American Preppers Network

The Time To Be Happy Is Now... Right!?

2012-01-29T22:57:00.000-08:00

Author | Hugh Vail

Sunday, according to most religions is a day to contemplate, meditate and dedicate your time and efforts the God, which usually means reading, praying, taking cookies to the neighbors, hanging out with the family. In our home it always means "Sunday Dinner", usually at grandma's house as she goes to war with the kitchen; every Sunday she turns her General Electric, Kitchen Aid and Pampered Chef tools into weapons of mass destruction. Recipes past down generation upon generation have little been altered, remaining true to taste and satisfaction testified by family & friends as we moan our approvals when dinner ends.

Blocks on My Desk

Sunday morning is quiet, and family members are found reading, studying and pondering various topics of personal interest.
I was intrigued this morning by three little blocks of wood on my desk, each block inscribed with a few words, and when stacked together they read:

"The Time To Be Happy Is Now"

The saying is cliche, yet true. After rearranging the blocks into a different order, which changed the intended statement into a question. I think often about about

Blocks Still on My Desk

the rearranged blocks' question and internally we know the answer is 'yes', but many battle with a remembrance and resolve to a quotidian happiness.
Now do not misinterpret this, because there is much we are all grateful about, just look at the book behind the blocks, a book about positioning yourself in an economically advantageous manner despite what the future will be like, a book about education, and a book about history. The very essence of preparedness positions ourselves emotionally, physically, financially, socially, spiritually and mentally to be without fear, worry and anxiety.

Author David McCullough

Author, narrator, historian, lecturer, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, David McCullough was my choice of study a few months ago. Having read his books "1776" and "John Adams" I thought it was time for a refresher on McCullough's works and see what else may peak curiosity & inspiration.
Google led me to a recorded devotional, where McCullough spoke at Brigham Young University on "The Glorious Cause of America"
Impressed with this speech, and contemplating back to the wooden blocks on my desk McCullough talks about the challenging times that our Founding Fathers battled.

"They were living in the present, just as we do. The great difference is that it was their present, not ours. And just as we don’t know how things are going to turn out, they didn’t either."

David Walker, former Comptroller of the United States, teaches that "We have four deficits: a budget deficit, a savings deficit, a value-of-the-dollar deficit and a leadership deficit".

There is a leadership deficit in our country today, likewise there were many deficits in the our country during the times of Adams, Jefferson and Washington. By virtue of reason 'deficits' themselves are not the corroding powers that threaten to destroy.

Describing Gen. Washington McCullough says "He made dreadful mistakes, particularly in the year 1776. They were almost inexcusable, inexplicable mistakes, but he always learned from them. And he never forgot what the fight was about—“the glorious cause of America,” as they called it. Washington would not give up; he would not quit."

Great leaders exist today, as they always have. Great leaders are required today to rise forth, just as they have always been required to do in the country's past. Uniting under that same 'glorious cause of America' that the hearts, minds and support of the people may better hedge a path for such leaders to sustain the glorious cause of America is of the highest import.

The anxiety of 2012 should not be the great cause of preparedness. The values, principles and precepts of american preparedness should be lived accordingly and regardless of economic prosperity or collapse. Preparedness is easily prioritized during times like these and while the American Prepper's Network strongly advises every American to invest in the security of preparedness with a year's supply of water, food and supplies. We also remind you that 'today is the time to be happy'.

Support the APN: Shop Here

When You're The Doctor: Over The Counter Medicines

2012-01-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

Author: Dr. Bones
Website: DoomAndBloom.net

Hey Preppers,

We spend a lot of time talking about natural and alternative remedies, and have made recommendations of what herbal medicines to have in your storage. We’ve also discussed antibiotics and a number of other prescription medications you should stockpile and how to obtain them. We haven’t spent much time, however, on which over-the-counter medications are important to stockpile now.

Over the counter (OTC) medications deal with a wide variety of problems; many of them were once prescription medications. These medications are widely available, and easy to accumulate in quantity. As such, they are ideal for the survival medic’s cache of medical supplies. Given the complexity of manufacturing pharmaceuticals, these drugs will be nearly impossible to produce after a collapse. Even aspirin, the oldest manufactured drug, won’t be available (at least not in a form you’ll recognize).

The Physician’s Desk Reference puts out a guide to OTC medications with descriptions, images, risks, benefits, dosages, and side effects. Consider this book for your survival medical library.
Let’s put together a list of what you absolutely must have in quantity as part of your medical supplies. The medications will be listed by their generic names, with U.S. brand names in parenthesis where applicable. Adult doses are also listed. Here’s our list, in no particular order:

Ibuprofen 200mg (Motrin, Advil): A popular pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, and fever reducer. This medication is useful for many different problems, which makes it especially useful as a stockpile item. It can alleviate pain from strains, sprains, arthritis, and traumatic injury. As well, it can help reduce inflammation in the injured area. Ibuprofen is also useful in reducing fevers from infections. The downside to Ibuprofen is that it can cause stomach upset. Ibuprofen can be used 1 or 2 every 4 hours, 3 every 6 hours, or 4 every 8 hours.

Acetaminophen 325mg (Tylenol): Another popular pain reliever and fever reducer, this medication is known as Tylenol in the United States. It can be used for all of the problems that you can take Ibuprofen for, with the added benefit of not causing stomach irritation or thinning the blood. Unfortunately, it has no significant anti-inflammatory effect. This drug is excellent for treatment of pain and fevers in children at lower doses. Tylenol comes in regular and extra strength (650mg); adults take 1-2 every 4 hours.

An Aside: Patients with heat stroke receive no benefit from efforts to reduce their body core temperature with Ibuprofen or Acetaminophen; these drugs work best when the fever is caused by an infection, and don’t work as well when infection is not involved (e.g., heat stroke).

Asprin, 325mg: If you have Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen in your medical storage, why consider Aspirin? Aspirin has been around since the late 19th century as a pain-reliever, fever reducer, and anti-inflammatory, but it has blood thinning properties as well, as may be all we have to help those with medical issues that require the use of anti-coagulants It also useful to treat older folks with coronary artery disease. If you suspect someone of having a heart attack, have them chew an adult aspirin immediately. The ingredient in Aspirin can also be obtained by chewing on a cut strip of the underbark of a willow, aspen or poplar tree. Take 2 adult aspirin for pain, fever, and inflammation, 1 baby aspirin (81mg) daily to help with coronary artery disease and as an anticoagulant. In a collapse situation, higher doses may be appropriate to replace drugs like Coumadin, but have not been fully researched. Watch for stomach upset.

Loperamide, 2mg (Imodium): There’s a high likelihood of food and water contamination issues in a collapse situation, so this medication is essential as an anti-diarrheal. By slowing intestinal motility, less water loss and, thus, dehydration, will occur; dehydration due to diarrheal disease killed more soldiers in the Civil War than bullets did. With diarrheal disease, you often have nausea and vomiting, so you will want to have:

Meclizine 12.5, 25, 50mg(Dramamine, Antivert): Mecilizine is a medication that helps prevent nausea and vomiting. Often used to prevent motion sickness, Meclizine also helps with dizziness, and tends to act as a sedative as well. As such, it may have uses as a sleep aid or anti-anxiety medication. Take 1 25mg tablet 1 hour before boarding , or 50-100mg daily in divided doses for dizziness, anxiety or sleep.

Triple Antibiotic Ointment (Neosporin, Bacitracin, Bactroban): In situations where we are left to fend for ourselves, we’ll be chopping wood and performing all sorts of tasks that will expose us to risk of injury. When those injuries break the skin, it puts us in danger of infections which could lead to a life threatening condition. Triple antibiotic ointment is applied at the site of injury to prevent this from happening. It should be noted that triple antibiotic ointment won’t cure a deep infection; you would need oral or IV antibiotics for that, but using the ointment immediately after an injury will give you a good chance at preventing it. Apply 3-4 times a day.

Diphenhydramine 25mg, 50mg(Benadryl): An antihistamine that helps alleviate the itching, rashes, nasal congestion and other symptoms of allergic reactions. It also helps drain the nasal passages in some respiratory infections. At the higher 50 mg dose, it makes an effective sleep aid. Use 25mg every 6 hours for mild reactions, 50mg every 6 hours for severe reactions, anxiety or sleep.

Hydrocortisone cream (1%): Speaking of rashes, this cream is used for various types of dermatitis that causes redness, flakiness, itching, and thickening of the skin. It’s a mild steroid which reduces inflammation and, as such, the various symptoms of allergic dermatitis, eczema, diaper rash, etc. Apply 3-4 times a day to affected area.

Omeprazole 20-40mg, Cimetidine 200-800mg, Ranitidine 75-150mg, (Prilosec, Tagamet, Zantac, respectively): In a situation where we may be eating things we’re not accustomed to, we may have issues with stomach acid. These antacids will calm heartburn, queasiness, and stomach upset. Calcium Carbonate (Tums) or Magnesium sulfate (Maalox) are also fine in solid form. These medications are also useful for acid reflux and ulcer disease. Look for my article on these issues and medications in the near future.

Clotrimazole, Miconazole cream/powder(Lotrimin, Monistat): Infections can be bacterial, but they can also be caused by fungus. Common examples of this would be Athlete’s feet (tinea pedis), vaginal infections (monilia), ringworm , and jock itch (tinea cruris). Clotrimazole and Miconazole are examples of anti-fungal medications that would be useful to treat these conditions, which will be just as common in times of trouble as they are now, if not more. Apply twice a day externally, or once daily intra-vaginally. Some vaginal creams come in different strengths. In some, the whole treatment course is over in one day; in others, 3 days or a week.

Multivitamins: In a societal collapse, the unavailability of a good variety of food may lead to dietary deficiencies, not just in calories but in vitamins and minerals. Vitamin C deficiency, for example, leads to Scurvy. To prevent these issues, you should have plenty of multivitamins, commercial or natural, in your medical storage. You won’t have to take these on a daily basis; many multivitamins give you MORE than you need if taken daily, and you’ll just excrete what your body can’t absorb. In a collapse, once a week would be sufficient to prevent most problems.

The good news is that you can probably obtain a significant amount of all of the above drugs for a reasonable amount of money. To retain full potency, these medications should be obtained in pill or capsule form; avoid the liquid versions of any of these medicines if at all possible. When storing, remember that medications should be stored in cool, dry, dark places. A medicine stored at 90 degrees will lose potency much faster than one stored at 50 degrees.

Over the counter drugs are just another tool in the medical woodshed; accumulate them as well as prescription drugs such as antibiotics. Essential oils, herbal supplements, and medical equipment are also important. With a good stockpile, you’ll have everything you need to keep it together health-wise, even if everything else falls apart.
Dr. Bones

What would you do in a survival situation when help is NOT on the way? The Doom and Bloom™ Survival Medicine Handbook is a must-have addition to your survival library! If you're responsible for the health of your loved ones, you'll want this medical guide to keeping it together, even if everything else falls apart. See the trailer at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb3vdQecUPM

Please remember to support the APN by getting prepared with all your food, gear, supplies and products. Visit our store

The 10 Rules For Your Emergency Food Pantry

2012-01-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

By Tess Pennington

Those of you who plan to take the first steps toward preparing for emergencies may feel a bit overwhelmed at where to begin. After all, there is a lot of food to choose from at the grocery stores. Many websites, including this one encourage families to start buying small amounts of food related preparedness items each time they go shopping. This way, your budget is not dramatically affected.

Food storage calculators are a great tool to incorporate in your preparedness planning, and can help you understand how much food your family will need for a given emergency. The food storage calculations can also be printed out and used as an inventory list to keep you on track in terms of what preparedness supplies you have and will need.

To make the most of your emergency food supply, keep these essential food pantry rules in mind before purchasing:

Caloric intake is an important factor in survival. In any disaster situation, you want to avoid malnutrition. Having foods stored to prevent this health issue will keep you at your optimum health. Stock up on foods that provide you with essential nutrients to maintain body functions, proteins and carbohydrates, fats for energy, as well as foods that are not high in salt (the more salty your food is, the more water you will drink). To calculate how many calories you will need in your diet, click here.
Consider buying multifunctional food items. Items that can serve more than one purpose will help your finances, as well as save precious space in the food storage pantry. Items such as oats, pasta, rice, wheat and beans are some great low-cost foods will serve a variety of uses.
Store high energy snacks to help boost energy levels. Eating snacks that are high in complex carbohydrates and protein will provide you with a guaranteed energy boost. High energy snacks such as nuts, peanut butter, crackers, granola bars and trail mix can be stored for up to 1 year and will help keep energy levels and spirits high in an emergency scenario.
Bring on the protein! Protein is an essential ingredient in our daily diets and cannot be omitted out of a survival diet. Canned meat is a good source of protein and can also help you maintain your energy level. Meats such as tuna, ham, chicken and spam are great additions to the food pantry and are multifunctional. (Remember, the oil in canned meat can be used as an emergency candle.) Beans are another great source of protein, and when beans are accompanied with rice, it makes a complete protein which provides all the amino acids needed to survive. One serving of beans and rice provides 19.9 g, or 40 percent of your daily vitamins.
Don't forget the basics. Essential staples such as cooking oil, flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, spices, baking soda, baking powder and vinegar should not be overlooked. If they are present in your kitchen, they should likewise be present in the emergency food supply.
Convenience helps in stressful situations. Many moms know that boxed dinners can be a lifesaver when you are in a time crunch. Having some pre-packaged dinners and meals-to-grab during emergency scenarios will help you being acclimating yourself to cooking in a grid down scenario as well as can help provide some comfort at the same time. Personally speaking, my family has the "just add water" pancake mixes, corn breads and drink mixes that are a great convenience.
Variety's the very spice of life, that gives it all it's pleasure. Variety in your food pantry is important and can prevent the monotony of the same type of food. Having a well rounded food storage will cut down on culinary boredom, as well as balance your diet. Further, stocking up on a variety of spices will also enhance your food pantry.
Find comfort in the little things. Have some comfort food items that provide enjoyment to the family. Items such as popcorn, sweet cereals, hard candy, juice boxes, pickles, applesauce, pudding, cookies could be a great way to provide a bit of normalcy to the emergency situation you may face.
Have backs up for your backs ups. Compressed food bars are lightweight, taste good and are nutritious. Having food bars as a back up to your existing food supply can provide you with piece of mind knowing you have an alternative to turn to if you run out of food. Further, these are great additions to your 72-hour bag or bug out vehicle. A review of the different types of bars can be read here or you can practice your survival skills and make your own with this recipe. MRE's are another alternative food choice to turn to if you happen to run out of food in your pantry. Although many have turned their nose up at MRE's (due to their high amounts of preservatives), it will provide you with sufficient calories and nutrition when it counts. Note: These should not be the only items in your food supply. Overtime, you could become nutrient and vitamin deficient. Need a Kit? click here
Rotate and resupply when needed. Any items bought to the food storage closet should be used, rotated and resupplied. This is the best way to have the freshest foods available in the event that a disaster occurs. When organizing food reserves place the item that has the earliest expiration date in the front so that it is used first. FIFO is a well known acronym used in the restaurant business that stands for, “First In, First Out,” and can be incorporated in your food storage endeavors. Do an inventory check every 6 months to make sure that canned goods, preserves and other storage items are within their expiration dates.

Keeping the above considerations in mind when purchasing your food supply will provide your family with a well rounded food pantry stocked with an array of foods that will assist in promoting a healthy diet. Not listed in the suggestions is water. You must have water to survive. To learn more about potable water, click here. It would be prudent to have a 2-week supply of water on hand, as well as a water filtration device to rely on for extended disasters.

Prepping is a passion for some. For others it is the most efficient way to keep their family as safe as possible. For further resources and a list of essential items for your emergency supply, click here.

Remember to support the APN by shopping and preparing via our American Preparedness Store
Related Article Items in our Store: Protein, 72hr Kit, Water, Family Food Storage Supplies, Fruits & Vegetables

Where Preppers Prep

2012-01-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

The American Prepper's Network (APN) is exactly that - a network of preppers across america sharing their tips and ideas, as well as philosophies and paradigms with the central purpose of how Americans can best support our great nation, and best support each other during events or crisis' often referred to as "teotwawki".

"It's never too late to prepare for The End Of The World As We Know It." - Glenn Beck

On Jan 21, 2012 Reuters published an article that began trending and was picked up on Drudge Report the article quoted such great writers/bloggers as Michael T. Snider author of "The Economic Collapse" blog.
Reuters wrote a follow up article two days later, which was found quoting much of James W. Rawles, author of the ever popular Survival Blog , and his book "How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It" (thought of as the prepper's bible)

Popular Mechanics wrote an article almost exactly 1-year ago, featuring the values and paradigms of Preppers as a community effort.

"So called preppers, unlike survivalist treat self-reliance and disaster preparation as a communal responsibility"

Glenn Beck's newsletter- The Blaze sent out an article yesterday purposing this question

"Wondering how [to] secured these items? There’s an entire market that caters to these individuals (most vendors operate on the internet). These companies sell many of the items that Tegeler has in her own home, as they teach skills or sell the products needed to ensure individual and family survival pending disaster."

The APN is working diligently to continue to provide america with forums, blogs and other platforms to support the prepper community. We are currently in process of developing a new platform that will allow the amateur & expert preppers and survivalist to contribute official articles and posts out to the entire network; additionally we have announce on our forum and Facebook wall and tweets that we are now helping americans, preppers and survivalist with their preparedness items.

Everything from 1 year family supplies to individual cans of your favorite freeze dried meals from Mountain House, Backpacker's Pantry and freeze dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetables from Tomorrow's Harvest.

There is water storage, and Wondermills, Sunovens and even Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Series manufactured by Gerber Gear.

The new APN store is enabled for three reasons:

1) Help families understand what products will best fit their needs

2) Eliminate confusion from companies that are more about marketing than they are about prepping

3) Support APN members & network through the proceeds, by developing more efficient forums, blogs and communities

The APN is also offering our store to be a platform for products made by preppers for preppers to be able to sell online through the APN, so if you have a product and would like to participate in our affiliate program or wish to see a particular product on our store please let us know by contacting hugh@preppersnetwork.com

Analyzing Risks

2012-01-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

By Westfalia

Sibitotique.blogspot.com

Two of the most popular acronyms within the Prepper and Survivalist Community are SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan) and TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It). What these acronyms truly represent is a matter that varies heavily depending on how that does the classification. Some people can use SHTF as way to describe that they lost their job while other use it to describe a full scale breakdown of modern society. In this article I will take an alternative look at this subject and try to give some alternative suggestions concerning how one can approach and think about different type of Disasters and Risks. This article is also intended to be a complement to the article about Risk Assessments intended to provide a more comprehensive framework for assessing the potential impacts of various threats.

1.) The Scale
Disasters comes in all forms and sizes; from large scale natural disasters like Earthquakes that may affect tens thousands of people to smaller disasters like automobile accidents that may just involve a few people. A disaster may just involve a few persons a personal level, it may affect a local community, a region, an entire nation or it may affect the world on a global level.

2.) Consequences
Disasters may affect people in many kinds of ways; one of the obvious results is Casualties in the form of dead and wounded. Disasters can also affect the physical and mental health of those affected; and in many cases like the nuclear power plant meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima it can be very difficult to establish exactly what the long term effects for the affected will be.

Infrastructure is something that can often be affected resulting in a situation when roads, the electrical grid, gas pipes, electronic communications, water pipes and sewage maybe interrupted. This can be the case during wars and natural disasters but there are also other types of disasters like pandemics that may not affect infrastructure.

Property and Economical Loses is often a major problem when people can lose their homes, savings, businesses and jobs. People can get injured or disabled resulting in additional long term economical los.

Disasters often have Other direct consequences for politics especially in the form of blame games and assigning guilt. This can result in everything from political resignations, or new institutions like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

This is just a few examples of what type of consequences a disaster can have; all disasters are unique and have their own specific effects. The result of these effects is not only the disaster itself, it is also an effect by the of buildings in case of earthquakes, topography, what economical resources that is available, the resources and training of first responders and the population density of an affected area just to name a few possible factors.

3.) The Perspective of Time
Fast or Slow Onset
Disasters are often viewed as fast dramatic events like the Haiti Earthquake or The Nuclear attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is however not the case in all types of disasters, some disasters slowly gain momentum like Famine and Starvation. Two examples of other potential slow onset threats are Peak Oil and Global Warming. Other type of threats like Hurricanes can be detected days before they strike and thereby allowing an Early Warning.

The Duration
Some disasters like Earthquakes and Tsunamis can cause an enormous amount of damage during a very short period of time and then be over. Other type of disasters like Famine or an Economical Depression may last for months, years or even decades.

For individuals this aspect can indicate how much food or water storage that may appropriate for different disasters, for organizations that work with Crisis Management this can provide an insight into to what type of endurance the organization must be able to poses in order to manage emergencies with an extended duration including aspects like the rotation of man-power and how much supplies that must be available.

4.) The Origin of the Disasters: Man-Made or Natural Disasters
One very popular way to describe disasters is to split them into two categories; Man-Made and Natural Disasters. Natural Disasters involve all type of natural phenomena like Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, Wild Fires, Hurricanes and Tornadoes. Man-Made disasters refer to events like Human Conflict, War, Terrorism and large scale accidents and failure of technical systems. This distinction between the origins is not perfect; many researchers emphasize that the Impact of Natural Disasters is a direct consequence of building standards, population density, access to Early Warning Systems to name a few factors. This is especially clear when it comes to number of dead in high-income countries and low income countries in various disasters. Natural Disasters can also trigger the failure of Man-Made systems like case of the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant Disaster.

Conclusion
This article is intended to provide some support for people how want to get a better understanding of Risks and Threats they may face. In this article I have discussed some of aspects of disasters but it’s important to understand that every disaster and risks presents its own specific challenges. One Size Does Not Fit All.

After you finished your Risk Assessment and Analyzed the specific Risks it’s also important to think about what Risks that you have not included into you assessments. A Risk Assessment can be of great help but it can also mask threats; especially those that does not correspond well to current trends and knowledge. What potential danger do you not view as Risks and Why? What information supports your assumptions and what information challenge them?

Oh, the Possibilities

2012-01-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

By CCCooper

While many folks believe in the Boy Scout Motto "Always Be Prepared", very few actually are. Even the smallest minor inconvenience can cause havoc in the average person's life. A flat tire, fender bender, or major freeway pile-up can lead to unexpected expenses, loss of work, or even loss of life or limb.

Some of the folks in the US are old hands at dealing with natural disasters. There are the people in Florida and the Guld Coast that have hurricanes to think about. The people in the mid-west and west deal with tornadoes and blizzard with the occasional dust storm thrown in. Out in California and the Pacific Coast, earthquakes are a definite concern. Still, with the almost absolute possibility that one or more of these natural events will occur, people are still unprepared when they do happen.

What would happen if there was a really huge natural disaster? An event that was not local but of a Regional impact? A Massive eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera would affect many sstates with ash and fallout. Water sources would be affected as well as crops and growing seasons. Many aspects of the trucking and shipping industry would benegatively impacted as well.

What about the New Madrid Fault in Missourri? Many believe that if it does go, it could possibly cause the Gulf of Maxico to encroach as far as Arkansa and Southern Mississippi. Landscapes could be changed drastically and 3-4 East-West Interstate Highways will be destroyed. The loss of life would be immense.

If there are earthquakes, there may be Tsunami. Giant waves caused by huge shifts in the earths crust. If the Las Palma Volcano does blow, the resulting Tsunami would be 300-400 meters high and impact the earstern coast of the United States and parts of Central and South America.

Heat and cold extremes have been minor inconveniences to most people, but if the weather were to change in some unforseen manner, it would catch a large number of people off guard. The weather can be affected by the Sun (increased solar activity) or by volcanic ash thrown high into the atmosphere.

There are many more events that could happen with no interference from man. There are, however, almost, if not more, as many man-made or man caused events that can and will affect you in a very serious way.

Man-made disasters come in many forms. The most obvious would be spills and contamination caused by deteriorating materials, poor driving, train derailments, pipeline maintenance (or lack thereof), infrastructure collapse, policies that lead to coastal erosion, policies that contribute to widespread forest fires, sub-standard building codes, etc. There are other potential disasters that can be even more far-reaching. These include, but not limited to, monetary policies, tax codes, currency issues, stock market crashes, credit down grades, recession/depression, inflation/hyper-inflation (ala Weimar republic) and devaluation of a currency. Venezuela, Japan and others have experienced these events.

The list of possibilities is long and growing, but again, the prudent man attempts to prepare. For his family and his continued well-being.

Chickens and Cows and a Llama, Oh My!!!

2012-01-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

by AbeeNormal

I can remember having cows around as early as my Junior High years. Even before my parents had land and bought cows, my grandparents had a small ranch in Cleburne, TX. Growing up with home-grown beef was terrific, but I realize now that I missed a great opportunity to learn about farming and ranching. Twenty some-odd years later I’m grown, have three kids and a husband, and I’m learning about livestock as if I were in Junior High all over again. I really wish I had spent less time pursuing cheerleading and more time hanging out with the kids in 4H. If I had, maybe I’d possess some of the knowledge I need to turn our small acreage into a self-sustaining farm.

We were introduced to prepping by another family in my son’s Boy Scout Troop in late 2009. We listened to podcasts on a road trip from North Texas to Connecticut and back. Storing food like my grandparents used to do, having enough gas on hand to avoid long lines at the pump, cultivating land for food production rather than energy consuming ornamental lawns – all of it made perfect sense. My husband and I had already recognized the vulnerability of our defenses after the bank and a string of houses were robbed in our small town. We went to an NRA safety course, learned how to shoot, and had been concealed handgun carriers for years. We were on-board with Dave Ramsey’s plan of having 6 months of living expenses in an emergency fund. Storing food and being self-reliant was a natural next step . . . in theory.

Somehow when the rubber meets the road, theoretical preparedness goes out the window and reality rears its ugly head. While we are more prepared now than we were just a few years ago, it hasn’t been without some losses due to lack of knowledge. For instance, did you know that a cow can jump clear out of an open-top trailer going 50 miles an hour down the highway? And chickens only lay eggs really well for about two years. Tomatoes won’t pollinate when the weather gets over 85 degrees and llamas can die of heat stroke if you don’t have them sheared every spring. Additionally, it doesn't matter how tough you dress them, some llamas do not make very good guards and coyotes will still eat your chickens.

I know these are all minor inconveniences. But I can’t help but wonder: if I had spent my childhood growing things and learning how to care for animals rather than playing French-horn, beating Super Mario Brothers, and being a cheerleader, would there be one less cow wandering aimlessly down Interstate 20? I am resolved to encourage my own children to learn while they’re young and pursue things that will have lasting value, not the high score on the latest video game.

Next time: Holy Cow !!!
Visit my blog: TheGoodStoreshouse.blogspot.com

ARE YOU CRAZY!!

2012-01-19T21:20:00.000-08:00

by talon2012

Are you Crazy!!!!!

Hey man, what are you doing?
I’m planting my garden.
Well your garden can wait I got tickets to the big game today.
I can’t man I got to get this planted...
Man. You’re crazy you’re going to miss the biggest game of the season.

Storms happen when you least expect them, sometimes from your neighbor or your family. You try to explain why you do the things you do over and over again. Still they think you’ve lost your mind. How do you explain that there is a need to prepare for the unexpected emergency? Let’s step back and take a look at what you do.

You stock pile food, you have all these storage building in your yard, you build fires with no matches maybe even practice building traps too. These are all violable survival traits, and good things to know. Just imagine you are in someone else’s shoes and don’t know about prepping for an emergency. You would think it was crazy too. Trying to tell some people to prep for an emergency is like talking to a brick wall.

Can you remember why you started to prep? Was it because you were involved in an emergency before, or did someone you know tell you to get a survival kit.

Most of us know that we are supposed to have at least three days of non perishable food on hand. Do your friends or family know that, or do they even care. The scenario above actually happened. He got mad because I wanted to plant my garden said I was crazy for missing a game, but when harvest time came around asked me for some of my tomatoes, I always have more than I can use so spread the wealth so to speak. I asked him why he doesn’t plant a small garden in his yard; his answer was he didn’t want to mess up his lawn. I think to myself can you eat that lawn. But should I think he’s crazy for not prepping for some unknown emergency? Likewise should he think I’m crazy for doing what I do, of course not? It’s obvious that he doesn’t truly know or understand why I prep.

Sometimes having to explain our prepping priorities makes us feel make uncomfortable or ashamed or just plan foolish, answering questions about prepping cuts in to our time. That is something that preppers and survivalist don’t have time for do we. We are like ants always working for what might happen, This past spring during the great flood of 2011, We lost our home, so did my friends, we had a camper to live in, so No shelter for us, my friend did not. We had food clothes, my friend only had what they could carry. I saw him in town the other day and he told me he had bought a camper with the money he received from fema, but he said he goes through two bottles of propane every four days. I told him one bottle will last me a month maybe longer.

Because I cook out and use solar heat oil lamps so I don’t use much propane. Guess what now he’s interested. All the years before he called me crazy.

Now he wants to know about this stuff, funny how it took a disaster to wake him up.
All of a sudden I’m Mr. Amazing. Question is do I have time to help him. The answer to that is a big NO. Will I let him and his family go broke on propane electric bills and such the answer again is No. So what will I do? Give him something that will last a lifetime…….. KNOWLEDGE…… tell him where to go for help. Take him hunting and fishing when I go. Show him my solar heater and cooker Make prepping understandable and he will be able to help himself.

I’ve made it a priority to tell someone about being prepared everyday. That’s what Noah did in the bible, he told them the flood was coming. But they didn’t listen until the water was up to there necks. The point is tell someone, whether or not they care. You should see some of the peoples faces when I ask standing in line at the grocery store, I’ll say hello, I was wonding if you had at least three days of food stored for an emergency, or I’ll ask do you know where your flashlight is or extra batteries. They really do look at you like your crazy, but it gets them thinking. They may think I’m crazy for asking but I’ve done the exact thing Noah did I’ve planted a seed in there mind that will make them think about being prepared in an emergency. Who’s crazy now huh, Try it the next time you have a chance. Have a few cards or flyers with some links and maybe some survival advise too help them, because

What you say and do just might have saved that persons life in the future.

Talon2012
http://www.a1tunicafishingsite.com

Prepping VS. Hoarding

2012-01-18T21:08:00.000-08:00

by marshwillow

Sometimes we have been called pack-rats,hoarders and dumpster divers. This is were we differ. We do prepping for a purpose. We don't have a desire to load our homes with trash but with items that we will need in a SHTF situation.
So it goes to say. We are hoarding as preppers but NOT prepping to be hoarders.

So clean out all trash debris and decide just how many survival magazines and books do we need. We can use that space to work in more paper products. Remember if you have to bugout, you will be forced to leave lots behind in favor of food. You will be forced to figure out your priorities.

Basics is all you need. How many meat grinders do you actually need? You can pick up items at yard sales but will they be used. A bargain is not a stained sleeping bag with large holes and ripped out zipper. Unless you are going to repair your finds then look for perfect shape.

Set goals and look for specific items that are needed and pass by the ones you have several of. It is a good thing to make mental note that at such and such yard sale you saw a sleeping bag. You can pass this on to those that need it or call them at the sale and see if they would like you to purchase this for them.

When you stack your foods make sure the area around it is kept free of debris and filth. Filth just calls the rats, mice and other vermin and says "Come and get it". All you good efforts would go to waste. It is a good idea to camaflogue your cache of food and bug out items. If you havent an extra closet or basement then get creative. Install a shower rod across a corner of your bedroom and put up floor to ceiling curtains. Stack your 5 gal containers there or your #10 cans. Making endtables and coffee tables would be a good way to utilize the containers. Put 6 containers on the floor, top with plywood sheet to fit top, the cover with brite fabric that covers all the containers. Also you can stash your rifles between the 5 gal containers.

Remember were things are at so if power is lost you can use your memory to find items you need to take with you. If you find you have more of one item than you need then sell it or give it to a fellow prepper. Please don't get confused and forget the importance of what you are doing. Have a day of cleansing. Cleanse the storage area and throw away anything that is broken and beyond repair. When the SHTF there wont be time to repair them. Happy prepping.

SOPA & PIPA Strike

2012-01-18T11:21:00.001-08:00

The APN will support the Strike against SOPA and PIPA today. As soon as the URL redirect is complete, both the APN blog as well as the APN forum will be redirected to the following URL for the rest of today 1/18/12: http://sopastrike.com/strike/

We will have the sites back to normal by tomorrow 1/19/12

Roll Call & Giveaway - Everyone Please Respond

2012-01-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

All Preppers, Please read this entire post and then respond. This is the General APN Roll Call, and is slightly different than the State Roll Calls, as we are also offering a giveaway contest with several prizes.

These Network-Wide Roll calls only happen a few times a year and serve a few purposes. They remind people that haven't been to the forum in awhile to come back and check us out and see what's new, plus they also serve as a membership drive. But it's much more than that. They help you, our members, to better network with each other. Members who haven't been back in awhile can reconnect with members that are still active. New members can network with more experienced members, and members who've been trying to start meetup groups and get-togethers have a better opportunity to connect with each other. But most of all, there is a huge brainstorm of tips, ideas and information that we all share with each other.

Please respond to the forum Roll Call and let us know what you've been doing to prepare lately. Share any tips, ideas or educational information that you might have for others. The information you share is especially helpful to new members who are checking in. Here is the link to the Roll Call:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=606&t=17742

In addition to responding to the roll call, please also respond to your states group and check to see if there are any new meetup plans.

To respond to your states roll call, follow this link to the state directory:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewforum.php?f=36

Then click the "Check In Here" link for your state and respond to the most recent Roll Call.

Don't forget to check back to your state group regularly so you can interact with fellow members. This is very important, checking in frequently will ensure that you don't miss any new members. If you are interested in starting or joining a meetup, be sure to check into your state meetup section as well.

*Update, We now have a video that shows you step by step how to join your states usergroup and add your state tag to your avatar. Please watch the following video

-------------------------------------------------------------

What you can do to support the APN

1) Check out our new Webstore! Visit: http://www.Store.PreppersNetwork.com If you are looking for food storage, we've got it! In the store you will find an excellent lineup of the major food storage brands: Mountain House, Alpine Aire, Backpackers Pantry, Wise Food Storage, and Tomorrows Harvest. We even have some awesome Brear Grylls Products, Water storage and purifiers and several more survival and preparedness supplies. We will always be adding new products, including a new proposed lineup of products made by fellow Preppers, for Preppers. Next time you add to your preps, be sure to remember the APN!

2) Become a Contributing blogger for the APN. New content to our blogs means more information to share with others. More content and information will attract more traffic and will bring more members to join your states group. More fellow members means more people for you to network with. And what's more is we even offer you an income opportunity for your blog posts as well as links back to your own site so that YOU can get more traffic to YOUR site! Here is more detail about the blogging opportunity:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.com/2012/01/bloggers-needed-for-apn.html

Check out some of our brand new Wordpress blogs!

http://Alabama.PreppersNetwork.com
http://Alaska.PreppersNetwork.com
http://Arizona.PreppersNetwork.com
http://Georgia.PreppersNetwork.com

Here is a video that will walk you step by step to becoming a contributing blogger:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Giveaway Contest!!

We have Several Prizes to Give Away!!
1) Flash Lantern. Valued at $49.95 This lantern will turn a flashlight into a bright lantern
http://www.bogdenoutdoorequipment.com/d/

2) Quick Stove from Quick Stove
http://store.tomorrowsharvest.com/quick-stove.html super awesome, portable stove, they are the same size in diameter as a coffee can, but they are not as tall, only about a 1/3 the height.

3) Preparedness Principles from Barbara Salsbury
http://store.preppersnetwork.com/preparedness-principles.html This is THE MOST NEEDED BOOK IN FAMILY PREPAREDNESS, rather than an entertaining novel or a book about how to eat rattlesnakes, this is a book about everything to live PRACTICAL PREPAREDNESS, it is a huge volume of how-to's from building patio gardens with lumber from home depot, to canning, cooking with freeze dried ingredients

4) Freeze Dried Cinnamon Apples from Tomorrow's Harvest
http://store.preppersnetwork.com/sliced-apple-cinnamon.html These are THE MOST POPULAR freeze dried fruit in the industry. Taking real apples from the orchard, sprinkling real cinnamon with a touch of sugar enables families to cook home-made apple cinnamon pies or just eat them right out of the can as a delicious, healthy snack.

4) (2 copies available to giveaway) Handbook To Practical Disaster Preparedness - By Authur Bradly Ph.D. Autograhped by the Author, this 2nd edition book covers all 14 Basic Needs. Food, Water, Shelter, Light, Electrical Power, Heating/Cooling, Air, Sleep, Hygiene/Sanitation, Medical/First Aid, Communication, Financial Preparedness, Transportation, Protection

5) (5 Copies to giveaway) Bill and Janet's book: It's a Disaster and What are you gonna do about it.
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3555547
This is the official Disaster Preparedness Manual for the APN and a must have for every prepper. It covers all of the major types of disasters and many more and provides, tips and information on how to mitigate the disasters.

To Qualify for the contest, simply forward the following bit of information to your friends and family or post it on your website, blog, or facebook page,

Post the following:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Preppers Network is conducting a Network-Wide Roll Call and giving away Several Prizes! All Preppers, please respond to the following link and reply to the Roll Call.

http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=606&t=17742
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you've forwarded that link to your friends or posted it on your site, then when you reply to this thread: http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=606&t=17742 on the forum, tell us where you re-posted it . When we choose the winning numbers, if you've mentioned where you re-posted the roll call you will win one of these prizes.

Don't forget to answer the Roll Call! Remember, to qualify for the contest your reply MUST be posted on the forum, NOT as a comment to this blog post.

If you've forgotten your password or need help registering, you can watch this video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wY3NHtnGss

Forced to Prep : Moving into an RV Part 1

2012-01-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

by oi812

Forced to prepare
Part 1 – Prepping of course

We pulled into New Orleans after spending the night in Tallahassee. It’s my wife’s first time in the historic city. It’s her first time in any major city for that matter. We stopped for some Gumbo and got down to the business of the day, Where to live. That’s right were moving near hear so I can attend one of 2 colleges in the U.S. that offer a Commercial Diving program. This portion of my training will last around 7 months, and we really don’t like the area of Florida we are in so we’ve decided to move.

We had 3 appointments to see rentals in the area. We also had a list of around 4 more maybes we could call if we needed to so we were confident we would find something that fit most of our needs. After viewing 2 of our three appointments, calling our back up list, and calling through the classifieds we were about ready to give up. But after some advice from a guy at a gas station… I decided to check one more place. We drove up a local highway and found the sign we were told to look for. As soon as we pulled in we were surprised for a few reasons. First was that the area was great, somewhat remote but still close enough to a metropolitan area. This was exactly what we were looking for. It also had a great pool, weekly activities; a Put Put golf course, fishing ponds, and CRAWFISH PONDS!!! The only thing that was missing was the house. This was an RV park.

An RV park or Trailer park isn’t exactly living off the grid. Just to put it in perspective ONE of our pools is heated. That being said there are a lot more challenges than you might think. The switch from a house or apartment to an RV has a dramatic effect on the amount of personal and household stuff you can store. Fact is unless you’re trying to get on hoarders you’re going to have to get rid of about 80% of your stuff. RV’s and campers in our budget just can’t store all of our things. This has left me with a unique opportunity to prep. I have decided to make our Camper as self reliant as possible. The goal is to make it so we can leave with our camper and want for nothing. Since we do not have the storage space necessary to do this in a conventional sense we will be overcoming these challenges in new and creative ways I look forward to sharing with you.

The first step in any survival situation is to survey the area for useful items. In this situation our apartment is that area. Just like a survival situation we will need to determine what is worth our energy to carry and what isn’t. Now before we get carried away with what’s “worth” carrying remembering we still want to finish school and take care of our 1 year old and our huge dog. So fishing for our food and starting fires to cook so we can get rid of our fridge and grill isn’t gonna happen. It is important that you learn these skills should you need them but we prep so that we can live, we don’t live to prep. No matter how much fun it is. We started by deciding what we needed as a house hold.

As far as family or community items go the kitchen is a great place to start. It’s an easy place to cut down quickly. If there are 3 of you, you would want 3 plates ditch the rest. Seems simple enough right? Even though this is possibly the easiest room in the house to clean out, you will still run into what I call item separation anxiety. Or maybe you won’t but I did. I have buddies that are “hardcore” and I applaud their enthusiasm. This part of the process is where the prepping comes into it for the rest of us. I have started trying to live off my bailout bag. I book a campsite grab the bag and see what happens. I can watch all the YouTube videos I want and I will still have major problems that could have been avoided because I didn’t practice my prep. Moving into a camper 32 feet long by myself would be fairly easy but I plan on keeping my family safe and with me in the event of an emergency. So let’s give each person 10 feet on our 30 foot (rounded down) camper and that’s like having a pop-up for 1 person. Living out of a pop-up by yourself would keep you reasonably comfortable but you would have to leave your long range small plated game thermal scoped hunting rifle and the other half dozen special weapons at home and just keep the AR you know? So you might be asking yourself “what would I have trouble living without?” How long could I live without having it (thank god for storage units or caches)? Moving into a camper forces you to make these decisions. And in my humble opinion they are questions we all should have experience answering. This is one way to practice your prep.

Kitchen
We sold or gave away the juicer the toaster the coffee maker, all but 1 of the cutting boards, all kinds of things. We got the entire kitchen (except for the food) down to 2 medium sized box’s .Dish’s went down to 4 of everything with a set of small stuff for the baby. Easy enough I thought. Maybe this isn’t going to be that painful. The entire time I am avoiding the fridge. Scared to death of which flavored mayo I was gonna have to pick. I like the fridge a lot. I eat a lot and I enjoy it. I go to the butcher and buy meat in bulk. The only frozen meals I eat are lasagnas. I make my own gravy and sauces from scratch. I like food a lot is the basic message I’m trying to get across here. So this was my first real taste of item separation anxiety.

If you’ve never seen the size of a fridge on a camper you know what I’m talking about. It’s basically a larger mini fridge. A gallon of milk takes up about a 1/3 of it. Dry goods are not a real big problem cause I have room underneath for tough box’s that can safely hold pasta and rice and my year of back up food to sustain our 1500-2000 calorie diets. But living without cold storage, or in this case extremely limited cold storage, is something that we all might run into at some point in time. How do we deal with this? Well the gallon of milk could be replaced with dehydrated or condensed milk. But what is in our fridge that we couldn’t live without? Here’s what we came up with. One with power one list without:

With Power
1. Milk
2. Eggs
3. Lunch meat
4. Cheese
5. Yogurt
6. Mayo
7. Salsa
8. Parmesan
9. Dairy based salad dressing

Without Power
1. Water Storage

Obviously we would not be able to maintain any refrigerated items without a power source. We will be outfitting our camper to use solar power. I plan on using a renewable energy source to run a refrigeration unit which we will go into further in Part 2. On a renewable energy source changes will be made to accommodate the same exact list as With Power. We took our ketchup, mustard, drinks, vegetables, salad dressings, etc out of the fridge. Not really sure why they were in there to begin with. Maintaining cold storage for food on a renewable energy source, this has become a huge part of my prep and for what it cost’s I believe it will end up being priceless.

Living Area
Many of our larger items in the living area have been accommodated for by the camper manufacturer. Our couch is there our table our Television and stereo so on. Selling these higher ticket Items has left us with a surplus of 1500.00 dollars. We decided that whatever we needed for the camper lifestyle we are transitioning into would come from these funds. However almost all of these items are luxury’s and can be lived without. Before I get into the list I wanted to make light of the fact that most of these luxuries are purchased for function. While the same effects of these luxuries can be accomplished though good prepping and training.

Luxuries
1. Deep Freezer - The purpose of the deep freezer is 2 fold. First it saves us money on food second it reduces trips to the grocery store. I would like to run a more efficient freezing system off solar but I haven’t researched it well enough yet. Both of these luxuries can be replaced by preserving meat through smoking or dehydration. Skills easily taught just Google it. I’ve found dehydrators made out of the craziest stuff. Saw one made out of a Van one time. You just have to learn how to create the right conditions.
2. Outdoor space heater – This is a power sucker I know and I don’t really care. It allows my family to utilize the concrete slab on the side of our camper comfortably. That’s makes a world of difference in the morale department. Morale can make or break you no matter the conditions. But this luxury can be replaced the easiest. Better fires and quality clothing. I say better cause inefficient fires that keep you warm can exhaust resources.
3. Organization – Why do I consider this a luxury? Because I could have accomplished the same effects cheaper than the way I did. The piece of mind and ease of access to semi readily used items can reduce mental fatigue. Ever get aggravated when you can’t find something? Or when you grab a box or bag and it rips or tears spilling stuff everywhere? I don’t need to have my summer clothing closed inside of space bags vacuum sealed, labeled and closed in a water resistant high density plastic containers. I do, because it makes me feel better. These items can easily be condensed into a large zip lock and rolled up with a duct tape wrapped around it and over the seal. Luxury number 3.

I’m hoping to get rid of the first two through design and technology. I have this idea to design my outside area to maximize the use of a smaller heating source. I also have it in my head that I can run that freezer on solar as well. Who knows, what I do know is that I can achieve the same results these technologies provide with more time. In an emergency situation you do gain time.

Bedroom, nursery, bathroom, study

All of these spaces are replaced by the camper/camp design. Spend a fair amount of time researching safe comfortable sleeping areas and sanitary facilities for waste, as well as how to construct them and where to do so most importantly. The rules you will learn could save you from yourself. But for the sake of this article we need to address how the lack of space forces us to decide what’s really important. My wife likes to dress up. I convinced a woman who has 2 bathrooms full of stuff and uses around 200 square feet of closet space to move into a camper. If you’ve ever seen the closet space on a camper you would understand how impressive that is. It makes it easier when you have a goal you need to accomplish. And in an emergency situation your goal might be to become self sufficient.

The bathroom was fairly easy. Tackle box is a great way to take care of this kind of stuff. Makes life easy if you need to evacuate as well, just grab and go. Studying is done on the camper table. Meals are eaten outside if studying has the table tied up. Bedroom has your cloths. Nursery has the baby stuff. These are a little more difficult.

Our daughter plays with around 5 or 6 toys actively. Besides that there are a few larger outside things. We are lucky enough to have 2 rooms on our camper. Top bunk has been outfitted to make her escape impossible. More on this in Part 2, the lower bunk has been removed to accommodate her stuff. This and the living area is where she spends half her time. The other half is outside in the safe section of our concrete slab with her dog. All in all she has roughly 2/3 the walking space she had in our 2 bedroom townhouse.

Clothing is the toughest of the 4 rooms. The bedroom has a nightstand and drawers for your personal items. We have a storage unit for larger things we feel the need to keep. This area might be looted in an emergency I guess. I can obviously do fine without the items. But all in all the clothing was the problem we had in the bedroom. This is what I decided to keep with me. Haven’t been in the camper long so we will see how it works out.

Clothing
Pants x 4
Jacket x 1
Shirts x 5
Socks x 5
Work Clothes x 4
Boots x 1
Tennis Shoes x 1

I have a cold weather bag and a warm weather bag I swap out. They each have 4 items. Swim trunks, sweaters so on.

I don’t miss any of our home furnishings. In fact I still feel way to dependant on the grid until I get the solar panels setup. That’s not what’s important though. What’s important is that we were presented with the first set of problems that come along with being self sufficient and we have started to overcome them. I hope you take some time out of your schedule to do the same. It might save you or someone else in an emergency. I would also love to hear your suggestions. Maybe there’s something I can do better or an idea you have for camper modifications, any solar campers out there? Stay safe and stay aware.

It is not always about STUFF.

2012-01-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

by CCCooper

While you may have a HUGE stockpile of food, water, meds, guns & ammo, it is still a mostly non-renewable resource. Canned goods have a shelf life. Dehydrated and LTS food will last for years, but there is no way that you could store enough for YEARS. Water is a must to every human, but at 1 gal. per person per day, your supplies will have to be renewed from another source. Shell casings and brass, while re-usable, are limited to the amount of times that they can be re-loaded. Medicines have a definite shelf life and if a situation arises that necessitates the use of your preps, well, you will need some sort of back-up.

I urge everyone to develop an extensive library of reference books on as many subjects as possible. First aid, food prep and storage, survival tips and techniques, animal husbandry, gardening, edible wild plants, shelter, EMP, fallout, security & defense, communications, woodworking, craftes, candlemaking, beekeeping, woodlore, hunting/fishing, trapping, and combat triage/surgery are just a few of the referenc books I'd recommend.

Also, I would highly recommend PRACTICING everything that you may need in a PAW/SHTF scenario. Practice on a regular basis. Set up a scheduleif necessary. You need to be able to utilize all of your "stuff" and be able to find a suitable substitute once your supplies are depleted.

Bug Out to Canada, eh?

2012-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

By listen2me

Imagine this scenario, a cross between Mad Max and Doctor Zhivago.

An economic crisis develops and intensifies because of (insert reason) that causes (insert catastrophe) resulting in the substantial loss of peoples wealth. Smaller protests grow to include the general public.

Bank holidays and food shortages cause panic and increasing protests lead the government to believe this economic crisis is real, on-going, and the protests are a threat to the continuation of the government and its status quo.

The people have become lawless, they are in fact terrorists according to legislation, martial law is implemented nation wide in the US to protect the government from conflict or revolution. Continuation of Government plans are put into place.

Facing the possibility of mass incarceration if they resist or do not like the idea of being forced into the camps by their hunger, many people flee en masse to Canada thus overwhelming Canadian responses and resources.

The Canadian Parliament, authorized through Bill C-36 (passed in 2001), ask for US military assistance to control a flood of US citizens already in Canada who have fled north and require increasingly scarce Canadian resources.

The plans are in place to use the military to control the populations of North America during any civil unrest anywhere within the scope of USNORTHCOM, including Canada.

Canadians have known since the Viet Nam conflict that a likely bug out direction for many Americans is North. Will this be a viable legal option with the NWO action plan presently unfolding? The answer is a halting no, if nation wide martial law is enforced. It has become increasingly difficult now with the new border agreements recently signed.

The Canadian Anti Terrorism Act ,2001 Bill C-36 aligns Canadian actions with Homeland Security. It is more accurate to say directed by Homeland Security. The border now exists only for people and commerce, not the military. Exchange of bio metric data is now standard operating procedure.

Most alarming to me is the fast pass Nexus card available to travellers. Pre clearance assures fast passage through security and immigration. They are proposing to introduce an implanted micro chip to replace that troublesome card. I hate these trial balloons, the MF Global theft was another one.

Americans freely admit that Canada exists at their pleasure, it is their mind set. Canada is considered a protectorate of the US in their view. It is not and has not been since the war of 1812. But what is little known, is that it doesn't really matter anymore. Leaving aside America's Military/industrial complexes respect for a nations sovereignty. The important point is that both Canadians and Americans have been out manoeuvred in the name of security and most of them do not realize it. Preppers do.

We in Canada, the same as US citizens, are now living with a military/ industrial/ banking/ political complex that has become self perpetuating and for whatever reasons is in perpetual war mode. Legislation and preparations have obviously been made in order to quell any civil unrest and especially any unrest on a large scale.

To my American brothers I wish to remind you of a quip by Thomas Jefferson. "A little rebellion is a good thing". The key word here is "little". They are already prepared for a larger rebellion and it would be a disaster all around.

I hope that will not be needed, but as it happens to develop, bug out plans will have to be kept updated, and that is the point of this post.

If nation wide martial law is ever declared in the USA, Canada will be included as well. Uncle Sam has already seen to that. He is now proposing controlling the internet through the SOPA laws and already has the internet kill switch in place. We can assume no internet or cellular communication with total tyranny. Communication will be a problem.

Most like minded Canadian preppers will welcome and assist any American refugees from tyranny. Including those like minded individuals who are the true patriots and especially those with children in tow. It will be difficult to pass the 49th parallel but once in, we need to be able to communicate. How do we do this? We need a method.

Maybe a sign or symbol like the Confederate Flag? A rally cry? A certain color? Maybe there already is a secret one I do not know of. Send me a PM.

If the worst happens and your bug out plans include Canada remember this piece of advise. Just don't be wearing a uniform... hear me?

Here is a link to a Canadian Forces document concerning this topic.
http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo4/no1/doc/v4n1-p15-22-eng.pdf

2012-01-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

From: The Berkey Guy

I participated in the Boy Scout program when I was a teenager and enjoyed many experiences in that program. Of course, we camped out alot and played tons of Capture the Flag. I also had a few experiences which underscored the value of preparing for the unknown, especially unanticipated severe weather.
One particular troop outing comes to mind. In all my preparation before the event I had momentarily considered packing some gear other than the light snow gear I had in my pack. I did not take my wool gloves because I didn’t think they’d be necessary. Boy was I wrong. I was also wrong about carrying less food because I wanted a lighter pack.

photo credit: georgeruns

The day came that we arrived at our drop-off point and began our hike through the valley and up the mountains. Almost 4-6 hours into our hike, the winds began to pick up and and the temperature began to drop. It was no later than 2 pm but the visibility was cut because of a haze forming. Within 20 minutes the weather completely darkened, bringing with it torrential rain. For a large portion of those 20 minutes we could not decide if we should continue up the trail in hopes of finding a good location for shelter, or if we should bunker down where we were. It turned out that we wasted critical time because of indecision. By the time we could proceed no further, we were already wet, winds were moving fast, and we were somewhat disoriented. We frantically labored to throw up our tents but the winds seemed to mock our efforts.

Eventually, we were able to shelter ourselves but the storm continued to pound upon us as we shifted gear inside the tents, working to prevent the walls from bearing down upon us. My buddy and I began eating some of our foods because our frantic energy expenditures had left us shaking for warmth. It is now clear that our bodies were following their natural inclination to create warmth by muscle spasms. Such shaking was taking its toll on our ATP and so food was necessary to replenish our energy levels.

I had successfully changed into dry clothes although the inside of my tent was a bit wet. I can still recall that my hands began to itch and my fingers ached terribly. The storm continued to rage on beyond 6 pm, although one might have guessed that it was already midnight. We were stuck.

Two more hours passed. It was now 8 pm and the storm continued its menacing fury. My hands still hurt and nothing seemed to provide enough warmth. I remember thinking to myself that I was possibly experiencing frostnip. The redness in their color had changed to a hint of purple and the fine motor control of my fingers was concerning to me. I recall that at some point, I had held a very hot cup of hot chocolate in my hands and was unable to feel the heat. I don’t remember how I stopped holding the cup because I should have sustained a burn from its heat.

***

Our group endured the freezing rain and at the first sign of light in the morning, one of our leaders hiked out to the ranger’s location to radio for rescue. A few hours later a SAR team arrived and helped us make it back to safety, outside of the storm which continued over the next couple of days.

I can still recall how grateful I was to smell the Egg McMuffins and hash browns that were awaiting us in the vehicles there to pick us up. After brief medical check-ups by the medics there, we headed back home with a story to share with our families.

That experience gave me the practical knowledge that having a lighter pack is not always the wisest solution, especially at the expense of adequate preparedness. I also learned that I should follow my adventurer’s gut instincts a little better. I should have taken my wool sniper gloves with me which would have helped in retaining heat, although the wool would have been wet.

In another post, I’ll share my experience in the Sierra Nevada mountains with a friend’s exposure to hypothermia. He shouldn’t have tried walking on that frozen lake. He nearly died.

Bloggers needed for the APN

2012-01-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

We are seeking contributing writers to come blog with us. No experience necessary!

We are pleased to introduce our new blogging system and income opportunity.

Blogging on the APN

Our blogs basically act as the "Front Pages" to our network and therefore when you contribute articles you have the opportunity to get the highest traffic and visibility possible when your articles are shared with our readers.

New Blogging System

We have created a new system that will allow you to get your articles posted on the APN state blogs much more easily than ever before.

Originally, contributors who wished to have their articles published on our sites would have to email our moderators and wait for them to publish the article. This would work alright, however sometimes an article would get lost in our spam boxes or the moderators could overlook your articles, or a moderator may have been sick or on vacation and your article might not get published.

But we now have a single location where you can post all of your content. If one of our moderators happens to be unavailable for some reason, there will still be several other moderators capable of publishing your article for you.

To access this "Content Clearing House" as we call it, you must be a registered member on the APN forum. If you are not already a member, you can register at: www.AmericanPreppersNetwork.net

Once you are a member of our forum you will need to join the "Blog Authors" usergroup. To join the usergroup follow these steps:

1) Click the link to your "user control panel". This link is in the upper left hand side of the forum under the index link

2) Now click the tab that says "User Groups"

3) Scroll down until you see the group titled "Blog Authors". Select the group, scroll down and click submit. This will make you a member of the group.

After you've joined the Blog Authors usergroup you can begin posting your articles in the Blog Authors section. Here is the direct link to the Blog Authors section where you can begin posting your articles:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewforum.php?f=781
(remember, you must join the usergroup first in order to access that link)

Very Important! Only articles that get posted in that section will get reviewed to be posted on the APN state blogs. The very best articles may even make it to the main APN blog where your articles could receive over 1000 page views per day and growing.

Income Opportunity

In the Blog Authors section you will find information on how to earn income by having your articles posted on our blogs. The more articles you write and the better your content, the more you could potentially earn. Even really old articles on the APN are still indexed by search engines, so it works really great to build a bunch of content over time.

Topic Ideas

In the Blog Authors section we even provide ideas for sources of information that you can write about. We even offer a topic calendar that will give you suggested topics to write about daily and weekly. These topics are not required, they simply act as a guideline if you are unsure of what to write about.

Blogging Rules

Because our blogs act as the "Front Pages" of our network please be sure to read the rules for blogging with the APN. There are certain types of articles that we normally allow on the forum that would not be allowed on the blogs. First impressions are always important and therefore the blogs must be kept clean.

The New Blogs

We have started using professional looking templates that are available through Wordpress. We have already converted about 10 of the state blogs. Here is an example of the new Arizona Blog:
Arizona.preppersnetwork.com

The new blogs are much cleaner, more professional, and offer more social networking opportunities. Even if your states blog is not converted to the new wordpress blogs yet, we can still post your articles and they will get imported to the new site once we finish the upgrade.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me at:
americanprepper@yahoo.com

Check Your Priorities

2012-01-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

From: John Preppers Medical Supply

We constantly read blogs, forums, books, magazines or anything we can get our hands on regarding preparations. Whether it’s a natural or man-made disaster, prepper’s and survivalists all grasp the major concepts of Food, Water, Shelter and Air. I question if we have them in the correct order. It seems the largest percentage of advertising and articles are on food. Maybe this is because more money can be made in this category. After all, we need at least one year’s supply of food for each person in our family or group. Next we focus on water, then shelter and finally Medical. Oh! I almost forgot about the guns and ammo we need to protect it all and ourselves.

If you apply the rule of three, then we all need to look at our priorities for prepping and more importantly what are we prepping for? Three weeks without food and you die. Three days without water and you die. You need Shelter from extreme elements within about three hours. Cut off Air (Oxygen), which includes your blood that carries the oxygen through your body, and you have three minutes. Yes, that is a pretty small number! If someone is not breathing they only have minutes to live. If you’re wounded in your femoral artery or your aorta, you can bleed out in three minutes. What can be done in three minutes? You will begin to realize how short this really is. PREPARING FOR THIS SHOULD BE YOUR HIGHEST PRIORITY!

It is great to have a full years’ worth of food, chemicals or filters to clean water, and shelter. In order to use any of these items and you first have to live long enough. It will take time before you or someone else will need to use these things. Emergency medical training is the one item that can make the difference. The first thing you need to do is get training. Basic first-aid training could save the life of a family member, friend or even a complete stranger. There are many options for training. There are training courses offered at RedCross.com or MedicalCorps.com, just to name a couple. Secondly, gather the supplies you need. Lastly, you should practice what you’ve learned using the supplies you’ve gathered.

I have had my own experience with this. While working a part time job back in college I was a stock boy at a Farm and Fleet store. We had a customer purchase one of those small 8 HP lawn tractors that it was on top of another tractor on an upper shelf, still in the box, and we could not get the forklift to get it down. We assumed that 6 guys could simply lift this tractor and set it on the ground, but we were soon faced with a huge dilemma. As we tried lifting the tractor down, the back corner slipped and the guy in the middle had the shroud to the grass cutter blade land on his forearm and cut right down to the bone. I had never seen that much blood produced in such a short amount of time. Luckily, through a team effort and a co-worker who was a part-time EMT, he lived. When it happened, everyone reacted quickly. I applied direct pressure to the cut with my hands as we laid him down. Another person applied pressure to the pressure point in his upper arm which is on the inside of the arm between the bicep and triceps muscle. One of my co-workers ran to get the first-aid kit from the break room, which afterwards seemed funny because he did not know what to get and just ripped the whole thing off of the wall. He ran back with not only the first-aid kit but also the dry wall it was bolted to. A fourth person ran up front to get our part-time guy that was the EMT and did two things that I will never forget. First, he took an elastic bandage and used it to cover the cut and put in on as tight as he could get it, which replaced my hands. The second thing he did was to run to his truck while yelling for someone to raise his legs up above his heart. He came back with his First Responder kit from his truck and put the blood pressure cuff on his upper arm to replace the person holding the pressure point. He inflated the cuff to slow down the blood flow, but not completely stop it. He even used a stethoscope to listen for the heartbeat in his arm to make sure it was not too tight. While this was all going on, 911 was called and it took about five minutes for the ambulance to get there – in reality it seemed like an eternity. A more recent story involved my neighbor cutting her hand with a Cutco knife. Her husband quickly grabbed her hand and raised it above her head and used a dish towel for the blood and applied pressure to the cut the entire ride to the ER. Their son drove them not knowing that one month later he would be on the way to the ER to be treated for an accidental knife wound in the back of his leg. Another incident involved a friend of mine using a scalpel to castrate pigs and accidentally stabbed herself in the leg. Someone she knows recently cut himself skinning a deer. The accidents are endless and being prepared for these can be the difference between life and death.

There is a great product available now that we did not have back when my co-worker cut his forearm called the Emergency Bandage (Israeli Bandage). It is a 4 x 4 sterile dressing, elastic bandage and a pressure applicator all in one. Experience tells me the 4 x 4 is a more important bandage size than the 6 x 6. In a combat situation, a bandage with extra mobility pads would allow you to cover a knife or bullet’s entry and exit wounds. The 12 x 9 abdominal bandages are a great extra to have. Watch the videos on how to use the Emergency Bandage and practice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2_EU1T-o-g&feature=player_embedded

Put your priorities in order: Band-aids, Beans and Bullets. Get training, collect supplies, and practice! If you can’t survive to the point of needing water and food you won’t even need the bullets.

Freeze Dry Guy January Specials

2012-01-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

For the PDF Go Here

January 2012 Specials

"Just In Case" It Hits The Fan...

7 Day Food Supply Units Are Temporarily Back In Stock

As the world moves forward, uncertainty makes itself present at a growing rate. With the New Year looming under heavy speculation and mass controversy, uncertainty—ironically enough—is the only thing we can be certain of.

Are you prepared for the best, the worst, and everything in between?
Freeze Dry Guy is ready to help you, “Just In Case”

This kit includes such items as Beef Stew, Turkey Tetrazzini, Macaroni & Cheese, Beef Stroganoff, Peas, Green Beans, Corn and much more for a total of 28 pouches, providing 21 hearty meals.

FreezeDryGuy.com

Survival Paint Can Heaters

2012-01-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

From: Hillbilly Mom

This year I am making most of my friends and family their own survival paint can heaters. These are amazing and I am hoping that everyone puts one of these in their car. We have all heard of people getting stranded in their vehicles during blizzards and not making it because they froze or starved to death. Paint can heaters are compact and make a great addition to any emergency kit in the back of your car. These give off enough heat to stay alive and even to boil or cook water or food off of.

The materials you will need are as follows:
*1 Quart size (empty never used) paint can w/ lid
*1 Roll of toilet paper
*1 Protein bar (to eat and give you energy)
*1 Paint can lid opener (key)
*1 lighter
*2 bottles of 70% rubbing alchohol

HOW TO MAKE THE HEATERS

Step one: Take toilet paper roll and remove the cardboard middle.
Step two: Take the roll of toilet paper and squeeze it as tight as you can. Keeping it in its tight roll push it into the paint can. This is going to take some elbow grease, but it is possible.
NOTE: I actually couldn't get all of my roll into the paint can heater. So I ended up unrolling some of the outer layers so it would fit in. Once I got the roll past the lip of the paint can it fit nicely.
Step three: Put the lid back on the paint can and using electrical tape attach the protein bar, lighter and key to the outside of the heater.
Step four: Package or store them with the two bottles of 70% rubbing alcohol so the kit is complete. (for presents you can give just two bottles) It is best for your car to store at least 4 to 6 bottles of rubbing alcohol with your kit.

HOW TO USE THE PAINT CAN HEATERS

Step one: Open the paint can with key
Step two: Pour rubbing alcohol into the can and onto the toilet paper. You want the toilet paper to absorb all of the rubbing alcohol. When a layer of alcohol is resting on the top, the toilet paper is saturated.
Step three: Light the top of the heater with the lighter.
NOTE: If you are lighting this in a car it is best to have the window cracked for ventilation. Everything I have read on these says you should be fine with the window closed, but I won't take someone's word for that. Also the kit in my car has a large metal coffee can to put the quart size paint can heater in. I have a child and I would like some extra stability for the heater if I had to use the heater while my little one was in the car. It is also smart to store either a stainless steel bowl or an emptied washed out tuna can. This can be used as your bowl to boil water or make small portions of food in. Keep this included in your emergency car kit along with some food that is easy to cook in it. If the flame goes out just add more rubbing alcohol to the top and relight. The toilet paper serves as your wick and will last for quite some time.

Building Community

2012-01-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

By Todd @ The Prepper Website

In a recent poll on my website, I asked, “What kind of support do you have as you prep?” 23/52 voters said, “I'm the only one in the family that preps.” Going solo is a sure fire way to get down in the dumps and overwhelmed quickly. I can speak from experience.

I had a chance to sit with a good friend during an all day meeting recently. We haven’t really talked for an extended period of time, about two years, but she realized that something was wrong. Some people are truly gifted with the power of observation. In those few short hours we were together, she noticed something was bothering me and wouldn’t let up until I divulged.

Of course, in the last two years my world has turned upside down with prepping and all that the topic opens up for you. Like Neo taking the red pill, your eyes are open to how frail we really have become.

After approaching the topic carefully, (I have learned not to freak people out) she cracked a long smile and shared that her family, her dad, husband, etc… have been preparing for a long time. Her family is very well prepared. On the outside, I never would have guessed it.

It is always good to talk with someone who shares the same view of preparedness. Because, preparedness can be a lonely road, one in which people who are on the same road are the only people that truly understand.

I’ve noticed a few things about myself here recently, in regards to this. I’m mentally and emotionally drained. But at the same time, my fear about realizing the worse in people (in the long run), might not be totally accurate.

I don’t know how else to describe it, but sometimes I just feel tired. During these times, I don’t seem to get recharged. This is partly due to the crazy schedule that I keep: family, work, church, officiating weddings on the side, all the while prepping.

I literally can’t walk into a store anymore without thinking about preps that I could/should buy. I can’t seem to watch a show without thinking about how prepping might apply. I have a hard time giving importance to trivial things (in my opinion, but not to others) because there are so many more important things to think about.

I know what advice people would give me. I would give that same advice to others. But I can also see why some people just choose to put their head in the sand and pretend like nothing in this world is wrong. It would be easier. But with what I know now, I can’t pretend like everything is fine. It’s crazy out there…and everything points to it getting crazier, which leads me to my other point.

I’ve always felt like this, and my friend reemphasized it in out talk. The human spirit will survive. It is that thing inside of us that says survive and go beyond just survival. It is what people have drawn from in the past and will continue to draw from. Most people are good inside and want to do good to others.

Now, I believe that it is going to get crazy first. There are bad people out there and they will do bad things. But eventually, good will prevail. It has to. If it doesn’t, there is no hope.

In the meantime, one of the most important things we can do is to link up with other like-minded preppers. It’s not good to “go it alone.” That gets old and depressing. But knowing that there are others out there, who share your same concerns and interests is helpful in continuing on without losing your mind. I hear so many people talk about and get worried about OPSEC. Some people isolate themselves in fear. I don’t believe that is any way to live. Of course, you should use wisdom in what you say and do, but don’t forget to build those important relationships. Build community!

Building a community or friendships doesn’t have to be a show me yours and I’ll show you mine process. Here are a couple of things that you can do:

Attend a Meetup group on preparedness/survival/prepping. Go to www.meetup.com and search your area. If there isn’t one, create one yourself. If you live in a decent size city, there are people out there looking to link up. You can meetup at a coffee shop or restaurant if you like. The great thing is that you can show up and lay low if you feel it isn’t for you.
Get on Twitter! There is a big community of preppers using Twitter with the hashtag #preppertalk. They are always welcoming and willing to answer any questions. It is a good place to bounce around ideas and find out info.
Facebook has some pages that you can “like” and link up with others too.
Forums – There are many forums out there that are specific to prepping. You can get questions answered and still stay anonymous. Check out The American Prepper Network - http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.com/

All these are good alternatives. But I think the best is to build relationships with people one on one. Find someone with like interests…maybe at church or in another group and start dropping those hints and statements that won’t give you away like:

What do you think about the economy?
What did you do to prepare for the last hurricane/tornado/ice storm that came through?
Do you know anything about gardening?
Etc…

That is what happened with my friend in the story above. Now we can talk freely about prepping without worrying that the other thinks the other is a nut job! But I have repeated that same conversation with multiple people. Now there are a few trusted friends that I can talk to about preparedness. And that helps to get through without going crazy!

Todd is the editor of the The Prepper Website – www.prepperwebsite.com

To Survive, How Much Land?

2012-01-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered how likely it is that you’ll be able to produce all the calories you’ll need on that piece of land you have? How much land for livestock? How about those solar panels you were thinking about? How many square feet of panels will provide you with the electricity you’ll need? There are ways to figure this out, and the answers may surprise you.

Let’s start by talking power. In a collapse situation, you’ll probably be able to rely on the sun and wind and not much else, unless you’ve built a watermill. The best answer might be installing some solar panels on your roof. This is a commonly available option that many people are considering nowadays. Let’s say part of your roof is facing south (the best place for a solar panel) and you get 7 hours or so of sunlight, on average. To get the amount of power that an average home uses in a year, you’ll need 375 square feet of panels. These things aren’t cheap, and that much hardware is going to be beyond the average family’s financial reach. This means that you’ll have to make decisions regarding how to ration the power you ARE able to produce. Look around the house, and you’ll probably see lots of things that are plugged in that you can eliminate if the stuff ever hits the fan. This is part of the planning you’ll need to do now, so that you’ll be better prepared for times of trouble.

How about food? If you have a family of four, you’ll want to provide at least 2000 or so calories per adult, more if you’re a big guy, maybe a little less for kids. The formula is simple: At least 30 calories per kilogram of body weight. One kilogram equals 2.2 pounds, so an 80 kilogram adult would weigh 176 pounds. The formula says 30 x 80 = 2400 calories/day. A 50 kilogram (110 pound) 12 year old would need 30 x 50 =1500 calories, and so on. All in all, you'll need to provide 8000-9000 calories a day to maintain your family of four’s weight.

So, let’s talk about some hard realities. No matter how much food you’ve got stored, it will eventually run out in a full-blown collapse. For your future success, better get that garden growing. Anyone who’s done it will tell you that there’s a learning curve, and you sure don’t want to plant that first seed in the midst of the Zombie Apocalypse.

Now, let’s separate your garden out into three categories: fruits, berries, and vegetables, then wheat, then corn. If you went totally vegetarian, you would need a little less than half an acre per person to provide all of those calories. That means a family of 4 needs almost 2 acres of farmable land!

The majority of this land will go to fruits, berries, and veggies. You’ll get the most nutrients in terms of vitamins and minerals from these. To decrease the amount of land you’ll need, consider companion planting. Some organic farmers will plant sunflowers, and then plant peas that will grow up the long stalks. The same goes with corn, squash, and pole beans. Squash will grow low to the ground, pole beans will take the intermediate area, and corn up high. Make sure you don’t put plants in the same family together, such as dill and carrots. They will share the same pests and diseases, which could possibly spread from one crop to the other.

If you stock up on wheatberries and use your handy dandy Wondermill, you can cut the land requirement down a bit. A mix of prepared food storage and gardening will keep you healthy and fed for a longer time. Corn isn’t a very land-efficient crop, but you might need it for your livestock. An alternative if you need to trim that acreage down a bit more is to stock up on bushels of corn feed; that’s about 55 pounds of feed for about $9-10. This is a good idea, but you’ll use a lot of it. It takes 10 bushels of corn to get a hog from weaning to slaughter. Btw, corn prices are going higher; they were less than 5 dollars a couple of years ago.

Don’t forget, you’ll need some land for hog wallows, goats, rabbits and chickens. All of these animals can be raised in relatively small amounts of space, and provide important protein. You’ll need a good 200 square feet for 3 hogs, more if they have piglets. You can get away with less for each of the other animals.

You might have to forget about cows; they aren’t land-efficient. If you want milk, think about goats, especially Nubian Goats. This variety can produce 1800 lbs. of milk a year, according to various sources. That’s a lot of milk! How about eggs? The average family of four will eat 1000 eggs or so a year. To reliably get this quantity, you’ll need about 10-15 birds in your henhouse, depends a lot on the breed and the ingenuity of the local foxes and raccoons.

You could probably squeeze this all in with an acre and a half of land. If you don’t have that much property, now you know you’ll need that much more food storage to make up the difference. This is information I thought was important for me to know, and now you know it too.

Dr. Bones

www.doomandbloom.net

Travel Safety and Travel Safety Kits

2011-12-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

From: Westfalia

http://sibitotique.blogspot.com

Travel Safety and Travel Safety Kits

Bug Out Bags, Get Home Bags and Pocket Survival Kits is often focused on Natural Disasters and other types of severe Crisis Situations. An area that is often not discussed in the Prepper and Survivalist community is Travel Safety. Today a large number of people travel all over the world to meet new people and experience new places. The price of airline tickets are currently very low and even people on a low budget can afford to travel long distances. This article will address some of the measures you can take reduce risk while travelling. Travelling to areas where the comforts we are normally used to may not be available. This article will focus on travelling and what you can do to increase your own safety.

Context Matters
Just like with Bug Out Bags or Get Home Bags context matters when it comes to Travel Safety. The precautions you take must make sense for the journey you’re planning. If you are planning on a mountain expedition in an arctic region the measures taken will be very different from the measures you should take if you’re planning on going to large city for the holidays. Some of the factors that will affect what measures you should take:
• Are you going to an Urban or Wilderness Setting?
• What Kind of Activities Do You Plan To Engage In?
• How Long Are You Planning on Staying?
• Are You Travelling Alone or in a Group?
• Are you familiar with the Region your Traveling to?
• Can you Speak and Read The Local Language?

Making Your Research
In order to be able to take the right precautions it’s important that you know as much as possible about place you’re travelling to. I suggest that you start with researching the country’s political system and modern history
• What type of political system does country have? One good source for information is the site Freedom House that ranks countries depending on the Political Right and Civil Liberties. Also check the your State Departments Current Travel Warnings.
• Make a basic research on the History and Cultural of the country you’re travelling to. Are there any cultural taboos that you should be aware of?
• Are there specific hazards in the region like crime, armed conflict or natural disasters? Are there any specific regions or parts of cities that should be avoided?
• If you’re travelling to another country what has the relation between your country and this country been? Have there been any recent cases of internal conflict or terrorist attacks within the country or armed conflict with neighboring countries?
• Another good idea can be to check the current domestic development by reading news reports from the country and check the state department’s recommendations for travel to this country.
• Is the water generally safe to drink or should you be drinking bottled water?
• What type of climate and weather can you expect?

Many popular places for travel have political systems that are corrupt or they can be dictatorships. This is often not something that is noticed by tourists; but if you for some reason get involved in an accident or get charged with a crime this can become a very serious problem. There can also be political protests against regimes like during the Arabian Spring or in Thailand. Other countries may also be very hard against journalists other how try to report on the abuse from regimes. If you’re travelling to such a country make sure that you are aware about if there are any specific locations where the opposition normally meets or if they carry some type of clothing or other markers to show their support for the opposition. Knowing the geography of the place you’re going to can also be critical; what type of terrain can you expect; are there any specific landmarks etc. Today tools like Google Maps can provide a free service for making this type of research.

The Basic Precautions
Before we get into the Travel Safety Kit there are some basic safety measures that should always be taken. Do you
[ ] Have the proper insurance if you would get hurt during your trip?
[ ] Have some extra cash or money if you would get stuck in the country for an extended period of time, unexpected expenses would arise or if you would have to book a new ticket back home?
[ ] Have a good understanding of the country you’re going to and the risks you’re facing?
[ ] Have you made a general physical check-up lately to make sure that you are in good health?
[ ] Have you checked you dental health and taken care of any problems?
[ ] Checked if there is any specific diseases that may require immunizations in the region? For travel to some countries having the right immunizations and an immunization card to prove it is mandatory; make your research.

One of the most common problems for people is that a trip can turn out to be more expensive than anticipated or unexpected expenses may. Airplanes can get delayed or stopped because of severe weather or even natural disasters like volcanoes. Other more common problems can be that the airline misplaces your luggage or that it gets stolen forcing you to get new basic supplies like clothing.

The health aspect is also critical; do what you can in order to minimize the risk that you will get injured or Ill during your trip and check up on your general health and dental health before you go. If you would get hurt it’s also critical that you have the right type of insurance that will cover your expenses. If you have any specific medical conditions like asthma or diabetes make sure that you bring some extra medication with you and that you bring your prescriptions for these. If the country does not share the language of your own get prescriptions translated to this language if possible to minimize complication in the customs. Also learn the name of your medical condition and medication in this language so that you can communicate with medical personal if you have to.

Clothing
The clothing you pick must be suitable for the climate and weather you will be experiencing; dressing to warm or cold can become a serious problem. Also try to wear clothing that blends in and does not attract too much attention. Avoid designer clothing and expensive brands, jewelry and expensive watches that may attract attention and make you a target. Just like when you’re going on a hike; break in your shoes before you leave. It may be tempting to get a new pair of footwear just before you go but it can mean that you will spend your trip with blisters and feet that constantly hurts.

The Plan
When planning your travel it can be a good idea to leave the details of your plan with a friend or family member so that they know how you’re planning to travel, what routes, where you’re planning to stay, when you’re planning to go and return etc. Leaving a copy of your passport, airline tickets, insurance information etc can also be a good idea.

The Travel Safety Kit
Fire Alarm / Burglar Alarm
Fire Safety is just as important when travelling abroad as in your home. There are a number of companies that makes portable Fire Alarms that you can take with you on your travels. There is also Fire Alarm that doubles as burglar alarms that can be attached to doors warning you if someone tries to enter your room, one model is made by the company Deltronic Security. A door stopper can be a good complement to a burglar alarm since it makes it harder to enter a room and gives you more time to respond to situation if someone tries to enter your room. When entering new accommodations check out what alternative routes you can use during an evacuation.

First Aid Kit and Medicines
A small medical kit that includes some plasters and disinfection wet wipes should be a part of any travel safety kit. How comprehensive your kit depends on what type of location you will be traveling to and how available medical assistance will be. A few pain killers and anti-diarrheal tablets is another good complement.

In regions where medical facilities may lack sterile equipment it can be a good idea to bring a basic sterile kit so that medical personal can use sterile equipment. This can be very important in order to prevent that you get diseases like AIDS/HIV or Hepatitis.

Prescription Tablets and Medication
If you need some type of prescription medication remember to include your prescriptions and if possible make sure to get the prescription in the same language that is used in country your travelling to in order to minimize problems in customs. Always bring a supply for at least a few more days than you planning to stay. This is the basics that I would recommend everyone to bring with them; but if you are going on a longer trip or engage in high risk activities like extreme sports your medical kit should be adjusted accordingly.

Protection from the Sun
If the climate is warm and sunny don’t forget to bring Sun Screen along with you. This can also be a serious problem in the arctic where the white snow reflects the rays of the sun during the spring. Remember to apply the Sun Screen before you go outside; when you start feeling pain from you burns it’s generally too late. Go for a Sun Screen that’s has the Highest Protection you can find. Protecting your eyes is also critical; especially in arctic conditions when you can get “snow blindness” if you don’t protect your eyes.

Light
A compact flashlight or headlamp is a natural part of Travel Safety Kit (TSK) and especially useful in regions where black outs is a common problem. I suggest that you get compact model that use either one AA or AAA battery since this types of batteries generally are widely available. Examples of models can be the Fenix LD-10, Sunwayman M10A, 4Sevens Quark AA Tactical or ZebraLight H51. The Petzl E+Lite and Petzl Tikka XP2 are two compact headlights that can provide both white and red light.

Survival Knife
A knife can be a tool for many uses; from everything to open a wine bottle, a can of food, to cut your nails or more serious work like cutting a seatbelt after a car crash. Before you decide on what type of knife you should bring with you on your travel make your research; what types of knives are legal to carry and where are they legal to carry in the area you’re traveling to. Remember not to carry your knife on your person or hand luggage if travelling by plane; this normally means that you will lose the knife and you may also get in legal trouble.

A pocket knife can be a valuable tool for all types of situations. In general I recommend either a Swiss Army Knife because of the versatility they provide or a Folding Knife. A Swiss Army Knife can provide with all types of tool like a bottle opener, can opener, scissor, wine opener and blade just to name a few of the features that is often included. Swiss Army Knives are also known by most people and does not attract much attention. As a general rule I do not recommend tactical knives, double edged knives, knives with a one hand opening or assisted opening no matter of the laws in the areas your visiting simply because this type of knives easily can scare others and attract unwanted attention. If you want to bring a knife of this type I suggest that you bring another knife with a more peaceful look that you can use if you ever have to use your knife in public.

No matter what type of knife you decide to get make sure that you get a high quality model; a cheap copy can fail when you need it the most. It’s important that you can rely on your blade if you would ever need it.

There are more models of knives on the market than I can name here. As I stated before in general I would recommend a Swiss Army Knife; Victorinox and Wenger both make high quality models. Find a model that has the tools that you personally need. For folding knives I would recommend that you start with looking if there are any famous models from the country or region you’re travelling to; if there is choosing such a model can help you blend in among the public. The folding Knives from Opinel are relatively cheap, comes with wooden handles and a blade look that both that can secure the blade both when it’s out and folded back into the handle. These knives are not ideal for bush craft but works well for everything from cutting bread, food and other light work during travel. If you want a more reliable folding knife with a higher quality steel Folding Knives like the Fällkniven U2, U4 or TK3 can be interesting alternatives.

Fire
I also suggest that you include some type of items that you can help you start a fire like a simple BIC lighter or a small Fire Steel. For BOB or GHB I would suggest that you normally double up so that you have at least two methods for starting a fire; but if you’re going to a Urban area one items is often more than enough and will most likely just be used to light someone’s cigarette or a candle.

Translation
If you don’t know the language normally spoken in the area you’re travelling to writing down some common phrases and words in a notebook in combination with a pocket dictionary can be helpful. A Kwikpoint Translator can be very valuable tool to bring with you since it can allow you to communicate without words.

Pen and Notebook
A compact notebook and a pen should also be a part of any travel security kit. Before you leave I suggest that you write down information like where you can find the nearest embassy, the address and phone number to important locations like the place where you will be staying, people you know in the region etc. The Notebook can also be used to write down phrases and other information. The Fisher Space Pen Bullet and Fisher Space Pen Trekker is two relatively compact high quality pens that can be worth considering for TSK.

Sewing Kit and Repair
A small sewing kit is something that can be very useful to repair clothing. A few needles, safety pins and some strong thread is normally everything you need. There are several very compact credit card sized kits on the market if you want to be a preassembled sewing kit. If you are going on a longer expedition and may have to repair packs, boots or tents made from heavy duty materials a Speedy Stitcher can be an excellent addition. Some paracord, duct tape and super flue can also be good for travel when you won’t be able to replace broken equipment.

Other Items
Having a map of the area your travelling to can be a very valuable tool, when you don’t use the map try not to show its since it’s a quite strong indicator that you can find your way. A compact compass like the Suunto M-9 or Cammenga Wrist Watch can be good for keeping your direction.

A Travel Radio can be a good tool for keeping up to date; make your research in order to know if there are any local stations broadcasting news in your language.

Cell Phones work very well in most regions; there are however places where the cell phone net does not operate. There are also countries that can have different cell phone standard than you have in your own country; this can mean that your normal cell phone won’t work. The most common problem is that it can be very expensive calling using your own number, check with your operator for the prices before you go; if the prices are high and staying for a long period of time it can be better to buy a prepaid SIM-card. The prices for sending text messages are often relatively low. Note: The prices for using data traffic from Smartphone can sometimes be enormously high; there are cases when people have gotten bills for thousands of dollars: if you have a smart phone check the prices with you operator before leaving.

If you are travelling to remote areas where Cell Phones don’t work a SPOT can be a good tool in order to signal other if you require assistance. The new generation of SPOT:s can also send messages with your progress so that your friends and relatives can see how your travel or adventures progress. Satellite phones are relatively expensive but if you have the money they can be an invaluable tool in remote areas.

Money Belts and Hidden Pockets
One of the biggest risks you’re facing is losing your equipment either from simply forgetting your pack somewhere, getting pick pocketed or mugged. This happens to many people all over the world no matter what location there travelling to. I have personally traveled with people how have lost their bag containing everything from their passport; their wallet, id, driver license, credit cards, all their cash, cell phone, the keys to their home and the keys to their accommodation. This can happen to anyone.

Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. Separate your gear so that you have some spare cash, ID and a credit card in a separate location like an ankle pouch or money belt. If you’re travelling through an area where robbery is common it can be good idea to carry an extra wallet containing an old ID card and a little cash can be a good idea.

Pick Pockets
No matter how careful you are its very hard to protect yourself from pick pockets. Tourist are especially vulnerable since they often don’t know the terrain, where the risks are greatest and they often stand out from general crowd and may be distracted trying to find their way to other locations.

Pick Pockets are often very skilled at what they do and they can often deploy techniques like camouflage and distractions; working either alone or in teams. In short; no matter how careful you are, you always have the disadvantage. The only thing you can do is to reduce the chance you will become a target.
• Keep your wallets and other possessions in safest location you can; the back pockets on your pants is one of worst places you can carry your wallet.
• Avoid handbags where the content can be easily accessed from the top. Backpacks can also be vulnerable since people can access them from a position where you can’t see them. Safety Pins can be used to secure zippers and make it harder to open zippers in bags and clothing.
• Be especially aware when you’re travelling with public transport like buses, subways, trains, elevators and escalators since these environments often are packed with people making it hard to notice everyone around you.
• Avoid displaying expensive jewelry, watches, hand bags and expensive clothing since this signals that you might have expensive possessions worth stealing.
• Avoid travelling alone, especially during the night or in unsafe areas.
• Keep attention. Don’t walk around with headphones so that you can’t hear what’s going on around you. In some culture physical contact is much more common when talking to others; this can be used to mask the attempt of picking your pocket and stealing your equipment.
• Avoid drinking too much alcohol or use other drugs; this makes you an especially easy victim.

End
Travelling is an activity that can be related to risk. Leaving your normal setting may mean that you will have to adapt a different culture, climate, terrain and situation that you are normally use to. Even if this article has focused largely on potential threats when travelling I still would like to emphasize that all activities life is related to risk. For many people travelling can be some of the best experience they will have their life meeting new people and making friends for life. But travel can also become a very unpleasant experience if you’re not careful. Learn to plan and do what you can to manage the risk you take

Self-Reliance Expo - Dallas, TX

2011-12-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

The Self Reliance Expo will be in Dallas, TX on February 10th and 11th 2012. For more details visit SelfRelianceExpo.com

Newbie with a gun? Consider your real family safety

2011-12-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

By Paul Stevens

It is official, we have now moved from electronics to the real indicator of people’s concerns to start prepping. The newspaper headlines tell the story of Black Friday 2011 guns as being one of the highest purchased consumer products.

Those who are purchasing guns for the very first time for home protection need to seriously consider, if the family is safer now or as before? The facts, there are still more accidental shootings than home invasions. Beyond purchasing a gun and stock piling ammo, a real family plan should also be considered.

Regardless if you plan to carry or just to keep at bedside, you should still consider taking the class. It will not only help you learn how to handle your gun safely, it will prepare you for the mental decisions and legal ramifications that need to be made when you draw a weapon on an individual. That split second decision may be life changing for you and the individual in the cross hairs.

Keeping a gun at bedside at the ready and still meeting the legal requirements of keeping guns out of the reach of children is a challenge in itself. But how do you determine friend or foe in the middle of the night with other family members coming and going, especially with kids off to college coming back on surprised visits?

Communications and family codes and passwords is the key along with practice training for a possible home invasion. Just like experts recommend children and parents should have a coded message to call or text if the kid is in trouble so parents can alert authorities. This concept also needs to be incorporated into an overall family communication plan, providing a message with return for family members to come in late at night and not be confused as an intruder and be shot.

Distant family members and friends who might pop in late at night unexpected need to be alerted that you are now armed and weary of home invasions, and suggest a cell phone call be initiated before dropping in unexpectedly.

It may seem to be overkill but beyond communications a general action plan needs to be practiced and discussed with all family members. The worst case scenario beyond an intruder crashing through the front door is to have a family member rush out in the line of fire to see what is going on or not understand your command to drop left for you to take a clear shot.

We do carry both leather and nylon holsters at Cottage Craft Works for those needing a dependable holster for conceal and carry or to keep in the home.

Arm and protect your family, but please do so safely.

To get involved in the discussion follow this forum post:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=731&t=16335

Wolves, Sheep, Sheepdogs and Mutts ……… Oh my!!

2011-12-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

From: Salty Dawg
www.thepiratesrepublic.com

I really wasn’t going to write yet another article concerning my opinions about the article by Col. Dave Grossman (ret.) speech. There are so many articles and so many opinions but mainly I both agree and disagree with the premise of his thesis. I agree mostly with the theory of the sheepdogs protecting against the wolves that prey so easily against the sheep. I don’t agree that the only protectors of the weak are the military, police, smoke eaters. I subscribe through personal experience as well as observation that this is just not at all the case in today’s society. In fact I believe that many of the authoritarian positions are just as likely to prey on the weak and tend to punish the “civilian” sheepdogs. This fact was evident in Katrina, Ike, Watts, Chicago, LA, DC and many other incidents that were not made public by the complacent media outlets. These incidents did occur and were largely ignored.

I was getting another article proof read for a newspaper and I was told that I should not refer to the weak minded humanoid forms as “sheep” or “sheople” because it might turn some new readers off and inflame some of the regular readers. I was asked why I did this. I replied “It is a term derived by a thesis put forth by retired Col. Dave Grossman.” Grossman presented his speech to the Naval academy and it became widely referred to as the argument for the role of the military police and fireman being the only one capable of protecting the unable or the unwilling masses to protect themselves.

You can read the Grossman theory at www.grossmanarticle.com but in brief the premise goes like this. The sheep are the masses of people who cannot or will not take a stand. They need the military, police, firemen and other first responders to protect them from the ravenous wolves who prey on the weak. Without these authorities the wolves would have a feast upon the bones of the people who act like sheep a.k.a. “sheople.” I do somewhat agree, but to say they are the only lifeline that they sheople have is absolutely incorrect. The Japanese did not opt out on the invasion of the continental US because they feared our military, police, or any first responder for that matter; they opted out because “There is a gun behind every blade of grass!” This is clear evidence of the power of the people! Should there be those that choose not to defend themselves then maybe they deserve to fall victim to the wolves.

I believe Grossman should amend his thesis to include the mutts of our society. The ones the government now calls the threats to our civil obedience. These Mutts are to include but not limited to Any prior military personnel, any police officer, and those who did not serve in any of these capacities they may have voted against the current administration or simply just wake up and go to work and pay their taxes, feed their families, and make a conscious choice to provide for their families believing the pursuit of happiness is a right not a guarantee. The shameful, evil mutts of our society who dare to believe their family and community is their personal responsibility and they embrace this responsibility without reservation. These also means taking responsibility for the protection against the wolves, other sheep and yes even the authorities that abuse the powers entrusted in them by the very communities that they profess to serve and protect.

Do not misunderstand me or my intent, I absolutely believe the military, police and the first responders have a job to do. The majority serve out their duties with unquestionable honor. Grossman makes a blanket assumption that everyone that serves in an authoritarian capacity is the only ones qualified to provide the protection needed to keep our society safe. This is where I have disagreed with retired Col. Grossman since I first heard his speech. As a person who served this country in a capacity known only by a select few it would be easy for me just to agree and move on but It has always stuck in my craw because it is wrong.

Maybe I am naive but in my opinion not enough credit is given to the populous. We have been dumbed down and told that we are weak and not to worry because the Government is our protector our police are here to protect and serve. Well that statement reminds me of another “When seconds count the police are only minutes away!” This is not a popular thing to write and most papers will not print this because it does not conform to what we are programmed to believe. Until martial law is declared the military is even further away as for first responders they are only going into places that have been deemed safe enough for them to enter.

So, where doth that leave us?

While the “sheepdogs” are out protecting and serving what would be deemed as vital strategic areas in a (SHTF) scenario, i.e. not your neighborhood! The Sheep and the wolves are left to their own devices. When the wolves are preparing to feast upon the bones of the weak, the sheep are scattered paralyzed with fear wondering when they will be sent the protection promised them. Alas, there is another creature stirring about this night. The mutt’s are quietly putting their preparation plans in action.

Reality of the situation finally takes hold for the sheople and it is just you, the wolves and ME. Now is a good time to pray that my intent is noble today because I am a mutt the one factor Grossman left out of his equations. I am the guy who has been specially trained by Uncle with active war time tactical knowledge. I have real-time battle experience and advanced first aid training for my survival and to help other survive in scenarios that require a Scooby doo bandage to severe trauma that Scooby can’t do! I have experiences that most have only seen in movies. To you, I am the “Grey Man” the simple mechanic, farmer, sales associate, business professional, roofer, mailman, dentist, welder, utility worker or some other tradesman.

I am just a fella and his family described as nice people that smile and wave when you pass by as we work in our yards.

I can grow my own food, raise animals, hunt and fish and survive in lean times. I can put a fire out on your behalf but probably won’t. While the Police and the State activated National Guard are away doing something more important than providing security for neighborhoods. I am the mutt that has to decide whether it is more prudent to let the wolves use your chin bones as ash trays or if you have something redeemable enough about you to engage the enemy no matter who “they” are. Sound like harsh talk? How about un-feeling? Is this just Bravado coming from an internet tough guy sitting behind a keyboard expounding what he thinks is prolific knowledge that you are entitled to? By the way you are welcome.

It is harsh talk and it needs to be said. It is unfeeling because compassion is a virtue but under what scenario is it to be shown? Will you show it when the time comes? Do you have the knowledge to know when to engage the wolf on the behalf of the sheep like a sheepdog or walk away from the unwary sheep and leave them to the ravenous wolves because the sheep was too stupid to stay with the flock under the protection of the sheep dog or even better a generously kind MUTT?

Salty Dawg
www.thepiratesrepublic.com

Join Your State APN Newsletters

2011-12-17T00:02:00.000-08:00

As part of our on-going mission to continually bring you the best Preparedness information possible, we are very excited to announce that The American Preppers Network has teamed up with the Prepper Coalition to bring you "state specific" and other newsletters to keep you up-to-date with announcements, gatherings and events going on within your state groups.

Please read the following instructions on how to join the APN state and other newsletters.

If you are already an APN forum member, please follow these instructions to manage your APN State Newsletters:

1) Follow this link:
http://prepper.me/subscriptions
This link will take you to the coalition newsletter page.

2) Enter your email address, then click continue

3) If you are currently a member of one of the coalition sites; American Preppers Network, Prepper Podcast, LDS Preppers, etc... you are already on the main coalition list. In order to subscribe to any or all of the newsletters, you must update your profile. Click submit to have your profile link emailed to you. You will receive an email that will include a link that will allow you to subscribe to the newsletters.

4) Click the "update your profile" link. This will take you to a page which will allow you to subscribe to coalition newsletters of your choice. Click the newsletters that interest you and then click "Save Profile Changes" That's It!

If you are not yet a member of APN, or one of the other coalition sites, you can still receive our newsletters. Simply enter your email address below, click "go" and then you will be taken to a page that will allow you to chose the newsletters of your choice.

Here is an overview of what the Coalition Newsletters can offer you.

The Prepper Coalition Newsletter is the ultimate in Prepper Information, Alerts, Deals, Events and Networking!

Members of the Prepper Coalition and their services include:

The American Preppers Network (APN) Newsletter provides information pertinent to the greater APN across the country including events, news and other Information.

The APN State Network Newsletters provide you with information pertinent to your State Network including news, meetups, events, alerts and other pertinent information.

The Prepper Podcast Radio Network (PPRN) Newsletter provides updates about upcoming podcasts on the network and what information they'll be discussing.

The Survivalist Magazine Newsletter provides information about various Survivalist topics and news.

The Preparedness Learning Center provides bi-monthly in depth topic coverage on Preparedness topics designed to be added to a Prep Binder.

Prepper Coupons is a groupon style purchasing system for Preppers. The newsletter informs you of massively discounted prices every 72 hours on Prepper items - prices that are only good for 72 hours.

The LDS Preppers Newsletter provides LDS oriented Preparedness information directed towards Ward and Stake Preparedness Coordinators. (non-LDS people are welcome and invited to receive the newsletter)

You may sign up for as many or as few of our Newsletters as you would like. You are, of course, invited to share our Newsletters with all your Prepper friends and contacts and help us reach as many Preppers as possible!

By subscribing to any of our Newsletters, you will also automatically get Coalition wide updates (updates will be sent infrequently so as not to fill your email box).

Featured Post: “EPA Study: Ground Water Contamination “Consistent With” Fracking”

2011-12-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

From The Berkey Guy

West Virginia’s The State Journal published a story today that you should read and share with others. You might be familiar with news articles discussing the debate on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” Fracking is controversial because of the risk it poses to supplies of water. The issue is really that simple.
The trickiest parts for us to decipher in all of these arguments, are tainted by both sides of the spectrum of this debate. On one hand, you have companies such as Chesapeake Energy who promote the practice because of their for-profit existence, citing safe practices and employing subtle and persuasive language. Even
On the opposing hand, you have public organizations and governmental departments such as New York’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). I commend them for issuing the following statement on their website, in specific regard to fracking in the Catskill and Delaware watersheds:

This area [Catskill and Delaware watersheds] is also underlain by relatively thick sections of the Marcellus shale that is targeted for natural gas development. Natural gas development at the rates and densities observed in comparable formations will be accompanied by a level of industrial activity and heightened risk of water quality contamination that is inconsistent with the goals and expectations for an unfiltered water supply system. While DEP is mindful of the potential economic opportunity that this represents for the State, hydraulic fracturing poses an unacceptable threat to the unfiltered water supply of nine million New Yorkers and cannot safely be permitted with the New York City watershed.

I strongly urge anyone interested in exploring the issue further to watch the movie by Josh Fox, titled Gasland. (Link will take you to watch the movie trailer).
Do not get lost in the debate that the Executive Director, Nicholas “Corky” DeMarco, of West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association offers on the matter. He follows in the same pattern that other execs display in representing their companies. They seek to divert attention and distract from the primary issues which are evident in the data presented against them. For example, DeMarco defers to a colleague’s comments in order to cast doubt on the credibility of contamination:

“He said they don’t have aquifers, they have pockets where water collects…Here in the Kanawha Valley, everybody’s well is generally in the same aquifer. His explanation to me was that there, water pools up in pockets rather than in one formation that might go on for miles and miles and miles. Wells could be in totally different pockets.”

Furthermore, similar statements calculated to discredit the EPA’s findings were mentioned by Encana Oil and Gas. Please take the time to visit and read Pam Kasey’s article, available by clicking HERE.

-TBG

Peak Oil and Our Mental Models - The WikiLeaks Cable and The Worlds Largest Oil Fields

2011-12-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

From: Westfalia

Website: http://sibitotique.blogspot.com

Peak Oil and Our Mental Models - The WikiLeaks Cable and The Worlds Largest Oil Fields

In the two previous articles on Peak Oil I have discussed the future Outlooks concerning Oil made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). In this article I will focus on two aspects in depth. The first aspect is to focus on the World’s largest Oil Fields and see what importance they play for the world oil production. The second aspect is to focus on the secret diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks from the US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In the 2011 World Energy Outlook by the IEA the Production of Crude Oil from the oil fields that produce oil in 2010 in expected to drop by over Two-Thirds by 2035. Quote: “We project that crude oil production from fields that were producing in 2010 will drop from 69mb/to 22mb/d by 2025 – a fall of over two-thirds”. But the IEA still expects the crude world production to remain at 67,9 mb/d per day 2035 from Crude Oil Yet to be found and Yet to be developed (WEO 2011: 122-123).

The WikiLeaks Cable
In 2010 WikiLeaks made the largest publication of classified material in history when a large number of US diplomatic cables were released. Among these cables one cable from the US Embassy in Riyadh from the 10th of December 2007 was released. This cable focus on an interview with Dr Sadad al-Husseini. Al-Husseini was formerly the Executive Vice President for Exploration and Production at Saudi Aramco, he also has Ph.D. in Geological Sciences. In this interview al-Hussseini warns that the Saudi Oil Reserves may be overstated by as much as 40%. Concerning the implication of this statement al-Husseini believes that:

“In al-Husseini’s view, once 50 percent depletion of original proven reserves has been reached and the 180 billion bbls threshold crossed, a slow but steady output decline will ensue and no amount of effort will be able to stop it. By al-Husseini’s calculations, approximately 116 billion barrels of oil have been produced by Saudi Arabia, meaning only 64 billion barrels remain before reaching this crucial point of inflection. At 12 million b/d production, this inflection point will arrive in 14 years.”

“While al-Husseini believes that Saudi officials overstate capabilities in the interest of spurring foreign investment, he is also critical of international expectations. He stated that the IEA’s expectation that Saudi Arabia and the Middle East will lead the market in reaching global output levels of over 100 million barrels/day is unrealistic, and it is incumbent upon political leaders to begin understanding and preparing for this “inconvenient truth.””

According to the cable al-Husseini describes himself as optimistic about the future outlook of energy even if he contradicts the official Aramco line. It’s clear that al-Husseini probably is one of the people in the world with the best insight concerning the future of oil production in Saudi Arabia based both on the man’s education, experience and firsthand knowledge from leading the Exploration and Production unit in Aramco.

The World’s Largest Oil Fields
The number of producing oil fields 2007 was around 70.000; in total these fields produced around 70 million barrels oil per day (WEO 2008: 225-226). As previously noted the IEA expects that production from fields that was producing oil in 2010 is expected to drop from 65 mb/d to 22 mb/d in 2035. But the IEA still expects new finding to replace this lost production. This raises the question about what type of future findings we can expect. So let’s take a look at the World’s Largest Oil Fields.

The Top 10 Producing Oil Fields in the World 2007
1.) Ghawar 5,1mb/d
Ghawar In Saudi Arabia in undoubtedly the King of Kings. Ghawar was discovered in 1948 and has been producing enormous amount of oils ever since. Ghawar alone has historically produced somewhere between 55-65% of all oil coming from Saudi Arabia. The Fields Peaked in its production 1980 with a production of 5,58mb/d, the production was still at an amazing 5,1mb/d 2007.

2.) Cantarell 1,6mb/d
Cantarell in Mexico is the World’s Second most producing Oil Field. The Field was discovered in 1977, peaked in its production in 2003 with a production of 2,05mb/d a figure that had dropped to 1,6mb/d in 2007.

3.) Safaniyah 1,4mb/d
Safaniyah in Saudi Arabia was discovered in 1951. The field Peaked in its production 1998 with a production of 2,12mb/d, in 2007 the production has dropped to 1,4mb/d.

4.) Rumaila 1,25mb/d
Rumaila was discovered 1953 in Iraq. The field Peaked in its production in 1979 with a production 1,49 mb/d, in 2007 the production had dropped to 1,25mb/d.

5.) Greater Burgan 1,17mb/d
This oil fields in Kuwait was discovered in 1938, the production peaked in 1972 with a production of 2,415 mb/d a figure dropped to 1,17mb/d in 2007.

6.) Samotlor 0,903mb/d
This Russian Oil Field was discovered in 1960, it Peak in its production in 1980 with an enormous production of 3,435mb/d, a figure that had dropped sharply to 0,903mb/d in 2007.

7.) Akwaz 0,77mb/d
This Iranian Oil Field was discovered in 1958 and peaked in its production in 1977 with a production just over 1 million barrels and dropped to 0,77mb/d in 2007.

8.) Zakum 0,674mb/d
This oil field in Abu-Dhabiwas discovered in 1964, peaked in 1998 at 0,795mb/d and had dropped to 0,674mb/d in 2007.

9.) Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli 0,658mb/d
This oil field in Azerbaijan was discovered in 1985 and hadn’t peaked in yet in 2007 with a production of 0,658mb/d.

10.) Priobskoye 0,652mb/d
This Russian oil field was discovered in 1982 and hadn’t peaked yet in 2007 when it has a production of 0,652mb/d.

From these figures we can see several trends. The World’s Largest Oil Fields play a very important part for supplying the world’s energy demand. The Top Ten Fields produced 14,26 mb/d; around 20% of the World’s Total Oil Production. If the next ten fields were added the figure was around 25%. In total there was around 70.000 Oil Fields producing oil in 2007 and 20 of these fields produced a fifth of all the oil (WEO 2008: 225-226).

Another fact also stands out very clear; none of these fields has been discovered recently; the ones that was discovered the latest was discovered in 1982 and 1985. Only two of these fields hadn’t reached their Peak in production in 2007; the rest where on decline. During the summer of 2011 there were big headlines concerning an unusually big oil find outside the coast of Norway that is expected being able to produce up to 500-1200 million barrels of oil. Ghawar with its production of 5 million barrels of oil per day produces this amount of oil in 100-210 days. The trends of smaller and smaller findings are something often stressed by researchers within the Peak Oil movement; smaller and smaller fields of oil are being discovered even though the technological tool available to search for new fields constantly develops.

Peak Oil and Our Mental Models
If Peak Oil is truly here or not is not a question that I can answer. In this article I have lifted the trend of largest oil Fields in the World and classified information from WikiLeaks concerning the situation in Saudi Arabia. No matter what information that I present I almost always the same response; people simply agree or totally disregard the possibility of Peak Oil. One aspect that I would like to raise is mental models and mind-sets. This is one the major subjects that Richard Heuer lifts in the book Psychology of Intelligence Analysis. Heuer believes that people construct their own reality based on the information that they observe. We are influenced by many factors like cultural values, education and past experiences but also by factors like the role we are expected to fill and norms within organizations or communities (Heuer 1999: 4-5).

This is a critical aspect that is not lifted enough: We do not focus upon our own mental models. There was a time when most people believed that world was flat. Economical Growth and an increase in the standard of living has been the truth for a long period time. We expect things to get better and better, we expect that the standard of living will be higher and higher. This is one of our cultures most central ideas and a message that reach us every day from multiple sources. One things that Heuer lifts is that when a paradigm change, as the end of the cold war takes place the experts how knew the most about the subject is those how have the most to unlearn when it comes to adapting to a new reality (Heuer 1999: 5). Heuer also focus on the fact that when a mental form is created and the new information is assimilated into the existing model. We continue to use models that worked well in the past long after they have become outmoded (Heuer 1999: 8-11, 73).

Analysis
If the IEA forecast concerning the fields that were producing oil 2010 turns out to be correct the production from these fields will drop by 45,9mb/d until 2035. By the same period of time Natural Gas Liquids, Unconventional Oil and Bio Fuels is expected to increase from 15,6 mb/d to 32,9mb/d, an increase with 17,3 mb/d. This would mean that we still need to bring oil fields that can produce 28,6 mb/d online just to remain on same total production that we have today of liquid fuels (WEO 2011: 122-123).

I would like to focus on some critical aspects from this information
• The positive forecast depends on two critical components
1.) The Production of alternative fuels will double during this period of time
2.) New Oil Fields will be found and developed that will able to offset the drop in 45,9mb/d in production from existing Oil Fields.
• This is assumptions that are required for this analysis to be correct.
• The analysis made by the IEA focus on a scenario when Saudi Arabia will increase their production from 10mb/d in 2010 to 13,6mb/d in 2035.

So how do the classified information from WikiLeaks and the trend concerning the World’s biggest Oil Fields fit in this projection? The IEA expects the production in Saudi Arabia to go from 10mb/d per day in 2010 to 13,9 mb/d per day in 2035. As the diplomatic cables from 2007 released by WikiLeaks even al-Husseini, the former Executive Vice President for Exploration and Production at Aramco is skeptical towards this prognosis. It’s fully possible that al-Husseini is incorrect in the assessment; but the central role within Aramco and the man’s technical expertise is hard to deny.

From looking at the World Largest Oil Fields today it’s clear that the greatest findings have taken place several decades ago. New findings have taken place but none of them have the capacity of the top 20 Oil Fields producing Oil today. The Top 20 Oil Fields in the World produce around 25% of the World’s Oil; around 19,16 mb/d. If you compare this to the 45,9mb/d required to compensate for the fall from fields producing in 2010 up until 2025 it clear that we will either have to be very lucky in our explorations or find an enormous amount of small fields.

Bloggers and researchers often tend to present dramatic forecasts that get a lot of attention. Instead I would suggest that you do something else. No matter where you stand concerning the subject of Peak Oil I would suggest that you ask yourself what your mental-model of the situations is and what assumptions this model relies upon? What data challenges your assumptions and what data confirms your assumptions? From there I suggest that you make up your own mind.

Lithium batteries, a serious child swallowing issue

2011-12-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

by Paul Stevens
As electronics are made smaller and manufactures find new ways to make things talk, lithium button batteries are becoming more and more widely used in just about every hand held electronic device, they are even in children talking books and popular greeting cards.

Every home is likely to have at least three devices in the home now using lithium button batteries. These are generally under easy to open battery compartments such as TV remote controls, or behind the paper in a greeting card or talking book. This allows easy access to a curious young child to then become entranced with the little shinny battery disc.

Once the lithium batteries become ingested they can quickly become lodged in the esophagus or other areas, and then heat up in just a few hours to the point, irreversible tissue burns and holes can extend out into other organs.

The symptoms of vomiting may be mistaken even in a doctor’s office as stomach bug. If a child shows these symptoms, look for open electronic cases, or torn pages to see if the child may have swallowed a lithium battery. They will quickly show up on an X-Ray, but routinely X-Rays are not performed on stomach bugs unless the parent lets the staff know there are potential lithium batteries missing.

If a child for sure swallows lithium batteries seek immediate medical help as damage can occur quickly leading to permanent damage within hours.

Debunking the Alternative Choice

2011-12-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

From: -The Berkey Guy
Recently, a product was introduced into the marketplace that directed its marketing toward users of the Berkey® Water Purification Systems, particularly the Big Berkey® model. It has promoted itself as an alternative choice and the manufacturer of the Berkey® systems has tested its performance in two ways:

Flow Rate
Lifespan

The following comses directly from the manufacturers of the Berkey® Water Purification Systems in their testing of this alleged alternative choice against the Black Berkey® Purification Elements:
…we thought we would put this “new” system to the test.

The first test we conducted was a flow rate test. This is what we found:

A fully configured four element Big Berkey® system can produce up to 7 gallons per hour of purified water.⁽¹⁾ By comparison this fully configured alternate system only holds two filter elements (the large diameter of the elements precludes the system from accommodating more than two elements).^(2,3) The alternative system when full only produces a mere 80 ounces per hour. However, the flow rate rapidly decreases as the water level declines. For example, when 70% full, the flow rate declines to approximately 62 ounces per hour. At 50% full the flow rate declines to about 44 ounces per hour and at 1/3 full the flow rate drops to a mere trickle of about 26 ounces per hour (approximately 5 (five) hours to produce a gallon of water). Averaging out the above rates, one would expect a typical run cycle to produce an average of 53 ounces per hour. This is an average of one gallon of water produced every 2 1/2 hours.
So let’s do an economic comparison: Assuming the alternative system is topped off continually, it can produce about 15 gallons per day whereas a fully configured Big Berkey® system can produce about 168 gallons per day. Therefore it takes over eleven of the alternative systems to produce as much water at one Big Berkey® 4X4 system.
So here are the numbers:

Cost of alternative system: $239 x 11: $2,629.00

Cost of Big Berkey® 4×4: $358.00

Savings with Big Berkey® System: $2,271.00

* * * * *

The second test we conducted was designed to validate the claims that the alternative

filters have a lifespan equal to that of the Black Berkey® purification elements.

This test is designed to “overwhelm” the elements with a chemical contaminate in order to determine at what point a chemical breakthrough occurs. We added chlorine (Clorox®) to the water but found that we could not complete the test because after approximately 1-1/4 cups of Clorox had been filtered through the alternative filters, they began to break down. After 1-1/4 cups of Clorox® had been purified through the Black Berkey® elements, they continued to maintain their effectiveness. In the alternate, we decided to compare their respective performance. To do this we inserted both of the test elements, side by side, into a Berkey Light™ housing and added an additional cup of Clorox® to the pre-filtered source water. We also quarantined the water from the alternate filter element from that of the Black Berkey® purification element by inserting a canning jar under the effluent stem of the alternate filter.
Below is what we found:

Early in the Test

The alternate filter is having a hard time keeping up with the flow rate of the Black Berkey®purification element. Note how the Black Berkey® purification element is filling up the entire diameter of the lower chamber while the alternate filter element is only filling up the jar.

Midway through the Test

As the water level in the upper chamber declined, the flow rate of the alternative began losing more and more ground to the water level, produced by the Black Berkey® purification element, inside the larger diameter housing.

End of Test

The Black Berkey® element continued to purify the contaminated water whereas the alternate filter ran slow and continued to excrete a black inky solution.

The above picture illustrates the difference between the two elements in terms of both volume produced and quality of water.

Which one will you depend on for YOUR family?

The above picture again highlights both the difference in flow rates and the quality of water produced by the alternative filter (left) and the Black Berkey® Purification Element (Right) after approximately two cups of Clorox® had been filtered through each element. During an emergency, such as Katrina, in which source water may be laden with heavy chemical contamination. The difference is clear.

* * * * *

Additional Observations & Summary

• The Berkey® system can be primed, set up and begin purifying water in about 20 minutes whereas the alternative system must be conditioned for two days prior to use.(⁴⁾

• The 2 day conditioning process cannot be accelerated by priming the alternate filter elements. When we attempted to do so, the ceramic broke, causing the element to explode.

• The wall thickness of the Black Berkey® elements is approximately 60% greater than the wall thickness of the alternative element.

• The Black Berkey® purification elements remove virus whereas the alternative filter element does not.

• The flow rate of the system is only about 1/11th of the flow rate of a Big Berkey with 4 Black Berkey Purification Elements.⁽⁵⁾

• When performing a Chlorine test, the alternative element began excreting a black inky solution.

• The claim is made that the new system is NSF certified; yet, NSF has no record of their certification.⁽⁶⁾

• Relevant test data is not available for the alternate system.

• Rather than using the expensive plasma welding on the stainless steel housing, which also gives Berkey® systems their beautiful mirror like lustrous shine, the housings use a cheap deep drawn method and make a tinny sound when thumped.

• The foot ring on the bottom of the system is a cheap plastic, instead of rubber, that falls off and is not snug nor does it fit tightly to the system.

If you purchased an alternative choice filter and are not satisfied with its performance, you may be able to return it for a refund. If not, there is no reason to fret because Black Berkey® purification elements can replace the filters in the alternative choice systems. Thus, you can upgrade your system with the power of authentic Black Berkey® Purification Elements.

* * * * *

Footnotes:
¹ Fully configured Big Berkey® water purification system contains 4 Black Berkey® purification elements.
² Fully configured alternate system contains alternate filtration elements.
³ Literature and website claim expansion to 3 elements. System obtained for test purposes did not
physically allow this expansion; the elements were too wide at the base to allow claimed full
expansion.
⁴ Based on assembly instructions which stated: “…fill the upper container fully with cold or room
temperature water. Allow all water to flow into the lower container. Open the spigot and discard the
water in the lower container. Let your system stand unused overnight. Refill upper chamber and
repeat…” In other words, “alternate” system would not be available in an emergency situation until 48
hours after set-up.
⁵ No flow rate is established on “alternate” website or literature.
⁶ Claims NSF 42 certification – no such listing appears on NSF website using any combination of the
alternate name or parent corporation.

-The Berkey Guy

Underground Bunkers Now and Then

2011-12-07T05:57:00.000-08:00

Underground protection from weapons has always been the preferred method of survival. As basic as a hand dug foxhole on the battlefield or a deep fortress built into a mountain such as Colorado’s Norad. During WW2 when the cities of Great Britain were being bombed relentlessly by the Germans, families took shelter underground at night time. Deep underground Subways were popular. Some residences made their own shelters.

One popular shelter was to use exterior basement or cellar stair wells. They were usually built of brick or stone. An arched corrugated metal cover was placed over the stairwell and covered with one or two feet of dirt. There was instance where high explosives landed on the house or in the yard right next to these shelters and the occupants survived. These systems were so effective that the British government began issuing the arched corrugated covers to anyone who had a suitable stairwell.

After Nuclear devices were dropped on Japan at the end of WW2 underground shelters took on a new shape. The fear was no longer high explosives from air raids but instead nuclear weapons that could destroy an entire city in one fell swoop. During the cold war era the United States and USSR had tens of thousands of individual warheads each. The fear from the mid 1940s to the late 1980s was that one country would launch a nuclear attack and the other country would reciprocate with thousands of warheads passing each other on their way to destroy every city in the country. These fears shaped the underground shelters for their era.

The cold war era shelter was a deep underground shelter. It was sized and stalked to be able to be self sufficient for very long periods of time. These nuclear shelters were made of various materials from concrete to corrugated metal tubing buried deep enough to protect from initial nuclear blasts and radiation. Because of the size of these types of shelters, they were expensive. They were also next to impossible to hide the installation of such a shelter. You certainly had to have disposable cash in order to purchase, install and stock such a large shelter.

Because of the history of cold war era shelters, whenever you even mention a Security Shelter people automatically roll their eyes and think you are talking about a big underground bomb shelter. Shelters have changed since the cold war era as the types of threats have changed as well. Thousands of nuclear weapons passing each other in the upper atmosphere on their way to their prospective cities all over the world are no longer the greatest threat. In fact, if nuclear weapons were used it would most likely be a very small number of weapons delivering EMP devices. These devices would be far less destructive than thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at every city in the US.

There are new fears that are helping to shape the attitudes of modern shelters. My studies have found that the threat of nuclear weapons is at the near bottom of the list of most likely to happen. The top of the list of fears is economic collapse, social collapse, anarchy created form the collapse of our own monetary system, pandemic, coronal mass ejections, terrorism and other natural disasters such as tornados and hurricanes. The trend has changed from a deep underground bunker to an urban foxhole style of bunker. An urban foxhole is a smaller security bunker. It is still underground but because of its smaller size it can be installed with no one knowing you have it and can be installed under your existing garage floor in some cases.

The new urban foxhole style shelter can be used numerous ways. Ultimately it is an underground shelter designed for the survival of you or your food and gun stores during any catastrophic event. Because of the smaller size of the unit (compared to deep underground long term stay bunkers) it is far less expensive than old style bunkers. Because it can be installed directly under your garage floor it has the advantage of being accessed from inside your home. This is a very exciting feature. You urban foxhole can be used for a safe room for your children or loved ones in case of home invasion. It can also be used as a secure vault for your valuables and emergency stores while you are away from home. Your valuables can be kept safe from flooding or fires. Because of its constant relative inside temperatures and insulated hull system it is also ideal as a wine room.
Here are a few survival plans demonstrating just how you would use the Urban Foxhole.

Collapse of our countries economy. Under these circumstances your biggest threat at first would be social chaos. You would certainly see wide spread looting as panicked people fought for whatever they could get off of any store shelves. Remember most people have not even considered or believed such an event could take place. Our local law enforcement would quickly be overwhelmed and our military would be brought in to maintain order. You however would have an ample supply of stores protected in your shelter.

Your objective at this point would be to keep your supplies safe and continue to use whatever outside resources is available until depleted. Your supplies would be secure from flooding or fire. If you had to abandon your home temporarily for any reason, your goods should still be there when you return.

Once public reserves are depleted, social anarchy would degrade to another level. You might see groups banding together, most likely by geography, such as neighborhood or church groups. These groups would ban together for security and possibly to share resources. I recommend you never tell anyone you have a shelter filled with supplies. If people begin looting homes and robbing to survive then the shelter will offer a very safe place for the family to sleep. With the entrance located in your garage loved ones can be safely secured in just seconds. If possible never leave the homes main living space vacant. Armed security should always maintain a presence in the house to keep it from being searched by roving parties looking for something to eat. Your ability to help yourself and your family has priority over friends and strangers.

You will enter and exit the shelter as needed. You will still maintain a presence in society but you will have your own safety net if needed. Sometimes a safe place to sleep is the greatest thing of all. With an air system you could hide as long as your supplies and filters allow you to.

In the case of an EMP delivered by a nuclear weapon you and your family would take cover inside the Urban Foxhole under the garage or patio floor within seconds. Because this device is most likely an airburst delivery the hazards of a nuclear blast would not be long lasting. The security pod air in and outlets are protected with blast valves that will automatically shut off when a pressure wave or loss of pressure wave passes over head. As long as the nuclear detonation does not come in contact with the ground, long term radio activity from fall out will be minimal. For an enemy to cripple our country with an EMP device the targets would be our electrical grid supply system and not our cities in general.

As long as you are outside a 15 mile range of the detonation you are only required to have a 50psi protection rating on your shelter. Urban Fox holes have well over 500psi estimated protection. You would use your stockpiled stores and emergency communication systems to gather the necessary outside information to decide when to come out. The first 24 hours is the most critical time and you would want to not run your air filtration system if possible. This will depend directly on how many people you have in your shelter. NBC filters are available as are many other filters. When the oxygen level in your shelter drops to a certain point, occupants will become nauseated and light headed. You will turn your air filtration system on and off manually as needed to conserve you air filters. The air system runs off of 110vac/ 12vdc and has a backup hand operated pump system. These shelters can be modified to protect against radiation using geometric attenuation.

Natural Disaster survival. Your urban foxhole will be accessible in seconds from inside your garage. It should be designed to withstand earthquakes and tornados. It should be water proof. You should be able to flee if necessary and know the contents will be safe, secure and dry when you return.

Home intrusion. As mentioned above, with access from inside the house your loved ones can be secure in just seconds. Call for help from inside the foxhole.

Wine cellar. I bet you didn’t see that one coming did you? Many people want a wine cellar but they don’t have room for one. An addition to your home is not feasible or you really don’t want to ruin a bedroom to make one. Well now you can have one right under your garage floor, and it doubles as your safe room!

Secure Storage. An urban foxhole is ideal for securing guns, food, and valuables inside. Not only is it going to be a major undertaking to get into it for the bad guy. It’s going to keep your items dry. Now you can leave home and feel confident about not being robbed.

Where underground shelters were once huge financial investments costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and designed for the direst of circumstances. The modern urban foxhole can provide greater protection in a more convenient and manner directly under your home, and for considerably less money than deep bunkers. Shop around; protecting your family is a lot less expensive than you think.

Barry Knowles
Smart Product Technology
http://www.urbanfoxhole.com
Visit our website to get the top 10 things to consider when planning a shelter!

Are we as prepared as we think we are?

2011-12-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

By Paul Stevens

Many times our imaginations and perceptions become larger than life, allowing our thought processes to exceed far beyond all reality and our own physical limitations. This could leave many who think they are well prepared really under-prepared.

Pipe Dream- an unrealistic hope or fantasy, although this term originated from the pipe dream allusions experienced by smokers of opium pipes. The phrase for prepping is very appropriate, as we listen to people’s plans of preparedness we often walk away thinking that guy is just pipe dreaming, or wondering what he has been smoking?

A good example of our imagination and perceptions; the solar power lights advertised on line and sold in stores. Many of us got suckered with them when they first come out and why not? They looked good in the marketing material; you could even visualize the amount of light that would pour out on your driveway or sidewalk. It’s not until you get home and start using them that you quickly realize they are nothing but a joke. They hardly throw enough light to even see your hand a foot away. What’s really scary is people are continuing to buy them even after they see how bad they work on other people’s homes.

A good example of our physical limitations; we have all dreamed about doing a project. We visualize ourselves, doing it, even having fun and completing it quickly, just another walk in the park in our minds, right? But when the time comes what we thought would be just a weekend project becomes a month or longer project. Truth be told, some of us still have yet to put the finishing touches on projects started months ago.

When watching people in a true life disaster preparedness along the Gulf Coast, I’m amazed, amused and then feel so sorry for people as I watch the lines at our home improvement stores when a Hurricane is reported to be headed in our direction. I don’t know how many times I have seen guys wheeling out a brand new generation while carrying a 2 gal gas can in the other hand. You get the picture, two gallons of gas won’t even fill the generator, plus it will only last about four hours and that is if the generator runs only at half the rated capacity.

Then follows the wife with kids in tow, she will have a 50’ light duty extension cord, a flashlight and some masking tape for the windows and a case of bottled drinking water. The husband and wife walk out feeling prepared to take on a full force hurricane.

And why is it during any pending weather disaster, people will panic and run to the grocery stores just to clear out all the bread, milk, and eggs? For some reason they are programmed to focus only on the short term commodities which will only last them 24-36 hours. They walk on past the basic necessities and staples they really need to last for weeks without power. Do they not know how to cook beans and rice from scratch, bake bread in a cast iron pot?

We don’t always take the time to think and read the fine print to understand the capabilities and requirements of a piece of survival equipment we are looking to purchase. For example; we glance down and read the advertisement on the generator, it says it will run up to 12 hours on one tank of gas, but then on down in the fine print it says based on half load capacity. As we look closer the advertised 6,500 Watts is actually for only a short peak period of time, the actual rated running watts is only 5000 watts.

How many items do we have sitting still boxed up on the shelf, with no clue if it works or if we even have everything to make it work? Heck, do we even know where it is at? I know I often will impulse purchase something and bring it home and throw it on the shelf thinking that just might come in handy if we get caught in a disaster. When I do need it I can’t find it or it is missing something else that wasn’t explained on the box, or it is just a piece of junk that falls apart. A camping stove is not going to do much good if you don’t have the LP hose to hook it up. A generator cord is going to be worthless when you thought it took a crow foot plug, but the generator actually requires a twist lock plug.

Just how realistic can we expect to have our spouse or kids run by and pick up the right product with all the needed accessories after seeing in a sales flyer, especially when they often forget to do it or come back with something totally different. I can hear the heated conversation of desperation now,"I though you wanted me to get a rubber glass squeegee, you didn’t tell me you needed a floor squeegee in case the basement floor started to flood".

Realize there is just a lot of junk on the market that people are depending on to keep them going in disasters. It may look like the original but the copy cat cheaply made products just can’t be depended on. If it is cheap and you may really need to depend on it, consider passing and paying for a quality made name brand product. It’s like hearing your neighbor brag about an air compressor his wife bought him for Christmas. He goes on and on about how good it is and in your mind you think wow she really did well. Then one day you have a rather urgent trip only to find that you have a flat tire. Realizing you really could use his help with the compressor, you give him a call and in short time he shows up with a black vinyl bag and pulls out a plastic tire pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter. In your dismay he continues to proudly display it and plugs it into your cigarette lighter. It runs for about 10 minutes and then freezes. He is then in total disbelief, that his compressor didn’t live up to the marketing image on the box. You are still stuck with a flat tire and he is stuck with junk, thinking he was prepared. It has nothing to do with smarts either, in fact I have witness Master level and PHD level people get taken even more with product deception. Companies spend a fortune on product packaging and product description just to trick our minds.

People don’t always understand the connections they will need to make their survival gear work for them when a disaster hits and the power goes out. They are feeling they are prepared, and why not, like the couple above, they have the generator, a gas can and an electric cord to hook it up. The check list is done and completed, right?

Many people wait until the last minute having no clue on how to use a piece of equipment, and what they will need to hook it up. Like a generator, where they will use it, how will it hook up, and what else is needed to hook it up? Maybe they are only planning to run a refrigerator or freezer, but the reality is they are probably thinking they will just fire it up and somehow run the whole house. After the hurricanes passed, many families were found dead in their homes; they had survived the hurricane but were overcome by carbon monoxide because they ran a generator in an enclosed garage. Probably because they had no place outside to run it, with the high winds and pounding rains, where will you safely run yours in bad weather?

The reality is a 5000 Watt Generator will require at least a 45 Amp service for 110 volt operation and 22.7 Amp service for 220 volt service. People should prepare ahead and have an electrician hook into the service panel with a transfer switch. The generator will be limited to only providing a few circuits. 5000 Watts will not be enough to run an electric stove, oven or central A/C as they will require a dedicated 50 Amp service. So what other alternative sources will you have to take the place of these appliances? Might be a good time to convert to a gas stove, economically gas is going to save money in the long run. A gas stove still will require electricity to run the igniter, yes a match for the top burners but how do you light the oven? It might require a long fireplace igniter that you may just not have.

To hook a portable 5000W generator to a 220 volt interface a short run of #10- 30 Amp rated extension cord will be needed. A size #14 wire is rated to only handle up to 15 Amps, and the sizes #16 and #18 wires commonly used in most extension cords are only capable of carrying less than 10 Amps. The length of the cord also plays a big factor, even on one that is as short as 25’ long. You can research more about amperage and voltage, as well as voltage drop on the Internet.

All extension cord wire sizes will be stamped on the side of the cords, always look as some of the large bulky imported cords may lead you to think they are heavy duty, when in actuality they may only be #14 or #16 wires surrounded with just a lot of cheap plastic.

It is a good idea to look at all the power consumption labels on equipment and add up the items that you will be dependent on during a power outage. Labels will either display the power needs in Amps or Watts. The quick and dirty conversion from Watts to Amps is to divide the volts into the listed wattage.

A 1550 Watt appliance based on 110 volts will require 13.6 Amps. A 60 Watt bulb requires only .54 Amps and so forth. You may not know the exact voltage coming in unless you have an electrician or the power company tests it. Using the lower 110 volts for conversion will be on the conservative side. This is not meant to be an exact calculation to take things to the max, consult a qualified electrician if you need to figure amperage to the edge of a wires capacity, especially when distance is a factor. A generator transfer switch should be installed in order to hook a generator up properly and in some locations even legally to a grid served home.

You will likely come to realize that groups of electrical items will need to be rotated to run on the generator for periods of time. By planning now charting and labeling which items can be ran will make the transition to off-grid more organized. You may actually discover some internal wiring or changing circuits also will need to be completed in order to accommodate everything that needs to be powered.

In calculating gas needs, you will pretty quickly discover a 5000 Watt generator is not going to last long on even a couple of 5 gallon gas cans, less than 24 hours if ran continuous. Then how many gallons will you need over three days, a week, a month? Where can you store this much gas safely. The reality is that you may only be able to afford to stockpile enough gas to run a generator for just a couple hours a day in order to keep the freezer stuff frozen, run the well pump, do some laundry, and other chores and then rely on other battery operated or manually operated items.

One flashlight is not going to be enough, to even last a week, without new batteries, and what about the bulb? Yes, better have a replacement bulb as well. Personally I like to have several options such as generators, a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery set up with a solar charger, an inverter and plugs to charge 12 volt items, some oil lamps, candles and lots of flash lights and batteries. An inverter will quickly run down the battery, but it is good to have for back up to charge cell phones, battery power tools, and run a table lamp.

You need someone very methodical and detailed in prepping in the family. Who is the preparedness nut in your family? If it is you and you’re the one who always forgets the wallet, or where you put the car keys, you just might want to reconsider that strategy. It’s not that you are not a good prepper you are just better at doing other things and need to leave the details to someone good at it.

Prepping together with other like minded friends can bring many resources together and provide a good cross check of everyone’s preparedness. This also allows people to purchase in bulk, then split and process food in larger production modes. Many people survived the Great Depression by pulling together neighbors and large families to share in the growing of food and processing it.

Do we know the shelf life on the items we are stockpiling? Unless it is wine or fine bourbon most items don’t have a very long shelf life. Did you know gasoline will only stay fresh for only a few months? Maybe six months with stabilizer, diesel does better up to two years, natural gas would be the best, but will there be natural gas? Maybe a Tri-fuel generator is the best option, these run on gas, natural gas/propane or diesel, available at [url]http://www.northerntool.com.
[/url]
The same goes for food, dry milk and other items being stockpiled. These items will need to be labeled and rotated as you use and purchase replacement stock. We took Y-2K pretty serious; regardless if the world fell then or not we always wanted to be prepared for a major storm. We did end up throwing a lot of food away, weevils got into most of the flour mixes, and much of the other stuff expired. Lesson learned how you store and stockpile is just as important.

Will the equipment work when you need it the most? Generators and other small gas engines just don’t do well sitting unused for long periods of time. The newer gas formulas, many containing alcohol and other additives, tend to gum up the carburetor quicker to the point they just won’t start. Fuel and winterize additives just don’t seem to work as a well as they use to with these new gasoline blends. Small engine repair people say it is just best is to let the motor run out of gas, even then it needs to be run periodically to keep the gaskets and parts from drying out. Some small engine repair shops suggest we should only use premium grade gas in these small engines, and that can get expensive quick.

Do we have spare parts? Even stationary generators, solar, or wind power units and wood furnaces have parts that can break and make the equipment useless. Spare hoses, belts, spark plugs, are all now required on the generators serving coastal healthcare facilities subject to hurricanes after lessons learned from lost lives during hurricane disasters. When we lived up North we had an outdoor wood furnace, I always stocked another circulating pump and draft blower fan for periods when ice and snow storms wouldn’t allow me to get out and find a replacement, should one of them failed. This would have shut our entire heating system down, leaving us vulnerable. Yes, over 10 years I did have to replace the circulating pump a couple times, once in the middle of a snowy cold night, I was very glad I was prepared as one winter temperatures fell 20 below.

Did you know things made of rubber such as tires; belts and hoses have shelf life? Not as much an issue as food, but they will dry rot over time, while even hanging in a shed. If your rubber replacement parts are over 10 years old, it may be best to purchase some new ones. Some even say 5 years.

Do we have the right supplies to do the job? Are we depending on what just might be a wise tale? One roll of masking tape is not going to go very far, but the real issue is taping the windows is not even recommended to provide protection during a hurricane; it is just an old wise tale. To be prepared we need plywood cut and ready to apply to windows and doors, with heavy screws or anchors.

Do we have enough water for the entire family? Homeland security recommends one gallon of water per person per day. That provides 2 Quarts for consumption and 2 Quarts for food prep and hygiene. They go on and say bottled water should be rotated yearly; even water has a shelf life. Rain water can be gathered in 55 gal barrels, and used for flushing the toilets and boiling. But just one case of bottled water wouldn’t even last a husband and wife one day. For a family of four we will need to store or be able to produce 240 gallons of water per month. Perhaps a 320 gal plastic tank like the ones sold at farm stores is the way to prepare for this one. Having a well with the generator to run it helps solve the replenishing issue.

Do we have the families’ commitment and understanding about living without power? Long hot showers and standing in front of open freezer and refrigerator doors for long periods will not be an option. Safe handling of open burning candles and oil burning options need safety training to prevent them from being knocked over and catching the house on fire.

What will the family do to keep them active? Obviously living off grid will be more work, but the things taking for granted such as computers, TV’s and video games will not be an option. Have you stocked up on board games, books and puzzles?

What about medications and other healthcare needs? With most insurance companies only allowing a 30 day supply, this could be a tough one that maybe someone else can help answer on how they are prepping. And what about those at home on oxygen, insulin, and even dialysis? I see these as real issues for those prepping for major disasters or unrest.

Save money on your package shipping

2011-11-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

By Paul Stevens

If your Holiday gift plans include shipping off packages to family members, you might want to consider doing price comparisons on line before heading off to the UPS store. Some of these companies have got so big they are no longer competitive.

At Cottage Craft Works we are having to continually check shipping cost between the different carriers. We have discovered some will cost you double to three times as much for the same package going to the same location. Often the cost of shipping can add up to be as much or more than what the contents cost.

For small or long boxes we have found the US Postal service to be the most economical especially using their free flat rate boxes. We can ship a 2lb box for $5.20 UPS would charge $22. and Fed Ex would charge $14. For International shipping US Postal Service Priority mail is just hard to beat. Take those savings off several packages and leave you a bit extra for your own Christmas.

Also be careful with the strip mall pack and ship stores they are convenient, but with a premium price for that convenience. Ship early where you can ship at the lowest rates, and check the difference between shipping to a residence of business address. For Preppers living out in distant places the difference can be substantial. Some businesses don't mind accepting packages for their employees or dedicated customers.

These are the web sites to check cost for shipping. You no longer have to try and figure out the complicated girth measurements, just enter the box size and weight. Log on to https://wwwapps.ups.com/ctc/request to find the UPS estimated cost, then Log on to http://postcalc.usps.gov/ to check the US Postal Service estimated Cost and Log on to https://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/home?cc=US&language=en to check Federal Express estimated cost, use the quick estimator or you will need to create an account.

Solving wood stove chimney creosote problems

2011-11-22T15:05:00.000-08:00

by Paul Stevens

Resolving creosote and other safety considerations in wood burning stoves and fireplaces.

If your wood stove chimney is creating a serious creosote problem, you are probably encountering cold air hitting the outside of the chimney and cooling the gases down too quickly before they escape into the air. This can happen on single metal pipe chimneys or where an extension has been added to a masonry chimney.

I encountered this problem with an outdoor wood furnace, despite being on an acreage our rather close neighbor would call and tell us we were smoking them out. My initial solution was to add 8' foot of metal pipe to extend the chimney on up. This did improve the smoke situation but soon I began to notice creosote dripping out from the clean out at the base of the chimney. Because the stove was contained outside I wasn’t as concerned about a chimney fire as I would if it was in the house, but still concerned that I could have a roman candle going off if the creosote ignited sparking leaves and dry grass from catching on fire or worse my garage roof. I took the creosote issue very serious and began to research the problem.

I tried different mixes of seasoned woods, tried to burn it off with a hot fire of newspapers in the mornings before it built up, but nothing seemed to help the problem. Luckily I had access to a national fire safety expert that quickly clued me into the idea that the hot gases were being cooled too rapidly and liquefying before they could escape the top of the chimney extension.

I found my solution by utilizing an 8” metal pipe to surround my 6” chimney pipe extension. I used the seamless commercial furnace duct pipe, instead of the snap joint pipe sold in the hardware and home centers. I was able to purchase a 8’ section so I had no joints to worry about. I wrapped the 6” chimney pipe with fiber glass insulation, the type you buy to wrap pipes without any backing. Fiber glass insulation without the paper backing will not burn or melt. Other insulation such as rock wool or ceramic insulation is commonly used in insulating chimneys. I then slid the 8” pipe over the top, and fabricated a welded metal cap that sealed the top to the 8” pipe and prevented any rain water from running down into the insulation. (Wet insulation will only conduct the heat, and not insulate, just like taken a hot pan out of the oven with a wet hot pad) If you don’t have welding and fabrication talent or equipment a welding shop can make a cap for you. It is a simple sleeve that slips over the top of the 8” pipe and has a sealed ring reducer that fits over and down into the top of the 6” chimney pipe to seal off the top and prevent rain water from entering. I was amazed at how this very thin layer of insulation surprisingly fixed my creosote problem.

Please Note: This was my solution, I’m not suggesting for anyone to run out and start messing with a chimney without some knowledge and experience, yours might be more complicated and a professional chimney expert may need to be consulted. Creosote build up is a disaster waiting to happen, a creosote fire is like a black smith forge fanned by rushing air up through the chimney. Knowing that cold air may be the culprit hopefully gives you a starting point, and may give those considering installing a wood stove some ideas.

Also Note: If you have a prefabricated triple wall chimney or a factory made collar to exit the wall or ceiling and roof never block the holes, alter the chimney cap, or fill in the gaps between the pipes. These pipes, collars and caps are designed to use convection cooling to make the outer edge safe to install at the manufactures space recommendations next to combustible materials. Always consult with the manufacture for the proper extensions or adapters to use with these chimneys. Blocking the air flow will create a fire hazard. A properly installed metal triple wall chimney should prevent the cold air from ever reaching the inner chimney to create a creosote problem.

Some of the ceiling collars have rather large holes and to the general person and even some installers, will assume these holes need to be covered with insulation to keep heat from escaping the room.

Even a zero clearance metal fireplace is designed to be used with triple wall chimneys made specifically for the fireplace. These fireplaces come with what appears to be a dryer vent that goes to the outside of the house. As the fireplace is being used convection air is pulled in from the vent around the inner chamber of the fireplace and then up around the chimney to keep the outer chamber of the fireplace and chimney pipe cool against combustible materials. It is a good idea to check the vent before each season to be sure it is not clogged with a bird or wasp nest, or with a snow drift during the season. So if you happen to come across a good deal on a zero clearance fireplace at a garage sale, please don't run home and install it without the accompanying recommend triple wall chimney.

Have a safe and warm winter this season.

Packratting

2011-11-16T19:16:00.001-08:00

I am a packrat. My wife has informed me of this fact on a regular basis over the last thirty years. Still, I like the fact I can go out to the barn and look up some old stuff from years gone by and make sure my memory is correct. I also enjoy stumbling across a box of old magazines and re-reading some of the stories. I recently found a pile of True magazines from the late 1960s. There was a long article about Euell Gibbons in it and how he hunts wild food. I made a copy of the article and shared it with Tonto. Thirty year old info is still good today.

Toolman and I share a collection of the early Mother Earth News magazines. There are a lot of useful article in them about home made equipment and how to about raising your own crops and animals. A lot of this info might be needed if we go into a long term TEOTWAWKI situation. Toolman dropped them off the other day. He is cleaning out some stuff in the house and needed to move them here. They will go on the shelf in the barn with the old issues of Backwoodsman, Countryside, Backwoods Home, Backhome, and a few others. All of these magazines hold very useful information that might come in handy down the road. I like to store these old magazines because they are EMP proof. Also, I may not be able to remember all I need to on a subject or I might not even care about raising chickens right now but will if they become critical to survival. I can then go back and read up on them.

If you read the blogs long enough you will see most of us post about books and reading martial every few months or so. That is because they are important to long term survival. I probably will not be around to help out the grandkids if we can keep from sliding over the edge for another decade. However, the supply of books and magazines I have left behind just may help insure my family’s survivability multi-generationally. If all that takes is for me to be a packrat, so be it.

Wolverine

Iowa Deals with Arsenic in Water Supplies?

2011-11-15T08:37:00.001-08:00

From: The Berkey Guy

The Des Moines Register is reporting that Iowa is dealing with Arsenic issues across the state. According to reports, fifty-five percent of Iowa’s tap water is sourced from ground water.
Although the recommended test apparently costs about $20 for residents to use, resolving the issue will not be as quick and simple. Arsenic reduction can occur simultaneously with a treatment that reduces or removes iron from the water.

The article references coliform bacteria showing up in test results, although many individuals are unaware that coliform is not necessary pathogenic, or disease-causing. Coliform’s presence suggests the possible presence of illness-causing bacteria such as E-coli, although not necessarily.
Elevated levels of chlorine also triggered concerns for residents even though that issue seemed to have been more easily addressed and resolved.
Read the original article HERE.

-The Berkey Guy

How do you cook your turkey and make your dressing?

2011-11-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

by Paul Stevens

Personally for Thanksgiving I have to admit we are rather lazy, but our favorite way to cook the big bird is in the bag. Meaning we prepare it by washing it good, add seasoning an onion and celery inside, spray on butter on the outside and dust with flour, place it in a roasting bag, poke a few vent holes in the top, and then place it breast up in the roaster, set the time based on weight and forget about it.

We have tried frying it and cooking it without the bag, but for the past 34 years its been in the bag for us on Thanksgiving. We can always count on it browning perfectly and being moist inside without any fuss or extra work. The bag also helps with draining off the broth for dressing making the roaster easier to clean after the the meal is over. We find the cooking bags in the grocery store along side the food storage bags.

We also always take advantage of the turkey sales before Thanksgiving and purchase two turkeys. It doesn't take much to have someone stand in line with $20 of items to get the second one for the advertised low seasonal price. The extra turkey goes in the freezer for the outdoor smoker, which is our favorite for a summer Holiday meal.

Just in the past few years we have also discovered that we had been missing out on the wonderful turkey noodle soup, in fact talk about making things easy, we now just break up the carcass remove the most fatty skin and put everything it in a zip lock bag and then place in the freezer. When things get cold outside we pull it out add vegetables and cook up a big pot of soup adding our Amish homemade noodles towards the end. Doing it later in the season doesn't turkey us out after going through left over's.

On the dressing, we really love dressing; so much we pull out the large broiler pan that comes with ovens, and even cook a little extra. Bread dressing is our favorite. Now that we really have to have a low salt diet we use additional low salt broth to make it moist, and now add fresh sliced mushrooms to take the place of oysters.

What is your favorite way to prepare the traditional Thanksgiving meal?

Veterans day.

2011-11-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

Freedom is never free.

If you enjoy your freedom, thank a vet.

Backyard Food Production

2011-11-11T05:33:00.000-08:00

Recently I had the opportunity to review Marjory WildCraft's Backyard Food Production DVD and I must say "Wow". This is the most comprehensive video on sustainable living that I have seen, that not only offers a template for those who are just getting started, but also provides a variety of new ideas for even the well seasoned homesteader.

In this video you will learn;

Water. Including systems for collecting rainwater, storing, and calculating how much you will need for your livestock, gardens, orchard and personal use.
Gardening. Get started with basics in gardening. Learn the best locations for your trees, fruits and vegetables. Bugs and insects. Soil fertility. Proper amounts of shade, sun, and more...
Rabbits. Marjory will show you how to properly care for your rabbits including feeding, watering and housing.
Home butchering. Get to know the basics of butchering rabbits, poultry and tanning hides.
Poultry. Watch information about breeds, housing, feeding and watering, egg collecting and protecting from predators.
Dogs. Learn how dogs can be productive members of your homestead, what kinds of work they can perform and what breeds work best.
Perennials, food forests, and edible landscaping. Find out how you can have an edible yard, what plants work good together, and picking the best locations and varieties of plants.
Other Essentials. Marjory also provides a list of other essentials you should know such as caring for injuries, dealing with fire ants, testing for herbicides in your hay, solar dehydration and much more

Included with the DVD is a bonus disk packed full of dozens of PDF files, ebooks, and resources including, Aquaponics, Catfish ponds, Seed saving, Composting, Permaculture, dehydrating and more

The Backyard Food Production DVD is a must have for everyone from the suburbanite with a small patio garden to the well seasoned homesteader. We encourage your to check them out at www.BackyardFoodProduction.com

*Note, APN received no compensation for posting this article. This was a genuine review.

Add a safety switch to your outdoor power equipment

2011-11-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

By Paul Stevens

Be safe this fall season add an emergency kill switch to your outdoor power equipment

If you are like me with grown kids, you probably end up working out alone in the woods, garden, or other remote areas always using some type of small gas engine operated power equipment. It’s not the smartest or ideal situation not having someone close by, but that is just sometimes reality.

Regardless if you have the newest and greatest equipment, old, or even home built power equipment a kill switch next to the operating controls or where you hold onto the handles could save fingers, arms, and your life. Despite all the safety requirements most of the outdoor power equipment except for mowers require you to reach down or walk around to the front of the machine in order to shut it off. This could be rather difficult if your glove or hand has been drug into the machine while using a log splitter, chipper, buzz saw or other similar machine.

Only the newer push lawn mowers have a kill switch if you let go of the handle, riding mowers have one built into the seat and they are both a pain, they shut off the mower every time you stop and let go of the handle or change position in the mower seat.

When I built my own log splitter I made sure I had a kill switch right next to the hydraulic lever, even with my rear tine garden tiller I have a kill switch in case the machine catches some solid material and takes off on me. Yes it has the typical factory control to start, ideal and stop the machine, but it is still located down too far from the handles to reach down and shut off the machine in an emergency.

These small gas engines shut off by simply grounding out the ignition system, understanding this makes adding a kill switch a snap. Any single contact switch will work, toggle or push button. I prefer to use the large dash mount automobile horn button used for trucks when the steering wheel horn stops working. A recycled switch from electronic equipment or other surplus source will work just as well. If your equipment would become unsafe if you should fall or be pulled away from you such as a garden tiller, consider a switch that can be tethered with a breakaway strap to your wrist or waist. Toggle switches with large plastic handles can be drilled to accept the tethered strap, or switches made for this purpose can be purchased or recycled from a junked Jet Ski or snow mobile.

Simple to install, one side of the switch is grounded to the equipment frame; the other side receives a single wire running down to the factory shut off control. This control will have one single wire running out of the engine to a slide control close to the carburetor. This slide control usually incorporates the choke, and idle selections. As the handle slides it operates the choke, then the idle. When it is slid to the end it grounds out the ignition system and shuts off the engine. The factory wire is usually bolted to the control, if this is the case simply unscrew the nut and wrap the wire to the kill switch and re-tighten, if not tap splice into the wire by using an automotive snap on wire splice.

Oh and if your engine doesn't start, check the position of the kill switch. I actually use mine to stop the engine anyway but forget to turn it back when I go you use the machine again.

Feeling a Flu Coming?…Check out what I do

2011-11-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

From: The Berkey Guy

I am a generally healthy guy. I hardly ever get sick, but when I do feel a bug trying to set-in, here’s what works for me.

I have a couple of orange trees which produce good size fruit. In my experience, eating freshly picked fruit is much more preferable than eating fruit that has been picked and transported from a non-local source.
One of the keys to my taking this remedy has to do with:

I use this remedy immediately when I feel flu-like symptoms such as a slight body-ache, sudden fatigue, slight temperature, or just plain lousy (everyone should be familiar with how his/her body reacts when the a flu begins to set-in).
I have found it exponentially beneficial to eat the peels along with the oranges, in addition to the oranges used to make the tea.
Generous rest must be part of your preventing severe flu onset!!! If you think you’re getting sick, go to bed early, take it easy, and relax!
I use raw honey along with the tea that I make. It’s awesome.

Here are the simple steps to how I prep my tea.
Materials needed:

3 quart sauce-pan
stove-top (or cooking surface to heat the sauce-pan if off grid)
ladle
mug
~2.5 quarts of drinking water (I use water from my Berkey)
6-8 freshly-cut & healthy oranges (slightly bigger than a baseball)
Raw honey

Select the biggest oranges with the healthiest looking peels. Great oranges are fragrant and have a wonderful weight. The orange should be firm, with a slight “squeezability” to it.
I do not tear the orange from it’s stem at the tree. I cut a portion of the stem on which it hangs along with a few leaves (about 4-5 inches of the stem). Once you have gathered a healthy amount of oranges, you will need to wash them previous to eating them and using them for the tea.
Do a good job cleaning the oranges. My orange trees are not sprayed with any pesticides, although some areas and individuals do spray their trees with chemicals. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that. A great cleaner that I use with other fruit that might have chemicals on them is Environné. Also be sure to wash the leaves (you can leave the stem attached if you like-no pun intended).
I fill ~2.5 quarts of water into a 3 quart pan with water from my Berkey and bring it to a boil.
While the water is heating up, I peel 4-5 oranges and retain the peels. We’ll place them to boil along with the leaves. A good rule-of-thumb is to use enough orange peels to cover the surface of the water in the pan.
I then eat the peeled oranges. With another 2 un-peeled oranges, I will eat them whole, peel and all after I wash them.
Once the water is boiling, I will place the cleaned leaves and peels in the pan and keep the heat on medium to low. You will know that the peels are done when their color has reduced noticeably and the water has a strong orange-tint to it.
I then pour 2-3 tablespoons of raw honey into a mug and use a measuring cup to transfer the hot water from the pan into the mug. I then stir the mug contents to get a nice mix of the honey and the orange-tea. I let it cool down so it’s comfortably warm- my wife likes drinking it when it is scalding hot.
I then will drink two to three mugs of the tea…then it’s off to get some rest!

This remedy has done wonders to help me and my family and friends!

-The Berkey Guy

Freeze Dry Guy has acquired the entire 2011 U.S. Government overstock of LRPs

2011-11-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

Freeze Dry Guy has acquired the entire U. S. Government contract overrun of Long Range Patrol / Cold Weather Ration Entrees for 2011.

To Order, click here, or call 866-404-3663

Download the PDF

My Bug Out test...

2011-11-08T12:25:00.000-08:00

By: lgtsabr

OK... Here's what happened on my bug out gut check.

I was off early Saturday afternoon. Came home, took a nap and woke to a strange urge to re-think my Emergency Preparedness System. I went to the closet and grabbed my Bug Out Bag. I emptied the entire bag onto my living room floor. Then I got the bright idea of going down stairs to get my Get Home Bag from my car, which I did. I then proceeded to empty that bag's contents onto the living room floor. As I stood there, once again, scratching my head trying to figure out why it was so easy to just go camping for 3 or 4 days when I lived in California compared to having a complete Bug Out System and thinking do I do this, or do I do that. And so, I thought to myself... Why don't I give this a test run.

I packed up both bags as they were before. Put the GHB back in the car and the BOB back in the closet. I thought to myself, I'll set the alarm for 9:00PM and when it goes off, I'll give myself 30 minutes to gather what I think I would need and go.

So 9:00 came, alarm goes off. I grab my BOB, my rifle case and run, not realizing that I did give myself 30 minutes to gather things before I ran, you'll see why this was my first mistake down below. I get to the car, throw it all in and go!!

First, I drive to my intel spot about 10 minutes from home. I get the BOB and I hike the mile or so up the hill and to the ridge where I can see the entire Las Vegas Valley. Not sure what disaster I was trying to simulate so I just took out a multi-band radio that I have and cranked it up, literally. Since there was no real emergency to listen to on the news stations I decided to listen to the truck drivers all rant and complain about the construction on the freeways. If you've been to Vegas lately then you know that you can't get too far on any highway here without getting caught up in some kind of construction mayhem. So in doing this, I pulled out the maps and plotted a course around the construction areas. Went back to my car and drove off.

I did have about 3/4 of a tank of gas and do get great gas milage in my car but thought I should top off before I get into the long stretches of the desert, so I topped off the tank. As I got out of the valley and into the darkness of the desert I started to really think this through. The reality of this kinda hit me as I was driving the highway, alone, not being able to see very far. Cars would pass in the opposite direction but they were few and far between. But the very real possibility of this being something I may actually have to do one day soon really got to me. All sorts of questions began running through my head.
So I make it to where I was planning to go a couple of hours later. Now, this is not one of my Bug Out Locations however, it is a mid point for me to stop at on the way to my BOL. It is a very secluded area just outside of a small city with plenty of water in the form of a small river, lots of game (or so I'm told) and pretty easy for me to navigate. It's about 1AM and I'm driving my little 4 door sedan through some dirt roads in absolute darkness. I come to a small canyon cove sorta place I had seen many times on Google Earth. It's not very big but big enough for me to park my car for the night with plenty of brush, trees and bush to be somewhat hidden from any passersby, if any were to come. It's time to get some shut eye.

Now... I'm only wearing some tactical pants and a t-shirt with my hiking shoes. After all, I was in my car with a heater running. Well, now that I'm parked with my car off, no heater. Well, I'm a prepper right? I'm "prepared" for this. So I hit the trunk and grab some cold weather thermals I had thrown in there about a year ago. No dice. I thought they were cotton/wool thermals. Nope! They were nylon compression under shirts. Yes... Shirts. I had two packages of compression shirts, not even the pants I thought I had in there. Well, something is better than nothing so I threw on the compression shirt. I do however, have a sweater I always keep in my trunk so I grabbed that and threw it on as well. Jumped in the back seat and laid down for some shut eye.

Enter 4:15AM. Frost on my car, windows all completely fogged up and I'm freezing my ass off. I thought to myself, why don't get my sleeping bag out of the trunk and use it as a blanket. Great idea! Why didn't I think about this earlier when I was in the trunk? Probably because it wasn't there. Yep... forgot the sleeping bag. CRAP!!! It's COLD! Oh well, I thought. Suck it up. Sunrise will be here soon. Realizing that I had to take a piss, I turned to pee near a bush. Checking the area first with my flashlight, good thing I remembered that, I saw several pairs of eyes watching me. Pretty cool I thought. There is game here. But it kinda creeped me out at the same time. I've seen glowing eyes in the dark before but not several pairs of them ALL staring at me. Probably just a pack of Coyotes or something, if they even run in packs. So I finished my business, went back into my car and fell back asleep, for 20 minutes at a time. I would wake up, look around to make sure Big Foot wasn't eying me for dinner then look towards the East hoping to see sunlight soon. Go back to sleep for another 20 minutes, then repeat.

Well daylight finally came. Time for me to assess what I have and what I have going on. I need to find somewhere to setup camp, but FIRST!!!! Turn the car on and get the heater going. I finally warmed up and began to find myself on the maps I brought. Figured out where I was and where I wanted to go and started down the dirt road.

After driving for several miles down this dirt road I finally came to a bridge I was not expecting. I've studied this area quite well on the maps, wasn't expecting to cross a bridge. Well turns out it was a maintenance bridge for the RR tracks I was driving along. Oops... Went down the wrong trail. Stopped again, figured out where I was, again... I noticed on the map that I could drive about 300 yards and take another trail to get back to the main dirt road I started on. YES, I seemed to have somehow taken a wrong turn or something and was no where near where I thought I was. That taught me to stop from time to time and check on where I'm at. So I get to my dirt road I thought I was on this whole time and continued down this path only to be stopped by a very heavy looking gate. Strange, I don't recall having to come to a gate. Then I thought to myself, "wow! That's a pretty heavy duty gate. It's got itself what looks like concrete anchored gate posts, a big ol' NO TRESPASSING sign and it's very own heavy duty pad lock." The only problem is that the fence it was connected to was only a 4 wire fence. Anyway, I'm not going to argue with any gate with a lock and a posted no trespassing sign. So I turn around and start heading back the way I came. Not sure where I thought I was going but I sure wasn't going to where I thought I was. So, I improvised... Drove up and down a few trails, the ones I could drive on with my car, and came to a spot I thought perfect for camp.

So I pulled out my tent & set it up. Gathered some large rocks for a fire pit and set off to gather firewood. Can't remember where I heard it but I do recall someone saying that once you think you have enough firewood, gather 10 times more. This has proven true time and again while I've camped over the years so gathering tons of firewood is what I always do. It's still about 2 in the afternoon so I didn't need a fire just yet but I was still thinking about being so cold the night before. And since I would be sleeping outside this night, I knew I needed plenty of firewood to keep warm throughout the night.

While gathering firewood I saw lots of jack rabbits. So as soon as I was set up in camp I wanted to set out for some food. I was starting to get a bit hungry. I had only been nibbling on some MRE snacks. I pulled out my rifle case to get my .22 rifle well, not only did I have my Marlin .22 rifle but my M4 rifle as well. Uhm... I could swear up and down that I had my TC .308 in there with my Marlin but I guess not. I wasn't going to be doing any big game hunting but what I thought I had in my case and what I actually had in my case were two different things. Mistakes are piling up.

So I set off to do some rabbit hunting but honestly I was set on gettin' me a rattler. I'm quite sure it was far too cold for Rattle Snakes to be out but I was hoping to get me one or two. Well, after about 3 hours the sun was rapidly dropping and the cold was starting to come in so I headed back to camp empty handed. I did get my fire going, and let me say... Dryer lint IS THE WAY TO GO! I have a magnesium flint stick but didn't shave off any magnesium. Just sparked the flint right onto the dryer lint... Lit up like a Christmas tree. Well, by now I had realized how sweaty I was and that I hadn't been drinking anything the entire day. I got the fire going pretty well and headed down to the river, which was about 50 yards or so from camp. I loaded up my canteen and my nalgene water bottle and headed back to camp. Now the river seems pretty clean and clear, it is running but I wasn't "dying" of thirst so I waited to boil the water first before I drank it. Here's another lesson for me, wash the canteen cup before drinking from it. There was a strange metallic taste to the water. Not sure if that was due to me boiling the water in it or what but, I've never tasted that before. YUK!

Now, I was pretty warm from the fire, which dried out my clothes pretty quick. Even with me wearing them. I did change from my cotton socks to my wool socks when I returned from the river so my feet were nice n dry. It wasn't very late, 8 or so maybe, but I was getting quite sleepy. I tried to make my way into my tent but now I'm realizing that it is a small, one man pup tent. NOT the way to go for someone my size. To top that off, I didn't do ANYTHING to cushion the bottom of the tent and well, remember... I forgot my sleeping bag? I was OK at first but as I lay there trying to keep my mind off of the cold I had lumps of dirt or something that just seemed to follow my body in every which position I would get into. And with half of my head sticking out the end of the tent, comfort was not going to be with me this night. Oh, and remember my M4 came along for the ride? Well guess what..? It lay next to me ALL night long. Guess it wasn't such a bad thing after all that it was in my rifle case. So just like the night before, I would only sleep about 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Mainly because I would wake up to stoke the fire but also to watch out for Big Foot. Or anything else that wanted to check up on me unwanted. One other thing I would wake up to.... Burning socks. I hung them on a stick near the fire to dry out. I didn't think I had put them so close to the fire that they would burn but apparently I did.

Well, morning came FINALLY. Today I had to head back home but I was determined to at least get me something to eat from the wild. So I wrapped up my camp and put everything away. While doing so, I started to think to myself, I haven't used 60% of what I brought with me. All those times of unpacking and repacking my BOB... Gawd, I wonder how much stuff that I have, I don't' need. So I spent every hour of daylight Monday fishing and hunting. I've seen fish in the river, small Bass I think not sure, but nevertheless... Fish. So I set up a trot line. I haven't done that since I was a teenager back in Tennessee so just try to imagine how long that took me. With all my hooks baited and in the water I set off again with my Marlin. Now the day before I probably stirred up about 4 or 5 jack rabbits while gathering firewood. Now, it seems, I can't even locate ONE! Typical. But that's how hunting goes. Some days, you can't load fast enough, others... The day can't pass fast enough. So I return to my trot line... Nothing. Old, soggy beef jerkey on the end of my hooks. Well, fishing is hunting. And that's how fishing goes... You know the rest.

I cleaned up my line, put my rifle away and jumped in my car. Head hung low with disappointment, I drove home.

But not all was lost. I learned a few things about what I have in place and what I think is ready and workable and what is not. I am surely going to need to do this a few times. So many mistakes were made, luckily they were made during practice and not during reality.

I'll unpack my BOB tomorrow night when I get home from work and go through what I took and what I actually used, then post it here.

I was really only out for about 50 hours or so. And though I did put my Bug Out System to test, with relative success, I'd really like to get in a true 72 hour test. Perhaps I'll do that soon.

Respond to this thread here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=468&t=15326

Love You and Your FAMILY above all else...

2011-11-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

A Message from Afro-Prepper

my thoughts and you are free to disagree...
need help with credit card debt? call me @ 800-915-6501 11am to 7pm PST
or email me your phone number or email address

Security Ideas for Desert Locales

2011-11-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

Posted By: LVKINGG

I have given some thought to the defensibility of a desert location in a SHTF scenario, and here is a summary of my observations:

Most desert terrain supports sparse vegetation, or at least vegetation that does little to impede visual surveillance. As such, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage to those who wish to defend a homestead/retreat in the desert. For the advantage side, desert terrain generally permits observation over great distances, particularly concerning the approach of vehicles (which usually kick up dust clouds that can be seen for many miles). This makes a surprise assault by hostile forces much more difficult to achieve--when the defenders are vigilant anyway. The principle disadvantage is that the ability to observe over great distances is afforded to the hostiles as well. This means that the defenders must be even more cautious about chosing locations for their structures and employ camouflaging techniques to keep their homesteads/retreats from being spotted by (potential) hostiles.

Another concern about desert terrain is that, unless it is also mountainous, the defenders will have no natural terrain features to prevent an approach to the property from any direction. This means that they must be able to defend against attacks from anywhere in a 360 degree arc! Places with heavy woods, deep/wide/swift rivers and cliffs are more easily defended because approach from at least one direction is effectively blocked (but even these locations will be monitored by prudent defenders). When looking for land, would be homesteaders/retreaters should consider terrain that can 'funnel' movement into narrow corridors that are much easier to defend.

If intruders are expected in the area, desert dwellers must practice flawless operations discipline to avoid detection and becoming a target. This includes noise, odor and light discipline. This is because any man-made sights, sounds and smells can be detected over great distances in the desert and give invaders ample time to prepare a plan of attack. Buildings, fences and other tell-tale signs of habitation will attract invaders, so a desert dweller should do whatever possible to minimize the appearance of these structures. Generators running, the sounds of farmstead animals (chickens, cows, sheep, goats and dogs), talking/shouting and music are all audio indicators of habitation, and should be minimized or eliminated to the greatest extent possible if intruders are suspected of being near or in the area. The smells of cooking or other fragrances not natural to the environment can also betray your location, so these must be controlled as best you can. Smoke is not a normal thing to see in a desert environment, and can be seen during daylight for many miles, and any form of man-made light during nighttime will attract intruders from similar distances.

Build your homestead/retreat well off any main roads (especially any that are paved) and if possible out of view from any such roads. While many desert locations are not at risk of large scale movement of potential intruders, any rural areas that lie between cities which have major highways will be at greater risk of intrusion by refugees or looters should the cities ever be evacuated.

Get to know your neighbors and when possible, involve them in your security plans (if you don't have neighbors, you may want to encourage trusted friends to become neighbors, or join you at your homestead/retreat). Obviously this involves trust, so the sooner you can establish good working relations, the better. Good neighbors can act as an advance warning system, and if they are of similar mindset can assist in the security of your property. When doing so, always promote mutual protection and keep to your word! Desert environments are hard and require a rugged mindset, so having good neighbors can only benefit everyone! Mutual support is the only way to go!

I think this should be enough to get the thread going. I would appreciate any suggestions or constructive criticisms so that we may all benefit!

Respond to this thread here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=468&t=15471

Testing your B.O.B to your B.O.L.

2011-11-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Posted by: chiron

Anyone else done B.O.B test runs to your B.O.L? What did you learn from testing your B.O.B.?

I have had a B.O.B packed for a while and check perishables on a schedule. So there it sits. However over the last few months I thought I should take it for a spin. My B.O.L is a few hours away by vehicle, 1 day at most by bike and 5 days by foot. The 5 days is relative due to things like weather and if its winter. I am able to hike it in 3 days but I threw 2 days in case of unforeseen complications.
I had a week of vacation coming up, so I took it camping. I made some subtractions in removing the handgun and 4 clips. I added the weight back with a new takedown fishing rod and reel. Plus I was looking to do some fishing with it.

Why not actually do the hike? Private property, Posted land, busy roads, nosey people. Was bad enough when I biked it in one day.

Test results:

Task: Hiking to simulate bugging out.
Every morning after an MRE I left the campsite and went out 6 miles on hiking trails. (up and down hills) Then came back 6 miles to the campgrounds by mid-day. Pack was 40lbs. Practiced some compass navigation.
Result: Need more core body strength. Legs were fine. Lower back was less than happy. I need alot more practice with compass navigation.

Task: Test food, water and shelter.
Result: Need Moleskin, in case of blisters. Bigger tube of hydrocortisone. small mirror (check for ticks) Bigger tube of DEET, I think the mosquitoes were big enough to shoot. MRE's are better than freeze dried. Less prep, more calories. Water filter lifesaver 4000 works well keeping lake water filtered for filling hydration reservoir in my pack. Size is an issue with it though. It is light but bulky. New 18" square end machete works much better than old hatchet for collecting firewood and is lighter. No problems with tent, however put rag in B.O.B. for wiping down tent before packing. (dew)

Task: What else could I use or discard.
Result: don't need fishing pole, can reduce some components of clothing, can reduce some components of first aid kit. Need anti-bear spray.

Only downside of this expedition was the fact I had a good time fishing but no mess kit. MRE's didn't need it so I didn't pack it. So no fish for me.

Results:
Need moleskin.
Practice using map and compass.
Different water purification to reduce bulk?
Anti-bear spray
Rag for tent wipe.
Hiking poles?
Larger tubes of hydrocortisone, DEET.
mirror small
keep machete
summer, dump some duplicate clothing items.
reduce quantity in first aid kit.
More abdominal exercises.
Bring a few spices, salt, pepper, chile powder, small amounts.

Reply to this post here:

http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=170&t=4446

2011-11-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it, not everyone has the same taste for food…and for those who have been searching for a Long-Term Food Storage solution that is USDA Certified Organic, here you have it! Jeff “The Berkey Guy” shot a short clip on Youtube introducing the food. We’ll have more clips available later this week. Enjoy!
-The Berkey Guy

Alternate Plans for Staying Warm

2011-11-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

From: Wolverine

I will admit that over the last month or so I have not had preparedness on the forefront of my mind. I was enjoying the fall days and busying myself with small things like trapping animals for my mother-in-law and reviewing old articles on prepping. Last Sunday my wife and I sat watching the news and saw the tons of snow that was dumped on New England and my wife turned to me and stated she sure was glad that didn’t happen here. It sort of jotted me that indeed it could happen here and I had not set up several of my back up plans for staying warm in a power outage.

I have written several times in the past about the PACE system for preparedness. I first heard it referred to as PACE over on Joe’s Viking Preparedness blog which for some sad reason he seems to have burned out on and no longer posts. Anyway, PACE is an acronym for Primary, Alternate, Contingent, and Emergency. It is a layers system of plans for any part of an operation. It was refined by Special Forces but has been around in many forms for years. Our family had the “One’s good, two’s better and Three’s is about right” plan for as long as I can remember.

A couple quick examples would be lighting, Primary, throw the switch, Alternate, propane lantern, Contingent, kerosene lantern, and Emergency, candles. For water you plan might run something like, draw from well, used stored bottle water, filter rain water, and boil any water you can find. I think that gives you the idea.

Since I live in Michigan and it gets a mite chilly from time to time I have in place a PACE system for heating. Now, this is not the plan I want to eventually have, but it is the one I have now. Like many of you, I dream of the day I can pick up a good woodburning stove that will heat and let me cook on it. Until that day arrives that is not an option and my plans need to reflect my reality.

My primary heat is my furnace which runs on propane. My wife and I have been fortunate enough to pre-pay for our propane the last few winters so we can count on it being full most of the time. If we lose power for a long term reason I have a generator I can hook up to the power and make sure the furnace works.

My alternate heat is still the propane, but what will happen is my wife, myself, and the dogs will cocoon down to the family room and heat it with the gas fireplace. It keeps that room warm and we can stay in there for most of the time we need to. Our kitchen is in the opposite corner of the fireplace and if it gets real cold in there we can turn the burners of the stove on and heat both corners making the room nice and toasty.

Years ago when we lived in the city my wife and I heated the house with kerosene. We found it kept the place nice and warm and since we bought kerosene as we used it the large heating bill from the gas company never showed up. We kept that heater and that is our Contingency plan for keeping warm. To be honest with you, right now my kerosene stores are way down and we would not be able to heat for a long period of time before we drop to our Emergency plan. We have not replaced the kerosene we used while deer hunting the last few years because I keep waiting for the price to come down. When we lived in the city K-1 kerosene was just under $2 a gallon. It is now double that and I keep hoping it will come down. Tonto and I have several places we check the price on and share the info. Now that I have my gas storage completed I hope to at least buy several more can full’s of K-1 for the future.

As an aside, several years ago I stopped at an Amish farm and asked the folks how much kerosene they used in a years time. The guy told me that they used about a hundred gallons for lighting and cooking. They use a kerosene stove during the summer for cooking on. They do not heat with kerosene so you can guess that you would need several hundred gallons stored away for heating and lighting.

Our gas fireplace can be converted to a wood burning fireplace with an hour’s work and a few tools. Once I fill the heater with the last gallon of kerosene I will be converting the fireplace over and we will then be heating with out Emergency plan.

As a guy I work with once told me, “It is easier to get warm than it is to get cool”. Staying warm in the dead of winter can be easier than cooling off in the ninety degree heat of summer. If you come into a room from the outside when it is well below freezing even a 50 degree room is warm.

I am sure that you have heard that the experts have all predicted that this will be a really bad winter with lots of cold and snow. If they are correct than now is the time to make sure you have some alternate plans for staying warm.

Wolverine

***Editors note*** As noted by some of our commentors, you should be extremely careful when heating with fuels such as propane and kerosene. Make sure you heat with a proper device, have adequate ventilation in your home, such as an open window, and maintain a working carbon monoxide detector.

Nationwide Emergency Alert Test

2011-11-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Forwarded from: ReadyMom

IMPORTANT: Please read and forward to your friends, family and co-workers.

This Emergency Alert System test is going to be different from the tests we are used to seeing.

It will be MUCH longer (3 Min) and at times you may NOT see the ‘This is a Test’ and you may only see ‘This is an Emergency Alert’.

There is going to be a NATIONWIDE Test of the Emergency Alert System!

For Complete information, go to: http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/emergency-alert-system-nationwide-test

Date: Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Time: 2:00 PM EST

Where: TV, Radio and Cable across the entire country!

Duration: 3 Minutes Long!

Video: Click here to see video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSpH2_CyQmE&feature=share

How will the national EAS test be conducted?

The national EAS test will be conducted jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through its Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS), the three federal agencies that have EAS management responsibilities.

What will people hear and see during the test?

During the test, viewers will hear a message indicating that “This is a test.” Although the National EAS Test may resemble the periodic, monthly EAS tests that most Americans are already familiar with, there will be some differences in what viewers will see and hear, which is one reason for conducting a national EAS test. The audio message will be the same for all EAS Participants; however, due to limitations in the EAS, the video test message scroll may not be the same or indicate that “This is a test.” This is due to the use of a “live” national code – the same code that would be used in an actual emergency. In addition, the background image that appears on video screens during an alert may indicate that “This is a test,” but in some instances there might not be an image at all. FEMA and the FCC plan to conduct outreach to organizations representing people with hearing disabilities to prepare that community for the national EAS test. Outreach will include specific information tailored to the needs of those with hearing disabilities that will be readily available at online sites.

How long will the test last?
We anticipate that the test will last approximately3 minutes. While state and local EAS messages are limited to 2 minutes, there is no time limit for national EAS alerts. To evaluate whether the system properly interprets the national message code in the national EAS test, the message duration must be longer than two minutes.

2011-10-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

By Paul Stevens

The Holidays are on there way and it's time to start thinking about making candy and other items for for all those special people on your list.

Here is some more information about the Amish Candy and Confections Cookbook where the Mini Popcorn Ball Recipe came from. As you can probably tell this book is one of my favorites with all the old time recipes that I grew up with and even more. This is probably one of the most comprehensive books you will find on the art of making candies and confections. I have included another recipe from the book on how to make Cashew Brittle.

Not only is it full of recipes it is an interesting book to just to read. Author Mary Yoder takes you through her childhood memories providing a wonderful insight into the Amish way of life. The book is full of pictures of her home and the many day to day life adventures, from children playing, the dinner bell, the old-fashioned cook stove, the spring house, doing the chores, and hobbies.

More than just a cookbook Candy and Confections is filled with helpful hints, and bits of advice from years of experience in making candy and confections.

You will learn how to work with chocolate, make popular candy such as caramel peanut butter rolls, cashew brittle, raisin clusters, fudge, marshmallow Easter eggs, almond bark, rocky road bars, caramel pinwheels, coconut bon-bons, peanut butter cups, caramel pecan logs, mints, pecan pralines, toffee, divinity, icings, and sauces.

The book includes a special section on making cheese balls, party plates, and fondues. This wonderful 162 page cookbook provides over 100 time tested Amish recipes that will become one of your families and friends favorite cookbooks.

126 pages 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 spiral bound $9.99

Table of Contents
• Symbols
• Working with Chocolate
• Candies & Confections
• Divinity
• Cooked Creams & Fudges
• Frosting's & Toppings
• Appetizers
• Snacks
• My Own Candy Recipes

Just one of the great recipes from the Candy and Confections Cookbook

Cashew Brittle
2-cups granulated sugar
1-cup light corn syrup
1-cup water
2-cups raw cashews
1/4-tsp. salt
1-1/2-tsp. butter
1/4-tsp. baking soda

Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in 3-qt sauce pan. Cook slowly till sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Add cashews and salt and continue cooking and stirring to 295 degrees. Remove from heat; add soda and butter and mix well (it will foam). Have 2 large greased cookie sheets ready and pour mixture thinly over the bottom. If preferred, when edges have cooled a little, you can pull it out a little to make it thinner. Be careful you are working with very hot liquids. If you want rounds, pour thinly into foil pie pans that have been greased.

The Candy Confections cookbook is located under the Amish Recipes at Cottage Craft Works Kitchen and Food Prep tab.

Our need for community

2011-10-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

From: Mike at SurvivalHomesteader.com

In this day and age, where everything is disposable, it seems very few people have any sense of community. Many people don’t known there neighbors right next door, let alone the areas further away from them. They see no reason to even try to get to know anyone. Either they don’t have time, are too busy or just don’t care.

This antipathy has eroded the fabric of this great nation. It has created a nation of people that no longer respect anyone or anything.

We are a race that is communal by nature. We were not made to live alone. That is the reason we developed languages. If you watch people, you see they tend to gravitate to others without even realizing they are.

When we lose our sense of community, our desire, our need for others leads us anywhere someone seems to care. That’s why it is so easy to get a child to want to be part of a gang.

I have been reading a book called Alas, Babylon. It was written in 1959. Even though many of the things in the story seem outdated, the writer shows his readers the need for community. In contrast, he also shows what happens to an place that has lost their sense of community.

I remember when I was a kid, I lived in a small town in Arizona. It seemed like I knew everyone around my house. My best friend lived in a duplex directly across from me. On the corner lived Grandpa Morris, with his fantastic pomegranates. Mrs. Packard lived next door to him. Another friend of mine lived next door to her. My grandparents lived about a block away. That was my community.

I have often wondered, if some major disaster happened, what would happen to us. Would we rise from the ashes, or disappear, as other civilizations before us? Without that sense of community, I don’t think we would make it.

We need people in our lives. We are not meant to be alone. We wouldn’t have a reason to strive to be our best. We would have no reason to thrive. We would just exist. We would also be be vulnerable to everything that decided we might be crunchy and good to eat.

I honestly think, in the next few years, we are going to see some very dark times. If we don’t start to get to know the people around us, start creating communities again, those days will be even darker.

Get to know your neighbors. Even if you don’t agree with some of their beliefs, you can agree with them on their basic needs. With time you can find some common ground. Even if you find you can not get along with them, you have learned they may be someone you need to watch, or someone that might need you to watch out for them.

World Population Growth Outpacing Water Availability…per Reuters

2011-10-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

From: -The Berkey Guy

Another fantastic article (insert satire here) comes to us from Reuters this morning. It speaks to the world’s demand on water, especially with regard to the modern trend of population growth.
I think we are all keenly aware that water is the fundamental element of life. What consistently disappoints me is the lack of transparency in citing statistics and sources beyond the “expert’s name.” I don’t really care how so-and-so is a proclaimed authority within his or her industry; please cite the specific research. Data does not explain itself. The interpretation of data can vary, especially among peer review!
Ultimately, this article left me forming questions that might prove simplistic and naïve. Questions such as:

Why not more aggressively deploy the use of desalination plants?
Who assigns the authority or resource management guidance for what Jenkinson references as “[the body] that takes into account who needs what kind of water, as well as where and how to use it most efficiently?”
Which companies are acting on the prime opportunity to profit from controlling natural water resources?
Do zombies drink water?

Read the original article HERE and please share your thoughts in our comment section.

-The Berkey Guy

Join the American Preppers Network Forum

2011-10-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

Meet Preppers near you. Network with like minded people. Lean new skills. Share what you know.

The American Preppers Network forum has categories for just about any survival, preparedness and sustainable living topic you are looking for.

Join For Free: American Preppers Network Forum

Mini Honey Popcorn Balls

2011-10-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

by Paul Stevens

For those who have a hard time with taking a bite out of large popcorn balls consider making these Mini Honey Popcorn Balls utilizing this Amish recipe.

Here is an easy quick recipe from the Candy and Confections Amish Cookbook.
3 qt. popped corn
1-1/2 cups sugar
½ cup honey
1tbs. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Place popped corn in a large bowl. Combine sugar, honey, and salt in saucepan. Cook and stir until mixture boils, then boil to 260 degrees. Add butter and vanilla. Pour over popped corn. Drop by Tbsp on to foil. When cool, shape into small balls.

You can find the Candy and Confections Amish cookbook along with a variety of other Amish cookbooks at Cottage Craft Works.

Cottage Craft Works is an old time general store featuring old time products from a simpler time in history.

We are upgrading our server.

2011-10-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

The APN forum is currently down as we upgrade our server. This could take up to 48 hours. You may continue to check back on this post for updates.

Thank you for your patience

**Update, we are now on the new server. Changes may not be in effect for everyone until the DNS propagation is completed. If the forum is still not visible, you can also try clearing your cache**

Floods, Mudslides, & Storms: Preparing Before the Flood (Part 1/3)

2011-10-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Submitted by - The Berkey Guy

Erosion is a result of water and wind weathering on soil. Water’s effect on causing and furthering erosion can be manifested in many ways. Rain and water run-off can create grooves in the earth that may affect the land’s ability to retain structure. The wind’s influence can also increase the rate at which surface soil deteriorates and structurally breaks down. The wind’s ability to lift small particles and project these across the landscape, or to uproot vegetation which provides a wind-barrier, can dramatically reduce the soil’s ability to retain water through infiltration.
As the Western United States prepares for rainy season, there are crucial considerations and actions to be taken:

How safe is your house/dwelling in the event of a flood or mudslide?
How close are you to a creek-bed, ravine, river, or a wash?
Where are you located relative to a hillside: above, alongside, below?
Do existing or potential barriers impose an obstacle to evacuation or rescue efforts coming in?
Perform visual inspections & functional tests of your rain-gutters and drains. Also check nearby road drains and advise the local authority to request service if a drain requires it.
Plan Placement, Acquire, and Fill sandbags BEFORE the skies show any indication of rainstorms.
If your property has drainage channels, maintain them fully functional.
Provide adequate coverage over hills & slopes where possible.

High Priority Items to have in your possession include:

Your family’s Evacuation Plan
Emergency Contact list complete with Names, DOBs, Emails, Mobile/Landline numbers, Home/School/Work Addresses, and other pertinent information for the residents of your Home
A fully functional Hand-held radio/flashlight with extra batteries which can receive notices of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and/or the National Weather Service’s announcements
Medication & Sensitive Records which would prove very difficult to replace if lost or damaged

These lists are in no way comprehensive but they do provide a solid foundation to the considerations to be taken, preparatory to a flood, mudslide, or storm.
-The Berkey Guy

A Couple of Updates

2011-10-19T16:16:00.001-07:00

The rabbit we rescued was not a good fit with our home. Every time one of us held the rabbit she would pee all over us. The dogs did not bother the rabbit other than they would smell her as she moved around the kitchen, but the dogs bothered the rabbit by being around at all. One of the cats looked at the rabbit as a nice lunch. My wife spent hours sitting on the floor petting the rabbit but the rabbit would shy away from her most of the time.

My wife mentioned the rabbit to her boss and he told her if we wanted to get rid of it he and his wife would love to have it for their 14 year old daughter. We discussed it and made the choice to make a gift of the rabbit to the girl. Today the rabbit is well cared for, and hops to the girl when she gets home from school. The boss told my wife that the rabbit shows affection toward the girl, has the run of the house and is a great fit for their family. Everyone is happy, so I guess it is win- win as they say.

The walnuts are gone. Carhart Warrior loaded them in the dump bucket of his tractor and drove them back to the woods where the squirrels are having a fall banquet. Now, fat squirrel I like a lot better than walnut so this could work out to be win-win also.

I trapped a second opossum at my Mother-in-Law’s and this one is “as big as a dog”. This one was re-located to a drainage ditch half way between the city and our farm. No, I did not dispatch this one; it was smart enough to get the hell out of the cage when I opened the door. However, I did e-mail Bill and told him we were having special hamburgers at half-time Saturday. (He is the one that found the critter at Mom’s.) He declined the invite for some reason.

My finally trapping adventure at my mother-in-law’s resulted in one fat raccoon. We left him go at a metro park. As soon as the cage was opened the coon was headed into the woods as fast as his legs would carry him. Now one of my wife’s co-workers is talking about maybe having me trap a skunk she saw in her yard. I will think on that.

Thank you to all that left a comment and let me know I was not alone out here. It helps a lot to know I have at least some support.

Wolverine

Winter Survival Tips - Keeping warm

2011-10-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

With the shorter days, freezing conditions, wet weather and wind your chances of hypothermia increase. Here are a few tips to keeping warm in the winter.

Food
Food is essential for winter survival. It is a necessity for creating and maintaining proper body heat. The calories in food produce energy and heat through the digestion process. It is for this reason that it is important to have adequate food supplies during the winter months. In case of a disaster or power outages you should store plenty of non-perishable food that requires no refrigeration or cooking. Some of these foods can include freeze dried foods, nuts, crackers, canned food, grain, and dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

Water
Store plenty of water, even during the winter. Don't let the cold mislead you, Water aids in digestion and blood flow and it's easy to become dehydrated even in the winter time as dehydration can "sneak up on you" since you don't feel as thirsty as when it is hot out.

Dress Properly
Dress warm, head to toe. Especially keep areas of the body covered that are prone to heat loss such as the head, feet, and hands. Always wear warm socks, hat and gloves when exposed to the cold. Your clothing must be able to keep you warm and dry at all times.

Carry an emergency blanket
Keep emergency blankets that are big enough to cover your whole body, water proof, and small enough that you can fit in your pockets.

Candles
One candle is enough to keep you from freezing to death in a stranded vehicle for as long as the candle will last. Make sure you stock plenty of them

Keep moving
Keep moving just enough to not break a sweat. Motion and activity creates heat and keeps your blood flowing. Those calories you are burning are all the more reason to have plenty of food.

If stranded in a car
There is no reason you should freeze in a stranded vehicle. If you've planned properly you will already have your extra clothing, emergency blanket and candles and you would have let someone know where you are going. Telling someone of your trip plans and where you are going and having supplies on hand will go a long way in helping you wait for help to arrive. If your clothing is not enough, look for alternate sources of insulation that can be used to stuff into your clothing. Look for paper and wrappers that you might have in your vehicle. Try your floor mats, and carpeting. In a survival situation, you don't have the luxury of worrying about the value of your upholstery, use that to wrap up in. Break up the cushion material in your seats and use that as insulation.

Feel free to copy and repost this article on your blog as long as you credit and link to The American Preppers Network as the source.

Fall 2011 Self-Reliance Expo: Salt Lake City, UT

2011-10-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

Submitted by: The Berkey Guy

I recently returned from the Self-Reliance Expo (SRX) in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event was hosted by the National Self-Reliance Organization (NSRO), out of Colorado. Among the noteworthy attendees were:

Fernando FerFAL Aguirre from The Modern Survivalist & author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse”
Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast (TSP)
Dr. Bones & Nurse Amy of the Dr. Bones Podcast & DoomandBloom.net
Christopher Nyerges of The School of Self-Reliance
and many, many more…

Over 10,000 in attendance and we were very happy to have met so many wonderful people! Among the highlights of attending the Expo was the opportunity to meet Mikhail Merkurieff, inventor of the Emberlit Stove. His stove really is a great design, robust, lightweight, and compact. It will be exciting to watch his product flood the marketplace, as he launched his product on July 4 of this year.

Jeff "The Berkey Guy" with Fernando "Ferfal" Aguirre, author of The Modern Survival Guide: Surviving the Economic Collapse"

Another highlight was the opportunity to have dinner with Jack Spirko and his wife Dorothy, and Fernando Aguirre. Jack, Dorothy, and Fernando are down-to-earth people who are fun to be around…we had a blast while feasting at Hoppers in Midvale, Utah! Their buffalo burger was pleasantly tasty & big.
Sunday night, I sat down to dine with Dr. Bones & Nurse Amy at Last Samurai, a Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar at the Jordan Commons. We had a chance to talk about prepping and got to know each other over wonderful food. They are good people who are committed to the cause of Self-Reliance and it really is an honor to call them friends in prepping.
Well, although this post appears to be about eating at restaurants in Utah with like-minded folk, it really must be said that the attendance at the SRX is a must for anyone interested in becoming more self-reliant. We will be attending the SRXs whenever they are and wherever they are. I’ll give you three crucial reasons to make it to at least one of these Expos a year:

Exposure to exclusive products for Self-Reliant Individuals & Families is second-to-none & you get great deals on them!
You’re able to surround yourself with like-minded folk from all over the U.S., strengthening your network of contacts.
The information presented is specifically aimed at empowering individuals & families with the power to achieve true Self-Reliance.

We met with so many quality individuals, families, vendors, and partners. It truly is an experience that you won’t regret. We look forward to the Expos next year and hope to meet you there!

-The Berkey Guy

Pine Trees for survival

2011-10-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

The "Pine Tree" can quite arguably be considered the Survivalists (and Preppers) number one friend in the forest. Not only can every part of this highly versatile king of the woods be used, but those uses can range anywhere from shelter and heat to food and medicinal purposes, and even some less well known uses like glue and gum! We are fortunate that so many forested areas of our country contain varieties of this majestic friend from the towering sugar pines and ponderosas in the west, the pinyon in the southwest, the loblolly in the southeast, the eastern white pine in the northeast, and many more. All told, there are between 105 and 125 species worldwide, a third of which are right here in the U.S!

Let's take a look at an overview of the different parts of the pine tree and see what uses those parts can serve. (We will look more in depth at each part in subsequent articles.)

Pine Needles
Pine needles vary greatly in size depending on the variety of tree, but for the most part you can take advantage of many of the uses below no matter what variety you have available.

As a mulch or as a compost. (While pine needles will help make alkaline soils more acidic, despite popular myths, pine needles won't make your soil nearly as acidic as you might think). They are not poisonous, and they will last about 2 years as a mulch

Baskets and Rugs. The longer varieties of pine needles are excellent for braiding or weaving with thread or long grasses in order to make baskets, rugs, and could even make a long term survival blanket in a wilderness shelter.

Starting fires. Dry pine needles are excellent for starting fires. They burn fast and hot and can help ignite larger sticks and pieces of wood.

Tea. The needles from most pine tree varieties can be used to make tea rich in vitamin C. (however, it must be noted that large quantities of pine needles have been known to cause miscarriages in livestock)

Survival Shelter roofing. Pine needles are great as a roof covering for your survival shelter. (of course be cautious of the fire hazard, especially with dry needles)

Animal bedding

Pillows and Mattresses. Another great use for a survival shelter. The needles have been known to help repel fleas and other insects.

Bark
Pine bark also has many uses. Some of these include:

Mulch

Pine bark extract. antioxidant and anti-inflammatory uses

Food. The inner bark can be eaten. Excellent to know in a SHTF survival situation.

Water filtration

Pine Sap
You would be surprised at the number and types of uses for pine sap, some of these include:

Turpentine. Pine sap can be distilled to make turpentine. Which of course has many uses as well, including but not limited to, as a solvent, a cleaner, a lubricant, and medicinal purposes.

Gum. Pine sap can be chewed like gum and will actually clean your teeth. It can also be used as a temporary filling for a toothache.

Starting fires. Pine sap is flammable and is great for starting fires.

As a candle. Use pine sap on sticks to make candles.

Medicinal uses. Pine sap can be used to seal wounds and has been used for its antibacterial properties.

Glue. Excellent uses for adhesives and as waterproof sealant

Flavoring.

Male pine cone flower
An excellent source of protein, the pollen from the male pine cone flower can be used to thicken stews or as a flower substitute.

Pine nuts
The nuts are edible and actually quite tasty. Many recipes can be found on the web.

Pine cones
In addition to ornamental purposes, pine cones can also serve some uses in survival situations.

As a fishing bobber. You can use a pine cone as a bobber when fishing.

As a bird feeder. Take a mixture of cornmeal, shortening and bird seed and fill and cover the pine cone with it. Hang the pine cone to attract birds.

As a fire starter. Fill the pine cone with sap and use it to get your fire started.

Wood
Don't forget the wood! This is of course, is the most well known and most versatile part of the pine tree and has virtually unlimited number of uses including heat, construction, furniture, paper, tools, handles, and just about anything that you can think of that is made of wood. But did you know about it's water retention properties? The wood can be used in your garden to store rain water. When buried below your garden in the soil, it will absorb the rain water like a sponge and continue to water your vegetables for weeks and sometimes even months. This method is known as hugelkultur, and while a topic for another article, it's something definitely worth getting into.

As you can tell, the uses for pine trees are so numerous and there is so much detail that I could get into that it's not possible to cover everything in a single article. Therefore, I will cover each section more in depth in articles to follow, so keep checking back.

Feel free to copy and repost this article on your blog as long as you credit and link to The American Preppers Network as the source.

Odds and Ends

2011-10-14T09:17:00.001-07:00

My wife started to get a tooth ache so she called and made an appointment to get it looked at. I went along for the ride and while she was in the chair I did something I have not had a chance to do in a while. I went dumpster diving.

I started with a walk through a car wash looking for money. I found sixty three cents. I then headed behind a grocery store to check for any “loot” I might find. I hit the jackpot as it were. I found several canned goods in the dumpster. I got some beans, tomato juice, cream of mushroom soup, tuna fish, steak sauce, a large package of mushrooms, half a dozen boxes of pudding/pie filling mix, and the surprise of the evening was a two pound jar of peanut butter and six jars of jelly. I had the makings of several meals at least in part, and lunches for a couple weeks as long as you like PB&J sandwiches.

We lived on dumpster diving several years ago and my oldest son did most of his “shopping” by DD when he was in college. There are a few things you need to know about eating from a dumpster, but the worst part is the image folks have of it, not the food you get. If I had been prepared for the DD I would have gotten a lot more stuff too.

I went back and re-read some of my earlier posts here and I am wondering if Ken, Treesong, and several others still read regularly? It sure would help keep me going if I got a few more comments from the posts. I sometimes think I am writing only for myself anymore.

I have another bumper crop of walnuts this year. I wish I knew some way to put them to good use. I would give or trade with anyone in the area that wants some. If you live in Monroe, Lenawee, or Washtenaw County and want a bunch of walnuts let me know.

My wife wants to go on a day photo safari this afternoon. We ran some errands this morning and she as already taken several shots of a log cabin and some nice color foliage. Our next stop is an old mill and who knows where else.

My mother-in-law lives in a big city and is plagued by a possum “as big as a dog”. I set two live traps last week and caught a possum Tuesday. She was thrilled we got the culprit but we still set the trap since the one I caught was smallish. Trapped it did not look “as big as a dog”.

I post once a week. I send my post in on Thursday and it goes up when they have time. Once in a while I struggle for a post but most of the time I have two or three in the can ready to go. It is not a killer pace I have set for myself. I wonder why there are so many blogs out there that have not posted in months? I check about a dozen blogs on the weekend that I have not seen an update for in a long while. Even guys like Joe over at Viking are not posting regularly anymore. I will admit I could not do a daily post, but come on, since July?

Somehow I left my cell phone in my pants and it got washed. It was an old dinosaur of a phone but it worked for me until I washed it. I hate this new phone like you can not believe. If you have something that does the job for you and you may not be able to replace it, guard it jealously.

I need not remind you that winter is coming. Have you got your back up heat sources ready in case you need them? Are you ready for a week without power or being snowed in for a few days? The great fall weather we are having now will soon be replaced with the cold and snow of winter, so do not let your guard down. Keep prepping and being ready for the worst, just in case.

Wolverine

JWR’s “Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse”

2011-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

Submitted by: The Berkey Guy

James W. Rawles’ newest book is released today on Amazon! For those of us who enjoyed Patriots, we can look forward to picking up this novel. Here’s what JWR writes of the new release on TheSurvivalBlog.com:

Much of the novel is set in the Four Corners Region of the American Southwest. “Survivors” is unusual for a novel sequel. Unlike most sequels, instead of extending the “Patriots” saga further into the future, it is contemporaneouswith the action in the first book. But it is set in different locales, with mostly different characters, with vastly different levels of preparedness. The novel begins from the perspective of a U.S. Army officer deployed in Afghanistan, just as “The Crunch” unfolds.
Unlike the protagonists in “Patriots”, most of the characters in “Survivors” don’t have a deep larder, so they are forced to scramble and improvise. There are just a few crossover characters between the two novels, such as Ian and Blanca Doyle (whom you will remember from “Patriots” as the husband and wife Laron Light Experimental airplane owners living near Luke Air Force Base.)

Having thoroughly enjoyed Patriots, I am looking forward to supporting JWR’s storytelling and attention to economics, psychology, and human interaction. The character development will be interesting to say the least.
Congrats Mr. Rawles!

-The Berkey Guy

Free APN Goldmembership at the Salt Lake City Expo

2011-10-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

The American Preppers Network is offering 3 months free Gold Membership valued at $15 for members who attend the Self-Reliance Expo in Salt Lake City, tomorrow the 7th and this Saturday the 8th.

To get your free Gold Membership, visit our booth located next to Survivalist Magazine, and across from The Prepper Podcast.

Gold Member benefits include but are not limited to:

15% off Black Widow Bracelets
15% Off FlashLantern
SurvivalGunsAndSupplies.com Discount
Free Meetup.com pages
50% Off The Cultivators Handbook
$100 off TEOTWAWKIvision.com
$25 off Uncle Bobs Go Bags
$10 off Firearms classes
Discounts at Battle Boy Surplus
10% Discount at 1800Prepare.com
Free Shipping on Disks from FreeSurvivalDisk.com
10% Discount on custom molded kydex sheaths
5% off orders from Emergency Essentials
10% discount all orders. SurvivalGearBags.com
50% off It's A Disaster!
$10 off James Stevens: Making The Best Of Basics
FREE Lifetime Buyers club membership at SafeCastle-$29 Value

Are you a survivalist or a prepper?

2011-10-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

Preppers Needed for a documentary. If interested please email:
americanprepper@yahoo.com

Sable Rouge productions for M6 Television (Second french TV network in France)

Are you a survivalist or a prepper?

To illustrate our next documentary, we are looking for different kind of survivalist.

The survivalism concept is of great interest to our french audience, it is pretty new in our country.

We would like to show that survivalism is no longer the fact of a small minority. Today, whole families are preparing themselves and educating their children to face potential disasters. We would like to meet such a family and film an in-depth sequence that would explain why and how they get prepared.
We would also like to know if some preppers are getting together to form communities or camps that will be used as collective hideouts if something goes wrong. Is there a possibility to meet and film those preppers communities.
And to dedicate a sequence of the film to a survival training course. Where in the US can you be trained to survive Apocalypse ? Who is attending those classes ? What can you learn there ? (desert / urban environment, weaponry, food supplies….)

We will be in the USA during the month of October

Is it Truly a Year’s Supply?

2011-10-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

This is my fourth or fifth attempt to write on this subject. It just never comes out the way I want it to nor does it convey what I am trying to express. I will try again and see how it goes.
We always hear and read about how much folks have supplied. This guy has two years worth of food and the other guy has six months of gasoline. Have you wondered how they know those numbers?

Over the last few years I have kept track of several things I use daily to see just how much I would need for a year’s supply. Just before we moved to the farm I found a store going out of business that had three bottles of shampoo on sale for a ridiculously low price, three for a dollar I think it was, maybe 50 cents each. Anyway I figured that would last me most of the rest of my life. It turns out that one bottle will last 24 months. My second bottle is about used up and except for the time I was in the hospital and used the shampoo they gave me I have pretty much stuck with my “supply”.

My wife and I each use a separate bathroom for showering and well, other stuff. One roll of toilet paper will last me two weeks. I have tracked this for a while and that is my average. The other day I was in the bathroom changing out a roll of toilet paper. I knew it was Friday because I change out the toilet paper every other Friday, almost like clockwork. A four pack of rolls is good for about two months in my bathroom. Six to eight packages of toilet paper should last me one year. My wife goes through a little more in her bathroom. Add in the additional usage from guests and the boys home on leave and the total of rolls we use in a year is right around 100 rolls. Call it a case of toilet paper, 96 rolls. I no longer have that much in storage, but I did a few years ago.

It is very easy to underestimate the amount of an item you hope to have a year’s supply of. When we moved back to the farm I loaded a shelf in the basement with paper towels. My wife and I looked at the full shelves and decided we were good for at least a year. Six months later we were buying towels again. Underestimating some items is no big deal, but if you have made a short guess on your food supply you might be in for a long hungry time until crops grow. Or if you heat with wood and you figure two cords is enough and you need four, you will be down right cold or working in the subfreezing weather trying to cut wood.

It is an easy task to track usage. Make that list and write down how much of something you use. Once you get a handle on it the task of maintaining a year’s supply of anything gets easier. If you know you need 96 rolls of TP for the family for a year once you reach that you can move on to other items. A few times a year you stock up and forget about that item again. It takes a load off of your mind and helps you feel like you have accomplished something.

Start with a few items and keep building on the list. Before long you will know the peace of mind of having a year’s supply put away. The more items you do that with the more peace of mind you will have as we race toward TEOTWAWKI.

Wolverine

Excellent Product - Black Widow Braceletes

2011-10-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

"When most people think of paracord bracelets, they think of a useful tool when stranded in the wilderness. Because of this mindset, most paracord bracelets are made in OD green, black, or camo. Here at Black Widow Bracelets, a local Las Vegas small business, we believe in making paracord bracelets fun so you'll wear it all day, every day. Our vision is to create a bracelet for every person and every occasion/celebration. Support your favorite Football team, Basketball team, Baseball team, Hockey team, University/Almamatar, etc... We do corporate colors for gifts/products, school fundraisers and wholesale lots for retail sale.

http://www.getcorded.com/why-black-widow-bracelets/

Contact us at blackwidowbracelets@gmail.com for bulk orders including wholesale and fundraisers."

** A 15% discount off your entire order is available to APN Gold Members. To become an APN Gold Member, follow this link:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/page.php?p=apn-gold-membership