Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
We all agree that being prepared for an emergency is important. That's why preparing a "Bug Out Bag" that will allow you can grab and go can be a lifesaver. So I began posting information here over 6 years ago, and I'm updating that information regularly. I've also gone beyond the traditional products. Because creating "the bag" is just the first step to being prepared, not the final product. We now know we each need to have at least 30 days of essential supplies like food water and medicine. We must be our own first responders.
I cover topics like:
*Products I both use and trust.
*Often forgotten items you need to have in your bag.
*Psychological and Emotional planning for the family
*Planning for Kids and Seniors
*What to do when Plan "A" fails?
This includes a curated list of links from a variety of sources too. I'll be sharing and updating links to sites I buy from and products I use. So we are clear, I have no sponsors, so the opinions, both good and bad, are my own.
Join me as I begin the 7th year/6th season of productions in an ongoing series of podcasts for you and your family to use and to share with others as you build a community. Is this fun or what?
Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
Beyond the Bugout Bag: Prepping for Spring
Spring brings a critical transition period for anyone concerned with self-reliance and emergency preparedness. The warming weather signals it's time to reevaluate your supplies, update your plans, and reconsider your approach to personal safety in an increasingly uncertain world.
The warning signs at local grocery stores can't be ignored—shelves with growing gaps, eggs priced at $11 a dozen, increased security measures for everyday items, and fewer staff. These aren't reasons to panic, but practical indicators that thoughtful preparation now can prevent hardship later. As one prepper wisely notes, the goal isn't to hoard 500 packages of toilet paper, but to methodically build resilience through careful planning.
Power solutions deserve special attention, with more preparedness-minded individuals shifting to solar options that avoid the storage challenges and noise signature of gas generators. Food preservation strategies gain importance during power disruptions, with innovative approaches like utilizing medical-grade ice packs to extend refrigeration capabilities. The hierarchy of emergency food consumption (refrigerated items first, frozen foods next, and dehydrated supplies last) maximizes resources during extended emergencies. Don't overlook the importance of seasonings—spices like black pepper, cinnamon, and cayenne not only make survival food more palatable but also offer medicinal benefits.
Perhaps most significantly, the philosophy of preparedness continues evolving beyond political boundaries. The lone wolf survivalist model gives way to community-based resilience, recognizing that diverse skills within a prepared network provide greater security than any individual could achieve alone. As one preparedness expert bluntly observes, "You may have 10,000 rounds of ammunition, but if you break your leg and nobody helps you, you're going to get gangrene and die." True resilience comes from balancing self-sufficiency with strategic community connections.
Ready to strengthen your preparedness posture this spring? Check out resources like the Happy Prepper's "37 Foods to Hoard Before a Crisis" and consider which skills your personal preparedness network might be missing.
Links:
37 Foods to Hoard
16 Spices for Preppers
Harper's Ice Cream
Food Handler Card Info
Top-Rated Ice Packs- Amazon
& a Shout out to Luigi's Hot Dog Cart outside Blackbird in Phoenix
Class Information: Refuse to be a Victim Personal ProtectionTraining
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Copyright: Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training 2018-2024
We got the clocks reset and the holidays behind us. Now we've got some work to do as we move into spring. Come on in, let's talk about it. Hi everybody, I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training. We are located in the Medford-White City area of Southern Oregon and located at 6800 Kershaw, where Kershaw and Corey I call it at the confluence of Kershaw and Corey, at that elbow curve out there by the sports park, we invite you to come on out, get familiar with safe and ethical shooting. We've got all kinds of classes, all kinds of lessons and, yes, those things are still happening. There has been no change at the range that I am aware of, and please stop by the website and concealed carry classes are still happening. We've got all the non-ballistic self-defense classes are still happening. One note my bug-out bag classes are going to be booked out. Actually, we're done with offering them until August. So if you want to take that, think August.
Speaker 1:A lot of folks have realized that now's the time to start thinking about prepping, and what makes this really interesting is spring is the time I tell my regulars and my new guests that it's the time you need to switch over, that. It's the time you need to switch over. Look at your supplies, look at your loadout, look at your everyday carry plans and look at your locations if you're going to be making any kind of move in the event of a difficulty, because the weather's going to change. The weather is changing. We're at that point right now where you have to, in fact, have a coat in the morning and by by afternoon you're looking for the sunscreen, so it won't be long until it's just extra crispy. Consider that in your prepping Now, a few of you may be looking around going where's the pictures?
Speaker 1:That is very much labor intensive. It's hard to do, quite frankly. I'm going to do it some more. I do like it. I like the effect it has. It's just right now. I am jammed up with stuff to do, so I thought it would be better to get the information out and we'll put in the pictures the next time around. So that's what's going on with that.
Speaker 1:Let's look at restocking restoring the biggest thing I'm seeing in the weather reports. The aftermath of all the disasters happening is that power is the big problem. More and more people are moving to solar. This is only because of the difficulty of storing gasoline and the fact that, with the gasoline generator, everybody within a three block radius knows you've got power. That's a worst case scenario viewpoint and we'll talk about that in just a second.
Speaker 1:But it is a good idea to make sure you've got all those little cables and all those little wires. Decide where you're going to set things up in advance. Look at your things you are carrying in the car. Look at the things you are stocking up in your home. Look at those expiration dates. It's all common sense, but they aren't selling common sense anymore. So I'm going to mention it and I think it's important. We all be aware of it. I've been guilty of that myself. I went to a water filtration system packet just doing the update. Oh, look at this. Yep, this is fine. One of the feed tubes was missing. I found it, but in an emergency, looking for something like that can be really, really stressful.
Speaker 1:Also, let's look at what's going on around us. Let's take a look at simple everyday activities and see what kind of clues they might have. We talk about having situational awareness, being aware of what's going on around us. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist If you've been to the grocery store lately. First of all. We go to several different grocery outlets and, interestingly enough, we usually go during the day. Well, my wife and I had a busy day and said well, let's just stop in in the evening. Totally different landscape Now.
Speaker 1:First of all, grocery stores are popping up with vacancies on the shelves. We're starting to see large holes on the shelf. Now, I realize it's before Easter, but I was amazed to see just two packets of eggs the last time I went to the store and they were $11. Two dozen eggs $11 a piece. We didn't dye any colored eggs at our house this year. Also, self-check is the norm. It didn't appear to be any cashiers. They were all clustered around the self-check and a lot more things are locked up.
Speaker 1:Now. I know that, like Walmart and Target and some of the bigger stores have gone to locking more and more items up because, quite frankly, people come in, grab them and run out the door. We found an instance of that. Not only did we need batteries and the batteries were under lock and key, we had to get the battery police to come and help us out, but one of the doors was closed and locked. You couldn't exit one way out.
Speaker 1:Okay, these are signs of the times. People are getting desperate, money is getting tight or tighter, prices are continuing to rise and supplies are going to start dwindling. We have been quacking about this. I hate to be the I told you so guy, but yeah, this is what we've been talking about. It's starting to happen. Be alert, don't panic, buy. Don't go out and buy 500 packages of toilet paper. I mean, come on. Careful planning, careful buying is going to help you be effective in the months ahead, months and years.
Speaker 1:Remember your emergency food is just that it's for an emergency. That's when you run out of everything else. The first thing you don't want to do is open up your dehydrated food. Some of that stuff's pretty good. I kind of like the stroganoff. Quite frankly, it's not bad at all. But if you're looking at long term, if you're looking at that 30-day minimum window, you're going to want to use up the food that you have both in the freezer and in the refrigerator.
Speaker 1:I've often been an advocate of having a backup. We have a mini fridge and we keep it full of ice packs so that if the power goes out, we don't have enough solar power to do a refrigerator, but we do have enough solar power to do a mini refrigerator That'll work. And the ice? Instead of putting all the food in the mini refrigerator, we're going to put ice in the ice packets actually, and not the regular kind. Look for those you would find in an MRE. Meals on Wheels delivers and they have a special ice pack. It's a little bit thicker, it doesn't break as easily. It lasts longer. You'll also find it at medical offices. I had good luck. I happened to have a connection at a medical office. When medicine arrives it comes in on these ice packets and they give these packets away. So this is a good brand. If I can find the link to it, I'll put it up.
Speaker 1:So the basic idea you keep the ice packets frozen. Something happens. You take the ice packets and put it in your lower part of your refrigerator. The upper part of the refrigerator is going to stay cold. With the frozen food it will begin to gradually thaw, but as you're using the food at the bottom, you can then start moving. The food at the top. Down Gets to be an extended situation. You keep those ice packets cold and you keep them on the food in the freezer. The idea is food is going to spoil a lot less slowly if it's kept cool and if you need to cook it and then keep it cool, you'll have the ability to get more value and more utilization, more use, out of the food.
Speaker 1:Remember there's something called the three-hour rule. After you cook something, you need to let it cool down and you need to keep it uh, free from. I usually put cheesecloth over the top of it. Sometimes you don't want all that condensation building up on a food product. There's a whole lot of things, in fact. You know what I found really good. Take a food handler's certification. You can do it online. Jackson County has a good program. A food handler's certification is going to talk about a lot of the basic food storage and food handling ideas that you are going to need, especially in an emergency.
Speaker 1:Since we're talking about food and food handling and what to do with this stuff, I go to a site called the Happy Prepper I'm going to include a link to that site and they have a list of 37 foods to hoard before a crisis. What is a good source for protein? What are ultimate survival foods available at your regular grocery store, at least so far? Well, some of the top listed are number one distilled and seltzer water. Number two canned liquids and juices. Number three dehydrated powdered milk, whey, w-h-e-y, no whey, and eggs, yum, yum, don't care for it, but it's better than nothing.
Speaker 1:Hard cheeses that come encased in wax and plastic. They still make them and they're still a good thing to have. They're going to last a lot longer. Protein bars and protein drinks. Canned and dehydrated meats. Poultry and seafood Drink mixes, coffee, oh my goodness. And seafood Drink mixes, coffee, oh my goodness. By the way, coffee I've been following. With the increasing price thing, coffee is going to be hit hard. So is chocolate, wine and cheese, just saying. And also things like oil, butter, lard, especially olive oil, and some of the better oils for shortening. There's a list of 37. I'm going to include the link for that, rounding out the top 10,.
Speaker 1:Whole wheat flour bread and pancake mixes can't go wrong with a little bisquick and cereal like shredded wheat, corn or rice. You can not only eat it, but you can use it as an extender when you're cooking. Also on the food list and I'm going to also give you a link, I call it a man for all seasonings, little tongue-in-cheek there spices. Now, spice is an essential item to have if you're going to run off in the woods and you're going to want to have some spice. You're also going to want to make sure you have fresh spices at home in the event of because spices do go bad. Pepper is time sensitive, cinnamon is time sensitive. So the top.
Speaker 1:There's 16 important spices for preppers. Whether you're bugging in or bugging out, if you've ever been out in the wilderness cooking and realized you didn't have your salt and pepper shaker with you and didn't know which plant leaves to pick to drop into the stew, you can have some pretty bland tasting stuff. Yes, it doesn't have to be gourmet. The goal is to survive. But yes, seasoning is going to make it just that much better. So what are your top 10 spices? Well, I'll give you a couple Bay leaves. They really go good in stew and in soup.
Speaker 1:Black pepper Peppercorns are going to last indefinitely. Ground pepper has a clock on it. Peppercorns in Egypt were actually worth their weight in gold. And chili powder Chili is really good. Cinnamon this is good for all kinds of things. That includes medicinal things. It can help diabetics overcome their problems. And it's the second most popular spice, right up there with black pepper in America. And number five on the list, cayenne red pepper. That is the king of spices and extremely useful in prepping. It even has some healing properties and you'll have an entire list to check out on that.
Speaker 1:Let's start planning what we're going to purchase while it's still available to purchase. Let's watch your prices. Things are going up and up and up. Maybe now is the time to make some purchases, not of a hardware nature, some practical food and first aid type supplies.
Speaker 1:One final thing there was a great article in the Guardian and it was about prepping, and prepping has really spread, and I've talked about this before. It's no longer a left or a right, a political item because, let's be frank, everybody here wants to survive. So there are new philosophies being espoused, being shared by preppers, and somebody had a really interesting point. They said it's great to be well-armed, it's great to be prepared for a disaster, but you need to be prepared as we're talking about now for the food, for the medicine, things like that, because you may have 10,000 rounds of ammunition, but if you break your leg and you've got nobody to help you, you're going to get gangrene and die Simple fact. So let's look at a more overall approach to prepping.
Speaker 1:The idea that we're going to run off in the woods and be grizzly atoms has been debunked, the idea that it's all going to break down and it could. Let's be realistic. It could happen, but it's going to take a while. Let's hold it together as long as we can. Look for connections in your community. Look for ways you can cement, especially if you're bugging in.
Speaker 1:I'm in a mobile home community and we're a natural to support each other because each of us has different skills, and that's the whole thing. In your prepper community, there should be a doctor. There should be somebody who can tell one plant from the other. There should be somebody who knows survival and defense skills. There should be somebody who can handle the radio. There's somebody who can keep the power going and get the water back on If it happens. You and I, ladies and gentlemen, are now in the position. We need to be self-sufficient. We need to take care of ourselves, of each other. Put the politics aside, put the labels aside. You don't have to get together for Christmas. You just have to make sure you survive till Christmas. So let's keep that idea in mind. And finally, something I want to try in the spirit of community.
Speaker 1:There are two places in I live in Phoenix. There are two places in Phoenix. I need to send a shout out to One is Harper's Ice Cream. They're right now by Ray's Market, over there in that plaza, over in the back on the left, but they're moving. Harper's Ice Cream is moving to the foodery and that's going to happen, I think, very, very soon if it hasn't happened yet. But excellent, it's Kraft ice cream. It's not just ice cream right out of the freezer, they make it there on site you can sample. They've got some wonderful flavors. They had peanut butter egg. A springtime favorite is back. It's bursting with real Reese's peanut butter and dark chocolate. It may be gone because those special flavors go quick. Check out Harper's Ice Cream. They are in the foodery. I think If they're not there today they should be there real soon. They're on the web, give them a check.
Speaker 1:And the other place, and I want to call it Luigi's we have a Blackbird here in Phoenix and right out in front of the Blackbird is Luigi's Hot Dogs. I am a hot dog aficionado, my wife and I like hot dogs and, by the way, these are not commercials, these are just townspeople that I find just really nice to be around. I'm old school, I like hot dogs from the cart. So, yes, luigi's Hot Dogs. They're out there in front of Blackbird. Check them out. I think you're going to like them. So that's it. A little high five to some of our neighbors. Some thoughts on food. We'll have some links for you and we hope we'll see you again in the coming weeks. I'm going to be in and out. I've got some projects I'm working on, so don't be afraid to go to the website. I've got to go deal with the dog. You all have a good day, be safe. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.
