in, we have tailored our preps so we can bugout with everything that matters.

Everyone here needs to think about how flexible your preparedness solution's are. Our solutions to the questions are not the only way to do it.

So I am going to leave it there for today.

More to come.

[Kbop]

 

[JohnyMac]

Great start Gadget! 

[gadget99]

So here we go again.

This part is much aligned to philosophy in a way.

From my life experiences I have found that we can very rarely predict the future in a way that is consistent enough to bet your life on.

What we CAN do is take a lesson from our military.

You embrace the fact that the world and events around you are chaos. You do everything to realistically prepare for anything that can be thrown at you. You remain flexible and ready for anything. You give healthy respect to murphy's law. You remember that sometimes unlucky things happen. Then you chill with a good whisky and wait for the game to begin.

I hope that make sense.

So looking at the prep's we are doing. We are doing it in the Infantrymans way.

In follow-on posts I will be describing our preps as layers. Layering your Prep's is a good way to organise them.

Here is a simple example.

Look at the individual person.

That person needs layers of preps. You can think of it as a timeline if you wish.

1. What does the individual need to have to survive today?
2. What does the individual needs to survive the week?
3. Month?
4. 3 Months?
5. 6 Months?

And such.

Using this thought process I will explain how we have geared up and such.

More to come.

[Kbop]

You give healthy respect to murphy's law. You remember that sometimes unlucky things happen. Then you chill with a good whisky and wait for the game to begin.

respect Murphy   

In honor of your current AOR;  Sod's Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod%27s_law
- a person I knew in my younger days liked to use it a lot

[Nemo]

Question, why or how, after 22 years Airborne did you end up in England?

Nemo

[gadget99]

I married a Brit and she was a great Army Wife. She put up with the the Army calling the shots, so her desire to come home had alot of weight.

Also there are other reasons. The education system is really good. The National Health System is better than has been quoted. The quality of life is pretty high.

[crudos]

Have you adopted a football club yet!

[gadget99]

Have you adopted a football club yet!

Lol. Interestingly I don't like football much.

[gadget99]

Back again.

Today I am going to cover individual load-out.

Now even though we plan to bug-in, that can change very quickly.

So each person in the household has a full load-out. This is layered to allow for flexibility.

I will loosely describe this in the layers.

1. Clothing and boots. All of this is military surplus due to the quality to price considerations.

2. Body Armor. Each person has a Level IIIa Soft armor vest that has stab protection. (Best compromise for the projected threats we face and weight)(The stab protection is REALLY important)

3. Tactical Vest. We settled for the South African Style vest. (No firearms here so there is no ammo in the vest)
(This layer is designed to fulfil the bear minimum of survivability for a week)
This is the first major layer of the load-out. Contained in the vest is everything that you absolutely have to have with you at all times. Water filter, Poncho,Water Carry, First-aid, survival tools, Lifeboat rations for five days, Vitamins, You name it.

4. A Molle Assault Pack. This is a medium sized pack.
(This is layer is designed to extend your survivability - still working on how long. Shooting for a week or two)
This pack contains things like the following.
- extra food (mostly our own version of an MRE made using dried food components. I will go into that in another post)
- A change of clothes with many extra socks.
- A second ponch to make a shelter
- Sleeping bag
- More water storage
- Cooking stuff

Now with everything that has been stated above we have a get home and sustain package.

The last personal layer is a Large Backpack that contains more food another set of clothing and seasonal clothing items.
I have built small single wheel hand carts from old bicycles that these bags get strapped to. So the individual can transport this bag if we get stuck walking.

More to follow

[Kbop]

very cool

2. Body Armor. Each person has a Level IIIa Soft armor vest that has stab protection. (Best compromise for the projected threats we face and weight)(The stab protection is REALLY important)

If you are worried about machetes and not ice picks & pitchforks;
have you thought of the stainless steel chainmail used for protecting food industry workers and cleaning pots and pans?  its light, low maintenance not too expensive.  It would provide good protection for places where veins and arteries run close to surface - insides of the elbow joint, wrist and under the armpits.  sew them into your jacket and put the body armor over it. 

http://www.uline.com/BL_6575?pricode=WY569&gadtype=pla&id=S-18009&gclid=CPjkha3u6cYCFQiDaQodA5IJ4Q&gclsrc=aw.ds
http://www.gadgetty.com/the-ringer-cast-iron-cleaner-xl-8x6-inch-stainless-steel-chainmail?language=en&currency=USD

[gadget99]

very cool

2. Body Armor. Each person has a Level IIIa Soft armor vest that has stab protection. (Best compromise for the projected threats we face and weight)(The stab protection is REALLY important)

If you are worried about machetes and not ice picks & pitchforks;
have you thought of the stainless steel chainmail used for protecting food industry workers and cleaning pots and pans?  its light, low maintenance not too expensive.  It would provide good protection for places where veins and arteries run close to surface - insides of the elbow joint, wrist and under the armpits.  sew them into your jacket and put the body armor over it. 

http://www.uline.com/BL_6575?pricode=WY569&gadtype=pla&id=S-18009&gclid=CPjkha3u6cYCFQiDaQodA5IJ4Q&gclsrc=aw.ds
http://www.gadgetty.com/the-ringer-cast-iron-cleaner-xl-8x6-inch-stainless-steel-chainmail?language=en&currency=USD

Good point.

Will be thinking on that one.

[Nemo]

Chain mail?  Look into the Society for Creative Anachronism.  http://www.sca.org  I have been to several of those and Renaissance Festivals.  They always have chain mail makers and great quality at reasonable prices.

Nemo

 

[JohnyMac]

Gadget, just want to say thank you for filling us in on your preps. It is bringing up some good ideas. 

[gadget99]

Gadget, just want to say thank you for filling us in on your preps. It is bringing up some good ideas. 

Thank you JM.

We have moved so fast on our preps that we are still sorting and packing so it takes a bit to get the posts out. Since we are in the UK and are using suppliers over here it is difficult a bit. Though I believe that what we are doing may be replicated over there.

We a shooting for the end of Sep to have more than plenty gear and 3 yrs of basic food stock. It looks like we will hit the target by the end of Aug though.

I REALLY need to get the wife on the forum here. She is the one that has put the bulk of the food thing together. Believe it or not. We are not going down the whole canned food thing. Lord the food prep post is going to be really long. We have found a whole-foods supplier that has a massive selection of stuff. Think Legumes, Dehydrated Veg, Soya mince and chunks, Rice and Quinoa.

Oh and remember on very simple thing. Food is to keep you going and healthy. Not to be your favourite dishes. It might be great to have lot's of canned stuff. Yet if you have to transport it you may have issues. 

We a really glad that we are adding food to thought.

Thanks

Rob

[thatGuy]

Rob, that was a spicy little teaser, you think I wouldn't notice that line about custom carts built from bicycles?

Tell me more!