My four points:
1. bug out, not in
2. LED light bulbs, iodized salt, and other things
3. eat fat
4. 2035, the brown stuff hits the fan
More below the divider doodle.
Found the link I was looking for,
mentioned in my last diary:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/...
The last part of the article,
referring to your bug out farm:
Make sure it is:
Off the beaten track, ideally accessible only by a single dirt road, and by at least a 4WD vehicle.Plain, not fancy. On the outside it should look like a simple hunting cabin, or weekend shack, so as not draw a lot of attention from locals and/or become a target for vandals.Close to a spring, well, stream or other natural source of water.Within 10 to 20 miles of a village or small town where you can get to by foot,if necessary, for additional supplies, and news of the outside world, should you need it.
Have enough land for growing your own vegetables and other crops.Close to a natural, easily harvest-able food source, such as plentiful wildlife for hunting, or lakes, rivers streams for fishing.Stocked with enough weapons and ammunition to defend yourself from small groups of marauders or bandits, should you have to.
I plan to write several diaries
about the ideal bug out farm.
For tonight,
I'll move on to the other three points:
2.
LED bulbs,
iodized salt,
and other things.
This second point is all about the many things we take for granted,
things the average prepper might forget to set aside,
and later say,
"Oh, no!"
LED light bulbs are supposed to last 20 years.
http://www.lowes.com/...
They use very little wattage,
and last many years.
When our current system fails,
we may or may not have power on our grid.
I'm guessing some parts of the grid may keep power
for at least a few years.
Most folks who think about electricity for their homes
think about solar panels
or wind turbines,
or both.
Plus batteries,
to store the power,
when the sun is down,
and the wind is calm.
I'm suggesting,
smarter prepping means thinking about
how will we make refurbished batteries,
when the stores are empty.
And what light bulbs will we use,
when the stores are empty,
and one burns out.
Eventually,
someone will need to figure out how to make light bulbs,
locally.
But that need can be postponed many years,
if we stock up on LED light bulbs,
before the brown stuff hits the fan.
If you buy so many LED bulbs,
that you have five times over what you need,
such as,
your home has five lights that you have on
much of the night,
and you buy 25 LED light bulbs,
and they actually last 20 years each,
you have enough light bulbs to last your home
100 years!
That should be enough time to figure out
how to make more light bulbs.
The iodized salt is another
of the many things
we take for granted now,
and we need to stock up now,
and figure out someday,
how to make these things ourselves,
locally.
As I understand,
deficiencies in
iodide,
vitamin c,
niacin,
and many other key nutrients
can be very serious,
eventually fatal.
We are spoiled with
iodide fortified salt,
vitamin D fortified milk,
niacin fortified flour,
and multi vitamin pills.
I do know that a little sunshine on the skin
gives us vitamin D,
and potatoes have lots of vitamin C.
But I simply don't know
how to make sure to get
all the essential nutrients,
without the current system
of buying them in a store.
Any prepper will stock up on food.
Smarter prepping means making sure
we do all these other things.
One more thing we take for granted:
fabric,
especially cotton fabric.
I know we grow a lot of cotton,
here in the USA.
There is a cotton field
near my home town,
here in Kansas.
However,
smarter prepping means
stock up on clothing of all sizes,
since you don't know who may enter your family,
or who may die.
Plus,
smarter prepping means
stock up on many bolts of cotton fabric,
and needles and thread,
so you can make clothing as needed.
And so you can make towels and washcloths.
Eventually,
someone will need to find a cotton gin,
and machines to spin cotton into thread,
and looms to weave the thread into fabric.
I don't know how much of such equipment exists,
here in the USA,
or if nearly all of it is in China.
Once again,
any prepper will stock up on food and water,
or get to a spring,
or have water filters,
to filter lake or stream water.
But smarter prepping means
LED light bulbs,
iodized salt,
cotton fabric,
and needle and thread,
and other things I've not thought of yet.
Well,
once again,
the diary is long enough,
and I only wrote about one point,
just mentioning the other two.
But that's alright;
I plan to write at least ten diaries
on each of the four topics.
Why not?
And I've achieved my goal,
to summarize each point;
the first one,
bug out,
second point,
LED bulbs and such,
third point,
eat fat:
those two words sum it up well,
but I can write passionately,
with science backing me up,
and lots of recipes,
on that topic.
I used to think
that fourth point
is the main point,
but,
to save millions of lives,
I need to focus on helping folks with their prepping efforts.
So,
now I see:
The fourth point,
the explanation of what will happen around 2035,
is only another way to help preppers,
because knowing what will happen,
and approximately when,
will help folks with their prepping efforts.
Thanks for reading.