Survival: Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
We all agree that being prepared for an emergency is essential. That's why preparing a "Bug Out Bag" that you can grab and go in an emergency can be a lifesaver. It also opens the door to deeper dives in planning and prepping that can be critical. I began posting information here over 10 years ago, and I regularly update it. 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 at least 30 days' worth 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 various 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 11th year/10th 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
January Welcome: Back To School, Prepped For Life
A short outage can be annoying; a long one can upend your life. We open the door to a calmer, more capable approach to preparedness by focusing on the two weak links that fail first after a crisis: water and power. With our upcoming OLLI course as the backdrop, we map a practical path from “I should get ready” to “I can handle thirty days.”
We start with water because scarcity and contamination now collide more often. You’ll hear a clear breakdown of collection and storage fundamentals, why purification isn’t the same as removing chemicals, and how to layer treatment with sediment filters, activated carbon, boiling or UV, and when to consider reverse osmosis. We point to trusted resources and emphasize simple routines that keep your supply fresh and safe.
Then we shift to electricity: choosing the right portable solar power stations, matching watt-hours to your actual loads, and using open-box and seasonal deals to stretch your budget. From 750 to 2000 watt setups, we share where solar shines—quiet backup for lights, comms, laptops, and compact fridges—and how to size panels and plan multiple charging paths. The goal isn’t a bunker; it’s reliable, everyday capability you use and understand.
Finally, we turn gift cards and post-holiday sales into durable wins by shopping local for gear you’ll use weekly: water containers, headlamps, first aid, and layers that hold up. Throughout, we frame preparedness as being your own first responder, not a caricature—calm, skilled, and ready for thirty days of self-sufficiency. If this resonates, tap follow, share this with someone who could use a nudge, and leave a quick review telling us your top priority this month: water or power?
True Prepper Water Treatment Link
Class Information: Refuse to be a Victim Personal ProtectionTraining
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Copyright: Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training 2018-2024
Well, hi everybody. I'm headed back to school. We'll have the latest from the DWP, and I've got some helpful suggestions on how you can spend some of that Christmas money. Come on in, let's talk about it. Hey everybody, this is Bill Bateman. Part of the team here refused to be a victim. Personal protection training. We're in the Medford, White City area. In fact, to be specific, we're at 6800 Kershaw, where Kershaw meets Corey in the White City area near the Jackson County Sports Park. And we're open just about 365 days a year. I think one day in March we close and do some paving. But other than that, Christmas, New Year's, Bastille Day, we're open. Come on out and make yourself to home. Okay, the first day talking about going back to school, my first day of teaching survival beyond the bug out bag for OLE, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at SOU, is going to be January 7th, and that runs for five weeks. This is my uh third time teaching this at the SOU OLLE Campus, and I've been doing this now. This is the beginning of my 11th year, so I think I finally got it right. Uh, the classes are based on this eight seasons of podcasts you can access right here on our website, and the link to that is where you log in, and we've got everything going on there, including timely things like water and power questions. And I call it the Department of Water and Power, or DWP, that's what we called it where I grew up. And it's an increasingly important factor because if you look at the problems people have after a disaster, water and electricity are usually the top of the list. Now, I am not at all impressed with AI, and the thought of thousands of gallons of water being wasted at a time when we are seeing increased droughts and water shortages is oh, what's the technical term? Uh oh, here it is. Stupid. Water is now a commodity, and that means it's got a cost, and it is a product. And I wonder who's gonna end up paying the increased cost as the supply dwindles as we get to make chatbots. Getting a friend is a good idea, but not at the cost we're gonna be paying. That's my opinion. I'm sticking to it. One thing that's a fact is collecting and properly treating water is more important than ever. I'm sharing a link to True Prepper website. I've come to trust and respect them. And if this is something you still haven't gotten around to doing, working on a collection system or the proper way to treat water, check it out. A reminder that uh you can purify water, but getting the chemicals out is a special process, it doesn't work by uh just simply filtering. And I can't help you with microplastics, that's a whole nother podcast. One of the most common issues beyond water is a lack of power. Now I'm going to be very specific, these guys are not sponsors. I've been talking good things about them for years, and they're not paying a dime. So this is a personal endorsement. Gold Zero has sales on their solar power banks. The most recent listing I saw had 25%, and some open box merchandise is up to 40%. That's something somebody bought, couldn't use, and returned it. It's fully warranted, it's good to go. I own and I have reviewed some of the earlier units in the past, and I'm going to be going over three of the systems: the 750, the 1500, and 2000 watt setups, as well as the supporting solar panels in a special video podcast I'm going to be putting together in mid-January. So if you're at all interested in solar energy and looking at ways to do it, this is one company you can check out. Now there are others. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them. These are the best ever, anything like that. I'm saying these are the items I have purchased, I use, and I can speak to effectively understanding how well they work. So if you're interested in that, come on back, we'll have that next time. If the holidays got you distracted, remember my reminder from last month. All that money you got from Santa in the form of gift cards and money from grandma in a Christmas card, if you're still fortunate enough to be getting that. Now is the time you're going to see a lot of clearance sales going on. I like to encourage folks to shop locally, to look at our local businesses like uh the Army, Navy, Marine Store out on 62 or REI, and Sportsman, also there out on 62. All of those stores I've been looking at the website, and you can do this yourself yourself. Discounts of up to 40% on things you and I are actually going to use. So I prefer to shop locally whenever possible. Let's support our local community, our local brick and mortar, I guess they call it. With that said, now's a perfect time to do it. You can get some very good deals and you can get some interesting products. So those are the things I wanted to talk about. Uh now what this is going to be a short one. Some housekeeping things to do. If you're a regular listener, please like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. If you're a new listener, please uh share and subscribe. There's a link as you log in. If you got something you want to hear about, if there's something we're not doing right, always the emails are open. And I've actually reached out to some person in Ohio, got some uh got some good ideas and shared them with me a while back, and we did a whole podcast on their idea and credited them. So we are listening to you and we are listening to your suggestions. But uh subscribing is important and sharing this with someone you think might be interested is also good. This helps us gain credibility, show we're serious with the uh podcast community, and helps us gain sponsors. You listening, goal to goal zero? Hmm. Anyway, okay, so more on training, more on new products coming up in the middle of January. Right now, I'm getting ready to do my class. Uh, that's happening for me uh the day after tomorrow. It's the fifth today, and the class opens on the seventh. So I'm a little swamped right now. I did want to check in with you. Wish you all a happy new year. Hope you had a good holiday season and that things are going well for you and your family. Leave you with one final thought. Prepping is more important than ever than it used to be. It's not so much being a survivalist, it's being your own first responder. This is like an old movie I saw, and I wish I could remember it. I'd get you the clip. The star comes running in, throws the door open to this room full of people, and says, You're on your own, good night, and slams the door and runs away. It was supposed to be a comedy, and I guess at the time it was funny, but not so much now. It used to be a couple of days, 24, 48 hours that you needed to be able to sustain yourself, be your own first aid responder, that type of thing. Now, according to the FEMA, you should be able for at least 30 days to be self-sufficient. Not just have uh your juice power and your granola pouches and things like that. You need to be able to be self-sufficient for water, lights, power, all things like that for at least 30 days, because resources continue to be spread increasingly thin. So, with that said, let's look at the months ahead, let's work on our plans. I'm open for your suggestions, and I'll be sharing things that I'm sharing with my class in the next coming podcast. So please come back, please like, share, and subscribe. Please be safe out there. And remember, we're all on this together. Take care. God bless. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.
