What did you do today to prepare?

Any luck with your search, yet?

I only dabble in hazmat.  I worked in the industry in a previous life (long ago) had to do the MOPP thing in the military, and have basic hazmat operations training for the FD.  My job at an incident would be support of our dedicated hazmat guys by doing things like decon, monitoring, etc.  

That said, I do know that different protective ensembles are very specific to the hazards you're expecting.  Our FD protective clothing ranges from basic station wear and gloves (for medic runs) to the full-on moon suits used by our hazmat guys when they don't know what the hell they're going into OR when they DO know what they're going into and it's just that scary.   After much hem-hawing, NIOSH and OSHA have stated that our turnout gear + SCBA will cover us for brief forays into most hazmat environments - - think of a chemical leak where we are making initial entry to drag people out of the hot zone.  That is top of the line respiratory and facial protection, but basically just thick clothes covering the rest of our exposed skin.  Turnout gear is by no stretch of the imagination airtight or watertight, but we routinely go into 100% IDLH environments during housefires with that gear - - all kinds of nasty shit in the smoke from a house fire, including HCN, phosgene, CO, particulate hazards, yadda yadda.

For general hazards avoidance is the number one priority - - everybody here knows that already, I'm just trying to organize my thoughts.  Stay inside if you can, keep your doors and windows closed, turn off your house or car HVAC system, etc.  If you've got to go out into a 'contaminated' environment, depending on the contaminant you might be able to throw on an N95 mask and standard work coveralls, then make sure you take the coveralls off before you come in and set up a hasty shower in your garage or backyard.  That will cover a huge variety of situations, and that would be my semi-educated take on the middle ground you're seeking.  Using the full face mask (with appropriate individual or stacked cartridges) will give you protection of your facial wet parts as well (nose, eyes), important depending on the hazmat - - ammonia gas, for example, turns into a very nasty caustic when it hits moisture.  It will burn the shit out of eyes, nose, respiratory tract.  Dry skin?  Not a huge issue, at least with limited contact.

Fallout?  Same traffic.  Keep it off your face and out of your lungs/stomach, and take a shower before you go inside.  Wash the coveralls after use.

Pandemic?  Probably talking airborne contaminants, and an N95 mask will protect you from almost all that stuff as long as you aren't rolling around in bodily fluids that aren't yours.

Hazmat protective ensembles are an extensive topic, but for a run of the mill incident, I really do think a tightly woven outergarment that covers most of your skin and a N95 respirator or full face respirator will cover all but the most uncommon incidents.  If you're worried about sticking out, put the coverall on over your tyvek.  

And for the record, let me reiterate that I am NOT an expert in this field.  If somebody on the forum wants to loudly and publicly tell me I'm full of shit for the advice I'm giving, I won't have my feelings hurt. 

Honestly, that will probably get you through 99% + of most things I can think of that I would count as a realistic hazard.

Today, I learned how to kill a chicken for cooking. Turns out one of my she's is really a He and decided to announce it yesterday. The good side is I was home after spending a week in North Carolina, so the neighbors should only be mildly annoyed as it was only 1 morning of the alarm clock going off...
I'm used to quartering and slicing up a chicken (Thanks G'mom!)so I only needed to brush up on the first part.
Late yesterday when I heard him start his croaking (not really crowing) I grabbed him and put him in a cage sans food (Turns out this was the proper first step). He then decided today was going to be *The day* he announced to the world he was here. Good ol "cock a doodle doo's every few minutes) I grabbed him and hypnotized him to shut him up while I was grabbing the tools I needed (for those who've never done it link:

).


I had used this video as a basis earlier to make sure I had the method right:


Step 0.5, Separate chicken for at least 12 hours with no food so the digestive system is empty.
Step 1, place a large stock pot on stove, heat water to 150* add a single drop of dish soap.
Step 2, grab hypnotized chicken and strung his legs up. just a quick slip knot on a post on the screened porch.
Step 3, lower rope till he is hanging inside a 5gal bucket. (Quick note for those not familiar with chickens: hanging them upside down tends to 'calm' them, but it affects their breathing as well)
Step 4, with a sharp knife, stretch the neck out and slice the jugular. Allow it to bleed out in the bucket. nerves will jerk it a few times. I adjusted the rope so his head was almost at the bottom.
step 5, After a few minutes take the bird and dunk it a few times inside the stock pot to soak all the feathers. submerge as much as possible. You want the feathers to easily pull out. Watch for the skin on the feet to start to be able to be peeled, and remove the bird.
Step 6, (This part sucked) Since I dont breed meat birds, I dont have a chicken plucker. I got to do it all by hand. Took about 5 minutes for the bird. I did it in the kitchen sink so I could contain the mess. Was pretty much grab a handfull and pull. rinse look, repeat.
Step 7, after plucked, remove the head and feet, quarter the bird and get ready for supper...

If any more of the ladies turn out to be laddies, I'll take pics as I go. 
I should mention that step 8 is to completely clean and sanitize the kitchen for my protection...

It appears the last of the new batch is also a rooster I'll take some picks this time...

That hot water method is money.

Only birds I've cleaned are doves and they're a lot smaller. On larger birds it seems like ripping off the feathers dry would take a lot longer on a chicken.

No. We're looking at egg production when we start chickens. I lost the meat bird debate. Er.

But boiling water is the ticket. Some of my duck hunting friends use a hand torch to finish of the residual down.