– Why Preppers Should Learn to Survive Without Brand Name Equipment:
ReadyNutrition Readers, this article is a “trumpet call” to continue your preparations, or to commence with them if you have not done so already. We don’t know what the inauguration is going to bring, if indeed it does occur peaceably. For one thing, everyone and their brother on the Left has threated everything possible, such as mass demonstrations, mass disruptions, and physical violence against the incoming president. The bottom line: we don’t know what will happen, and it is best to remain in a state of readiness and preparation.
I’m also going to explain something of my own mindset regarding matters toward preparation. With some of the pieces I have written, there have been a good deal of disparaging comments, especially directed toward pieces with recommendations for tools, equipment, food, and on-the-spot preps from bargain sources and Dollar stores.
The reason I have suggested things such as small tool kits and “piecemeal” equipment from thrift shops or the Dollar Trees is that there are tremendous numbers of readers that are either just starting out prepping or are on a limited budget…so limited that they can do it no other way.
I fully understand there are some people who cannot afford laser rangefinders, Gerber Multi-tools, or Fat Max Stanley tape measures. I suggest alternatives for them. Know what? Here’s the bottom line on that:
None of us are going to be completely prepared when the bottom drops out. Knowledge and skills should be desirous over materials, because with these you can either acquire what is needed or improvise out of what can be fabricated into something useful.
Obama just recently signed Executive Order 12333 into play. This one removes the restrictions over the intelligence-gathering agencies regarding the sharing of information pertaining to terrorist suspects, ad infinitum. There is also mention of procedures that reinforce previous NDAA policies of taking any and all actions necessary against terrorists, whether they are actual or potential. In essence, the EO hands over the unchecked power to snoop into the hands of soon-to-be president Donald Trump.
Recall that in 2009, Bush Jr. gave the incoming Obama a manila envelope marked “from #43 to #44.” As can be seen, the Patriot Act and the 2006 Warner Defense Acts already were in place when Obama assumed the throne. Please do not think that things cannot continue to deteriorate just because Trump is assuming the office. That is why we must continue to prepare and plan for an eventuality. What is that eventuality? It is not an event as it is a concept: eventually the United States will face a crisis of a magnitude that cannot be either easily overcome or (should the crisis occur) recover from.
This is why the advice is the way it has been. Let the readers obtain what they can. You guys and gals are intelligent. You know the difference between a “Survival Knife” that runs $15 and is made in Pakistan to a BMF Gerber made in the US that runs ten times that price.
The point is to win with the tools and pieces of equipment you have available until you can make improvements to them.
Productive advice is always useful, but let’s keep it in the context of what it’s meant for. There are many people who write to me and ask me what to pick up at least temporarily until they can replace it with something better. Not everyone can afford a Cannondale, and some must be content with a Huffy…bought used…for a bicycle to pack in the back of their pickup truck. The point of ReadyNutrition is not just for everyone to buy the same manufactured things akin to a bunch of clones, but to improvise and make do with what they have and back those materials up with knowledge and skills.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that everything is just going to improve as soon as Obama leaves. You must be prepared for all manner of disasters that can bring the SHTF to your backdoor at any given moment. The final point I wish to make is this: I have a survey meter, but I also have a Kearney Fallout meter that I made with my own hands. I can also repair and recalibrate my survey meter, and make more Kearney meters in addition to the one I already made. Obtain it, or make it, and then become an expert with it and with repairing it. This holds true for all of your supplies.
To encourage those who may need it: whatever tools you rely on, make sure they’re maintained and that you can use them. It may be that your screwdriver set or hacksaw from the Dollar Tree are all you can afford, but take heart and make do: you’re at least doing something. When it all boils down to it, if you have to cut one lock on a chained-up alleyway or unscrew one hasp to make a getaway…the dollar tools will have paid for themselves.
So: take these words of encouragement, and keep them close to heart. You can find a way to succeed with what you prepare that works within your budget and abilities. Whatever equipment you choose, know it through and through: let the equipment be an extension of yourself. Do the best you can, win with the weapons at hand, and take care of your family. Especially that last part: that will see you through. Keep in that good fight. JJ out!
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson was a Special Forces Medic, EMT and ACLS-certified, with comprehensive training in wilderness survival, rescue, and patient-extraction. He is a Certified Master Herbalist and a graduate of the Global College of Natural Medicine of Santa Ana, CA. A graduate of the U.S. Army’s survival course of SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape), Mr. Johnson also successfully completed the Montana Master Food Preserver Course for home-canning, smoking, and dehydrating foods.
Mr. Johnson dries and tinctures a wide variety of medicinal herbs taken by wild crafting and cultivation, in addition to preserving and canning his own food. An expert in land navigation, survival, mountaineering, and parachuting as trained by the United States Army, Mr. Johnson is an ardent advocate for preparedness, self-sufficiency, and long-term disaster sustainability for families. He and his wife survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Cross-trained as a Special Forces Engineer, he is an expert in supply, logistics, transport, and long-term storage of perishable materials, having incorporated many of these techniques plus some unique innovations in his own homestead.
Mr. Johnson brings practical, tested experience firmly rooted in formal education to his writings and to our team. He and his wife live in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with their three cats.
H/t reader squodgy:
“You just DON’T need “Pantene” and “TAMPAX” and “GILLETTE” and “RIGHTGUARD” etc.
Fancy Trade Names are expensive.
It doesn’t take long to find suitable equivalents in Dollar Stalls and Flee Markets at a fraction the price the big Global Corporations like Procter & Gamble or Lever charge.
Just as an example, Procters own Braun, Gillette, Sunny D, Pantene, Pringles etc
“
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