QUICK QUIZ: Do You Recognize These 4 Home Security MASSIVE FAILS?

Graphic © myfamilysurvivalplan.com / off-grid.info. Photo – Unsplash (PD)

This lock is completely useless!! Can you see why?

FULL, IN DEPTH TUTORIAL: ULTIMATE HOME DEFENSE: How To Protect Your Home And Your Loved Ones Against ANYTHING The Bad Guys Try To Do.

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QUIZ ANSWERS:

4) Latch is held on with a basic nut on the outside – ridiculously easy to undo!
SOLUTION: Put the bolt the correct way round so that the nut is on the inside!! (and use a domed top coach bolt or covered hasp, as above).
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Protect your home (get this handled asap):

When we talk about survival and preparedness we have to look first to the most important skill of them all: home defense.

Do you think that a group of men could get into your house and take anything they want? Or you truly believe that you can keep them far away from your porch?

I’ll bet at least one of your doors is unlocked, right now. A home attack could happen any time – and daytime attacks are increasingly common.

It’s time to start getting to work on your home and property. Do NOT leave it to chance!

Here are four steps you need to take:

1) The first step is to make sure you know as much as possible about them and have them know as little as possible about you. That means taking these steps to “disappear off the map” while also taking these steps to give yourself that maximum possible time to react to any incoming threat

2) The second step is to protect and beef up your doors. Your goal should be to make sure they CANNOT get in – no matter which tools they brought with them! Add two more deadbolts to the door, one high up and one down low. If you drill these out carefully and correctly, you can keep your work hidden from the outside. Just remember not to throw those deadbolts, unless your whole family is inside; otherwise, they can’t get in. On the hinge side of the door, you’ll want to replace the screws with longer ones, so that they go into the stud. Also, replace one screw in each hinge with a pin, drilling out the corresponding hole in the other side of the hinge for clearance – to prevent hinge attacks such as the halligan bar attack. Between the deadbolts and these bolts, your door will be much stronger. But there are many more upgrades you can do: here’s the full list.

3) Third step – Windows: First – do a walk-through before you leave for the day and make sure they are actually closed. Even if “you think you closed them”. Don’t leave a ladder out in your yard. Then look into window locks: Even having simple window locks and actually using them puts you ahead of the crowd – but to be a truly hard target that they won’t bother messing with there is more to learn: Full window security tutorial here.

4) Step 4 – Understand and apply all of the “layers” of home defense. This is an absolutely vital concept. Here is the link to the full list of all 25 layers and the amazing in-depth tutorial:

ULTIMATE HOME DEFENSE: How To Protect Your Home And Your Loved Ones Against ANYTHING The Bad Guys Try To Do.

How To Equip Your Car Or Motorhome For Survival

A familiar scene in any disaster movie is the mandatory evacuation. The protagonists hastily pack their bags and leap into a car, only to either get stuck in miles of dead traffic, or end up running into an obstacle in which they are totally unprepared to deal with.

But movies or not, disasters do happen. And it makes sense to prepare for them. In this guide, we will tell you exactly how to prepare your vehicle, and what vehicle to take, so that you are well equipped if the need to evacuate ever comes.

What vehicle to have

In an ideal situation, there would be a Marauder sitting in the garage, or some other type of military-grade vehicle. But for the purposes of this article, we are going to look at more down-to-Earth models.

According to research by Money Advice Service, the two safest cars to drive are the Skoda Octavia large family car and the Mercedes-Benz CLA small family car. These two cars are the most likely to withstand an impact, such as a head-on collision, and keep your family safe.

But for cars capable of off-road travel, then two very affordable cars that are able to handle muddy, water-logged roads and woodlands without getting stuck are the Dacia Duster and the SsangYong Tivoli, at least according to research from the car insurance firm Admiral.

All of these cars can accommodate a family of five. It would be worth considering all of them — or doing further research on other models — and then weighing up which is likely to be more important depending on your circumstances: collision safety or off-road worthiness.

Motorhomes are also a great choice because they provide living space and therefore can pretty much be a permanent home-away-from-home if the going gets really tough. Some of the best off-road motorhomes, at least according to research, are the Iveco Daily 4×4 and the Mitsubishi Delica D:5 Terrain campervan.

What tools to have

Now that you have the perfect (or near-perfect) vehicle, it is time to stock it up for a serious evacuation. Some absolute essentials include: a torch, a map, a battery charger to charge batteries through the car, a fuel can, drinking water, a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, jump leads, at least one spare tyre and the correct tools to help with changing the tyres. Those should (hopefully) all be obvious. But I would recommend a plethora of other items that may really be vital uncertain circumstances that might not be so obvious. Including:

• Pepper spray

• A high-vis warning vest

• Gloves for handling tools and changing tyres

• A crowbar — if there’s ever a situation where you may be trapped inside the car, a crowbar will help you escape

• Good boots for walking through fields and woodland

• Warm blankets for sleeping and keeping warm at night

• A hatchet — if there is ever a felled tree or bramble covering your path, a hatchet will help you clear a way through

• Tyre chains for driving over snow and ice (if you live, or are planning on heading to, an area that experiences heavy snowfall)

• And duct tape, because things fall apart

Another absolute must is a solar panel. There are lots of different types of solar panels and they all have their advantages and disadvantages, but mounted-roof panels and briefcase panels are the most practical, because they can be oriented to follow the sun. They are also easily portable; and can be folded away to prevent theft. Solar panels at the very least, are good for recharging phone and car batteries, and obviously have much greater uses too. (While we are on the topic, it will be immensely rewarding to learn how to achieve power self-sufficiency before the time for evacuation comes. Being energy self-sufficient is not as hard as it looks.)

What supplies to have

In addition to the right tools and vehicle, it is also necessary to stock up on some food supplies. This obviously does not include food that is likely to spoil or perish
after a few days, nor does it require stockpiling huge amounts of tinned food (which can be cumulatively heavy and impractical). If you can, it is best to have about two weeks’ worth of food to ration out to your family members — so you will want the food stocks to be as light as possible. In these respects, astronaut food is very practical. It often comes freeze-dried in light vacuum packs and modern developments have — much like aeroplane food as come on a long way — even made the food tasty as well as nutritious. Astronaut food is varied enough to include steak, spinach, cheese, and even ice cream.

Another simple tip to keep in mind is to have some energy bars — or even just plain old sugar — at hand for an energy boost at times where you might be tired or weary from long spells on the road or without rest. If you do have a motorhome or if space is less of an issue, then of course take a cooler and consider storing some perishables there. You can always eat them first, and cooled vegetables can last more than a week providing the weather isn’t very hot.

Where to go

A well-prepared evacuation is all well and good, but where is the best place to go during a time of crisis? The answer is: it depends on what type of crisis it is.

If you just need to leave the city (or part of that city) then you can usually park up and rest in locations such as car parks, hospitals, and camp grounds — at least for the night. If you need to evacuate much further, or even escape, then consult your map for a sparsely populated area with a high-water table and dense woodland.
That way, you will be away from the ravages of the population, and should have access to some drinking water and game food. It will take some time to learn how to source the water and game, but at least the resources will be there.

This Author: Neil Wright is a writer and researcher. He has an interest in travel, science and the natural world, and has written extensively about how to
survive living off grid in the UK on his motorhome website.

Survival Uses For Bandanas

The bandana is an item that is on practically every list of recommended survival gear, and for good reason. It’s incredibly lightweight and has many different uses in survival situations. For this reason, it’s a good idea to carry several in your survival kit, and not just one. To give you an idea of just how versatile a bandana really is, here is a list of uses.

Neck Gaiter

Perhaps the most obvious use is as a neck gaiter. In cold weather, this will help to keep your neck warm, while in the summer, it can help to protect your neck from a sunburn. Hypo and hyperthermia are not to be messed with.

Cool Compress

When you have a headache, soaking a bandana in water and then setting it over your head will alleviate pain if you don’t have proper medications such as ibuprofen. This is also something you should do if you have a fever and need to bring your temperature down.

Tourniquet

If you or someone in your group sustains any kind of an open wound on a leg or an arm, you’ll want to fashion a tourniquet above it, to inhibit the flow of blood. Tying a bandana tightly above the site of the wound will work great for this.

Bandage

Of course, perhaps the simplest medical use for a bandana would be to just use it as a bandage over an open wound. Place a clean bandana over it and then tie it down either with a cord or another bandana.

First Aid Sling

A tourniquet and a bandage aren’t the only first aid use a bandana can have. You can also use it as a sling in the event of a fracture. You have to tie the corners of two bandanas together or tie the bandana to a cord for it to be long enough to wrap around your neck, but it will work.

To Tie A Splint

Instead of a sling, you may have to use your bandana to tie a splint around a broken arm or leg to help heal the fracture. Find two sticks and place them on either side of the fractured limb, and then tie them in place with the bandana.

Weapon Sling

It may be primitive, but a simple bandana and stone may be what gets you dinner. If you’re going to rely on a sling for hunting game, or for defending yourself for that matter, it’s imperative that you know how to use it. For this reason, collect a pile of stones and spend a few hours training yourself in using your bandana as a sling until you get the gist.

Strips/Cordage

Simply cut up a bandana into smaller and thinner strips to serve as cords. Obviously, you won’t be able to put it back together. This technique should arguably only be used if A, you have another bandana to fall back on, and B, you have absolutely nothing else to use as cordage.

For Signaling

A brightly colored bandana may not be the most effective signal in the world (smoke signaling or a mirror reflecting the sunlight will be better), but it’s still better than nothing if you need to get someone’s attention quickly.

Rag/Napkin/Washcloth

This is likely how you will find yourself using your bandana most of the time. There are many reasons for why you would want a rag or a washcloth in a survival situation, the vast majority of which have to do with cleaning and personal hygiene. Assuming that you don’t have an actual rag with you, can you think of anything that would serve this purpose better than a bandana?

Mask

While images of old western outlaws with bandanas over their faces may come to mind here, what we’re referring to here is using your bandana as a means to protect your mouth and your nose from inhaling anything they shouldn’t: smoke, toxic chemicals, or dust.

Gun Cloth

It’s imperative that your firearms be well taken care of for them to work properly. If you have any with you in a survival situation, you’ll want to wipe and dry them down daily to prevent rust or corrosion from setting in. However, this will always be more difficult if you’re stuck in the wild with limited resources. Fortunately, a bandana will work excellently as an alternative to a normal gun rag. While you can use your whole bandana to wipe down the exterior of the gun, you can also cut it down into smaller strips or patches to wipe the internals.

Noise Reducer

All of the metal gear in your backpack can make a lot of noise when it’s all clanging together, but you can strategically place your bandana(s) in between those metal items to reduce the noise as much as possible. This will be key if you’re hunting game and need to be as quiet and stealthy as you can.

Makeshift Strap

If any of the straps on your backpack break, you may think this means you now have to actually carry your backpack in your arms. Fortunately, an ordinary bandana will serve as an excellent remedy. Simply tie your bandana tightly to the two ends of the strap that broke and you should be set.

Handkerchief

It’s not the most pleasant use for a bandana by any means, but if you don’t have disposable tissues with you to serve as a handkerchief, there’s always your bandana.

Tinder

This means that you’ll be sacrificing your bandana obviously, but if you need fire desperately to cook food or warm yourself and you can’t seem to get anything going, it could be worth it. Cut the bandana into small pieces and thin strips. If it’s dry, it should take a flame easily, but even if it doesn’t, you can soak it something flammable such as Vaseline, hand sanitizer, or chap stick, and it should convert a spark into a flame almost instantly. You won’t want to sacrifice your entire bandana for this use, so it may be wise to just cut a single thin strip and then leave the rest of the bandana intact.

Fishing Net

You can use your bandana as a net to catch fish in a stream. Either tie the four corners the bandana to the end of a stick or tie two corners between two sticks and then wade through the stream when you find a fish. While it may be difficult to catch a single fish with this method, you should be able to catch several if you come across a school of small minnows, for example.

Makeshift Hat

The main purpose of wearing a hat in a survival situation is to keep your head warm, especially in a cold climate. But if you don’t have a hat, the next best option will be to simply tie a bandana around it.

Pillow

Folding up a bandana, or tying the four corners and then filling it up with a few leaves, will be better than nothing if you need a pillow to help you get a good night’s sleep and conserve your energy for the next day.

Conclusion

As you can hopefully see by now, there’s perfectly food reason for why most survival checklists have a bandana near or at the top of the list. Bandanas are just so small, lightweight, and cheap that there are practically zero reasons not to include at least one of them in your bug out bag, get home bag, inch bag and even as part of your edc kit. Better yet, you should try and include at least two or three so that you always have backups.