SCP Survival

Best Survival Gear and Supplies

Two Book Reviews of Mike Oehler’s Books

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I bought Mike Oehler’s book The $50 & Up Underground House Book back in 1978 when it was first published. And yes, I lived in the panhandle of Idaho at that time (where Mike hails from).

My homestead was on the north facing slope and just not suited to an underground home even though I have always yearned for one. Well, my house burned and that book went with it, but Wyzyrd just sent me these two books. I am still totally a believer!

The $50 & Up Underground House Book is a classic in the alternative building world. If you have ever been interested in the advantages of earth sheltered building this book is a must!

New to me is The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book by Mike. LOVE THIS BOOK! Even read a recent newspaper article from Minneapolis, where a couple up there is harvesting fresh vegetables year around in the city using this method.

This book has a good index, lots of drawings, some full color photos and takes you from his first experiments to the conception and development of the earth-sheltered solar greenhouse.

How impressed am I?

Well, I’m considering building one off the side of my house. I don’t have a south facing area that is not blocked from the sun by something, but I do have an east side that I believe would not only produce vegetables, but assist my home with solar heat and where I could put my koi, chickens, pigeons and rabbits in the winter.

We’ll see what happens, but I have been drawing, thinking, redrawing, thinking more, and pretty sure I have a plan that may just work – heat sink and all!

For more timeless survival wisdom and ideas, check out these survival guides and PDF downloads.

Solar Cooking with The Sun Oven (My Honest Experience)

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Sun Oven

Since Bev has asked, I’ll add my own experiences with my Sun Oven…which I adore!  As I’ve mentioned (I’m sure) I love my Sun Oven. We were somewhat new at this type of thing so we just bought what we believed was the best and at the time we had the funds to do so.

So far we haven’t taken it camping because we don’t want to leave it unattended…someone might think it would be a good thing to put in their truck or the trunk of their car and you never know about racoons. I’ve also not cooked in it during the snow etc….yet, but have been assured by the manufacturer and others who have, that it cooks just fine although you may have to rotate it to keep it in the direction of the sun.

sun oven pic

As for my experiences, I’ve just set it on top of a small table in the back yard, without any legs to tip it forward etc., and then let the sun do it’s thing. I haven’t had to rotate it or anything, just let the sun shine in :-)

I’ve only used my graniteware in my solar oven, but have got a couple of small bread loaf pans that are very dark colored and I plan to try them out for bread. I use several different sized roasters with lids, and since I use graniteware in our RV I have several pie tins, plates, cups and a coffee pot. Everything will fit into my solar oven except my coffee pot, but that’s okay…it’ll cook quicker on the outside grill :-)

The picture at the top is of a raw pork roast that I put into my solar oven along with vegetables etc. that took about 4 hours to cook thoroughly and was absolutely fork tender & so moist you wouldn’t believe it, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have burned if I’d left it all day. The only thing I’ve learned is that I DO NOT have to add water. So on this particular occasion, I just took the juice that it created and made gravy out of it.

Because of my solar oven, our Coleman 2-burner cook stove with an oven that fits on top, and lots of propane, and a single burner butane stove (like they use in chinese restaurants etc.) I’ve been slow in approaching other sources of cooking. We do plan to purchase a StoveTec-type stove though because we believe it would be safe to use inside with gel candles, t-lights, votive candles etc. It’s also easy enough to move outside to burn wood or charcoal, perhaps even some wood chips.

Either way we look at it, solar is about the cheapest source of cooking and supplementing your heat there is. Right now, we’re not too interested in providing electricity via solar. The Roost is small enough and not situated in the right direction, for us to install panels on it’s roof…and in a SHTF situation would be a signal that we have some sort of power, as well as if we set up panels outside they’d probably get stolen or deliberately damaged. Same for our solar oven, don’t want to set it out even at the Roost where it could be stolen.

As a ps…we also own one of the “oil less” cookers (electric) that’s also another great addition to your cooking alternatives and can also dehydrate…as long as you have electricity of some sort. What’s that old saying?  “try it you’ll like it.”

p.s. if you like the idea of cooking with the sun, but are on a “DIY” budget, check out this awesome DIY solar cooker. 

Fitness: Nice to have or a necessity?

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Fitness for Survival

A comment on a prepping forum said: “I’ve always been overweight. … That being said if a project needs doing, it gets done. We may be sore at the end of the day but we can accomplish just short of anything. I don’t consider being physically fit a prepping necessity, more of a nice to have.”

I’m afraid I have to disagree with this writer. If you are overweight by definition you have inflammation or you wouldn’t be overweight. If you are overweight you have a chronic medical condition. This goes for me as much as for anyone else, so I’m not picking on the writer. It’s just a fact. If a person has generalized inflammation leading to fat deposits where its not healthy to have them then they will also have other inflammatory processes going on such as pre-diabetes, inflammation in the heart arteries, auto immune disease and/or pre-cancerous changes to cells.

As a prepper I don’t think it is sufficient to think its OK  just because I can get a project done if it needs doing. If we are not improving our health we are in the process of degeneration. If we cannot get a task done now without being sore we are going to be a problem to those we share our lives with and also to ourselves when things get really difficult.

Imagine that we are in a severe financial crisis and you can’t afford to both run a vehicle and feed yourself so you have to walk – a lot… or… you are stranded somewhere, there is chaos all around and home is at least an eight hour brisk walk away in good walking shoes… or… you are in pain because you have had an accident trying to do something you had to try because there was no-one else to do it.

Now add deteriorating health to this. Your obesity and inflammation has progressed because it was only nice to have, not a prepping necessity. Now you have one of those scenarios alongside the health problems of having bad knees needing a replacement/ gut problems with severe diarrhea which means you need to stay within a few minutes of a toilet at all times/ you have cancer or heart disease which leaves you very fatigued.

Now being physically fit can go hand in hand with any one of those diagnoses, but it is less likely to have gone down that route than if you are obese and unfit. If we are fit and exercise we cut our chances of some cancers (eg breast) by 50% and though I’m not sure what the figures are for heart disease I know that physical fitness will reduce the chances of having a heart attack enormously.

So a nice to have but not essential? Or an essential if we are to be self responsible and a contributor or are we to be a drain on our support network? For me it is essential.

“But… but… I can’t exercise much, because it makes me even sicker than I am at the moment. If I do too much I will get a flare up of my medical condition.” That might be so, but that is a different issue. Just don’t try to pretend that you don’t need to be fit in order to better cope when the SHTF. Fitness, flexibility and mobility, in my book, are primary personal responsibilities for a prepper.

Quitting Smoking is HARD! (but I eventually did it)

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Every single time I have gone to the doctor I have heard the same thing, “When are you going to quit smoking?” Nag, nag, nag, nag, nag…

Now understand that I am not a committed smoker, from my perspective! I didn’t start smoking until I was 21 years old and only because I had listened to my former husband say every single day that we were married that he would never have a wife that smoked! Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!

Yes, my sister Theresa was patient teaching me how to smoke. I prayed to the one-eyed porcelain god (read toilet) for six weeks turning green and throwing up. But by God I learned to smoke! Just to spite my husband! Oh, stupid woman!

Well, I quit the first time when they went up to 50 cents a pack! That’s back when I was working for $1.75 an hour. Hmmm, if only I would have stayed quit. Eight years, it wasn’t a bad run given that my husband smoked every day in front of me. And then I started again. Quit, again. Started, again. Quit, again. You get the picture :-)

Well, this last stretch was almost 10 years long. Overtime to quit! And I did, almost a year ago now. And I am sure hoping it is my LAST QUIT! Yes, the husband is still smoking (different husband), but out in the garage; where I started my QUIT!

I had just repainted the living room and several other rooms in the house and decided not to stink things up with cigarettes. Hoping to quit, my first step was to smoke in the attached garage; ohhhhhh so cold in Minnesota, but out of the biting wind at least.

Then I started doing the math. $7.00 a pack, even $5.00 a pack generic, times 2, sometimes more on a stressful day, and that works up to a MINIMUM of $3,650 A YEAR!!! What could I do with $3,650 a year, and not make myself sicker (or lead to almost certain respiratory issues down the road)?

Worse yet, I would wake myself up, yes snoring :-), but more importantly wheezing. When you can hear yourself breathing and your lungs are audibly squeaking, etc. It is past time to quit!

“Cold Turkey” NOT! I patched, I bought the little fake cigarette, I have tried those portable vaporizers too which I find really good on taking baby steps on quitting smoking. I bought those generic equate Nicotine Lozenges from Walmart, had lists of things to do when the craving hit, walked on my treadmill and tried to stay away from the hubby when he was smoking; no place to go in the car.

Two months of the patch and I ran out. About the same for the steam cigarette which was oh so frustrating as it didn’t draw half the time! Dr. Oz’s Sharecare gives me a quit tip everyday, even now. And at the beginning I bought myself some “I quit smoking” gifts with the money I had saved. But I have stayed on the lozenges. Now, mind you, I bite them into 4ths and 8ths, but it has now been what, 11 months and I am still biting lozenges into pieces. Very, very handy when I am with smokers—my husband, my mother, my sisters. $30 a month compared to $400, I can live with it! AND I am NOT smoking!

So WHATEVER WORKS!

The bottom line is that I am saving a minimum of $3,650, probably over $4,000 realistically (How could I afford that!) A YEAR by NOT SMOKING!

Wow! Imagine how much more I can spend on prepping and whatever! Think about this. Almost $4,000 a year! Car payment? Mortgage payment? FUN! All for quitting SMOKING!

I can live with this. $30 a month for lozenges; compared to $400 a month for smoking! And no more nagging from the Doctor!

And no, I have not become a crusader for quitting smoking in my family. I mention it occasionally to my husband. My Mom and sisters, I don’t even mention it. When and if they are ready, they too will make the decision and just do it. No amount of nagging affected me until I DECIDED to QUIT!

What To Do If Your Wife or Girlfriend Says “No Guns”

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For the past twelve years, I have been living and providing firearms training to civilians in the Las Vegas, NV area.

Las Vegas is unique in so many ways. One of those areas is the abundance of jobs for women. The only “war on women” in Las Vegas is from the criminal element! Unfortunately, some jobs that are offered to women in LV many times leave them exposed to unwelcome behavior. And because sex sells in Las Vegas, working, striving women are unduly targeted by creeps intent on aggressive advances.

So, Las Vegas is a leader in sexual assaults, stalking, Temporary Protective Order (TPO), divorce, child stealing, and vice related (drugs, prostitution) crimes. And because all of Nevada took an exceptional hit from the housing collapse, the building trades and associated businesses have been decimated. That meant more unemployment and more property crimes.

Because of this city’s vast female entertainment job core, many of my clients are single women or women singled out.

Now ladies, here are some of my personal observations. In almost every concealed weapons class I’ve conducted in the past 25 years, women have been the better shooters! I have coined a prophecy for men. “Men, you can’t successfully teach your girlfriend, fiancée or spouse to shoot, drive or play golf!” You know it’s true. They feel that they must be given direction by an instructor who is recognized as someone who has knowledge beyond yours.

I find these results to be grounded in a true interest to learn to protect themselves and their children. Some of these female clients have gone on to become serious shooting competitors, police officers, armed guards, executive protection agents (body guards) and badass Moms!  I’m so proud of my female clients. They are truly motivated and serious when it comes to firearms.

Some female spouses, however, are hard over about NO guns in the house. This reaction often seems to come from having young children present. Other ladies just don’t like guns. No explanation. They just don’t like guns.

So, one of my techniques that I have developed over the years is to give a homework assignment to the husband that consists of making a survival plan for the home in case of home invasion, burglary (while someone is in the home), or come home to open doors. The key to the assignment is to have all members of the family, sans small children, involved in creating the survival plan.

This task enlists the input of the wife or girlfriend, who first acknowledges a potential threat, then helps to come up with a good viable safety plan. This method of “buy in” is effective and again lends itself to my favorite subject of all times, FIREARMS TRAINING!

Because I am an old firearms trainer, a student of police involved shootings, an expert witness in the use of firearms and the father of three wonderful women, I believe that training with whatever tool you decide to use to protect yourself and those around you will have a direct correlation with your ultimate survival.

Just a few pointers for your consideration:

  • Never carry a weapon (gun) that you have not personally shot and checked out.
  • Never carry a new magazine w/o shooting through your gun first. This goes for all lifesaving equipment.
  • Don’t search your own house during an invasion. If you can see to get around, the bad guy can also see you. Set an ambush and stay put!
  • Give more attention to training with the gear you now have. Find its attributes.
  • Develop your “warrior spirit”.
  • Clean weapons for two distinct reasons; clean it- so no misfires due to residue. Inspect it- it may have broken w/o failing while you were shooting.

I sincerely hope this information adds to your endeavor to keep you and yours safer.

11 Tactical Home Defense Questions for Preppers

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With the present economy, metropolitan areas are seeing an increase in crime and longer response times from law enforcement. More and more U.S. families are choosing to purchase firearms for protection.

But the basic training of a concealed weapons class and regular range practice do not prepare you for thoughtfully dealing with scenarios that would seem ripe for engaging a firearm. Below are 11 questions to discuss with your spouse and age-appropriate family members.

Consider it scenario-based training. It’s a way to help you establish home tactical standard operating procedures.  Discussions such as this may reveal better ways to handle the situation, without engaging the firearm.  It may also prevent an accidental firearm injury to a family member unexpectedly returning home late at night.

  1. You arrive home after dark.  You are in the car.  The electric garage door is in the process of opening when you notice shadowy movement from a dark area of the exterior of the house, near the garage door opening.  What will you do?  (If you don’t have an electric garage door, substitute details for your normal arrival home.)
  2. At the end of the day, your spouse normally returns home at a later time than you.  When you arrive you find the door to your house is ajar.  This is unexpected and unusual.  What will you do?
  3. When returning home at the end of the day you sense something is not right.  The flatscreen TV is missing, with wires hanging from the wall.  The lamp on the table is laying on the floor.  What do you do?
  4. Your spouse fell asleep on the couch while watching TV. You are in bed. It’s now 3AM, when you hear the sound of breaking glass in another part of the house. What do you do? What does spouse do?
  5. Your spouse, having been traveling, is expected home tomorrow.  It’s 3AM and you hear a key and jiggling of the door knob.  What do you do?
  6. It’s 3AM, your spouse hollers from the other room, “Are you awake? Did you hear that?”  What do you do?  And spouse?
  7. It’s 3AM. Someone is at your front door, banging aggressively. What do you do? And Spouse?
  8. It’s 3AM. You hear people arguing loudly, immediately outside your bedroom window, what will you do?  And spouse?
  9. Two neighbors have had their houses broken into.  One such occurrence happened while family members were at home.
    • How might this affect your routine of leaving home at the beginning of each day?
    • How might this affect your routine of coming home at the end of the day?
    • How might this affect your routine before retiring to bed each night?
    • How will this affect where you store personal protection equipment?
  10. From each room in the house, do you have
    • an alternative way out
    • an escape
    • a hiding area that provides concealment?
    • An area that provides safe cover?
  11. Where will you and other family members meet up after evacuation?