Knowledge Storage

A lot of prepper blogs out there talk about storing information in such a fashion that you can access it easily during an emergency.  One aspect of this is by printing out information from websites, blogs, etc. and keeping it in a binder.  I have been doing that myself, and I discovered a wonderful browser application that helps me save the meat of a website, and eliminate the useless chaff (advertising).

Check out PrintFriendly.  I find that it works for about 95% of the pages I want to be able to save.  It creates a printable PDF of the page with the option to remove items.  The one thing I don't care for is that on blog pages, it doesn't capture comments.

In any case, with this app I have PDF's on my computer.  When I have enough articles on a particular topic to be worth printing out, I collate information into a Word document so that I can eliminate duplication, and reduce the size of the print to save space.  Two sided printing also helps me save space.

My topics?

1.  Clothing, and textiles (including laundry)
2.  Communications
3.  Food: Finding Food (foraging, hunting), Growing Food, Preserving Food, Storing Food, Preparing Food
4.  Hazards, and security (include defense)
5.  Health (including sanitation)
6.  Heat, Fuel, Power
7.  Income, Skills and Home Industry
8.  Shelter (including bugging in)
9.  Travel, Transportation (including bugging out)
10.  Water

Where do I draw information from?  Aside from the many blogs and information sites available out there, I also use the Internet Archive's Text Section to find information on how it used to be done.  Currently, the archive houses digital copies of books published up to the early 50s. Another source of info is Scribd.  There are a few uploaders who have collated a lot of useful information and posted it there, as well as posting the cream of the crop from the Internet Archive. I also visit thrift stores, and second-hand book stores and find treasures in print, and have scanned many of my own books so that if I can't take the paper copy with me, I still can have my library with me.

What Has Encouraged Me to Keep On with My Prepping

Sometimes, with hubby being such an ostrich, I feel pretty discouraged about carrying on with my food storage rotation.  I try to gently discuss preparedness with him, and my family, and encourage them to have a realistic viewpoint about future developments.  You probably do the same.  And maybe they think you are nuts for preparing for the worst.  What I have found with my family is that over time, I have seen quite a few of them start "prepping" without even consciously realizing that is what they are doing.  My favourite cousin and his wife just put together bug out bags, after years of him ribbing me.

When I heard about that, I had to give him a call, and I ribbed him about the bug out bags, of course (payback).  He told me that now that he had a family, he started worrying about things a lot more, and having a nice full pantry made him feel more secure that they would be able to manage if one of them lost his or her job, or their hours got cut back.  I asked him why he got the bug out bags, and he was kind of sheepish about that.  Apparently at his work, the boss had purchased "get home" bags for each of the employees, and so he took it home to show his wife. Well then, she wanted one too, and one thing lead to another.

It's nice to know I'm not the only nut out there on the preparedness tree!  And what a great boss my cousin has!  Seriously, I'm jealous...

Socks

I'll bet you don't have as many socks in your bug out bag as Oregon Mike has in his backpack.  He uses socks as little mini pack bags in his backpack for camping, and so forth.  I think that in addition to extra socks for wearing, if worse comes to worse, you could have lots of extra socks to spare if you follow his fine example.  Hope his fiancee doesn't do him an injury for absconding with hers.