Starting on YouTube

Well we are going to try and advance with the times here. We have started a a YouTube Channel under the name Corsair Trainers.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXxUPVndSDypJFlx8G2AwlA

The name comes from a group we are trying to put together come the beginning of the year. With my eminent retirement coming I need something to do!!!! hehehehe!

Still plan on writing the blog. Writing even more since I will not have to work. Going to start the YouTube adventure by translating the blog post here into videos. Something I am finding harder to do then I thought it would. Caveman learn new thing!!!

The videos won't be word for word. Some I will update. Others might be missing things written on here. Trying to keep the videos short as I have tried to keep these entries over the years. Harder to do when your talking!!

Hope some of you go over to the link and check out the videos. Let me know what you think.

As Always,

Stay Safe!

LA Times article "After a big earthquake where will people go?"

Came across this the other day. Found the story really interesting. They attempt to go past the normal earthquake story. You know, ground shakes, buildings fall and then we go back to thinking about other things.

Take a moment and read the article....... we will wait......

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-earthquake-refugee-arizona-20180603-story.html

Al'righty, let's think about this for moment. We make it through the earthquake. Then what? What if the roads suddenly look like the one in the picture above? Your not going to just drive home. Maybe you are trying to get home and this is in your way.

I know, some of you are laughing and think this is a good thing, LA being cut off from the rest of the world....... but for the rest of us.

"In the San Francisco Bay Area, more than 400,000 could be displaced in a magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault, which directly runs underneath cities like Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and Fremont, said Ken Hudnut, the U.S. Geological Survey’s science advisor for risk reduction. And it’s possible that more than 250,000 people in Southern California could be forced out of their homes after a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault, Hudnut said." 

Imagine 250,000 people suddenly moving. Most of us can not really wrap our heads around the idea. Not really. We may think we have a grasp of the numbers. In reality very few of us have any idea what a migration of this type would look like. 

"Not everyone will need to stay in public shelters — many will stay with relatives, friends and hotels. Still, more than 175,000 people may have no other choice than stay at a public shelter in Southern California, which could be could be challenged with acute shortages of food, water and medicine, according to ShakeOut, a USGS report simulating a major Southern California earthquake." 

Even if we skip trying to wrap our heads around that many people moving we can imagine the roads being blocked. How long can the large urban centers go without trucks bringing them supplies? Two days, three days or maybe a week. At some point the supplies have to come in our the people have to move to the supplies. This is what the article starts to address. A portion of the scenario which seems to be over looked by many people when they discuss planning for "The Big One".

"Arizona recently took a major step in dealing with this question. Officials in May launched a full-scale exercise that simulated a mass exodus of 400,000 evacuees from Southern California. The drill gave emergency workers a chance to consider how they would respond to the many elements of the disaster: providing food and shelter, helping unaccompanied minors, assisting in family reunification, and dealing with the transportation and resource hurdles.

The exercise was aimed at beginning to think about how to deal with such a refugee crisis, though experts in California said it’s unlikely that many people would end up in Arizona. It may actually be quite difficult to leave California after an earthquake moves one side of the San Andreas past the other by as much as 30 feet — severing routes to Phoenix on Interstate 10 in the Coachella Valley and Las Vegas on Interstate 15 at the Cajon Pass.

Also complicating problems would be a widespread lack of power, thwarting the ability of motorists to refuel. “If you choose to go, it’s going to be difficult to do so. It’s a pretty hot desert between you and Phoenix,” seismologist Lucy Jones said."

Picture traffic on a Friday night. Took me almost two hours to travel around sixty miles today. Traffic wasn't really bad for a weekend. Now picture people upset, scared. trying to get to what they believe is safety for them. Maybe they have a car full of kids. By the time they decide to move odds are they were running out of items they need. Food, water, maybe their shelter is gone. Think of Friday traffic and add in these elements. Traffic and people's attitudes while driving can be bad enough. Now envision them thinking their life truly does depend on reaching their destination..... 

The article points out highways would be severed by the ground shifting in several key points. How would that effect the flow of traffic out of the LA Basin or in your city? Traffic heading to Las Vegas on a weekend can be absolutely ridicules. Add in roads physically damaged and unusable. 

How does having the roads severed effect relief supplies from making into the city? Sure the authorities could bring enough supplies to make a difference. Even with the roads out they could bring in supplies. There is always airplanes and helicopters, right? How much weight in supplies can a big helicopter bring in? Is it enough for the 13,131,431 in the LA Metropolitan area?  

Maybe you could find another road? Lots of surface streets most of the city dwellers use daily to beat traffic. Must be some way around damaged freeways to make it to Arizona, right? No. There is a lot of desert to get stranded in and die......... Our normal mode of travel and daily routine tend to give us a false idea of distance. 20 miles isn't too far on a normal day. same 20 miles at 5 miles an hour, with hungry kids in the car is a totally different experience. 

"Experts say it would be much better to shelter in place at home. Owners can take steps to do so by retrofitting older houses or apartments now at risk for sliding off its foundation or collapsing in an earthquake. Residents can prepare by storing water, food, medicine and other supplies to sustain themselves for, ideally, two weeks, or at least a minimum of 72 hours. A gallon of water per day per person is recommended." 

Most of us have heard this before. We should have at least 72 hours of supplies on hand. How many have noticed the "experts" keep upping the number of days you should be able to take care of yourself? Three days is a great place to start! We all should have this amount on hand as a minimum. Once we do have three days worth we just replicate what we did the first time and now we have six days worth. Which puts us well above what our neighbors have done according to the experts.  

Remember what we start with can be as simple as this. Here is a link to an earlier article about using $20 to start preparing. 

https://broadheads.blogspot.com/2014/12/20-canned-goods-ralphs.html

"Unfortunately, most Californians don’t bother to be prepared, and a failure to stock up on something as basic as drinking water could lead residents to leave even if their home is structurally sound.... It’s clear the public doesn’t think about these things,” Hudnut said. “I’d rather be one of those people who doesn’t have to go and has more water stored.”

Article is focused on people leaving but what happens if your neighbors know you have water and they do not? What happens when they come over and ask for your water? What happens when they keep asking for your water? What happens when you have to tell them they can not have any more water from your families supply? People will do all kinds of things to take care of their family and themselves. Something for my friends in California to think about as they continue to allow their ability to have tools to defend themselves slip away....... 

"But a big wild card that would push someone to flee are fires following an earthquake, with shattered pipes expected to hamper firefighting......... in Southern California, it’s possible the equivalent of 133,000 single-family homes will be charred."

Well just when you made it this far in a post and your thinking "I am good! We have everything in place for what he has pointed out! I am done!" OOPS! This article again goes past the normal earthquake story. 

Suddenly fire comes.... You rode out the earthquake. You set up shop at the house. Everything is good to go. Then you notice a red glow in the distance at night. Maybe you see smoke, the dark brown, black, dirt colored smoke you know means a fire is coming. Are you ready to run? Even with one plan in motion we need to remember to be ready to start another. Mother Nature has a way of humbling you when you think you have a handle on things. 

Random picture to reward those who are still reading this....... 

"Elements of emergency plans have already been put in force. When more than 100,000 people were ordered evacuated downstream of Oroville Dam last year....But one lesson that has been learned is that most people aren’t inclined to flee long distances, as was the case in the Wine Country wildfires last year."

In reality how far could you move. Take a moment right now. Earthquake comes, right now. You ride it out but now is the time to go. How much gas do you have in your cars? How many routes do you know? What if the roads are clogged? Can you physically move yourself under your own power to a distance which would help you to survive? 

https://broadheads.blogspot.com/2015/03/reality-of-bug-out-bag.html

“We found most people want to stay near to or close to their homes,” Huston said, even if it meant pitching a tent in front a damaged property. That means a key priority may be, for instance, “to provide food and assistance to neighborhood by neighborhood.”

Are you thinking you can just pitch a tent in the front yard and wait for help? Do you have a tent? Do you know how to pitch it? You sure waiting for the government to feed and water you is a good idea.

https://broadheads.blogspot.com/2015/04/reality-of-government-help.html

This is getting long so we will stop around here. This article seemed important to share. If this paper is posting articles going past the basics of earthquake planning maybe we should take heed of this? Maybe we should take stock of what we really could handle or do, right now! Not what we plan on doing a month from now. But using this moment to think about what we can do and work toward improving our abilities to deal with emergency situations. 

And just to keep the balance in the universe..... 

As Always,

Stay Safe! 

Corsair Trainers

Bugging in - Also known as staying home.

Let's focus this time at staying home. Something has happened, is happening or about to happen. Odds are you are experiencing anxiety of some sort over the situation. Think about it, tornado warning goes out. All you can do is wait and see. Big storm headed your way. All you can do is wait and see. Riots in the streets. All you can do is wait and see. 

We have talked about being at home or choosing to stay at home before. Let's bring it up a notch. Let's say we have the basics covered for a day or three. We have water, we have food, we have shelter and all these foundational things we need to survive the issue at hand. We are good as long as our home is not directly involved or affected by the situation. What else can we do or have to make the situation better for ourselves? 

Have a means to increase our situational awareness. We need to be able to gather information from outside our immediate area. Knowledge is power and in this case the power is being informed. Information will keep your anxiety down. Even if what you are receiving is bad information at least you are not figuratively "in the dark" Fear of the unknown is a real thing. Ignorance is bliss, is also a real thing. Both have their good and bad points. For us I would argue knowing what is happening gives us advantages those who live in "bliss" do not have. Put the local news on. Check the internet for information. Charge batteries to your cell phone if you think the power could go out! You want to keep information coming to you if you can. You need to know when the emergency is over, how it is progressing and how the changing situation could affect you. Having a HAM radio, CB, weather radio or even just a police scanner can help with being aware of what is happening.

(NOTE: Any product or device you see here is more then likely something we have at our house. Not going to suggest something I personally do not use or something I would not want my own mom to have!)

Even with all the information coming in to you via electronics, nothing beats your own eyes and ears. Staying at the house does not mean staying in the house with your head driven into the sand. News reports might lag behind on what is happening to you. Do not expect others removed from the situation to have a better idea of what is happening then you do. Your right there, you can see it, you can smell it and you can feel it. Odds are the reporters are several miles or more from any real danger. In most cases they have to wait till someone tells them what is going on. You might not have the luxury for the lag time in information. Rely on yourself and your senses first. Your senses have been around a lot longer then the gadgets, use them. Use the information you gather from other sources to enhance your knowledge of the situation.

If the situation allows you, spend a few moments talking to your neighbors. I know for some of us this is unheard of!! I am guilty of this probably more then anyone I know! Yet during power outages or during recent fires I have found myself outside talking to the neighbors. Maybe you can share information with them? Might help them deal with the situation or fill in a blank or two for you. 

Remember we do not want to react or deal with situations as your kids might. No running to your room, jumping in the bed and pulling the blankets over your head!! I called it!!

With information coming in we can make decisions on what to do. One thing we need to do is make sure we have what we think we have. Get your information gathering going then make sure you have what you will need for the situation. Maybe you realize you are short a few things? Well you should be ashamed of yourself, hang your head in shame and volunteer to be the main course for a tribe of cannibals!!!!

Last minute buying. Ever time a big storm is heading for somewhere the news has pictures of empty shelves and people trying to buy things at the last minute. Let's try to not be these people! If you go out to buy things right before a situation make it things you do not need to live. The things you buy should be in addition to what you have already at home to live off of. But we all know life has a way of using up that last roll of toilet paper and the weather report says you will not be able to leave the house for three days!!!! Might be a good idea to trudge through the crowds and find yourself a few rolls!

Of course there is always the chance when you get to the store others have beaten you there. We want to work toward having enough at the house we do not need to get involved with the last minute shoppers! The back of the cabinet under the sink. Maybe in the garage. Heck the attic or the back of the closet, are all good spots to stash some toilet paper from the Dollar store. Sure it is not the nice triple ply you are used to using on your behind. If the choice is one ply or a dish towel......

One of these stashed somewhere with a couple rolls of toilet paper. Maybe some baby wipes. Toothpaste, soap bars, hand sanitizer and a bottle of shampoo could be the answer to not having to deal with the mob at the store?

You can see the priority of these folks in Venezuela when they have the chance.

Maybe you want to pick up a few more items just to give you a cushion. Some extra snacks for the kids or maybe you need to make a store run just to give you something to do while waiting for the storm. Make what you buy useful. Think about the situation taking more then what you think it will take. Buy the bag of rice on sale in the 'ethnic food isle'..... yes they are cheaper some times..... you can even go to the WIC section here in California to find small bags of items, staples, which could come in handy if things are dragged out.

They idea here is to not get tied up with the rush. Dumb things happen when people come together under these circumstances. If you can avoid needing to be there why not. Plus not spending time in line gives you time to take care of other things.

Maybe not needing to get stuck in the panic buying mode gives you more time and more hands to fortify the house? (reminds me I need to go buy some plywood!) If you do not need to go to the store and you have battened down the hatches with the time saved you can focus on other items.

Maybe bring in some more wood? Cut down the branch from the tree you keep thinking is going to get blown off and land on your roof? Check on other family an friends. Start thinking about what you will do during the incident.

What if?????????

Is your car parked somewhere you do not have to worry about it? Are you sure? Is your parking area a manmade creek just waiting for the water to come? Is there somewhere you can park you do not have to worry about a palm tree coming down on your car?

What do you do if the utilities to your house go out during the storm? What do you have to stay warm with? Hopefully you have a few flashlights at the very least. Maybe a couple of extra blankets? What if you primary means of cooking fails? Do you have a grill? Can use the grill or are you planning on eating cold food? Anyone with you or do you have special medical issues you need to take into account during the storm or incident? Good chance the ambulance or police will not be able to show up in the middle of a situation!!!! There are a thousand separate "what if?" you could work through. Each is driven by the situation and how you fit into it.

How about after the situation is over? Few people plan for the after or recovery phase of a situation. Have you given this any thought? What do you do after the incident has passed?

Do you have tools to cut away the tree? Will you have to wait for someone else to do it for you? Do you have a tarp to cover a hole in the roof or a broken window? If you have a chainsaw, do you have the fuel for it? Have you used it or tested it lately? Maybe we add a fee hand saws to our tool kit before and incident happens?

Are you physically able to walk to the nearest store if your street looked like this? Cleaning this up would take more then a day or two. Maybe we should take a few more walks now, just incase we have to walk after?

Do you have insurance? We shouldn't plan of the Government swooping in and fixing everything in a day or two. Owning a house you have to have insurance for the loan. Do you rent? There is insurance for renters also!! We all should have a basic amount of insurance to help us if we need it.

Do you have money set aside if the ATMs and credit cards are not working? Would really suck to walk the two miles to the nearest store only to find out your plastic gets you nothing.......

This is getting long so I will cut it here. Our prior planning sets us up to survive. Our adapting to a situation increases our ability to survive. Being aware of what is happening allows you to adapt your prior planning to the present situation. Prior planning also allows us to work through the situation when there is no stress. We all need to understand in our planning there are at least three phases.

Before an event
Event
After the event

As Always,

Stay Safe.




  

Good spot

Been awhile since I wrote anything. Life kind of jumped up and got in the way. The good thing about not writing or focusing on preparedness for awhile? I got to see if my stuff was up to snuff a few times. The best part, this was without the subject really being anywhere near a focus in my life. Without realizing it I had hit a "good spot" in my personal planning.

What does a good spot mean? This good spot is a place where you do not have to think about preparedness to much. When something unexpected comes up, your prior planning has lead to your appropriate response to the situation. This is a good feeling! I have a joke with myself. The future me either likes or dislikes the past me depending on what the past me has done to prepare the future me! Over the last nine months or so we have had power outages, cuts/bruises/bumps, fires, floods and other issues come up. We have done pretty good through all of these issues.

Remember, an emergency situation to you might be different then what an emergency situation is to me. This is why everyone needs to focus on what their personal situation requires. There are no one size fits all.

Scrapped knees, bonked heads and other child injuries came up. Our medical preparedness allowed us to make it through these 'emergencies'. You would be amazed how much a Spider Man bandaid can change a situation. One second you have a small child whaling at the top of their lungs swearing the end of the world has begun. Some Neosporin treated the physical wound. The decorations on the bandaid treated the mental wound. End of emergency!

More then once an ice pack from the freezer cured the bruised egos of little ones who were on the losing end of a tussle. Sometimes they even kept the swelling down from whatever they had failed at doing or the knot they received from the other one. The ice packs in the freezer even helped to keep the fridge cold during our several power outages. Between the incidents the ice packs were tested to see how long they could keep the ice chest cold after the power came back on. Two and a half days before I thought stuff started to get to warm. (No I was not opening and closing the ice chest. Just kept it closed to see how long water stayed cold.)

Being able to use a single item for multiple uses is a wonderful ability! Just hope someone does not get a bump and you need the ice pack for keeping the chest cold!!!

Our communications abilities were tested during the power outages. The ability to still communicate with the little ones, who's iPads had no internet, was a big one! Hehehehehe! Between text messages, cellular, radios and talking to our neighbors we thought we had a grasp of what was going on around us. Some of our friends found the lag time between news or official information was to much. This lag between what was happening right now to them and what was being put out caused stress to be added to their already stressful, if not life threatening, situations!

Found more resources for staying up to date. Phones have all kinds of applications for staying informed. The ham radio and police scanners helped a lot. Yet at the end of the day we found looking around the house, talking to our neighbors, City Workers and keeping our own situational awareness were the best tools.

Nothing was better then during our first power outage. The children came home to find the house had lights. Each of them had their own flashlight. And best of all....... Pizza had been ordered for dinner!! Took the time to teach the older one how to put batteries in the camp lanterns. Did not seem like a big deal till the next power outage. Someone had to show mom where the batteries went and the best places to put the lamps.......... Future me laughed at that one!

We personally escaped the worst of the fires this year. Friends of ours were not so lucky. I will not put any names in this story. If you figure out it is you...... do not tell anyone! I called it!!!

Two families, we will call one family #1 and the other #2. Let's focus on just the first few minutes of the emergency. Both were faced with the same issues. It was time to go, fire was coming and there was no time left to figure out what to do.

Family #1, no idea what to pack. No real idea where to go. No prior planning at all from what I could figure out.

Family #2, set their planning into motion. Had a rough idea of where to go. Had time to gather more information, pack more items.

Family #1, all over text messages and FB venting their frustration.

Family #2, using the internet to check in with folks and keeping people informed of their situation.

Family #1, basically appeared to melt down.

Family #2, held it together.

This was just the first couple of minutes of the emergency. Why am I pointing this out? Those first couple of minutes could make all the difference. Prior planning prevents poor performance. Am I 'Monday Morning Quarter Backing' either family? Nope just giving my impression of what each family was doing.

They both faced many of the exact same issues. Family #2 was obviously dealing with the situation much better. Why? Seems they had hit a good spot in their personal planning. The situation might have exceeded what they were truly facing but their prior planning obviously helped them through the situation.

Having dealt with a few situations of our own. With the knowledge we gained from what our friends personally went through. The goal now becomes to close up some of the gaps in our abilities. We want to cover more of the basics. Add some more abilities. Plan out a few more scenarios.

Going to be doing all of this with the intention of moving our "Good Spot" a little further down the line.

As Always,

Stay Safe! 

Corsair Trainers

  

Venezuela update.

A while back we talked about Venezuela and the crisis they are having in which people could not find food or other basic items to survive. Again we will try to stay out the politics and focus on what the people are doing to survive. By doing this maybe we can pull ideas or answers which can assist us in our own emergency preparedness. If the opportunity presents itself we should learn from other people's experience instead of having to learn the hard lessons ourself.

Here is link to the original post. 

http://broadheads.blogspot.com/2016/05/venezuela-reality-check.html

Not much has changed from the time we originally looked at the situation. This is a really good example of why people need to realize emergencies can last long than a day or two. Help just might not be coming along any day soon, preparedness needs to be thought out for both the short and long haul and at the end of the day, you are responsible for your family.

The bridge talked about in the link below. Read the article. These people traveled by public transit and walked to secure food for themselves. Then look at the photo of what they came home with. These were not people already close to the poverty line or part of an underserved community. No, the husband was an auto mechanic and had his own garage before things started going south. The wife has a good job but with the situation spiraling downward her income is not enough to sustain the family.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-food-shortage-family-liquidates-savings-to-stockpile-food/

  

I hope you read the article but if you did not here is what they brought home. How long could you and your family live on this amount of food? 

Here is what another family brought home after "shopping". They expected to eat for two weeks off of this amount of food.

Daily people stand in these lines hoping they can afford the prices of what little might be in the store.

Everything you might have stored up is likely to be used up after what, two weeks, a month, six months? Most of us do not have the space to stock up on much more than a maybe a weeks worth of food.

Yet food is not the only thing in short supply. Medicine is also lacking with doctors and hospitals not having anyway of getting more.

How long could you last on this? Heck do you even have the cooking skills to utilize these ingredients? Some of us have no idea how to cook from scratch and for these folks at this point in their situation all there is to work worth is items to make food from scratch.

http://todayvenezuela.com/2017/01/10/venezuela-set-for-murderous-2017/

The situation is not just one in which people can not find food. Read the article linked above. Not only are they looking for food people are more and more having to defend what little they have. Protecting their supplies not only from other hungry people. They have to defend themselves against gangs and the government. Problem for most of this people is when they try to defend themselves the gangs, police and military are the only ones who have firearms.

This is starting to get kind of long. Let's bring this around.

Prepare for the 'quick' emergency. Three days maybe a week.
Always be mentally prepared to go longer.
Utilize whatever supplies you have but always work to add more. Do not wait till you are running out of supplies to try and acquire more, everyone else is probably doing the same thing.
Be prepared to defend what you have, even from people you shouldn't have to defend things from.

As Always,

Stay Safe

Conflicted Card Game - Review

While scrolling along on the internet I came across this card game, Conflicted. Always looking for items which can be useful I went ahead and ordered the first deck of cards. Using Amazon the cards came a few days later.

Below is the 'about' section from their website

"Conflicted: The Survival Card Game was born from friends debating why the world is the way it is. Discover where you will draw the line between your morals and your humanity.

Know Your Self
Conflicted was designed to help you think about life in a post apocalyptic world. After playing it, you'll be more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and areas needing improvement. How far are you willing to go in order to survive, when the choice is life versus your own morals?

Know  Your Friends
When you play Conflicted: The Survival Card Game with your friends and family, their answers will tell you all about their philosophy on prepping and survival. What they say or don't say, their body language - it all matters.  You will probably re-think who you'll bugout with after the first game.

Know  Your Enemies
By playing Conflicted: The Survival Card Game you'll realize that the thin veil of civilized behavior our current modern society portrays is easily torn apart. We all have a breaking point where our will to live speaks louder than our own morals. That breaking point is at a different place for everyone."

I thought this could be interesting and went through each card to see what the questions were like. To be honest the questions, for the most part, are extreme. They set up situations which almost no one will find themselves in, hopefully! Of course the entire idea of the game is these situations take place after an extraordinary incident has happened, a post apocalyptic situation. Which gives them the setting and ability to ask some of these extreme questions. Even in this setting some of the questions are........ just ........ heck I do not know the word, extreme doesn't seem to fit right.

People are asked to make life or death decisions.  On first read it appears they could simply give an answer, with no reference point to make the decision in their life to draw from. A lot of the questions ask about helping others but helping others would cause your family to starve. It is easy to say you would turn children away who are starving to allow your family to survive longer when the kids are not in front of you. Especially if you have never seen starving children or been to places where people are going hungry. Other questions ask about killing people for one reason or another. Again it is easy to say you would kill someone who is a threat to your family or group. Especially if you have never hurt someone else or had to use deadly force against another person. Some of the questions seem to give you only one way to answer the question but leave out other options. Here is an example;

"The airplane you stole lost 30% of it's power in mid air and is about to crash" The question goes on to say you have dumped everything you can to lighten the load and are now faced with two of your six person group having to "...... leave the plane... suffer an excruciating fall to their deaths." Did I forget to mention there are no parachutes? Your supposed to decide who is sacrificed for the greater good............

Here is an issue with this question, if you have a pilot in the group wouldn't they know how to land the plane? Why would you dump supplies, fuel and other items you stole? Why would you then sacrifice two of your group?

Completely understanding the concept here is to start a conversation with people and to get an idea of how they think. The question would seem to lead people into thinking the only answer was to have two of your group willingly or unwillingly sacrifice themselves. Which seems to guide people into a thought pattern where they are preprogramming themselves to think death is the only answer in a apocalyptic situation. Seems to embed what some folks call "training scars" into people which could lead someone to make what could be interpreted as poor decisions under pressure.

My personal answer is to land the plane as soon as the pilot thinks they can no longer stay airborne. What was the point if you lose all the supplies and people? Of course there could be other variables but given the question as it is written, landing the plane seems to be the one answer you are not lead toward. Once on the ground you could see about repairing the plane or lightening the load by having some of your group walk. Maybe they can take enough supplies with them the flight can be completed and the plane might even be able to come back to get them somewhere along the line?

Some questions are really good ones;

".... What do you think you could offer any community in exchange for food, water and shelter?" They narrow down the answers nicely by saying the community "...already have enough security and caretakers." The best part of this question states "This must be a skill you currently have."

Think about that question for a minute................. What skills do you have which would REALLY be needed after a total collapse? Think of the situation as they have framed it. The world is closer to all out Mad Max than Sex In The City..............

Well these sound like good skills to have at work tomorrow! How would they help if people are struggling to feed themselves?

We all know people who would believe this is the right answer!!!!

What can you do? Most of us have become specialist in our daily lives. You are a lawyer, how is that going to work out if people are reduced to scavenging for food? Maybe you do odd jobs, manual labor kind of stuff, a few times a week, then spend the rest of your time surfing and smoking as much dope as you can? How is that going to translate over?

Let's not even start discussing Human Resource types or folks with jobs like Life Coach...... And if I just made you mad because you are one of these, do not fear there are lots and lots of people out there who have less useful skill sets.

If the community has enough guys dressed like this I personally had to stop and think about my answer to the question. My go to thing is security, weapons, military and stuff like that. If the billet is already filled I would be hard pressed to make myself useful!! Sure I got some skills but not enough to sell myself as an expert farmer, healer or wizard! If the community needs male strippers I might be able to pull that one off!!!!!

What could you function as if the world went south? Be realistic about your answer since you are only answering the question to yourself!

Alright, last question from the deck of cards. This is a good question with multiple answers due to the open ended way the question is asked. This might be the best question in the deck to figure out how someone thinks they will respond.

"You are behind on rent and now that the Electromagnetic Pulse went off and the banks aren't open, your landlord came trying to collect. He said either pay up in cash or in goods, or he will evict your family and put them on the street in three days with the help of armed security. You were not prepared to bug out at all..... in three days he will bring armed men to take you out of the house, but right now he is standing in front of you, alone. How would you handle this situation?"

The parts in the question which just repeat the same situational information were cut out.

Let's start the answer with some thoughts about avoiding the question. Preparing for a bad day does not focus solely on the actions you take after something has happened. You shouldn't only focus on having gear, food and solar panels for after something happens. What you do before an event directly affects how you can respond during and after an event. This is one reason I think this question is one of the better ones in the deck.

If we square away our finances and put some cash away inside a safe in the house we have avoided this question for a moment. A moment which might buy us time to better our position. Having our finances squared away could allow us to buy a house. A house which would allow us to not be living under the rule of a LAND LORD. Taking these actions before an event would help us cover several problems at once and we try to cover as many issues with the least amount of resources. Moving back to the situation laid out by the question.

For these of this discussion let's say we are in the position the question has us in. Your options seem to be 1) find a way to pay the Landlord, 2) leave your home, and 3) do something to the Landlord? Going in reverse order to answer this question.

3) Do you assault or even kill the Landlord? He is threatening to put your family in a position of grave danger? If so how? Do you threaten him back? Can you threaten him? Do you have the ability to put 'the fear of god' into him? Do you have the ability to back up any threats you make? No really do you? If he comes back with armed men do you have the ability to resist? Are you willing to take the chance with your families safety you will be able to deal with him and others later, still keeping your family safe?

Do you assault or kill her now? Right now, when she has no back up? Is the situation so bad you need to end this threat right now to protect your family? Do you have the ability to killer her? Put your ego aside........ no really take an honest look at your life experience and skill set. Someone is at your door right now, can you kill them where they stand? I'll answer the question for you, no. Most people are not prepared for this kind of action. Nothing wrong with this! Most of us are not programed to be able to do this and not being able to easily kill another human is a GOOD THING! While your yelling at me insisting you could do this to protect your family I'll ask another question. You start to take action against the Landlord.... did you check to see if there are any witnesses to report your actions? If you kill the Landlord in the doorway are you going to get away with it? Are others going to come looking for her? Did you think about any of that before you thought of killing the Landlord in the doorway? Remember, life is more complicated than black and white answers.......

2) Leaving, could you? How would you pack up? Are you walking or driving? Where are you going? Can you get there in the situation the question is asked? Let's take the worst case and say you have to walk. Where is the closest place you could go? Are you and the family prepared to walk that far? No really (I keep repeating this on purpose)? Five miles to grandma's house is nothing in the car. Could you and the family make that walk carrying, pulling or pushing everything you could take from the house? What would you take from the house? When was the last time you walked a mile under weight?

1) Coming up with money or goods to pay the Landlord. Do you have money or goods on hand to do this? If you do this are you just delaying the time until your family is starving? Once you pay how too till they come back for more? If you pay are you letting them know or think they know you have enough to pay and have more inside? Do you have another way to pay? Are you skilled at negotiating or sweet talking your way out of things?

If you go into a situation with nothing you have greatly limited your options......

Take a moment and seriously consider your options in this situation. The situation does not have to be after an EMP, this can occur if someone loses their job tomorrow! Remember we are not just planning for the end of the world we are planning for everyday emergencies also!

At the end of the day I find myself really neutral about the deck of cards. I understand what they were trying to do and commend them for trying it! I feel some of the questions are to extreme. They lead people to much especially if people are new to preparedness. Will I be spending any more resources or time on this deck of cards, no.

I realize they have made other decks of cards with other questions. Maybe someone has read other decks? I would love to hear about what you thought about the other decks. As for me I can go without investing any more in these.

https://www.conflictedthegame.com


As always,

Stay Safe!!