When the average person thinks of survival their thoughts often turn to a scenario of being lost in the woods. While this can happen, the average person can figure a way out, as long as they are not debilitated by an injury.

I remember some years ago going camping with a bunch of youth in a national forest where there were reputed to be wild pigs. These pigs have been pronounced vermin by the State Conservation authorities and therefore fair game. It was a beautiful night, almost cloudless with a full moon. The kids had got tired and were drifting off to their tents. Taking the opportunity I grabbed my rifle and night vision scope, compass and map and set off into the woods. The path was easy to follow with the moonlight reflecting off the leaves on the track ahead of me. I followed the track for a couple of miles. I was led to some open clearings bathed in moonlight. Really it was spectacularly beautiful. Animal sounds and grunts could be heard in the distance. Sound travels well at night. I figured that any boar were too far away and probably secreted in hollows and creeks so just sat on a rock to enjoy the moment. With the moon still shining brightly I abandoned the idea of hunting and set off back. With the moon now behind me the bath was no longer so obvious. Every gap in the trees seemed to beckon, "this is the way" but quickly and sometimes not so quickly became a false trail.

Okay. I'm a scouter. So after swallowing my pride, out with the map and compass. Even in the dark it was not too difficult to find my way back to the right trail although it did involve climbing up and down some steep wooded hills and through deep ravines.

Looking back it was a fun and learning experience that led me to buy a GPS before the next such outing. It could have had much a different outcome had I not made basic prparations. I had equipment. A compass and map and the know-how to use it. I also had a two-way radio, even though it had too short a range in the hills and valleys to contact the camp site. I had a rifle that I could have used to signal if required. The scope had night vision that I could have used. Plus I had a small flashlight and a decent knife. Good basic equipment.

The reality in life is that we are less likely to place ourselves in a survival situation. It is more likely the result of circumstances beyond our control. We think of a car wreck in off the main highway or some similar situation. But, what of the survival situations that affect us at home? Freak weather, floods of damaging storms take out roads and bridges cutting us off from our daily supermarket food chain. Imagine the power grid failing for weeks on end. Perhaps there is civil unrest, riots and a crime wave of selfish hungry looters. It can happen and it is real. We hope it never happens. The trouble is hope never prepares us for the moment of need. Only thoughtful preparation put into action can help us.

Lost in your home
You can be just as lost in your home as in the deep woods beside the burned wreck of an airplane. Actually, being a survivor of an aircraft crash may give you better chances of survival in that experts will come searching for you to save you. In an area-wide or even more localized catastrophe help could be much longer in coming to save the day (or week, or more). This could be because of the enormity of the situation.

While in your home you may be able to last a few more days than as a victim at an aircraft crash site. Most homes do have basic equipment to survive. There are still many major challenges to face in an unprepared home. Let's take a look at a few to get you thinking.

Water
Most people think of food first. They are wrong. It may be uncomfortable to go hungry for a few days or even a couple of weeks. If you have children their crying for food that may be difficult to cope with, but it is doable. Water is indeed the stuff of life. Clean, drinkable water.
Without it you will survive maybe five days. Think there will always be water in the tap? Unlikely in an earthquake or flood. Main distribution pipe get broken, water gets contaminated. It will kill you if you can't purify it somehow. Boil orders are so common and localized that they no longer make the news except in the immediately affected area. Boiling is a good way to kill viruses and bacteria. You need to boil for five minutes to do the job. Oops! The emergency has knocked out power as well. Main gas usually keeps going longer than electric power.

Okay, you can boil it but where does it come from? The city supply needs power to purify and pump it up into the water towers. In your town that's a day or two's worth. Then what?
You have to prepare. Bottled water is good for short term. In an apartment the options are not as many as in a house. The toilet tanks, not the bowl, are a good though limited short-term source of clean water if you don't flush it away. Remember the next filling may be contaminated. The hot water tank provides about forty gallons of safe water. But if the main supply is contaminated in any way the supply must be cut off at the main. Then, and this is very important, the heating for the tank, gas or electric MUST be turned off. Two liter soda bottles make good water storage containers. Standard gallon milk or water jugs are useless. I have tried that route and they always leak after six or seven months as the plastic breaks down.

It you live in a house the above ideas apply but you do have the ideal extra option of your own well. Pumping may present a problem. The old hand pump of yesteryear makes a great backup to the electric pump but may require special plumbing to have a duel system. Water barrels are a great option although every option has drawback. Plastic water barrels for drinking water are easily available in twenty and fifty gallon sizes. Food grade twenty gallon sizes are often available from Dr Pepper and Coca Cola bottling plants. They are usually blue in color and previously will have been used for transporting syrup concentrate. They may leave a slight aftertaste in the water but it will be drinkable. The water in any barrel must be treated with chlorine for long term storage. Household bleach works. Search the Internet for the right proportions for safety.

There are many filter systems available in camping stores. Some will allow you to purify and use ditch water if need be. Get one that will filter out bacteria and heavy metals but to be safe nothing with a filter size larger than .02 microns. Read the label before purchase as they are usually not returnable for obvious reasons. For a 72-hour kit there are filter straws available for under twenty dollars.

Food
The general rule is store what you eat and eat what you store. That word STORE reminds me, I know that in the event of a disaster all supermarkets will be cleaned out very quickly. They usually carry three days supply. Just a thought - a nationwide or even a partial failure of the supply of diesel fuel, or the electricity to pump it, would leave every food store with nothing to sell and hungry people searching for the next meal. Not a pretty thought.

If possible every home should have at least three months worth of food. It just makes sense. It will tide you over in an emergency, or conserve cash reserves between jobs if given a pink slip. For long term storage dry beans, wheat, salt, sugar, milk powder and shortening (vegetable oil) form the basic essentials. The caveat here is that you need to know how to store and use it. That might be difficult for some. Freeze dried foods make an excellent choice. They can be purchased either as meals for two or in bulk #10 cans. Always try to supplement any preserved foods with some fresh vegetables if possible. Vitamins are essential. The last thing you want to suffer in the event of a long term survival situation is scurvy of beriberi - both killer vitamin deficiency diseases. Canned foods are good. Watch the "good by" date and never use food from a blown can. Blown means that the ends of the can have swelled because of gasses formed by dangerous bacteria. Likewise, if a can is rusted and or leaking consign it to the trash. I've just touched on the food and water side of survival in the home. There are many other things you need to store like bathroom tissue, medications and first aid supplies for emergencies to be comfortable and safe. I'll leave those for another time.

A parting shot. For portable, sustainable electic power see: The Power App Store

It's amazing what a tornado can do. The last ones in my area were just a couple of weeks ago. One hit Branson, Missouri, and the other hit Buffalo, a town just thirty miles to the north of my home. Both were bad. I was in Branson a couple of days ago and the damage was pretty bad. One hotel was in effect destroyed and there was major damage to many other structures.

Above: Picture of Stockton, Missouri a week after the tornado.

As is common with such storms, the power went out for quite some time in and around those towns. I wonder how many homes lost the contents of their freezers? There is a solution to common issues like that when the power goes out. It is not only a tornado that can knock out power. Just yesterday the news reported a huge southeaster affecting many areas in the northeast seaboard that are expected to knock out power for several days.

In the past I have helped in the clean-up efforts, both in Joplin and Stockton, Missouri. Photos and news footage on TV just can't do justice to the devastation, nor really capture the stunned look on the faces of residents who survived the howling monster that damaged or destroyed their homes. It makes me want to build a storm shelter.

I think I would want a shelter that could do triple duty as a storm shelter, safe room and storage area for valuables. I'm not so much talking about replaceable items, but I would like to safeguard various family heirlooms such as our family bible that dates back to mid 1800.
There are other things, not of great intrinsic value but are of historical value to my family that are irreplaceable.

What would my ideal safe room look like? It would have to be constructed of reinforced concrete. It would have two heavy steel doors of about quarter inch (5mm) plate, one to access from inside the house and the other to the outside. They would have to open inwards so as not to get jammed with debris and be lockable from the inside. It would contain supplies of food, water and other things to ensure survival beyond just a few days. Power would be off the grid using a Humless Sentinel electric power storage system with solar panels. Water would be in a 20-gallon tank with a siphon pump. I would not expect to live in the shelter for more than a couple of days at most, so a simple lidded bucket half filled with kitty litter and a can of Lysol would suffice for a toilet.

While an underground shelter would be ideal, I would go for an above ground style bunker with deep piles to hold it secure to the ground. I'd make that choice because our soil is quite rocky and I would worry about an underground shelter becoming flooded. Rather than leave the outside of the shelter as bare concrete I think it should be clad with siding and even a false curtained window to make it look like a storage shed (got to keep the neighbors happy). These days one must consider the possibility of having a secure room in case of home invasion or civil unrest. The thought of a hasty retreat into a handy secure bold-hole is quite attractive to me.

I don't think I'd have an issue with local authority planning permission for a storm shelter considering the tornado risk in my area. I also believe that with a bit of help from some like-minded friends I could build it myself at a reasonable cost.

Any other thoughts from readers would be welcome.

Looking at the headlines and watching the news (with a huge grain of salt) on TV I see a world that is not only fast changing, but has already changed almost beyond recognition. I think back to my teenage years, even to the time early in my marriage and life seemed simple and quite secure. If you lost your job, well just go and get another. People didn't earn a lot but things balanced out. Sure, in those days we worried about the Russian menace and nuclear war, but food was plentiful, as was fuel and life went on. Money was worth a lot then.

Those were the days when about the most crime the ordinary family would have to endure was their mail box being smashed by teenage thrill-seekers with a baseball bat and an old truck. That was the Day of the American Dream. It has eroded fast. Yet so many seem to be unaware of the potential of a very uncertain future.

There is certainly a great need to make even basic preparations for teotwawki (the end of the world as we know it). Why? Because it is happening all around us right now. Not as some huge disaster or political upheaval, although that is possible, it's more of the major changes in the personal circumstances of individuals and families.

I believe that when a family makes preparations for the possibility that the breadwinner may lose their job, or be unable to work because of a medical crisis, then that family has the right mindset to survive almost anything. Let's face it, for some even a week without a paycheck could spell disaster without the foresight to prepare. Don't think you can just run down to the local supermarket and buy. It is a fact that shops can be cleaned out of essentials in three days or less in an emergency situation. The cause? A business practice called "just in time delivery." What if circumstances (and there are many possible) dictate that deliveries can't be made? Hmm...!

Picture: A typical Missouri ice storm

So what should a family or individual do to prepare for the unforeseen? Let's get to basics: food, water, electric power, fuel, medication, shelter, cash/trade items, tools, comfort goods, toiletries and protection. Don't forget the "bug-out" pack, or 72-hour kit with the necessities of life.

Food - become a squirrel.
The best basic rule is to store what you eat and eat what you store. I am not against the many freeze-dried foods that are available at reasonable cost today. They are excellent, lightweight and best for a grab-and-go pack. The downside is that you need a source of clean water in order to reconstitute the food. You do have a good small water filter for your grab pack.

It also makes good sense to store basics like wheat, beans and corn. It is not a good idea to try to store wheat for extended periods, so you will need a wheat mill. A hand crank mill is the best because you cannot rely on electric power being readily available, if only because you can't afford to pay the utility bill. Other food items to store are salt, herbs and spices, sugar, baking soda and egg powder. Some sort of shortening is essential. Canned goods are excellent but do need rotation so watch the dates on the cans, and avoid buying dented canned food unless you plan to use it almost immediately.

It is a very wise idea to find out how to prepare meals from the very basics before the crunch comes. For instance, wheat can be sprouted to provide wheat grass with a high vitamin C content. Do you know how to extract the gluten from wheat to make protein rich meatless steaks? It can be done but it takes practice. In a real emergency situation it is best to have a variety of foods that are both nutritious and acceptable to all around the meal table.

Water
Live a month without food, live four or five days without water. We take water for granted, open the tap and there it is, clean and safe for the most part. I lived in Africa for two decades. When you live there you appreciate the need for water. While I lived for the most part in or near cities, millions of people walk several miles each day to collect five gallons of water of questionable quality. Do you think that could happen here? Don't bet you life on always having a clean supply. An earthquake, broken water mains, floods, or even a terrorist attack could leave you very thirsty.

Power
Can you imagine life without your iPad, iPod, or whatever (some might say, "Great!"), but really what about something as simple as a reliable light source that uses free energy. Let's face it; to have light when it’s dark is very comforting. Here are a few ideas to fuel some thought in your preparedness plan.

Power to cook, make light, receive or transmit radio signals takes fuel of some kind. We don't often think of wind or water as fuel, but it is when harnessed efficiently. It was not many years ago the windmills were used to pump water for drinking and irrigation on farms. Water in a creek can be directed to a millrace to run a simple electric generator. A gasoline or diesel generator is great until the fuel runs out because it is no longer affordable or available.

So, what do you do? Not many people have a creek flowing through their back yard for a water-driven generator, or a place to build a windmill. Nor is it practical (or even legal in some areas) to store liquid fuel.

One answer is to go solar. While it would be nice to go off the grid entirely you don't actually have to. The answer lies in the ability to collect, store and generate clean electric power at home, whether you live in the city or country. When you get a moment, take a look at the Humless, particularly the Sentinel model. It offers a very, dare I say, powerful solution. Especially in an emergency or even a bug-out situation. It doesn't need to sit on a shelf, it can be also used for wilderness hunting or just peacefully quiet camping trips - the Humless is totally silent.

Medication
I have several wonderful books on survival that offer various ways to prevent, and treat many common medical issues that may arise when there is no other alternative. One of the best bits of advice in one of those books makes a very simple suggestion for those who are on prescribed medications. Ask your physician if you may be prescribed a whole year's worth of your prescription in the first instance and then renew rotate every six months. This may not work for some medications that have a short shelf life.

Keep a good comprehensive first aid kit on hand. There are many to choose from but don't skimp on this item. You may save someone you love some serious grief. Find out from your local Red Cross when first aid classes are available. You never know when you'll need the knowledge. I remember some years ago when my daughter had a silly but potentially very serious accident when she nearly cut off her big toe. Thankfully I had just completed a Red Cross course and was able to offer first aid handling the emergency correctly before rushing her off to the doctor for professional treatment etc. She went on to become a national high school gymnastics champion.

Shelter from raging storms of circumstance
When disasters, natural or man-made occur we see pictures in the media of refugees miserable from the situation huddling in rude shelters of plastic and cardboard. That's not the way I want to live if suddenly I'm homeless because of some disaster. At the very least a decent size insect resistant tent with sleeping bags suitable for the climate, along with basic camping gear, is essential. Even if you have a pre-arranged bolthole or country dwelling relative to go to, it might take a few days to get there.

If you want to experience a mock disaster situation just lock yourself our of your comfortable home and try sleeping rough in your back yard for a couple of days without a tent. In summer it would be a miserable experience because of heat, humidity and insects. In winter - well you can imagine the rest. Even a well-stocked 72-hour kit would not be of much comfort without adequate shelter from heat, cold or rain.

Under the heading of shelter I must include the need for fire, both for warmth and cooking. As the old saying goes, to start a fire rub two boy scouts together! Seriously, do you know how to start a fire without matches or a lighter? It is a basic skill that every family should know. If you don't, ask a boy scout how. At the very least explore the different ways on YouTube - and then practice. Hint: save lint from the lint trap of your tumble dryer. Store it in a plastic bag as it makes great tinder for primitive fire starting methods. Try it some time.
Fire is an essential part of basic survival.

Cash and trade items
It's nice to go to the ATM machine and draw some cash then run down to the local supermarket for the day's food supply. It wasn't always like that, and it could revert to that in a heartbeat. Imagine for a moment a major fuel shortage shutting down the trucking business nation-wide, or if all the roads to your town are cut off by floods (think Katrina), of some other event that shuts down the power grid, and/or the transportation system. The possibility of a cyber attack or even an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) strike could cause major shut down of the electricity grid - no power to pump gas, or operate the ATM, no checkouts at supermarkets or run your credit card.

What are you going to do? Short term you can use cash if you have it in hand. The other alternative is to fall back on the old system of barter. That means having a supply of items as trade goods. There are many items that make great trade goods in times of disaster from food to alcohol, diapers, tools to toilet paper, food and bullets, even alcohol makes a good trade item. Then there are skills and services that can be traded for things you need. You get the idea.

Tools for survival
We are talking hand tools here. That fancy power hungry reciprocating saw I bought to get a honey-do job done will be of little use if there is no power to run it. Basic tools include several good knives, a splitting axe, a chopping axe, a hand axe, a machete, a heavy duty pry bar, digging and other gardening implements, various wrenches, and rope, a sharpening stone, and files are essential too.

Having an array of tools and the knowledge to use them will allow you to help neighbors and even allow you to make a living in the case of the collapse of society. Reference books on skills our great grand parents took for granted are also invaluable - obtain and read them before you really need them. Some of those skills could become great hobbies.

Comfort goods
This could be a never ending list depending on your likes and dislikes. My wife would say chocolate and books to read. For some it would be chewing gum or candy. My kids would choose iPods and the grandchildren would no doubt include favorite toys. Comfort goods cover a wide gamut of items from toilet paper to board games and hobby items. It would make sense to build up a library of good books including the scriptures, not forgetting educational books and those that teach basic survival skills. It is difficult to read or do much else in the dark, so lighting is a must. I'm not fond of candles. They are not bright and pose a fire risk. The same goes for oil lamps. Both are not easily renewable items. I certainly would store some but prefer a renewable electric power source such as the Humless Sentinel with LED lights. It has the capability of drawing on a number of energy sources - solar, wind, hand crank, and mains power (if available). There is nothing more comforting than light when you need it. Another argument for a lithium ion power system like the Humless is that it has the capability to run a deep freeze or refrigerator as well.

Don't forget clothes and shoes in the comfort category, along with the means to keep them clean. Laundry detergents should certainly be in your preparation plans. My wife can across a recipe for making her own. In my mind it is far more effective than brand name products, less than one-fifth the cost and easy to make. I'll share the recipe another time.

Toiletries
Perhaps these essentials should be listed under comfort items, for that they certainly are. The basics are soap, toothpaste, deodorants, disposable razors, etc. You get the idea. If you are reduced to hunting for food then unscented toiletries are a must! Don't forget towels.

Protection
You've now prepared well. You have enough for your family, maybe some to spare for neighbors and friends. In times of recession, depression and high unemployment people get desperate and some resort to theft and violence to survive. Questions arise - how to protect what you have, and more important how to protect the well being of the ones you love?

Nothing is absolutely foolproof. That said there are many ways to protect your family and secure them in the event of hard times for which you have prepared. These methods extend from firearms to alarms, burglar proofing your home to having a viable escape plan. There are many resources available to help you in your circumstances. You'll have to figure out what is best in your situation. Don't forget the simple escape plan in case there is a fire. You may lose everything, but you don't want to lose your loved ones.

There are many suppliers of hardware with which to grind wheat, start a fire, filter water and cook without electric power, and more. I'll maybe go into more details in a later posting.

Mean time - talk it over with your family and set some goals to become self-sufficient in every aspect of your life now by setting priorities based on risk and preparing a bit at a time. You may never need to fall back on your teotwawki preparedness plan, but if you do you'll never regret it.

Suddenly the lights go out! Did you pay the bill? Did a local transformer blow? Maybe there's a national or regional emergency that has shut down the grid. You could light a candle. You do have one, don't you? Trouble is it's too dark to see to find the matches or lighter. Okay, so you found a match, lit the candle and fell asleep. The cat chasing a moth attracted by the candlelight knocks over the candle. The house catches fire, then burns to the ground. Your cell phone had no charge so you couldn't call 911. You've nowhere to go and it's one in the morning. Your nearest relative lives 79 miles away and you don't even have a tent. You've just your PJs to keep you warm and a singed cat in your arms. Then there's your wife glaring at you in the starlight - very romantic, yeah right - and the kids, well they alternate between wanting marshmallows to roast in the glowing embers of your home and crying because they're tired and want to go back to bed.  The car was in the garage and is now a crisp smoldering hunk of scrap metal. All because you weren't prepared for disaster with anything more than a candle when the lights went out.

If you had a lithium-ion silent generator backup system to supply you with power for emergency lighting and other essential electrical things you'd still have a house, a happy wife and kids sleeping peacefully.

Now think of all the other times when it would be nice - no, essential - to have some sort of back-up power? There's nothing quite like the comfortable feeling of being prepared. Of course being prepared, or being a prepper as some people call anyone who is concerned about the safety and well-being of their family, is a very wise move. Where do you stand?

The subject of being prepared is wide. From time to time I may call on experts to contribute to this blog. My areas of interest are food storage, electrical power storage and home defense.

 

A recipe promised.

I learned to make biltong, Africa's version of jerky, while I lived there for twenty years. One major difference is that it is not smoked. Once cured it can be kept out in any dry place (generally dry atmosphere) until consumed, otherwise store in a freezer if you live in a humid area like Missouri as I do now.

The secret is to experiment a little with the recipe so that you develop the mix of spices you prefer. I'll give you my favourite mix as well as the basic.

1. Basic - salt, pepper, brown sugar

2. My favourite - salt, course ground black pepper, garlic powder fine ground coriander & crushed whole coriander, brown sugar, white vinegar

The meat - Unless you live in a desert area and can make use of natural dry air (winter in Africa worked for me) you'll have to use a dehydrator and cut the meat more thinly than the natural dry area method.

You can use beef or venison, your choice. I assume that you will buy some beef to start with so choose a large roasting joint like top sirloin but any tender part of the hind quarter works. Slice the meat along the grain NOT across the grain.

Using the natural dry air method you can safely cut the meat in strips 3/4 inch thick, 3 inches wide and up to 12 inches long. Using the dehydrator you are rather forced to cut the meat much thinner - max 1/2 inch thick, about 2 inches wide and about 6 inches long. This (and smaller) works for me.

The spice mix - Salt is the main ingredient but don't be too heavy-handed with it.
If you just use the basic method mix up about 60% salt 30% brown sugar, 10% pepper.

My favourite - 50% salt, 25% brown sugar, 10% ground coriandor, 5% course ground black pepper, 5% garlic powder, 5% whole crushed coriandor. Don't be fanatical about the proportions - "about" will do.

Method - mix all your spices together. Mix up well. Sprinkle the meat strips individually and LIGHTLY with the spice mix but try to sprinkle on all surfaces.

Place the strips in layers in a container. Sprinkle a little vinegar on each layer. How much you use is up to you. For me about two ounces to 5 pounds of meat is about right or it might be too salty. Place the meat in the refrigerator in a non-metallic bowl and let sit for 24 hours (longer is OK if you can't fit all the meat into your dehydrator in one batch). Turn the meat over a couple of times during that marianade time. The salt helps draw the juices out of the meat as well as curing the meat.

Now pack your dehydrator as per the maker's instructions.
IMPORTANT - try not to let the meat strips touch each other in the drying process - the air must be able to circulate freely.

If you live in Arizona or other area with a dry atmosphere you may simply hang the meat in any shaded breezy area. If flies are a problem in your area a closed screened porch makes a good drying area. Use homemade wire hooks to hang the meat strips. It takes up to two weeks using this method. Important - the hanging strips should not touch each other.

18-24 hours later and you can have "wet" or soft biltong, or after 48 hours if you prefer it dry. Warning - the smell will have every South African within 30 miles arriving glazed-eyed at your door with that want-some-puppydog-look muttering "lekker lekker" (tasty, tasty) and you will be drooling in anticipation.

You can keep biltong in the freezer in sealed plastic bags. If you store it outside the freezer, a paper bag is better, or just air hang. Properly cured and stored it should last 6 months in a dry atmosphere, or a year in a freezer, but it tastes so good that you'll never need to worry about shelf life!

ENJOY

I thought I'd start off with a review of a product that I'd mentioned in my last post - the Humless. The manufacturer describes the Humless as the 'silent generator." As a source of electric power it is indeed silent. To me that is not its greatest feature although it was the idea behind the product. According to the person who thought up and invested in the development of the product the idea came to him while camping with his family. In the next camping spot was a family that ran their noisy gasoline generator all night keeping everyone nearby awake. There had to be a better way of taking power into the woods. From that incident and after a lot of work and research the Humless was born.

The Humless is in fact a brilliant idea that combines the electric storage capacity, light weight and shelf life of stored power only possible since the availability of lithium ion batteries at a reasonable (though still quite expensive) price. The development of lithium ion batteries has taken several recent strides, spurred on perhaps by their use in hybrid vehicles. One of the latest and best iterations is the lithium ion phosphate (LiFePO4) battery. It boasts a number of advantages over earlier types in that it has a charge/recharge cycle life of about double that of older style and cheaper lithium ion batteries. It is found in the Humless.

While storage capacity and long shelf life are the foundation of the product much thought went into the other end - how to get and keep the charge into the system in the first place.
The result is that there are multiple power inlets. Obviously power from any household supply was a choice, then there is solar power and power supplied from electro-mechanical sources such as small windmill generator, and even hand-crank generators. All these input methods work with the Humless.

For use in the wilds solar power is the obvious choice being free and freely available. Light not heat is what generates the power so use in winter is not an issue - clear, or nearly clear skies is all that is needed. That said, the Humless Sentinel Kit comes with an efficient 100 Watt solar collector panel that, although large (about four feet by twenty inches) is not so large as to be unwieldy. It takes between 6-8 hours to fully charge the Humless Sentinel with its huge 50 Amp Hour capacity.

The Sentinel, as originally intended has multiple DC power inlets and a voltage sensing 110/220VAC inlet.

The outlets include two car style (think old automotive cigarette lighter) 12VDC outlets, two 110VAC outlets, and for lovers of iPads, mobile phones and similar items there is place to plug in up to four USB devices. Of interest to those who may wish to use a laptop or other sensitive devices with the Humless Sentinel, it outputs a clean pure sine wave 110VAC. The manual states that the 110VAC will handle 1000W continuous and 2000W peak.

The internal converter with its charge control module automatically senses the input voltage and special circuitry provides battery overload and short circuit protection.

What do I think of it? Very impressive. Do I want one? No, but only because I've got one, well two actually, but more about the other one, the Humless Roadrunner in a minute! There are so many obvious and some less obvious uses. The obvious being planned activities anywhere off the grid where there is no other convenient power source. The less obvious are home emergencies and power outages, usually weather related. Although probably not approved for medical use I can see it being used for PAP machines with confidence, but without the use of heat. My next home project is to build a tornado proof storm shelter come safe room. That's where I'll keep at least one of my Humless units. A steady reliable light source is very comforting when storm winds are raging all around. The kit version of which this review is about comes with a bright 600-lumen floodlight and stand.


Then, there's power for communications both in and out. The unit will run a small LCD TV for hours could supply serious backup power for HAM radio and other radio communications systems.

At 10 Amp Hour the original design and smaller Humless Roadrunner still packs a bunch of power for its size. This is the unit I'd probably keep in the storm shelter or take on short hunting or camping trips. The Roadrunner has half the inlets and outlets compared with the Sentinel but that is ample in most circumstances. Obviously the charge capacity is less, and unlike the Sentinel you could not run a refrigerator on the Roadrunner.

The reality it's horses for courses as to which model to buy. Only you can decide based on your lifestyle, budget and requirements. Either way I don't think you'll regret buying one or more. The company also offers various accessories including LED lighting, hand crank and solar panels in various sizes and outputs.

Pros and cons (Sentinel Model)
In my mind the pros outweigh the cons:
Pros:
• Easy to use
• Multiple outlets
• 50Ah Lithium Battery provides 600Wh of electric power using DC

• Battery rating: 2,000 complete charge/discharge cycles

• Battery shelf-life at least 10 Years

• Battery charge time 2.5hrs from home power outlet
• Easy to hook up solar panel
• Basically it is plug and play
• Accessories available

Cons:
• Weight 40 lb so I wouldn't want to carry it up a mountain
• Some might think it pricey
• Not weatherproof
• Won't run A/C or heaters
• There may be others but I haven't found them

(1)          That's it for now! Maybe, I'll come up with a recipe next time.

You know it, I know it - it's a crazy world. Who'd have thought twenty years ago that to fill my car today, just an ordinary family sedan, would cost over $55.00! Then, look how computers have grown in power exponentially! My first computer some 22-years ago had a 56k memory and no hard drive! Compare that to the one I am using to write this blog, it has four gigs of RAM and three terabytes of hard drive. I have also noticed that there seems to be a relationship between the rapid growth in technology and the equally rapid decline in morality and society in general. I'm not saying that technology is bad in itself, but it seems to me that today we have to protect ourselves and our loved ones to a much greater degree and in ways not thought of before now.

I look at the world and the overall instability within a society that has become more invasive, creating uncertainties that have me asking questions about the future - and I'm not talking here about the distant future. So how can we as families and individuals prepare for the hard times, even the decay of society as we know it? Well, there are things we can do.

My first thought in this narrative regarding computers immediately begs the question, "what if there were suddenly no electric power?" What would you do short to medium term if the lights went out? It happened to my family a few years ago here in the Midwest when an ice storm crippled our town and its infrastructure for nearly two weeks!

We survived by cooking on our wood burning stove and for entertainment read a lot by flashlight. Those small LED headlights that use three small AAA batteries sure helped make life tolerable. We got through it all somehow. The odd thing was that after a day or two the sun came out but the air was so cold the ice did not melt and it was difficult to get out and about to clear the trees that under the weight of ice had fallen over roads.  I could have done with a product that I found recently - a silent generator that gives off no fumes and can provide power for essentials when the power goes down. A thing called the Humless. Impressive.

We also had a good supply of food. Now that was a good thing. I like my food. Cooking was not so hard on the wood stove. I have been a scout leader a couple of times so helped my wife with two pot cooking. It would have been more of a challenge had we not been empty nesters. The ledge on the wood stove that acted as the cooking surface was only about seven inches by twenty inches - enough for two small pots.

While we had a fair supply of food in our home and wood to burn, the ice storm was certainly a wake-up call to be well prepared for what life, nature could throw at us. There is the all too real possibility of loss of employment, threats from crime and the fragile nature of society itself with threats of terrorism knocking on the door of our country - both domestic and foreign .

That's what this blog is going to be all about. It may ramble at times. Hopefully my thoughts and the results of my research into personal survival topics will be of interest. I'll try to include links to products that have intrigued me, even some recipes from time to time. I will mediate contributions and remove that which I find objectionable - but hey, it's my blog.

Until next time then.

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