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The Gray Man

I have always wanted to be an army spy or something cool like that. When I look at getting survival gear I am attracted to the tactical style. I think I look legit and it makes me feel invincible. There's only one problem. I look legit.

The problem with looking like a legit tactical expert is you will stand out from the crowd. You will appear to have the right and the best survival gear known to man. That means those who do not have any gear will come to you for yours. So how can we still be a tactical survival expert without standing out like a sore thumb?

Be the Gray Man

This is a survivalist term that means to blend in. Camouflage does not only mean wearing desert or woodland gear. According to thefreedictionary.com, Camouflage means "The concealing of personnel and equipment from an enemy by making them appear as part of the natural surroundings." This can mean a desert, a wooded area, or a crowd. How do you blend into a crowd? What camouflage is there for a crowd? Try to look like everyone else. That way when people scan the crowd their brain doesn't pick out your weird dress code. Why is that guy wearing so much woodland camo? Weird.

This is a tough thing to do. I find I really want to look cool and super prepped. The problem is I will walk around with a target on my back. So what can we do to accomplish becoming the gray man?

1. No logos. The number 1 goal is not only to blend in, but to not create stimulus in others. If you wear a Calgary flames hat it may also cause someone to want to strike up a conversation about the last game.

2. Use common sense. Being the Gray Man will be different depending on location. You will dress different if you are at a grocery store compared to a college campus or a church. Know the area you are going to and dress and act accordingly.

3. Know it will be difficult. Being the Gray Man. The point is to "not be there." Human nature says you want the attention. You want people to notice you. You want credit for something. Even if you successfully achieve being the Gray Man, you desire credit for it. You want to share your success with others. Being the Gray Man means going against that and not seeking attention or credit. It will be difficult.

4. It is a process. This is something that takes time. There's not point in waking up one morning deciding to be the Gray Man when you've shown everyone on your block your gun collection. When SHTF, they are running to your house for cover. It would have been better for you to simply disappear. No one really knew too much about you. And that's good.

5. Lastly, it is nearly impossible to achieve. That doesn't mean don't try. Just realize it is impossible to actually be invisible. But let's do our best to blend in. That way when the zombies come, we wont have to worry about other people trying to kill us as well.

Winterize your 72 Hour Kits

This is a good time of year to winterize our 72 hour kits. We like to think that when the SHTF it will be summer and in the middle of the day. It will probably happen on the coldest night of the year when we least expect it. We should be taking a few minutes to winterize our kits so we are ready for the new weather conditions of what ever area we are in.

Before I get to the list, I want to mention the one rule to rule them all! KNOW YOUR AREA!
Pack your kit for your area. My pack for Alberta, where we get lots of snow, will be different than a pack for parts of British Columbia where they get lots of rain. Pack accordingly!

Here are a few tips on how to winterize your pack.

1. Food
The food you have in your summer kit has been in your pack for probably 6 months. It should be cycled out either way. What you want to replace it with are foods that are high in calories, protein and fat. Nuts, beef jerky and peanut butter are great examples of high protein and high fat foods that can be store in a pack and are great at giving you the needed protein and fat to stay warm. Other ideas are instant oatmeal, soups in a package like lipton soups, energy bars, and trail mix.

2. Clothes
This is a very important one. For your winter months you will need more layers and accessories like gloves and hats. Make sure you switch these over because the last thing you want to do is be cold and not have a sweater or hat in your pack because your pack is still set up for summer. Also make sure you check the fabric of the clothes your packing. The last thing you want to pack into your winter bag is a pair of jeans. They get wet easily, hold onto water, and freeze. Good materials are wool, fleece, waterproof gear, polypropylene or hydrophobic materials. These fabrics are breathable, pull the water away from your body and help trap air. The trapped air will act as a great insulator keeping you warm.

One other point for clothes is your footwear. Make sure that your extra pair of shoes are winter ready. Change them for boots or add some gators to help keep the snow out of your shoes and keep your feet dry. 

3. Water
Don't forget your water. You can become very dehydrated in the winter weather. Just make sure when you pack it that it won't freeze, or if it does, it has room to do so. You don't want your bottles to burst when frozen and then thaw, leaking water onto all your gear.
Another option is to find water when your out in the wild instead of carrying it. One note on that though is DON'T EAT SNOW. Not as a source of water anyway. Your body burns too many calories turning snow into water and then into energy. You could always put snow into a pot and boil it.
Since you may be using the snow method of water, one thing you will definitely want in your winterized kit is water purification tablets. These should be in your kit already, but definitely make sure while your swapping out all your other gear. Nothing worse than getting sick while in the elements.

4. Fire
You will already have fire starters and such in your pack, but since it's now winter, you will want to double the amount of your fire supplies. Not only will you be needed fire to cook your food, you may need to make a fire just to stay warm. Make sure you have enough supplies to start multiple food fires as well as heat fires.

10 Rules for Prepping

1. Don't panic
Worst thing anyone can do is panic. When you panic you cloud your minds and you are no longer  able to make sound judgements. When it matters most, we may not be able to make the right decisions. The result could be devastating! Take a wrong turn, or give someone the wrong medicine and BOOM, dead.

2. Always know your surroundings.
Knowing the area will help us to know what places are good and what places we should avoid. Where are the main roads? Is there a water source somewhere? Knowing the area includes knowing the plants and animals of that area as well. This will help when we need to catch food or need to find plants for medicinal or other purposes. Do you know how to identify poison ivy or poison oak? Don't want to use those for the wrong reasons.

3. Rule of 3s
      3 minutes without air
      3 hours without shelter
      3 days without water
      3 weeks without food
      3 months without hope

This should help you decided what order to do things when you have to bug out to the woods. When you have limited resources, and time is working against you, what do you do first? According to the rule of three, build a shelter. 3 minutes without air should already be taken care of. If you have asthma, your bug-out bag(72 hour kit) should already have an inhaler in it. Unless you're drowning, air usually isn't a problem. Maybe we should all include a gas mask in our kits in case of nuclear warfare, or biological warfare. Generally though, first build a shelter, then find a good source of water, then make fire for food.

4. Two is One and One is None
Always have a back up. This doesn't mean you need two of everything, but the general rule when prepping is to think Two is One and One is None. If you can have two flashlights, then that is better then one. All it takes is for the batteries to die in one for you to now have no light source. That's no good.

5. Prepping should be a lifestyle
There are different stages of prepping. Some are way more into it than others, but it should be a life style. If it is not, we will not keep up with it. We will fall out of the habit of gardening or canning. We need to have a vision of becoming self reliant. Learn how to grow a garden, and then stop buying those vegetables. One thing we want to avoid when bugging out is being unfamiliar with our bag and supplies. If you set up your bag and then don't touch it for 3 years and then have an emergency, will you remember what you have in your bag? Will you remember where to meet and who to call? This should be something we are doing on a regular basis so when the emergency happens, we are familiar with the procedure and supplies.

6. Keep it simple
Complication creates fear. Keep things simple. Keep your bug out route and communication plans simple. Not only will it instill less fear, it will also make it easier to remember what to do, when to do it, and where to go.

7. Improvise
Have concrete plans, but set them in sand. That means you may have to change some of your plans as you go. Your plan is to exit the city via the main highway right next to your house. Your about to leave when you realize the military closed the highway to public use. Now what? You still want to get to your bug out location, but now you need to find a different route. Maybe you planned on having a very important person in your group, a mechanic maybe, but they died or can't get to your location. You should definitely have plans, but set them in sand. Expect to have to alter them as you go.

8. A little each day goes a long way
Many of us get overwhelmed when thinking of prepping. We look it up on google or youtube and see these experts with their underground bunkers and garages full of guns and think "Ha, ya right. There is no way I can afford to do all that." What we don't see is what they did on a daily basis to get where they are today. Starting small, and being consistent. That's the key. Pick something, and start there, and just be consistent. You will get there

9. Be discrete
There is a term going around in the prepper world called "the gray man." We all strive to be the gray man. Why? We don't want to look like we are extremely prepared. The main issue of a large catastrophe is other people are not prepared. That means they will want to take your resources. But if you can look just like them, then they wont think you have any more than they do. You would not last long if you walked around dressed like a combat specialist. People will attack you for your weapons and supplies. Try to look like the average joe, the gray man.

10. Have fun
Prepping can be fun. The more my wife and I get into it the more we love it. It was fun when we decided to make our own butter. We have only done it once, but it was enjoyable, and delicious. if this is going to become a lifestyle, we might as well enjoy it. 

A few points on 72 hour kits

A few points on 72 Hour kits.

Don't wait
Even if you don't have a nice tactical survival bag, get started on your 72 hour kit. Use any backpack you can find. If you can't find one, use a pillow case. Just use something to start putting items together for that 72 hour kit. 

Don't forget medication and vitamins!
I usually forget to grab my vitamins when I go on trips. Something that will make the 72 hours very uncomfortable is not having your allergy medication or prenatal vitamins.

Don't forget entertainment. 
Depending on where you have to spend your 72 hours and with who, a good idea is to have some cards for you and maybe some colouring books for the kids.

For those of you with pets, don't forget pet supplies. 
You may want a separate bag for your pet. If you have a dog and need to evacuate and head to a family members house that doesn't have a dog, what are they going to eat? What about any meds your pet has to take?

Change your contents so they are weather specific.
Every March-April remove your winter stuff and put in your summer things, and every October switch out the summer stuff of the winter gear.

Cycle your food. 
No food lasts for ever. Pick a schedule and replace the food in your bag with new stuff and eat the old stuff. If that idea makes you cringe a bit, then your leaving your food in the bag too long.

Test your bag!
Even if it is still while your at home, test your bag. Live off of only the contents of you kit. It would be best to go on a 3 day camping trip, but having small children can make that difficult. Testing your bag will show you how efficient it is. It will also show you what in your bag is taking up space. You may realize that you packed something that you thought was important, but you didn't use it once on your trip. If that's the case, get rid of it and put in the one thing you thought, "man, I wish I had that."

What points do you think everyone should remember?

Ward fanout

This Saturday we had a ward fan out. It was brilliant!

It was preparedness themed. The point was to feel extremely unprepared; It worked! Here is how it went.

At 9:20am we got a call from our district leader(someone that lives close to us) letting us know there was an "emergency" and we needed to grab the following:

72 hour kit
first aid kit from house
first aid kit from car
emergency car kit
jumper cables
flash light
go-book
picture of food storage
picture of water supply
picture of slippers with hard bottoms
picture of emergency contact list
picture of To-Do list(how to turn off utilities)
picture of evacuation ladder
picture of first aid cert.

Then we had to get to the church as soon as we could.

It took us 10 minutes to gather everything and head out the door. Granted, our kids had their shoes on already because we were expecting the call. We just didn't know what would be on the list. For the most part, I believe in a real emergency, if emergency personnel knock on your door they usually give you 10 minutes. So that should be the time to beat.

This exercise allowed us to see how easy it was to gather our emergency stuff and to see what was missing. Here is what we were lacking:

To-Do list.  We don't have a list pinned to the wall in our utility room letting us know how to turn our utilites off. It is super important. If someone knocked on your door and said "turn your utilites off and gather your things, you have 10 minutes to get out," would you know how to shut your water or your furnace off?

Evacuation ladder. We looked into getting one when we first moved in, but when we talked to the agency that helped us open a day home they said the fire marshal told them ladders were bad. Instead we are to break a window, throw a mattress out and throw our kids onto the mattress...yeah right. Like I'm going to throw my kids out the window.

Go-Book. We have a go-book, it's just not filled out. The purpose of the go-book is to store all your information. Banking info, mortgage and investment info, car and house insurance, copies of passports, drivers licenses and birth certs., pics of everyone in the family, all info you would need if you can't get back to your house.

Other than those few items we didn't have, we did pretty good. When my wife and I talked about it afterwards we felt we are also lacking in water supply and food storage. It's not up to where it should be. We need more of it. But it was good to see how an emergency evacuation would go. Once we got to the church, the lady that organized it went through our kits and gave us points on what we had and took points off for what we missed. Let's just say, overall, I'm glad it wasn't a real emergency. A lot of people showed up with very little.

I feel most of us are still co-dependent on others to provide for us. We are not taking this self-reliance thing seriously. We will not be able to just go to walmart or superstore and buy water the day of the emergency. The shelves will be bare from all the other people that weren't prepared.

Our take-away: We are not nearly prepared enough for a real emergency. We have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to go, which we will do, just one day at a time.

Our next goal: Have an "emergency situation" where we actually live off our 72 hour kits for 72 hours and see how we do. That should be an exciting 3 days!

How to winterize your home

Before I get to how to winterize your humble abode I wanted to give an update on the status of our family. We have added our third child to the family. Benjamin David Sinclaire. He was 20" long, and weighed 7lbs 11oz. 2lbs lighter than me when I was born. Both mommy and baby are home and doing well. It is still surreal for me to think we have another little one. Our family is growing so fast!

Ok, so onto how to winterize your home. With winter being here...for the most part, we should have already winterized our home. However if you're like me and procrastinate everything till the last second, your home is not yet winterized. So I have a list of 11 things that you can do to winterize your home and save on your energy bill.

1. Put a sweater on. First off I wanted to mention the one all our parents told us whenever we asked them to turn the heat up. "Put a sweater on!" This is the cheapest way to reduce the heating bill...unless you don't have any sweaters. In that case, you will need to go purchase a few. Apparently putting on a sweater can increase your body temperature by 4 degrees. So, if your home is at 18 degrees Celsius and you put a sweater on, it will feel like its 22 degrees. Nice!

2. Plastic on the windows. This will do a couple things for you. One thing is it will block any leaks you may have around your windows. The last thing you want to do is pay to heat the outside. The second thing plastic on the windows will do is insulate. It traps air between the widow and the plastic and can prevent more hot air from escaping.

3. Reverse ceiling fans. If you have a ceiling fan, there should be a reverse switch on it. What this will do is force the warm air down instead of up. When the warm air is forced back down, it can recirculate through the house.

4. Block any leaks. Take time to calk around windows and door frames. You can also get something called a "draft snake" to put under your door. According Kim Pressnail, associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto,  air leaks lead to 30-40% heating loss. That's huge! The price for calk and a couple draft snakes is definitely worth it.

5. Invest in a programmable thermostat. According to Pressnail, for every degree you lower your thermostat, you save 5% on your heating bill. With a programmable thermostat, you can tell it to reduce the temp by 4 or 5 degrees when you're not home. That way you're not paying as much to heat an empty house. Then at the time you get off work, your thermostat kicks back on so you can come home to a warm house...but not too warm, because you'll be wearing a sweater right?

6. Replace furnace air filters. Having dirty air filters can impede air flow through the house. Regularly cleaning or replacing the air filter can help make sure the heat you're using is being used to its fullest extent. We don't want to pay for heat that isn't able to circulate through your home!

7. Prepare a 72 Hour kit. Depending on where you live, ice storms can be the norm. Toronto and the east coast have had some terrible ice storms in the past years. Often these storms will cut power for a week at a time. Having a 72 hour kit will make that week without power a bit more comfy.

8. Have a food storage. Going along with #7, having food set aside in case you can't get out to the grocery store will be a life saver. Having a food storage may allow you to balance out your budget as well. Using your food storage in the winter will bring your grocery bill down while your heating bill is going up. When spring arrives, you can gradually build that food storage back up while your heating bill starts to go down.

9. Invest in a generator. When the power goes out, having a generator will allow you to run things like your fridge and deep freeze so your food doesn't spoil, saving you that grocery trip. It could also allow you to charge your car so you can get to work or wherever you need to go. You can also use it to run space heaters and the like to stay warm.

10. Close vents to rooms that are not inhabited. Rooms like a storage room or guest bedrooms shouldn't be heated all winter. Why pay to heat a room no one really visits? Open the vents when you have a guest staying, and then close them again when they leave. A simple way to reduce how much heat is being used in your home. Focus it on the rooms you are always in.

11. Check smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Winter sees an increase in home fires and CO leaks due to us running our furnaces on overdrive. Making sure smoke and CO detectors work can save homes and lives. Some alarm systems (like the one from Vivint) allow you to tie smoke and CO detectors into the system so that the alarm system can call the fire department for you. This is very beneficial when you are not home or able to get to a phone.

Do you have any other winterizing tips? Feel free to leave them in the comments.