By Daisy Luther
This week, Survival Saturday focuses on travel. In news links, you will find some articles about cold weather survival and we’ll discuss some troubling world events that occurred over the past 7 days.
This Week’s Products
We did some traveling by air this week. We braved the ridiculous TSA lines (shown below) with a couple of items I always take with me. You aren’t really allowed to take much in the way of survival gear on a plane with you, but a couple of carefully chosen items always make it through the checkpoints.
I never travel without a Sawyer Mini water filter. It’s very small and you can pick up a water bottle once you get past the checkpoint to use it with. This compact little gadget removes 99.99% of all bacteria and viruses, so you can make nearly any water safe with it.
The second thing I take is a ball of yarn and this little pair of scissors. According to the TSA website, “Scissors with blades smaller than 4 inches may be placed in carry-on baggage.” I stick them in a ball of yarn, along with a crochet hook, to justify their presence. I have traveled many times with those scissors and never had them questioned. If our plane were to crash and I ended up on a deserted island like Tom Hanks, I have high hopes that I’d be able to pierce my life-saving coconut with them.
This Week in Preparedness
Traveling abroad isn’t the joyful adventure it used to be. The US State Department has issued a warning that a drastic increase in terror threats make it unsafe to leave the country.
What really happened with the downed Russian plane over Turkey? According to some physicists from Belgium, neither the Russian account nor the story from Turkish officials could possibly be true. If these folks are actually going to cause WW3, it sure would be nice to know what actually occurred.
A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Liberia, which had recently proclaimed that the small country was Ebola-free. For the second time. The threat of Ebola remains very real.
With yesterday’s Black Friday madness, American shoppers proved that things aren’t that sunny here at home. They sunk to new lows as they brawled over items like vegetable steamers and athletic shoes. I assembled the worst of the worst in one place – here’s 2015’s Black Friday Hall of Shame.
Post-disaster, scavenging needed items from abandoned property could be important to your survival. If people have abandoned their vehicles and taken off on foot, a treasure trove of supplies could be left behind, including these 13 items that are commonly found in cars.
I love making homemade skin care products. Every year, I make a supply for my daughters. I found some new, natural DIY recipes that we’re going to have to try out for this year’s stocking stuffers. It’s nice to find alternatives to the chemical-laden products at the drugstore.
Winter is upon us. As temperatures drop, it’s important to think about outdoor survival. What would you do if you were stranded without shelter? Here are three ways to build a survival shelter to protect yourself from the elements.
Who is the alarming front-runner to represent the Republicans in the upcoming presidential election? According to a poll by Reuters, it’s Donald Trump, and not by a small margin either. While it’s nice that he has enough money that he probably can’t be bought off by special interests, has anyone considered the fact that he is short-tempered and brash and will have the access codes to the nukes?
The energy industry in the United States is near the point of failure. Wouldn’t it be mind-blowing if the much-anticipated TEOTWAWKI event turned out to be the bankruptcy of the power companies?
The Bookshelf
This week, I actually got to read fiction. (YAY!) I hardly ever have time for that, but since we were traveling by air, I had two days to read for pure pleasure.
On the way to our destination, I read One Year After by William Forschten. Forschen is the author of one of the most influential pieces of prepper fiction ever to be published, One Second After (which is one of my favorite books ever and an absolute must-read for preppers). One Year After is the sequel, which. clearly, picks up a year after the EMP that took out the power grids across the United States. The new enemy is one from within, and life without the constant access to news and information makes it a lot more difficult to determine truth and motives. I enjoyed the book, but it does start out a bit more slowly than One Second After, which was riveting from the beginning. By the end, though, I couldn’t wait to turn each page.
On our return flight, I got to read Enforcing Home, the latest installment in the A. American Survivalist Series. (You can read my review of the series HERE.) I’m completely hooked on this series, and this was no exception. I couldn’t stop reading it, and even stood there waiting for luggage with my nose in the book so that I could voraciously read the last few pages. A. American is killing me with these cliffhangers. If you enjoy survival fiction, you will love this series.
Do you have anything to add to Survival Saturday?
Got any news links that we should see this week? Share them in the comments below. Have a great weekend!
Daisy,
I found an interesting website, didn’t know if you’ve heard of it. Country Craftworks, with mostly hand or air powered machine. These are meant for, or used by the Amish. It looks a bit unusual, but like I said, interesting.
(If I have already shared this, I’m sorry. Lolololololol, having short term memory fritzes)