Author: bvinson

The Basics: Food

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How can food be controversial as a necessity for survival? Well, it isn’t that we need food. Everyone agrees that we need food. The controversy comes in with its importance.

Many survival guides let you know that most emergency situations last less than three days and that the average human (absent a serious medical condition) can last far longer than three days without food. I don’t disagree. However, I don’t go shopping for an electric company every time I want to turn on a light switch. I want the electricity to be there when I need it. It is an imperfect metaphor, but there it is. When we are talking about personal readiness for an emergency situation, it seems somewhat foolish to concentrate only on the best case scenario. If we were to do that, we could skip preparedness all together.

The reason that food is discussed as the second ‘basic’ is primarily due to the expense and time related to food preparations. If you have unlimited funds, do what you will. For the rest of us, properly preparing for long term food storage is a significant expense and mistakes can represent an enormous waste of resources.

Cooking

The first thing you should work on – concurrently with building supplies – is learning to cook. If you don’t know how to take raw ingredients and turn them into a meal, your food preparedness journey will be somewhat longer and more costly. If you do know how, you’re better off and can either learn more or use your time to prepare for other eventualities.

Purchasing ingredients that can be stored so that you can make multiple types of meals will inject more variety into your meal plans and have a psychologically benefit effect. Generally ingredients are also less expensive and store longer than prepackaged foods and are more nutritious. Since the goal of food preparedness is less about have enough to eat and more about nourishing your body, a higher nutrient content will also lower the overall cost of food stocks.

Of course to cook you will need to have the ability to apply heat to food – and in a variety of methods (frying, backing, roasting, etc.).  If you have modern conveniences, this should be as easy as using a microwave or a kitchen stove/oven. If you want to be truly prepared, alternative cooking methods should also be explored such as open fire, Dutch oven, solar oven, smoking and grilling. These methods may be covered in more detail in future posts. In the meantime, consider taking a cooking class, or research basic cooking online and start developing or improving that skill.

Storing Food

Food storage has three main enemies: oxygen, temperature and time. If you regulate the first two, time becomes less important, but will always remain a factor.

Similar to cooking above, knowing how to preserve food on your own can dramatically reduce the expense of food preparations. Canning, curing, smoking, dehydrating and freezing are all viable methods to extent the storage time of food from (in some cases) hours to years. Similar to cooking, each of these skills deserve their own post (or series of posts), but they can be researched online or courses can be sought out – and are highly encouraged.

FEMA presents the following advice in their Food and Water in an Emergency pamphlet (https://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/f%26web.pdf) and should serve as a baseline in your storage / usage routine:

  • Keep food in a dry, cool spot—a dark area if possible.
  • Open food boxes and other resealable containers carefully so that you can close them tightly after each use.
  • Wrap perishable foods, such as cookies and crackers, in plastic bags and keep them in sealed containers.
  • Empty open packages of sugar, dried fruits, and nuts into screw-top jars or air-tight canisters for protection from pests.
  • Inspect all food for signs of spoilage before use.
  • Throw out canned goods that become swollen, dented, or corroded.
  • Use foods before they go bad, and replace them with fresh supplies, dated with ink or marker.
  • Place new items at the back of the storage area and older ones in front.

How Much to Store?

That is really the question, right? How much should be stored.

Unfortunately, that question isn’t as straight forward as it sounds. As is the answer to most thing, the answer is, ‘it depends’. It depends on the number of people your preparing for, any special dietary needs, the amount of time you are preparing for, whether you want to assist your community, whether you have children or elderly, and a host of other considerations. For these reasons, we’ll work from a baseline but caution you to remember that each person or group’s situation is unique, so customize your preparedness to your needs.

WEBMD provides the following estimated calorie requirement based on gender, age and activity level.  (https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/estimated-calorie-requirement) Let it serve as a guide for your optimal preparations:

GenderAge (years)SedentaryModerately ActiveActive
Child2-31,0001,000-1,4001,000-1,400
Female4-81,2001,400-1,6001,400-2,200
 9-131,6001,600-2,0001,800-2,200
 14-181,8002,0002,400
 19-302,0002,0002,400
 31-502,0002,0002,200
 51+1,8001,8002,000-2,200
Male4-81,4001,400-1,6001,600-2,000
 9-131,8001,800-2,2002,000-2,600
 14-182,2002,400-2,8002,800-3,200
 19-302,4002,400-2,6003,000
 31-502,2002,400-2,6002,800-3,000
 51+2,0002,200-2,4002,400-2,800
Estimated Caloric Requirements

Use the nutrition labels to determine calories per serving and add up the calories needed for your family or group.

Assuming a four-person family with the mother and father who work office jobs in their 30’s-40’s with late teen son and daughter who are in athletics, you would have the following caloric needs:

  • Father: 2,200
  • Mother: 2,000
  • Son: 2,600 (the mid range of moderately active – attending school reduces his overall activity level)
  • Daughter: 2,000 (moderately active – attending school reduces her overall activity level as well)

The family needs 8,800 calories per day under normal circumstances. In an emergency situation where they may have to be cutting trees, helping neighbors dig out of debris, walking long distances to collect water, etc. The caloric requirements go up almost 20% to 10,700 in order to maintain health and vigor. See the Tools page to help determine the caloric requirements for your group.

Now that you know your ideal daily consumption, begin developing a reserve that will accommodate that caloric level. Multiple the calories by as many days as you want to prepare for (three days is a good beginning goal and you can work up from there).

Strategic Consumption

You may have to come to grips that you just didn’t get moving quickly enough. If you have a situation where it looks like you will need to make your food last longer than you had anticipated, you will have to ration it. This means that you have to accept that you will be at less than peak performance in order to extend your overall survivability. In such a situation, have at least one full meal per day. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, and prioritize those who are required to perform strenuous labor for any additional calories.

In the event that you have food stored in a variety of methods, first consume perishable food from your refrigerator or perishable goods in your pantry. If you have a garden and items are ready to be picked, consume these as well before moving to the next stage.

Next consume items in the freezer. Try not to get into the freezer needlessly so that items stay as cold as possible for as long as possible – especially if electricity goes out.

Finally, consume your shelf stable items. The goal is to make the most food possible last for as long as possible.

Keeping Stocks

Find the foods you already eat, buy ‘extra’ as you grocery shop. This could be an extra meal per shopping trip or even just one package of something that you can put back if you are on a very tight budget. Whatever it is you do to generate extra (gardening and canning? extra shopping? hunting?), be sure to keep it as extra and not to consume it as part of your normal usage.

Keeping extra is best if you establish a minimum stock level – such as you’ll always keep three cans of corn on reserve. Then rotate through it. Buy that fourth can and place it at the back of the shelf and use the oldest can you have. This keeps your reserves stocked while making sure that you have the longest shelf life possible.

Since this is the basics, we won’t discuss macronutrients or micronutrients, though these should be understood if you are developing a strategy for longer than a couple of weeks. Go ahead and add a multivitamin and some electrolyte drink mixes to your stocks.

At this point, we also caution against purchasing Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) or prepackaged survival foods. Since this is a post on the basics, we won’t go into a lot of details, but generally speaking though they are convenient, they are expensive, may not last as long as one would suspect, and may have questionable nutritional trade offs. Stick with store bought, rotated supplies for at-home use and you will be able to quickly accumulate more food for less money.

The Basics: Water

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Water is essential. It is a requirement for human life as well as a major contributor to hygiene and sanitation. It would be difficult to say that anyone ‘has enough water’ when it can be used for so many purposes and is needed in significant quantities daily. Because of this essential quality it will be the first of The Basics being covered.

There are two main considerations for water: fit for use and volume. Let’s discuss these in detail.

Fit for Use

Water is versatile. It can be used for a variety of things, but it really comes down to two main classifications: potable and non-potable.

Potable water, also known as drinking water, is what we most often think of because it is the most obvious use of water. It is what sustains life. We need a certain amount of water daily to maintain life and this amount changes due to environmental factors, which will be discussed later.

Potable water is generally taken for granted in the Western world – and it should be as freely available as it is. However, since we generally take it for granted, we often overlook the infrastructure necessary to maintain this resource.

Water is captured from natural (or reclaimed) sources and shipped to a treatment facility. That treatment facility relies on a modern infrastructure to get the power and supplies needed to clean the water. Even more infrastructure in the form of people, plants and vehicles are required to deliver the water through unseen miles of pipes.

It wouldn’t take much to disrupt this system and it is a miracle on modern life that it isn’t disrupted more often.

When the system is disrupted, or when untreated water is encountered, it is considered non-potable. This is water found in puddles on the street, in most wild sources such as streams and lakes, or even in backyard swimming pools. This water can contain contaminants which make it unsafe to consume.

Unless you expressly know that water has been made safe to drink it should be considered non-potable.

Non-potable water still has plenty of uses. For the most part it can be used to water livestock, especially if it is from a running source (as opposed to a stagnant pond). It can generally be used to water a garden or crops as long as it is not suspected of being contaminated with harmful substances that can be absorbed through the plants and passed on to you. If potable resources are very limited, non-potable water can even be used for the first round of washing dishes as long as clean water is used for the final rinse.

Discussing the limit of resources brings us to the other consideration.

Volume

By volume, we mean that we must ensure that we have enough water for the intended purpose. Since we generally don’t store non-potable water for household use, the conversation will focus primarily on potable water. Making non-potable water potable will be covered in another post.

You will find many guidelines that state you need x amount of water stored per person. If we were all the same, doing the same things and living in the same environments, that kind of guidance may be helpful. Unfortunately things are always that cut-and-dry – especially in an emergency situation.

For all intents and purposes, if you have the ability to store water, store it. Store as much as you reasonably can. As a minimum, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends three days of water for each member of the household. They have also released a guideline of storing one gallon of potable water per person per day. Based on their literature, that recommendation covers basic hygiene needs as well as greater than normal consumption for “[p]eople in hot environments, children, nursing mothers, and ill people”. They suggest having three days worth of water for each member of the household.

While this is a great place to start, it appears to come with an underlying assumption that such people are relatively inactive, potentially in a temperature controlled environment and/or know techniques for conservation of water resources. As someone experienced with working outside in Texas heat and rock climbing in an Arizona summer, I can say that one gallon of water per day used for drinking, cooking and cleaning will likely leave you dehydrated.

Dehydration has a number of negative impacts on the human body – up to and including death. So you can use the FEMA recommendation as a baseline. However, in order to try to make our recommendation apply to a broader range of situations, we at PREP Academy suggest having a little more water on hand and there is some variability to it.

In order to ensure that you have all the water resources needed, we recommend the following:

If there are three or more people in your group, store two gallons per person for each day of preparedness. If there are less than three people in your group, store three gallons per person per day. This should cover water for hydration as well as for hygiene and cooking purposes.

The underlying assumption is that in an emergency situation, you will be more active than normal. Not only will this increase your water needs, such activity will cause heavier, more frequent breathing and result in the sensation of thirst more often. Having a little additional water will help with both the physical and psychological aspect of quenching that thirst.

Also, when water is shared across multiple people the proportion can be somewhat reduced. Washing dishes for one person or four people takes about the same volume of water so a single person needs to storage a larger proportion of water.

As a side note, remember that your pets also need water, so include them in your plans.

As far as how many days of preparedness you will need, that mostly comes down to personal preference – and is confined somewhat by the area you have to store water. FEMA recommends three days. The majority of federal responses result in responders being onsite and active within three days, so the recommendation accommodates that time frame. However, some responses take longer and the further you are away from  a metropolitan area (where the bulk of the resources are focused), the more of a delay you may have in receiving aid – if it is coming. A week of storage would not be out of the question. Take into consideration though, water is heavy and bulky. Even a week (7 days) of water for a family of four (2 gallons per person, 4 people) ends up being around a 55 gallon barrel in volume. That equates to over 450 pounds of water. So do what you can, but realize that water requires substantial space.

Finally, if you have excess water, you may also have the ability to help others in need. While we should all have plenty to help ourselves get through hardship, we should also be good members of our communities and help those in need where we can.

We’ll circle back around to other aspects of water in later posts, but this should give you enough to start you in the right direction.

Best Laid Plans

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The intent of this site is to help visitors to develop the skills necessary to build their future. Following the proverb of teaching a person to fish rather than giving the person a fish, the intention was never to give a list of To-Do items that everyone MUST do. Everyone’s situation is a bit different. Therefore, it is important that we all make plans and take the actions specific and unique to our specific and unique situation.

So the goal was more to teach from the ground up – how to plan, how to develop the plan into a strategy, then how to develop the tactics to implement that strategy and finally how to implement those tactics.

That was the plan – and we’ll get back to that. However, as was observed by Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of Staff for the Prussian army (and often repeated and paraphrased by others), “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”

Contact

And we have made contact with the enemy. We have a pandemic. We have social unrest. We have riots. We have growing voices to turn away from lawful society. We have true threats to the United States form of government, which – for better or worse – has been stabilizing factor globally both in terms of economic and military stability for the better part of a century.

So now that we’ve made contact, we must adapt our plans to meet the reality of the situation.

That’s the most important part of planning – not generating a final, fool-proof document of steps that is executed regardless of the changing situation, but going through the process of planning so you know the options and likely consequences laid out ahead of you.

For the moment, we’re going to take a slightly different approach. Rather than giving a man a fish or teaching a man to fish, we intend to feed the man while he learns to fish.

So we’ll move forward with developing training courses and reference libraries as always intended, but we’ll also be supplying some generic, commonly needed guidance for those who are starting from scratch but need to take effective action beginning today.

Call to Action

Be sure to check the Recent Posts to get the information you will need to start (or validate your plans for) your personal preparedness journey.

How Do I Stock Up?

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Getting Started

I was asked a variant of this question the other day, but it can take on many forms:

  • How do I start getting my pantry ready for uncertain times?
  • What food do I need to get?
  • What should I put aside?

They are all similar questions and the answer boils down to ‘it depends’. So let’s discuss some of the things it depends upon.

Considerations for Stocking Up

As in most things, your two top considerations are time and resources.

It is much easier to stock up if you start well before a period of uncertainty starts. The more time you give yourself, the more options you will have.

For instance, if you can grow a garden and can preserve the rewards of your harvest, you can stock up relatively inexpensively, but it is at a great cost in time.

On the other hand, if you’ve waited until the hard times begin, then you’ve given yourself no time to find good deals or alternative sources for necessary products or food. This will almost certainly mean that anything you can find will be higher priced and you may face an issue of limited to no availability – take the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even outside of international disasters, the more time you have to prepare the better your options will be. For instance, investing in a savings account – with compounding interest – when you’re young is much better than trying to squirrel away all you can save beginning five years before your retire.

So What do I Need?

It is difficult to tell you specifically what you need. What I can tell you is that you already know and you have a pretty good idea of how much you need.

You know what you and your family like to eat – and what you don’t like. So it would be useless for me to tell you to get 4 (or 400) cans of corn. If your family can’t stand corn that would be more wasteful than buying junk food or candy – because if you followed that advice, you wouldn’t have the resources for what you truly need.

The first step in determining what you need is to look at what you currently use.

If you eat canned corn, get canned corn. If you don’t know how to cook and normally buy frozen dinners, get frozen dinners (then learn to cook and start eating real food). If you need a good starting place, check out the Tools page on this site for exactly that kind of guidance.

Where you may run afoul is with protein. In the modern Western world, we eat a lot of protein – usually in the form of meat. If a meal just isn’t a meal without a chunk of animal on your plate (such as is the case for me), then stocking up on animal protein may be a little outside the norm.

Having meat in store-bought products (such as canned stews or chili) is one way to go about it, as is purchasing canned meat such as SPAM, corned beef, canned chicken and canned fish. Another avenue for those with the skills, or who are willing to learn the skills, is to home can meat. Purchasing meat from the grocer or butcher and taking it home to can means you do not need a freezer.

Where Do I Put it All?

Freezer space brings up another question, where do you store your food? Again, it depends on what you have.

Cool, dark places are best. Even canned food last longer in cool places than in warm or unregulated places.  If you have a basement, that is probably a good place to consider. For those without basements, a dedicated pantry would be nice, but is may already be filled with your daily-use items. So consider under the bed, on closet floors, or in dedicated storage cabinets specifically for your stored food.

Wherever you decide, make sure that it is accessible. You want to ensure that you can get to what you need and you also need to ensure that you can view it for inventory purposes so you know when you need to restock – or so that you don’t forget you already have twenty cans of pickled herrings and don’t need to get any more.

Let’s Look at Your Window

Once you know what you need and where you’re going to put it, and assuming you have time, with what you know and build.

Determine your window so you can determine your stock level. Your window is the amount of time that you want to accommodate. If you’re unsure – and especially if you are on a tight budget – start with a relatively small window – such as one week. That may seem very short, but the most recent study I could find (from 2012) related that approximately 53% of Americans do not have three-days worth of food in their homes. In other countries, where smaller refrigerators and daily trips to the local grocers are more the norm, it is likely even less. So for many people, a full week supply could be considered aspirational. If you already have a week, great for you, choose another time frame such as a month or three months. Build toward that goal as resources allow.

When you go to the grocery, get a little extra. It may be that you get the five-pound bag a shredded cheese and split it into smaller bags that you store in the freezer. Perhaps you get three cans of vegetables rather than just two – then set the extra to the side. Try to find the ‘extra’ items when they are on sale or have coupons so that you have more resources to continue your plans.

The trick is that the ‘extra’ you bought should not be consumed as a part of your regular diet. Remember you decided on a stock level, right? These extras go into stock. If you eat your two cans, go get two more cans (or three, if it supports your stock level) until you have reached your stock level. Then begin rotating.

What’s This with Rotating?

Rotating stock is the best way to make sure your pantry has the best, freshest food available at any given time. When you purchase items for stock, add them to the back of your shelves (/freezer/pantry). Use from the front, but replenish from the back.

When you use something from stock (which means you’ve already used your daily-use items), you replenish to get back to the stock level you determine earlier.

For example, let’s go back to that canned corn. Let’s say you keep two in your pantry have a stock level of six. Since you have two in daily-use, you will have four in storage. You use one from the pantry. You add that one can of corn to the grocery list and replenish. That new can goes to the back of storage and the one on the front of the shelf in storage goes to the back of the shelf in the pantry.

You’ve just successfully rotated your stock.

Is there More to It?

There is always more to it, but that doesn’t it has to be difficult. Food is just one item. What about your hygiene products (toothpaste, shampoo, paper towels, soap and yes, toilet paper)?

Are you on dietary restrictions? If so, make sure that what you are stocking accommodates those restrictions.

Do you take prescription medications? Try to find a way to develop a safe supply that you can fall back on if needed – always rotate prescriptions to ensure are taking the freshest possible medications.

Do you have fuel stored? I once lived in a small town where the single long-distance internet cable coming into town was damaged. Gas stations no longer had the ability to take payments and had to shut down. Having an extra 5 gallon can in the storage shed in the backyard, or making sure you never drop below a half tank (which is a variation on the stock level / rotation strategy) can make sure you’re able to get to work, or gat out of town if needed.

Wrapping it Up

In the end, it is more important to do something than nothing, as long as that ‘something’ is not a waste of resources (remembering that time is a resource). So whatever you choose to do is a good first step. Just keep taking those steps and you’ll soon find yourself well down the path to preparedness.

Where is Your S.A.F.E place?

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Today we’re making the leap from planning to preparedness.  Buckle in.  I’ll try to make this as pain-free as possible.

Start Where You Area

One of the easiest ways to prepare is to start where you are – literally – and determine where to go from there. This method is great for those who are trying to prepare their family and may be facing some reluctance.

Even without knowing what situation you will face – and we will discuss how to plan for specific situations elsewhere – you can begin some basic planning.

Talk to whoever you live with and just decide on a meeting place if something happens. If you don’t live with anyone, talk to friends or family members or neighbors about how to contact one another if an emergency situation arises.  Make a suggestion – something like, “Hey, if we have a fire or something and have to get out of the house, let’s meet out by the mailbox.”

We were taught this behavior from childhood when we had fire drills at school.  We all had an assigned space to go to so the teachers could get a head count.  In most workplaces this behavior has carried over. There is nothing wrong with carrying this through to a behavior in the house.

Step Forward

Now you can progressively increase the distance away from the house.  You might even be able to fit it in with the conversation about your house meeting spot.

“Hey, if we have a fire or something and have to leave the house, let’s meet up by the mailbox.  If it is a big situation, and we can’t get to the house, let’s meet at Mikey D’s around the corner.  While we’re at it, if it is something like a gas leak where we can’t even get that close, let’s meet the gazebo in the town square.  I don’t think we’ll ever need to do it, but at least we’ll be able to find one another if we do.”

Of course cell phones and other forms of communication may be up and working but this very primitive method of establishing a gathering point should not be neglected just in case our modern conveniences are not working.  It will be at a time like this, more than ever, that we’ll need the comfort of knowing where our loved ones are.

A S.A.F.E. Place

Make the meet point be a SAFE place.

This is an acronym for Specific, Accessible, Far enough, and Effective.

Make it Specific.  Notice we’re getting together at Mc Donald’s not just ‘around the corner’.  “Around the corner” is too general and we might not find one another.

Make it Accessible.  If you choose a building, or even a restaurant, make it one that is open 24/7/365.  You don’t want to say to meet up on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.  The lines are long at the best of times and it could take hours to get there – plus you have to pay to get in and there are times during the year or at night when it is closed and simply not accessible.  Much better to meet on the street outside the Empire State Building.

Make the place Far Enough away from the suspected source of danger.  If you have a mailbox on the side of your house rather than on the road, you probably don’t want to meet at the mail box.  You’ll probably want to get together where your driveway meets the road or across the parking lot at the Dumpster if you live in apartments.  If you think there may be a gas leak in your neighborhood you don’t want to try to gather at the neighbor’s house…it probably won’t be far enough away.  But only you can decided specifically where to meet.  Just make sure it fits with your suspected need.

Finally, make it Evident.  Some people may disagree with this and even I disagree with it in certain circumstances.  In general though, if you are just faced with a normal inconvenience, make it in an evident place.  Make it so that you can see one another, even from a distance.  You don’t want to meet up crouched behind some bushes or in the Dumpster, you want to be able to see that your loved one is safe from a distance and you want them to be able to see you approaching.  This greatly increases morale and enhances the likelihood that you’ll actually find one another.

As an aside – if we go in to a End of the World as We Know it / Without Rule of Law situation, I would invert that “evident” element and make sure that you cannot be seen unless someone is specifically looking for you…so the specific element of the SAFE acronym will become even more important.

Also, make sure that the area makes sense for your needs.  The Empire State Building, corner of E 33rd and 5th would be an excellent place to gather – just not for me.  I live over 2,000 miles away.  It would be totally impractical for me to set this as a meet point.  Unless you live on Manhattan Island, the south side specifically, it would probably be impractical for you too.

Move Forward

So this is it!  You’re on your way to implementing a plan…and if you have reluctant participants you have started the process in a very non-confrontational manner.  Now you can start building upon this foundation.

So, now that we know where to meet, what should we bring to the meeting?

Of that stuff, what do we need to know how to use if we don’t already know how to use it?

Where do we go once we’ve met up?

What will we need for that?

See, all these questions build upon one another and again, it is done in a non-confrontational manner in order to ease others along as painlessly as possible.

All these other questions, and even how to open frank discussions with others about preparedness, will be covered in future discussions.

Until then, I’ll let you get back to your day.  Thanks for joining me.

Reusable Mask Safety

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Disposable masks are preferred. If you have a supply of disposable masks, use them and discard after use. However, since they are in short supply, use these tips if you have a reusable mask:

  • Know which side in the ‘inside’ (toward your face) and which is the ‘outside’ (toward others).
  • Use the elastic bands or ties to tightly secure the mask to your face before entering a public area. The mask should cover your mouth and nose entirely.
  • Remove the mask as soon as you have left the area of concern (public areas, doctor’s office, etc.) by using the elastic or ties. Try not to touch the mask itself.
  • Touch your face or head as little as possible while removing.
  • Use a plastic bag (grocery or trash bag) to contain the mask until it can be laundered.
  • Immediately clean your hands (soap and water is preferable, hand sanitizer if washing is not feasible).
  • Dump the mask directly from the bag to the washing machine (or sink if hand-laundering) to wash.
  • Dispose of the bag in the trash. We normally recycle bags, but these will be disposed of to reduce the risk of contamination to recycling processors.

If you are entering and leaving multiple public environments in one trip, try to use a different mask each time. If you do not have enough masks to do this, untie the top of the mask so it hangs down with the ‘outside’ touching your skin. Be careful not to touch or allow anything else to touch the ‘inside’ of the mask.

For an extra layer of protection, fold two facial tissues together and insert into the mask pocket or place between the mask and your face. This provides and extra layer of filtration. It is not equal to the filtration of a commercially produced respirator mask, but every little bit helps. Discard the tissues prior to laundering the mask and wash your hands immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Will using a surgical mask-style mask protect like a commercial N95 mask?

A: No. Even the best made commercial masks have gaps around the edges. However, they do offer some protection, so they are better than going without.

Q: How often should I wash the reusable mask?

A: After each use. If you are using the mask, you are assuming that you are entering a potentially contaminated environment, so you should assume the mask is contaminated with each use.

Q: Viruses are so small, can’t they just slip between the fibers in the mask?

A: Yes and no. Individual viruses are small enough to slip between the fibers of the mask. Multiple layers of material will, therefore, provide more protection. More importantly, viruses are generally carried on droplets from coughing or sneezing. These droplets are large enough to be caught by the mask. That is why you want to remove the mask as soon as you reasonably can – before the carrier droplets dry out and release the viruses they are transporting.

Coronavirus: Now What

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[This message was originally sent by email 3/20/2020 to select group of friends and family – prior to the creation of this site.]

So the last week was full of all kinds of stuff. I was busy with getting my workplace situated so I barely had time to keep up with what was going in, much less offer anything of value to you guys. Hopefully you’re all doing well – or as well as can be expected during this type of situation.
I know that many people rushed the stores when they found they were going to shut away for a while. Often it was found that our standard go-to items were gone and in many cases substitutions were made. I have found it interesting to note how many people bought dry beans but, based on social media accounts, seem to have no idea what to do with them. So let me offer on of my favorite, easy-to-prepare recipes in case you know someone in that situation.
This one is for a slow cooker (Crockpot), but if you use a regular pot on medium low on your stove top, you should be good as well. The key is to not cook them too fast – a high simmer to low boil is where you want to be.
Ingredients: 1 pound dried pinto beans (2 1/2 cups), rinsed and picked over to remove any rocks 7 1/2 cups of water Crushed red pepper (to taste, I use 1/2 teaspoon but 1 teaspoon will spice it up quite a bit) 1 teaspoon salt Black pepper (to taste, I use about 1/2 teaspoon)
Put everything but the salt in the slow cooker and stir. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours and add the salt. Continue to cook until the beans are tender but not falling apart (7 to 9 hours total). You can add the salt initially, but that generally results on tougher beans that may take longer to cook. Turn off the slow cooker or remove from heat about an hour before serving, which will allow the beans to soak up more water and become more tender.

I like to add meat as well, because I’m a carnivore. Not only that, but it releases some fats into the beans, which releases some of the fat-soluble flavors to be released. I like something smoked like ham or turkey for the extra flavor. If you add turkey (a leg or wing), add about a tablespoon of butter for the extra fat. Throw it in at the beginning and it will be tender by the time the beans are done.
If you add beans to rice, it gives all the amino acids necessary to be considered a complete protein.
If someone you know bought some flour – hopefully they have yeast as well. If so, here is an easy bread recipe:
I call it Lazy-Man’s Bread 4 cups All-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast 1 tablespoon salt 2 cups warm water
Add yeast to water and stir to blend. Add salt to flour and stir to blend. Add yeast water to flour mixture. Stir to blend (30-60 seconds) Put in a bowl and cover until dough doubles in size (8-12 hours) Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes (or until done – such as when a toothpick can be poked in and comes out clean) Let cool before slicing.
Remember to stay as active as possible. Most places still allow you to walk / hike / or bike as long as you maintain social distance.

Coronavirus Preparedness

bvinsonLeave a comment

[This message was originally sent by email 3/15/2020 to select group of friends and family – prior to the creation of this site.]

I definitely never thought I’d send three updates in a week, but since this is Sunday, I guess it is the beginning of a new week so we’re all good.
Let me start by stating definitively that I believe the average person in the US has little to worry about with the actual COVID-19 illness. We may  have something to worry about in the reactions of other people though. The media is always looking for eyeballs and there is nothing like an emergency to get people to watch TV. Politicians are looking to get reelected, so they are always looking to be seen ‘doing something’ even if it turns out not to be the right thing. Then there are those around us who simply take in what the media and politicians say and let it play upon the reactive, primitive portions of their brains rather than processing it with the more intellectual portion. When we get enough of that happening, issues arise.
Real quick, why do I say that the average person in the US has little to worry about? Here we go:

  • About half of those infected are from mainland China.
  • Over half of the deaths are from mainland China.
  • Italy is being held up as why we in the West should freak out but Italy had the oldest average population in Europe which leads us to
  • The average age of those who have died is 80 – yes, that is the average age, meaning the trend is that people well over 80 are heavily impacted in order to offset those under 80
  • Based on the last report I saw (on Friday), no one under 18 has perished from COVID-19
  • Many who have perished live in third-world conditions where easy access to over the counter medication and appropriate hygiene (soap, clean water) is not easily accessible
  • We have a high degree of awareness the illness is out there and are being advised to exercise extra precautions

Ok, so moving on. Part of the psychology of an emergency is that people recognize that there is something impacting them that they cannot control. To compensate they will often try to control some other aspect of their life – whether or not it really makes sense. I think this is a major contributor to the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. It is also part of the idiosyncrasies of people who have survived trauma.

Now that the toilet paper (disinfecting wipes, paper towels, bottled water, diapers, etc.) is virtually gone but the stress persists, I believe that those who feel they need to exercise control will move on to another item. Just guessing, but right now since gas has dropped to an affordable price, it would not surprise me if it was the next commodity to be hit. This may be offset by potential quarantines (if you can’t go anywhere you probably don’t need gas), but since this ‘syndrome’ is not necessarily logic-based, I still think there is a high likelihood that gas will be impacted. Also, a quarantine in one area can create a shortage in another – an indirect impact.

I suggest you fill your vehicle and don’t let it drop below half a tank before filling again – just so you know that you can continue to get to work or go shopping if you are not impacted by a quarantine. Note, I am not saying you should *stockpile* gas, only that you get enough that you are not inconvenienced if it is the next ‘comfort blanket’. (Some cities have ordinances concerning the amount of gas you can store and where you can store it and, generally speaking, ordinances are usually imposed because something tragic happened.)

I live in a small town, yet close to a major metro area. I try to do my normal work week purchases (gas and lunches) with cash – it helps with budgeting and reduces the possibility of identity theft. So I stopped by the bank where I normally make my withdrawals and it was out of cash in the ATM. I went by another close-by bank – in town – and it was also out of cash. Finally I went to a bank on the outskirts of town and it still had cash in the ATM. If you use cash in your normal daily transactions, please be aware that this could be another target for those seeking some control in their lives. So I suggest that you pull a reasonable amount of cash.
Finally, if we have a major quarantine initiated, there could be slight interruptions to the banking system. Banks require people to keep things running smoothly and minor irritations when a full workforce can be applied to the issue is one thing, but can turn into a major interruption when the workforce is isolated from their normal working conditions. If something like that happens, having a little cash in pocket for emergency expenses wouldn’t be a bad thing. Remember we’re part of a national and international community. Even if you are not directly impacted by a quarantine, you can be indirectly impacted.


So, happy Sunday all. We will get through this. A little preparedness can just make the difference between getting through and struggling through.

Coronavirus Update 2

bvinsonLeave a comment

[This message was originally sent by email 3/12/2020 to select group of friends and family – prior to the creation of this site.]

When I sent out the first update I thought I might send one weekly, potentially monthly – as needed. I never thought I would send more than one in a week.

Things are moving quickly though, so here it is, the second one this week. Sorry this one is so long. If you already trust my opinion, you can skip the Intro part and go right down to the Preparation section and save yourself some reading.

Intro

I’ve heard from at least three people that they are forwarding on to others. That’s great. Please continue to send to those who you believe will benefit. It did make me think, however, that for some who read this I am just some random voice in the wind. So, I thought it would be good to let you know something about my background. There are probably even family and friends who don’t know some of this.

I used to be the IT Officer for the American Red Cross. That means that I had oversight of the technology used by the ~120 chapters of the American Red Cross in Texas and the states that border Texas. As part of that job I developed business continuity planning for the chapters and a program that the chapters could use to provide business continuity planning to businesses in their local areas. (‘Business continuity’ means the processes business uses to try to reduce the impact of a disaster situation and stay in business when they are impacted. It is a close relative of, but different from disaster response.)

Beyond the Red Cross, I have over 40 emergency preparedness certificates for coursework completed through the Texas A&M Engineering Extension office. I also hold a Certified Business Continuity Professional certification from the Department of Homeland Security /FEMA – the second-highest level of certification offered by FEMA for business continuity. Since then I have also consulted, researched, planned and implemented emergency response practices.

There is more, but if Red Cross experience and FEMA certifications doesn’t give a little confidence, the rest won’t be worth the time to write or read.

Now for the core of why I’m sending this update: the current situation.

Preparation

For all practical purposes, the COVID-19 coronavirus is here. So while we should continue taking practical precautions to avoid getting it, we should also assume that the likelihood of being exposed is at least equal to the likelihood of not being exposed. It is time, therefore, to prepare for what we would do if exposed.

I’m not medically trained, but I’ve been doing a lot of research and these are the tips I’ve gathered from the US CDC and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control as well as other knowledgeable sources. These tips are not a substitution for consultation with a trained medical professional. If you have specific medical questions, talk to your professional medical provider.

  • Prevention. Though most of the guidance is what to do once you have symptoms, still stay vigilant to preventative measures. The CDC has a nice  sign for that: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/stop-the-spread-of-germs.pdf
  • Acquire what you’ll. The vast majority of people recover at home without hospitalization or major medical care, so ensure that you have what you need at home.
    • Acquire over the counter decongestants and expectorants. The majority of deaths from this virus are respiratory related, so make sure you have enough medical to treat member of your household for approximately 2 weeks. Don’t over buy – allowing others to be protected and recover helps you too.
    • If you are at high risk (elderly, compromised respiratory system, diabetes, heart conditions) and are on prescription medications, talk to your doctor about getting an extra supply now so that you do not need to go in public if there is an outbreak in your area. Also consider mail order prescription services.
    • Use acetaminophen (Tylenol) and ibuprofen (Advil) for fever maintenance – if you can use these medications. Following dosing instructions on the bottle or as guided by a medical professional. Do not use aspirin for fever management. If you don’t have enough of these products to treat yourself and your household for a week, consider getting more.
  • Isolate. The less exposure you have to others before you’re ill the less likely you will be to catch it. The less exposure you have to others if you get it, the less likely you are to pass it along.
    • If you feel symptomatic, do not immediately go to your doctor’s office. Call them and see if they have protocols for seeing suspected coronavirus cases. If you can’t get through to the doctor immediately, treat your symptoms with over the counter medication and continue trying to call.
    • Don’t go to the emergency room for these symptoms unless you would go there with the same symptoms when the coronavirus was not a consideration. You don’t want to be needlessly exposed to this, or any other illness and you don’t want to take up medical resources that may be needed to treat more severe cases. If you are a severe case, call ahead and do what you need to do.
    • If you must circulate in public, especially in areas where people may be ill (hospitals, doctor’s offices, pharmacies, or mega-marts with health clinics and/or pharmacies), avoid close contact. Close contact is considered to be within six feet of those displaying symptoms. You should be able to stretch out your arm, and they stretch out theirs, and not touch.

Perspective

Let me reiterate that this is a serious condition and should be taken seriously, however, the coverage of this illness is completely (in my opinion) out of scale with the level if threat. In fact, again in my opinion, the hype around this illness may be more dangerous than the illness itself. People overreacting may be causing even more dangerous situations – such as unnecessary depletion of necessary treatment items so those who need them can’t get them. This is why I recommend that we steadily prepare even during ‘good times’ so we have what we need during ‘bad times’ and aren’t a burden on the system when others are in dire need.

The flu is still a much more deadly potential illness than coronavirus. I’ve heard people say, ‘but we have a vaccine for the flu’ as if that changes anything. According to the CDC, on an annual basis the flu vaccine is between 50-60% effective, and down to as little as 16% in adults (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/effectivenessqa.htm). So assuming even the highest level of effectiveness (60%), with the lowest incidence of infection (3%) and the US population (327M) we’re still talking about more than 100 times the infections in the average year just in the US as compared to what coronavirus has caused globally.

Of course, it could get worse. For the moment this appears manageable. The best way to keep it manageable is to practice good preventative measures and stay as healthy as you can.

Coronavirus Update

bvinsonLeave a comment

[This message was originally sent by email 3/10/2020 to select group of friends and family – prior to the creation of this site.]

There is a bit of new information out there, so I thought a new update would be prudent. If nothing else, please see the CDC guidance links below.
Again, this appears to be a contagious illness with a moderate mortality rate (~3% for known cases) – but it is most dangerous to those in the high risk category (see below). 
For those of you who don’t know – or don’t remember – keeping track of this kind of thing and building appropriate plans to respond used to be in my job description. It was part of business continuity planning and that was a primary consideration while I was at Red Cross (and continued at TRC). From my estimation, we have much more to worry about from the reaction of others than we do from the virus itself. With that in mind, here is the rest of the update.

  • New cases in China seem to be slowing.
  • Where there have been outbreaks in the rest of the world, the outbreaks do not seem as big or as deadly as China – with the possible exceptions of Italy and Iran
  • Italy has closed its borders in an attempt to control the spread
  • Israel has imposed a quarantine on new arrivals
  • Iran has the third-highest incidence, behind China and Italy
  • New York is isolating a ‘containment zone’ around much of New Rochelle

The CDC has issued new guidance, especially for those who are particularly susceptible: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html

The CDC defines those at higher risk as older adults, people with serious, chronic conditions (such as heart disease, diabetes and lung disease). Those most susceptible seem to be those over 80 years of age. There is a significant reduction in mortality for each age group under 80. I know some on this list are in that vicinity, so please open the link above and familiarize yourself with the guidance.
Also, the CDC has issued a group of graphics for a quick reference for work, school and home: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/workplace-school-and-home-guidance.pdf

I encourage you to read the full package, but in a nutshell:

  • Practice good hygiene
  • Be careful with travel or large group meetings
  • Practice good food handling techniques
  • Stay away from others if you are sick

I hope those of you who wanted disinfecting wipes were able to get them. I went to Wal-Mart on the way home yesterday and the Wet Ones and Clorox wipes areas were completely empty. Toilet paper and bottled water were fairly well picked over too.
Even if you are not directly impacted by the virus, you still may want to pick up enough toilet paper to last a couple of weeks (or more), if you can – just sayin’.