Readers Questions 1/15/2013

Time for my second Q&A post. I had a hard time getting enough questions in this week. Well it actually took two weeks to get enough with most coming in at the last minute. Thanks to all the readers that asked a question this week. Remember if you want your question answered on the blog get it sent in to me James@survivalpunk.com. At this time I’m not getting many questions so your chance of getting you question answered is very high. This week I have some great ones to answer so lets get down to it.

Cheryl From Crooked Tree Farm: Describe your ideal homestead/ bug out location/ survival retreat?

This question comes from my friend Cheryl from Crooked Tree Farm. This is probably worth of a whole blog post or even several. It’s one that I’ve thought about a lot this past year while saving for some land. We will tackle this from the homestead perspective. I will leave BOL for another time and I’m not a fan of the survival retreat concept. I used to think I wanted a small piece of land with a tiny house and a food forest on it with some small livestock. Basically something just big enough for me to survive. My new train of thought is much bigger. The idea of holding up alone on a retreat seems like a terrible existence. I want to be able to have close friends and family come during tough times. I’m not sure how much land would be needed, with permaculture techniques I could get a lot from a small area. Originally I wanted a huge food forest. After thinking about it longer I realized that I don’t really eat much to any fruit. So I’ve decided to back on and maybe have a small one with an emphasis on nuts and berries and food to bring in wild animals. I want the majority of my land devoted to protein, meat, production. I’m a carnivore and want to maximize meat production. I’m thinking chickens for eggs and meat, rabbits and small pigs. I’ve never had goat before so probably no goats and I’m not a fish fan at all. I would use enough land to feed the animals to avoid bringing in food. Other than that I would have several raised be gardens for veggies. I want to build some alternative housing structures on the land. It amazes me that mankind would build his own homes for thousands of years and now it’s the biggest purchase many will make in their whole lives. I’m most interested in Paul Wheatons WOFATI designs. I would probably make a few cheap houses like this on the land for visitors. I would also have a permanent camp for bush crafting and what not. That’s the short answer for now I’ll end up doing a whole post on it later. Thanks Cheryl

Charlie: I’ve been thinking that more medical knowledge is one of the keys to survival of myself and my family if bad things happen. Either injuries in daily life or worse. I don’t have time to go through an EMT course, but I’ve done the AHA Basic First Aid and need to find better. I was a combat lifesaver (not a medic, but a supplementary/part-time assistant) years ago, and that was a great course. What’s the best way to get more medical training and skills either online or in-person classes? Thanks! Charlie

Thanks for the question Charlie! Medical prep is one of the topics I can nerd out on. I’ve helped set up medical training classes for myself and friends with Patriot Nurse and later with the late Paul Gomez. Patriot Nurse is now doing longer format medical prep classes. I highly give my endorsement to her classes. If she has one near you definitely try to make it. Up next I recommend the DR.Bones and Nurse Amy survival medicine book. The book is incredibly packed with great information explained in layman terms. The book covers a lot of information good for a long term collapse situation. If its a time constraint there are many schools that offer emergency medical training classes over weekends. Tactical response gets endorsement from me If you can travel there you should. If not I’m sure there is a good school near you. YouTube is a great resource as well for learning medical training.

Stephen :Question… What would you recommend for a newly married couple that plan on having a baby that concerns prepping for natural disasters in Wisconsin?

Thanks for the question Stephen. I will try my best to answer this question with the caveat that I live in Tn, I’m single and have no children. First things first, since it’s cold in WI, you need to get your baby the warmest pair of Green Bay Packers pj’s you can. Snow storms will probably be your biggest disaster concern and keeping your family warm is your number one concern. I don’t know whether you live in a home or an apartment, so I’ll answer both ways. If you live in a home I suggest getting a wood burning stove put in and get used to it. Get a stockpile of wood ready to go through the whole winter. Everything else is for both apartment and house. Grab a buddy heater and propane for it. That will give you heat for a small area and you will want to use that in the smallest room. Next get some black plastic for the windows. If you get snowed in with the power out cover the windows partly leaving a gap at the top and bottom. This will cause the air between the window and the plastic to heat up and be pulled in from the bottom, colder, raise to the top and come out, hot. I usually leave mine up all winter but I was told it makes you look like a squatter…You can put in an electric backup like on Battery1234 and use electric blankets while you sleep. Next is food if you go the breast feeding option, which is healthiest, then you just need to keep the mommy and yourself fed. Get a good camping stove or a grill and store enough fuel for two weeks minimum. I’m assuming you have food storage already, if not stock up on what you eat for an extra two weeks. In your case water storage would be easy, just melt snow and keeping perishables in the snow would keep them safe. That should get you through most snow storms of about two weeks. Once you get there you can aim for one month and so on.

Ron: When the gun ban goes through, what are the options on hiding a weapon?

Firstly Ron I in no way think a gun ban is going through. The politicians know that any attempt to disarm Americans will result in a civil war and needless bloodshed. They may really want to do it but it aint gonna happen. For the sake of the question though lets assume somehow they did how would you keep a weapon safe. First they have a record of any weapon you bought that required a background check. They do not know if you bought a gun from a buddy with no bill of sale. So if they have records of you buying a High Point p.o.s and a beat up 22lr from a pawn shop and nothing on your other guns they will be looking for those. Give those to them. Not happily of course but don’t cause too much of a scene. You can get creative in hiding it but if you give them what they are looking for it should prevent a search. I’m not a fan of burying weapons as a stash. Too many wrong people can find them. Like I said though this will not happen.

That’s it for another Q&A post please get those emails in to me and you can be on the next reader questions post.

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