PREPPER TEN ESSENTIALS, Part 1

UPDATE--SORRY, I TRIED TO INCLUDE PICTURES, for some reason the pictures show up in the draft, but not on the final post. I'm not a tech wiz, what can I say. Clicking on the blue hyperlinks will take you to a pic and description though. Sorry.

If you've spent any time in the Scouting world, you know that Scouts are required to carry with them at all times, a backpack containing the "10 Essentials" you would need to survive in a short term emergency. We came from a Scout troop which insisted everyone carry them. Sadly, not all Scout troops do; sometimes that leads to tragic consequences.

It got me thinking: what are the Prepping (Prepper) 10 Essentials? The 10 things you would need to have in order to survive for the short term i.e., in a backpack-a real one BTW, or to shelter-in-place. I am an American Red Cross Shelter Manager, we train to shelter in place, so I acknowledge a heavy bias in that area. Katrina, tornados, Fukushima have all shown sheltering in place might not be possible, so you do have to balance things out.

I thought I'd do a five part series, focusing on two items at a time, of what/why you would want to include these items in your 10 Essentials. They are in no particular order, and YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary.) Hopefully it will provide food for thought, and you will give some serious consideration on what constitutes your own 10 Essentials. It will not include items which are too deeply personal for me to weigh in on, i.e., weaponry, religious items, family keepsakes. Here we go.

ITEM 1: A way to make fire.

I personally prefer the Swedish Light My Fire ARMY 2.0.

It is hands down, the best out there. Strikes a fire on the first or second strike, lights under any conditions (cold, wet, hot), lights most material regardless of the materials condition (cold, wet, dry), sparks at 2,900 C. Keyfob contains an emergency whistle.

ITEM 2: A way to filter and sterilize water.

Here we get in to the dilemma of bug-out backpack vs. sheltering in place. If I didn't live in the nanny state of California, and was sheltering in place, I would get the Cadillac of water filters:  
a Berkey. The picture above just shows the filters. You can make your own water containers using 5 gallon buckets.

California "protects us from ourselves" so Berkeys are banned here due to their carbon filters. My second choice when sheltering in place would be a candlestick (or dome) ceramic like this Doulton 10" ceramic filter:  

You'd still need to make your own water containers using 5 gallon (or whatever) buckets.

On the move? I'd probably go with something in the Katadyn family like this Hiker Pro:



The problem IMO, with using Katadyn's for sheltering in place, is they can only push through a small amount of water at a time. Fine for on the run, but do you really want to spend hours hand pumping enough water to make just a gallon? It's a VERY time consuming process given the force of filter & water.

That's it for today. Check back for Items 3 and 4 of the 10 Essentials.