Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag

Readiness:How to Maintain Your Emergency Stash

• Bill Bateman • Season 6 • Episode 17

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Ever been caught off-guard by an emergency with nothing but a stale granola bar to get you through? Bill Bateman here, and I'm about to change that for you. I recently faced the great water pouch leak debacle in my cars emergency kit, and it made me realize just how vital it is to keep those survival supplies in check. Tune in as I walk you through the dos and don'ts of seasonal car emergency kit management, ensuring your food, water, and batteries are in top-notch condition. We're talking busted water filters, pesky battery corrosion, and yes, even how to ensure your water doesn't turn your trunk into an unintended aquarium.

Strap in as we shift gears to the homefront where the rotation and reevaluation of your emergency stash can mean the difference between calm and chaos. You'll learn why your freezer food might need a refresh, which batteries can be life savers, and how a solar generator could be your new best friend. And with summer on the horizon, it's not just about beating the heat but being prepared for it—with well-organized, accessible supplies. Don't forget, our community classes at Retired Guy Productions are in full swing, offering a mix of safety skills and good old-fashioned camaraderie. So, grab your notepad, and let's make sure you're ready for whatever Mother Nature throws your way!

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Speaker 1:

Well, you remember we were talking about this whole drama with spare tires and did you have one? And keeping it inflated. Okay, that led to a whole new series of thoughts and discussion topics. Come on in, let's kick them around. Hi everybody, I'm Bill Baipman, part of the team here at Refuse to be a victim of personal protection training, and we are located in the Medford White City area of southern Oregon. The actual address, if you'd like to come by and see us, is 6800 South Kershaw, and that's where Kershaw and Corey come together at a rather obnoxious 20-mile-an-hour curve in the road. So slow down, we'll wait for you. We're here all day.

Speaker 1:

We talked last time about spare tires and finding yours and making sure it was inflated, and I was following my own good advice and I decided let's see what I got. So I did. I checked my spare tire and we talked about this last week. I've got an annoying donut instead of an actual tire grumble, grumble. But to get to the spare tire, I had to take all this stuff out of the trunk, because I have my emergency supplies, my road bag, my get-home bag, that type of thing, and I use my trunk for storage. Naturally, the problem or the lesson I learned. Every year, as the seasons change, I decide to reorder and repackage my supplies that I carry with me the snow gear, the long-term freezing, cold, extra blankets, extra lights, that type of thing. They're going to come out and I'm going to put in more summer related goods, more things that I'm going to need in hot weather for long duration survival. Part of what you have to do, what I have to do anyway, is when I reset my supplies, is I take a look at them and see what needs to be updated. I try and have my bags arranged by season, by use and by location. So what needs to be updated, let's, let's take a look through my trunk and maybe it'll help you understand what's going on in yours, what is expired or what's close to expiring now, not so much for the food I use the mountain house to hydrated food that's sealed. That's good for 20 years as long as you keep it in its factory sealed container and then Contained. I have the plastic buckets that they come in, airtight. That's gonna last a good, good, long time.

Speaker 1:

But I did discover what I thought was a ragingly wonderful idea a couple of years ago has turned out to be quite disappointing. I got some water and it's by Daleks dala X and they are water pouches, the idea. And they're kind of like those things kids, like the little juice boxes you can stick a straw in and I'm gonna move four, four ounces of happiness Available to you in flavors that never occurred in nature. Well, these Water packets are the same thing. I believe they're four or five ounces. Well, they used to be. Right now I have the same amount of water in my trunk. It is just Soaked into the cardboard box the items were contained in and apparently gone out the bottom of the wheel well, where my spare tire lives, because the the water pouches are basically flat. They weren't poked, they weren't Squashed by having something heavy on top of them. They've just given up the ghost and gone to water pouch heaven and we'll have a small memorial service for them.

Speaker 1:

But the problem is, transporting water is really Difficult, especially in a car, because if you have things in the trunk and something heavy gets on top of your water source, it's going to pop or leak. I have found some of the thinner plastic containers totally useless. I got some one gallon bottles of water from the grocery store and I thought when I bought them, that little voice in the back of my head, which I always think you should listen to, said hey, that's pretty thin plastic. It, sure enough, also leaked out, so we're going to be exploring in the next couple of Episodes. This episode showed me a problem. Let's look at some solutions on how to transport water without it Leaking out or damaging other goods in the trunk. I was fortunate it didn't damage anything else, especially like my jumper cables or my battery charger or my Inflator. I have the thing we talked about last time to, instead of using a bicycle pump, you can actually pump up your car tires now electronically. I'm in favor of that.

Speaker 1:

So what else needs to be Updated? Well, I looked at the food packs, checked water problem. I don't have any food cans in the car. I do have an odd assortment of blankets, tents, things like that, and I've shifted that out to more reflective as opposed to warming items. But looking at the batteries the batteries in the flashlights and the emergency standby battery packs that we have are they still good? Are they still charged? Is there any sign of corrosion?

Speaker 1:

And as you look at this equipment, check for corrosion, especially in flashlights. It's very uncommon if you don't check frequently, you'll unscrew the top of the flashlight. If you still have the old battery styles and there's that crusty, icky, nasty stuff and you could have actually waited too long it is possible to clean that out. But you can take a pencil eraser or a bit of very fine grit paper, sandpaper or cloth and get that stuff off of there. But you can also get so much schmutz in there. You've damaged your item. So check every season your emergency equipment.

Speaker 1:

I found that I had a water filter that came with a convenient plastic hose, which I've had so long. The convenient plastic hose has now starting to crack, so it's now a convenient piece of recyclable material. That's good to recycle. It's not good in an emergency situation. So I went through the trunk, checked my food, checked my water, checked my electronics, re-evaluated what I wanted to have in the trunk, what I wanted to carry, and we're going to talk about updating and changing your equipment here in just a minute. I also looked at my first aid supplies. Last couple of weeks we've talked about first aid and wound care and as a result of that we now have both the Boo Boo kit and the Trauma Kit. So light injuries to heavy or major injuries, we purchased different and better, in our opinion types of supplies 2x2, 4x4, different vet wrap.

Speaker 1:

You can re-listen to that episode if you want more details and we're getting more information. I have pulled up again. I left it last week for you. Emergency medicine without a doctor is written for specifically emergency use or use in third world countries. If there's like a major earthquake or a major fire, what do you do? How do you help? And there's a lot of good information there that is on last week's episode available for download. Check that out.

Speaker 1:

And I've arranged my trunk a little bit better, I think, in that I've always liked my first aid supplies to the immediate left. You open the trunk there it is the immediate left part of the trunk. I've got that in a little bit more intuitive small item, big item, heavy item, easier to lift out. A light item can be pulled out easily. That type of thing. Spend a few minutes. Imagine it's an emergency scenario and you have to tell a stranger yeah, there's first aid stuff on the trunk, go get it. So look at your supplies. We've upgraded. We included some saline. I'm really glad we got that. We've included I keep wanting to call it Betadine. I think that's close, the iodine based. We've talked to our doctor. We know what we can and what we can't use. So now we're ready to move into the house.

Speaker 1:

Seasonal change you're upgrading what's expiring. What's the problem? Look at your emergency food Now. The emergency packets that I have that I've talked about. The Dehydrated packets I use those as my last ditch for food. We've talked about that.

Speaker 1:

That is not the first thing you go to. I mean, okay, you've always wanted to try this stuff. Does it really taste like chicken? Yeah, it's actually pretty good, but that is for emergencies. That's when you're all out of other food and there needs to be some thought on that. Look at what you have in cans. Can goods have dates on them? Can goods can get dented, can get leaked. If they start swelling, if they start looking puffy, that's a very bad sign. I hate to throw anything out. If something's getting puffy, I won't eat it, I won't serve it to anyone else, but I will open it and put it into the compost pile in the backyard. That way at least there's some nutritional value in the future coming out of that. You can make a good compost with that. Naturally, you got to be careful. You're going to attract critters, so make sure you turn it in. I haven't seen a raccoon. That's all that fussy about stuff on the compost pile.

Speaker 1:

Looking at meat and things you have in the freezer, we are big believers in freezing ahead, and one thing that's really kind of bad is freezer burn. Now, if you open it up, that's when, I would call it, a coating of ice has come all around your product. Chicken and beef especially are susceptible to this. It's caused by the dehydration of foods with a higher water content Meat, poultry, fish, even ice cream. The liquids or the liquid content is going to seep out and crystallize around the outside of the product. Now, good news, bad news Freezer burn foods may look unappetizing and they have an unpleasant texture and an off flavor, but they're okay to eat.

Speaker 1:

You see, if your freezer is set to zero degrees, bacteria and other harmful pathogens cannot grow and that means your food will be safe to eat as long as it was fresh and safe when you put it away. And of course, you need to thought it correctly If you want to eat food, you can trim off the affected areas. Food with freezer burn, that is If you want to eat food, you can trim off the affected area and use the rest. It's not going to be as good. It's going to be tougher, it's going to be chewier, it can be dark and meats will become dark and red Chicken will get a kind of a goofy looking brownish color. You can eat it. You're not going to like it, but it's not going to hurt you.

Speaker 1:

Things like grains, pasta, ice cream it's going to lose its creaminess, for example, ice cream gets freezer burn, it gets crunchy and those are the ice crystals you're eating. So to prevent it, minimize freezer burn, keep your freezer at zero or lower. Food freezes faster. That means smaller ice crystals were formed and you're less likely than in properly freezing your food, which is just a bad idea. Anyway, also wrap properly to minimize the exposure to oxygen.

Speaker 1:

Wrap meat, poultry or seafood, freezer paper, plastic wrap and then in foil and if you're really serious about it, you're going for long term. Then in a freezer bag and, as always, remove as much air from possible from the packaging of frozen units and vegetables and use smaller containers. Don't take this giant freezer bowl and put small items in it. The less air you have around, the less air you have to chill to get things to freeze. So freezer burned food is a problem. It's not going to be unedible or inedible. Whichever is grammatically correct. You can eat it. You're not going to like it and you may have to trim some off. So look at your food packs.

Speaker 1:

We date our items in the freezer and, just like with any other emergency supplies, you have to rotate your emergency supplies. You're looking at something that went in in September and here we are sneaking up on March. You might want to think of bringing that one out and putting in a new piece of whatever it is. That is, you've got food in the house canned goods. Rotate, use up as you need to and if you find you've got canned goods that are several months out and you know you're not going to use it. We have in our park a food sharing thing and we put, they put out green bags and we have a really nice coordinator who comes around and helps with that. And I'm not saying give the stuff that's really ready to go, that should probably have been used. But when you're getting rid of food, if you're not going to eat it, donate it. Put some, get, let someone get some good out of this stuff. So you've got your food canned goods under control. Remember we talked last week. They have a lot of Bogo sales buy one, get one. It's a good time to pick up a next one, either to donate or to have, and, as the dates start catching up with you, put it out there, share it, build some relationships with those products.

Speaker 1:

Again, batteries in the house I had found and we talked about this last time, I'm going to say it again because I've seen some people actually doing it putting rechargeables in things like smoke detectors. No, this is one. We're going to have to take a second mortgage on the house and buy an actual battery, a long-term, high life, high use battery. Things like smoke detectors and anything like that. Pendants you wear if you fall over and you can't get up yeah, put a good battery in there, don't get anything junky. The rechargeables are for emergency use. They're great to have your emergency charger, your emergency batteries, and you can, as you're driving, you're charging things up.

Speaker 1:

Looking at what needs to be updated, looking at ways to do it. Let's take that another step forward. Let's look at replacement and reevaluating. Okay, we've talked a little bit about things in the home, we've talked about things in the car and we hopefully have got you thinking about ways to improve what you have, make sure what you have is working and it's up to date. The final thing on that is to make sure you've got all the pieces and thinking of replacement things. Let's go through our bag and look kind of around through it. Make sure that what you've got is still what you need to have.

Speaker 1:

One of the problems I have and one of the problems I share with you I do classes. I've mentioned those before. We'll talk about them again. But I do classes in the community, which means my gear is constantly being brought out. I don't have sponsors, so I don't have a big stash of just demonstration gear. If I bring in a backpack, that's a backpack I'm using, so it's constantly going into and out of the closet.

Speaker 1:

I'm thinking now is an excellent time for me and perhaps for you, because the holidays you got the kids in the closet, you had grandma come to visit and you had to make up the spare room and move some of this stuff out to the garage or the shed. Let's put things back where they're available for quick and easy use. That's very important and actually I find that I need to stand there like I do at the trunk of the car If I need it. Where am I going to go Boom. If I need the battery, the solar generator, where's it going to be? In relation to a door? The stupid things are heavy, so where's it going to be in reference to getting it out of the house easily without breaking your back or, even worse, injuring yourself in the middle of an emergency? Think about ease of load, ease of manipulation and when you're going to reevaluate possible replacement.

Speaker 1:

One of the things I looked at was a solar generator. I've been a big supporter of one particular brand. They work real well. They've just come out with their new series. These are lithium batteries. The one I purchased is good for 500 to 700 cycles. That means you can use it that many times before you're going to see it start to downgrade. The new ones are vastly improved 5,000 cycles. Well now, this is exciting. Being a trailblazer does come with a cost, because prices are going down and utility is going up. This is kind of a good thing.

Speaker 1:

If you're looking at purchasing, always check the current product reviews and do not take any reviews from a sponsored site. If you're Buffalo Bob's Phil Dirt and Croissants, you probably aren't going to get as much as you can honest response from Buffalo Bob as you are from bakers, other vendors, other people who actually know the product. Independent sites are best. So, looking at things that need to be replaced, I've seen great changes in flashlights. I've seen great changes in solar batteries or solar generators, if you prefer that term. I've seen changes in water. I've seen changes in first aid supplies and there's a lot of products that we're going to be reevaluating.

Speaker 1:

I think this summer, as I prepare for my fall class, I'm going to redo my list of what goes in a bug out bag, because that went up five, six years ago. It was updated periodically. Okay, there we have a review of kind of some basic ideas, getting ready for a new season update for the season ahead. It's going to be a hot summer, so let's plan accordingly. Look for what may be missing, in my case, water. I thought I had it and I didn't Discover it in the backyard or in the driveway. Don't discover it on the way to Reno in August. Look at what you're packing, where you're going to be going. Look at how things are organized and how you are going to get to them. Look at the batteries or electronics or things that expire. And the one other thing I would mention for expiration date anything medical.

Speaker 1:

I know that we've talked about using some services to stock up on extra medications through your physician. Work with your doctor to do that. Don't buy stuff from out of the country please. Not because it's a bad idea politically, but because you cannot always be guaranteed the quality of medications that you get from outside the US. Let's look at how long this stuff has been there. Look in your first aid kit. I mentioned our Boo Boo box. We have upgraded ours with better bandages, with better supplies and, yes, those things like Imodium or Pepto-Bismo, ferdyria and Flintstone Band-Aids and Eyeglass Cleaner and Sting Ouch Be Gone. Perichweasers that kind of stuff are still very important because those little things will drive you crazy.

Speaker 1:

But make sure that any medications you have, it's the same thing with your food. If you've got food you're utilizing. If you're, I purchased 30 days ahead. We have an incompetent pharmacy system through my health care plan and periodically I have to go to war with them to get more potassium. It's really annoying. It's a maintenance thing I do. I have to take potassium because I take blood pressure medicine and so it eats up the potassium and if I don't have it, my heart rate gets weird. So you'd think that would be something they'd send me every time it's up for review, denied, not authorized, and I feel like I'm dealing with Darth Vader.

Speaker 1:

So I've gone to extreme measures to pick up extra medications that I should have via prescription, and I'd like to make sure that the oldest is getting utilized. Don't put something in a cupboard and, you know, a year down the way, plan on using it. It's probably going to be okay, unless it gets moisture in it, in which case it's not. Or some medications do, some medications don't. Again, this is where additional information can be very, very valuable. Make sure that your medicine, as well as everything else, is rotated, up to date and accurate. Okay, that's all for this week.

Speaker 1:

Classes are, as always, available there on the website. I'm going to put up some information on our login page for you. You can always scroll back. That first date information, as I mentioned, I believe was from October and it's titled, oddly enough, first date. So there's some good stuff there and I invite you to come on out, if not just to say hi, not to get out to a fun afternoon with your friends and family. Maybe take a lesson, get learned up. We are all about safety. That's why we're here. We hope you'll come join us. Thank you Until then. Have a good week. The preceding program was a presentation of retired guy productions.

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Bill Bateman

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