Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

The Zombie Diet Food Plan (In Four Easy Steps)

Todd Sepulveda
April 28th, 2012
Prepper Website
Comments (19)
Read by 1,256 people

This article has been contributed by Todd Sepulveda of www.prepperwebsite.com

Do you know anyone who is on the Zombie Diet Food Plan? As you stop to ponder that question, let me assure you that you do. You just might not realize it at this moment. But I promise, by the end of this article, you will have that person in mind. But before I begin, we need to set the ground work.

Zombie 101 – Zombies are undead. They are not a functioning human, with mental capacity to think, talk, manipulate fine motor skills or plan. They are not dead either. They are undead; living, breathing, walking, gross motor moving with the basic need to feed. And what do Zombies like to eat? Well the answer to that would be brains! And that’s where the Zombie Diet Food Plan comes in.

No one likes to diet. Come on, yes there are health benefits. But the idea of going without is too much for many to let that diet last any real length of time. Now, this goes the same for those pesky zombies. Although zombies are undead, they still have to eat. Do you think they really want to diet? No way!

The fact is though, that there are many zombies going to have to diet during the apocalypse because there are so many people without brains!

Have you noticed that lately? What is it? Is it the mind numbing video games? The GMO food? The solar activity? The lack of good music? I run into so many people that I just want to slap some sense into them. But it wouldn’t work, because they couldn’t understand why I was slapping them!

Thinking seems to be way overrated now. Maybe it’s the Google effect? People just want the quick search engine answer and then move on. There is no true effort put into what we think, and as a result, into our actions. Don’t even get me started on taking responsibility for our actions!

No, taking responsibility for our actions is a whole other article. Now, we need a plan…a critical thinking plan!

In my second year of teaching, my district introduced a four step process in solving Math word problems (all our Math is taught in word problems). We hated it because we were supposed to grade the process and not necessarily the answers. This made Math subjective, when it is black and white.

We fought through that first year and figured out the grading portion. But what I learned outside of Math, because of the four step process, was telling. In one parent conference, I discussed having to use the four step process in Math, but how it was no different than what we should do in life to solve any problem, not only Math. One parent agreed and said that his daughter seemed to be making better decisions lately. Was it a little bit of maturing or was it using the four step process everyday to answer Math word problems that seeped into her thinking process?

If you would like to know what the process consists of…it’s simple: the main idea, details, strategy and the how. Here’s how it breaks down.

The Main Idea – What is the problem asking? What are you trying to solve for?

The Details – What are the important facts about this problem? What do you know? What is missing?

The Strategy – This is the part where you try to work out the solution by considering the Main Idea and Details. You might be adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, measuring, etc…

The How – It is important to verbalize/write down how you solved your answer. When you are able to verbalize your answer, you truly understand the problem and know that you didn’t just guess. The How should link back to the Main Idea.

Can this process be used for thinking through more complex problems? Yes! In fact, we do it everyday, when we critically think through our problems. We just need to make sure we aren’t too lazy to go through the process…. And that is exactly what happened. As a Math teacher, the students who didn’t do the four step process easily made silly mistakes. They left out important information and didn’t consider what the question really wanted. One of my responses to students when they told me they couldn’t understand a problem was to first do the Main Idea and Details before I helped them. You see, you shouldn’t go jumping in to every problem without taking the time to find out what you’re really looking for, what you know and what other pieces of information are available.

What would happen if we looked at the major issues facing our world today with a four step process? Maybe we can teach our politicians and leaders what elementary students already know how to do!

Todd Sepulveda is the editor/owner of www.prepperwebsite.com. He is also an elementary assistant principal and a bio-vocational minister.

The Zombie Diet Food Plan (In Four Easy Steps)

Michael Krieger On The Rebirth Of Barter


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/27/2012 17:46 -0400

Via Michael Krieger of 'A Lightning War For Liberty' blog,

Justice in the hands of the powerful is merely a governing system like any other. Why call it justice? Let us rather call it injustice, but of a sly effective order, based entirely on cruel knowledge of the resistance of the weak, their capacity for pain, humiliation and misery. - Georges Bernanos ( 1888-1948 )

Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government, a bureaucratic elite which believes our Constitution is outmoded.
- Senator William Jenner (1908-1985) U.S. Senator (IN-R)

The Final Act of the Uruguay Round, marking the conclusion of the most ambitious trade negotiation of our century, will give birth – in Morocco – to the World Trade Organization, the third pillar of the New World Order, along with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. - Government of Morocco

April, 1994 Source: New York Times, full page ad by the government of Morocco

The Rebirth of Barter
One of the most important articles I have read this week comes from Forbes contributor Gordon Chang. In it he states that China is preparing to avoid U.S. sanctions on Iran by paying for oil with gold. Not only that but he also mentions that China has already been bartering with Iran to get a hold of petroleum. He states:

So how can Beijing keep both Iran’s ayatollahs and President Obama happy at the same time? Simple, the Chinese can avoid the U.S. sanctions through barter. China has already been trading its produce for Iran’s petroleum, but there is only so much gai lan and bok choy the Iranians can eat. That’s why Iran is also accepting, among other goods, Chinese washing machines, refrigerators, toys, clothes, cosmetics, and toiletries.

The barter trade works, but Iran needs cash too. As it is being cut off from the global financial system, the next best thing is gold. So we should not be surprised that in late February the Iranian central bank said it would accept that metal as payment for oil. Last year, China imported $21.7 billion in Iranian oil and exported $14.8 billion in goods and services. As the NDAA goes into effect, look for Beijing to ship gold to Iran to make up the difference.

Thus, the leadership in America in its infinite stupidity has actually accelerated the demise of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. After its “kinetic action” in Libya succeeded in toppling the regime there, Washington’s geopolitical hubris grew and it has attempted to muscle Iran into a corner. Instead, all it has done is alienated our “allies” that need Iranian oil to survive and in the process quickened a move away from the dollar to settle certain transactions. Read Gordon’s article here.

In a similar move on a more micro level, the government of Spain in a similar desperation has banned the use of cash transactions above 2,500 euros (read this great article here on it). How do you think citizens are going to respond to this? People are already in the streets. They are not pleased with what is going on. Then the government is going to tell them they can’t use cash amongst themselves so that the authorities can track every single thing they do and bleed them with taxes until they are slaves on a banker plantation.

Everything is going to go black market and to a barter system.

It will happen country by country as governments get increasingly desperate and the authoritarian clamp down continues.

It will happen on an increasing level until all of these house of cards bureaucratic states fail and something new is reborn.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, this one town in Greece is already leading the way. This story outlines what will be a mega trend globally over the next decade.

Michael Krieger On The Rebirth Of Barter | ZeroHedge

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GunsAmerica Blog

Buying M1 Garands from the US Government – CMP – Civilian Marksmanship Program
Did you wish you bought real estate in 1999? What about gold in 2001? Well the same thing is happening right now with the rifle known as the M1 Garand, the primary battle rifle of the US throughout both WWII and Korea. On the consumer market Garands have already begun to rise in price, but what many people don’t know is that the US Government, or rather a quasi-governmental non-profit corporation who took it over from the US Army in 1996 called the Civilian Marksmanship Program, or CMP, is currently selling off what are probably the last batch of government Garands to the public. All you have to do is apply, supply the required documents, pay, and you can have a certified authentic M1 Garand shipped right to your door, in most states. read more 1 Comment

Half Price Varmint Nightmare AR-15 Bullets from Midsouth
Half price bullets for an AR-15 is a dream come true for many shooters. But is cheaper inferior? That is exactly our question as we take a look at the half priced bulk purchase .223 “Varmint Nightmare” bullets from Midsouth Shooters Supply. In the interest of full disclosure, Midsouth is an advertiser here on GunsAmerica, but most of the gun industry advertises here over the course of the year, and we try to be objective as possible when it comes to products that our people plan to go out and buy. If these bullets weren’t every bit as good as bullets twice their cost, we simply wouldn’t have written about them. read more No Comments

The First Great Firearms Sale of the Decade
Rock Island Auction Company (RIAC) is holding an auction later this month that it’s billing as “The Great Firearms Sale of the Decade.” That’s a pretty bold claim, even for the “nation’s leading auction house for firearms, edged weapons, and military artifacts,” so I did some checking to see what all the hype was about. I wanted to know not only what was going to be auctioned that makes this one so great, but also what the auction is like for sellers and buyers. Was this an auction just for well-heeled collectors and museum staff, or could an ordinary gun owner such as me simply find a deer rifle? Why would someone choose to sell a gun by auction in the first place, and of the major gun auction houses, what should I look for if I was going to sell off a collection? read more 19 Comments

Ruger .22 Package Giveaway – 10/22 Takedown & 22/45 Lite
As a nice end to the NRA show this weekend, Ruger Firearms has offered to run a special post-show giveaway for their two news guns announced for the show, the 10/22 Takedown and the all new 22/45 Lite Mark III. As you may already know, Ruger has passed their original goal of 1,000,000 guns between last year’s NRA show and this one. It has been a company dream since the days of Bill Ruger, and they TOTALLY BLEW IT OUT OF THE WATER! I don’t know what the final number worked out to be, but the latest goal was 1.2 million, and the NRA gets one dollar for each of those guns, which ads up to a huge donation for the NRA of well over $1,000,000. read more 87 Comments

GunsAmerica NRA Show 2012 Giveaway – Walther, Kel-Tec, SlideFire, Leatherwood
The NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits is this weekend in St. Louis. It starts today, April 12th, and goes through the weekend. If you are an NRA member you can go to the show for free. If you aren’t an NRA member, please consider JOINING NRA now. No matter what candidate gets in this year at this point we are going to have a tough 4 years ahead and NRA is the only organization that consistently is watching the ship. As is our custom, we are doing a big giveaway for the weekend. This is our biggest yet actually. Because of the issues with spam filters and a ridiculous delay on all of our communications by AOL, Yahoo and many cable internet providers, we have to do the announcements for the giveaway through Facebook. As with all of our Facebook giveaways, you don’t have to be a member of Facebook to get the codes. It just makes it easier. The codes will be posted to our public Facebook page throughout the show. The process is the same as the others. We will post a code and you use standard email to send it to NRASHOW2012@gunsamerica.com (not case sensitive) to enter. read more 54 Comments

SlideFire SSAR-15-SBS and SSAK47-XRS
It has been just over a year since we first posted an article about the bump stock from SlideFire Solutions called the SSAR-15. At the time, nobody knew if this cool new toy would still be legal a year later, but here we are. Not only is the SlideFire still legal, it has gone from an obscure product we had to stumble across to nearly a household word for those of us who think of gunshops as our second homes. read more 13 Comments

Leatherwood ART M-1000 Auto-Ranging Riflescope
When it comes to shooting gadgets it is very seldom that I want to jump up and down on my roof and yell “look at this look at this look at this!” But this is the way I feel about the Leatherwood M-1000 scope. I almost wish it was a $2,000 thing, because people would take it more seriously, but though it is based on technology going all the way back to 1970, and the MSRP is $459, with a generalstreet price under $400, it is one of the most excitingly nerdy thingamajigs I have ever encountered in the shooting world. It may be a little ugly compared to the more elegant scopes of today, but this largish awkward looking scope can give you the ability to “frame, aim and shoot, ” point of aim, point of impact between 100 and 1000 meters without ever having to lift your eye from the eyepiece. And you can change from one load to the next, or even one rifle to the next with two minor adjustments. Does that totally rock or does that totally rock? read more 36 Comments

The 5 Things You’d Better Have in Your Bug Out Bag, But Probably Don’t

April 30, 2012 by Tim Young

A flask of alcohol can be used for a lot of things, whether it be cleaning wounds or relaxing you if you need some type of medical treatment.

When you are preparing for the worst, it becomes very easy to overlook simple items that you’ll need to survive. Sure, you’ll have your basic first aid kits and rations of food, but there are a few items that you should always remember to have with you — items that might be so commonsense that they can be easily overlooked.

I wanted to share with you five items that you should definitely have in your bug out bag that most people won’t. And if you think that you have an upper hand being prepared now, then ensuring that you have these will solidify your survival when the stuff hits the fan.

1. Energy: What are you going to need most in an emergency? What’s the thing that’s going to pull you through? Energy. I know what you’re thinking: I can’t pack energy. Yes, you can. Some good items to pack for this would be NoDoz® pills or 5-hour ENERGY® shots.
You’re going to need to hustle to get to a safe place, whether that is away from a natural disaster or a stampeding human herd. You will have to keep yourself going in those crucial first 24 hours; you will need all the edge you can get. It would be great to say that you could have a fresh start in the morning after eight full hours of sleep, but we all know that’s probably not going to happen. You’ll need to wake up quickly and maintain that energy. The way to do that is by literally packing energy.

2. A flask of whiskey or alcohol: As much as I’d like to say that this is to make an emergency more entertaining, it isn’t. You won’t be partying when a crisis hits. A flask of alcohol can be used for a lot of things, whether it be cleaning wounds or relaxing you if you need some type of medical treatment.

Throughout history, when troops have been hurt on the battlefield, alcohol has been used for just about every surgical procedure. Having whiskey in your bug out bag can make your life so much more comfortable when you’re in a world of pain.

3. A weapon: Common sense, right? Well, it may not be for a lot of people. If a crisis hits, you as well as I know that it’s going to be every man for himself and his family. You want to be able to protect yourself and what you have. A small, concealable weapon can accomplish this.

Don’t pack something that can be found in nature. A rock is not a weapon. A baseball bat could be good, but you can find sticks and branches and make that yourself later on.
You’re going to want to pack a quality knife or a small gun. Both will fit in your bag and both will protect and provide for you. A knife, as you know, has multiple functions and can be used for surgery, starting fires, hunting and defense — just to name a few uses. A gun can be used for protection, hunting and signaling. Protection will be paramount in a crisis.

The choice is yours as to what to pack, maybe even both items. But if you can choose only one weapon, a good knife is best.

4. Vitamin supplements: You know what your mother used to say, “Eat your vegetables.” Why is that? She wasn’t working for the Department of Agriculture, so it wasn’t to promote the sales of vegetables or a government function — it was to keep you healthy.

Vegetables and fruits have vitamins in them that keep your body’s defenses up and keep you healthier for longer periods of time. When you’re out on your own, you may not have a lot of options for food. Taking a good vitamin supplement will keep you kicking longer. It will prevent you from catching colds and allow your body to heal faster if you get hurt.

Vitamins are critical to your survival, especially when you don’t know what kind of attack you may be avoiding. They will also provide you the long-term energy that you need that can’t be provided by the energy resources above.

5. Duct tape: I mentioned your mom, so let’s talk about your Dad. Remember how he could fix anything with duct tape? Guess what? So can you.

Think about the functionality of Duct Tape. You can hold things together, whether it’s a splint for a broken bone, torn skin or the bumper of your truck. You can fix holes in tents and shoes, and hang things in trees if need be. Duct tape fixes literally anything. In a worst-case scenario, you can even make a belt out of it.

These five items will make a major difference in your life if you remember to pack them in your bug out bag. Sadly, not many people will know to pack them, but you will, and that may make the ultimate difference in your life in a crisis situation.

Be smarter than they think you are.

–Tim Young
Managing Editor, Absolute Rights

The 5 Things You=

Make Yourself Valuable After TEOTWAWKI, by Dalton M.


Most people spend time perfecting their bug-out bag, or their bug-in kit, ensuring they can adequately survive on their own in the event of a catastrophe here. Many envision themselves in the role of “Eli” from the recent movie The Book of Eli, a lone wanderer who fends for himself as he travels in a post-apocalyptic world. I am of the opinion, as are many true preppers, that it will take a community to not only survive, but to prosper in a TEOTWAWKI scenario.

Let’s assume for a moment that your current neighborhood is not conducive to building that community, or that, for whatever reason, the group around you fails to thrive. You may have to move on to another area. When you reach that area, you will likely be greeted as an outsider and any town you reach will likely be reluctant to let you into their community. You will likely be viewed as just another begging traveler who is looking for the safety of a group, but could end up being a free-loader who is nothing more than another mouth to feed, another potential trouble maker, or another carrier of disease.

What will you say to persuade a community to believe that it is worth their time to take you into their group? What do you have to offer that others can’t provide?

You don’t have to be a former Navy SEAL who can single-handedly defend the town. You don’t have to be a former military commanding officer-turned-mayor with the leadership skills to organize the community into an army. In some cases, you don’t have to be strong or even that smart. All you need is a unique skill. Lacking that, you need to have a skill that can aid others with a similar set of skills in accomplishing a goal more efficiently or productively.

If you don’t have anything to offer, you could be turned away and left to fend for yourself.
Now is the time to build skills that will be useful enough to gain acceptance in that scenario. These skills may have nothing to do with your current reality, but if you take the time to learn as much as you can, you will be an asset to a community that will make your presence not only worthwhile, but necessary.

This isn’t a how-to. It’s likely that you won’t learn anything from reading this. The point of this is to help you consider, if you haven’t already, ways to make yourself valuable in a post-TEOTWAWKI situation. I’m simply going to mention a few skills that you can build now to reach that end. The skills I talk about are not listed in any particular order, and some may be much more important than others. This is just to stir some thought on what you will be able to provide in the event that you need to. Also, this list is far from all-inclusive. You may think of many other skill sets that are equally (or even more) important. If so, work on them. Build them. Your life, and the life of your community, may very well depend on it.

1) Communications – No matter what form of catastrophe has caused the collapse of society, communication with the world outside of your immediate area can be crucial. People will want to know what is happening beyond the horizon, the condition the government, the condition of other communities, or just, in general, what is going on. It is likely, however, that you won’t be able to just pick up the phone and call anyone. Telephone lines may be interrupted or completely disabled. A viable alternative is ham radio. The skills required to operate ham radio are not as common as they once were, are relatively easy to learn, and the equipment can be cheap (although it can get expensive if you want the “latest and greatest” gear). Keep reference materials available. You may not be able to memorize everything. This skill alone may not be enough to grant you a position of esteem within a community, but it certainly couldn’t hurt your chances of being taken in as a member of the group.

2) Farming/Gardening – In many areas across the nation, this is a fading skill. The skills you can learn from maintaining a small garden in your yard could be critical when the SHTF. Even if you don’t have enough room for a small garden, read all you can on the subject and make a notebook or a manual. Make your own comprehensive version of “Farming for dummies”. The internet is bursting at the seams with information, but it’s likely that you won’t have access to it post-TEOTWAWKI, so make a survivable record of the information you think will be important. Gather information from multiple sources and record it all. Test out different methods if you can, focusing on techniques that don’t require heavy tools or chemicals. Find out how people did it a hundred years ago or more, and prepare yourself to mimic those methods. Set aside tools and seeds if you can afford it and if you have the storage space, but at a bare minimum, make yourself a written reference so that even if you’re not a farmer now, you have some hope of becoming one if the need arises.

3) Food gathering – Do you know what plants in your local area are edible? Better yet, do you know which plants taste good? Information on the subject is available in book stores, camping/hiking stores, or online. Find the information and read through it. Don’t just read it from the comfort of your recliner – get out and take a walk with your reference material. See if you can locate the plants in the woods or even along roadways. Learning what they look like in the real world now, when you don’t need them, can save you from the time and effort of trial and error when you do. Once again, make yourself a survivable reference book on the subject. Try to include your entire state, maybe even the surrounding states. You never know where fate may take you in the event of TEOTWAWKI. Learn to not only identify these plants, but how to prepare them properly. Learn which local plants have medicinal properties and how to use them. The ability to keep others well-fed and healthy can make you a very valuable member of a community.

4) Food storage – My grandmother and her friends canned all kinds of things, but if you asked my wife how to do it, I’m pretty sure you would just get a shrug for an answer. Canning/preserving foods as a hobby is not only a good way to stockpile your own emergency supplies, but it’s also a great way to build the skill necessary to preserve food later, when you really need it. I’m not just talking about canning here. Preserving meat will be necessary too. Do you know how to make jerky? Nope, I don’t mean with your 9-tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator, I mean with a purpose-made, wood burning smoker, or even over a campfire. Hunting in the summertime or growing crops may provide more food than your group can readily consume, and knowing how to preserve that food for later may make the difference when winter comes and food is more scarce. My grandmother may not be there to show others how it’s done, so if you know how, then people will want you around.

5) Mechanics – Even in the event of an EMP attack, (which would probably be the worst case scenario, technologically) older, simpler vehicles may still function. But if they break down, who will repair them? Or what if you want to use that engine to power a mill? Or to pump water? If you’re mechanically inclined, the skills necessary to maintain or build machinery will be highly sought after by any community.

6) Soap or candle making – In our modern world, we have grown accustomed to buying soap or candles, but before the age of Wal-Mart, making these items was the only way to get them. You may not get rich, or whatever version of “rich” exists after TEOTWAWKI, but both items will be in high demand if Wal-Mart ceases to provide them. Making soap or candles can be a fun hobby, a source of income even now, and can be a very useful skill to offer if it is needed in the future. Even if starting a new hobby like that is not your cup of tea now, making a reference guide from information found online or in books, and practicing enough to work out the details could be enough to give you something to offer later.

These are just a few ideas. Notice that I didn’t mention medical skills or security skills. Obviously medical skills (beyond the basics, which you should already know or be learning) are not something that you can learn in “on the side”. I believe that when it comes to security services, every able bodied individual in any community will most likely be recruited and trained for that task. Advanced knowledge or experience can definitely be an advantage, but that topic is covered a lot in other forums/articles/blogs, so any information I put in here would be rudimentary at best. I also didn’t mention blacksmithing, animal husbandry, gunsmithing, dentistry, carpentry and no doubt countless others. If you have specialized skills such as these, you don’t need to read this. You already have your ticket.

If you’re like most people, however, you might want to consider learning a set of skills, such as the ones I described or any other valuable skill that you come up with on your own, in order to make yourself a person who will not be a burden to your post-TEOTWAWKI community, but a valuable member who is worth feeding, supporting and defending.

One more thing I’d like to mention is that no matter what skills you have to offer, your worth in a community will also be based on who you are and how you deal with others. If you are to be a worthwhile member of a community, it is equally important that you maintain a community mindset when it comes to using your skills. I’m not saying that you should give your services away, but always keep in mind that while your particular skills may be necessary for the survival of the community, the community as a whole is necessary for your own survival. Be the kind of honest and fair person that you would want to deal with and it’s likely that others will want to deal with you.

Make Yourself Valuable After TEOTWAWKI, by Dalton M. - SurvivalBlog.com

'Preppers': Ready for anything

The prepper we will call Howard Marston in this story sees the Peter J. Crotty Casino in Cazenovia Park as a perfect stronghold if the worst happens.Sharon Cantillon /Buffalo News

By Tim Graham
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Published:April 27, 2012, 2:03 PM
15 Comments
Updated: May 2, 2012, 2:33 PM

To the average passer-by, the Peter J. Crotty Casino in Cazenovia Park looks like a monument to teenage vagrancy.

Skateboarders wheel past walls of vulgar, sometimes racist graffiti. Sullen kids sneak cigarettes under the canopy on the way home from school. Pop bottles and junk-food wrappers litter the shrubbery.

But in Howard Marston's mind, it's a castle.

Marston sees beyond all the clutter. To him, the historic structure is a fortress, one he could retreat to when catastrophe strikes.

Solar flares might knock out power grids. A massive earthquake or meteor strike could cause widespread destruction. A pandemic might occur. A restricted oil supply or terrorist attack could trigger panic. A global financial collapse may cause riots on Main Street.

Marston has concerns. He's always on guard and strives to be ready for life's uncertainties. It's how he's wired.

He anticipates scenarios, foresees trouble -- perhaps coming soon, real soon.

If a cataclysmic event drives him from his West Seneca home, Marston plans to flee with his wife and 5-year-old daughter to the Crotty Casino. The sturdy brick building has a fireplace and is near a water supply. The doors are steel. Upstairs windows face every direction, helping to defend against approaching marauders. Eight concrete steps provide high ground and can stop vehicles from ramming through the entryway.

"That's almost too good to be true from a defensibility aspect," Marston said.

Many would view Marston's mindset as a form of radical paranoia, but he's not alone -- not nearly. He is what's known as a "prepper," someone who readies for the possibility of significant change, and there are millions across the country.

Preppers, also referred to as survivalists, have a dubious, often unfair reputation. They're generally labeled right-wing kooks, although they come from all walks of life. Cable television series "Doomsday Preppers" on the National Geographic Channel and "Doomsday Bunkers" on the Discovery Channel have put them in the spotlight.

Such fictional characters as Robinson Crusoe and, less classically, MacGyver romanticized survivalism. But the ideal has been stigmatized by infamous real-life survivalists like Theodore Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) and Timothy McVeigh, who were also terrorists.

Preppers frequently are ridiculed because of the oddball fringe that believes the Mayans might have been onto something with their 2012 Armageddon forecast or that a horde of zombies will overtake the planet.

But the prepper spectrum is expansive. The needle can point anywhere from incredibly practical to practically certifiable.

Some preppers merely cultivate a backyard garden to stock cellar shelves. They might be on alert for nothing more than an emergency weather situation, with a generator at the ready and enough provisions to last a week.

Others, such as members of the Mormon church, store food and supplies as faith-based policy.

There also is a group that takes the prepping lifestyle to an extreme, literal diehards who maintain underground bunkers or isolated backwoods retreats.
"Many people think the worst when they hear certain comments about survivalists," said Bill Heffron, a retired National Guard colonel from the Town of Tonawanda. Heffron spent much of his career as a commander at the Connecticut Street Armory.

"It's just comfort for some people. When you're prepared ahead of time, then that's just good planning. That's never a problem.

"But when you start getting guns out, you start to wonder."

Regardless of commitment levels or reasons for doing it, a critical component to a prepper's lifestyle is anonymity.

Preppers want to stay off the grid to avoid social persecution and for one particularly important, sensible reason. When the SHTF (an abbreviation preppers commonly use for "stuff" hitting the fan) or TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) is at hand, they don't want panicky nonpreppers trying to crowd their space or raid their reserves.

"We're not into exposing ourselves even to close friends and family," said the 31-year-old Marston, who asked that his real name not be used in this story. "People might be shocked to learn a family member is a prepper, an uncle, a cousin.

"The fear of being rejected is there. Yeah, there's a lot of crazies out here. But there are crazies into everything else. There are legitimate, upstanding people doing this. It bothers me that when you say 'I'm a prepper,' you get the eye roll."

Marston's wife does that quite a bit.

While he considers prepping a serious and vital pursuit, Jill Marston finds it amusing and borderline silly.

"Lay off the comics, people," Jill Marston said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle. "You'll be all right. Nothing's going to happen."

The Marstons met as online pen pals when Jill (also not her actual name) was working on an English project at Hamburg High. He was living near the Alaska-Canada border. After several visits over a few years, he moved here to marry her.

Still, she didn't know he was a prepper until they began watching the TV shows together. He began to tip his hand.

"He's always been a lumberjack," Jill Marston said. "I was marrying him for who he was, but this whole prepping thing? I think he's nuts. He sees this as a strategy of survival, and I see it as a hobby. But he enjoys it."

Howard Marston doesn't come off as the least bit unreasonable. He's a burly man, soft-spoken and articulate. His salt-and-pepper hair makes him look weathered and wise when talking about constantly scouting out locales that are easy to defend.

He said he has thought this way since he was 13, when he had a vivid dream about a nuclear blast destroying the hydroelectric Bennett Dam on the Peace River in northern British Columbia. He furiously jotted ideas in his spiral notebook and mapped areas that would be safe or unsafe to travel under various emergency scenarios. He read whatever he could find about survivalist techniques.

Howard Marston never stopped pondering TEOTWAWKI circumstances. He once worked for a major big-box retailer (he didn't want to reveal the name) and figured it was a darn-near-perfect refuge.

"Those [stores] are designed so that no one can get in anywhere but usually two places, some of them only one place," he said. "There are very few windows, concrete walls, an outdoor garden center that has 30-, 40-foot chain-link fence up the side of it. Some of these places, it wouldn't take much to seal them up. Then you also have supplies."

Howard Marston would gather with his co-workers and, much like a football coach at a chalkboard, X-and-O the store map. They would discuss who would be included, where they would be stationed, what roles they would have when the SHTF.

"I wouldn't be surprised that if something were to happen now," Howard Marston said, "a lot of those guys still would go there and execute the plan."
Jill Marston insisted she wouldn't execute any disaster plan her husband devises for an impromptu stronghold, whether it's an abandoned Walmart or Cazenovia Park.

"I've already told him 'If anything ever happens, consider me dead.' I won't survive," Jill Marston said, laughing again. "It would be too much a shock to me and my system.

"To me, that's just the way it is. It's not real until it happens."

Stocking up

The setting near downtown Buffalo looks post-apocalyptic. Inside the Larkin Power House is a courtyard of rubble, an open space at the base of the towering smokestack.

Windows are busted out. Gigantic exhaust fans are exposed, along with rusted pipes and rebar fingers. Bricks have fallen from decaying walls. A pile of railroad ties sits near tracks overgrown with brush. Trees and other random vegetation pop through the rock and scrap. A hanging light fixture creaks as it sways from an overhead walkway.

Next door, at 290 Larkin St., is Uncle Sam's Army Navy Outfitters. Star-spangled bunting hangs over the entrance.

Uncle Sam's is a destination for Western New York preppers, and the building's bombed-out, "Mad Max" exterior can only get customers even more into the mood to gear up.

"People who come to this store want to feel badass," store associate Frank Moreno said. "What makes them feel badass is government-issued or licensed stuff. Nobody wants the knockoff stuff."

The enormous store is jammed with camouflage. It offers gas masks, snowshoes, lanterns, flight suits, medical scrubs, rucksacks, mess kits, reconnaissance vests, radar-deflective cargo netting, forced-entry boots, duffel bags and Department of Defense-licensed MREs (meals ready to eat).
Moreno, a 23-year-old San Diego transplant, noted Uncle Sam's clientele falls along specific lines.

There are military fashionistas, who like to accessorize for everyday casual wear. There are campers, who like authentic equipment. There are veterans, who shop for items they grew accustomed to in the service.

Then there's the indispensable customer base Moreno referred to as "The Doomsdayers."

"People take this seriously," Moreno said. "When they have predictions about the world coming to an end -- when they quote a date and say 'Get ready!' -- business jumps. We had an older lady come in recently and buy $500 in military surplus as a precaution.

"But we're like any other kind of store. When you have a hardware problem, you go to Home Depot. People come here to prepare. Zombies approaching, the end of the world, Jesus Christ's second coming? I'm here to help them solve that problem."

Moreno wouldn't consider himself a prepper. "But I get it," he added quickly.

So do a multitude of business owners and entrepreneurs.

The bunker business

Prepping has evolved into an industry with big money to be made.

Deep Earth Bunkers in Texas, Hardened Structures in Virginia, Safecastle in Minnesota and Utah Shelter Systems are just a few of the companies that will prefabricate a bunker and bury it in your backyard.

On its website, Hardened Structures offers to convert a decommissioned missile silo into living quarters and to construct "island fortresses around existing isolated sites or at locations with the most demanding topography to withstand tsunami effects."

ShelfReliance.com and Emergency Essentials, companies based in Utah, with its large Mormon population, sell freeze-dried and bulk foods and storage equipment for prepping purposes. SurvivalRealty.com was formed as a clearinghouse for agents who specialize in retreat properties.

Although not all preppers own firearms, it's typical. There has been a dramatic spike in gun sales recently.

Last month, gun maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. announced it had to temporarily stop taking orders because it had been crushed with orders for more than 1 million guns already this year. The company shipped 1.1 million guns in all of 2011, according to an MSNBC report.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in March that the FBI received 16.3 million requests for background checks on potential gun buyers last year, compared with 12.7 million inquiries in 2008 and 11.4 million in 2007.

Industry experts guess the surge in gun sales is related to stockpiling in case sales become more restricted if President Obama wins a second term.
"A common concern among serious preppers is the government getting too powerful and taking away rights," Howard Marston said. "That's not something that a lot of serious preppers like to talk about, especially online. If you're serious enough to talk revolution, you're getting into dangerous ground. So it's really not discussed."

Survivalist-based books, periodicals and even video games have grown in popularity. A Sony subsidiary will release "The Last of Us," a PlayStation 3 game about people trying to survive on a planet decimated by a pandemic.

Fears -- legitimate and conjured -- motivate preppers. Observers of the lifestyle explain that interest in prepping has been cyclical over the years, taking off most recently in the late 1990s over Y2K concerns.

A series of disasters have kept people on edge. The World Trade Center attacks in 2001, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 and the Japanese tsunami last year have upheld the worry. The federal government in 2003 recommended squirreling away duct tape and plastic sheets for doors and windows in case of a biological or chemical attack.

Unrest in the Middle East and stratospheric gas prices add to anxieties. As unemployment, foreclosures and banking debacles continue to trouble Americans, a devastating economic collapse is plausible.

In June 2010, a Pew Research Center/Smithsonian magazine poll showed 58 percent of Americans predicted another world war by 2050, while 53 percent expected a terrorist attack using nuclear weapons in the United States.

Also from the Pew/Smithsonian poll, 72 percent predicted a major world energy crisis, 41 percent predicted Jesus Christ will return and 31 percent predicted an asteroid will hit Earth within the next 40 years.

Author, blogger and former U.S. Army intelligence officer James Rawles is considered the conscience of survivalism. He has advocated what he calls "the American redoubt," relocating to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the eastern portions of Washington and Oregon.

Among Rawles' bullet-point recommendations to preppers at SurvivalBlog.com are "bring your guns," "develop a home-based business," convert "dollar-denominated wealth into practical tangibles" and "begin home-schooling your children."

That level of vigilance is what makes Heffron, the retired National Guard commander, raise an eyebrow and clear his throat.

Heffron, 70, sold his guns when he relocated from the Northtowns to South Carolina. His prepping consists of a few extra items in the pantry and some batteries.

"There are those people who like to be prepared for a natural disaster beforehand all the time," Heffron said. "That's their comfort zone. It makes them feel good in case of a blizzard or a power outage.

"But when you have a bunker in the basement and weapons and ammunition, that's when I start to say 'What's your intent? Do you have malice toward your neighbors? Do you feel threatened by your neighbors?'

"If you're tied into a network of neighbors who feel they need to be prepared to defend their goods, the question I ask is 'What's the threat to you? What will tip you to -- all of a sudden -- begin to defend yourself with live fire?'"

Canned goods, not zombies

Pelenaka Lopez cringes at the thought of the stereotypical prepper in mainstream media.

"It's sensationalism," said Lopez, who also didn't want to reveal her real name. "Somebody will post a YouTube clip about when the zombies are going to come. It sets us back.

"Everybody wants to focus on [prepping extremism]. In reality, for me, it's about surviving here and now. If you can't, then it doesn't matter if the zombies come because you haven't made it to the end of the week."

Lopez, 49, is a part-time nurse. She lives in Buffalo and considers herself an urban homesteader. She began canning as a way to save enough money so she could spend more time with her four children and less at work.

Her frugality turned into an obsession. She grows much of her own food. At her peak, when all four children lived at home, she stocked 1,000 jars. She calculated it costs her between 10 and 13 cents to fill each jar.

Then she invested in Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers as an even more intricate way to preserve food. She further saves money by finding others with whom to barter goods.

Lopez has expanded her prepper philosophies beyond the kitchen table. She doesn't collect antiques unless they're functional. Her family's hobbies must be constructive and not frivolous; her husband took up forging in the driveway. She volunteered to be the local meet-up organizer for the American Preppers Network.

"I know people are into prepping for a variety of reasons," Lopez said. "I got into prepping because I wanted to put food on the table.

"When I say survival, maybe the car is going to break down, or I'll lose my job next week. But I will have food."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches its members to "be prepared for any of the challenges that life might throw at us," said Rick Foster, area welfare director for LDS welfare services.

LDS members are encouraged to keep a reserve of drinking water and at least a three-month supply of food on hand at all times.

Foster said there's a misconception about the reasons. A Google search for "Mormons" and "preppers" returns a slew of sites that claim Mormons are ordered to stockpile materials for Armageddon.

"If you understand our true doctrine regarding the end of days, there's no point in having food storage," Foster said from his office in Salt Lake City. "If it's the end of days, then it's the end of days. You won't need food. There's a mentality that at the end of the world people will be defending their food storage with AK-47s.

"This isn't about natural disasters that have been prophesied by some church leaders. But a lot of people want to focus on that."

The LDS church operates 110 food storehouses in the United States and Canada, including one in Canandaigua. They're primarily to serve poor and needy members, but a bishop (equivalent of a parish minister) can designate donations to nonmembers.

A dry-pack facility with bulk food items -- 25 pounds of dry milk sells for $47.20, 15 pounds of apple slices for $72.55 -- and storage materials is open to nonmembers by appointment. It's a popular destination for preppers of all faiths.

"For us, it's about taking care of yourself and then reaching out and helping your neighbor," Foster said. "It's about these crazy calamities and the bumps along the road and being able to get through those."

Always vigilant

In a Tim Hortons near the South Buffalo-West Seneca border, Howard Marston never stopped surveying his surroundings. He admitted he's the kind of guy who prefers to sit with his back to the wall and face the doorway in case something erupts.

"When a lot of preppers walk into a building, they're automatically looking for the nearest exit," Howard Marston said. "When I'm driving down the road, I'm aware of where I am, where I should be, what's the best place to get out of here."

His wife, in a visit to a different Tim Hortons, sat with her back to the large front window. She shrugged -- and rolled her eyes -- when the disparity was pointed out to her.

Each is matter-of-fact when discussing how much they disagree about prepping, most notably the fact that Howard has a couple guns, and Jill detests them. She doesn't protest as long as the guns are out of sight.

But where the Marstons do agree is when predicting an eventual SHTF moment: a global financial collapse.

"The economic issue is my No. 1 man-made disaster that I'm worried about," Howard Marston said. "When you take things away that people rely on, then people will panic."

That's why Marston has guns, why he learned to make a generator out of a lawnmower engine and a car alternator, why he has a month's worth of food stored up, why he wants to start gardening and maybe keep a couple chickens.

"I hope to God I'm wrong," Marston said. "I hope it's all for naught. At the same time, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

tgraham@buffnews.com


'Preppers': Ready for anything - Spotlight - The Buffalo News

Monday, April 2, 2012

Riverwalker’s Survival Food Test - Part One - LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy

LRP's in BOB

Food items should be considered an important part of a properly packed Bug Out Bag. Unfortunately, your BOB may sit in the closet for a while before it’s needed. This also means that it may not be checked as often as it should be to make sure everything is good to go. This creates a problem because you will need food items with a good shelf life that will remain viable for use over a longer period of time.

LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy may be just the alternative to MRE’s or other type of food items you may have been considering for your BOB. What are LRP’s? They are Long Range Patrol Rations that are similar to MRE’s but weigh significantly less (approximately 1/3 of a standard MRE). If your BOB is anything like mine, it’s already heavy enough without adding any more weight than necessary. LRP’s are also vacuum packed which keeps their size small enough so that they won’t take up a lot of space in your BOB.

There is also a wide variety of LRP’s that are available along with LRP’s with no pork or shellfish. This is an important factor because you may want to include a variety of food items in each of your BOB’s, as well as food items for those with special diets. They are also made by the same company which manufactures Mountain House freeze dried food products.

Here’s a list of the sample package of LRP’s that was tested:

Entrees:

1 - Beef Stew
1 - Mexican Rice & Chicken
1 - Spicy Oriental Chicken
1 - Turkey Tetrazzini

Cereal:

1 - Granola & Bananas Pouch

Dessert:
2 - Ice Cream Sandwiches (1 ounce pouch each)

Each of the entrée pouches were approximately five ounces and made approximately 21 ounces of food when rehydrated with approximately 16 ounces of water per the directions. The breakfast pouch was a two ounce pouch and the ice cream sandwiches were each one ounce pouches. The cereal required only about 4 ounces of water and there was no need to add water to the ice cream sandwich pouches.

LRP's in BOB Closeup

The test results so far are very promising for the LRP’s. They did extremely well in several of the important categories. Here is a brief summary.

Test Category

1. Shipping - The product was received in 7 days and was within the 5 to 7 day estimated shipping time indicated during the order process. No back order or out of stock problems as everything arrived in a very timely manner by UPS.

2. Packaging - The LRP’s packaging was very good and held up well after being “stuffed” into my BOB, where they resided for several days before the test. They should hold up well for even longer periods.

3. Compact - The LRP’s were amazingly compact due to their vacuum packaging. This is a great feature as it will save a lot of room in your BOB, GHB or wherever you decide to keep them packed.

4. Lightweight - At an average of 5 ounces per meal, you can’t get much lighter and the LRP’s shouldn’t create a significant problem in the weight category. The total weight, not including the cereal and ice cream sandwiches, of the four LRP’s was only slightly more than a pound.

5. Variety - The variety of meals was excellent. At about 1/3 the weight of a standard MRE, you can have several meal choices for the same amount of weight and space. There are also LRP’s available for those with special dietary needs.

6. Preparation - The preparation of the LRP’s was quite easy by just adding water. This could be done easily by any member of your family. This can be helpful if you’re busy with other equally important tasks.

7. Cost - The cost of the sample pack was similar to most freeze dried products available on the market but this was more than compensated for by the increased shelf life. It also didn’t contain a lot of “extras” you might not need or use.

8. Taste - The final and most significant test category is taste. An in depth coverage of this part of the test will be covered in the second part of my review of LRP’s. This is a critical part of the test and it’s important to include all family members in this part.

You can read Part Two of my survival food test here:

Riverwalker’s Survival Food Test - Part Two - LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy

Got LRP’s?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Stealth Survival: Riverwalker’s Survival Food Test - Part One - LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy

Preppers: ‘Anywhere from Incredibly Practical to Practically Certifiable’

Mac Slavo
May 3rd, 2012
SHTFplan.com
Comments (172)
Read by 4,933 people

With the 2012 Doomsday date quickly approaching, anxiety and fear are gripping more and more people across the globe. According to a recent survey of individuals in over twenty countries, 15% of people worldwide believe the end of the world as we know it will happen in our lifetime.

“Whether they think it will come to an end through the hands of God, or a natural disaster or a political event, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming,” said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters.

“Perhaps it is because of the media attention coming from one interpretation of the Mayan prophecy that states the world ‘ends’ in our calendar year 2012,” Gottfried said, adding that some Mayan scholars have disputed the interpretation.

Source: Reuters

People aren’t sure what it is or when it may happen, but there is a strong sentiment of unease among the general population. And it’s not all Mayan Prophecy centric.

The end of the world can come in lots of different ways. Over half of Americans, for example, think that a financial collapse is imminent. While such an event wouldn’t shift our geomagnetic poles or cause five thousand foot high Tsunamis, a collapse of the world’s economy, the US dollar or the international banking system would have implications so severe that it could cost millions of lives in its wake through food shortages and global conflict over resources.

The end of the world means different things to different people and can include a variety of scenarios. Man-made events like hyperinflationary global depression, chemical or biological attacks, cyber war, nuclear fallout, or electro magnetic pulse (EMP) could render our entire infrastructure obsolete by collapsing our nation’s just-in-time transportation services, causing widespread blackouts, and contaminating our food and water supplies.

Natural disasters like solar flares, mega-quakes, super volcanoes, pole shifts, climate shifts and near earth objects have changed the face of the earth quite regularly since its creation – often with cataclysmic consequences.
While each of these possibilities is unlikely, when taken cumulatively the odds of disaster having a direct adverse impact on our lives successively increases – so much so that one in seven people around the world believe they’ll see such a Doomsday before they die.

You’d think that with all of the potential threats we face as a civilization more people would be preparing, but recent statistics indicate that just three million Americans (about 1% of the population) are preparing to weather the storm by stocking so-called doomsday supplies like long-term food storage, water, firearms, off-grid tools, and developing skills to live in a world where modern day technology has all but disappeared.

For those preparing for the scenarios discussed above it’s business as usual – a completely rational response to the mounting threats we as a society and as individuals face in this complex, interdependent and unsustainable consumptive paradigm.

For onlookers, acquaintances, friends, and family who may have been exposed to prepper ravings of a system-on-the-brink, the idea of readying for TEOTWAWKI or SHTF is nothing short of lunacy in desperate need of professional medical assistance.

Via Steve Quayle:

Many would view Marston’s mindset as a form of radical paranoia, but he’s not alone — not nearly. He is what’s known as a “prepper,” someone who readies for the possibility of significant change, and there are millions across the country.

Preppers, also referred to as survivalists, have a dubious, often unfair reputation. They’re generally labeled right-wing kooks, although they come from all walks of life. Cable television series “Doomsday Preppers” on the National Geographic Channel and “Doomsday Bunkers” on the Discovery Channel have put them in the spotlight.

Such fictional characters as Robinson Crusoe and, less classically, MacGyver romanticized survivalism. But the ideal has been stigmatized by infamous real-life survivalists like Theodore Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) and Timothy McVeigh, who were also terrorists.

Preppers frequently are ridiculed because of the oddball fringe that believes the Mayans might have been onto something with their 2012 Armageddon forecast or that a horde of zombies will overtake the planet.

But the prepper spectrum is expansive. The needle can point anywhere from incredibly practical to practically certifiable.

Some preppers merely cultivate a backyard garden to stock cellar shelves. They might be on alert for nothing more than an emergency weather situation, with a generator at the ready and enough provisions to last a week.

Others, such as members of the Mormon church, store food and supplies as faith-based policy.

There also is a group that takes the prepping lifestyle to an extreme, literal diehards who maintain underground bunkers or isolated backwoods retreats.

“Many people think the worst when they hear certain comments about survivalists,” said Bill Heffron, a retired National Guard colonel from the Town of Tonawanda. Heffron spent much of his career as a commander at the Connecticut Street Armory.

“It’s just comfort for some people. When you’re prepared ahead of time, then that’s just good planning. That’s never a problem.

“But when you start getting guns out, you start to wonder.”

Regardless of commitment levels or reasons for doing it, a critical component to a prepper’s lifestyle is anonymity.

Preppers want to stay off the grid to avoid social persecution and for one particularly important, sensible reason. When the SHTF (an abbreviation preppers commonly use for “stuff” hitting the fan) or TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) is at hand, they don’t want panicky nonpreppers trying to crowd their space or raid their reserves.

“We’re not into exposing ourselves even to close friends and family,” said the 31-year-old Marston, who asked that his real name not be used in this story. “People might be shocked to learn a family member is a prepper, an uncle, a cousin.

“The fear of being rejected is there. Yeah, there’s a lot of crazies out here. But there are crazies into everything else. There are legitimate, upstanding people doing this. It bothers me that when you say ‘I’m a prepper,’ you get the eye roll.”

Source: Buffalo News

We know that the system we live in is unsustainable and a significant alteration to our way of life is coming – this is inevitable. Fully half of Americans believe a massive financial collapse is imminent and some 15% of the world’s population is expecting the end of the world over coming decades.
Yet, when one takes steps to insulate themselves from the possibility of these very disasters they are looked at by most as paranoid, fringe lunatics who are acting completely irrationally.

This begs the question: What’s rational about expecting the end of the world, or a black swan event, or a natural disaster, but taking no practical steps to prepare for it?

One could argue that it’s those very people, who are aware of the possibilities but refuse to make preparations, that should be labeled the practically certifiable ones.

Preppers: 'Anywhere from Incredibly Practical to Practically Certifiable'

Monday, April 2, 2012

Riverwalker’s Survival Food Test - Part Two - LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy

Since meal time is pretty much a family affair at the Riverwalker household, everyone got a chance to participate in the taste test of the LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy. Most everyone has their own favorites when it comes to food. The variety of the LRP’s that were being tested gave everyone a chance to pick their own sample for the taste test. This is extremely important because taste matters, even in a survival situation.



The first thing that should be mentioned is that all the meals can be prepared in the pouch. All the pouches held water without leaking and the serving can be eaten straight from the pouch. The pouches also need to be cut open before you can add the required amount of water (16 ounces). The pouches effectively resisted all my efforts to tear them open by hand. As an added bonus, the inside of the pouches are fairly shiny and the empty pouch could be used as an improvised signaling device in an emergency, as trail markers when hiking or an emergency water container that folds flat for storage in your backpack or BOB.



The Taste and Texture Results

Lil’ RW, my grandson, volunteered quickly to check out the ice cream sandwich which came with the LRP’s. The pouch containing the ice cream sandwich opened easily by hand. It was also packaged in a separate paper wrapper. Lil’ RW’s first question about it was “Why isn’t it cold?” After a lengthy explanation and several more questions, he did manage to wolf down about 3/4’s of it before a picture could be taken for this post. He also stated that it was “crunchy” and tasted OK but he liked “cold” ice cream better. After sampling the leftover piece myself, it was indeed fairly “crunchy” but it did have a pleasant and very “creamy” taste. If your kids are “picky eaters”, you may need to consider an alternative other than this for a dessert item.

Lil’ RW votes for “cold” ice cream. Riverwalker also votes for "cold" ice cream.



The Beef Stew pouch (4.94 ounces and 530 calories) was chosen for my portion of the taste test. Beef stew is also one of my favorite food items. The first thing that caught my attention was the smell. It smelled really good. There was a big temptation on my part to stick a spoon in the bag and start eating it right then and there. Instead, it was necessary to wait the necessary ten minutes for it to rehydrate while stirring occasionally. It was well worth the wait!

There were plenty of meat chunks in the beef stew and the texture of the vegetables was really good. There was a generous serving in the package and Mrs. RW had a bowl of the beef stew also. She really liked the taste of the sauce and thought the meat chunks were quite tender. Overall, it was as good as most of the canned beef stew that’s available and a lot better than some. The only thing that was added to my serving was some black pepper. The amount of salt in the beef stew was more than ample to suit my tastes. Any additional salt would have made it too salty.

The flavor was much better than expected and the beef stew pouch gets high marks in both the taste and texture category from Riverwalker.



Mrs. RW chose the Mexican Style Rice and Chicken pouch (5.39 ounces and 630 calories) for her portion of the taste test. She’s a big fan of Mexican style foods and there was enough for both of us to have a generous portion. The seasonings and peppers in the pouch were adequate and the serving shouldn’t be too spicy for the average person. There was also no need to add pepper to my portion. Mrs. RW said the rice and chicken was delicious but thought the rice could have been a little tenderer. The beans were very tender and tasted quite good. She even saved some for lunch tomorrow. She also told me to leave the leftover portion of her pouch alone or suffer the consequences.

**EDIT** Mrs. RW finally ate her leftovers and said that it was just as good when warmed up.

The Mexican Style Rice and Chicken pouch gets high marks in the taste and texture category from Mrs. RW.



Mrs. RW also took the Granola with Milk and Bananas pouch to work for her morning snack. She also claimed the Turkey Tetrazzini for her lunch the day after tomorrow. She’s already been convinced after her part of the taste test that they are going to be good. Good thing this was just a sample pack or there might be some difficulty in getting her to prepare a regular meal. Mrs. RW really likes the “no cook” part of this survival food test.

RW, Jr. chose the Oriental Style Chicken and Rice pouch (5.29 ounces and 530 calories) for his portion of the taste test. He hasn’t finished his evaluation of the Oriental Style Chicken and Rice. The post will be updated when he’s completed his part of the review.

**EDIT**

RW, Jr. finally finished his part of the taste test. He said it was a very generous portion but that you need to make sure to use enough water to properly rehydrate the food package. It was also considerably more than one person could eat at one time. He said it tasted good and he would have no problem using this product on one of his backpacking trips. He also indicated that you would need something sharp to open the package because he couldn't open the package by hand.

Compact, lightweight, with quick and easy preparation and a wide variety of choices combined with excellent taste makes LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy an excellent choice for your BOB or for your regular long term food storage. They are also a "no cook" food item.

Mrs. RW gives LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy her "NO COOK" stamp of approval.

You can read Part One of my survival food test here:

Riverwalker’s Survival Food Test - Part One - LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy

Got LRP’s ?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Stealth Survival: Riverwalker’s Survival Food Test - Part Two - LRP’s from the Freeze Dry Guy

You might also like:

Dehydrated Foods - Making the Wise Choice - Part Two


Survival Food Test - Testing Canned Foods with Expired Date

Posted by riverwalker at 10:51 PM
Labels: Food, Gear, Preparedness, Product Reviews, Simple Survival Tips, Storage Food