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Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness (Read 9528 times)

Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #25 - Jan 11^th, 2015 at 3:34am	Print Post
	Here's a link to what the American Red Cross says you need to have in a first aid kit. http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family/get-kit/anatomy This link is to the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-kits/basics/art-20056673 This is to Family Doctor.org http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/prevention-wellness/staying-healthy/firs...
	« Last Edit: Jan 11^th, 2015 at 3:43am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #26 - Jan 11^th, 2015 at 6:41am	Print Post
	I've spent the last few hours putting together my first aid kid supply list. I may add more to it once I get a really up to date manual -- I know there are some new techniques and products out there -- but it's enough to get me started and I "may" need two boxes!


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #27 - Jan 11^th, 2015 at 7:37pm	Print Post
	I got lucky in Walmart's sporting goods department. I was thinking about getting Plano but they didn't have what I was looking for so I pulled a Flambeau Outdoors 2059 tackle box off the shelf and looked that over. This is what it looks like open and empty.

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #28 - Jan 11^th, 2015 at 7:45pm	Print Post
	And this is what it looks like closed. Closed it is about 11� inches by 20 inches by about 10� inches and weighs about 3� pounds empty. The bottom section is deep enough for the blood pressure monitor and "hopefully" deep enough for the pint sized bottles of rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide I got today too.
	« Last Edit: Jan 11^th, 2015 at 7:46pm by Penthesilea »
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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #29 - Jan 11^th, 2015 at 9:14pm	Print Post
	Well, the bottles won't fit so an auxiliary box will be needed. I just have to find one....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #30 - Jan 11^th, 2015 at 11:04pm	Print Post
	sigh I think my best bet is to check out ammo boxes at the sporting goods store the next time we're in Bloomington. I want to be sure that the bottles will fit before I lay down my cash and the only way to be sure is to inspect it "on site" and stick a measuring stick in it and check the interior depth of the box. Sometime this week I hope. Post # 34,567 -- it will be a while before that kind of sequence happens again. Eleven thousand, one hundred, eleven posts from now if my quick and dirty math is right....
	« Last Edit: Jan 17^th, 2015 at 6:38am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #31 - Jan 12^th, 2015 at 3:08am	Print Post
	I've added a few more things to my list: Quikclot, SAM splint and a North American Rescue C.A.T. tourniquet. Gods forbid that we ever have to use them but better to have them and never need them but the nearest ambulance station (at the volunteer fire station) is a good twenty minutes away and a person can bleed to death in a fraction of that time..... It's going to take a while to acquire all this stuff (my list is four pages long but very itemized) but I'm going to start with the "most likely to use) stuff first and keep adding until I have everything on the list.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #32 - Jan 12^th, 2015 at 3:25am	Print Post
	Just ordered a first aid manual: The ACEP First Aid Manual, 5th Edition. It's published by DK and has lots of pictures.The reviews are excellent with one going so far as to say that only an EMT textbook would be better. Since an EMT textbook is probably more information than I need, I went with the ACEP manual. Additionally, it "should" be small enough to keep with the kit. Knowing Spirit, she'll probably run off with it to memorize (I think we'd be paying for medical school if she wasn't autistic) and I'll end up getting another one but that's okay.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #33 - Jan 12^th, 2015 at 5:50am	Print Post
	I've transferred everything that was in the old box to the new one. It's a tight fit because I wasn't terribly neat about it. Tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll set myself down with an inventory sheet and get it organized. During the transfer, I found some stuff I didn't know we had -- which is why I'll be filling out the inventory sheet while I'm organizing! I haven't decided if I should add sterile lancets to the kit or not. I'll have to check my "home doctoring" references and think about it. sigh Hopefully I won't have to get a bigger box any time soon.....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #34 - Jan 14^th, 2015 at 8:20pm	Print Post
	Well, I had to get another box to hold the bottles of alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, sterile saline solution, antiseptic wash, povidone iodine and calamine lotion which didn't fit in the first box. It's a Flambeau Outdoors Marine Box 1409. I'm going to have to leave the tray out -- the bottles won't fit otherwise -- but I can always find a use for a tray.

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #35 - Jan 14^th, 2015 at 8:26pm	Print Post
	It also has a compartment in the lid that isn't waterproof but I can stick a couple of things in it that water wouldn't hurt. I picked up a couple of BIC lighters for the Everyday Carry pouches and two pair of Sally Hansen Needlepoint tip tweezers for the first aid kits which while a bit expensive are less expensive than "medical" tweezers that are exactly the same design. I picked up an emergency "wire saw" for the Everyday Carry too but I'm going to need some sort of small flat round container to put it in. This is what the case looks like with the lid compartment open.
	« Last Edit: Jan 15^th, 2015 at 2:29am by Penthesilea »
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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #36 - Jan 17^th, 2015 at 6:30am	Print Post
	I took a break from reading and worked on the first aid kit. I've put things in neatly now and have a better idea of what I have and what I need to get. I'm definitely not going to need to buy band-aids for a while but I do need some "specialty" ones. I trimmed some "flash" off the box but I'm going to have to get it in really good light and examine it. One part of the lid keeps catching and not wanting to close properly and I need to find out why. I also want Skywise to see if he can take out a few of the dividers in the trays without doing too much damage. Having some larger compartments would reduce "wasted space." I may someday spring for a "real" medical type kit, either hard sided like this one or a soft sided one.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #37 - Jan 20^th, 2015 at 10:36pm	Print Post
	Penthesilea wrote on Jan 12^th, 2015 at 3:25am: Just ordered a first aid manual: The ACEP First Aid Manual, 5th Edition. It's published by DK and has lots of pictures.The reviews are excellent with one going so far as to say that only an EMT textbook would be better. Since an EMT textbook is probably more information than I need, I went with the ACEP manual. Additionally, it "should" be small enough to keep with the kit. Knowing Spirit, she'll probably run off with it to memorize (I think we'd be paying for medical school if she wasn't autistic) and I'll end up getting another one but that's okay. The book arrived today and I really haven't had the chance to get into it but I can say that it is indexed out the wazoo and profusely illustrated with color photographs rather than line illustrations which I think makes for better detail.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #38 - Jan 21^st, 2015 at 10:20pm	Print Post
	The book I�m reading right now is Build the Perfect Bug Out Vehicle by Creek Stewart. Mr. Steward is an Indiana boy who has a survival and preparedness training facility here in Central Indiana. In the course of reading his book, I learned that his �Bug Out Location� -- his destination in case of evacuation -- is his parents� farm in southern Indiana. This got me thinking and I came to the realization that in the �disaster� scenarios most likely to happen in this area the best/safest place for us to be is.. well... right here. While not perfect (it would be damned hard to fortify this house), we�ve weathered about everything that Mother Nature could throw at us short of earthquake and wildfire either during my childhood or since Skywise and I moved here with the kids after Spirit was born. Another plus is that unless you are familiar with the area, finding this place is difficult to put it mildly. (We�ve had delivery trucks get lost while using GPS to find the place -- that will teach them to use the directions that the customer gives them!) Which means that a horde of scavengers is unlikely to find the place and being four miles from the nearest town also reduces the chances of �hostiles� finding us. Having come to that conclusion, it makes more sense to concentrate on making this place more �bug in� (also known as �sheltering in place�) friendly rather than planning on heading for somewhere deeper in the hills - a location that we could be cut off from as demonstrated by the 2008 Flood which effectively made this area an island due to flooded creeks and literally cut the state in two from east to west for several days. Sheltering in place would certainly make it easier for Spirit who hates disruption of any sort. So our new van (when we get it) will be outfitted more as a �get home� vehicle rather than a �Get the hell outta Dodge� vehicle and I�ll be putting more effort into stocking our �Bug In Location.�


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #39 - Jan 22^nd, 2015 at 5:55am	Print Post
	Thinking about Citizen Band radios......


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #40 - Jan 31^st, 2015 at 8:09pm	Print Post
	I got one of these today at Lowes. It's called a "Gamma Seal Lid". It fits buckets 3.5 to 7 gallons and it's found in the paint department. What it does is convert an ordinary paint-type bucket into a resealable storage container. You take the lower ring which has a gasket in it and put it on the bucket. Then you can screw the lid on and get it off easily. Unlike the regular lids sold for these buckets which can be a to get off. They come in seven colors (white, blue, yellow, red, green, orange and black) so you can coordinate or color code your buckets. It costs $10.99 plus tax at Lowes (Amazon is WAY more expensive) and we'll be getting more of them since we store 5 pound bags of sugar and flour (20 pounds in each bucket) and varying amounts of dry catfood in 5 gallon buckets.� They stack and can be used to store about any sort of "dry goods". The seal appears very tight and should be proof against most hazards.
	« Last Edit: Jan 31^st, 2015 at 8:16pm by Penthesilea »
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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #41 - Feb 25^th, 2015 at 12:10am	Print Post
	With the first aid kit "reasonably" stocked, the next "kit" I want to put together is a "mobile/portable" kitchen. By that I mean a compact "module" with everything in it in terms of equipment that I would need to set up a "kitchen" and cook meals in reasonably sanitary conditions.� I downloaded the plans from this page if you're interested: http://troop416.us/node/1130 I'm redesigning it a bit since I a.) want to reduce the amount of wood cutting I'll have to do and b.) I want to put more in it than the original design allows. I've already obtained some of what I'll need to put in it mainly so I can find out the EXACT dimensions of things so I can finalize my design. I hope this weather breaks soon. I need to get "wood working" and I'd rather not have to bundle up like an Arctic explorer just to go up to the Guest House to do it!
	« Last Edit: Feb 25^th, 2015 at 12:13am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #42 - Feb 25^th, 2015 at 1:04am	Print Post
	I've picked a camping stove which is bigger than my original choice. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-EvenTemp-InstaStart-3-Burner-Propane-Stove/158... I'm going to have to get REALLY creative if I don't want a lot of wasted space.
	« Last Edit: Mar 2^nd, 2015 at 4:53am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #43 - Feb 26^th, 2015 at 11:43pm	Print Post
	As I've noted elsewhere, I'm redesigning the "kitchen box" to reduce its weight. I think that the original design -- which was built with Boy Scout troops in mind -- might be a bit "overbuilt" and I'm looking at other designs and writing down my own thoughts. This would be a lot simpler if I had a pile of the right kinds of lumber on hand so I could design "hands on". I work much better that way...


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #44 - Feb 27^th, 2015 at 7:32pm	Print Post
	The "worse case scenario" that I'm planning for makes three assumptions. First: That we all survive and are uninjured. Second: That it is safe to stay here: no extremely cold temperatures, no wildfire or downed live power lines in the yard. Third: That for some reason, neither house is habitable. Operating from those assumptions, we need to be able to provide shelter, food/water and sanitation for the four of us plus the cats. The "shelter" part is pretty easy in good weather. I've picked out a tent that will house us all and I "may" get a separate, special shelter for the cats and a canopy or screen house for the cooking area is possible too. Water will take some work but the neighbors across the road have a pond as do the neighbors a couple of houses down. That pond is spring fed -- I remember when the previous owners had it dug. It filled up so fast when the bulldozer hit those springs that it couldn't get out of the hole in time and they had to bring another one out the next day to pull it out. -- which gives us two nearby water sources that are reasonably easy to get to. All I have to figure out now is how to purify/distill it so it's "potable."� "Sanitation" -- specifically the handling and disposal of human & feline waste -- is gonna require a LOT more thought and planning. A basic latrine is the absolute LAST option but I'm gonna decide where to put one if it becomes necessary. Oh.... and while doing research on the I-69 extension (may the Hounds of Hell devour the netherparts of everyone involved with planning/approving this travesty while they are still using them!) Skywise discovered that at some point there was a Magnitude 3 earthquake in the area. The epicenter was about a mile to the south of here. It didn't happen in the 20th Century and likely not in the 19th since he can't find any records of it but the US Geological Survey says it happened. JUST what I needed to hear right now!�
	« Last Edit: Feb 28^th, 2015 at 3:02am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #45 - Feb 27^th, 2015 at 7:41pm	Print Post
	This is the tent I've picked for our "primary" shelter. It's a Coleman Prairie Breeze 9 person cabin tent which "should" be big enough for the four of us without crowding. A "cook tent" with maybe a "dining hall" option is possible too. Yeah, if we're in a "disaster" situation, I want us to be as comfortable as possible. The situation -- if it occurs -- will be stressful enough without having to jury-rig/make do shelter and food preparation.

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #46 - Feb 27^th, 2015 at 8:45pm	Print Post
	Found a couple of other cool things to get once the "main stuff" is taken care of. This, which is an enclosed solar shower/changing room...
	« Last Edit: Feb 27^th, 2015 at 8:47pm by Penthesilea »
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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #47 - Feb 27^th, 2015 at 8:46pm	Print Post
	and this, which is a 9 by 13 reasonably priced screen room. Post # 34,848
	« Last Edit: Feb 28^th, 2015 at 3:00am by Penthesilea »
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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #48 - Mar 2^nd, 2015 at 5:05am	Print Post
	Last night I drew up a rough set of "cutting layouts" for the kitchen box so I'd know how much and what kind of lumber to buy. At the moment, two half-sheets (48 x 48 inches) and two quarter sheets (24 by 48 inches) of plywood appear to be enough for the major pieces with enough left over to use for the things I haven't figured out yet. I'm going to need four 6 ft. 2 x 4s, some 2 x 2 and I don't know yet how much other random pieces of wood, much of which "could" already be in my lumber cache. I'm nowhere ready to start building yet but I like to have things figured out as much as possible before I start. I cut down on expensive mistakes that way. I'll draw up some much neater layouts later (last night's efforts were done with "feline help") that I can file with the directions that I'm writing as I go along. That way if I ever need to build another one, I'll know what I did the first time and won't have to rely on my memory.
	« Last Edit: Mar 2^nd, 2015 at 5:06am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Survival of the Fittest: Emergency Preparedness Reply #49 - Mar 2^nd, 2015 at 4:43pm	Print Post
	While I was studying the original kitchen box's design last night, I discovered what I thought was a serious design flaw. I explained it to Skywise and he agreed that there is a design problem and it is a bad one. Essentially, the entire weight of the box is concentrated in a very small space on either side of it and supported from the top rather than the bottom. Consequently, the likelihood that at some point the top of the box (which is supporting the weight of the box) will pull loose from the sides, allowing the whole shooting match to crash to the ground) is pretty high. The wood glue might hold (the designer swears by Gorilla Glue) but the wood might not -- the top is made of �" plywood, after all. So, I'll be doing some design work today while waiting for the UPS man to show up...


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