Survival Gear

Bulletproofing your home certainly sounds like a good thing. When you prep, you have to think of protecting the lives of your family members, and all you’ve stored.

The Lost Ways: Americans didn’t used to have all we have today: electricity, running water, heat… and they survived. Back then, they called it “daily life.” We should never lose these abilities.

Darkest Day: Survival course that offers fundamental methods of survival in a permanent grid-down scenario. Great investment for a reasonable prepper who wants to avoid panic at the worst time.

Did you know you can actually recondition batteries you think are used up? Cell phone batteries, car batteries, you name it. This is worth knowing if you don’t have enough rechargeables on hand.

Good place to research what forms of protection you want to have if the worst should happen. The best way to get past the fear of firearms is to become competent with them. Guns are fun, and in the right hands, protect us all.

Good, inexpensive eyewear for the range. Protect your peepers! My only concern is occasionally, ricocheting matter can come down from above and get behind them. Some shop glasses have a right-angle ledge across the top; worth looking into.

Remarkably good, inexpensive ear protection for indoor and outdoor ranges. Scalloped for long guns as well. I've tried electronic ear protection and they still hurt me. With these, no concerns and no headaches afterwards.

I went without a case for my ear protection until I fell in love with them... This is the smallest case I found and also the nicest. Perfect fit.

It's tough to have loaded guns in the house at the ready, especially with kids around. With these combination boxes, you can have several. The size of a book, keep one on a bookshelf, another by the bed. No electronics to worry about.

Great hand-crank emergency radio: has an internal battery you can charge. Includes a flashlight, is strong and light weight, you can charge your phone off this for that critical call. It's small: the size of a few Hershey bars.

I’ve gotten these ammo cans at gun shows, accessory sites, and most recently seen them at Walmart for cheaper, though with no lock. Great for storing ammo and keeping electronics safe from EMP.

Good, inexpensive gas mask for a number of possible scenarios. Worth having a few in storage for when outside tasks require more than one person.

Replacement filter for the gas mask. It's good to have some spares.

Decent, inexpensive Geiger counter/disometer. Let's you read your exposure to radiation. Outside the blast radius of a nuclear event, you can survive, but this is essential. For EMP, keep all emergency electronics in a metal ammo can.

Written by the scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, it's hard to find a better source. Contrary to popular myth, you can survive a nuclear war. To the extent one can prepare, there is some peace of mind to be found.

You need an iodine supplement after a nuclear event to keep your body from up-taking radioactive iodine. Most people are deficient anyway. I'm taking Lugol's Solution at present (in my coffee), providing iodide as well.

The survival books explain how to purify water, but it will be your most immediate need. This amazing design makes most water sources safe to drink from. Just stick it in a stream or a fountain and suck. Treats up to 200 gallons.

Great reference for all the major aspects of self-sufficiency and protection if/when the grid goes down. Covers several scenarios including biological and nuclear, with lists of supplies and competencies needed.

There is great peace of mind in having the fundamental skills necessary to sustain life. Things we take for granted: clean water, growing food and preparing meals from scratch. There is power in self-sufficiency; and less fear.

A dentist; there's one professional skill that doesn't live near me! Visions of Tom Hanks knocking his own tooth out with an ice skate was alarming enough for me to buy this book and tuck it away, just in case.

Verified as an excellent guide by a doctor-friend of mine, you can diagnose and treat many common issues with the help of this book. Easy to read and intended for non-medical people, it will give you a grounding in proper care.

Say you've stored barrels of food in raw form: how do you make meals out of it? How do you can fruits to preserve them? How do you grow and care for farm animals, prepare meats, make bread, and churn butter? Here you go.

Many residential lots are 1/4 acre, so condensing the ideal of producing enough food to be self-sufficient into the common space available is brilliant. Before this, I imagined several acres would be needed.

Great early 1980's book sharing tried and true gardening skills from Garden Way, the company that launched the home garden tiller.

When preparation becomes lifestyle: integrating a survival mentality into all that is needed to maintain a home or cooperative without any outside help, even if the disruption of our way of life became permanent.

If the grid goes down, we need renewable energy sources to replace some or all of the electricity it provides. Solar isn't difficult to understand and has made great strides in the last few decades. Time to learn about it.

Great little security camera. Works through wifi; plug it in, connect it to your phone, and voila, instant home monitoring. It has a wide angle lens, night vision, and sends text alerts if it picks up any motion.

Eneloops are the best rechargeable batteries on the market at present. 2100 charges maintaining 70% or more. Run everything battery-powered with these instead of disposables, and ultimately recharge them with solar.

It's always good to have references that specialize on each aspect of independent survival, and communications is no exception. You should hope to and perhaps plan to band with others who have an affinity in what you don't.

If you want to operate beyond MURS and FRS frequencies, to be legal, you'll need a Ham radio license. I haven't gone this far as of yet. The reference is here if you decide to.