The Doomsday Prepping Crash Course (4 page)

As the food begins to near its expiration date, start eating it and replace it with fresh food.  The important thing to remember about storing food is that it is a process that never really ends.  Since it’s perishable, you’ll want to rotate it into your daily meals as it approaches its expiration date.  Then, as you replace the food you have eaten, you’ll always have a fresh supply of food in your food storage.

This brings up another important point.  You should consider storing the types of food that your family will actually eat.  This way, you can easily rotate it into your daily meals and your family won’t feel like they are eating food storage. 

Money Saving Tip:
  If you'll learn to preserve your own food with these methods, you'll find that you can buy raw fruits, vegetables, and meats in bulk and preserve it yourself much cheaper than you can purchase commercially canned food products. 

Many preppers grow vegetable gardens for the sole purpose of being able to can or dehydrate their crops for storing in their food storage.  Even if you don't grow your own garden, you can save money by attending your local farmers market and making deals with farmers to buy vegetables in bulk from them.

If you're friendly with your neighbors who happen to grow gardens, they may even share their harvest with you in exchange for some of the jams or jellies that you prepare.  People love homemade jam and if they think you'll share with them, they'll often be more than happy to share their extra fruits with you.

Learn How to Obtain Food in a Post Doomsday World

Regardless of how well you prepare, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to acquire more food.  We are of course assuming that society has broken down to the point that you can't simply waltz into your local grocery store and purchase the food that you want or need.

One option is to dip into your stash of barter items and trade some items or services that you can offer for food that others have to offer you.  Another option for those who live in a rural area is to hunt, fish, or gather food.  If you do, in fact, live in a rural area, there is a good chance that you already know how to hunt and fish.  Hunting and fishing is a favorite pastime for country folks all over the world but if you aren't from the country, you may not have this skill set yet.

It's natural to think that all you need to do is own a gun and fishing pole and if you ever need to use these items to gather food, you'll be able to.  The truth of the matter is that to be successful at hunting and fishing, you’ll need to have some degree of expertise.

Let's take a look at hunting for a minute first.  To be a successful hunter, you need to first understand your quarry.  For example, if you plan on hunting deer, you need to understand the type of habitat that they are most likely to be found in.  You need to understand their feeding patterns as well.  The more you know about your quarry, the better the chances are that you'll actually be able to put some meat on the table.

You also need to be proficient with your weapon of choice.  Whether it's a gun, a bow and arrow, or even snares, you need to be quite skilled with them in order to be successful.  The higher degree of skill that you have with them, the better your chances of being successful will be.

If you are fortunate enough to harvest an animal for food, you’ll need to know what to do with it so that you can actually eat the meat.  Field dressing a deer isn't something that you want to learn from a book during a time when you are feeling the pressure to provide some food for your family.  Then there's the matter of preserving the meat so that you can make it last.  It would be quite wasteful to harvest a deer and only get one or two meals out of it before it spoiled.

Are you starting to get the picture here?  While it's definitely true that meat can be obtained via hunting, fishing, or trapping, it's highly advisable to develop the skills to be successful
before
you actually need to rely on them.

The same holds true when it comes to gathering edible plants in the forest.  The forest can provide a bounty of edible plants and berries but gathering these types of foods can be deadly if your skill level isn't up to snuff.  What you think might be an edible berry could be quite poisonous.  Eat the wrong berries or mushrooms and you could become quite ill or worse, you die. 

There are plenty of field guide books that can help you properly identify edible plants and berries and you should have a few of them stored away with your emergency supplies.  Keep in mind that you won't have the luxury of hopping onto the Internet to look for a picture to help you identify which plants and berries are actually edible while you're trying to survive doomsday.   For this reason, you would be wise to have a large collection of field guides and manuals on hand to refer to should the need ever arise.

Better yet, since we are talking about "prepping" here, it would be wiser of you to get some training from someone who is experienced at gathering edible plants and berries.  Books are great but they’re no substitute for experience!  If you have taken the time to hone your gathering skills, when and if the time comes that you need to put these skills into use, you'll be much better off.  You can always refer to your field guides when you need them but the fact that you thought ahead and actually got some training on how to properly identify which plants you should and should not be eating will really pay off in the long run.

Turn Your Survival Food into Meals That Satisfy

One can only live on dehydrated food for so long and when it comes to living off of your food storage there is a good chance that you'll quickly grow tired of eating cornbread for every meal. Part of preparing to survive doomsday is knowing how to prepare meals with the food that you actually have in your food storage.  Your family won't appreciate it much if the only thing you can do with your hundreds of pounds of stored wheat is make tortillas.

Speaking of food storage, be sure that you store items that you will actually use.  Along with the items that you are storing away in your food storage, you should keep recipes that you can use to prepare meals with using the particular items that you have on hand. 

Additionally, be sure that you stock up on the little things that can transform your meals from merely being food that you can survive on to enjoyable and satisfying meals.  Oftentimes having an assortment of spices on hand can take a very bland and boring meal and transform it into a tasty feast.

Keep in mind that spices are cheap and easy to store.  They don't take up much space and they have a very long shelf life.  Do yourself and your family a favor and the next time you're at the grocery store buy some extra bottles of spices and put them back with your food storage items.

Money Saving Tip:
You can usually find really big bottles of spices at wholesale stores like Costco. Pound for pound, the cost is much lower when you buy them this way.  If you have friends that are into prepping, you can go in together and buy large quantities of spices.  Then you can divide them up and repackage them.  This way, you'll get much more for your money and you'll be helping your fellow preppers meet their prepping goals at the same time.

Becoming Prepared To Defend Yourself and Your Property

In the world that we live in today, most people give very little thought to preparing to defend themselves, their family, or their property.  We live in a world where you can just grab your cell phone and call 911 whenever you feel threatened.  In most cases, within minutes of calling for help, the police will arrive and come to your rescue.

During a major emergency that leads to the breakdown of civilized society, this won't likely be the case.  If you don't believe this, take a minute and remember back to what became of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina caused all of the devastating flooding.

In some cases, the police themselves fled the city because of the widespread rioting and marauding that was going on.  The police were drastically outnumbered and there were even reports of actual police officers being shot at!  Now, imagine this kind of chaos multiplied across hundreds of cities.  Instead of it being isolated to one city like New Orleans, cities all across the country and maybe even all across the world would be in the same state of disarray.

Most serious preppers believe that the responsibility of protecting themselves, their families, and their possessions will lie solely on their own shoulders.  Consequently they take the matter of preparing to defend what is theirs very seriously.

Let's take a look at the matter of self-defense for a minute.  Most preppers break this down into two categories.  The first category is the use of weapons to defend yourself and your property.  This can include many types of weapons but in most cases preppers tend to focus on stocking up on firearms and ammunition.

While some preppers don't see a place for firearms in their prepping plans, this is usually the exception rather than the rule.  Most people who are seriously into prepping would consider their guns to be one of the most important elements of their plan to survive doomsday. 

Guns can provide many benefits for preppers.  In the hands of a skilled outdoorsman, they can help to put food on the table.  They can protect life, virtue, and property from those who would threaten to take it.  They can also provide a sense of comfort during times of turmoil. 

If law and order breaks down and the streets are filled with people who intend to do you harm or take what is yours, having access to a supply of firearms will be very comforting for you and your family.  Just knowing that your family is well armed will provide a sense of security and comfort after a doomsday event takes place that will be hard to beat.

A fourth benefit to being well armed is that there is a certain psychological deterrent that guns tend to carry.  If people know that you're well-armed and prepared to defend yourself and your property, they will be less likely to mess with you.  Think about it, people tend to prey on the individuals that they perceive to be weak.  If you're armed and prepared to defend what is yours, you won't appear weak and marauders will want to pick an easier target.

We won't get into the brands of firearms you should stock up on because this is a hotly debated subject.  That being said, let's have a brief discussion about the caliber of firearms that many preppers prefer.  It has often been said that the best kind of gun is the one that you actually have with you.  This basically means that having any gun is better than not having one at all.

This is true to a certain extent but most preppers prefer to stock up on guns and ammunition that they think will be of the most use to them when things get really ugly.  More specifically, they prefer guns that are chambered in commonly available military calibers. 

The most commonly available military rounds are 7.62 x 39mm which is the caliber of the extremely popular AK-47 as well as the widely used SKS.  Another caliber of preference is 5.56 x 45mm which is the caliber that the M16 and AR-15 both shoot.  The other commonly preferred caliber is 9mm which is the most commonly used handgun ammunition for military and police use.

The primary reason that these are the most popular calibers is because of their widespread availability all around the world.  The fact that these calibers are so commonly used around the world means that the price to buy ammunition in bulk is much lower than with popular sporting gun calibers.  

Keep in mind that a gun without ammunition is nothing more than a fancy club.  It's impossible to predict how long civil unrest will carry on when doomsday comes knocking on your door.  If you own firearms that are chambered in these commonly available military calibers, you can buy the ammunition in bulk and keep thousands of rounds on hand for a fraction of the price of buying popular sporting ammunition.  Most preppers agree that when it comes to ammunition, more is always better so being able to buy ammo in bulk at a discounted rate is a big advantage for budget conscious preppers.

Another advantage of sticking to the most common military type of firearms is that guns like the AK-47 are known worldwide for their ease of use and reliability.  They are designed and battle proven to function in the worst of conditions.  Should they ever break down and you find yourself in search of parts to repair them, due to the fact that there are so many of them in existence, your chances of being able to barter for replacement parts are much higher than if you simply owned sporting rifles.

Yet another advantage of staying with guns that are chambered in commonly available military calibers is that because the ammunition is cheaper to purchase, it's also cheaper to shoot.  If it's cheaper to shoot it's possible to spend more time training with the gun.  There's no substitute for training when it comes to firearms.  The more time you spend training with a particular gun, the more proficient you'll be with it.  The more proficient you are with your gun, the higher your odds of surviving should you ever need to use it to defend yourself.

Money Saving Tip: 
If you order your ammunition online, you can often get some really great deals.  One good place to buy inexpensive ammunition in bulk is a website called
www.cheaperthandirt.com
.  This website sells the common military calibers of ammo in bulk at much better prices than you can get at your local sporting goods store.

The second category preppers should be concerned about when it comes to self-defense preparation is close contact hand to hand combat.  Getting the proper training in some kind of hand to hand style of fighting can mean the difference between life and death in certain circumstances. 

When it comes to up close and personal self-defense training, this is a skill that takes years to master.  Don't think for a minute that you can attend a weekend seminar and you'll magically have all the training you need to defend yourself in a real world struggle.  No matter how good the instructors were or how comprehensive the seminar was, it takes a lot of time and practice to be able to develop the skills well enough that when you actually need to rely on them they won't let you down.