When it comes to survival, when it comes to prepping, we put a lot of energy, a lot of effort, a lot of finances in being prepared. you want to make sure that you have the basic essentials for survival. Now, that can be for a short period of time. It also can be long term. But there are dangers that are hidden that can take away your preps.

It can ruin your survival plans. Now, one of the things about this is we're going to go through the list, but if you are warned ahead of time, it's going to help for you to be better prepared.

Number one on the list is food. Food spoilage, opening up some long term food, and it's just ruined. That can really be a bad situation. I mean, you're counting on this food. Maybe you've even gone to the point that you've calculated your calories, you know, how much food you have for a certain period of time. And you get into some of that food, and it can be ruined.

Now, there're a number of different things that can happen.

1st is it's just not being rotated. One of the things you need to definitely do, and I think it's one of the things, especially with the prepping community, is we don't keep our food rotated. You've got to have a system. You've got to go through and check dates, look at the best by dates. Now, one thing about canned food is it will last a lot longer than the best by date. And so thats just going to be a plus. But you could have, like raw materials or bulk items, like beans and rice, that could get wet, they could have bugs infested, or you could have rodents to get into that food and to destroy it. Also, it's not a climate controlled and that can be an issue as well. So making sure, number one, that you're rotating your food, but number two, making sure that it's well protected. I had a good friend of mine that had a flood in his basement, and it was one of the sunk pumps went and it flooded the downstairs, and there was a lot of food that was lost. So making sure that you had those things ready to go and that you have it well protected. If you have those in loose bags stored around, rodents will definitely get involved, and you could have insects. And then being able to have some pest control to be able to keep that down.

Number two is unwelcomed guest. You know, there's a lot of people that will say, well, I know where I'm going. If things go down, we can't be prepared for everyone now. But let me say this at the beginning, is that people are going to be your greatest asset. And having people there that help is a team can be huge, especially in a survival situation. But a lot of times you may have unwanted family that just shows up. You may have neighbors that you don't even like. And while you have prepared and gotten ready to protect you and your family, you know, you have other mouths to feed. One thing that we do, number one is we want to have a certain amount of people with us, because it just again builds some security, it gives you a sense of teamwork, and it allows you to kind of keep a better balance. But we also keep a lot of bulk food, whether it's rice and beans, a lot of seasoning, different things that we can prepare, just in case we have people that show up and they don't really steal from the main part of our food preps that is really big. you can do big stews or soup and things like that. That will give some people just a fighting chance until they can do something different, and not necessarily take away from the survival needs of you and your family, because that has to be priority.

But on the other hand, we want to have some compassion, so having a few things set aside to be able to help others is going to be good for you, and it's going to give out goodwill.

Number three is sustaining injuries. One of the things in a grid down situation is you're going to be doing a lot of work, a lot of manual labor, and sometimes that can involve tools, things that you may get injured or hurt. You may fall off of the ladder. You may cut yourself with a knife or with a hatchet. And so you need to make sure that you're prepared. But the problem is is that could put you, you out of commission for a while, or permanently. And so being very careful when you do have tools around, making sure that you're following safety protocol and realizing that this is a dangerous tool, And it's not like you can just run to the emergency room on a whim. There may be still emergency rooms open, but 1st responders are going to be very busy, and in the long term, you're going to need to be able to treat that. But also, it comes to different kind of illnesses. You know, one of the things that happens, especially in a grid down situation, is water becomes a real problem, and you've got to be able to purify it. If you're drinking water this unpurified, you can get sick, even to the point of death. And also just standard sicknesses, keeping the place clean, keeping things orderly, keeping good hygiene.

Those are going to be very important in a great down situation. A lot of times we see movies where you have people that are just living out, and it's a dystopian future, and people are just dirty. That's going to spread disease. That's going to cause a lot of issues down the road. Sanitation, where you go to the bathroom, where you put your trash, all those things are going to be very important. So keeping yourself healthy and keeping yourself from being injured are going to be a priority, and is something you really need to watch for.

Number four Natural disasters. Now, communications may be down, and it could even be a hurricane, and you don't even know that it's on the way, or tornadoes, earthquakes, all those kind of things that can disrupt us, floods, volcanoes, for that matter, in certain areas. And so you need to be ready to repair your house, get an escape route going. But you’ve got to be careful and be prepared for unexpected storms and different natural disasters that can occur. when you're counting on pres and your house gets destroyed, it could really cause a lot of issues with your preps, and so you might want to divide them up, and that's one way to be able to even if the house has been damaged or even destroyed, you have food that set aside that may not be damaged in the same way, and that also goes with supplies.

Number five is mental health, or emotional health. Guys in a grid down situation, especially if things start to unravel, people are going to panic. People get depressed, they start looking at the bad it's one of the things you've got to protect yourself from.

One of the big ways to do that is to have yourself prepared for different eventualities, knowing that things are going to get rough, but things are going to get better. You know, typically in even a grid down situation, things typically get back to a new normal.

It may not be anywhere near what we had before, but you've got to keep hope. And one of the things to me, that's a big way to keep hope is through faith. And if you're a person of faith, having those resources available and making sure that you share them with your family, give encouraging words. Make sure that you is the leader, whether your mother, father or even an older sibling, to be able to have the right words, the encouragement, stay focused, stay positive, but also, don't be taken by surprise by things that happen. And just understand that things that can happen will happen.

And so just move past it, because we really don't have any more options. And in a world of seemingly a lot of anxiety with our youth especially, this could be a real issue. So make sure that you talk to your kids and that you give them encouragement all along the way, and that's going to be great for mental health, making sure that your relationships are staying strong and that you're making those bonds. And to be honest with you, your family could get stronger and bonded even more emotionally during a tough time.

Number six lack of sleep. When you have a security situation and people are out and desperate, you're going to need to make sure that you have someone on watch at all times. The smaller the group, the more is going to take a toll on your people. Of course, that's one great thing about having more of a larger group. You can count on each other.You can watch things, you know, you can have someone that's on standby. They can sleep during the day, part of the time. you can rotate those out. And so having people in a group setting is really going to come in big time when it comes to lack of sleep. But there's also going to be a lot of things that need to be done, a lot of effort that's being made, and guys, because of that, you're going to need to make sure you get your sleep. But if you have sleep deprivation, you're going to start making some really poor decisions. You're going to be sluggish, you're not going to be thinking clearly. So it's very important that you get sleep, but it's also just as important that you keep a security perimeter on watch at all times. The only remedy to that is having extra people around.

Number sevens wildlife, and it could be some issues with some of the local wildlife around this area. We have black bear, we have bob cats, but we also have feral cats. And if they start to get hungry, you know, it could be a problem.They could get into your trash, they could make a mess. If you have a problem with rodents, rats, mice, those things can really cause a lot of issues, especially with your food and a lot of your other things. Plus they carry diseases. So being mindful of different type wildlife some of the threats, because there could be some possible threats. If you are not feeding your dogs or your cats, that could be an issue to where a hungry dog, even if it's a pet that's been around for a long time, can see you as possible food. So you want to make sure that you have provisions for your pets. But also, wildlife can be a source to eat. And of course, having some way to be able to harvest, whether it's squirrel, even bird or dear, different animals that are around, and you can actually harvest those. And it can be a plus. So make sure that you have the means, not only to take that game, but to be able to clean it and use it and process it. But under wildlife, you can also look at your garden. I mean, obviously insects past they get into your garden and they can destroy your food sources, but also rabbits, mice and deer can devastated garden. So you want to make sure that you have it protected. And you may not be able to watch it at all times. Being able to protect your garden, if you have a garden, is going to be big, if you have some property, having a garden is vital. That's going to give you at least supplemental food to go with your long term perhaps.

The number eight is security. And while we really do expect security to be a major part of our preps, there can be things that can disrupt your survival plan, especially a home invasion, a group from your neighborhood, even that can come against you to take your food. So being prepared for that, mentally, physically, and have the right firepower to be able to handle it if you need to. We don't want it to come to that, but we definitely need to protect ourselves, our property and our families, and that is going to be a serious threat if people are taking what you have worked hard for again. Having some food set back to give to others is a great idea, plus it just keeps us human. But when we have worked for years to have what we have, and then have people that have not prepared and have probably been made fun of come to take things that can really ruin your chances of survival. And if you have a lot of food resources, they can come and take those food sources from you, because they want to help the whole And so that could also be a hidden threat that comes against us. So make sure you have your food stocks in separate places. Make sure again, that you have it protected Again, guys, you've worked hard, you've prept you've used a lot of energy and a lot of financial resources to be well prepared to protect you in your family. There are going to be those out there who don't, and so we need to make sure that we take care of these things.

This list is just something to consider. And so when these things happen, you will be better prepared to deal with them.That's when it comes to fire. It is essential to survival, and having a good fire kit and knowing how to use it, is vital for survival situations.