TOPS Bunker: The Original Prepper Survivalist Podcast

223 TOPS Ultimate Christmas Special Gear Gifts 2025

• Keith Otworth & Rhonda Triggs • Season 8 • Episode 223

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… Tonight, we keep it simple stupid for all of our listeners who are still on the fence about what gifts you’ll be giving to the Prepper Survivalist Homesteader in your life for Christmas this year. Ya know, we do this every year before Christmas, and it still amazes me about how many great new and old gadgets and gear the Prepper Survivalist world comes up with every year.

You don’t have much time left to get it in gear, pun intended, so tighten your bootstraps and grab your carts, cuz Survival Santa is coming to town.

Let’s get shopping.

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I want to thank y’all for joining us…

We’ve got a great show for ya…

… Tonight, we keep it simple stupid for all of our listeners who are still on the fence about what gifts you’ll be giving to the Prepper Survivalist Homesteader in your life for Christmas this year. Ya know, we do this every year before Christmas, and it still amazes me about how many great new and old gadgets and gear the Prepper Survivalist world comes up with every year.

You don’t have much time left to get it in gear, pun intended, so tighten your bootstraps and grab your carts, cuz Survival Santa is coming to town.

Let’s get shopping.



Keith
I i ah basically put the chainsaw blade right through the middle of it instead of cutting into the side. I just, like, stabed stabbed it with a you know, stabbed it sort of.

00:00:46.29
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:00:49.40
Keith
And as in started working it back and forth. And then basically got it down to about just about an inch or two where the wood was, you know, the only thing holding it up was just like an inch or two.

00:01:01.82
Keith
And then I heard the pop and I just ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I had it all set up because this thing was, this, this tree is hanging way, way over.

00:01:12.78
Keith
It was leaning big time.

00:01:14.65
Jeremy
yeah

00:01:15.22
Keith
And right where I was standing, cutting is where the tree fell. Like it didn't follow my direction. fell It fell the correct direction, but it it snapped back, popped off, and the whole entire trunk, which was probably more than two two feet wide, probably like 28 inches, big old tree.

00:01:33.23
Keith
And it like popped back, rolled, and landed right where I was standing.

00:01:33.62
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:01:39.19
Keith
Would have crushed me. No ifs, ands, buts about it. but i's First of all, you don't stand there anyway when you're cutting a tree down. you You move as fast as you can when you hear the pop. That's the first rule of thumb is you clear your area around a tree, make yourself an escape route and then start cutting. You don't worry about it afterwards.

00:01:58.30
Jeremy
True, unless you're using Tannerite, but that's just another that's another discussion for another day.

00:02:05.18
Keith
Got a whole box of it. I might, I might give it a try and put it on video.

00:02:08.73
Jeremy
You know, the fact that Tannerite is for sale just makes me love the United States even more. Like, I can go to i can go to any store around here and buy pounds of Tannerite, and I'm just, I marvel at that.

00:02:21.59
Keith
Right.

00:02:23.30
Jeremy
Like, it's so so cool.

00:02:24.18
Keith
It's, it is powerful. First time I ever, you know, shot at one, I was like, it took my breath away for a second. I i was only about 35, 40 yards from it. And i thought it was just going to be like a firecracker going off.

00:02:34.37
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:02:37.59
Keith
Oh no, no, no. You know, you pre-mix that little bag and set it up on a target, which was on a tree and blew half the side of the tree off.

00:02:41.53
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:02:45.81
Keith
The thing was so loud. It rumbled through the, like through the Hills. You can hear it.

00:02:50.61
Jeremy
Mm. Nice.

00:02:52.53
Keith
It's messed up. What

00:02:55.44
Buddy
About two, three weeks ago, i went to a gender reveal party, and

00:03:01.56
Keith
are you, woke?

00:03:02.97
Buddy
ah the gender... It wasn't for me.

00:03:06.64
Jeremy
you

00:03:07.26
Buddy
It wasn't for me. So... Gosh, here we go again.

00:03:14.94
Keith
Sound like you're dying.

00:03:15.23
Buddy
Anyhow, they used ta they use Tannerite for... And then they had Tannerite plus the... pink uh it was a girl so they used pink uh i don't some kind of pink powder in there and they shot little box full of it and when they shot it you know made a big pink puff out there but they used i guess two pounds or something don't know what it was but they they used whatever it was they doubled it up and it man it was huge i was like holy shit

00:03:46.01
Keith
ah Definitely not a woke party.

00:03:49.69
Jeremy
No.

00:03:49.91
Keith
No.

00:03:51.16
Buddy
Yeah, it was bunch of...

00:03:51.65
Jeremy
I'll tell you what, have you ever watched the videos of people getting like completely jacked up by flying objects from using too much dana, right?

00:04:01.34
Keith
Oh, definitely. Yeah.

00:04:02.46
Jeremy
Oh, I love those videos. Like,

00:04:03.77
Keith
And like your stuff flying right at the camera and stuff.

00:04:05.98
Jeremy
Yeah, like seeing a car door flying like 500 yards because somebody used a whole bucket of tannerite and like a taihatsu.

00:04:07.36
Keith
Mm hmm.

00:04:13.30
Keith
it says right ah It says right on the package not to do that.

00:04:17.11
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:04:17.21
Keith
I mean, it it tells you yeah what you're supposed to be doing. And these people put all these packets together and, you know, then fire fire fire around at it.

00:04:20.50
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:04:23.55
Jeremy
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:04:27.70
Keith
and You know, and it works off of ah it works off a kinetic energy.

00:04:28.24
Buddy
Well, you got to gotta be able to read first.

00:04:30.98
Keith
So you got to be able to read first, yes.

00:04:33.91
Buddy
Yeah.

00:04:34.23
Keith
It doesn't work off. You can't like, i mean, I don't know if you can, but I don't think you can like light it. There's no way of like lighting it. You know, you got to fire a bullet at it.

00:04:42.23
Jeremy
Well, it's like C4. C4 itself, you can burn it. you know it just lights on fire. But until energy and heat are applied at the same time, it's just flammable putty.

00:04:56.42
Keith
Oh.

00:04:57.29
Jeremy
That's all it is. so But when you put a blasting cap in there or you provide something with kinetic energy and heat, then it sets it off. But until you actually provide the kinetic energy, it just burns.

00:05:11.37
Jeremy
That's all. i've known I've known guys who have actually, like, they... We used to have these little old-school tin cooker things that they'd put their canteen cup over to heat their water, you know, in the morning.

00:05:23.70
Jeremy
And they would actually use a small piece of and just let it burn out. Yeah.

00:05:29.12
Keith
Really?

00:05:29.97
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:05:31.03
Keith
it just catches on fire and burns out.

00:05:31.59
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:05:32.70
Keith
Huh.

00:05:33.33
Jeremy
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you can't step You can't put it out. But you can burn it. So... but but you can you can burn it

00:05:39.21
Buddy
Yeah.

00:05:41.94
Jeremy
so Yeah.

00:05:45.34
Keith
Well, it's really cool about this. And I'm sure they're all the same. But the one I got has these little packages where you you mix the the mix the two powders together. And you then you just zip. you know It's like a Ziploc bag that's made. It's got the Tannerite logo on it. It's all orange and like a Target right on it.

00:06:03.83
Keith
and it makes like a puffy little bag, you can just put them out, you know, out in the rain. You can use them as like some sort of a security thing if you wanted to. Like if you had a piece of property and you wanted to, you know, put a few up on some trees that are like, you know, near the entrance or something, if somebody was coming and you wanted to scare them off or something like that, it it's doable.

00:06:22.84
Keith
You know, it's a useful product in in certain you know circumstances. Instead of just having fun, you can actually use it for something.

00:06:31.06
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:06:34.49
Jeremy
Yeah. So what are we talking about today?

00:06:38.33
Keith
Well, we're talking about Christmas gifts. Now, these aren't the, what did we do last time? but The last minute, or stocking stuffers.

00:06:45.44
Buddy
Stocking stuffers.

00:06:46.98
Keith
These aren't stocking stuffers. are actual gifts, things to think about. You've got plenty of time, in three weeks or so, whatever it is. before Christmas. So you've got time to start thinking if you if you know if you're one of these late shopping people like me, I shop day before or day of.

00:07:04.00
Keith
I mean, I'm just like the late... yeah I'll shop the day after. I'm so late for shopping for Christmas. It's ridiculous.

00:07:10.79
Buddy
That's pretty late. Yeah.

00:07:11.99
Keith
Yeah. i've been ah It sounds funny, but I've been known to do it. you know if i'm If I know I'm going to see somebody like you know a day or two after Christmas, I'll wait till right after Christmas so I can get the best sales. Yeah.

00:07:23.16
Jeremy
Yeah, absolutely.

00:07:24.30
Keith
it's that plus the fact that I'm just lazy and I hate shopping. I hate shopping.

00:07:29.16
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. I hate shopping for other people. That's, that's what I hate.

00:07:34.26
Keith
yeah Let me, let me, let let me rephrase that. I hate most shopping. Now I do like going to places that like, like feed stores or, you know, tractor supply places where there's cool tools and things to like pick up and play with.

00:07:46.54
Keith
That's, you know, gun store. Nothing wrong with that. i like that kind of shopping.

00:07:49.43
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, um, I am a decent gift giver, but I don't, for some reason, like I don't like shopping for other people.

00:08:00.28
Jeremy
I don't even know when the last time I actually got something for my mom for Christmas because i have no idea what the hell she wants. She doesn't actually want anything. That's the problem with me and Missy. There's that we have literally pretty much everything we need.

00:08:14.94
Jeremy
The only thing that we get is wants and groceries and stuff for like kids and grandkids. That's it.

00:08:22.55
Keith
Right.

00:08:22.74
Jeremy
You know, it's it's hard to shop for someone when they have, you know, pretty much everything they need.

00:08:30.20
Keith
In my family, we, uh, it's all about the kids. Nobody, nobody sends gifts to any of the adults. Uh, it's all about the kids and, uh, you know, and, you know, I'm sure there are you know, husband wives that give stuff to each other, you know, on the side, but there's no like, you know, gotta, gotta get a gift.

00:08:46.51
Keith
I remember the days where it was, you got to get a gift for mom, dad, sister, sister, aunt, uncle, whoever's coming, you know, whoever's coming that day, you had to get a present for every single one of them. I remember those days, but those days are long gone, man.

00:08:58.83
Keith
Didn't that kind of money.

00:08:59.00
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:09:00.34
Keith
Hell no.

00:09:01.97
Jeremy
That's even like my, my youngest is 16. She's given me a list of things that she wants. And ah yeah.

00:09:08.31
Keith
expensive, man. Especially a girl.

00:09:11.10
Jeremy
So, so were the selection. yep Damn it, buddy. You, however you coughed, you, you sent it right through your computer, through my microphone into my ears.

00:09:18.73
Buddy
Yeah, it's a thing. inter webb

00:09:22.12
Jeremy
And now it's in my, my damn skull.

00:09:24.82
Buddy
yeah it's a thing

00:09:26.06
Keith
Don't worry.

00:09:26.10
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:26.30
Keith
i so I sound beautiful enough for everybody.

00:09:31.74
Jeremy
So she's asked for some stuff and I kind of looked at some of them and I was chatting with her and I was like, let me ask you, ah let me ask you this one simple question. When you asked for this particular thing, were you out of your entire mind or what what were you, what were you thinking? She's like, I want to do this camera.

00:09:51.35
Jeremy
i was like, okay, you know,

00:09:51.83
Keith
Oh, camera stuff is expensive.

00:09:54.55
Jeremy
and And she was said it was a Canon something or another, and I looked it up. It was like $800-something.

00:10:00.09
Keith
Yeah.

00:10:00.22
Jeremy
And I'm like, what does it do?

00:10:00.66
Keith
Oh yeah.

00:10:02.29
Jeremy
I mean, it takes – exactly.

00:10:02.74
Keith
Everything.

00:10:04.36
Jeremy
It takes pictures.

00:10:06.14
Buddy
Well, the answer is no if you don't.

00:10:06.37
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:10:06.42
Keith
These, these cameras, these cameras nowadays, they do everything. They do night vision. They do. It's incredible what these things do. Slow-mo shots. You know, if you want to be like a content creator, yeah it's like for me, I've got a, I've got the Canon, um, rebel SL2.

00:10:14.33
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:10:21.15
Keith
I mean, it's an older model, but it's a pretty good DSLR camera. But the thing is the lens, the lens is everything. I don't have a wide angle lens.

00:10:27.86
Jeremy
Yeah

00:10:28.99
Keith
So, you know how you get those beautiful shots of these people that are doing like YouTube channels and where they come in really nice and clear and the background's a little blurry and everything's perfect. I can't get those shots.

00:10:39.95
Keith
I had to spend $150 on ah on ah the cheapest lens just to get those shots. And I i can't see doing that. I don't want to spend 150 bucks on something I'm not making money at, you know, um you know, now, well, yeah, guess, but yeah.

00:10:52.64
Buddy
You got put it on your list for Santa to get.

00:10:52.70
Jeremy
yeah

00:10:59.25
Keith
So, you know, I heard that actually i heard cause I have teenage, well, not teenage, I had teenage boys. I heard that teenage boys are actually more expensive than teenage girls.

00:11:10.84
Jeremy
I mean...

00:11:11.94
Keith
Sports, you know, stuff is expensive. Gaming consoles and stuff like that. You don't know. Maybe it's changing now with all the content creating going on.

00:11:20.72
Jeremy
It's possible. I mean, i never, I mean, when I want to this is, this is what I always tell the story to people. Cause when I was growing up, we were not well off with money.

00:11:33.34
Jeremy
um My mom, she had, but she had like laid out this insanely huge Christmas and I didn't realize it, but a lot of this stuff actually came from thrift stores. and I didn't really know about any of that stuff back then, but what she did is she went around to different thrift stores and And if she would, she would find Lego sets and I loved Legos and she would buy this little set here and she would buy this little set here and she kept just piecing them all together over a period of time. And then she put all these Legos into a bucket and it was like the coolest damn thing I'd ever seen in my entire life.

00:12:09.46
Jeremy
And then she found like, you know, a couple of He-Men characters over here and a couple of GI i Joes over here. But a lot of this stuff actually came from thrift stores and secondhand stores and stuff that she had found, you know, or whatever.

00:12:23.58
Jeremy
And that's how she used to do Christmas for us. And then one year i got a bike and it was... It was my one and only BMX bike that I ever got. And I was like stoked. I mean, this thing was candy apple red and it had the high bars and it had passenger, you know, like the pegs on the side. And I was like, this is super cool.

00:12:50.09
Jeremy
I go out to the garage and I see the bike and it didn't even say from Santa. It said to Jeremy from Jesus. And I was like, dude, he's involved.

00:13:00.28
Keith
ah He's involved.

00:13:01.27
Jeremy
How did he get involved with this? I thought this was like, what in the world? And I was like, is he here Like, wow how did he get a BMX bike in our garage?

00:13:09.29
Buddy
Thank

00:13:12.14
Jeremy
Like I was so confused and I was like, okay, all right. All right. So he's, he's here. is involved. I got this. All right. Now I got to keep this thing, man.

00:13:22.50
Jeremy
The first thing I did is we all, yeah all the, you know, all the kids they're out in the street playing with the stuff that they just got so they can break it. Me and a couple of my friends that live down the street, we all we all got bikes.

00:13:36.38
Jeremy
And we were like, dude, we're going to jump this ramp over this bush onto your roof. And I was like, yes, absolutely.

00:13:43.99
Keith
Nice.

00:13:45.05
Jeremy
Hit the ramp, went straight into a holly bush. And was the last time I ever tried to do something like that.

00:13:48.25
Buddy
Mm-hmm.

00:13:53.22
Jeremy
My entire body went into holly bush. It was frigging awful. It was so horrible trying to get those stupid leaves out of me.

00:14:03.50
Jeremy
It was it was ridiculous. Oh, man.

00:14:06.04
Keith
I had a really nice BMX ah bike, um but I stole it. So I don't think Jesus was involved at all.

00:14:12.50
Jeremy
yeah

00:14:15.51
Keith
um I did. i stole it. So, and it was mine.

00:14:18.14
Jeremy
he He does work in mysterious ways. You never know.

00:14:20.60
Keith
and really yeah overnight it changed colors. Next morning, spray, spray cans were a little bit, of paint paint was a little bit empty by the morning, but changed colors and everything.

00:14:24.18
Jeremy
ah

00:14:28.88
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:14:31.70
Keith
Yeah. Magical bike.

00:14:33.21
Jeremy
Yeah. The magical bike. Well, I know i have um three gifts for hunters and two communications, buddy. What do you got?

00:14:49.30
Keith
Buddy, wake up.

00:14:50.01
Jeremy
Buddy has inadvertently muted himself, I assume.

00:14:53.50
Keith
ah

00:14:54.97
Buddy
No, I have a list. i was That croup is in my throat again. So, yeah, I've got a list of five things that from expensive to, you know, I don't know.

00:15:00.04
Jeremy
Oh, gross.

00:15:06.66
Buddy
There's stuff that I'm actually – I put on my list, so most of them. So,

00:15:11.48
Keith
Yeah, the stuff I'm talking about too is also. Now I had water, shelter, and food, but I'm going to do food and shelter some other time. Those are bigger things. And and honestly, if we're only doing like five each, there's just not enough.

00:15:27.21
Keith
There's too much stuff. So I'm just doing water. there's there's ah There's enough things in water, cool things, you know, to get a prepper survivalist that in water that you don't need to have the other ones going. So I'm just doing water.

00:15:41.91
Keith
the Think about it this way. If you want to do food, you want to talk about food, it's going to be the storable food, right? August and Farms, ah was it My Patriot Supply? They all have them.

00:15:53.05
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:15:53.08
Keith
Everybody's got one. Find find a couple packages that you think tastes good.

00:15:54.14
Jeremy
Right.

00:15:57.08
Keith
Go out and get the bucket. it's It's really that easy. They're all about the same amount of money. They all taste pretty much the same. i've I've tried them all. So, you know, I, I sell legacy and I'm so sick of it.

00:16:04.98
Jeremy
Right.

00:16:08.50
Keith
We just had some of the other night just for the shits and grins. You know, I think it was like broccoli cheese, rice or something like that. I'm like, Oh, we're having that again. You know, it's like, can we, can we doctor it? But she's like, Oh, we're going doctor it.

00:16:20.22
Keith
We're putting chicken in it. We're doing, we're doing stuff with it. Don't worry about that.

00:16:23.58
Jeremy
Nice.

00:16:24.57
Keith
You know, but yeah, so that's what I did was I got water.

00:16:26.17
Jeremy
Yeah, there's there's a...

00:16:28.19
Keith
Who, who wants to go first?

00:16:30.46
Jeremy
ah

00:16:30.49
Keith
No, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jerry. were going to say?

00:16:31.93
Jeremy
I was just going to say, it's kind of like an MRE. There's only so many ways to polish a turd. you know it's they yeah

00:16:38.42
Keith
I like MREs because I think they're fun. You get to heat them up and there's a whole package thing, but you guys are probably so sick of them by now. You've had them for while.

00:16:46.61
Jeremy
that's ah that's a good That's a good word. Sick of them.

00:16:49.12
Buddy
Yeah.

00:16:49.26
Jeremy
Yeah, I'll go with that. Yeah, um after 25 years, so like oh my gosh.

00:16:53.25
Keith
Salisbury steak.

00:16:56.44
Jeremy
like For instance, twenty loan see me the first time I was in Korea was in 2000, 2001. And I can honestly say that and in that entire year, i only ate two MREs because we had our little, we call her our Ajima.

00:17:12.25
Jeremy
She would actually be out in the field before we even got there. cooking and you can just eat Korean food. My second time in Korea, i think I ate one, maybe two and MREs.

00:17:25.85
Jeremy
And there I'm just, even now on contracts, I eat them and I'm like, oh gosh, there's so many memories of shame and just collapse of, yeah, collapse of my guts that are associated with the memories of MREs.

00:17:35.42
Buddy
got it I've got to be really hungry. Really, really hungry.

00:17:42.10
Jeremy
It's just, oof.

00:17:42.54
Keith
that's that's the um That's the American ones because I've seen people doing reviews on MREs from other countries like Israel, military, and Russia.

00:17:49.33
Jeremy
Oh, yeah.

00:17:51.06
Keith
They've got some, man, they have meals. mean, these people, they're big, you know, and you can actually buy them online and and try them if you want.

00:17:54.33
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. yeah and

00:17:59.64
Jeremy
Yeah. We have now the Arctic MREs that we have. Those are good. There's like a ton of stuff in those. But, you know, it's an MRE essentially just becomes an MRE as an MRE, you know.

00:18:11.29
Keith
Well, you know, preppers and prepper survivors love MREs. We should do a a whole show on it. So, you know, oh, and now that we just mentioned it, I'll, I'll go, I'll go ahead one more step and say that like four or five other prepper podcasts are going to talk about MREs in the next week or two.

00:18:16.28
Jeremy
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

00:18:26.68
Jeremy
Most likely. Most likely.

00:18:27.83
Keith
There's, there's, there's a trend going on. I've been noticing out there. I don't know. if I don't know if you guys have, but.

00:18:33.05
Jeremy
we We have an insider.

00:18:33.70
Buddy
Oh, yeah, I've noticed it. Yeah.

00:18:35.00
Keith
You know, there's only so many topics you can, talk you can talk about. Somebody's going through and looking, you know, at at what we're doing and other people are doing and they're just saying, okay, let's put our spin on it. And and I guess it's okay.

00:18:46.22
Keith
There's nothing wrong with that. We're all in the same world, but you know, you know, got to help each other out, I guess.

00:18:48.75
Jeremy
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's an insider threat. You know. Yeah.

00:18:55.15
Keith
Just, uh, you know, come on the show, man. If you want to, you know, if you want to, if you want to talk about something, come on, let's do it.

00:19:01.74
Jeremy
Hell yeah.

00:19:03.41
Keith
collab. So who wants to go first? All right, go ahead.

00:19:06.16
Jeremy
I guess I'll go first.

00:19:08.42
Keith
What do you got?

00:19:09.50
Jeremy
So, yeah, i well, I think I'm going mix it up a little bit.

00:19:09.62
Keith
You got a hunter. You said huming hunting, hunting,

00:19:14.58
Jeremy
Originally, I was going to go with gifts for hunters. and but So hunters, and I'll say this just because i I know this for myself, we have a tendency to be a little picky about certain things.

00:19:26.61
Jeremy
And it's not to say that that's anything good or bad or whatever. Hunting gear, if you don't pay attention to what you're looking at, can become ridiculously expensive.

00:19:39.77
Jeremy
And a lot of people think if you spend a lot of big money for hunting gear that costs outrageous you know costs, that you're somehow going to become a better a better hunter.

00:19:50.57
Jeremy
You're not. You're not going to become a better hunter. um The only way to become a better hunter is to hunt more and to hunt more efficiently. So on the first, the first gift I can think of someone who, and in that I went with rifle hunting, is to buy them a one year membership to a gun range that has the capability to shoot long distance. And I can just tell you, if you were to look at some of the costs of some of our long distance gun ranges around here, which are you know primarily run by former military dudes, mostly, they're very, very expensive.

00:20:30.20
Jeremy
um If you were wanting to spend some money on a hunter, And especially who people who either live out West or are venturing West to go hunting out there.

00:20:41.60
Jeremy
It includes having to shoot long distance. You know, you're shooting for elk, pronghorn deer out in Montana, Wyoming, and places like that. It's wide open God's country.

00:20:53.56
Jeremy
So if you really, really cared a lot.

00:20:55.92
Keith
What kind of distance are you talking? 250 and up?

00:20:57.72
Jeremy
um I, I, I, oh yeah, that 250 would be short and in some of those places.

00:21:00.14
Keith
wow.

00:21:04.76
Keith
wow

00:21:05.75
Jeremy
Yeah. Now that's not to say that that's, you know, uncommon or common. It's just that that's the reality of it. If you go out to Wyoming, you can stand and look and, you know, you have the mountains and it's extremely beautiful, but surrounding all of those mountains is just flatland. And if you go up to Montana, it's the same thing. You know, you go, you can, you can, when you cross the border into Montana, you know, you are in Montana, you are in cattle country.

00:21:32.76
Jeremy
And it's just absolutely gorgeous. It's absolutely good. Just flat prairie land for miles. And then there's the mountains and you can see, and it's, and until you get into the mountains, mountains, there's a lot of flat.

00:21:46.84
Jeremy
um So, but, and it's not even just for the aspect of hunting, being able to learn and shoot at long distance is something that I personally believe every prepper needs to know how to do.

00:22:01.74
Jeremy
It's just, it's really, it is just something that everybody needs to know how to do. um And then the next would be for me personally, um a gift card, a gift card to Cabela's, a gift card to any place that you could think of that like specializes in hunting stuff.

00:22:23.58
Jeremy
um Gift cards are huge because, and a lot of people think they're impersonal. I don't think that's that's the case. I think what it says is, I see that you already have most of the things in life that you either need or want.

00:22:37.30
Jeremy
I just want you to take this and go have fun with it and get what you want. That's what that's what I think is is good about gift cards.

00:22:43.47
Keith
Well, yeah, of course, because you've got somebody who's got something on their mind that they've been wanting to get.

00:22:47.65
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:22:48.25
Keith
It's $200, and you give them a $50, $100 gift card, they're now halfway there.

00:22:54.62
Jeremy
Yeah, that's, I, you know, yeah.

00:22:56.01
Keith
That's an awesome gift.

00:22:58.17
Jeremy
I mean, if somebody gave me, I'm not dropping hints, but enough of a gift card to get a new bow at Cabela's, you know, or, it you know, I'll go low and say Bass Pro Shop.

00:23:03.80
Keith
yeah Cabela's is expensive, man. Let's be honest. Yeah.

00:23:08.12
Buddy
ah nothing

00:23:11.31
Jeremy
You know, I'm not picky, but, um

00:23:13.94
Keith
i Just do Academy for me.

00:23:14.65
Buddy
Nothing says I love you more.

00:23:16.19
Keith
Right.

00:23:16.92
Jeremy
Oh, I mean, even Academy.

00:23:17.05
Buddy
Nothing says I love you more.

00:23:18.87
Jeremy
i mean, even Academy. if so I mean, doing a, you know, it just really depends on, on i guess, the person's desire that, you know, you know that they want a thing, right?

00:23:31.06
Jeremy
And if you gave somebody even a even a somewhat, you know, lower level gift card and you're waiting until after Christmas when the sales are ridiculous, That'd be great, man. Just ah a good gift card to a cool place, you know?

00:23:46.94
Jeremy
um And then next is, and i in this may sound silly to some people, but... going out with a hunter to go shed hunting and then finding a good pair of sheds, which I'll talk about what that is in just a moment. And then actually getting them an artificial skull to be able to mount those sheds as a decoration.

00:24:13.69
Jeremy
Um, A lot of people don't understand what sheds are, but at the end of the year or at the end of the you know the season going into the spring, bucks drop their antlers.

00:24:24.63
Jeremy
um every Every kind of deer animal, they will actually drop their horns and um they just stay in the woods. So a lot of hunters, what they do is in the spring, getting just around the time before, either just before or just after turkey season, they're out there looking for the sheds that those deer dropped.

00:24:44.09
Jeremy
And they're really cool because you can use them for a whole bunch of different things. You can use them for knife handles. You can use them for decorations. You can give them to your dogs as chew toys. um There's a million and one things that you can do with them. But if you wanted to make something really personal, you know, um go shed hunting with them, you know, and it also gives you an opportunity to get out there and actually start. learning how to scout and go with them. You know, so a lot of hunters are, were there were, were sort of reclusive because when you kill a deer, a lot of people are like, Hey man, let me get some jerky.

00:25:19.67
Jeremy
No, kiss my ass. You didn't do any of the work. You didn't do any of the stuff that was required to get to this point. So why am I going to give you anything? um And a lot of people will say, yeah, Hey man, like take me hunting. All right, cool.

00:25:34.93
Jeremy
There's this work that we have to do prior to going hunting, you know, come with me and do that and we can go hunting. And and they're like, i just want to go hunt. I'm like, no, no, we're not doing that.

00:25:45.30
Jeremy
You know, if i'm if I'm taking you out onto a piece of private property and I went out there and I did the work and I made the lanes and I cut these branches and I put that feed out there and I did all this stuff and all you want to do is just go out there and harvest an animal on my time? No.

00:26:02.27
Jeremy
You've got to put in the work to be able to enjoy the meal. Yeah. couple of things that I thought about, you know. um But like I said, if you do want to go ahead and look at those Cabela's gift cards, send my way, I wouldn't i wouldn't mind it, you know.

00:26:17.98
Jeremy
um And so we'll go into my last two. And right now is... And I want to go back to stocking stuffer time um that we talked about a little bit last time, but at Walmart right now, the brand Swiss Tech, which is primarily sold by Walmart, um they have a lot of really cool gadgets, knives, and a whole bunch of different things that you can actually, and I'm going to actually make individual stocking stuffer kind of gift sets for my kids.

00:26:51.20
Keith
Just like in the camping sort of area, the sports camping area.

00:26:51.32
Jeremy
And Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:54.32
Keith
Okay.

00:26:55.00
Jeremy
um One of them right now, and I noticed it the other day, they have it in store. It's actually three pocket knives. They're all folders and they're $29.97. There's a red, a white, and a green.

00:27:06.58
Jeremy
And there are different different types of blades, but I saw that and I was like, oh, snap.

00:27:07.20
Keith
Nice. Yeah.

00:27:12.54
Jeremy
That's three adult children right there. And then you can supplement that with some other cool stuff. And I'm like, man, I can put this together wicked, wicked fast. And if you wanted to get somebody into prepping, um that is definitely gadgets.

00:27:21.85
Keith
Right.

00:27:25.75
Keith
Get them gadgets. Get them gadgets.

00:27:28.15
Jeremy
You know, EDC gadgets are also really huge right now. Everybody has this thing with EDC gadgets.

00:27:32.22
Keith
Yep.

00:27:33.99
Jeremy
So It's a good way to get somebody into um having neat kit, like having neat stuff to actually like start with and just kind of get their, get their creative juices going, you know, as to some of the stuff that it is that we do, you know.

00:27:51.00
Jeremy
Yeah. And in even more so, you could actually, like I'm looking at this one, it's made by Swiss tech. It's an actual fire kit comes with a knife. It comes with this thing that looks like a cheese grater, a sparker, magnesium, and all those different things. You could make that for someone. You can make a fire kit, you know, for someone as a gift. I think that's a pretty cool idea.

00:28:14.49
Jeremy
And then lastly, communications. um I'll say it again. We've said it a thousand times, get you a couple of Balfeng radios. Just make it easy. Get a couple of Balfang radios. You can just start simple with the UV5R, learn how to use it, and then not only get that gift for someone, but have fun with them. Like actually like go on the other end and communicate with them. and and so But that's my that's mine.

00:28:43.32
Keith
We use them all the time here on on the the of farm, if you want to call it that, though the homestead. we We use them all the time, Rhonda and I. you know Anytime we're going out, if I'm going to B yard, I'll take one and I'll take one the up take one off of the charger. And ah the one on the charger, I'll turn on.

00:28:59.93
Keith
Check it, test it, and then I'll take mine out and I'll go down to the BR case. If anything happens, if I need to, it's emergency or something, you know, if I'm out in the woods and she's in there, you know, someplace else where you're, but we, but while we're doing that, we're also testing them. We're checking them. We're seeing how far they go. We're, you know, having fun with it, learning how to use them.

00:29:16.76
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:29:17.05
Keith
A lot of, a lot of fun, those things.

00:29:17.40
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:29:18.71
Keith
I love them.

00:29:20.41
Jeremy
Yeah. I like them a lot.

00:29:23.64
Keith
So, um, yeah, nice stuff.

00:29:24.25
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:29:25.84
Keith
Uh, Jeremy. Excellent. I like the list. Very good. The gift card is probably the best thing for on that list.

00:29:28.86
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:29:31.04
Keith
That that would be the thing I would like the the gift card.

00:29:33.08
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:29:33.64
Keith
This gives me a chance to did you get what I would like to get, you know?

00:29:33.98
Jeremy
And I'll make

00:29:36.89
Jeremy
yeah i'll make sure that we've got links for the show notes.

00:29:40.54
Keith
Cool. Cool. All right, buddy. What do you got?

00:29:44.96
Buddy
Well, I'd like to piggyback on what Jeremy was saying about the training. And that was, that was one of them I had, uh, you know, everybody lives, you know, around somebody who knows something they don't. So, you know, get active and going out and, and, uh, you need, first off, you need to identify what's your, what's your, uh, weekend, you know, if it's communications, if it's, uh,

00:30:10.04
Buddy
you know I don't have a network or a mag or I don't have you know friends to go out there and and share or trade with or something. But identify what your weak points are and then go out and actively find people who are in that space.

00:30:24.89
Buddy
you know The range is a good place. Find and vet your your firearms and instructor because there's people who have certifications who really don't know shit and are probably more dangerous than they are going to teach you anything good.

00:30:36.81
Buddy
So you know go out and vet them.

00:30:37.69
Keith
So how ah how is this a ah gift? You mean talking about actually get buying them a program, a training program?

00:30:40.92
Buddy
Yeah, you can buy, yeah, go out there and buy, go out there and buy, you know, a range pass, like you were saying, or buy, you know, 10, I guess, lessons with a firearms instructor or a bush crafter, you know, there's classes all out there, you know, how to how to fly drones, how to, you know,

00:30:58.81
Keith
Yeah, lots of them.

00:31:04.18
Buddy
talk on radios, how there's all kinds of stuff out there. Find what you're, uh, I know in the Appalachian mountains and stuff, there's a, what they call a a folk, uh, folk school where they go, you basically take you back to the old ways where, you know, you can, you learn how to forge metal, um, you know, make soap, do some things like that.

00:31:25.27
Buddy
Uh, and,

00:31:25.75
Keith
Yeah, home real homesteading stuff.

00:31:27.84
Buddy
homes Real homesteading stuff. Make butter, candles, the things, you know. But go out there and just find out what you you want to learn. If you don't know chickens, you want to get into chickens, go out and and go to it. you know lot of Look into your extension agents. Whatever universities that has agriculture in your area, you know they'll do extension classes. in the There's always one on chickens. There's always one on canning. There's vegetable gardening. There's there's just all kinds of stuff out there for you. Yeah.

00:31:56.57
Buddy
you know, just go find some training.

00:31:57.07
Keith
Yeah, that's a great gift. Yeah, I like that.

00:32:00.09
Buddy
So training was, was one of mine that I just wanted, and Jeremy's totally right with that you You need to get in there and do the things and and just identify what you're weak on. Okay.

00:32:10.30
Buddy
So another thing is and everybody's probably heard this and it's a brand called battle box. Now there's a bunch of different subscription box companies out there that do these kinds of things, but,

00:32:22.55
Keith
Explain a subscription box first in case most a listener doesn't understand.

00:32:26.42
Buddy
Okay, so there's, for instance, this company called Battlebox. They put out a subscription box, which every month they put a bunch of stuff in a box and they mail it to you. and And all that has to do with survival prepping.

00:32:42.01
Buddy
ah So, for instance, one month you might get a... an E-tool type shovel, an army shovel, a whistle, you might get a tourniquet in it, a book on bushcrafting.

00:32:54.74
Buddy
But there's different values in each box. So one of them might cost you $40 and you might get $130 worth of gear in your $40 box. And they start out, right now the battle box starts out at like $40 and goes all the way up to $175 month.

00:33:12.14
Buddy
And as you can imagine, the more you go every month, the more stuff you get and the better stuff you get.

00:33:12.43
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:33:19.84
Buddy
So, for instance, like $125 box compared to the $40 box, you know, you're talking a Sub-Zero sleeping bag, um a Coleman grill.

00:33:31.83
Keith
Right, right. Yeah, right.

00:33:33.53
Buddy
and And the fun thing is I've actually done this. I did it for a year. and i got some cool stuff. I got a bunch of shit.

00:33:38.90
Keith
I was about to ask, so did you, you did the actual battle? Because I don't know, like I haven't heard anybody talk about BattleBox yet about, you know, actually receiving one. So you've actually gotten them?

00:33:47.09
Jeremy
I love, love BattleBox.

00:33:48.76
Buddy
Yeah, happy birthday to me. So one year I went out and got the BattleBox and it it was interesting. I mean, I have a bunch of shit that I will never use or i did ah yeah I did a year just to give it a shot and they didn't repeat anything, which was cool.

00:33:58.33
Keith
Okay. So you did a 12 month subscription?

00:34:05.67
Buddy
I mean, there was, um but I do have a box full of stuff that is not that useful and there's, you know, and I got the basic box, so.

00:34:06.19
Keith
That's cool. Yeah.

00:34:15.22
Buddy
um the The funny thing about it is you can go on.

00:34:17.59
Keith
Let me ask you this. the

00:34:18.55
Buddy
Yeah.

00:34:19.03
Keith
These aren't like, what do they call them? so Surprise boxes. Like, you do you know what you're getting each month?

00:34:27.35
Buddy
No, no.

00:34:27.41
Jeremy
Mm-mm.

00:34:28.27
Buddy
they You open that box up and and it used to be a big thing to do a reveal, a box reveal.

00:34:28.41
Jeremy
No.

00:34:33.87
Buddy
So you'd get these YouTubers go, okay, I got my battle box. i'm about to open it up. And they put the camera on them. and

00:34:39.58
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:34:39.93
Keith
So that's the first time they're seeing what's in there.

00:34:42.20
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:34:42.27
Buddy
Yeah, it's like Christmas.

00:34:42.89
Keith
Now that's cool.

00:34:43.09
Buddy
i mean

00:34:43.77
Keith
That's cool. Yeah. I like that.

00:34:45.08
Jeremy
And every month is a different theme.

00:34:45.42
Buddy
It's a really... Yeah.

00:34:47.40
Keith
Oh, you've done em too, Jeremy.

00:34:48.69
Jeremy
Yeah, I did the... and know You're going to call me a dork, but I did the expensive box... And I did that for about a year just because I wanted to. um I got some stuff that was wicked cool.

00:35:03.22
Jeremy
um It's like, for instance, I got a kitchen knife. It's one of my favorite kitchen knives. It's made by Dead Fish is the brand. um I was nonchalantly cutting meat and talking with my mom on video chat and I almost cleaved off my thumb.

00:35:16.63
Buddy
Oh, shit.

00:35:18.77
Jeremy
Yeah. ah

00:35:19.54
Buddy
So then you had to use the tourniquet, right?

00:35:21.53
Jeremy
Yeah, well, it was my mom saw my face change and she's like, cut your finger off. i was like, no, not it's not completely off. I'll call you back. There was so much blood everywhere and the stovetop was hot and it was cooking my blood onto the stovetop.

00:35:38.01
Jeremy
It was just terrible.

00:35:39.04
Buddy
Oh, that's a lovely smell there.

00:35:39.83
Jeremy
Yeah. yeah But yeah, Battlebox is definitely cool.

00:35:46.84
Buddy
So yeah, Battlebox is a good good gift for somebody. Yeah.

00:35:50.52
Keith
Before you go on, hold on, I got real quick one. I was cutting with this regular old knife, big knife, cutting some meat or something on there. And I was standing in the kitchen in my bare feet and the knife slipped out of my hand.

00:36:03.17
Jeremy
Mmm.

00:36:03.80
Keith
We went right down towards my foot and I was not able to get my foot out of the way in time. And because I was stepping on my toes, I was you know putting pressure on my toes.

00:36:16.41
Keith
when it that When it hit my ah big toe right on the side, right next to the nail on the side, there was so much pressure from my weight standing on it that it spurted out blood like three feet across the kitchen.

00:36:29.36
Jeremy
Mmm.

00:36:31.06
Keith
I'd never seen it. was like a balloon popped. I've never seen anything like that before. Stung for a second and put a bandaid on. No big deal. But because I was standing it, there so much pressure. did it was like It was like a horror movie happened. it was really cool.

00:36:44.41
Keith
Anyway, sorry. i had you were talking knives. I had had to go there. I had to one-up you, Jeremy.

00:36:48.25
Buddy
i think

00:36:49.15
Keith
Sorry about that.

00:36:49.34
Jeremy
Oh man. I was, i thought you were going to say that the, that the the thing actually went through or like into your foot foot. and I was waiting for that.

00:36:58.58
Keith
No.

00:36:59.42
Jeremy
Yeah. Okay.

00:37:00.96
Buddy
I won't tell my several knife incidents that that I've had.

00:37:01.17
Keith
Yeah.

00:37:06.54
Buddy
So, yeah, I'll save them for – we'll have a whole – we could probably do a whole show, maybe even a series on them.

00:37:06.90
Keith
Save them.

00:37:11.77
Buddy
You never know.

00:37:13.66
Jeremy
Dumb shit we've done.

00:37:13.83
Buddy
I've had several. The dumb shit we do, right?

00:37:15.45
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:37:16.46
Buddy
Yeah.

00:37:16.60
Jeremy
yeah

00:37:16.79
Keith
The dumb shit we' what we've done that would get you killed or you can die from in an SHGF.

00:37:21.88
Buddy
Oh God.

00:37:22.20
Jeremy
Yeah, that is a good one.

00:37:23.83
Keith
That's a good one.

00:37:24.81
Buddy
That's a whole new podcast right there.

00:37:26.78
Jeremy
ah Yeah, I'm already thinking of notes.

00:37:26.74
Keith
ah

00:37:30.36
Buddy
ah Yeah.

00:37:30.49
Jeremy
So, yeah.

00:37:31.83
Buddy
oh So yeah, BattleBox is really cool. It's a, it's a thoughtful gift for, you know, that certain someone that prepper in your life that, you know, likes gear, you know, it's more gear to stuff in your, your bug out bag that going to carry. That's going weigh about 8 million pounds. So.

00:37:47.95
Keith
I've always wanted to try the battle box. I just never, then then never clicked the button. You know, when ah when you're in the, when you're, when you got the stuff in your cart, I never clicked the button.

00:37:56.41
Buddy
Well, I use the 48-hour rule, and usually 48 hours I talk some sense in myself, but I did try it.

00:37:56.98
Keith
So.

00:38:02.39
Keith
Right. That's a good one. i like that. Yeah.

00:38:04.69
Buddy
i did I did try it, and when and I first started prepping, I got a lot of the good stuff. You hear people on different podcasts and YouTube videos and stuff saying you know going out and doing things. I'm like, oh, I got that, and I go in my backyard and or go you know hiking or something and try it out. so yeah it's a good If you're if you're ah ah somebody just into prepping, you're you know you're brand new to it and you really don't know what to buy, that'll get you going you know real quickly. Yeah.

00:38:34.04
Buddy
I highly suggest it. so And there's other ones besides Battlebox. i don't i don't get anything from Battlebox. you know if you Battlebox, if you're listening, if you want to send me with something, hey, I'm there for you. umll I'll she or shield for you all day long.

00:38:49.94
Buddy
But I get nothing from them, so we'll just keep it at that. and And the disclaimer is I don't get anything from any of these things I'm talking about. And I'll name some brands. and But like I said, if you want to send it to me, go right ahead.

00:39:03.29
Buddy
All right, so the next one, and I absolutely love this thing. It's a Grail. brand Geopress. It's a 24 ounce water, basically a water bottle. it's very It's very expensive, but it does everything you need. It's one of those buy once, cry once things.

00:39:20.06
Buddy
You know, I think I bought, it's basically a water filter system that you can go get dirty water. You you put it into this, you know, hiking metal bottle that has a filter in it and you squeeze that water through it and you got clean water and it removes I mean, there's a whole list of stuff it removes. like I could do a whole show on on the neat how neat this thing is and what it removes and how it's a great piece of kit. With this actual model, you know, it it costs around $175, so it's on the high end of stuff.

00:39:52.95
Buddy
um But you can cook out of it because it's a single-walled metal container. It's got a lid that you can cook off of. You can carry as a water bottle.

00:40:04.66
Buddy
It's just a really neat piece of kit. And I highly suggest you look into it. And and if you have the extra money or save up for it, it's it's a want buy once, cry once. I've bought so many.

00:40:13.91
Keith
i love the I love the Grail. I actually had one on my water list, but it's probably not the one you're talking about. What's what's the ah but the model one that you're you're talking about?

00:40:22.35
Buddy
it's ah It's called a Grail Geopress. It's a titanium 24-inch water bottle.

00:40:25.82
Keith
Oh, yes, the Geopress, right? Mm-hmm.

00:40:28.31
Buddy
Yeah, the Geo... And I love mine, man. I use it.

00:40:33.90
Buddy
i'm I'm not going to tell stories now, but I've used it a lot. So just...

00:40:38.31
Keith
So that's Grail.

00:40:38.50
Buddy
i Yeah.

00:40:39.06
Keith
It's Gray-L, G-R-A-Y-L, Grail.

00:40:42.46
Buddy
Yeah, Geopress.

00:40:42.59
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

00:40:42.68
Keith
Really get really good good stuff.

00:40:43.38
Buddy
and

00:40:44.48
Keith
High quality.

00:40:45.66
Buddy
Yeah, we'll we'll put this stuff in the show notes for you. So...

00:40:48.30
Keith
Cool.

00:40:49.17
Buddy
All right. And then another thing ah that I'm looking into this year is ah is and um'm I'm going to use Jackery for this podcast, but there's actually cheaper versions out there, but I want a solar generator, a portable solar generator. So it's, it's about a 200 watt solar panel that feeds into, you know, a little small generator that I can recharge things off of, you know, maybe run a ah computer off of, or maybe, you know, a

00:41:25.50
Buddy
refrigerator, something that I could run off of it. But i and I want it. It has to be solar, though.

00:41:32.44
Keith
yeah Yeah, I think i I've got one, and I know Jeremy's got one as well. ah I don't have the solar panels from mine yet that I'm working on. I know Jeremy's got his um on solar, but they are outstanding, man, because first of all, I keep mine plugged into the wall all all the time, and it's got a smart a whole smart deal.

00:41:49.75
Keith
Mine's mine's the EcoFlow, which i i used to sell.

00:41:52.52
Jeremy
Yep.

00:41:53.17
Buddy
Yes.

00:41:53.23
Keith
We used to sell EcoFlow. And the problem with us selling it was because we were such a small OGTX back in the day.

00:41:54.81
Buddy
Yeah.

00:41:59.23
Keith
We were such a small company that we we literally broke even. Like we didn't even make money on on them every time we sold one. And we sold a bunch of them. But like, you know, Amazon just kills you.

00:42:10.97
Keith
So we just basically just had to stop selling them because it wasn't worth it. ah but they're really good to have, man, because I keep mine plugged into the, into the wall all the time. And it's got a smart system in it that turns it, that stops charging when it's full and just sits there in in limbo.

00:42:26.46
Keith
And then when you have a power outage or anything, it's ready to go. I put the, I put whole entire set.

00:42:30.31
Buddy
Yeah.

00:42:31.62
Keith
I put the refrigerator on it. If if I need to, it was going past a couple of days up. I put the whole entire, in fact, we did a podcast with one of your, one of your guests,

00:42:41.98
Keith
David, where we had a blackout here in the studio and I actually ran the whole system, including my satellite, uh, my, so my Starlink system off of it while we were, while we were near the podcast.

00:42:43.91
Buddy
Yeah.

00:42:50.39
Jeremy
I think I remember that.

00:42:51.99
Keith
Yeah.

00:42:52.12
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you guys had like a wicked huge storm going on outside.

00:42:55.03
Buddy
Yeah. and

00:42:55.19
Keith
Yep.

00:42:57.56
Keith
Yeah, exactly.

00:42:58.81
Jeremy
Yeah, I remember that.

00:43:00.49
Buddy
that's one of the reasons why i want I chose this was because it's portable, it's solar. um You can run things like you could charge drones, computers, and and I do some work where, you know, drones are involved, computers involved. I have, you know, radios, different kit that I use in the every, you know, for the, what I do.

00:43:23.26
Buddy
And it's just, it's remote enough to where I don't have to have a giant gasoline generator that's allowed in the back of the, you know, vehicle or trailer or truck or whatever I'm in, van.

00:43:33.78
Buddy
So, you know, even a couple of these rate that are ready to go last you, you know, forever. So, and I have people that use them.

00:43:41.14
Keith
Yeah, and almost all of them, or at least all the good ones, they have apps on your phone so that you can actually literally check in on them anytime you want. You can get on your phone, click the button, and you can tell exactly how full it is, how much power it's got left.

00:43:53.22
Keith
You can do stuff with it, which is kind of cool.

00:43:55.09
Buddy
Yeah. So.

00:43:56.10
Keith
But Jackery is a big brand. Jackery is a cool name, so you know and it's it's hot, and they sell it and they sell it with really cool um you know commercials and things like that.

00:44:06.75
Keith
Which one do you have, Jeremy? Yeah.

00:44:08.95
Jeremy
um It's a different brand. um It's basically the the the same concept as the Jackery, not huge. And for some reason, I'm imagining the label right in front of my face and I can't remember the name of it.

00:44:22.82
Buddy
Yeah.

00:44:23.19
Keith
Oh, I see. i I thought you had a Jackery. I thought that's the one you you got.

00:44:26.52
Jeremy
No, no, no. i have ah I have a different brand. It's just... um It's the same concept, but I do have... I do i actually have solar... it's's I'm sorry, it's by Renogy.

00:44:38.21
Jeremy
R-E-N-O-G-Y.

00:44:38.36
Keith
oh yeah. Yeah.

00:44:39.32
Buddy
yeah

00:44:39.70
Jeremy
Yeah. And I have this thing. It's called the Solar Suitcase. It's basically... It's like a large, not huge, but it's basically my solar panels fold up along with the control the mechanism and they actually go into this carrying case. And then I have the Renogy box and um I've actually used the solar panels on the outside of my RV plugged into my my my just regular battery, you know, and it's kept it charged.

00:45:08.82
Jeremy
So having a solar generator, you know, in some people, they use that phrase solar generator.

00:45:09.91
Keith
Right, right.

00:45:15.12
Jeremy
It's just, it's a large battery. That's really what it is. But they are extremely, extremely good to have.

00:45:18.68
Buddy
Yeah.

00:45:21.69
Keith
It's a large battery bank and you can charge it by, you can, you can charge it by your wall. You can charge it by your, your ah car. It takes a long time though, in the vehicle, long, long time, but you can also charge it by the sun, you know, and that's your ultimate grid down situation.

00:45:30.46
Jeremy
Yes, it does. Yes, it does. Yeah.

00:45:36.86
Keith
If you want, i mean, if you want to have power, and you have you're in a grid-down situation, you've got to have a solar generator.

00:45:44.34
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:45:44.73
Keith
Because cause fuel runs out, the sun doesn't.

00:45:47.32
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. There's always going to be sun.

00:45:49.53
Keith
The only thing I would say, ah buddy, is, and it's a great gift, but I would say there should be a warning label in there that jaws will drop when you see the price of some of these things.

00:45:58.94
Buddy
Oh yeah. Yeah.

00:46:00.18
Keith
ah

00:46:00.38
Buddy
And there's different brands out there. Jackery. I like anchor products. A lot of my, I have several different battery packs.

00:46:06.01
Keith
Oh, yeah, anchor's great.

00:46:08.90
Buddy
I get anchor nest out for the water. And that we mentioned those the last podcast, but Dave from one of the, he's been on the podcast a couple times and he's part of the,

00:46:20.70
Buddy
listening audience and he's out there on Facebook. Um, I won't mention his last name, but, uh, we, we speak regularly and he was telling me about his from, uh, Harbor Freight and man, it sounds like it, it's a, it's least expensive than this model.

00:46:31.77
Jeremy
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:46:38.58
Buddy
And I think for this, what you would pay for the Jack you could get, you know, like two sizes up with the, the one from Harbor Freight.

00:46:45.51
Keith
Is that right?

00:46:46.10
Buddy
So yeah, it's, he,

00:46:47.06
Keith
Wow.

00:46:48.50
Buddy
he took He turned me on to it, and went and looked it. like, oh, yeah, yeah, this is definitely – but you can't get Harbor Freight on on Amazon. So, you know, so there you go.

00:46:59.13
Keith
No, you had to actually go to the store.

00:46:59.30
Buddy
But, yep, so ah maybe – yeah, I've never done that, but I always go the store if I'm buying some Harbor Freight.

00:47:01.75
Keith
Actually, yeah I think you can get stuff online for Harbor Freight. not sure if you can buy that, but...

00:47:09.82
Buddy
So, yeah, look into – you know, shop around and look and see – you know, but find out what you want first, so. And what your needs are, again, you know, you got to know what your needs are. And, you know, this is a time of year where, you know, know, everybody looks at, oh, it's the New Year's. It's time for me to, you know, start something new and let go of something. you know, I'm gonna quit drinking. I'm going to go to church. I'm going you know, do these things, go work out.

00:47:35.86
Buddy
You know, maybe look and see what you're really weak at and what you want to learn this year. I know i have personal goals for the next, you know, prepper year. So. And I think it's just only going to get worse.

00:47:48.34
Buddy
It's going get worse before it gets worse. So I think, you know, you're going to need to get in there.

00:47:52.47
Jeremy
that's the best That's the best way you could describe everything in this world. It's going to go worse before it gets really worse.

00:47:56.98
Buddy
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So we're going to, I'm, I'm also going to talk ah about some communications, of course, because me and Jeremy are on the same page about communicate. I guess all of us are on the on the communication thing and hopefully people out there are listening to us.

00:48:14.17
Buddy
The Baofangs are cool.

00:48:15.86
Keith
Well, ah oh i'm a total I'm a total novice, though, compared to you guys.

00:48:16.05
Buddy
There's a learning. Yeah.

00:48:19.50
Keith
But at least I have some. you know i've got the I've got the equipment now.

00:48:21.59
Buddy
Yeah.

00:48:22.66
Keith
so

00:48:24.28
Buddy
Well, and and there's a learning curve to the Baofangs. There really is. And there's some neat ones out there. You can talk farther at the Baofangs and stuff. But a company called BTEC, which is a Baofang company, it's the the USA branded Baofang company out of China.

00:48:42.20
Buddy
um

00:48:42.36
Keith
Did you say b as in boy?

00:48:44.49
Buddy
B as a boy, tech.

00:48:44.79
Keith
rob Bravo. Okay.

00:48:46.19
Buddy
Bravo, tech. B tech.

00:48:48.05
Keith
B-Tech.

00:48:48.18
Buddy
And, uh, you go on Amazon and we'll put some links in there, but you can buy what they call the FRS radios right out of the bag and their program, you can get one.

00:48:48.40
Keith
Got it.

00:48:57.49
Buddy
And Jeremy's talked about them before the program with, you know, 22 channels and, and they're going talk to two and a half miles depending on what's in between you and stuff. But they're making them now where they're like the Balfangs where, you know, they built in flashlight on them, the FM radio.

00:49:13.14
Buddy
So you can listen to the the news, uh,

00:49:15.64
Keith
Is this also, is this still a line of sight or are we talking like some, so some other kind of a technology?

00:49:20.82
Buddy
Still, yeah, still line sight. It's an FRS radio.

00:49:22.68
Keith
Okay.

00:49:25.46
Buddy
I don't think they have repeaters programmed into them. I doubt it.

00:49:28.76
Keith
So it's probably ah a somewhat diminished length of, ah you can go if you're, if you're in the hills or if you're in a, in a city or maybe in the woods.

00:49:38.36
Buddy
Well, I'm going to put it to you this way. They say 36 miles is is the maximum, but if you're out on the ocean or in the desert flat,

00:49:42.23
Keith
Oh, what?

00:49:48.18
Keith
you're you're talking like You're talking like Kansas. Okay.

00:49:51.45
Buddy
Yeah, if you're out really flat where there's um the ocean, you could probably talk to a boat that's 36 miles away. But if there's any kind of you know impedance at all between you, any kind of trees or buildings or hills or whatever, you're not going to get it. So it's a line of sight. But the cool thing is you can pull them out of the bag, yeah and you know, and you get two for like, you know, 40 bucks. pull them out of the bag, you got you hand them one to your buddy or you know your family member and you can walk out there, turn them on the same channel. They're they're really simple to use.

00:50:23.99
Buddy
So you know it's ah it's a way to communicate and they're FRS on the GMRS channels. So you're gonna be able to have enough channels to where you can you know get out there and actually try to talk to people.

00:50:35.61
Buddy
And it's just gonna be a simple way without the learning curve for the Balfang. So,

00:50:42.36
Keith
Yeah, it's interesting. I took my one of my bow fangs with the great big it's it's the UV eight eight watt and it's got the big long antenna on it.

00:50:51.94
Buddy
Yeah.

00:50:53.82
Keith
I bought the this giant antenna because i thought it looked really cool and I stuck that on there. Look like, you know, back in the old days, the G.I. Joe guys that had that antenna that stuck way above their head. um And I actually went out there and and I went through all different channels trying to find people listening to you talking to be like a fly on the wall. I found nobody.

00:51:10.11
Keith
Ain't nobody. umm du i'm I'm just too far out. don't just don't think, you know, I got to be like in a city or something.

00:51:16.22
Buddy
Yeah. And there's gotta to be somebody to talk to out there or listen to. So, you know, but the thing is, if you start hearing people talking went on yours, then you know, something's up, right?

00:51:27.03
Keith
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, exactly. That's true.

00:51:30.14
Buddy
So, okay.

00:51:30.42
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:51:31.19
Buddy
I'm going switch gears from that. um You know, everybody knows the importance or hopefully everybody by now knows the importance of just a a handheld, you know, communications thing. And, you know I'd like to, you know, get in there and you know, say, Hey, go buy a ham radio so you can talk to somebody, you know, in Ireland, but you know, I'm being realistic here. People just, you know, there's a learning curve to all that. And and that's for later episodes. So, but we'll get into that probably this year a little bit more.

00:51:59.22
Buddy
Um, anyhow. So, uh, the next thing is i think everybody, needs to get a, like a, a GPS system of some sort. Um,

00:52:10.26
Buddy
And you can buy them for $40. It's just a global ah a global positioning system. It's GPS. Around $100. From $40 to about $100, you can get a basic unit that you know you can see on there.

00:52:27.16
Buddy
And it has different screens and stuff. You can put waypoints in them. um And you can navigate with them if you need to. And they're battery-powered. As long as you have a satellite system up up above you, then You know, you're able to to pull down maps and you can, a lot of them, you have to pre-program, you have to, you know, pre-program your your maps that in your area and stuff. But some of them, the more expensive ones that I've used and and have, they'll just pick up.

00:53:00.44
Buddy
from the satellites and download maps where you are, you know, they're a lot smarter, but, um, you know, around a hundred bucks, you can get a pretty decent system. And, uh, it's a good piece of kit to carry with you day to day to you know, it can get you out of a jam maybe, you know, especially if the grid goes down.

00:53:17.94
Keith
It's a piece of kit that I don't have and I would love to have one. It's that that really is a great thing to have, man.

00:53:21.14
Buddy
Yeah. And it's, I, and I have, I've had a, a Rhino, it's a Rhino, I think a one 30, um Garmin Rhino 130 and it finally it's two I've got it down to like two and a half meters um five meters is is about where it sits it sets it it's shit the bed on me so but I've had it since 2004 so

00:53:32.70
Keith
How accurate is it?

00:53:39.00
Keith
Wow.

00:53:43.66
Keith
Wow. OK.

00:53:50.40
Keith
Yeah.

00:53:50.62
Buddy
I've been all over the world with it and it's worked so last time I pulled it out of the bag it was showing me waypoints from Afghanistan it just hadn't gotten updated from the satellites to from where I was now.

00:54:01.53
Keith
Yeah.

00:54:04.86
Buddy
So, but yeah, if you...

00:54:05.72
Keith
ah for The forester I had come out on my property a few weeks back, he had one and he was showing me like it was pinpointing exactly where we were standing. It's crazy, man.

00:54:16.54
Buddy
Yeah, if you're a gear nerd, man, this is this is ah definitely a piece of kit to get, you know.

00:54:16.98
Keith
How those things work.

00:54:22.90
Keith
Yeah.

00:54:23.26
Buddy
All your friends, you know, you'll impress all your friends with it for sure. And then the the last, I'm been saving this for the last, this is the the last piece that I would ask for would be a lock.

00:54:34.18
Buddy
And I want to say, but before I even get there, I'm going to say that i if when the grid goes down, there's certain things you need, like a water caulk, you know, water key, water caulk, whatever you call it.

00:54:46.35
Buddy
There's certain things to have, you know, that they'll make your life easier and save your life. Now, this is going to go into that category.

00:54:52.18
Keith
Don't you start laughing, Jeremy. I can hear it.

00:54:53.94
Buddy
Yeah.

00:54:54.01
Jeremy
like yeah

00:54:56.72
Buddy
That's why I said it.

00:54:59.35
Jeremy
This is the third time the night you've entered into adult film like range.

00:54:59.48
Buddy
That's why I said it.

00:55:04.11
Jeremy
like You can't.

00:55:04.66
Keith
ah

00:55:04.89
Buddy
Yeah.

00:55:05.34
Keith
i can I can hear you holding it in.

00:55:10.39
Buddy
So what I'm going to talk about is a lock picking set.

00:55:14.89
Jeremy
It's called a silk cock, dude. Yeah.

00:55:17.43
Buddy
Well, no, no, no, no. i did I said that to get you going.

00:55:18.94
Keith
ah yeah it's it's called the steel cog.

00:55:21.16
Buddy
No, no, this is actually...

00:55:21.56
Jeremy
yeah

00:55:21.58
Keith
He's like a water. It's like a water cock.

00:55:23.51
Jeremy
I can't, you you know, I'm not going to be able to contain myself if you do that.

00:55:23.50
Keith
I'm like, what?

00:55:26.46
Keith
No, I know.

00:55:31.58
Keith
I knew what he was talking about, but I almost Googled it just as just to make sure.

00:55:31.74
Buddy
So, oh

00:55:35.46
Keith
Are we talking about the same thing here?

00:55:35.67
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:55:37.58
Keith
would we

00:55:37.78
Jeremy
I was like, I better go into incognito mode for this one. There's no telling what's going to happen. ah

00:55:44.09
Keith
ah sorry Sorry, buddy. go Go back to what you're saying.

00:55:46.17
Buddy
no, I knew I went there on purpose.

00:55:46.52
Jeremy
Yes. Total professionals here. Total professionals.

00:55:49.53
Buddy
Yeah.

00:55:50.52
Jeremy
yeah

00:55:53.85
Buddy
come Okay. All right. So a lock picking kit. Now, what can you do with the lock picking kit? Well,

00:56:00.07
Keith
Oh, it's a good one. Good one.

00:56:02.65
Buddy
You can buy a trainer kit to train just in case you ever need it. and And if you need it, you have the kit there with you. But you can buy a trainer kit for like $30, and it it has you know a door lock, a cylinder lock, I guess it's called. And then your...

00:56:22.78
Buddy
pass block, you know, your, your high speed security locks and, you know, two, it'll have two to three, maybe four different types of lock to, to actual practice picking. And, I, I know people carry these with them all the time and, I've seen them used and it's got us out of a couple of jams.

00:56:41.21
Buddy
Uh, I personally don't have one. If anybody's listening and honest us here that from the authorities, I personally don't have one, but I know people who do.

00:56:45.05
Jeremy
Bye.

00:56:49.86
Keith
They're not illegal.

00:56:50.14
Buddy
And, They're not illegal. You can buy them on Amazon.

00:56:51.96
Keith
No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56:54.26
Buddy
But it's...

00:56:54.54
Keith
I've got a lock but lock picking ah picking book that goes through all in all the different types of locks out there and and how to pick them.

00:56:54.64
Buddy
Yeah.

00:56:58.17
Buddy
Yeah.

00:57:01.38
Keith
I just don't have a really good picking set. I had a good pick set that I used back in the in my old job because somebody's always losing a key in the business I was in.

00:57:11.46
Keith
So you know you're always trying to you know think of ways, but it was a cheap set and I'm not sure where it went. I'm going to pick up another one though.

00:57:17.66
Buddy
Well, you and you you touched on stuff. you know For $30, you can get an entry-level, no pun intended, lockpicking set, and it's a trainer. And you can actually use it on real locks and stuff because the trainers are real locks that you're practicing on. But you know pay a little more, you get a little more you know better kit.

00:57:36.86
Buddy
you know kid, I guess is what you want to say. But yeah, it's, it's, it's another one of those things where, you know, what is something I can get somebody who has everything? I'll bet you they don't have a damn lock picking set, you know?

00:57:49.14
Keith
yeah That's a good one, man.

00:57:49.66
Buddy
So, and, uh,

00:57:50.26
Keith
That's a really good one.

00:57:51.99
Jeremy
Yeah, that is a good one.

00:57:53.43
Keith
Yeah. they't think about I didn't think about that one.

00:57:56.41
Buddy
so that's about all I got.

00:57:57.30
Keith
So that was your that was your last one. good Good list.

00:57:59.65
Buddy
Yeah. That's

00:57:59.81
Keith
Both y'all did good list. Now I'm going to bring in my list and of course blow y'all away. But that's that's how i do that's how i do things, man.

00:58:04.53
Buddy
how you roll.

00:58:06.69
Keith
That's just how I roll. um Now you did steal ah one from me and that would be the grail ultra press. I'm doing water because that's just my thing. when it must That's my jam when it comes to survival. the ah You know, not the prepper side of it, but the survival side of it.

00:58:22.47
Keith
My jam is definitely the water. Um, so, uh, what do I have the grail one that you mentioned? I don't have the same one. The one I had was, uh, the grail ultra press, uh, water purifier and filter bottle. And it's basically just like ah a, a tumbler type of bottle, you know, like a water bottle, but it's got a, it's got a filter in it. They're high.

00:58:43.04
Keith
It's $75. But you're if you if you're into, this is this is one of those things, like you said, cry ah buy once, cry once. And if you're into clean water, this is what you know this is one of the types of things you you want to have. Now, if you want to go a little cheaper than that, you can look into, obviously there's the, the, um, the life straw, which we've talked about many times before. And I am a personal fan of all Sawyer products.

00:59:08.94
Keith
That's, that's the, that's the one I like. i think they're inexpensive. They work really well and there's all different types of styles and gadget, you know, gadgets that they have. So, um, now moving on, um,

00:59:22.42
Keith
And everything I've got, you can pretty much find on Amazon. um I went with a couple of... books to to start with. I have one of them already, but there's three books that I have on my list. And you can, you can find lots of them out there. One is water storage.

00:59:41.02
Keith
So it's tanks, cisterns, um aquifers, ponds, ah pools, different types of things, the ways of of storing water. These are things that we don't think about.

00:59:51.96
Keith
I really don't have a water storage system per se on my property. I've got a 15 gallon tank. And I got a bunch of other coolers. I got i got the the bathtub bladder. you know um Everybody's you've you seen that before. If you're prepper swallowing for any amount of years, you've heard of the water bladder for your for your tub.

01:00:11.22
Keith
um But these are bigger things. These are like you know tanks and cisterns and ways of building stuff. Find a book on that. um The paperback one I found was 18 bucks. So you can definitely find on that. There's a book out there called the Prepper's Water Survival Guide.

01:00:27.03
Keith
um Harvest, treat and store your most vital resource. That's the the title. It's 15 bucks. you It's 14, actually 14 bucks now. just It just went on sale.

01:00:38.68
Keith
um get one of these. This is a great gift to get somebody, a Prepper Survivalist for sure, but it's also a way to get somebody interested know in some of the important stuff that's out there. And the other book I've got is Rainwater Harvesting Made Easy.

01:00:54.52
Keith
This is something I'm going to get. i have the the Prepper's Water Survival Guide. It's really good. But the Rainwater Harvesting Made Easy, a beginner's guide to build and maintain your own sustainable clean water system for your urban home, rural farm, or homestead. It's a long title. $15. 15 bucks, and you have knowledge in your hand with pictures, diagrams, schematics, everything you need to to build these things.

01:01:23.03
Keith
So it's really good to have.

01:01:27.03
Keith
Okay. Let's see where I want to go to this one next. I'm saving the good one for last. um I'm sure you guys have heard of Berkey, the Berkey water systems.

01:01:39.54
Jeremy
so yeah

01:01:39.77
Keith
um They're expensive, but they're really good. And they're these are ah units that you put on your countertops, most of them. And they've got like one gallon ones, two, 2.5, three. And i think they even have a five gallon one.

01:01:56.50
Keith
um I like Purewell. it's ah It's a known brand. They're a little bit cheaper, but... Excuse me. I read reviews, and apparently there is some...

01:02:10.52
Keith
What do they call those? Class action suits on on the other one.

01:02:13.50
Jeremy
Mmm. Mmm.

01:02:15.82
Keith
and'm trying I'm trying to do this without getting in trouble. On the first one I mentioned, um that i didn't really i didn't know that that was going on, but apparently there's some...

01:02:25.90
Keith
some Something going on there. Purewell is basically the same type of a system. You want to find one that's with the... See, now you gave me the the the the throat stuff.

01:02:38.14
Keith
You want to find one that's 0.01 UM ultra filtration. That's what you're looking... You're not looking for 0.2 0.5 1 point something. You're looking for 0.01.

01:02:51.10
Keith
point zero one That's the filtration you you're looking for because that's going to get rid of, first of all, all of them are going to get rid of silt, sediment, yeah any kind of debris, flavor, smell. But these these ones that are those the 0.01 UMUF ultra filtration, they get rid of chlorine if you're living in a city. That's really good. all these different things and microorganisms. That's my big thing is the microorganisms. And there's some of these models that actually, you know, the ones that sit on your counter shop that actually have a UV light built into them. They're about $50 more. They go from like 180 to like 250 when you start doing things like that. But they actually have UV light in them that kill bacteria, which is pretty cool.

01:03:44.70
Keith
So, yeah, I would definitely look into one of these. Purewell is the one I would choose. But, you know, Berkey's a name brand. You know, they're're they're known. They're a known brand. So look into them. These are really great gifts to give people. My parents, my mom was trying to give us a Berkey. And I told her not to spend the money because we already have a water filtration system, expensive one, in the house that I that i installed.

01:04:07.64
Keith
um There's a video on it, actually, on the website, on the the YouTube channel. But um I already had one. So I said, you know, don't bother. Don't don't get it. Plus, we had and ah we had one of those water things. We put the five gallon, you know, the water cooler, heater and cooler. We got one of those already, too. So um next, I'm going to move on to.

01:04:29.40
Keith
Whole house filtration. Somewhere around one hundred and fifty bucks, let's call it that. I think I paid $1. for for hours. think I paid about 300, but they've come down since then. And there's, other there's different ones out there.

01:04:45.46
Keith
There's a brand called water drop, which I like state totally completely stainless steel. So it's a triple filter system. Basically it's very simple to install. You put it on a wall, your incoming water, excuse me, your incoming water goes into one side.

01:05:04.34
Keith
Are you guys here? Are you guys hearing all the ding dongs and stuff?

01:05:07.70
Jeremy
No, but I hear that.

01:05:08.14
Keith
You're not, you're not hearing that.

01:05:09.34
Jeremy
I hear that herp you got in your throat going on there.

01:05:11.22
Keith
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, because because somebody here is doing, you guys are doing, why are you guys doing these? you're You're doing signal stuff here. What are you doing?

01:05:22.01
Jeremy
making sure you have show notes.

01:05:24.12
Keith
Rock pot, portable, slow cooker.

01:05:27.28
Jeremy
That's my, that's my alibi.

01:05:29.30
Keith
Okay.

01:05:29.62
Jeremy
That's.

01:05:29.78
Keith
Well, every time you do that, it goes in my ear on my computer.

01:05:33.36
Jeremy
Oh,

01:05:35.35
Keith
And I'm like, what is, and it's tripping me up, man.

01:05:39.17
Jeremy
I'm telling you, they're watching you.

01:05:40.15
Keith
Okay. Okay. I always feel like somebody's what? Okay. So water drop TST dash UF 0.01 UF ultra filtration system for your house. 150 bucks does everything you need except for the UV light, but you can add one of those, which is my next item, which is the ice spring. I have the ice spring system. It's very good.

01:06:07.36
Keith
I spring UV F eight LED UV water filter. It is a ah deal that you, you basically plug in. Okay. And water goes through one side, comes out the other side and it comes out microorganism free.

01:06:23.26
Keith
the The water passes through a a really high, um, ah ah what what do you call it? High illumination LED UV light. It actually goes through a whole a light tube, a tube of light and comes out there. It kills it kills everything. 122 bucks for that. It is absolutely worth it.

01:06:47.00
Keith
You get those two things right there, 150 bucks, 122 bucks, get those two things right there or one or one or the other. Your whole house is now set up. for for clean drinking water anytime. And I just think that's a a good way to go. But you know that's just me. I'm a freak about water. Some people, eh, they give it give or take.

01:07:07.45
Keith
Now, the one I've been waiting for. totally to do

01:07:15.15
Keith
Don't worry about the brand too much. I like Vever. You guys were like, Vever? I never heard of Vever on that one episode. Alcohol still. And the dog chimes in right when i write write the right moment.

01:07:30.28
Jeremy
Oh, dude. Yeah.

01:07:30.81
Keith
See, the dog heard me.

01:07:31.58
Jeremy
yeah

01:07:33.23
Keith
The dog likes the alcohol still. Let me tell you something. You can get, you forget about, you know, these alcohol stills where you make alcohol. You, you can, you can actually buy them. Now you can buy them the whole entire systems. This one here from Vever, three gallons, stainless steel, alcohol distiller with copper tubing, uh, built in thermometer, water pump, a double thumper, uh, keg. And, uh, what else does it have? Um,

01:08:04.44
Keith
and and And a couple of other things. It's like a whole kit, okay?

01:08:09.25
Jeremy
What? Mm-hmm. it

01:08:09.67
Keith
$78. $78, and you have an alcohol still. That's the cheapest one. They've got them $100, $150. Vever makes some really good ones, and I've checked the reviews. People love them.

01:08:21.18
Keith
i'm I'm definitely getting one. now Now you're asking a still, so you're, wait, you make alcohol? As a prepper survivalist, a water a still and alcohol still can distill your water.

01:08:34.65
Keith
It can clean any water that you put in it. And what comes out the other side is pure drinking water.

01:08:40.65
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

01:08:40.85
Keith
You don't have to just make alcohol. Um, go ahead.

01:08:44.25
Jeremy
Now, then you can also make a hand sanitizer with it.

01:08:49.66
Keith
Yeah, absolutely. You can make disinfectants, medicinals, tinctures, because you can actually make high proof alcohol or or ethanol. OK, which it goes into all of these type of cleaning items, you know, sterilization for medical equipment, um you're making tinctures, essential oils, which I'm not really sure how that works.

01:09:02.33
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:09:09.04
Keith
But it says you can actually make essential oils from this stuff. um Of course, water purification, which is a huge one right there. Um, fuel sources. Okay. You can, alcohol in some certain cases can actually be used for, stoves, uh, lamps, uh, even small engines can be, there are some that can be run off of, of, uh, pure alcohol. There's, there's ways of doing this.

01:09:33.72
Keith
Um, and then of course, bartering and trading, which is another thing I put down on the list of, kind of, ah pros for getting one of these things. Um, um You can make items like alcohol and things like that, too, and purified water to actually use as barter items if you need it for.

01:09:49.54
Keith
And this is 78 bucks. It's fantastic.

01:09:51.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:09:52.10
Keith
I mean, as far as self-sufficiency concerned, you should definitely get one of these things.

01:09:52.54
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:09:56.89
Keith
Now, the cut that the go ahead.

01:09:57.05
Jeremy
Yeah. Distilled water you can drink. No, was going say, you can, a lot of people think you can't drink distilled water. You can. It's just distilled water has absolutely um, anything in it.

01:10:04.63
Keith
Oh, yeah.

01:10:09.40
Jeremy
It's just nothing in it.

01:10:10.01
Keith
It has nothing in it. That's right. It has got no minerals, the no none of the good stuff for you that you would normally have.

01:10:11.96
Jeremy
It's just water. Yeah. Yeah.

01:10:15.57
Keith
Yeah, it's just water.

01:10:15.61
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:10:16.89
Keith
It's the water vapors that have gone up. So it's just the H2O that comes out the other side, pure.

01:10:21.41
Jeremy
Mm-hmm. Yep.

01:10:22.49
Keith
You know, and I'm thinking, you know, in a grid down situation, you want water. I don't care if it's distilled. I'm drinking it. You know, to stay oh, I'm not drinking distilled.

01:10:28.40
Jeremy
Yep.

01:10:30.22
Keith
Yes, you are. You're drinking disill distilled.

01:10:31.34
Jeremy
Mm. Yeah.

01:10:32.09
Keith
Yeah. Yeah, you're going to drink. my Your kids are thirsty. They're drinking distilled water. but But you can also have fun with it, man. You can make alcohol you know and fun stuff. And the con is there's some places where you can't. But most places nowadays, you can actually make your own alcohol in one of these stills at your home in small quantities.

01:10:55.54
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:10:55.58
Buddy
Amen.

01:10:56.85
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:10:56.95
Keith
Yeah, there's videos all over YouTube on them. Check them out. They're awesome. People are making some of the greatest you know ah you know but beverages, basically. They're making their own you know vodkas and different types of stuff. As long as you're not mass-producing and selling it, which is highly illegal, I mean, you can check your your area. But most places allow a certain amount that you can make. Yeah.

01:11:18.33
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:11:20.06
Keith
You know, anyway, that's, that's my thing. And I was real excited about that because that's one of the things I want. It's been on my list for a long time and I'm thinking somebody might be getting it for me I don't know. i Just thinking.

01:11:30.79
Jeremy
that's ah that's That's pretty cool. I didn't know Santa had prearranged that.

01:11:37.02
Keith
Well, I got an in with Santa, so, you know.

01:11:38.62
Jeremy
Right, right.

01:11:39.69
Buddy
That might be one of those Jesus gifts.

01:11:41.97
Keith
now ah

01:11:45.88
Keith
Nice.

01:11:45.97
Jeremy
oh That's pretty good.

01:11:48.28
Keith
um You know, i hear that these small stills like this, what I've heard through a lot of the reviews is that they are gateways, like a gateway drug, because you just want the next best thing and the next best thing.

01:11:48.34
Jeremy
and still i still think about that.

01:12:00.59
Keith
There are people out there that have beautiful, unbelievably gorgeous still setups in their house. Just, just, they look, they look like ah art or an art form of of pipes and plumbing and different stuff, you know, and they're making really nice, good alcohol.

01:12:14.71
Jeremy
I got a I got a buddy mine who makes the shine that I like and um it's ah it's actually it's set up in his backyard and he lives in a very very nice gated community nobody messes with him because he sells him shine yeah

01:12:32.22
Keith
Yeah. And no nobody's saying anything.

01:12:36.07
Jeremy
No, no, no, they're not.

01:12:36.14
Keith
Nobody's going to say anything.

01:12:38.35
Jeremy
They're not. And it's interesting because it used to be where, you know, Moonshine was sort of like this, this mystery thing, you know, people didn't quite understand it.

01:12:48.89
Jeremy
And then, you know, they were intimidated by it. But it's actually become a little bit more mainstream now, especially ever since that show, Shiners. And he was actually, he was on an episode of that.

01:13:03.13
Jeremy
And yeah, yeah.

01:13:03.35
Keith
Oh, really? Was he really? Yeah.

01:13:05.66
Jeremy
And.

01:13:06.23
Keith
And just just so everybody knows, on that show, the guy who was doing all the stuff illegally was actually doing it legally. It it was more of a of a representation of his life before the show.

01:13:16.25
Jeremy
Yeah, yeah.

01:13:17.11
Keith
Because people were like, well, how can you make a show about somebody doing something illegal? It's because he was legal at the time they were making the show. So that's why he never got busted.

01:13:23.42
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, and and again, it's um they've taken that old school folklore of shine and brought it into so you know mainstream. And you have companies that actually have distilleries out there that sell what they market as moonshine. it's It's not what I would qualify as moonshine.

01:13:44.41
Jeremy
um

01:13:44.47
Keith
Oh, I don't know, man. What's the one I'm thinking of that I like it a lot?

01:13:49.27
Jeremy
a lot of people buy that old smoky stuff.

01:13:51.29
Keith
Old Smokey. I think it's good stuff, man.

01:13:54.46
Jeremy
I mean, it it it is.

01:13:54.55
Keith
And it's powerful.

01:13:57.21
Jeremy
i'm not ah I'm not a big fan of just straight clear corn liquor shine. I actually like some of the flavored stuff.

01:14:01.98
Buddy
Yeah.

01:14:03.42
Jeremy
Right.

01:14:04.06
Buddy
Yeah, the banana pudding.

01:14:04.67
Keith
Old Smokey's got the flavor.

01:14:06.87
Jeremy
Right.

01:14:06.87
Buddy
Apple pie, banana pudding. Oh, my God.

01:14:08.89
Keith
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:14:09.75
Jeremy
Yeah, but when you have backyard-made apple pie shine, it's ah very, very different.

01:14:09.97
Buddy
Making me thirsty.

01:14:09.97
Keith
Mm-hmm.

01:14:14.73
Buddy
Mm-hmm.

01:14:17.49
Jeremy
Because I have been known to keep jars of that in the freezer, and if we're going out on on the boat or going fishing, I'll pull out a jar, and we'll crank down that whole jar and then try to put that boat back up onto the dock.

01:14:30.21
Jeremy
And it is absolutely hilarious. Yeah.

01:14:33.29
Keith
i've never had I've never had the homegrown.

01:14:34.20
Jeremy
okay

01:14:35.93
Keith
I've heard it's like fire. you know it's it's It's incredibly powerful. But I do like the the the old smoky one, which I believe was a company that really started the whole shine popular thing.

01:14:39.80
Jeremy
It just depends

01:14:46.79
Keith
what Don't you think?

01:14:47.45
Jeremy
depends. Yeah, that yeah they're they're up in Gatlinburg. I've actually been yeah i've been to their distillery.

01:14:50.49
Keith
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah.

01:14:53.29
Jeremy
It's pretty cool. you know um But I don't know, man. Homemade Shine by some. Now, now not all is the the better than, some are better than others. I'll just say that.

01:15:04.20
Jeremy
That's all I'll say about it.

01:15:04.82
Keith
Yep. I brought the apple flavored one out to a camping deal. It was a, it was the prepper group. I was in off grid Texas many years ago. We went out camping and I brought one of those for, for the group. I think there was like probably 12, 15 of us out there.

01:15:18.78
Keith
We forgot all about prepping. I mean, we were just like, it was a fun time after that.

01:15:22.84
Jeremy
yeah Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it's ah it's easy to forget the natural universe after you've had a couple of sips of good shine.

01:15:34.55
Jeremy
So...

01:15:34.77
Buddy
Yep.

01:15:34.93
Keith
So yeah, that's that's my list. Your guys' list was awesome. um i think that's Any finishing thoughts? i mean, I think that was a good way to go if if folks want to get out there and buy some gifts for Christmas.

01:15:43.26
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:15:45.83
Jeremy
I've got one alibi, and it's something that I found a couple days ago, and it's called Rock Pot. It is a portable crock pot, and it has a very thick stone that you heat up and you put inside underneath the actual basin, and the and that is actually what cooks the food.

01:16:08.95
Jeremy
Like the rock itself, it's kind of like using a stone skillet.

01:16:09.44
Buddy
Oh.

01:16:13.24
Jeremy
But it's a round um stone. You can heat it up over a fire. You know, you can do a whole bunch of different ways to heat it up, but you heat that up.

01:16:21.15
Keith
What's the cooking time on that thing?

01:16:22.55
Jeremy
I think it depends. So they've got a couple different size. They've got a four quart. They got a seven quart. And the well, those are the best sellers. But they've got ah several different sizes. And the way that they demonstrate this is is like one guy, he's got he's over a campfire because we do a lot of RVing.

01:16:45.66
Jeremy
And we're always looking for new ways to cook stuff to bring with. Because on an RV, you know if you're plugging into power, um you can only access so much power on an RV before you trip a breaker.

01:17:00.09
Jeremy
So for people who like to camp a lot, and let's just say you guys are all going, you're going to go fishing, you're going to go hiking, you're going to do whatever, you could heat that stone up, put it inside of your crock, put your meal in there, and when you guys come back at the end of the day, It's ready to eat.

01:17:18.65
Jeremy
You know what i mean?

01:17:18.92
Keith
That's fantastic idea. I love it. What's the company what's the name of the company?

01:17:20.73
Jeremy
Yeah. Rock Pot. um

01:17:23.88
Keith
Rockpot.

01:17:24.41
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:17:24.57
Keith
Cool.

01:17:24.77
Jeremy
And they've got... I'm actually... i'm I'm strongly considering getting this, but they've got a four-quart Rock Pot mini bundle for $215, and it comes with a whole bunch of different stuff.

01:17:36.63
Jeremy
And then they've got the seven-quart Rock Pot bundle for $284, and it's got a bunch of different stuff. But the original Rock Pot mini is...

01:17:48.56
Jeremy
$1.99 and that's just the cooker, the basin, the lid, the stone, a little hook dewy to get the stone out and then the stand. And then the original seven quart one is $2.39.99.

01:18:02.23
Jeremy
So, and now of course sales are going on and all that. This would be the time to get something like that. I think it's super cool. Like it's a really good idea.

01:18:10.77
Keith
Yeah.

01:18:12.85
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:18:14.30
Keith
All right. Somebody take us out.

01:18:16.98
Jeremy
All right, get out there and get your stuff.

01:18:17.40
Buddy
Hey, I got one alibi.

01:18:18.78
Jeremy
Oh, you got an alibi.

01:18:19.22
Buddy
ah go i got an alibi here.

01:18:21.69
Jeremy
Here we go.

01:18:21.78
Buddy
um I got us a permanent user code, discount code for Refuge Medical. It's TOPS10. It's 10% off all your all your purchases. so But we we had the last one we had was just for a limited time.

01:18:40.79
Buddy
This one is a permanent one. that'll It'll be there forever.

My Prepper Brothers and Sisters…

… It’s never to late to find that perfect gift for the Prepper Survivalist in your life, or maybe even sneak one under the tree just for you. Sign it Survival Santa, and no one will be the wiser.

Links to most of the gear we discussed tonight will be down in the show notes for you to have a look at. Do us a favor and click on at least one of those associate links before you head on down the road. The click alone helps out the show greatly, costs nothing to you, and means everything to us. Call it an early Christmas gift from you to the TOPS Bunker Podcast and everyone gets to smile this Christmas.

To all of our listeners around the globe… We wish you all a Very Merry and Happy Christmas.

Stay Prepped… Stay Happy….

Thanks for Listening… And Goodnight…




Head Shot

Keith Otworth

Host
Head Shot

Rhonda Triggs

Host
Contributor

Buddy

Co-host
Contributor

Jeremy

Co-host