If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

If you are the normal average person you can die from dehydration in as little as 24-hours, you can last no more than about 96-hours. You can become weak and disoriented within 12-hours without water. Drinking water contaminated with viruses and bacteria and be debilitating within 1 – 10 days. Drinking contaminated water can kill you.

So, tell me again how important water is?

Fortunately dehydration can be easily cured…drink water. To keep yourself healthy and functioning…drink safe water. Fortunately the “safe” part is easily cured…purify water before you drink it. But, there is still a problem here…you gotta have water to purify. Yup, you gotta actually have water…or be able to get it.

You have utility water coming out of your tap and so you are confident that your Monolithic water filtration/purification system will keep you and your family just fine. So what happens when the utility company can no longer keep water coming out of your faucet?

“No problem!” you say…you have a well. Great! And what happens when your power goes out and the well pump no longer works? Or the pump itself goes out and replacement parts are no longer available…what now?

Fortunately this problem too can be solved…with the right plan. Here’s your right plan…

So let’s get started…

Filtration/Purification –

Personal dehydration prevention should be a NDuR or similar “life straw” kind of filtration device. It can be carried in your pocket so it is the second line of defense against dehydration. It is easy to use, requires no special training, it is readily available, and effective.

note: NDuR is no longer available Life Straw is the next best option.

If you have had to “bug-out” this personal option should be on each person all the time, as in their pocket. Yes, it is carried in a pocket so it is readily available. Why? Because if you lose all your other water filtration and purification capability then you still have this life-saving option available to you. And yes, people have lost all their prep items (i.e. 72-hour kit) during emergencies, disasters and grid-down. By having this handy little option on you, you stand a better chance of surviving.

Moving out one layer or circle would be AquaTabs or Chlor-Floc. Both can be easily transported by a person in their kit. But these chemical options do take a little longer to work than the NDuR or Life Straw. But they can also be used to purify water for more than just a single person. And they can be used to purify a storage container of water. So that gives them the justification of being the next layer up from NDuR or Life Straw.

Both the Chlor-Floc and the AquaTabs are a chemical process and they both take time to ready water for drinking. Sometimes there just isn’t any time available. So keep that in mind with these two options. But they are both highly portable.

Next would be something along the lines of an MSR Sweetwater system. It is light, portable, compact, easy to transport, and can provide water to an entire family if needed. But it is bulkier and heavier than the two previous layers. But, the entire unit weighs in at less than a pound. The Sweetwater unit can easily produce 1,000gals of drinking water. The water source can be as polluted (non-nuclear) as you can imagine and this filtration/purification system can make it just fine to drink.

note: The MSR Sweetwater system is no longer available. It has been replaced with the MSR MiniWorks EX

The next layer is getting into the more semi-stationary options of filtering/purifying water. My personal favorite, and very economical, system is the Monolithic Ceramic filter system. It can be used with 5-gal buckets, 55-gal drums, or larger containers. It can easily provide water for an entire family or a neighborhood if needed. However, the entire system can be bulky compared to something along the lines of the MSR MiniWorks EX system.

Also, I hope you noticed a trend here…portability. The more personal an option is, the more portable it is. The easier it is to transport by person or vehicle. You have to balance portability vs. capacity. Only you can make that decision for your specific circumstance. But, ensure you have multiple options to cover various portability and capacity requirements.

Storage –

You have a hot water tank, yes? Well, most homes have a 40 gallon hot water tank. And you probably have two toilets in your house, right? Well, there is another 5 gallons(+/-) each. No, not the water in the toilette bowl, the water in the tank that sits on the back of the toilet. Yes, that is normally acceptable as drinking water. So there is your 50 gallons of water storage on hand. The trick to it is to not lose it. So if your water supply disappears do the following:

1. Turn off the electric or gas to your hot water tank.  This prevents burning up your water tank as you draw down the water in the tank.
2. Turn off the value to the street water supply.  This prevents water being sucked out of your house and back into the water system.
3. Turn off the valve on top of the water heater that goes to the lines in the house.  This prevents someone from inadvertently opening a hot water faucet and draining precious water from your supply.
4. Turn off the value under your toilet tank and duct tape the toilet seat closed. Yeah, you don’t want to waste that precious water by someone accidentally flushing the toilet.

So let’s hit on a subset of Utility Water for a minute. If you would have any amount of warning that a disaster or emergency is coming fill every possible container in the house that might be able to hold water. Yup, anything; and I mean anything. Go for easy & quantity first such as the bath tub and sinks. Then go for buckets, bowls, bottles, jugs, jars, glasses; literally anything including heavy duty trash bags.

One of the items that we have in our home and love it to pieces is a WaterBOB. It can hold up to 100gals and easily fits in your bathtub. It seals up very nicely and comes with a pump to move the water from the container to your bucket, bottle, etc. A WaterBOB is basically a large very heavy duty food-grade plastic sealable plastic bag. It takes about 20 minutes to fill it from your bathtub’s spigot. This is a great way to store water at the last minute for an emergency. So why not use it for storage sooner? Great! All the WaterBOB needs is some kind of “form” or cage around it to hold in place. But remember, there is a whole lot of weight involved; 900 pounds for a full WaterBOB. Plus you have the pressure pushing out on the sides as well. Whatever you would decide to build make sure it is sturdy.

A smaller similar produce is an AquaPod. The only holds about 65 gallons but is a quality product as well and as a bonus is made in the USA. AquaPod & WaterBOB are both readily available on Amazon. A WaterBOB sells for about $40 or so, shop around. An AquaPod sells for about $28 but that is for a 3-pack! So here is your decision point…If you are going to use it for a last-minute-fill-it-up container and only have one bathtub then I would use a WaterBOB because you can get more in a single container. However, if you have multiple tubs as last-minute-fill-it-up containers or you can make good quality forms for them (longer-term storage), then I would go with the AquaPod. Either way, you are storing a whole lot of water.

Commercially Bottled Water Layer:

You can buy a case of water (35 ½ liter bottles) for less than $4.00.  Each case of water would then last about 5 days for the average person.  Option to consider, buy and store 1 case of water person for each 5 days of supply you want to maintain.

Bottled water is easy to store, easy to move, avoids cross contamination among people, easy to track usage (drink 1 bottle of water every 2-3 waking hours).

Note: Bottled water may not be any more pure or safe to drink than tap water under normal daily circumstances. Virtually all tap water in the United States is safe to drink without additional purification…under normal daily circumstances.

Self-Stored Water Layer:

Small size storage containers. I am torn with this option really. For storing and moving smaller amounts of water I see cases of bottled water being the right all-around option. But there is a place for small container water storage. I would highly recommend a sturdy food-grade plastic container. I am partial to square containers to save space. But they need to be sturdy enough to handle not just storage, but moving and transporting them as well. The 5gal containers are about the right size in my opinion.

Medium size storage containers. A great compromise for storing water in quantity, but not as intrusive as a large tank in your yard, is a 30 or 50 gallon food-grade plastic storage container. If you have storage space limitations consider decorating them as furniture and putting them out of the way in the yard, on patios, etc..

When initially storing your water add bleach to keep bacteria in check (8 drops per gallon). Regardless of the bleach I would always filter and purify water that has been stored like this prior to using it.

Note: Use only food-grade plastic containers that you know what was in them prior to you acquiring them.

Large storage tanks. This option can be a real lifesaver if you have the room for it. To have a 300+ gallon storage tank full of water can be a really huge benefit. But the same information applies to this as it does to the option of storing water in plastic soda bottles or glass containers, just on a larger scale.

Moving water from large storage tanks is all but impossible unless you move the water to smaller storage containers or have it plumbed into your home directly. Storing the water outside brings additional concerns; preventing freezing, concealing its presence, etc.

Note: You know that large, really pretty above round storage tank that you have in the back yard or behind the barn, or the one you were thinking about putting in? Think how nice of a target that makes for folks doing some shooting practice, or drawing folks to you who are looking for water. Consider this storage option carefully. Think about a creative paint job that helps it blend in to the surroundings. Or you might want to ponder making this method an “in ground” possibility.

For above ground options you can take a look at these tanks –

For below ground storage here are a couple options –

Note of caution: For storing water in these large volume containers consider the location of the storage tank itself. If you place the tank too far away you have to be able to get your house. If bad weather or bad guys are present it might be a little tough to do. Make sure you have a reliable way to get the water to you house under less than desirable conditions.

TRAP – Storing water in milk jugs has a pretty serious downside.  I am not a big fan of storing water in milk jugs.  Reason, other than their transportability?  Have you ever left milk sitting around too long, opened it and had it smell like a basket full of dirty clothes that came from the high school football team?  Yeah, point is, if you don’t get milk jugs really, really clean then you will have some milk residue left and it will get very sour and produce a tremendous amount of bacteria.  In other words, your water will stink and will be nasty to drink and contaminated when you need it most.  And milk jugs will deteriorate and breakdown over time and water leaks all over the place.  Not a good way to endear your spouse to “prepping.”

What plastic containers are safe to use to store water?

• #4 LDPE  (low density polyethylene)
• #5 PP  (polypropylene)

WARNING: #1 PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) normally used for water, soda, and juice bottles are not designed for reuse.  They are not suitable for storage due to the possibility of bacterial buildup. There are also different reports outlining the possibility of BPA leaching over time out of the plastic and into the bottle contents.

Cool Thought:  A small 8′ x 30″ frameless pool from Intex costs less than $66 for about $650 gals of water.  Plus you can cool off during hot afternoons!!  a 10’x  30″ gives you 1,000 of water for under $72.

Wells –

Having your own water well is amazing for self-sufficiency and true sense of security. And that is true as long as you can get water out of your well. A well on your property is actually just a form of water storage…a very large storage container.

Most people depend on utility power to run their well pump, do you? Is that the best way to go? It is certainly the easiest way for sure. Let me explain my own situation…

Our retirement/BOL property has a well. We recently had the well serviced, the old pump and pipes removed. We will be replacing the pump with a unit that can run off 110vAC power. We are also replacing the 1” galvanized pipe (9 x 20’ sections) with 1-1/4” poly tubing. Why do that might you ask?

The well hadn’t been serviced for 10 years, it needed it.

Replacing the pump with a 110vAC unit gives us the ability to run the pump in two ways –

• Our solar system that can provide 24vDC to an inverter providing 110vAC power to the pump.
• A 110vAC generator as back-up should the solar system be unable to provide the power to run the pump.

Since the pipe is actually a single piece of poly-tubing I can pull the tubing and pump out of the well myself…literally. And then I can use my Waterboy Well Bucket to retrieve well manually eliminating any need for any power other than a little muscle.

As you can see we now have three levels of redundancy to have a supply of water available to us. The third option being the well bucket requires no technology and no external energy source. Virtually foolproof.

Summary –

If you don’t have any water storage at all go to Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart and buy ten cases of water. You will have spent less than $40 and have a decent supply of water on hand for emergencies.

If you have water storage get a personal water filtration system such as a Life Straw.

If you have water storage and personal water filtration system for each family member then get a portable family filtration system such as the MSR MiniWorks EX system.

If you have all of the above purchase the Monlithic water filter system. Yes, you can buy a Berkley if you want to…and spend way more than you need to. Or spend the same amount of money buying the Monolitic system…and have filters for 10 times the water purification.

Now, if you have done all of the above I have two more potential suggestions…

1. Buy a small above ground pool. They are relatively inexpensive and can provide you with a huge amount of water storage.
2. If you don’t want the pool…buy more of the above items starting again at the top.

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

So now we talk about organization. No, not a boring eyes glazing over type of article…an article about how you can save lives, including your own.

“What the heck?” you might be asking right about now…I don’t blame you.

When was the last time you went to an activity or event that was just so poorly organized you simply had to roll your eyes? I am talking food was cold, it started late, the agenda was a mess, and it dragged on forever. And, when it was all over…it utterly failed to accomplish what is was supposed to?

Or, how about the last time you attended (hopefully not led) a planning meeting where it was chaos and you really didn’t get any decent planning done? You know what I am referring to…lots of talk, little action, and in the end…no solid plan.

These are all organizational issues. Rather, I should say indicators of poor, or non-existent, organization. Here’s the rub…what if this was happening during a emergency, disaster, or worst of the worst…during a grid-down event? How do you think that would work out for you and all the others involved?

Let me really try to insult you…Would you even know where to begin to actually organize after a grid-down? Yes, I am sure many can go into details about what needs to be done, but how about how to organize to get it done?

Let me go over some basics:

1. You must have a leader. Someone must be able to motivate people to accomplish goals. Notice I didn’t say…set goals. Goals should be developed by the leadership based on needs of the group. Then those goals are prioritized. Then the leader steps in to motivate folks to accomplish them. In some cases a leader must work and lead the effort to identify those goals and prioritize them. Leadership!
2. The next most important organizational need is “operations” and I include a very wide variety of tasks within the category. But, essentially it is the labor pool for getting things done, but the people must be efficiently organized. Operations!
3. In order for any operational task to be successfully accomplished, especially in the long-term, you need logistics. Security can’t be effective if people don’t have weapons, ammo, flashlights, batteries, food to eat, a way to stay out of the weather, communications, etc. The whole group can’t survive long is you can’t eat or provide medical care. So logistics is right up there after operations. In other words…logistics’ sole mission is to support operations. Logistics.
4. Next is an easy one…planning. Today can usually pretty much take care of itself with existing resources. But, what about tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year? There has to be planning, and part of planning is being able to describe where we are today…in order to know what we need for tomorrow. Planning!
5. Administrative…yeah, there is a need for administration tasks. Someone has to keep track of stuff, money, bartering, claims, etc. Admin handles that. It isn’t fancy, it isn’t filled with glory, it isn’t high profile…but there is the need for record keeping and administrative work. Administrative!
6. And there may come a time where sensitive information is vital to the success, possibly even the safety, of those involved. The need may grow so large, or the sensitivity so great, that a dedicated staff Information & Intelligence people may be required.

So here is a pretty good idea of what is needed in any emergency, disaster, or grid-down. Now remember, a single person can handle multiple organizational positions for small emergencies and/or disasters. If it is a large incident, such as a 1000-person camp, then you have a single person in a single position so they don’t become overloaded and burned out..

Here is basic information on how the different sections work to make that happen –

Logistics Section

Mission – All service and support needs are provided by the Logistics Section.

Responsibilities –

•    Acquires, stores and distributes supplies.
•    Acquires and maintains facilities.
•    Provides all transportation needs.
•    Provides communications capabilities.
•    Provides food services.
•    Provides medical services.

Planning Section

Mission – The Planning Section collects, evaluates, processes, and disseminates information.

Responsibilities –

•    Collects and process situation information.
•    Supervises preparation of the Incident Action Plan.
•    Tracks all resources.
•    Determines need for any specialized resources for future operations.
•    If requested, assemble and disassemble operations units not assigned to the Operations Section.
•    Establish special information collection activities as necessary.
•    Assemble information on alternative strategies.
•    Provide periodic predictions on incident potential.
•    Report any significant changes in incident status.
•    Compile and display incident status information.
•    Provide maps as needed.

Admin & Finance Section

Mission – Manage all financial and administrative aspects of an incident.

Responsibilities –

•    Run the commissary.
•    Establish monetary & barter policy, and oversee related disputes.
•    Handle all other financial aspects of incident.

Operations Section

Mission – Responsible for all tactical activities outside of camp.

Responsibilities –

•    Reducing the immediate hazards.
•    Saving lives and property.
•    Establishing situational control.
•    Restoring societal “norm.”

Incident Commander

Mission – The individual responsible for the overall management of the incident.

Responsibilities –

•    Sets objectives & goals.
•    Responsible for, and authority over, all incident personnel.

So, about now you are thinking this is pretty good organization. Yup, it is! It is called Incident Command System (ICS) and it is used by every emergency responders all over the country and in most of the world. There is a reason for that…ICS works and it has been proven for decades to work…don’t reinvent the wheel.

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If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

Have you noticed how highly I rate “communications” as a priority when dealing with emergencies, disasters, or grid-down? I rate communications higher than the threat of dehydration and exposure, even starvation. Actually, as you’ve seen I only rate the threat of violence and injury/sickness higher. If you’ve read much of my writing on this matter then you know the priority rating is due to its fatality factor (probability and severity).

Let me explain…

Example #1 – If you don’t know that an emergency, disaster, or grid-down event is going to occur, or is occurring, how can you be ready for it or react to it? Exactly, you can’t. The event would be on top of you before you had knowledge that it was even going to hit you. Hence, you are overcome…behind the curve…out of the loop.

Example #2 – The event has occurred but you don’t know what to do. A great example would be Hurricane Katrina, many people didn’t know where to evacuate to, or where to stay away from. As a result many people became stranded in road jams, stranded on house tops, or trapped in the living hell that was the Super Dome.

Example #3 – You are into a grid-down event and you have no way for your neighborhood guards/security to communicate. A mob of looters approaches and the guards/security can’t get the word out to people what is happening, and calln’t for reinforcements. Two hours later your neighborhood is a smoking ruin.

Example #4 – You have a wide-spread power outage that affected cell-phone towers. You and your children are not in the same location, same is true for your spouse. You are trying to figure out if everyone is safe and trying to coordinate with your spouse who picks-up which kid and where…but your cell phone isn’t working.

All of this might have been avoided had you properly prepared with the ability to communicate during emergencies, disasters, and grid-down events. This is absolutely one of my favorite subjects. Why? Because it is so flipping important and so inexpensive to mitigate.

When it comes to communications there are two basic types; 1) internal, 2) external. Internal is the ability for the group/family to communicate with each other. External is the ability to communicate with people outside of your immediate family/group.

There are a whole lot of ways to accomplish both internal and external communications. For this article I am only going to touch on two; 1) SW receivers and mobile radios for external, 2) handheld radios for internal. Yes, there are plenty more avenues of communication available to folks. Please feel free to go whatever direction you feel is right for your situation. I will confine my thoughts to this specific series of articles in regards to taking action during the 7 Days of September.

So let us prioritize a little bit. Which is more important…internal or external communications? Well, there could be a really good case either way…I call it a tie, a draw, equal weight. For me then I go another level deeper…can I use them other than just emergency preparedness? Of course. But, I think that outside of emergency preparedness I am more likely to get value out of handheld radios with my family. And, I will probably be able to get some external information through devices such as AM/FM radios, TV, Smartphone, Internet, etc. That means I head to the “internal” aspect of communications first.

Internal Communications –

There are FRS/GMRS radios that are readily available and pretty decent for internal communications. They are relatively inexpensive, some are good quality, have a wide selection of channels, some have scramble technology, and have the ability to connect with other families/groups. But, there is also a downside…everyone who owns a GMRS/FRS radio can listen in to your conversations if they are close enough to your location. And another downside is limited power is available to the radio so that means limited range of communications.

Then there are handheld HAM radios. I love these! They come in an unbelievable variety, and I could talk you to new heights of boredom…but I won’t. I will go with two simple choices1) Yaesu FT-60 if you have lots of money, 2) Baofeng UV-5RMHP if you are on a more limited budget.

Yaesu FT-60:

The Yaesu FT-60R dual-band 2 meter/440 MHz HT boasts 5 watts output on both bands. It also features wideband receive from 108-520 and 700-999.990 MHz (less cellular).

Features – Over 1000 Memories, 5 Watts RF Output, Backlit Keypad, Alphanumeric Display, NOAA Weather Alert, PL Encode/Decode, DCS Encode/Decode, Emergency Auto ID System, ARTS System

Baofeng UV-5RMHP:

I think it is simply the best Baofeng UV-5RA Love Itprice/performance handheld radio on the market today. Yes, there are better quality radios such as the Yaesu FT-60r but the Yaesu also costs about 6 times as much at the Baofeng. True, if I could only have one handheld radio and the money wasn’t a real factor I would choose the Yaesu. But for many of us mere mortals money is a factor. And, I would rather each family member and all of my close friends have a radio rather than just one or two having a radio. Hence, the Baofeng UV-5RMHP handhelds are an amazing combination of price and performance.

Features – Frequency Range: 136-174 / 400-520MHz, Dual-Band Display, Dual-Standby, 7 / 4 / 1 watts of Output Power, 128 Memory Channels, Built-in VOX Function, FM Radio (65MHz-108MHz), Low Battery Alert, and more.

External Communications –

Just because I listed internal communications as a higher priority please don’t think that this category, external communications, is substantially less important. That is simply not the case, you must be able to communicate with the outside world, if nothing else…to listen. Which brings me to subdividing external communications into two categories; 1) one-way, 2) two-way.

One-Way:

This ability gives you the operational capability to hear what is going on in the larger world outside of normal communications methods. The key is to give yourself as many options as possible. For me I think a good solid SW receiver unit fills that need.

Two-Way:

In this category of external communications the inference is you can not just hear but also talk to people that are remote to your location. The key to this operational capability is defining “remote” and all that it entails. It could mean being able to talk to another family or group that is ten miles away or 5000 miles away.

Why is that remote definition so important? Money. Pure and simple it is about the dollars and cents to fulfill this need.

You can use a $150 mobile Ham radio operating on 70cm or 2m bands to reach ten miles, maybe even thirty. If Ham repeaters are operational you might even be able to reach to another state. But, should you be needing the ability of two-way communications over long distances (100 – 5000miles) you are talking some potentially expensive HAM HF gear. And I mean in the thousands of dollars price range. And you better fall in love with large antennas as well.

Yaesu FT-8900r:

The FT-8900R is a ruggedly-built, high quality Quad Band FM transceiver providing 50 Watts of power output on the 29/50/144 MHz Amateur bands, and 35 Watts on the 430 MHz band. You can operate on 10M, 6M, 2M, 70CM bands. It includes leading-edge features like cross-band repeat, dual receive, VHF-UHF Full Duplex capability, and over 800 memory channels.

Some operational notes on external communications:

1. If you want to be serious about longer distance HAM radio communications but still want mobility look at the Yaesu FT-897D.
2. The Yaesu FT-8900r also gives you the capability to set-up a cross-band repeater.
3. Don’t forget that you have to have a reliable and “clean” power supply for your radio equipment. That applies to you using AC or DC power, a generator, or batteries.
4. Many people look at the price tag for a Yaesu FT-60r handheld radio and would rather get 5 Baofeng UV-5MHP radios instead. That way each member of their family or group can have their own radio…vastly improving internal communications.
5. HAM radios are almost worthless without a way to program them. And the only to really be able to program them is with a computer and the software program. I use only RT Systems programming software.
6. To operate a HAM radio on HAM frequencies other than during a life or death emergency, you are required by law to have a HAM radio license.

Summary –

• If you have no radios communications at all, buy a handheld radio.
• If you have a handheld radio but no accessories…buy one or more accessories to improve the performance of your handheld.
• If you don’t have programming software for your radio, buy it.
• If you have only a single handheld for your family or group, buy another…or two.
• If you already have enough handhelds and you have the accessories to maximize their use then buy a mobile HAM.
• If you already own a mobile HAM radio then make sure you have the right accessories and software for it, and don’t forget a reliable power supply as well.
• If you are ambitious and want to be able to communicate over long distances, get a Yaesu FT-897D.

If you can’t communicate the presence and threat of danger…danger will find you and those you love…normally with very unpleasant outcomes.

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without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

What are we trying to accomplish when we are talking about being prepared to provide medical aid in relation to emergencies, disasters, and grid-down?

Simple, we want to be able to prevent death or disability from an injury or sickness till a higher level of medical care can be provided.

This particular category has two distinct parts; 1) injury, 2) sickness. They are for the most part very different from each other, with some overlap.

Realistically, you are more likely to die from sickness than injury during emergencies, disasters, and grid-down. Although a bullet properly placed is pretty quick and generally terminal for the most part. But, you are more likely to die from the germs on your hands, as a result from going to the bathroom, than you are from some .50cal round taking your head off.

There has been considerable debate on exactly where medical care or first aid is on an emergency preparedness priority list. There is a case to be made that it is the #1 priority…and understandably so. At any point during an emergency situation a person could become injured and without immediate first aid a person could become incapacitated or die from their injuries. For instance, if you have an arterial bleed you would probably bleed out in 2 – 5 minutes. Another example would be breathing has stopped. In that case the brain is probably dead in about 4 – 7 minutes.

But, it doesn’t have to be confusing…review it in terms of “fatality factor” that I went over in the introduction article in this series.

Personally, I believe that emergency medical care is Priority #2. I believe that personal defense capability is Priority #1. If you can’t defend yourself you can become injured or dead rather quickly…within seconds. But that is another conversation entirely. Whatever your personal belief, Emergency Medical Care is a high priority when it comes to being prepared for an emergency or disaster…and especially grid-down.

So, back to first aid (Medical Care)…

There are multiple levels of first aid. In my opinion there are five levels. We will be primarily interested in the first four levels; the fifth level is hospital level care. Since most people don’t carry around a hospital with them when they are in an emergency or disaster situation we will not address that level here. What is of paramount importance across all levels of first aid is skill capability. And skill capability is based on training and experience. While I will be outlining kits for each level of first aid care, it is up to you to acquire the appropriate level of skills. But remember one important thing – ANY FIRST AID IS BETTER THAN NO FIRST AID!

There are several schools of thought when it comes to what is the correct treatment order when rendering First Aid. The first school of thought is the traditional and effective ABC method. With this methodology you are concerned with a person’s Airway first, then their Breathing and finally their Circulation.

But notice that earlier I mentioned that a person can die faster from bleeding than they can die from their breathing having stopped. So the applicability of this care methodology (ABC) could be debated. The other option is to stop major bleeding (i.e. arterial bleeding) first and then go to the ABC methodology. The choice will have to be yours and dependent on the severity of the bleeding and of course your skill level.

One of the latest methodologies to providing emergency first aid is one that I subscribe to:

• Scene Safety
• Bleeding
• Airway & Breathing
• Cover Wounds
• Treat for Shock

If you were in a dangerous situation your first consideration is to remove the person, and yourself, from that danger before rendering medical aid. If you fail to do that you might both be in serious danger and both end-up seriously injured or dead. But that goes back to maintaining your Situational Awareness and making decisions based on a specific situation.

Emergency medical aid might be very simple to provide, or you may have multiple decisions to make prior to rendering any aid (triage). Training and experience will help you deal with these decisions from a point of expertise vs. “winging it.”

It is also important to understand that it is all about the ability to render increasingly complex injury care to larger numbers of people. In other words, progressively increasing your skills and contents of your medical aid kits from a single individual’s immediate medical first aid need all the way to a fairly decent sized family or group all of whom need medical aid.

The best way to explain what I am talking about is with a picture…

These medical aid kits under the “injury” section provide the ability to meet an increasing level of medical first aid care to increasingly larger groups of people:

1)  Each person has a Blow Out Kit (BOK) –

Mission – Kit provides sufficient appropriate medical supplies to accomplish the following:
• To return the person to activity without additional immediate medical care, or,
• To provide sufficient care that allows them to self-mobilize to more advanced medical treatment, or,
• To prevent death by bleeding.

Requirements & Restrictions:
•  Kit is carried by each person in a readily accessible external location. Perferably each person carries it in the same spot on their person.
•  You use your kit for yourself, not for someone else.
•  Kit must be as lightweight as possible but still able to accomplish the mission.

BOK contents are meant to be super simple based on its mission.  So the content is a single item:

Dressing, First Aid, Camouflaged, 4” x 7”, Sterile : NSN# 6510-00-159-4883 – Elwyn Inc. 

To learn more about the  BOK < click here >

2)  Each person has an Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) –

To learn more about the IFAK  < click here >

3)  Each family has a Team/Family Basic Aid Kit (TBAK) –

To learn more about the TBAK  < click here >

4)  Each family should have a Squad/Group Trauma Aid Kit (STAK) –

To learn more about the STAK  < click here >

5)  Each family should have a Field Trauma Care Kit (FTCK) –

To learn more about the FTCK  < click here >

In priority order I propose the following –

1. You get some first aid training, even if it is on-line from YouTube, better yet…the Red Cross.
2. Have each family member get some training, even if it is on-line from YouTube, better yet…the Red Cross.
3. Make sure your family has a Home/Family First Aid Kit.
4. If you have done all of that…then work down the list; BOK, IFAK, TBAK, STAK, MCAK, FTCK.

Summary –

Please don’t underestimate the need to provide medical care during times of emergencies, disasters, and grid-down. The more you and your family members know and the more medical gear you have on hand…the more likely everyone will be able to stay alive.

Read more about Medical Care <click here>

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without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

Is the threat of violence really the #1 threat a person faces in emergencies, disasters, or grid-down?

There is not a simple answer…but, one thing for sure…it has the highest fatality factor, with the highest severity rating, and an relatively unknown probability factor.  So, yes, violence is the #1 threat/risk against you and your family overall because if you fail at mitigating the threat of violence…the outcome can be terminal and incurable.

What can you reasonably do to mitigate the threat or risk of violence against you and your family? Well, remember that there are two ways to mitigate risk; 1) reduce or eliminate the probability that it will occur, 2) if it does occur, you reduce the severity of the impact. That being said there are steps you can take to work on both probability and severity in relation to the threat/risk of violence.

The most simple aspect of this is…to protect yourself and your family you want to keep the bad guys as far away from you as possible. Preferably they will never even know you are there. However, we will exclude the “invisibility” (a.k.a. grey man) concept from this discussion and concentrate on how to actually protect your family.

In protecting your family there are two primary aspects; 1) intangible, 2) tangible. Intangible simply means what you can do that doesn’t cost you anything and you don’t hold it in your hand. Tangible obviously means the opposite; it usually costs you some amount of money and you can hold it in your hand.

#1 Intangible –

Situational Awareness is the first and foremost intangible! You must be aware of what is going on around you. And the closer an event is…the more important it is that you know what is happening.

In my series of articles concerning Situational Awareness (SA). I go into great detail on what it is, how to improve it, and how to avoid SA problems. Well worth taking the time to read. < click here to read Situational Awareness articles > 

SA in the strictest of terms by the purists is a “state of knowledge.” In other words we need to have realistic knowledge of the things taking place around us in our environment. Further, SA is being able to correctly assess that knowledge. To bring SA into reality we need to define Situational Awareness as the acquisition of, the processing of, a state of, and taking action on knowledge. That knowledge comes from the environment around you.

Here is the short version of SA:

First Step, you must understand the environment that you will be operating it; establish a baseline or what is normal and therefor expected in that environment. Hence, anything that occurs that is outside of that baseline is not normal and to be noted. You acquire that knowledge by observing what is happening around you – Situational Awareness.

Second Step, you then must identify the key cues that will indicate that something is sufficiently abnormal (i.e. different) that it would represent an increased threat or risk.  And you must monitor those environment elements identified for any change or deviation from the baseline, recognize when they occur and their relative importance – Situational Understanding.

Third Step, you project the outcome of the events that are taking place that are deemed a threat or risk to determine the effect (fatality factor) it will have on your situation.  You then decide on an option to mitigate that threat or risk – Situational Judgement.

Fourth Step, take timely and decisive corrective action if required. Yes, I believe that SA without “action” is a waste of time and energy. But that also makes me outside of the mainstream advocating that SA includes an element of action – Situational Influence.

That is the intangible version of mitigating the threat of violence…you identify that it is there and avoid it.

Put SA into practice…1 – You are in a store and there is a man with an AR-style rifle slung over his shoulder. Is that normal? No. your SA should come alive.

2 – Magazine inserted in rifle. That indicates he is loaded and ready for action. Is that normal? No. You SA should be screaming at you.

3 – He appears to have an Obama “Hope” t-shirt on. Is that normal? An Obama t-shirt would be more closely associated with anti-gun, anti-Constitution Democrat radicals vs. pro-gun folks. Again, SA should be heightened even more.

4 – Body posture is relaxed and appears to be buying cookies. Both of those indicates the opposite of a person about to go off his nut. Both are good indicators that the threat is lessened.

5 – Muzzle slung down. That is a universal indicator of non-aggression by militaries. Another indicator that the threat isn’t as high as it could be.

Now the real question – What do you do next with you and your family in this situation?

Tangibles of Personal & Family Defense –

Let’s move on to the area where you simply aren’t/weren’t able to avoid all threat of violence…now what?

To keep the threat/risk of violence as far from you as possible the best way to do so is with a high-quality, long-range rifle, top quality optics, along with a great set of shooting skills. You become the “American Sniper.”

But, what happens if the bad guys get right in your face? Then you better have a way to deal with that imminent threat as well. Since an “in-your-face” scenario might actually be so close you can’t bring a weapon into action, you should have the ability to defend yourself with nothing more than your bare hands…to some reasonable degree. This would be the inner-most ring of your defensive layers protecting you and your family from the threat or risk of violence.

Why be able to defend yourself, your family, and your home? I call this the Castle Principle. Simply put, you are responsible for the safety of your home (i.e. your “Castle”) and all those that dwell therein. If you are not going to defend the people taking refuge in your home, who will?

Seriously, if you are not prepared to defend your family and friends that have taken refuge in your home, what good are you? No, I don’t mean you have to be a combination of a SEAL and a Ninja. Yes, I do mean you have to have the means and be willing to defend your family.

If someone else is going to defend them instead of you, is it really your castle? The whole concept of the Castle Principle is you being responsible for defending your home and the people in it. If not you, who?

OK, back to defending against the bad guy from a distance or in-your-face…

Why not an AR-15 vs. your bare hands against a bad guy that has come close-in and is in your face? Because at close range it would probably be impossible to get an AR up and pointed at a guy. He could be so close that it is physically impossible to raise the rifle. When I took a very serious defensive class I was able to neutralize a hardcore operator’s carbine from being brought into action. Yup, me!

But, his greater skill-set allowed him to forget the carbine entirely and deal with me using only his bare hands…and a training knife. Yeah, I didn’t come out so good on that one. My point is, a barehanded person can neutralize that weapon, even an experienced soldier carrying one.

However, if your attacker were just a few inches further away, you may be able to pull a knife. As he did in the example above. If there is maybe a foot or two separation between the two of you, you may have space and time to draw a pistol for defense. Add another foot or two of separation and now maybe there is enough space and time to employ an AR or shotgun.

If the guy is 100 yards away then an AR is going to be far more accurate than a shotgun. You get to 400 – 600 yards then the long-range rifle is a better choice than an AR. Although, with practice an AR-15 can be shot very effectively at ranges of 400- 600 yards.

Now look at all those concentric circles with you and your family in the center. The first circle is your bare hands capabilities. The next circle is a knife as a defensive weapon. The circle after that is a pistol. Then a shotgun, then an AR, and finally a long-range rifle.

With each circle you keep the bad guys further from your castle, and further from those you love and whom you are trying to protect. You have created defense in layers.

You effectively have an answer for each separate and consecutive threat. In other words, you have multiple layers of defense to protect your family. Each layer having a specific purpose, its own mission.

Bottom line, your goal is to keep all risks and threats as far away from you and your family as possible.  However, as the threat gets closer you have defensive measures in-place to deal with it. And hopefully you have developed the mindset that you will employ those defenses when needed, without hesitation, and the best you possibly can.

In priority order I propose the following –

1. A really good fighting or defensive knife (i.e. boot knife). For this you might want to consider –
   • Gerber StrongArm
   • Gerber Guardian 05803 Knife (boot knife)
   • For an ultimate fighting knife – CRKT Hissatsu
2. A really good pistol. For more information on this you may want to read < Choosing the Right Gun : Pistols >
3. A really good shotgun. For more information on this you may want to read < Choosing the Right Gun : Shotguns >
4. A really good carbine. For more information on this you may want to read < Choosing the Right Gun : Carbine/Rifle >

If you already own weapons and you want additional thoughts on what to do:

1. Go to the range and practice sometime during the month of September. Don’t just punch holes in paper, shoot at 6” paper plates from different positions (sitting, squatting, laying down, from behind a barrier). Then shoot at those same size paper plates while moving laterally, while moving forward, while moving backward, in tandem with another shooter. Don’t just stand there and shoot. Not only is it boring, it doesn’t improve your skills. You need to become a “shooter” and that means working on actual shooting skills. Practice with 3 rounds in your first mag, force yourself to switch mags while moving. Do all kinds of things that you think you might actually have to do in a gunfight. Use a 9-hole, that is an amazing training tool. And finally, remember to replace the ammo that you used at the range.
2. Buy more ammo! If you know how much ammo you have, then you don’t have enough. Buy the decent stuff. You don’t have to buy the best ammo out there, but buy dependable ammo. Remember, in a gunfight you don’t want the cheapest crap ammo running through your gun. Genuine military surplus is a good way to go.
3. Buy a good tactical holster. I like Blackhawk Drop Leg Platform with a SERPA holster.
4. Buy more magazines. For pistols I think the minimum number of magazines you should own is 3. One for the gun, two for the mag pouch. Having another spare or two is a great idea. I like Mec-Gar magazines. They are high-quality, less expensive than original manufacture magazines, just as good as original manufacture, and they have a slightly higher round capacity. FYI…many gun manufactures have Mec-Gar make their mags for them.
5. If you have a good fighting or boot knife, make sure you have a good sharpener for it…and your knife has a great edge on it.
6. Find a shooting class, preferably a tactical class, in your area and take the training. Take your wife with you, take your oldest son with you, you best friend, your neighbor, go as a group, have fun, learn a lot…and when you are done with the class know you are better trained than ever before. And better trained than the average person.
7. Upgrade your optics. Or, buy another spare battery or two for your optics.

Home Defense –

Defense in layers applies just as much to defending your property, another aspect of my Castle Principle. You start by having strong steel doors with deadbolt locks. But you also have reinforcing bars to prevent your doors from being kicked in. But if the bad guys get inside the house you still have a bedroom door that is solid core and can withstand some considerable amount of force being applied to it. Then you have a bathroom with a strong, solid door as well. You look at this last vestige of safety as your Alamo.

Here are some of the things you can do:

1. You have a stone wall or fence around your property.
2. Between the wall/fence and your house you have one or more dogs.
3. You have motion activated lights around your house.
4. You have sensors on your doors and windows to alert you that someone is opening them.
5. You have motion sensor inside your home that you can turn on at night.
6. You have a sensor at the end of your driveway to notify you of someone approaching.
7. You have a sensor on the framer around your roll-up garage door to alert you if someone comes in your garage.
8. Install a security door on your exterior doors.

And the list goes on and on. The point being, you implement those measures that protect your house as if your house were a castle stronghold.

Summary –

So now you have plenty of solid principles, lots of ideas and thoughts on what you can do to protect yourself and your family from the threat of violence. One of the things, one of the best things, you can do is work together with one or more other families. Come up with plans to work together to protect the combined group of folks. A very old saying that truly applies in this situation is “There is safety in numbers.” Don’t discount that concept!

What I want you to do now is based on the promptings you got while reading this article…take action. Take action in the next couple of days. Even if it is following through with a no cost idea…go to the range. Do something, do what the prompting was when you felt it.

Personal note to you –

There are lots of changes concurring in the world right now. Recent decisions by the Progressive/Liberal Supreme Court and the Whitehouse have reinforced anti-gun laws. I would encourage you to think about purchasing a gun, specifically an AR-style carbine/rifle. Remember the gun ban put in place during the first Clinton presidency that was widely supported by Republicans? That gun ban was aimed specifically at AR’s & AK’s . There may come a time soon where you might need one and can’t buy one. Same could be said for high-capacity magazines and ammunition as well. Please consider this.

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

If you haven’t read the post on September 1, 2019 that explains this post…well, go read that post first (91/2019) and then this post will make more sense.

So what is the goal/purpose of this series of articles?

To use seven separate days in the month of September to dedicate to, to focus on, each of the seven areas of emergency, disaster, and grid-down threats…and solutions.

I am not so naive to think that you would be fully prepared after the seven days, but I am hoping you will take the time to gather ideas and thoughts to be better prepared when the seven days is over.

You may already consider yourself prepared…great! However, what I would like you to do is to read each of the seven articles and listen to that little voice inside of you…that still small voice…and follow those promptings. Listen to what you might hear in regards to doing that one more thing that you might not have thought about prior to reading the articles.

And, I also want to throw another idea at you…I want you to think of this as an opportunity to share emergency preparedness with others. None of these articles will be fanatical, extreme, or filled with political ideology. They will be down-to-earth, common sense, practical ideas on being prepared for emergencies, disasters, or a grid-down event. That might just be the opening you have been looking for to reach out to others.  I encourage you to share these articles with folks that you know who aren’t prepared, not prepared enough, or simply have shown an interest in prepping but you needed a place to send them to for information.

What I am not talking about –

Let me take an opposite tact first…I am talking about “events” not “situations.” What I am not talking about are survival situations. An event is where a wide-spread electrical outage occurs and you and your family must then respond to that event. A survival situation is where you must react to being lost in the forest and it will drop to 10° tonight.

That being said, the “event” preparation steps we take will be able to handle most survival “situations.” So in these articles I will concentrate on events where broader principles apply. It is a matter of responding vs. reacting.

Categories of Catastrophe –

My 30+ years of experience as a professional emergency responder tells me there are three basic categories of events to prepare for:

• Emergencies
  • Injury
  • Flu
  • Vehicle Accident
  • Heart Attack
  • Job Loss/Retirement
  • Utility Outage
  • Death
  • House Fire

• Disasters
  • Earthquake
  • Wildfire
  • Tornado
  • Hurricane
  • HazMat
  • Flood
  • Epidemic

• Grid-Down
  • Transportation Stopage
  • Pandemic
  • Financial or Stock Market Collapse
  • War or EMP Attack
  • Martial Law

Yes, you can add more to the list for each category. You may even want to move a few around from how I have them arranged. That’s OK, at least you are thinking about catastrophe categorization.

As you look at each category of catastrophe you can see how they grow larger in terms of scope of impact. “Emergencies” for the most part affect only a single person or a family, potentially a neighborhood, etc. However, emergencies are fairly limited in scope. As you move to “disaster,” and especially at the “grid-down” level, those events are now affecting people over increasingly larger areas. And in the case of “grid-down” it could/would be affecting potentially an entire country, hemisphere, or the whole world.

Preparation Priorities –

There are a wide variety, almost an endless list, of emergencies, disasters and grid-down possibilities. But amazingly, they all fundamentally contain virtually the same threats in the same priority order:

1. Violence
2. Sickness/Injury
3. Lack of, or Poor, Communication
4. Lack of, or Poor, Organization
5. Dehydration
6. Exposure (Hyper/Hypothermia – clothing & shelter)
7. Starvation

Fatality Factor –

Neglecting to properly mitigate these threats/risks in the proper order will result in failure at some point and to some degree. And failure will not be pleasant! Failure can potentially mean fatal or near-fatal results.

Why do I list threats/risks in the particular order? The order is based on the “fatality factor.” Meaning…what can kill or seriously injure you, or your family, the quickest.

Example #1 – The inability of you to defend yourself or your family from an armed man can result in you or a family member being shot. That gunshot wound can be immediately fatal. Starvation can take about 10 – 20 days to kill the normal person. So being shot has a far higher fatality factor than starving to death.

Example #2 – If you are out scouting for water and you fall and gash your leg open resulting in bleeding, then you have a problem of potentially bleeding out. That can occur in as little as three minutes if you have cut an artery and can’t get the bleeding stopped. However, if it is 30º outside and you aren’t properly dressed for it you could potentially die from exposure as well. But, the process of dying from exposure could take hours, maybe days, to kill you. So bleeding to death carries a higher fatality factor than exposure.

The fatality factor is the key to prioritizing threats/risks in emergency preparedness.The things that kill you the quickest have a higher mitigation priority requirement than those that can take longer to be fatal.

Risk Mitigation –

There are two aspects of risk that we should not only be concerned about, but have the ability to influence; 1) probability, 2) severity.

“Probability” simply means, how likely the event is to occur. And in the prepper world I extend that to, and in what time-frame relative to now. So I have defined probability as “How likely is the event to occur and how soon.”

The other aspect of risk is “severity.” Severity is defined as “If the event does occur, how bad can the potential outcome be.”

I’ve combined it to read, “How likely will the event occur from now and how severe could the outcome be?”

Yes, there is a whole lot of “judgement” that can take place (and should take place) when working with those definitions as applied to your immediate emergency situation. But not to worry, just make the best judgement you can. Throughout this series of articles I will give you clues, hints, and advice on what to look for and how to make those judgements wisely.

Now that we have identified the two main players in “event risk” and how to judge the probability and severity, we can discuss how to increase our chances of surviving an event with its associated risks. Actually it’s very simple; 1) reduce the probability that the event will occur, 2) reduce the severity of impact to our family should the event occur. That process is called “risk mitigation.”

You mitigate the identified threats/risks by having the ability to:

• Defend yourself, family and community.
• Provide medical care.
• Use non-standard communication systems.
• Use a high-quality organizational system, ICS (Incident Command System).
• Produce, filter and purify water.
• Provide basic shelter and have quality clothing available.
• Provide initial food supply and the ability to grow more.

The Plan –

This article introduced you to a number of vital preparedness principles:

• Categories of Catastrophe
• Preparation Priorities
• Fatality Factor
• Risk Mitigation

Each of the next seven articles will provide information on each of the seven “priorities.” The articles will appear in the next seven days and then a “summary” article on the 8th day. I look forward to hearing your feedback, suggestions, ideas, and even your complaints.

note: This series of articles originally appeared in September 2016. I have edited and updated the material in 2019 to be more useful and current. Please ask questions about any of the material as you wish. Also, feel free to post comments on each page as you deem appropriate.

Articles in this Series –

• Days of September – 8/29/2019
• Days of September – 9/1/2019 Opening
• Days of September – 9/2/2019 What I might do Part #1
• Days of September – 9/3/2019 What I might do Part #2
• Days of September – 9/4/2019 Introduction
• Days of September – 9/5/2019 Day #1 Threat of Violence
• Days of September – 9/6/2019 Day #2 Threat of Injury or Sickness
• Days of September – 9/7/2019 Day #3 Communications
• Days of September – 9/8/2019 Day #4 Organization
• Days of September – 9/9/2019 Day #5 Dehydration
• Days of September – 9/10/2019 Day #6 Exposure
• Days of September – 9/12/2019 Day #7 Starvation
• Days of September – 9/13/2019 Summary
• What would you do? – 9/14/2019 
• What would you do? – 9/15/2019
• What would you do? – 9/16/2019
• What would you do? – 9/17/2019
• What would you do? – 9/19/2019

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I am going to try something new…please bear with me.

I want to link a number of updated articles together in a “lesson” format. Yeah…school time!

I hope you hang in there with me, I think everyone can get something out of this. It is important enough to me that I am dedicating the entire first part of September to this. Please take the time to work with me. I bet we can all learn something.

Here’s my plan…

1. I share this post with you outlining what I am going to do.
2. I will post two days of “This Is What I Would Do” articles.
3. Then I will post an introductory article on dealing with risks and threats.
4. Then there will be seven days of articles touching on each of the “7 Common Risks/Threats.”
5. Then there will be a summary post covering the posts mentioned in #4.
6. And lastly I will post 5 articles, one each day, asking the question “What would you do?”
7. Finally, I will post a global summary of all of the previous September articles (minus the 9/11) article.

How it plays out…

I share this post with you outlining what I am going to do.

Pretty dang self-explanatory…you are reading this post.

I will post two days of “This Is What I Would Do” articles.

These two articles originally appeared a few years ago on my website. I have resurrected them, edited them for grammar and spelling, then added some additional material while discarding out of date stuff. These two articles are to get you thinking. I develop a scenario and then I go into some details of what I might do and why. I hit on some principles and ideas. It is to get you into a more formal mind set of dealing with emergencies, disasters, and even grid-down events.

Then I will post an introductory article on dealing with risks and threats.

This article will cover risk/threat categorizing, priority setting, fatality factor, and risk mitigation. It will touch on each of those subjects in detail and with formal training to implement what you’ve learned. It won’t be long or boring…just hardcore fast moving information to get you going.

Then there will be seven days of articles touching on each of the “7 Common Risks/Threats.”

I will cover each of the risks/threats that are common to all emergencies, disasters, and grid-down. They are; Violence, Injury or Sickness, Communications, Organization, Dehydration, Exposure, and Starvation. I will present information that will get you started in understanding the risks/threats and how to deal with them.

Then there will be a summary post covering the posts mentioned in #4.

In that post I will wrap up the previous 7 post information and give you an assignment.

And lastly I will post 5 articles, one each day, asking the question “What would you do?”

This 5-post series, one each day, is to present you with different scenarios and ask you a simple question, “What would you do?” You can turn it into a major planning session…or simply a brain-storming session with yourself and/or your family. It is to motivate you to think about what might happen and get your mind in the habit of thinking through what is happening and coming up with a plan.

Finally, I will post a global summary of all of the previous September articles (minus the 9/11) article.

This will be my time to bloviate on the previous 18 days worth of posts, your comments/replies, and anything else that might be applicable.

Summary –

I truly hope you don’t find this idea out of line, or childish, or unneeded. I think the timing is right for it. I hope you will participate with me through this exercise.

2009 - 2019 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content 
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See Content Use Policy for more information.