Tag Archives: walking

Sarah’s View: Raising Children in a Collapse World

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Momma Bear’s post about birth control got me thinking: “What would it be like to be raising young children in a collapsed world? What would that look like? How would it be different from what we do today?”

I should start by saying that I don’t have any children of my own. However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t someday or that my friends or step-kids won’t. It’s important to consider the ramifications of having a child, both in our society as it is now, and how it would be in a potential disaster or complete collapse.

The challenges of having an infant or toddler in a post-collapse world would be huge for today’s ‘modern’ parents. It becomes incredibly difficult – if not impossible – to easily bug-out, especially if you’re going any distance on foot. An infant (child under 12 months old) can be carried, but if you are carrying that child you are then limited in what else you can take with you, i.e. BOBs, additional water, food, etc. Now, what if that child is a toddler? Anyone who’s spent any time with a child this age knows that they don’t always (ever) want to be carried. You now have a toddler fighting being carried and/or walking (toddling) beside you. Neither of these scenarios allow you to walk with any speed and could potentially draw unwanted attention.

If you can instead bug-in this removes some of the mobility issues that accompany infants and toddlers. However, now there’s the surviving day-to-day. Are you hunting and/or scavenging for food? A crying child doesn’t do much to lure game to you, or help you remain unseen. What is your child willing or able to eat? If your child isn’t used to eating anything but jarred baby food, suddenly switching to a hunter/gatherer diet, or even an MRE diet, will not go smoothly.

The things to think about with young children don’t differ greatly from the things we need for ourselves.

Food – The best thing you can do for an infant is breastfeed. I know this is not possible for some, but it is the easiest and cheapest way to feed a baby. If you can’t breastfeed, make sure you have in your preps enough formula or other supplemental milk to last your baby through six months of age. For toddlers, start encouraging them to try the food you eat (and store). If you need to, overcook it a bit and squish it up.

Water – Young children are especially susceptible to dehydration caused by overheating or diarrhea from dysentery, therefore sanitary water is key. Unlike adults a child will appear just fine, until they’re not, and then deteriorates very quickly.

Security (Safety), Shelter – Infants and toddlers love to explore so keeping them safe, even today, can be a challenge. In a collapse, when every able adult will need to be working, minding the babies is not something that a mom or dad can be spared to do. For infants I recommend checking out the various slings available for carrying babies – they are simple, come in many shapes and sizes, and are tremendously versatile. This option allows the child to be carried while leaving both hands free for working. What is your group’s plan for caring for toddlers? It’s great if there are older children around, or maybe a “grandma”, who can play with and watch over them. Keeping young children safe truly is the ‘village’ raising the child.

I believe that much of our “preps” for living with young children can be taken from human history and can be applied now and not just in a collapse situation. For thousands of years infants and toddlers were raised in tribes where they are no daycares, formula, or Purell. Instead there were grandmas, slings, and water. Prepping with and for infants and toddlers doesn’t need to be difficult; but thinking and planning for it now is key.

(Friday: Momma Bear’s June Preps)

Momma Bear: Getting Out of Dodge B.Y.O.B.O.B.

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Bring Your Own Bug Out Bag – How Our Family Did It
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For most preppers, the first baby step we take is to create a bug out bag (BOB). For our family, living outside of Washington DC and very close to the interstate (which is sure to be packed instantly); with the potential bug-out being done without my active-duty husband, we took this step very seriously. Although my husband likes to travel light in the field (with the military), the BOB has to encompass a plethora of unknowns; with a 72-hour usage as the goal for packing. How much water should we take and how much water purification? How much gear should we plan for sleeping rough? How much food do we want to carry? What if it’s cold? What might we need along the route? The list pretty much goes on and on. And with everything, as we practice our drills, we tweak and adjust the items in the BOBs.

But once you accumulate all that STUFF, how do you divide it up between your family members? How do you ensure that each pack is sufficient should you become separated from the rest of the family? With my husband included, we have two men in the family. But us girls… we are kind of wimpy backpackers. Our daughter may be 5’7” tall, but she only weighs 100 pounds on a good day. So we have had to keep the girls’ gear lighter, packs smaller, but still able to meet our needs. We opted not to carry sleeping bags, but instead have military poncho liners and also the foil emergency bevy sack. The heavier items, that were not quite as essential, were distributed between my husband and my son. For instance, do we need a tent on the go? Not really, but life is a heck of a lot nicer in a rainstorm when you have more than a poncho for cover. And my husband can certainly shoulder that extra weight a lot easier than one of us girls can.

Other things that we customized in our bags were the first aid kits, the food items (curse those picky eaters who refuse to eat tuna!), and the quanity of fire making materials for each family member. For instance, our daughter suffers terrible migraines so her kit has special meds in it, plus sunglasses. Our son is allergic to insect bites so he has insect repellent, Benadryl, and cortisone cream. With the meds, I broke them down into tiny little baggies and wrote the directions on the outside with sharpie marker, including how often they should take the meds. And because our kids have only recently begun practicing fire making, they both carry lots of matches, lighters, a magnesium starter, as well as a ton of lint and other light-weight combustibles.

Having a Marine for a husband has assuredly made the BOBs an easier task. Some things I had never considered, or would not have considered as a huge necessity, such as laminating our maps. In case the SHTF, we are looking to move south, away from D.C. We have maps of both Virginia and North Carolina, that we got for free at the visitor centers on the main interstate, and each of us has one in their BOB (kids included). The other thing that the military training helped with was packing the packs. The military utilizes packs with lots of pockets and my husband was positively insistent that certain things go in those easy access pockets: first aid, water, food, weapons/tools. Other things, especially stuff you have multiples of, is removed from the BOB and carried on your person: identification, weapon, fire making items, any item that you could not do without (like migraine meds). Our family utilizes three different types of packs, so when we loaded them up everyone was responsible for their own; that way everyone knows where there things are. And, of course, we regularly break them down and repack them to keep familiar with the gear.

Our household also has pets, which we have not been taking into consideration for bugging out. Unless we are driving out, the cats will pretty much be left to their own devices, but the dogs will go. It is pretty unrealistic to think that we can carry enough food and water for them too, so we are looking to put them to work for us. All of our dogs are pretty good walkers (we have Jack Russells and Weimaraners), and we are looking to train the big dogs in both pack carrying and carting. But I will post about that another time.

Like all our prepping, creating your BOB. requires good planning. Again, a good BOB is designed for 72 hours of mobile usage – getting you away from a SHTF scenario. Focus on who, what and why. Who is the bag for? What do they need? And why do they need that particular item? Last of all, practice walking with your pack and readjust your items/bag as necessary. You want to be well prepared to survive, but you don’t want to break your back because you brought the kitchen sink with you. Happy prepping!

(Friday: What We Did This Week To Prep)

What We Did This Week To Prep 4/6/12

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The greenhouse project continues forward, not nearly as fast as we had hoped or planned (my projects are never as fast as planned), but forward. At this point it’s all framed and ready for it’s plastic coating. This weekend Sarah and I will select what plastic to use, borrow a friend’s truck (can’t wait to get our own) and HOPEFULLY finish it and move plants in early next week. It has been a good learning experience. We’re pleased with how it came out and excited about the options it will provide for us. Next building project: rabbit hutch.

I say “move plants” because Sarah planted the ones that needed to grow the longest, and put them in the grow box I made last year. It doesn’t fit a lot, but they’ve sprouted and are on schedule to be the size they need by mid-June when they’ll go into the ground.

This week was our kids’ spring break, so taking advantage of the lack of school and sports practices, Ryan and Brynn had all four of their wisdom teeth pulled last Friday. Not an especially fun week for them (and us by association), but now it’s done. This got me to thinking how miserable it would be to have impacted, painful wisdom teeth in a collapse world. Even if you could get them out, what a horrible experience it would be without any/or only minimal pain control during and after the procedure. I then thought about other surgical procedures that maybe we’ve been thinking about and/or know we ought to get done – but have been putting off. Perhaps it’s time to get them done. Things like root canals and other dental work, knee/joint repairs (surgical or non-surgical), even Lasik eye surgery. There have been discussions in the comments section about the value of having extra glasses; while nothing surgical can be done for the farsightedness that comes with age, Lasik surgery can completely repair your eyes for life. I had radial keratotomy done on my eyes in ’93 (the surgical precursor to the Lasik laser eye surgery) and it completely corrected my nearsightedness. In this chaotic economic time, when there seem to be very few ‘safe’ investments, maybe it’s time to invest some money to take care of yourself.

As mentioned, when Kate (our Border Collie) and I go for our regular walks, I carry my weighted backpack as part of my workout routine (walking in my hiking boots, off-trail, carrying extra weight). My pack isn’t huge (ia Maxpedition Falcon II, with 1500 cu. in. capacity), and after I put in some good GHB type stuff, I filled the remaining space with large rocks to make it weigh more. I was thinking it weighed about 50-60 pounds. (note: We didn’t own a scale. I’ve never felt like body weight is a good measurement of fitness, so I never bought one.) This week I broke down and bought a scale, so I could weigh my pack. Anyway it only came in at 40 pounds. I was a bit disappointed because I want to be carrying closer to 65 pounds –  which is how much our BOBs weigh (and close to 1/3 of my body weight which is the recommended maximum amount to be carried for any distance). Since I didn’t have room for any more rocks, I took out the rocks and put in three 10 pound weights (they take up less space and are less abusive to my pack) taking the total weight up to about 60 pounds (when the CamelBak is full of water). Yesterday’s walk resulted in some tired muscles, but I was able to keep the same pace. I’m going to keep that weight for a couple of weeks them put in the final plate to take it to 70 pounds; I’m still trying to follow the old military (and hopefully prepper) mantra of “train like you’ll fight, fight like you trained”.

What did you do?

(Monday: Stop The Bleeding)

What We Did This Week To Prep 3/23/12

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I’ve discussed the importance of walking and having quality hiking boots several times, but I’ve never gone over caring for leather boots. Since joining the USMC at 18 years old, polishing boots has been a part of my life. But I realize most people don’t have this habit; even current military people – those new tan boots don’t even require polish (what do you do in boot camp with your ‘spare time’ if you don’t have to polish boots?!?) To polish my leather boots I use Lincoln Shoe Polish, but any quality brand will work; I’m not a purist. At least once a month I thoroughly clean–using saddle soap if necessary–and polish my boots. Think of leather boots like your skin, when it loses its moisture it becomes dried out and can even crack. While living skin has natural occurring lubricants and protectants, leather doesn’t. So it’s essential to regularly clean and polish your leather boots to ensure they will last for many years. After cleaning, and letting them dry, I use a dauber, or a soft cloth, to work the polish into the leather. Then I use a soft brush to buff them out, effectively sealing the boots with the polish (I used to buff them for appearance and function, now it’s just function). You paid a lot of money for your quality boots, take good care of them.

Also on the topic of walking I came across a great ‘white board’ video this week by Dr. Mike Evans: 23 and 1/2 hours. He discusses the health benefits of spending half hour a day walking – then you can do whatever you’d like with the remaining 23 1/2 hours. He talks about how exercise, mostly just walking, half an hour a day will significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, dementia, and diabetes. It will reduce anxiety, depression, and fatigue. It will even help you live longer and improve your quality of life. He clearly shows how “low cardio-respiratory fitness” (aka not enough exercise) is the number one preventable cause of early death. He quotes Hippocrates (the Father of Medicine) “Walking is man’s best medicine.” And concludes the presentation with, “Can you limit your sitting and sleeping to just 23 1/2 hours a day?” We’re preppers, we’re doing so much to try to be prepared – take half an hour a day to prepare and care for your body also.

Another month, another trip to Costco. We restocked some canned goods we’ve used (you’re rotating your SWYE foods right?), got some more OTC allergy meds (on sale), more ibuprofen, and more Vitamin C (on sale), extra toothpaste (not crucial in a collapse, but nice to have), toilet paper was on sale, added more charcoal to our preps (on sale), and batteries were on sale (which was nice because we rotated batteries in prep items this month). Plus we got Sarah a new office chair so she has somewhere comfortable to sit while she’s helping me edit my blog.

The other big thing was that we finally did our annual BOB inspection and rotation. We brought all three BOBs (we keep one in each vehicle) into the house. We opened them up, changed out batteries, replaced most food items, replaced the bleach (it’s only good for a year), changed out the water, added dog food (we didn’t have Kate last year), and packed them back up. Not much more to say, but we’re glad it’s all done.

What did you do?

(Monday: Gun Show Review*)

*Gun show this weekend at the fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA (March 24-25), I’ll be going Sunday. It’s put on by the Washington Arms Collectors and open to all. They, of course, have a wide selection of guns, ammo, and related equipment, but also a good variety of prepper items and books.

A Walk In The Woods

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How Quickly The Familiar Can Become The Unfamiliar

Not long ago–on an overcast and potentially stormy afternoon–Sarah, Kate (our Border Collie), and I went for a walk in the woods behind our neighborhood. Several years ago (during the housing boom) that area had been cleared and intended for another subdivision, but it never was built. Since then it has overgrown, but a few dirt roads/trails, still used by hikers or four-wheel drive vehicles, remain.

We had walked back there before, always following familiar trails. This day we had plenty of time so we decided to do some exploring. Instead of our normal route, we decided to see where the dirt roads went figuring that they would eventually connect back to our neighborhood. As we followed the overgrown road, it would end into what would have been a cul-de-sac or just a dead-end; we’d backtrack to the main “road” and continue on, and the same would happen on the next branch. After a couple of hours of this–as we were enjoying the day, the exercise, and the time together–what had begun as an overcast day with some drizzle developed into rain showers. No big deal, it was Western Washington in the winter and we were dressed appropriately. After following another promising branch of the road we, again, hit another dead-end surrounded by thick trees (we really thought that one would go through). At this point we thought we were well past our neighborhood; we figured we could cut through the forest to get back–and save significant distance–or, of course, we had the option to go back the way we had come (a distance of about three or four miles).

We had no extra equipment, just rain coats, warm clothes, good boots, and my phone. We pulled up the mapping app on my phone and determined where we were (hoping that our pinpointed location was accurate); we were surprised how far we had gone. We needed to go north, and the phone’s compass app showed us which way that was. Once determined, we started through the forest; the undergrowth was heavy, but fortunately there weren’t any blackberry bushes. I went first, with Sarah a little behind me to avoid getting snapped by branches, and Kate (who was only a few months old) jumping over fallen branches and undergrowth going back and forth to “check” on us (she slept very well when we got home). We had to navigate around several areas either too thick to pass or low spots full of water. I had to depend completely on the compass (even though the phone battery was getting low) because between the rainy day and thick woods, there was no way to see landmarks to keep us on course. The experience was reminiscent of Camp McCall when I was in the Army.

Close to an hour later, we finally made it to the edge of our subdivision – because of the rain, low clouds, and trees we weren’t able to even see the houses until we were almost to them. From there only another half mile and we were home. Soaking wet and tired, but fine.

Later I reflected how quickly a “normal”, “routine”, or “ordinary” outing can turn into something more than planned. Fortunately we were dressed appropriately, physically fit enough, and disaster didn’t strike. But, it would have only taken an injury–fall, stick in the eye, twisted ankle–a dead phone, or a worse storm and suddenly “just a walk” would have been something much more serious.

We can’t choose our disaster, when it will happen, or where we’ll be. It’s been said to avoid danger, “… don’t go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things.” That’s good advice, but frequently things don’t start off that way. On a daily basis it’s worth remembering we’re not just planning for “the big one”, but that common things happen commonly and we need to be prepared for the likely things that happen.

Now, when I go for a walk in the woods, I carry a pack. It’s mostly full of rocks (really) because carrying the heavy pack on my walks with Kate is part of my workout. BUT it also contains: a first-aid kit, warm gloves and hat, a small tarp, water, food, a compass, a flashlight, a fire starting kit, and other items; I also plant to get an external phone backup battery. Do I need all that? No. Am I recommending all that? No. I’ve just decided if I’m carrying a pack for a workout I might as well carry useful things. I also looked at that area on Google Maps and now I know where the trails go and where they don’t. So I’ve thought about what happened, planned how to avoid duplicating it, am more prepared if something does go wrong, and learned from the experience.

For any activity you’re involved in: Think. Plan. Prepare. Learn.

(Wednesday: Momma Bear)

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/24/12

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I work in Seattle, so most of the people I see at work live in the city. When I first started writing my blog and discussing prepping at work, there was a friendly support of my efforts, but not that much interest in the topic. As time has passed, that has started to change; people are asking more questions, awareness is increasing, and people are letting me know when their preparations (even very minor) are paying off.

Recently I was asked about prepping if you live in the city, by yourself, in a small apartment. The comment/slight complaint was that I always write about prepping for a family in a suburban home. I explained that I write about what I know; that the main purpose of my blog is a reflection of the preparations I’m learning about and making in my family’s life. My immediate thought was that any prepper who lived in the city should be actively looking for a way to move out! But then I realized that some people don’t have that option (work, family, finances, support systems) or just really like to live in the city.

I agreed that a discussion of urban prepping, on the blog, would be a worthwhile topic (it was briefly addressed in Location, Location, Location). And though I was willing to research more about city prepping, I decided it’d be better if it came from someone who actually lived that life. I approached a good friend, Shawn, who is somewhat prepper-minded and reads my blog (so he understands my baseline); he lives alone, in a one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor, near the city’s center. Shawn agreed to write the post (possibly a short series) about his insights, choices, and ideas about prepping in the big city (it will be posted the last week of March).

As mentioned above, our blog is starting to reach further. Both in people I know personally, and especially in the online community. As I look at the stats that show the number of visitors to TraceMyPreps.com I’m humbled at how many people are reading on a regular basis. It’s a validation that what I’m doing here has meaning and purpose (we all need that from time to time).

Not a whole lot else of actual prepping this week. We have some things planned for next week that hopefully will get done (finally ordering seeds, getting more compost, getting the garden ready).

Some follow-up. As mentioned in my posts Walk A Mile In Your Shoes Part 1 and Part 2, my workout regime now incorporates regular walks with Kate (our 6-month Border Collie). My new Danner boots (now nicely broken-in) work well hiking on the trails through the woods behind our neighborhood. I’m now carrying about 60-70 pounds in my pack (about 1/3 my body weight, which is kind of the recommended upper limit) for about an hour, several times a week. I’m enjoying my workouts (I had gotten very tired of just going to the gym, year after year), and–after a few weeks–I, again, feel much more comfortable and competent about walking greater distances.

FYI there is a gun show at the fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA this weekend, March 25-26. It’s put on by the Washington Arms Collectors and open to all. They, of course, have a wide selection of guns, ammo, and related equipment, but also a good variety of prepper items and books. Definitely worth checking out if you live nearby.

What did you do?

 

Walk A Mile In Your Shoes, Part 1

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The Importance of Conditioning Yourself To Walk

Walking. Our ancestors have been doing it since, well, a long time ago. We tend to underestimate the amount of energy and muscle exertion that goes into walking; especially when carrying a pack. We take walking for granted, heck we do it every day what’s the big deal? But do you walk any distance on a regular basis? When was the last time you took a good long walk? How did your body feel after that walk? How did your body feel the next day? Do you believe you’re in good walking condition?

To train yourself to walk any significant distance, you must condition yourself – by walking. Without proper conditioning you’ll feel it–after a long walk–in your feet, legs, and lower back; if you were carrying a pack, in your neck and shoulders also.

Keep in mind that walking, whether you work it into your plans or not, is your backup mode of transportation. We don’t carry a backup transportation system other than our feet. If a vehicle can’t get you there, for whatever reason – then you’re walking.

I work 45 miles from home. If disaster strikes when I’m there, my ultimate plan is to get to my family. Assuming there is no other transportation available, I’ll grab my BOB*, put on my good boots, insure I have plenty of water and WALK home. I’ll plan to stop and spend the night along the way. Can I do it? I believe I can…I know I could 15 years ago.

Am I in the same condition for walking as I was, 15 years ago, when I was going through Army Special Forces training? No, I’m not. So recently I’ve started a walking regime; it coincided well with getting a new dog who needs and loves to walk daily (dogs are great motivators). Kate, our four-month old Border Collie, and I have begun walking regularly about two miles. Soon I’m going to incorporate a pack, weighing about 30 pounds, and increase our walks to three miles and more.

In Part 2, I’ll cover choosing good footwear, the muscles involved in walking, and how to avoid and treat injuries. But for now, just get out and walk. Walking will help you get in better condition, burn calories, help clear your head, and your dog will love you for it.

(Friday: What I Did This YEAR To Prep)

*For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.