• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

• Spare glasses

• Prescription and nonprescription medications

• Birth control

Fitness List

• Keep dentistry up to date.

• Any elective surgery that you’ve been postponing

• Work off that gut.

• Stay in shape.

• Back strength and health—particularly important given the heavy manual tasks required for self-sufficiency

• “Comfort” items to help get through high-stress times (books, games, CDs, chocolate, etc.)

First-Aid/Minor-Surgery List (For details, see Chapter 8.)

When tailoring this list, consider your neighborhood going for many months without power, extensive use of open flames, and sentries standing picket shifts exposed to the elements. Then consider axes, chain saws, and tractors being wielded by newbies, and a greater likelihood of gunshot wounds. With all of this, add the possibility of no access to doctors or high-tech medical diagnostic equipment.

• Put a strong emphasis on burn-treatment first-aid supplies.

• Don’t overlook do-it-yourself dentistry. (Oil of cloves, temporary-filling kit, extraction tools, etc.)

• Buy a full minor-surgery outfit containing inexpensive Pakistani stainless steel instruments, even if you don’t know how to use them all yet. You may have to learn, or you will have the opportunity to put them in the hands of someone experienced who needs them.

Chem/Nuke-Defense List

• Dosimeter, rate meter, and charger

• Radiac meter (handheld Geiger counter)

• Rolls of sheet plastic (for isolating airflow to air-filter inlets and for covering window frames in the event that windows are broken due to blast effects)

• Duct tape

• HEPA filters (and spares) for your shelter

• Potassium iodate (KIO3) tablets to prevent thyroid damage

• Outdoor shower rig for just outside your shelter entrance.

Biological-Warfare- and Pandemic-Defense List (For details, see Appendix C.)

• Disinfectants

• Hand sanitizer

• N95 respirator masks

• Steam vaporizer

• Expectorant

• Antibiotic and antiviral medications

Gardening List (For details, see Chapter 7.)

• One important item for your gardening list is a very tall deer-proof and rabbit-proof fence. Under current circumstances, a raid by deer on your garden is probably just an inconvenience. After the balloon goes up, it could mean the difference between eating well and starvation.

• Topsoil/Amendments/Fertilizers

• Gardening tools and spares for barter/charity

• Long-term-storage non-hybrid (open-pollinated) seed. Non-hybrid heirloom seed assortments tailored to different climate zones are available from The Ark Institute.

• Herbs: Get started with medicinal herbs such as aloe vera (for burns), echinacea (purple cone flower), valerian, etc.

Hygiene/Sanitation List

• Sacks of powdered lime for the outhouse

• TP in quantity

• Soap in quantity (hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, cleansers, etc.) I have used four-ounce squeeze bottles of Dr. Bronner’s peppermint castile soap for many years, mostly on backpacking trips. A little bit goes a long way.

• Bottled lye for soapmaking

• Feminine-hygiene supplies

• Toothpaste (or powder)

• Floss

• Fluoride rinse

• Sunscreen

Livestock List

• Hoof rasp, hoof nippers, hoof pick, horse brushes, hand sheep shears, styptic, carding combs

• Goat-milking stand, teat dip, udder wash, Bag Balm, elastrator and bands

• Swat fly repellent, nail clippers (various sizes), Kopertox

• Leads, leashes, collars, halters

• Hay hooks, hay fork, manure shovel, feed buckets, bulk grain, and C.O.B. sweet feed (store in galvanized trash cans with tight-fitting lids to keep the mice out)

• Various tack and saddles, tack-repair tools, etc.

• If your region has selenium-deficient soil (ask your local agricultural extension office), then be sure to get selenium-fortified salt blocks rather than plain white salt blocks—at least for those you are going to set aside strictly for your livestock.

Hunting/Fishing/Trapping List

• “Buckshot” Bruce Hemming