What is a "Simple Prepper"?

Prepping. Even the word conjures up images of camo-clad ninjas stockpiling goods in anticipation of the collapse of the world.  There may be a few like that, but for the most part preppers are just normal people taking the Boy Scout oath of "Be Prepared" seriously.

You've probably seen (or heard of) the Discovery Channel series "Doomsday Preppers."  Like any other "reality" show, they focus on the most extreme people they can find.  Personally I think those folks are wasting their time and money. 

I grew up and spent most of the first 50 years of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area.  AKA "Earthquake Country." I lived about 1/4 of a mile from the Hayward Fault for a long period of time. As far back as I remember, FEMA and the CA Dept of Emergency Services have recommended having 3 days worth of food & water on hand.  I was blessed to have been in a home where food was always available. I really can't remember a time when we didn't have food in the house.  In an emergency situation it may not have been exactly what we wanted, but I am sure between the freezer, pantry and cupboards we probably could have gotten by for a couple weeks, maybe longer. A habit I carried over when I had my own place. Back then no one stored water.  I don't even know if you could buy drinking water back then, the only water I recall being sold in stores was distilled water.

Back in those pre-internet days news was disseminated via the TV and Newspapers.  TV for the headlines, newspapers for the in-depth stuff. Mainly the Sunday paper. I was a voracious reader of the papers back then, often reading two or three a day.

I recall reading a newspaper article (which paper I've forgotten) after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. It stated that in the event of a major earthquake, the water supply to the area could be destroyed. The article stated that in that type of event, it would take 6 months to restore limited service to the area and two years to restore full service. That was probably the beginning of my "prepping", although I don't think that was a word back then.  :-)

We've seen time and time again when disasters have struck that the folks that were prepared did all right.  Others were stuck while the government mismanaged relief efforts.

My plan then, and now, is in the event of a localized disaster is to have enough on hand to last a few months. Somewhere within that time frame I am sure will be the opportunity to leave the area and drive to the home of a friend or relative outside of the disaster zone.  And I have them all over the country.  :-)

What is the essence of "simple prepping"? Simple  ;-)

• Keep the tank on the car full of gas.
• Have an emergency supply of meds.
• Have a few months of food & water on hand.
• Keep a reasonable amount of cash on hand.
• Keep a reasonable amount of personal hygiene items on hand
• Same for cooking items and such.

Some of these items are subjective and I will go into more detail in future posts.

You don't have to be a "Doomsday Prepper" to be ready for an extended emergency!

Hybeam Pop Up Lantern

Where I live power outages happen quite often. Sometimes they are at night and I only know about them when I get up in the morning and see the clocks on the appliances blinking at me. Other times they happen during the day and are an inconvenience but not really a problem as there is enough light coming in the windows. The ones that bother me happen at dusk or early evening when it's too early to go to bed but too dark to see. For those, I keep flashlights (yes, plural) very handy. I will say that I have always been a sucker for inexpensive tools, knives and flashlights.

Yes, I have good quality products too, but I like the inexpensive ones so as not to wear out my good stuff.  I know, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

A while back my mother gave me a Hybeam 2-in-1 Pop Up LED Lantern and flashlight. I said "Thanks Mom" and set it aside. One day prior to the last couple outages I saw the box sitting on my desk and decided to put some batteries in it and check it out. It seemed to work fine in both the flashlight and lantern modes.It has a Hi, Low and Strobe effects, which work in the order listed.

About a month later the power went out, the Hybeam was close at hand so I decided to try it out.  It worked great as a flashlight, both Hi and Low settings were plenty good enough in the house.  I decided to try reading using the lantern. For me, I needed the high setting to provide enough light to read. It took a few times to find the right place to set the lantern where I could read without the light hitting my eyes, but I've had to do that with other lanterns too.

All in all, I have to say I'm impressed with the performance of this little critter. It takes 3 AA batteries which should power it for quite a while. I put alkaline batteries in it, but will probably switch to rechargeable batteries when they wear out. I'm going to order a few more of these. I'm thinking 4, 2 for the house and 2 for the center console of the car but might make it an even half dozen so I can put a couple in the go box too.

There are many styles of lanterns like this, but this is the first I've tried and so I can only report on this particular one. If you're looking for a combo lantern/flashlight I can wholeheartedly recommend the Hybeam.

Everyone is a Prepper

Everyone is a prepper, whether they realize it or not.

Some are "Doomsday Preppers", getting themselves ready for "The End Of The World As We Know It", often acronymized as TEOTWAWKI.

Some, like myself, are what I call "Simple Preppers".  We feel it's smart to have a reasonable supply of food and other supplies in case natural disaster cuts off goods and services for a time.  How long varies by each person, having grown up in "Earthquake Country" I feel having anywhere up to 2 years worth of supplies isn't outrageous. Many articles have said it could take that long (or longer) to repair infrastructure after a major quake. I don't keep that much as I would leave the area as soon as I could if the infrastructure was that badly damaged.

Others keep the 3 day supply FEMA recommends and figure they'll be rescued by then. Trusting souls, aren't they?

Even if you don't think of what you'd need in case of an emergency event, I bet you're a prepper in other ways. Do you have a retirement plan? You're prepping for your "golden years". Do you have investments? You're prepping for future unknown events, whether good or bad.

No supplies, no retirement, no investments, no plans? You're prepping to fail.

So you see, everyone is some type of prepper.

Review of Mountain House Freeze Dried Ground Beef

As I said in this post I've been using some of the freeze dried products I have on hand to rotate the stock and to try them out. Today I'm going to talk about Mountain House Freeze Dried Ground Beef. It is fully cooked and very lean, as might be expected for a product to be stored long term at room temperature. The can contains about 22 half cup servings or about 11 cups of cooked ground beef., per the label. A web search shows a pound of uncooked ground beef is approximately 2 cups. 80% lean ground beef is what I use for most recipes that call for browning and draining off the fat (Pasta, chili, etc) so that would equate to approximately 1.6 cups of this product per pound and I would most likely round it down to 1.5 cups for a pound equivalent.

I emailed Mountain House about storage of the products after opening and was told to treat them like any other food, refrigerate for up to a week or freeze. So the unused portion was placed in a zip lock bag and frozen.

So far I've used it to make "quick and easy chili" and "one pot pasta". These are camping recipes I've used for some time as they take one pot, minimal prep and are ready fast. They are so convenient I now make them at home too. That's what happens as you get older. I plan on posting these recipes with pics in the near future.

The good points of this product are it's ability to be stored long term, it's low fat content makes it go further in recipes and it's ease of prep. It is real ground beef and has the taste and texture as such. So far it has worked fine in any recipe using browned ground beef that I've tried.

To me the only negatives are it's high price per pound (which is to be expected for a speciality product like this) and the fact it is only available in the #10 can. While that may be good for larger groups, in an emergency situation storing the unused portion may be problematic if there are only a few of you. I do wish Mountain House would make this available in the pouches with only a cup of product.

If this product in the current size available would meet your needs, then I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Fuller Brush, mismanaged into oblivion?

Some of you may have figured out by now that I used to go by FullerBrushJeff on Twitter and had a both a blog and a website titled "Jeff's Fuller Brush". Fuler used a network marketing system and I had 2 distributors above me, one of whom was a National Director and consistently in the Top 10 for recruiting and sales.  His comments are in blue and what I am passing on below. Any comments I add will be clearly noted.

March 8 & 21, 2018 - more info from the grapevine. I get lots of calls from old-timers and leaders, "this is what I've heard, what have you heard?" Unfortunately, nothing directly from Fuller itself.  Now that David Sabin is gone, Fuller Industries (the Kansas factory) told them that they are willing to manufacture the products again.  This was to be the ONLY way that Fuller USA had any future as far as I'm concerned. China is NOT what people buy Fuller Brush for. But I also have multiple confirmations now that dealers will have to register ($$$???) and buy case lots.  I'm not doing inventory again. My office is just now starting to look presentable.
  I did email Larry Gray with many specific questions. I got a reply with my questions ignored, other than a vague "picking and packing individual products costs too much", and that "retail prices will be higher".  He does seem to be an officer in this new company, making decisions "as good as" the decisions that put Fuller out of business the first time.
  Higher prices? Indeed. One person who called me lives in NJ near Galaxy, and got through the intermediaries to the guy in charge to ask questions, and they seem to have not even heard of Fuller before buying it. He had no conception of the distributor system, or even what the regular prices were, or why they should ship to our customers. He (the former Fuller distributor) said he saw new Fuller products on Amazon, and Galaxy said, that is us, and the distributor contract will have a stipulation that they will not undercut any company prices, or they will lose purchasing rights.  [I thought price fixing was illegal?] Checking Amazon, our $9.99 Laundry Stain Spray is $21.99. The Carpet Sweepers are now $59.99. Other products have doubled in price.   So... I assume the case lot price will be half-price or so, meaning we will be paying what last year was the full retail price.  I can't picture this business plan keeping them in business for much more than a year. Good bye Fuller Brush. Mismanaged again before they even get started.  

(Jeff's Comments) I have a couple problems with this. First of all, I noticed what I perceived to be a lessening of quality in some Fuller products over the past 5 years. These were mainly cleaning solutions, but products that once did a great job now seemed to be no better than what I could buy in a store. Substantially increasing the price is definitely a no-go for me. Also, I held very little inventory. Being told I have to buy in case lots and sell at a specified price will not work. That's not even considering having to pay up front for the "privilege" of selling Fuller products. (End Jeff's comments)

June 4, 2018 UPDATE
 That April sales hotline told us to email them for a "questionnaire" to see if we deserved an application to sell. I got it back immediately, and it was a simple page asking how much we planned to sell every month, and our method of operation, and if we would honor their map system.  I told them I would not honor any territory on the map, I sold nationwide. I also told them I had no idea how much I would be selling because of all the various rumors and no facts from them.  What is the product line? We've heard it will be much smaller.  Really only case lots? What will the retail and wholesale prices be? Will you at least direct-ship case lots to our customers?  And if we do get started, will you really blackball us and refuse to sell to us if we sell below your retail prices?  My former top retailer said his sales dropped dramatically after the new company started internet ads taking his business away. So they also lost him and his $30,000/month.

 I sent that in a month ago and have yet to hear any acknowledgment. I even emailed Larry Gray, my supposed Fuller Brush buddy, to ask him, and still cannot receive the time of day from him. I think he's ashamed to face me, after encouraging me all these years to recruit and train more people, and then they took them all away without compensation.

 If I, as one of their Top Ten distributors for a couple decades, cannot even get a reply from them, anyone reading this might as well move on and forget about Fuller Brush and Stanley. They seem to have no phone numbers in operation because I've been unable to reach any department or person via phone. If they can't even acknowledge me after 26 years, then I return the favor. They have lost all the respect that I ever had for them.  I continue to finish selling off my inventory. If you have inventory, I'll try to connect you with customers.

 As I've said before, RIP Fuller Brush & Stanley, mismanaged more than ever.

Below are my comments:

I think the update above says it all. The new owners cannot be bothered with the past top performers. They must have some grand scheme of how they are going to raise prices, build a new sales force and return Fuller to prominence. Good luck with that.  

I agree with the March comments that this business model won't last them a year. Whether or not they will be able to regroup will remain to be seen. I think it's very possible we're seeing the last of Fuller Brush. Sad, very sad.