Thursday, September 5, 2013

Family Survival List

Family Survival List




Putting together an emergency plan seems like a daunting task but if you are ever in an emergency situation you will be glad you took the time to plan and include your family. I am sure you are thinking it now; if an emergency situation arose and you did not have a plan in place your first thought is going to be “what am I going to do to protect my family?” Putting a plan in place will put you in a position to keep your family safe.
First things first, water and food are your most basic essentials. Ready.gov suggests a three day supply for each person in your group. Just how long a person can live without food differs because of factor such as health, weight, age, etc., but water is a must have. Since water is heavy to carry and transport we recommend not only having a water supply but also having water filtration supplies such as filters or purifying tablets/drops.
Protection is also important. Having protection (yes, weapons) in your home is one thing, but knowing how to use them is another. You want to be able to handle any situation, but it is also important that everyone else in your household be able to do so. You may have young children, so you will need to find your own comfort level with teaching your kids how to protect themselves. What I like to tell people is to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Ask yourself: How will (fill in the blank) be able to protect themselves if I am not here?
At this point you are already putting a lot of thought into what you need to do to keep your family safe, but you’re not quite done yet. Watch this video on how FEMA is trying to get kids to educate their parents. Their thought is that the average American won’t listen to FEMA but maybe the kids will and then educate their parents. Obviously, having the luxury of staying in your home in the event of an emergency is preferable to anyone. After all, you have all of your belongings, tools, food, etc. as well as the comfort of your home and a locked door. But you may not be so lucky, so an exit plan is a must.
What is the quickest way out of town? What are alternate routes? Where will you go? Does your city have emergency shelters, and where are they? What shelters accept pets? Keep all of this listed in a convenient place and update it regularly. Subscribe to your city’s reverse emergency notification system. In addition create a special plan for you and your family members in the even that you have to meet to evacuate. You might not all be sitting at home together when an emergency arises. You may be at work, your kids may be at school, and your spouse may be running errands. Have a plan specifically for getting your family together first, and then proceed to a shelter/out of town/etc. You may need more than one plan and that’s OK, just make sure that your entire family knows the plan and practices it. It is always better to be safe than to be sorry.

Duct Tape

Survival Blog

Survival with duct tape

Duct tape is an incredibly useful product to have around the house; it is readily available and inexpensive. It has many practical applications including uses in survival situations. The metallic gray color can be somewhat offensive to the eye, so fortunately it is also available in a variety of colors and designs at your local hardware store.
Duct tape is durable, strong and waterproof so it makes for an excellent patch in many situations. Here is a list of just a few things:
-        Repair your rain gear: have a tear or rip in a water repellant article of clothing? No problem! Just cut a piece of duct tape to completely cover the hole, inside and out, and it works just as well as it did before you got the rip!
-        Avoid chiggers: when walking through a leafy or wooded area, tuck your pant legs in to your boots and duct tape all the way around to keep chiggers away from your skin.
-        Repair a tent: Have a rip in the side of your tent? Patch over it, inside and out, with duct tape to completely cover the tear.
-        Create a makeshift butterfly bandage: cut duct tape into three small strips, one smaller than the other two. Place the smallest (sticky side to sticky side) across the other two, leaving the width of the smaller strip between the two.
-        Mark your trail: leave small pieces of duct tape on trees or other markers along your path. This works really great if you have neon colored duct tape.
-        Make cordage: duct tape is very strong, so twisting one piece of duct tape into a makeshift cord may be good enough, but if you need something stronger twist multiple pieces together.
-        Affix a bandage: you don’t want the “glue” of duct tape to affix to a wound, but take a piece of gauze or cotton completely covering your wound and cover with duct tape.
-        Close a hole in your water bottle/container: clean and dry the surface and affix enough duct tape over the hole, since it is waterproof you will not have any more leaks.
-        Mend shoes/clothing: apply duct tape to torn/ripped/cut area. If you have an iron to iron over the duct tape it will make the repair more permanent.
-        Repair a broken fishing pole: Did your fishing pole snap? Find a sturdy stick nearby and duct tape it to the pole (piecing it back together of course). Make sure the stick overlaps the broken section and the duct tape completely covers this section.
There seem to be countless uses to this wonder-tape and it is a must have in any survival situation. Oh yea did I mention the prom drees duct tape? click here to see duct tape prom dresses.

Miley Cyrus making U.S. look bad

From our friends at Survival Cave Food:


Miley Cyrus making U.S. look bad

If you haven’t had the chance to check out a video of Miley Cyrus’ collaboration with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV MVA’s your eyes should be thanking you. Thickes’ summer sensation “Blurred Lines” certainly makes you want to dance . . . but not like that. The former Disney star has done a complete 180 with her racy outfit, twerky dance moves and downright off-putting mouth gestures. Is this how our current generation of tweens and teens are acting?!
An often but fleeting thought is how our country appears to others around the world. Our politicians and celebrities are the focus of media not just in our country but in many other countries and this is what they see. They see Presidents, Mayors and Congressmen in sex scandals. They see a fascination (one I don’t really understand) with the Kardashian family. And now they see Miley Cyrus embarrassing herself and others on stage with her grotesque display of hypersexuality. US Weekly reports that Thicke is bummed over being overshadowed on his big night and he probably wouldn’t have included Cyrus if he knew she would out act the way she did.
There are people starving around the world, people homeless, people who are dying from preventable diseases, and here in the U.S. we choose to flaunt our lavish lifestyles and sing songs saying “I’ll do what I want” (thank you again Miley). The rest of the world has to see our country as a complete joke. We had it all, freedom from Britain, a lavish land that was fertile; we had “The American Dream”…for a while at least. But we have squandered it, taken it for granted, and now we are left with an out of control government, most of the country living in poverty, and all we seem to care about is what the hottest celebrity is tweeting.
We were once a world super power. The rest of the world actually looked to us as an example, asked for our help and valued us as an ally. It’s a depressing fact, but we are a joke to the rest of the world and Miley Cyrus is just the latest in a long line of crazed celebrity acts, pinning our flamboyant culture with tags lines of what not to do.
This isn’t just my opinion either. The Huffington Post reported on a story that NBC produced just a year ago in conjunction with the BBC and World Opinion.org that clearly shows the rest of the world thinks we Americans are “over the top” and that America “has the most negative influence” on the rest of the world. Oh yeah, and the vast majority view China as the world’s leading economic power. Overall it isn’t just our political stance in the world, but our bad manners, disrespectful attitudes and overt sexuality that are off-putting to the entirety of the world.
As a society we are in desperate need of change. I just hope we can. Still want to see that video? Ok so click here and see what the rest of the world sees!

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