Prepping with a Twist: Stocking Stuffers!

Unwrap the secrets of thoughtful holiday gifting with a twist of preparedness that could make all the difference in an emergency. Ever wondered how to surprise your loved ones while ensuring their safety and security? Join me, Bill Bateman, as I share a festive mix of unique stocking stuffer ideas and essential preparedness tips. From Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training's gift certificates for concealed carry classes to value-packed range passes from the Rogue Valley Shooting Sport Association, learn how these gifts can be both fun and practical. Plus, discover the significance of tailored first aid kits, offering peace of mind in different environments—be it home, car, or workplace.

Gear up for the winter months with vehicle emergency preparedness strategies that could be lifesavers on the road. In a world where not everyone is sold on the idea of prepping, find out how to create small, effective emergency kits that even the skeptics in your family can appreciate. We'll explore must-have items like emergency blankets, flashlights, and tire chains, while also discussing the importance of considering the local environment and the recipient's skills. And don't miss the discussion on shopping locally for key gear like foldable shovels and woolen blankets—because when the weather outside is frightful, being prepared is delightful.

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Copyright: Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training 2018-2024

Chapters

• 0:00 Holiday Stocking Stuffers and Preparedness
• 14:57 Vehicle Emergency Preparedness Essentials

Transcript

Bill Bateman: 0:00

Well, hi everybody. It is November the 24th, the official start of the holiday season, at least at our house, and I've got some great ideas for some stocking stuffers. So come on in, let's talk about it. I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training. We are located at 6800 Kershaw Road in the Medford White City area of Oregon and we hope to see you sometime, either to do some recreational shooting or to do some class work or just to have some questions answered. Get acquainted, stop by and say hi. We are here open at 8 am and we generally close at dusk, so right now that's about 4, 4.30, depending upon when you're hearing this Call ahead to make sure we're closing a half hour before dark for your safety and ours. So that's what's going on. And, yeah, it is the holiday season and I thought about stocking stuffers. I know that, regardless of how you separate the holiday at your house, I know at our house we always had Christmas stockings and they always had an orange. They had to have a and they always had it. Well, an orange, they had to have a good old orange in there. At least, apples were never in season back in the day when I first started this Christmas stuff, but stockings always had little things in them, small physical items. Sometimes they could be a gift card, sometimes they could be a gift certificate, money, just any number of useful things. So let's talk about stocking stuffers.

Bill Bateman: 1:50

As we look at the upcoming holiday season, well, the most obvious things to talk about are gift certificates and at Refuse to be a Victim personal protection training we do offer gift certificates. Protection training we do offer gift certificates. It's a simple process online, but if you're somewhat flummoxed by all of the things you might need to do, give us a call, tell us what you want and if you want to book that class like if you want to book a class for may, you can, because we do have certain classes all the time like, like our concealed carry class, and if you want to book one of those in advance, pay for it, pop it in an envelope and it makes a beautiful gift for someone this holiday season. You can also give them just the gift certificate and they can schedule the class. Now, the certificate pays for the class, but it doesn't enroll them in a specific session, so if you don't know when they can come for a concealed carry class. You might want to give them a certificate and let them set it up on their own time.

Bill Bateman: 2:57

Another thing that's kind of handy and I have heard this more and more from people over the past few years we have range passes at the Rogue Valley Shooting Sport Association, which is where we are hosted. So if you come into RVSSA out there on Kershaw Road and thank God they finally got Foothill, it's about 98% open. It's still messed up over by the winery but I think it's getting a little better you can actually go from one end to the other. So if you're pulling in and it's got that big turn where Kershaw turns into Corey, slow down people and make that easy turn into the range. We offer range passes and this is unlimited use. Each day you can come in, then go out and get a hamburger and come back and people are amazed at how inexpensive these things are.

Bill Bateman: 3:55

We offer a family pass and a family is you, your significant other, you and a spouse, your significant other, you and a spouse and any children under 18 in the home. This doesn't mean not, this does not mean the entire family, your cousin Bob, your sister, louise, no, lovely people, great, we'd love to have them. If you bring a guest, it's only the regular day use fee. So this is you, a spouse and children under 18. Fee so this is you, a spouse and children under 18. Or if you are, like me, a senior citizen, it includes grandchildren under 18. So the prices are unbelievable.

Bill Bateman: 4:37

I've been there for eight years. The family pass is still only $40. An individual pass, which is obviously for you, is only $25. Now to put that in some sort of comparison, I went up to Portland and my son and I like to go shooting up in the Portland Vancouver area and we found a lovely range up there $60 an hour. So compare that to a $25 for a one year pass. You can see this is a real value. It's one of the best deals, I think, in the state of Oregon if you're going to shoot and take classes on a regular basis. Those just fold nicely into a little envelope and pops into a stocking, and there's a lot of other things that are good as well.

Bill Bateman: 5:24

My son and I were talking about first aid kits. Now first aid kits have become like bug out bags. It used to be you just had a bug out bag. Well, now more and more people are doing as they do with the bug out bags. They're having specific kits put in specific places for specific problems. Case in point if you have an individual first aid kit and it's in the car, that's going to be for road accidents, that's going to be for things that are going to happen when you're out, away from home. The kit you're going to have at home is going to be a lot different than the one you're going to have at work. Now, most employers are required to have a first aid kit, but if they're not, the one you're going to have at work Now, most employers are required to have a first aid kit, but if they're not, or if you're not finding it, it's a good idea.

Bill Bateman: 6:13

Make sure the kit is stocked for the type of injuries that are likely to occur where you work or where you travel. If you're a hiker and you're out on the road, you're going to get maybe come off your mountain bike or slip and fall down a hill. You're going to get road rash. You might break something, you might get poison, oak, poison, ivy, you could get snake bit. Those are the type of things you should look at when you are purchasing your first aid kit. I'm really pleased to see, the quality has come up quite a bit and the prices haven't come down quite a lot, so that's good.

Bill Bateman: 6:51

I did read the comments and, folks, every time I mention this, I'm going to say it for our new people Look at the comments, look at the reviews. Now there's going to be that obvious person who's going to if it only came in purple, yeah, okay, fine, that's not a complaint, that's an observation and a request. But some people, in going through these first aid kits, have said boy, I was really surprised to only see two inch gauze. That was really not a help when we had a major bleeding incident. Four inch gauze would be better. That's a recommendation and that's the type of thing you should do when you purchase and when you get your kit Look through it, make sure it's complete and make sure it's going to do what you need.

Bill Bateman: 7:35

Now, out at the shooting range, I have a trauma kit. I carry it in my car along with my road kit. But this is if somebody accidentally gets shot road kit, but this is if somebody accidentally gets shot In the event of. Wouldn't it be better to have it than wish you had already purchased it? We make sure we have a tourniquet. We make sure we have chest seals, we make sure we have the proper clotting, the quick clot gauze, the quick clot powders, and we know how to use them. And we know what the difference is. And that's the big part of any first aid kit Not only making sure the materials you're purchasing are going to be good for what you're doing, but you know how to do it. You know how to use a tourniquet properly. You know how to use quick clot gauze. You know how to use the burn cream or the burn compressing, the fabric that you put on a burn and the treatment that goes with it. So looking at first aid kits for stocking stuffers is a great idea.

Bill Bateman: 8:39

Flashlights I have, especially with the time changes. I cannot even tell you how much I count on my flashlight now, especially if I'm getting up early or if I'm out late. Flashlights as first aid kits have gone through a major revision in the last couple of years, in a good way. It used to be flashlights were about the size of a nightstick, weighed about the same thing and were about as wieldy. Well, they now have the smaller ones, ones that will fit in your pocket, ones that will fit in the palm of your hand.

Bill Bateman: 9:15

I like. I have several. I like one with a button on the base. You click it, it turns on. You click it, it goes through the cycles. More and more flashlights are coming with a cycle. It used to be on and off. You can still get that. I have one that clicks on high. It clicks on low, then goes to strobe. I have a problem with that. I'd rather have strobe start sooner, but that's a personal choice. And then there's one that actually flashes SOS.

Bill Bateman: 9:45

Now, depending on where you are, again, if you're out hiking, that sos flashlight could be quite the lifesaver, looking at how much light it puts out, looking out at the specifications for how long it's going to run, based on how much light you're putting out like if you really need to. If you're out in the dark, capital d-a-r-k. You're going to need to look for drop-offs. You're putting out Like if you really need to. If you're out in the dark, capital D-A-R-K. You're going to need to look for drop-offs. You're going to look for dangers, overhead obstructions. You're going to need a lot of light to survey the area. Then you're going to want to turn that down so you're not burning the batteries. Once you've got an idea of what you're doing, turn that down and extend the life.

Bill Bateman: 10:29

So looking at what makes the flashlight run is also important. What type of batteries do you have? Are they rechargeable? Can you fly with this? I've had the experience of coming through TSA and I always carry a flashlight and they say, well, what kind of batteries are those? And I say, well, let's take a look. And they say, oh nope, those are the kind that cause fires in the cockpit, you can't, or the fires in an airplane, you can't have those. Okay. So make sure before you're going to fly the airplane will allow, the airline regulations will allow that type of flashlight to go with you, even in a checked bag.

Bill Bateman: 11:10

These things are serious. The good thing is, with the rechargeables they last much longer than they used to. They have different brightness settings and they have different methods to turn them on and turn them off. I did have one that I put in my pocket. It had a button on the side. It was a fairly sturdy button, but I'll be darned. I'd look down and my left pocket would be glowing. The stupid thing came on and boy did they get hot. That's another point. Does this flashlight actually produce heat? And if you put it in a backpack and it happens to come on, you can actually end up burning your stuff. So flashlights Important to have. Lots of options, a little homework to do, but it can really make your life a whole lot better.

Bill Bateman: 12:03

One thing I do want to caution you. There are some flashlights out there with what I will call a DNA collector on the front of them. They could be used as a flail or like a coubaton, because, in addition to having the metal casing for the flashlight, there's like little teeth around where the light is. Now this can be in a crisis situation. You flip on that strobe light and if you have to hit someone, it's definitely going to step them back. That's a self-defense flashlight. You're probably not going to get that through TSA and I can promise you some real questions at Aunt Helen and Uncle Bob's house if that thing happens to come out.

Bill Bateman: 12:47

Consider what's legal in your jurisdiction. In my area, things are going to be different than in other states. As I'm always pleased, I'm absolutely fascinated to find out. We are popular coast to coast and actually in some across the pond, in some of our foreign countries as well. And thank you, thank you all who are watching. I don't want to tell you to get a certain kind of product and you find out it's in your area, something you shouldn't have or you can't have or you're going to get into trouble with. So always, always, please check your state and local regulations, what's valid in your community, and there are a lot of good options, regardless of whatever restrictions are in place.

Bill Bateman: 13:33

Let's see what else we're talking about. Oh, as far as the stocking stuffer idea over the holidays, let's talk about prepping. Let's talk about emergency preparation instead of politics. This family gathering, I know at our house it's going to be rather interesting. So, family gatherings this year, a lot of people are concerned about what are we going to talk about? And unless Uncle Bob shows up with a tinfoil hat, you got a pretty good shot of steering the conversation away from a fistfight by talking about prepping, keeping the family safe. How are we going to do that? And what kind of first aid would you have in your car, based on what you do? Well, we're in high mountain areas and we get a lot of snow and a lot of cold weather. I'd want to have something for heating. Oh boy, we're still in the sunbelt. We're going to want to have extra water. You know, that's a good redirection in a positive redirection, something you can do to make sure that you are getting the most out of your time. As we mentioned, if you're in different areas survival kits, things you can give to people I think a small kit is a good way to introduce the idea of prepping to people who are against it.

Bill Bateman: 14:57

Now, I mentioned this last time. This is not my idea. I saw it in a magazine, I think it was in the Concealed Carry magazine, to give credit where credit is due. And the idea is I would show up, I'm Uncle Bill and I'd show up, and Cousin Molly or Cousin Maggie, they didn't want to put any of that stuff in their car. They thought it was silly. So I said well, do old Uncle Bill a favor, put this little shoe polish-sized bag in your car and what it's got in there is an emergency blanket, an emergency flashlight, a CPR shield. I don't know if I said flashlight or not, but you get the idea.

Bill Bateman: 15:36

Things which are locally going to be useful in an emergency situation Start small and then, each time I come by, I bring another goofy item to add. Well, they're goofy to them, they're not goofy to me. One thing that I found has been really improved on talking about small things you can put in the car that most people aren't going to get too upset about, used to get these things to put in the trunk to pump up your tire. Well, I've got one and it's about the size of an AED. It's a pretty good size unit and you hook it to the tire, you set it to what pressure you need, like let's say, 35, 36 pounds per square inch you plug it into the lighter socket. Some lights flash, you wait a few minutes, push a button and it blows up your tire. Well, this is great. I saw one that my wife got for her son and it looks like a mini cell phone. It'll take a car. It'll take a car. It'll take a truck tire right up to the proper inflation.

Bill Bateman: 16:46

But these are the little things that are small kits, small survival things, small helper kits that help get people in the mood, or the mindset, if you will, to think about prepping, being prepared for emergencies. Let's look at that Different types of things again, looking at your area and looking at the person you're giving it to. You may have someone who's totally against it and I don't want to be accused of being sexist but look at the personality and abilities of the information that the person might need that you're giving it to. Some people are like I'll be 100% honest, I am not the person you want with the toolkit in an emergency. No, I can get anything on earth apart. It's just putting it back together. That's the problem for me. I'm not the one who's going to need a tool kit. I am the one who's going to need to figure out how to use the duct tape or the fire extinguisher or things like that, so you have time to use the tool kit. So it's not sexist, it's not chauvinistic, it's just whoever the person is, look at their abilities, their skills and their interests, as well as where they're going and what they're going to be up to. Again, where you are.

Bill Bateman: 18:07

I've gone through my trunk and pulled out all of the summer stuff, and I'm glad I did. Some of the water needed to be replaced. I've got in the winter things now, and hand warmers are something we always want in our car, both in the glove box and in the trunk. In the larger size version we go where there is snow. That's we're gonna do this Thanksgiving. We'll be up in the Diamond Lake area and it's already snowing pretty good up there. So make sure the chains did you get new? Will the chains fit? The new tires? I hold their feet to the fire at Les Schwab and make sure they check that every time we go in and they always do and they always fit. So that's great. Hand warmers absolutely.

Bill Bateman: 18:54

And my wife shared this with somebody at work and mentioned kitty litter and the woman said what on earth would I need kitty litter in the car for Well, to put under your tires if you need traction. It's easier to handle and a little bit lighter than a hundred pound bag of sand. It also is going to be biodegradable and if that's important to you, it's worth considering. So we've got a shovel. If that's important to you, it's worth considering. So we've got a shovel. And I'll tell you, I do believe in shopping locally whenever possible. Our Army Navy Marine store out there on the highway there on Vilas and I want to say 62, they've got small, foldable shovels. Now, I have not had good luck with the World War II trenching shovel, no, but they do have some better made, better sized shovel with metal and you can get a purchase. And last year I did in fact have to use this. We pulled in and it snowed the night before so I had to shovel out in front and behind the tires and put the kitty litter there so we could get a rolling start up the hill and boom, we're back on the road.

Bill Bateman: 20:06

So look at what's going to be in your trunk for the wintertime. We're a cold area. If you're the reverse, maybe you're looking at an area where you're still getting heat or you're still having to deal with a lot of water, a lot of rain. Look at having an extra tarp or two In our trunk. We have not only an extra tarp, we have extra blankets. And the Goodwill store or the thrift stores, or again the Army Navy Marine store, has those old World War II woolen blankets. They're not fashionable. You may not want to put them on the bed when Cousin Bob and his wife Helen come. You know how they get, but these things are great blankets and they're going to keep you warm. And I am still going with the metal can number 10 coffee can and some candles that actually, when used correctly and there's a how-to and if you want to go back a couple episodes and find it on emergency heating, it's a way you can. No, you can't heat the whole house with it, but if you get stuck in the car it's going to be quite, quite helpful.

Bill Bateman: 21:22

So let's look at little things you can do. The air pump is a great idea. Small things to get other people on the road, small things you could use for yourself, obviously. Look at the ideas for the holidays and right now, what's coming up right after Thanksgiving? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Times up black friday, I'm already seeing discounts of 30 on some of these first aid kits and electronics. 30 is nothing to be sneezed at. That takes 99.99 back into the mid 65 dollar range. That's a nice little savings. So if you're going to be looking at updating or doing creative gift giving this year, stocking stuffers are, for sure, at a 30% discount, an even better idea. So that's our holiday update this year.

Bill Bateman: 22:17

We hope you're going to be safe and sane on the holidays. As always, we've got the classes going on. There's everything from the non-ballistic self-defense right on up to tactical training for active shooter situations. Those gift cards are great for these classes and a gift pass for recreational shooting out at the range. The phone number is on the front page. The classes are just so easy to find. You can't believe it. The website address is there. We are going to look forward to seeing you when I get back after the Thanksgiving break and talk a little bit about more holiday ideas. So until then, be safe, keep your eyes open, your heads on a swivel and be good to one another. We'll see you next time. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.