Weekend update: skills training and quality time with the family

Today I went on a bit of a drive with the family.  We wanted to see how much the Missouri had risen since they opened the floodgates again.  It is amazing.  We took lots of pictures that I will post in the next day or so.  Besides spending quality time together, my wife and I had an ulterior motive for taking the route we chose.  It was one of our  potential GOOD (Get Out Of Dodge) routes. 

Since we live near the river we wanted to see how it might affect our travels should we need to head out.  As mentioned in the fine video by AnalyticalSurvival found here, we have multiple LP and RP setup throughout the area.  Periodic "drives" are fun for our daughter and let us stay on top of our routes.  It does not do us any good to have multiple potential destinations if we do not know about the current conditions of the routes to them.

Another benefit of taking these rides is that they are spontaneous and allow us to practice quickly and efficiently loading into the vehicle as we would in a GOOD situation.  These situations also allow us to practice our navigation and map reading skills.  Today many of the roads we would normally take were closed due to flooding or by military or government roadblocks.  This forced us to improvise new routes and sharpened our skills.  Better to sort these things out now than when the SHTF.

Lastly this is just one other way that I can practice an important set of skills that will be necessary in any sort of SHTF event.  Practice and hands on training are key to being able to get you and yours out of a bad situation. 

Skill practice: Building an expedient cooking stove

Over my lunch time I decided to try my hand at making a penny stove with only my multi-tool and a sharpie.  I have been looking at various sites on the internet about homemade stoves and this one seems to be simple and efficient.  Also it is very inexpensive. 

This one cost all of $0.75 to make.  If you found the cans it would be free.  I am not going into any details on making the stove.  Other sites have more than enough information on how to do that.  I am going to focus on the hands on aspect of this project. 

In a very short amount of time (I have 30 minutes or less to eat) I was able to clean, design and build a working stove.  Now aside from this stove being useful to me down the road, it gave me an opportunity to practice a useful skill.  Prepping is about more than storing.  It is about taking any opportunity to practice your skills and to learn something that will increase your chances of surviving a catastrophic event.

Now my stove is not the prettiest, but it works.  I encourage all of you to find the time to practice a skill at least once a week.  Involve your family so that you all learn something.  This kind of sharing will pay off huge when TSHTF.