New user from West-Central Arkansas

[HillbillyRedneck]

Hey everyone! I am actually not sure how I am just now signing up here, but I have been into prepping off and on over the years, but more recently I am trying to REALLY prep as best I can for my family.

I live near the north end of the Ouachita National Forest, and am about a half an hour from the South end of the Ozark National Forest.

My main current concerns are preparing for more natural disasters/events like ice storms (which can sometimes knock power out all around for weeks), tornadoes, and such. With Arkansas, and especially my part of Arkansas being rural and completely Red-leaning politically, the things that plague the cities and larger suburbs aren't as much of an immediate threat here. Antifa-types are no where to be found, but that doesn't mean S can't HTF here too in Small Town USA, so defense is a big part of the plan as well.

My primary goals are having plenty of ready-to-go food and water for at least 6 weeks for the 4 of us, with plans on how/where to get more if we get to that point. Our primary plan is to bug-in, but I am working on getting some remote land 30-45 minutes from home and beginning to build a small cabin there. If something happens before that time and I really need to disappear, I know the woods pretty well.

Two glaring holes that I need to fill in my preps are communications and emergency first aid. I used to have a HAM tech license that has not expired, and I need to get back into that. I also need to try to find a way to better equip myself with emergency first aid knowledge beyond slapping a band aid on.

Hope to learn a lot here and shoot the breeze a bit.

 

[grayghost668]

ARKANSAS<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<SOOIE PIGS,,,, SHARP COUNTY HERE



WELCOME

 

[jimLE]

Howdy from a Texan .... and welcome to the forum and family...there's quite a few knowledgeable folks here that'll gladly tell ya what you need to know,or at least point ya in the right direction and/or give ya a good idea or 2..and by all means jump right on inwithany replies you have on a topic.

 

[jontte]

Welcome from Fin,first-aid is something nice learn,nothing feels better knowing you can do some good to your loved ones just in case..

 

[tmttactical]

Warm Welcome from the Arizona valley folks.

 

[Psalm7]

Welcome from Tennessee .

 

[Proud Prepper]

Welcome froma top secret location only 152 people know about.

 

[WGregMiller]

Welcome to the southeast!

 

[OldCoot]

Welcome from north Mississippi. My dad lived on the Little Red River in Heber Springs and my kids and I so loved to spend time up there catching rainbow trout. I happen to think your rural area might be the best place in the country to survive a crisis. You have many lakes and rivers, good weather, plenty of rain, long growing season, few people (even fewer of the bad folks) and an abundance of wildlife & fish. As far as your plan to have plenty of ready to go food and water for at least 6 weeks, give plenty of thought and research before you get started. I'll give you my opinion.

First with water. That is a lot of water to store. I store some but mainly concentrate on ways of using available water, which you should have plenty around you. That involves filter kits (Sawyer Mini), stores of pool shock (chlorine has too short a shelf life), stores of activated charcoal plus ways of accessing the water in a home well when there is no power. To do that you need to make the tool to be able to pull the pump from the well and the well bucket to pull up the cool, fresh, clean water. I'd plan for this even if you personally don't have a well because someone close to you might or there might be one close to where you bug out to. I use the Waterboy well bucket. Beyond that, I go one step further and keep a spare Grundfos Flex well pump on hand. It can run directly off of solar panels.

With food, I keep very little prepared emergency food in storage. It has a relatively short shelf life, is not all that tasty and is very expensive... especially if you want to feed a family for 6+ weeks. Also if you look closely, the calories per serving are rather low. I believe in storing the essentials in the superpails... 5-6 gallon plastic pail with gasket lid, Mylar bag on the inside with oxygen absorbers in with the food. Most of the food items stored this way will last 30+ years. Some of these food items I purchase from Emergency Essentials. The others I make up myself from bulk food bought at Sam's Club. I store all sorts of food items, to include wheat berries, dried beans, rice, pasta, oats, salt, sugar, powdered milk, seasonings, etc. Using such stored food, you could feed a family for months for a fraction of the cost of emergency rations. As I plan, you could also plan on supplementing these food stores with harvested fish and game. I also suggest on having a garden and storing seed.

 

[DrHenley]

Howdy from Georgia!

 

[Maverick]

Welcome from Washington State

 

[HillbillyRedneck]

Welcome from north Mississippi. My dad lived on the Little Red River in Heber Springs and my kids and I so loved to spend time up there catching rainbow trout. I happen to think your rural area might be the best place in the country to survive a crisis. You have many lakes and rivers, good weather, plenty of rain, long growing season, few people (even fewer of the bad folks) and an abundance of wildlife & fish. As far as your plan to have plenty of ready to go food and water for at least 6 weeks, give plenty of thought and research before you get started. I'll give you my opinion.

First with water. That is a lot of water to store. I store some but mainly concentrate on ways of using available water, which you should have plenty around you. That involves filter kits (Sawyer Mini), stores of pool shock (chlorine has too short a shelf life), stores of activated charcoal plus ways of accessing the water in a home well when there is no power. To do that you need to make the tool to be able to pull the pump from the well and the well bucket to pull up the cool, fresh, clean water. I'd plan for this even if you personally don't have a well because someone close to you might or there might be one close to where you bug out to. I use the Waterboy well bucket. Beyond that, I go one step further and keep a spare Grundfos Flex well pump on hand. It can run directly off of solar panels.

With food, I keep very little prepared emergency food in storage. It has a relatively short shelf life, is not all that tasty and is very expensive... especially if you want to feed a family for 6+ weeks. Also if you look closely, the calories per serving are rather low. I believe in storing the essentials in the superpails... 5-6 gallon plastic pail with gasket lid, Mylar bag on the inside with oxygen absorbers in with the food. Most of the food items stored this way will last 30+ years. Some of these food items I purchase from Emergency Essentials. The others I make up myself from bulk food bought at Sam's Club. I store all sorts of food items, to include wheat berries, dried beans, rice, pasta, oats, salt, sugar, powdered milk, seasonings, etc. Using such stored food, you could feed a family for months for a fraction of the cost of emergency rations. As I plan, you could also plan on supplementing these food stores with harvested fish and game. I also suggest on having a garden and storing seed.

Great advice! I actually have a very well supplied water source on my property, so my long term plan is to filter. I had been keeping bleach as a backup sterilizer but I will absolutely look into pool shock. Thanks!

 

[OldCoot]

Great advice! I actually have a very well supplied water source on my property, so my long term plan is to filter. I had been keeping bleach as a backup sterilizer but I will absolutely look into pool shock. Thanks!

Just be careful, a little shock goes a long way. I suggest printing out the proper amount to add to the water and keeping it with your stash.

Unless your water source is real clean, cool and flowing, which yours in Arkansas might be, I'd consider filtration a somewhat last resort. Point being, we have plenty of lakes and ponds around us but in the summer all would be hot and pretty nasty. The filter would make the water safe but I imagine it still might be hard to drink... especially for young kids. In my case, the only easy way to access that cool, fresh water is to bring it up from an existing well. In my rural environment, everyone has their own well so getting access to that water is my primary goal.

 

[Celeree]

Welcome from Oklahoma!!