SCP Survival

Our Survival Radio Communications – Through Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav

March 11, 2024 by Seasoned Citizen Prepper

My wife and I use two way radios to communicate whenever we take two vehicles to travel anywhere. By doing so, we always know when one of us has to stop for something to drink, eat, go to the bathroom, get gas or just stretch our legs. If one of us had a problem of any type, we could communicate the problem to the other quickly and effortlessly. If one of us gets out of sight of the other in heavy traffic, we just had to radio the other to stay in touch. Radios worked very well for us.

At first, we both had standard Citizen Band (C.B.) radios mounted in each of our vehicles on removable bases. We had magnetic antennas on the top of each vehicle. This allowed us to take our radio antennas off of our vehicles so we could run the vehicles through an automated car wash. When we pulled into a motel parking lot for the night, we took the magnetic based C. B. antennas of the tops of our vehicles and removed the C. B. radios from inside of our vehicles; this made our vehicles less of a target for car burglars.

We found several major problems with our C. B. radios during and in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit southeast Louisiana.

First, there were major problems with too many people trying to transmit on all of the C. B. radio channels at the same time. We could not get a chance to transmit anything, no matter what channel we attempted to transmit on. Everyone wanted to talk at the same time. No one wanted to yield to anyone, even if an emergency was declared.

Second, the vulgarity used on the C. B. radios was unbelievable.

Third, when we left our vehicles, we could not take our vehicle C. B. radio with us. Yes, I know that they make hand held C. B. radios. If we decided to use the hand held C. B. radios, we still would have had the above listed problems with them.

I then got my “HAM” radio license. When I looked into purchasing my own “Ham” radios and the associated equipment, I found the cost to be prohibitive. At least it was a lot more than what I was willing to pay on a retirees fixed income.

We also had problems with our cell phones during evacuations. All of the lines were busy during the evacuation or we could not get a cell tower signal because the electricity was out. Also, using cell phones, you must take your eyes off of the road to dial the phone number. This is extremely dangerous in the very heavy traffic of an evacuation.

Both my wife and I enjoy going to flea markets and garage sales on Saturdays mornings. We find fantastic deals on camping gear and a whole lot of other items we use for prepping. Flea markets and garage sales are a topic for another article.

While at a garage sale, I observed two small, about the size of an adult fist, two way radios. They were yellow, “Motorola, Talkabout” Two-Way, GMRS/FRS channel radios, model number T5990.

I inspected both radios carefully. They appeared to have been well kept. I opened the backs of both radios and observed they both had rechargeable batteries in them. On the table next to the two radios was the battery charger for the radios. I asked the lady how much she wanted for both radios and the charger.

She told me she wanted $3.00 for the two radios and the charger. I quickly paid her the $3.00 and took them. Even if they did not work, I would only be out $3.00.

When I got home, I placed the two hand held radios in the charger. About eight (8) hours later I turned the radios on. Neither one of the radio batteries took a charge.

I removed the rechargeable battery packs and replaced them with three (3) AA batteries. When I turned the radios on, they both worked perfectly.

I went on the internet, located and printed out the operations manual for the two way radios and read all about them. To my surprise each radio had twenty-two (22) channels. Fifteen (15) channels transmit with one (1) watt of power and seven (7) channels transmit with one half (1/2) watt. In addition to the radio channels, each radio had ninety-nine (99) Interference Eliminator Codes.

To my surprise both radios could receive the weather channels also.

While in my local Walmart one day, I observed the “Motorola Talkabout, model T5950 radios for sale. They came in a blister pack with two radios, two reachable batteries and a charger. Wally World was selling them for $68.00 new.

My wife and I then started testing these little radios. To our surprise we could easily transmit and receive a mile with no problem within the city that we live in.

We then tested the radios on the interstate from and to each of our vehicles. They worked great. The real test came during our Hurricane Gustav evacuation. With all of the problems that we had with the C. B. radios; we did not have any problems with these little two way radios.

Since then, we continue to go to garage sales and flea markets. I have found a pair of “Cobra, micro Talk” radios. I purchased the pair for $5.00. I also found a single “Motorola, Talkabout, model T5710”, which I purchased for $2.00. All of these radios are compatible with the first two that I purchased. When tested, these two way radios worked flawlessly also. I found the manuals for these radios on the internet also.

I easily attached a length of para cord (550 cord) to the back of three of these radios. (See Photo # 2 & 3 above) We place the para cord around our neck and the radio in our shirt pocket. This way while we are driving the radios do not slide around in the vehicle and you can locate them easily when someone calls you or you need to call someone. Another advantage is that you can easily hear when someone calls you.

When we go camping with our grandsons, everyone carries their own two way radio. This way we are able to talk to anyone in our camping party at any time that we need to. We have also used them very successively at Disney World in Florida and on other vacations that we have taken.

They make even more powerful two way radios than the ones that I have but they cost a little more. I have seen them for sale at Cabala’s, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Costco. I am sure you can find them at other locations also. However, garage sales and flea markets are my preferences.

These little radios work great for us and you cannot beat the price we bought them for.

(In addition to 2-way radios, a bare bones but solid “survival radio” is a good idea to incorporate in your preps–something that can run on batteries forever, give you the news, weather, and other updates).

Seasoned Preppers – You Need To Store Medication

March 11, 2024 by Seasoned Citizen Prepper

As a Senior Citizen, I have found that I now have various additional needs that I did not have when I was younger.

One of those needs is the addition of life sustaining prescription medications that I now require just to survive. These prescriptions MUST be included in your bug out preparations. What good is it if you amass a years worth of food and supplies from a survival food list, but only have a month or two of your prescription medications that you need to keep you alive?

Just one of my heart prescription medications cost $525.00 for a thirty (30) day supply. Yes, my medical insurance covers the cost of it each month, minus my deductible, $25.00. But if I want extra medication to stockpile, I have to pay full price for those medications. This is just one of several life sustaining prescription medications that I take on a daily basis.

I came to the realization that in any of the TEOTWAWKI situations that I prepare for, I will only live as long as I have my life sustaining prescription medications to take. So, if I just have my current monthly supply of prescription medications, upon finishing that bottle of medication, I will probably not be around too much longer. If I am, I will be a great burden on my family because I will probably be bed ridden or have a stroke. I will not be there to help and support my wife, my daughter and my grandsons with their day to day survival needs.

I now have purchased a three (3) month supply of ALL of my prescription medication that I take on a regular basis. This means that I will probably be useful and or alive for three (3) to three and a half (3 ½) months in a TEOTWAWKI situation unless somehow I can find additional prescription medications. The problem with finding additional prescription medications in a TEOTWAWKI situation is:

The factories that make your prescription medications will probably NOT be producing them for a long time, if ever again. Everyone in your area will be trying to get additional supplies of the same medication for themselves or to barter with. I keep my extra prescriptions medications on a shelf above the kitchen sink in a small shoe box.

Every month when I get my new supply of prescription medications, I place the new ones in the back of the shoe box and rotate the older ones to the front and use them first. This way, none of the medications are more than three (3) months old. Prescription medications have the expiration date on the prescription label that is affixed to the bottle.

Always use the older meds first.

I do not keep my prescription medication in my Bug Out Bag because I rotate them every month. This way I am assured all of them are in date and do not come close to their expiration dates. Never, take ANY prescription medication that is past its expiration date. Some prescription medications become toxic once they pass their expiration dates.

I placed a reminder note on the outside of Bug Out Bag about grabbing the shoe box before evacuating.

Remember that in a pinch you may be able to use fish antibiotics like Fish Mox as a substitute for prescription antibiotics. There may also be herbal remedies or other alternatives that you can use instead of prescription medications but I do not know anything about those.

Protect Yourself from Identity Theft with These 3 Paper Shredders

March 11, 2024 by Seasoned Citizen Prepper

I have a lot of personal information such as credit card statements, bank statements, sales receipts, bills of sale, paper checks, personal information, computer printouts, etc. on paper. I had been throwing away all of this paperwork in the trash. I realized that anyone could read these items without any trouble at all. I knew I had to do something to protect my personal information.

If someone steals your identity, it can cost you thousands of dollars, a bad credit rating and years to put your life back together.

I spoke to a police officer that I knew about this matter. I asked him about putting all of my paper information in the trash can. I told him that I then placed the garbage can to the curb in front of my home for it to be picked up. The police officer told me that once anyone places anything into the trash and puts that trash out to the street for pick up, everything that is waiting for pickup can no longer be claimed as being your personal property.

In addition, you no longer have an expectation of privacy over anything that is placed to the curb for garbage pickup. The police can take everything you have put to the street for pick up without a warrant and go through it. Anything they find can be used against you or used to build a case against you. Also, private investigators, a neighbor or a stranger can take your garbage and recover anything from it that they want.

My police officer friend advised me to purchase a good paper shredder and shred ever piece of paper before placing it in the trash.

I went to my local national chain office supply store and inquired about paper shredders. I learned there were many different brand names and types of paper shredders in many different price ranges. I found two of the most important things to consider when purchasing a paper shredder are the size of the shredded pieces of paper and how many sheets of paper can be shredded at one time without jamming the shredder.

There are basically three types of paper shredders, strip-cut, confetti-cut, and micro-cut.

The strip cut paper shredders are better than doing nothing. They typically shred a regular piece of paper into approximately 45 long horizontal strips. These types of strip cut paper shredders are usually the cheapest of the paper shredders and not very well constructed. There are computer programs that can be used to reconstruct a document that has been shredded by a strip cut paper shredder. However, it only took me a few minutes to start to reconstruct some of these paper shards to be able to read part of the document.

Confetti cut paper shredders are much better. These shredders are also called cross-cut paper shredders. They slice papers horizontally and vertically. This type of paper shredder is MUCH better than the strip cut paper shredders. The confetti cut type of paper shredder cuts a normal size sheet of paper in approximately 350 pieces. This makes it a lot harder for anyone to put a document back together. They cost a little more than the strip cut paper shredders but are well worth it.

Micro-cut paper shredders are the best type of paper shredders to use. The micro-cut paper shredder is the type that many federal government agencies use. They are also usually the most expensive of all of the paper shredders. This type of paper shredder shreds a normal piece of paper into approximately 2,500 small pieces. To my knowledge, it is almost impossible to put a document back together if this type of paper shredder is used to shred a document. This is the type of paper shredder that I decided to purchase.

Shred ALL of your paper work, including trash mail before you throw it away. The increased volume makes more paper shreds and thus makes it more difficult for someone to put the shreds back together.

Do not place shredded paper in any type of a bag for disposal. Doing so makes it easier to put the shredded paper back together. Instead, place the loose shredded paper in the very bottom of the garbage can. This way when the garbage man or anyone attempting to recover the shredded paper turns the garbage can upside down to empty it, the paper shreds will dump out further mixing them up. This makes the shredded paper even harder to put back together.

You empty the paper shredders by one of two ways. One type of shredder holds the paper shreds in a pull out drawer/hopper that collects the shreds and retains them for disposal. Another type of paper shredder retains the shredded paper in a waste paper basket. You lift the paper shredder apparatus off the basket and empty the basket.

Wait until the paper shredder hopper, the basket or pull out bin, is almost full of shredded paper before emptying it into trash can. The more paper shreds in the trash can, the harder it is to place the shreds back together. It is unknown to me if there is a computer program that can be used to put back together confetti-cut or micro-cut paper shreds. Even if there is such a computer program, it would be a lot harder and more time consuming to accomplish.

No piece of paper leaves my house before it is shredded, except for the newspaper. Even advertisements and junk mail gets shredded. The more paper shreds that are placed into your garbage can at one time, the harder it is to attempt to put any particular page back together.

If you are really concerned about your confidential paperwork information being compromised, after shredding your documents, burn the shredded paper, if your local laws allow, then bury the ashes.

Also, some paper shredders have an additional feature that you can use to shred credit cards, DVDs and CDs. The micro cut paper shredder that I purchased has these features.

There is usually a safety feature built into the mechanics of most paper shredders. When you remove the hopper to empty the paper shreds, a deactivation switch automatically stops the shredder from working.

Some paper shredders have an automatic cut off switch built in that activates when the paper hopper becomes full.

Never attempt to clear jammed paper, in any paper shredder, unless you unplug the electric cord first. The blades of a paper shredder can shred you fingers just as easy as it can shred paper. Extreme caution should be used when having and/or using a paper shredder in a home with children and/or animals.

Chicken Soup of Survival: Grandma’s Penicillin [Recipe]

March 11, 2024 by Seasoned Citizen Prepper

When you are sick, chicken soup really does help. The herbs help too (where do you think they get thymol for cough drops). This is really magical when you’re sick!

You Will Need:

whole roaster chicken, remove and keep all bones and skin
3 yellow onions, quartered
2 rough chopped carrots (keep skin on)
2 rough chopped stalks of celery, diced
large bunch fresh thyme
lots of minced garlic
2 fresh sage leaves
olive oil
slice of fresh ginger
about quarter-sized egg noodles, boiled, very al dente
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Start by skinning and boning the whole chicken.
Toss all the skin and bones into a stock pot and brown everything.
Cover well with water, adding rough cut veggies and herbs.
Bring to a rolling boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and go away for a couple hours (well, watch it and add more water, if needed).
After a few hours, strain out all the veggies and herbs and discard.
Let stock cool and skim off excess fat.
Saute the diced veggies and add to the stock.
Heat thoroughly. You may want to add more garlic and thyme :)

Now, here’s the secret: Do not add the noodles until you are ready to serve.

Put them in the bowl, cover them with hot soup. Store leftover soup and noodles separately, and combine at meal time – the noodles won’t soak up all the stock and turn into ‘pudding’ that needs to be thinned out again.

Survival Koshari [Recipe]

March 11, 2024 by Seasoned Citizen Prepper

White rice is a basic survival storage food, and Koshari is an everyday working-person’s meal in most of Egypt. It tastes infinitely better than it sounds.

This is part of a series of Survival Recipes that you can make from commonly stored foods, your garden in season, foraging wild edibles, or what is seasonally plentiful on the homestead.

You Will Need:

Caramelized onions (see Best Pizza recipe for details)
white rice, uncooked
lentils (I like orange dal, because they cook quickly)
plain spaghetti pasta
yellow onions, diced
your favorite tomato sauce (even packaged sauce will work)
ground cumin
olive oil

Directions:

Add 2 parts white rice 1 part lentils to a pan, and cover with water (1 ‘knuckle’ depth above surface).
Bring to boil, reduce to simmer.
While rice and lentils cook, break up the spaghetti pasta, and lightly brown it in olive oil.
After about 10 minutes, add the browned pasta to the rice/lentil mix and continue simmering, covered, about another 10 minutes. (Do not expect ‘fluffy’ rice – thick and sticky is what you want.)
Saute diced onions in oil, add tomato sauce and a healthy shot of ground cumin. simmer.
When rice/lentils/pasta mix is cooked, place serving in a bowl, cover with caramelized onions and top with the cumin/tomato sauce.

Really delicious, filling and easy. Makes a great, simple camping meal as well. (Thanks to Anthony Bourdain “No Reservations” Cairo episode for the inspiration)

Garbage Soup – The King of All Survival Soups [Recipe]

March 11, 2024 by Seasoned Citizen Prepper

Soups have long been the mainstay of any cook who is trying to stretch the larder to feed more people, or the budget to save money.

Soup is the basic survival food. This is part of a series of Survival Soup recipes that you can make from commonly stored foods, your garden in season, foraging wild edibles, or what is seasonally plentiful on the homestead.

Do without further adieu, I give you Garbage Soup. Money-saving, ecologically-sound and delicious.

You Will Need:

Frozen (or fresh) veggie-scraps
Frozen meat (or dried, canned or fresh), skin and bone scraps

I will admit, NOT the most appetizing name, but it can save you a lot of cash over a year’s time. What do you do with the skins of the onions you use? The carrot and potato peels? Root ends of celery? Chicken bones and skins? Shrimp shells?

They go in the trash, or down the disposal, or (hurray!) in the compost pile, right? Try putting all of the veggie scraps into a big zip bag (yes, even the papery skins from the onions – great color). Put the meat scraps into another, squeeze air out of both and just stick them in your freezer.

Directions:

When the veggie bag is full, dump it into a stockpot, add garlic (I always add garlic) and some black peppercorns
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about an hour or so.
Strain and press any remaining liquid out of the veg.

You now have some very tasty, and FREE vegetable stock. The stuff in the strainer will break down in your compost pile MUCH faster.

If you want a chicken/meat/seafood stock, sear the bones/fat/skin etc in a skillet and simmer in the veggie stock another hour or so, Strain again and skim off excess fat. DO NOT compost the meat scraps, or you will get bad smells and rats.

You just cannot beat free food :)