Ask the Survival Mom: Food for bug out bags, organizing kids’ stuff in the car, other ways to store water, and fatalistic preppers

From Karen: I’m working on a bug out bag and need suggestions for food items. Energy bars and things of that sort tend to melt. I live in las vegas. I have to keep everything inside my apt due to high heat. (Our recent forest fire on Mt charleston which evacuated ppl only 40 min away from me was a kick in the tush to stop procrastinating on this final project). I think i would need low salt/protein and high calorie since i live in the desert and dehydration will be a major issue with water sources.

From Survival Mom: A lot of people want to add a lot of food to their emergency kits/BOBs but keep in mind that in a real emergency, the more you eat, the more water you’ll need and the more often you’ll need a bathroom.

Just some food for thought there, no pun intended.

The heat will ruin just about every type of food you can think of, so you may want to buy these foods in bulk, put together several “emergency food supplies” and rotate them every 3 or 4 weeks.

• Nuts — These contain oils and will go rancid, so be sure to rotate them.
• Freeze-dried and/or dehydrated fruit.
• Packages of peanut butter
• Pilot bread
• Ultra high calorie “survival” bars
• Beef jerky
• Packets of energy drink mix to add to your water

For more tips on packing foods for a bug out bag, listen here!

From Jayna: Dear Survival Mom, do you have any tips for organizing/storing all the things we keep in the car to entertain the kids? Books, small toys, crayons, tissue, sunglasses , oh and did I mention books?

The Survival Mom: Organization of anything usually works best when like things are stored together — books all together, small toys together, drawing supplies together, etc. If these items are each stored in small containers within a single larger container, it makes finding things and then putting them back simple.

I used to keep 2 containers kind of like this one in the car, labeled with each kid’s name — which is another way to organize stuff if their ages are apart more than a couple of years. My daughter was older, so her personal kit contained coloring books, colored pencils, simple picture books, and other small things she enjoyed. My son’s kit had a photo album I made for him with pictures of family members, pets, our home, and other familiar things as well as small cars and Wikki Stix, since he always liked to be doing things with his hand.

I had fun stocking these boxes, and then re-stocking again and again! Oh, I liked the plastic file boxes because they were taller and took up less horizontal space.

From Luyton: Water stored one way or another will run out one day. How about collecting rain water for use when that happens? One would have to filter and purify it before it could be considered safe to drink, agreed, but it wouldn’t run out, would it?

Survival Mom: Luyton, you are absolutely correct in thinking about alternate ways to acquire and store water. It’s not all about water barrels and bottles. Rain barrels are viable options and I know many people who own tarps for the specific purpose of using them to collect rainwater. Of course, this option is more helpful to people who live in parts of the country where it rains enough to make it worth the effort, and as you mention, you’ll need to have the supplies for both filtering and purifying the water.

From R.B.: I have a friend who would very much like to learn more about prepping….but Type 1 diabetes holds her back. It’s almost like she has given up on any survival if her medication is cut off. Any encouraging words or information/blogs/links I could pass on?

Survival Mom: It sounds like your friend may have developed the fatalistic attitude of, “I’m going to die so why bother trying to stay alive?” This is common among people who read a lot of TEOTWAWKI fiction and start believing those novels are right up there with the Word of God. (My most controversial video dealt with that topic.)

The world will have to get incredibly bad for someone to have no access whatsoever to medications. It’s not that it might NEVER happen but it could be decades away, if not longer. So we all need to stay focused on reasons for living and preparing for everyday emergencies, not just The End of The World.

Having said that, I recommend that your friend prepare for a power outage that might last for several days or a natural disaster that would disrupt her life for a few weeks, as in Hurricane Sandy. She should store enough shelf-stable food, water, a way to purify water that doesn’t require electricity, ways to stay warm and/or cool depending on the season, and yes, medication.

If she can put these pieces into place for just one month, she will be prepped for many other emergencies and hopefully realize that she really can prepare for just about anything.

Additionally, there are suggestions here for dealing with diabetes and in this recent episode of Survival Mom Radio Hour, Dr. Bones touches on medical preparedness, including diabetes.

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