Survival Chronicles of Jim – Chapter 2

Getting home from work tonight I was greeted on my computer the news that stocks tumbled after the Obama administration announced a proposal to increase regulation of the nation's biggest financial firms. This was the biggest one day drop since October.

Now I know that if you were to regulate your life by the market, you would constantly on a pogo stick and drive yourself crazy. However this news did serve to re-orient me back towards thinking what my next steps would be in survival planning and preparation.

I began thinking that my next general steps should be to secure and stock a Survival Bug Out Bag like what the Survival Cadre previously created a post on. I own a couple hiking style day packs, but now wanted to center my Bug Out Bag around a back pack that includes a hydration or water bladder like the Camel-Bak systems. I really like the military style and uses the MOLLE style webbing on the outside which allows for placing additional pouches on the outside of the bag. After a little research I am partial to the Camel-Bak BFM or Mother Lode style packs, but the Spec Ops Brand T.H.E. PACK also looks like a winner. I’ll make my decision by tomorrow and place an order.

I started looking on-line for a couple low power AAA or AA battery powered flashlight to go with my Surefire 6P 50 lumen flashlight the Survival Cadre had given me. I settled on ordering one of the Smith & Wesson dual red-white LED lights listed in a previous posting on Flashlights and two of the smaller LED flashlights that would certainly come in handy for mundane tasks. On my next trip to Lowe’s I will pickup some extra 123A Lithium batteries for the Surefire and look for an AAA and AA battery charger and slowly start buying packages of rechargeable batteries. My research told me that Energizer makes a good re-charger that can be used on a wall outlet or in your vehicle with a cigarette plug adaptor that the Energizer kit comes with.

The survival boys also told me that maybe a AAA or AA powered headlamp would come in handy. They said Pelican Products makes Model 2680 LED Head/Harness-Head Lamp that was hard to beat. Coming from my perspective when I did not even own a flashlight last week to buying several and planning on buying a re-charger, I think I’ll wait on more flashlight on concentrate on some other procurements. Be safe - Jim