Thanksgiving Traffic Safety

Turkey, leftovers, long hours of commuting over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house all contribute to what is historically known as one of the deadliest weekends on the highway.  As millions of Americans hit the roads (90% according to the AAA auto club), taking a few extra precautions may keep you safer.

1.  Leave plenty of time to get where you are going.  The cranberry gelatin mold may get a bit soggy but everyone will be happier to see you alive and well.
2. Plan your route including rest stops ahead of time.  Use your GPS, Smart Phone or a people who need assistance.  The golden rule is important but never put your family in danger by picking up strangers or stopping to help with an accident. The kindest thing you can do is call the local public safety officer and let them know at what mile marker you noticed the need for assistance.  It is our job to help out people on the roads, which is why we work holidays and get paid the big bucks.    Just call 911 and we promise to get out there and help.

Finally, please be safe out there and buckle up!

The Convenience of Fast Food…At What Cost?

It turns out that Thanksgiving is not the only food related holiday in November. Last Friday, November 16, was National Fast Food day. This holiday certainly does not hold the same traditional and historical significance as Thanksgiving, but the fact that it exists at all says something about the growing role fast food plays in our society. Americans are reported to spend over 100 billion dollars on fast food each year, a fact that may be explained partially by recent polls conducted by Chelsea Nunez

The Additional Challenges of a Winter Bug Out

Bugging out, that is leaving your home or normal place of shelter to survive outside or on the move, is generally considered the last ditch effort to survive. Conditions requiring a bug out might include a home that is or shortly will be under siege, a secondary shelter that has failed or is inaccessible, or the experience of the peak of a major universal collapse.

As winter approaches, you should be prepared to change your bug out strategies to account for cold temperatures and other conditions that will increase the danger you face. Parents with young children should especially take note, since a bug out in the winter will be especially harsh on this group.

What are some of the additional dangers or challenges of bugging out in winter? Take a look at the following list.

Spending most of your time trying to get warm: Getting warm will probably be your number one concern and dominate your time and your effort. Adding to the challenge is condensation that will gather on clothing and lead to additional heat loss that requires more effort to get and stay warm. Ultimately, this means that you will lose time that should be spent in other areas, such as finding food sources or building a defense. Too much time taken away from food and defense can have dire consequences.

Having limited mobility: Snow and ice can complicate efforts to stay on the move or reach a certain destination, especially if you are on foot. Not only will walking through snow slow you down, but it will also require more calories and make you tire out more quickly.

Experiencing food scarcity: The winter brings with it limited food sources. Wild food is much harder to find and to gather in the winter. You may also be competing heavily with animals and other people. If you don’t do some intense food preparation for a winter bug out, you will be likely to starve.

Spending a lot of your time trying to build and keep a fire: Building a fire in the winter can be tough. The snow and ice means that firewood and tinder will be wet at best, and wet plus buried in snow and ice at worst. Even after a fire is started, you are likely to have to spend a great deal of effort to keep it going.

Now that you know about the additional challenges of bugging out in the winter, upgrade your gear and make the added preparations now to compensate.

KiP 6: Storage, Caches and Hides

Knowledge is Power (KiP)  When the time comes for preparing all your supplies for storage, there are three basic ways to store them.  This is something that all preppers really need to consider when preparing all their supplies and where to store them.  The three ways are:

Storage is locations for items that you use on a daily to weekly bases in your home.  These include but are not limited to closets, pantries, shelves and storeroom locations.

The items in your storage will be the everyday common things for day-to-day use under normal, non-disaster/survival situations. 

Caches are storage locations for items that you will not need for several months to a couple of years. These include but are not limited to attics, barns, basements, garages, shipping containers and storage sheds around your home or retreat.

The items that you put in your caches would be the common day-to-day items that you would use under disaster/survival situations.  This would include but not limited to your year’s supply of food, medical supplies, ammo and guns, water, gold and/or silver bullion or coins, etc.  These caches can be buried or be hidden inside dead spaces in walls, false rooms or crawl spaces.

Construction of these caches can be built from a very wide variety of common material acquired at local hardware stores or they can be purchased commercially.  Sizes of caches can range from less than a cubic foot to as large as a hidden room or vault.

Hides are storage locations for items that you will not need for a very long time.  We are talking for several years.  These hides are containers that are buried in safe underground locations near your sheltering-in-place location or near your bug-out retreat location. 

The types of items you would have in your hides would be your “excess” items such as your long term food stores like your dehydrated and /or freeze-dried foods, your excess non-hybrid seeds, your excess medical supplies, all your excess ammo and guns and all your bulk gold and silver.  All these hides would be buried in several different locations across your property, retreat or nearby public property.

Construction of these hides can also be built from a very wide variety of common material acquired at local hardware stores or they can be purchased commercially.  Sizes of hides can range from shoebox size to a cubic yard and everything in between.

Recommended items for your Caches and Hides: Ammo, Candles, Compass, Duct tape, Ear plugs, Emergency blanket, Energy food bars, Extra clothing, First Aid kit, Fishing kit, Flashlight, Food, Gold coins, Guns, Gun cleaning kit, Fuel, Knife sharpening kit, Matches, Medical supplies, Paper & Pencil, Para-cord, Pocket thermometer, Prescription medicines, Pocket knife, Rain gear, Sewing kit, Silver coins, Sleeping bags, Space blanket, Sun glasses, Sun screen, Toilet paper, Topo maps, Water, etc.

Other places:  Other places to hides your valuables can include fence and sewer pipes, under floors, under old buildings, under rocks, behind walls, in old chimneys, around old barns, in hanging lights, etc.  A couple of books I would recommend:

Note:  With government intrusion in our daily lives and presidential executive orders taking away more and more freedoms from hard working honest Americans, it is very important to prepare.  To prepare for this government takeover, folks need to have the supplies so not to be dependent on the government and have them well hidden so when the government comes to steal your supplies, they won’t get everything.

Taking The Mystery Out Of Car Repair

Anyone attempting to become more self-sufficient in times like these has surely considered saving money by doing their own car repairs.  But for many, the idea of working on a car seems extremely daunting, something best left to those who know what they’re doing. Faced with a car containing hundreds of unfathomable parts serving who-knows-what purpose, how can the novice possibly learn enough to fix it himself? Doesn’t it take a special knack?

Well no. You don’t have to be an automotive expert in order to fix what’s wrong with your car. You don’t even have to know how the darn thing works.  All you have to know is just one thing.

What is that one thing? It’s knowing which particular part happens to be worn out or broken at the moment.  And you probably have a friend or relative who can pinpoint your problem. Automobiles are complicated machines, with hundreds of separate parts performing countless functions that are impossible for most people to understand.  But usually when something goes wrong with your car, your whole car doesn’t have a problem; it’s usually just one separate piece of your car that has worn out or broken.

Now, to those reading this who are accomplished auto mechanics, that’s a “no duh” statement.  But I’m not talking to you guys. I’m talking to the person for whom cars and everything about them is as mysterious as deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. The fact is, if you can follow a simple recipe in the kitchen, you probably have the skills to work on your car in the driveway. It may take awhile your first time, as you carefully feel your way, but your next repair will be easy as baking a cake.

Backseat Ignoramus

Unlike most of my teenage peers, I had no interest in cars whatsoever, other than the desire to own one. If one of my friends said “look at that boss looking Chevy!” I had no idea which car he was referring to. I didn’t know a Chevy from a Ford, a Mustang from an Impala. And as for all that complicated stuff under the hood, I had no clue what any of it was for. It all has something to do with the engine, right?

Sometime after I bought my first used car, I was listening to an author plugging her book on the radio. Her name was Deanna Sklar, and the book was Auto Repair For Dummies. (This was in the 1970s and hers was the first ever “Dummies” book, predating DOS For Dummies by decades.) Sklar described her book as intended for those who know absolutely nothing whatsoever about cars, but who want to save money by doing their own repairs. That sounded like me. I went out and bought it.

Sklar wasn’t kidding when she said she wrote the book for dummies.  She didn’t assume anything about the reader. Just in case you didn’t know what a screwdriver or a wrench looked like, she included a picture for you. This book was perfect for an ignoramus like me.

It wasn’t long after I bought the book when, driving home from work one day, something under my hood went kablooey. Of course, my first thought was that the whole car was finished. But I was told my water pump -whatever that was- had worn out and needed to be replaced.

I not only didn’t know where my water pump was situated, I didn’t even know what a water pump was. What I did know at the time was the price I was quoted to fix it was beyond my means. I didn’t know what a water pump was or what it did, or even where it was located on the car, but I was either going to have to fix it myself, or start walking to work.

And this is key to unlocking the mystery. You don’t have to know what a particular part does or how it works in order to replace it.  Sure, it doesn’t hurt to understand the workings of an automobile. But in order to service the occasional problems the typical car owner has, it isn’t necessary to take months of classes in auto repair, or know how to overhaul an engine. All you have to do is know where that one part is and how to get at it. Then you take that piece out and put a working one back in.

Think of your car as a big Lego structure with lots of interlocking pieces. Everything on your car is attached to something next to it. They don’t exactly snap onto each other like Lego bricks, but they are attached in some way. Eventually one of the parts in that Lego structure is going to wear out or go bad and you’ll have to replace it with a new piece that does work. Then all you do is detach the bad part from whatever it is connected to, and reattach a new one in its place. It’s that simple.

Okay, maybe it isn’t that simple. If you’re new at this, you’ll want to allow yourself plenty of time so you can take it slow and think it through. Don’t rush or you’ll misplace something. Still, the idea is simple, and if you follow the rules for safety, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to dispel the fog of mystery about car repair.

Taking That First Big Leap

Buoyed by the confidence I had attained from reading Auto Repair For Dummies, I took a deep breath, crossed my fingers (mentally of course; I was going to need to work with  my fingers uncrossed) and decided to tackle the water pump project.

I had a friend drive me to an auto parts store where I bought the replacement part, which was astonishingly cheap compared to the price I had been quoted to have the whole job done professionally. Following the step by step process outlined in the book, it was just a matter of unbolting this to get at that, then moving aside this other thing to access something else. Once I had detached the old water pump, it was a simple matter of replacing it with the new one, tighten the bolts back up, and voila! I was suddenly an accomplished mechanic!

But what about tools, you ask? If I’m going to attempt to fix my car, don’t I have to own a lot of expensive tools?

As Clint Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino confides, nobody goes out and buys a bunch of tools all at once. You accumulate them over time.  Most of the car repairs I’ve done required only a couple of screwdrivers and a basic set of wrenches, which may set you back ten bucks. It often helps to own a ratchet wrench, so that’s a few dollars more. Sometimes a job might require a special tool for a particular purpose, one you’ll probably only need once in the life of the car.  Some auto parts chains will now rent those tools out as long as you leave a deposit. At any rate, even most specialized tools aren’t very expensive, and you may even know someone you can borrow one from.

I’ll tell you the most important tool you’ll want to have: another book.  Actually there are two books to choose from, each compiled by competing publishers, Haynes and Chilton. Either one will do.  These manuals provide detailed instructions for repairing your particular model car and year.  No matter what the project you’re working on, these manuals provide clear, step by step instructions with photos, sketches, and diagrams specifically intended for the very car you own. I wouldn’t even think about starting a repair without consulting either one.

And here’s the good news: the older your car, the better your chances of finding new or nearly new Haynes or Chilton manual online for next to nothing, because as time passes, those manuals for older cars are not much in demand. My current car is a 1988 Ford Taurus, and I was able to find both the Haynes and the Chilton manuals for $2.99 each plus shipping. That’s a lot better than paying up to $29.99 retail at the auto parts store.

I prefer to own both manuals because depending on the project, one may have more detailed information or pictures than the other, and together they are the perfect complement. Perhaps the most valuable thing these manuals provide, in addition to detail, is the important safety precautions and heads up regarding varying jobs. If you don’t know what to watch out for, you could hurt yourself or your car.

When I’m washing up after completing some repair I once thought myself completely incapable of, I’m not only pleased about the money I just saved, but my wife thinks of me as a hero. I feel just like I did at three years old when I got praise from a grownup. Yes indeed. I am a big boy.

Unconsidered Dangers in the Floodwaters of Hurricane Sandy

Although I live thousands of miles from the east coast, I have paid close attention to the news coverage of Hurricane Sandy over the past weeks. Once the worst of the storm had hit and I was sure that my few friends living in the East were safe, I felt relieved. I thought that the storm had passed, and I hoped that things could now begin to get better for all those affected individuals.

However, in the following days I read articles about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and I realized that there is so much more to consider in the event of a natural disaster  than simply surviving the initial incident. One article that made a real impression on me was “Chelsea Nunez

What I Leaned From Hurricane Sandy

Fortunately, my family and I made it safely through Hurricane Sandy, a freakish storm that left enormous devastation here on the east coast, including loss of life. While things aren’t completely back to normal for us, they are getting there, and we are fortunate. So many cannot say the same.

I am originally from New York City; my husband is from the Jersey shore. So while we concentrated on keeping our own little immediate world safe for our children, we also worried about friends and family in two of the hardest hit areas.

Much of the media is saying, “this is the new normal.” One metrologist was quoted, “When you let the water into New York City, there is no turning back.”  Even if just a shred of that is true, we all need to be more prepared.

We all prepared as well as we could, but were still in for some surprises. Here is what I learned from our experience with the event that was dubbed “Frankenstorm.”

Be Prepared for Multiple Events

A hurricane brings with it many dangers, from flooding to electrocution to being killed by a falling tree. This storm also brought the danger of fire, something that might not normally be associated with torrential rain and flooding.

Also, we all need to be prepared for subsequent events. The freezing temperatures when you have no heat, trees that were weakened and fall days later, violence due to scarce gasoline and food resources, and even a second storm on top of the first. These are all events that have occurred or are about to occur even a week after the initial storm has hit.

Being Prepared Early Gives You Peace of Mind

While we were anxious about the storm, I imagine that we had more peace of mind than most. We didn’t have to fret about the empty shelves in the grocery stores, the pumps that were out of gas or not operating, or roads closing. We weren’t in a flood zone (but had a plan in case we flooded anyway), so we could retreat into the basement with our little family during the worst of it. Our generator provided some light and a movie for the kids, as the adults listed for updates of the storm on the radio.

The time to prepare is before a threat looms. When a threat does appear, evaluate your preparations and then act quickly.

Regular Maintenance is Key

Because we cut down selected trees that could post a problem, we reduced our risk of property damage and death. Because the gutters were clean of debris and a system in place to channel water away from the house, our chances of flooding were reduced. Make sure your home and car are in good order.

Be Prepared to Help Others

When push comes to shove, survival and comfort may really depend on your neighbors and local friends, not on the state or federal government. It is the neighbor with the chain saw that will cut down the tree blocking your exit from your home or the friend the next town over who will lend you a generator to keep your warm.

Have extra resources on hand to help those around you. Guaranteed that most of the people you know will not be prepared. It is better to be in a position to help than in one of need. Extra resources can also be used to barter.

Other Thoughts

Property is not worth loss of life, as several families found out. You are not tougher than a hurricane and your window of evacuation may be very small.

Things turn out to be different than you expect, so prepare for several possible outcomes.

Redundancy is key. Have more than one way out, more than one source of transportation, more than one way of feeding yourself, and several preparations for both evacuating and sheltering in place.

Stay safe everyone!

* Photo of early flooding in near my old neighborhood in Queens, New York. Source unknown.

KiP 5: Safe Locations

Knowledge is Power (KiP)  Finding a safe location to survive the upcoming man-made and natural disasters is crucial if you want to not only live but to survive and thrive a very uncertain near future. 

With man-made disasters such as a Civil/Race Wars, an Economic Collapse with Hyper Inflation, an EMP attack, Foreign / UN Troop Invasion, Martial Law, Massive Riots all across the U.S., etc., the largest population centers will be “Death Traps”.  The largest cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio and Dallas all have a population in excess of one million and a total population in excess of twenty-three million people.  There are another twenty-two cities with a population between 500,000 to one million.  And another 200 plus more cities with a population between 100,000 to 500,000 people.  Starting with the largest cities and working down to the smaller cities within days to weeks, all areas within a one hundred mile radius of these largest population centers will become major “Death Trap” when all hell breaks loose.

And with natural disasters such as a Coronal Mass Ejection towards Earth, Massive Earthquakes in excess of 10.0, Nibiru / Planet X flyby, a Physical Pole Shift, etc., billions will die within the first seventy-two hours, especially in coastal regions from massive tsunamis in excess of 1000 feet high.  Why, because over half of the world’s population now lives within one hundred miles of the coast.

So when choosing a safe location far away from danger, death and destruction to survive, it is very important to consider these following factors:

Water is the number one priority to consider when choosing a safe location.  Creeks, rivers or streams that flow year round, lakes, ponds, reservoirs, wells and/or areas with large amounts of rain will be a factor when selecting a survival location.  People need safe drinking water to survive or they will die.

Distance is where you want to be from all populated areas.  At a bare minimum you will want to be at least 100 miles away, but preferably at least 200 to 300 miles distance is the best option for a survival location.  This distance will defiantly protect you and your family from what is known as the “Golden Horde”.  The mass exodus will be from the large populated areas when both food and water run out within seventy-two hours.

Elevation is also another factor to consider.  The western U.S. with an elevation of at least 5000 feet above sea level would be the best option for a survival location.  Over ninety percent of the eastern U.S. is below 2000 feet in elevation.

Defense is a key factor when considering your safe location.  Having natural barriers such as boulders, large trees, ravines, etc. around your survival location will greatly help you when defending your retreat.

Size of the property that you will be surviving on is another thing to consider.  Having enough room for everyone in your group to have enough personal space, plus room for a large enough garden, room for animals/livestock and room for defense are all important factors to consider.  Four acres would be the bare minimum to support all the basics listed.

Location: As you can see from the map below, it shows several large populated areas with surrounding areas shaded red.  About 2/3rds of the U.S. population lives in the eastern half of the country.  These are the areas you need to avoid when selecting your safe area of a retreat.

The map below shows all the main interstate highways.  You will want to choose only the white areas for your safe location.  These highways will be the Golden Horde routes.

Between the two maps, the safest areas would be areas such as north-eastern Montana, the four corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, north-western Dakotas (north and south), north-western Nebraska and south-western Kansas.  I would not recommend north-western Wyoming due to the Yellow Stone areas seismic activity.  So moving to these areas and having an underground shelter will greatly increase and enhance your survivability with both man-made and natural disasters that are coming very soon.

A Tip to Fight Off Halloween Candy Cravings

Right behind Christmas, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I spend months deciding what pattern to use for my family’s annul pumpkin carving contest, I break out my “scary” movies like Chelsea Nunez

Avoid Food Waste in Your Home

Most Americans waste 25 to 30 percent of their food. Yup, that is the percentage of once-edible food that winds up in the trash instead of feeding the family. Knowing how to use up everything you have and avoid food waste can make a difference in your home in so many ways.

First of all, avoiding food waste will save you money, since your food budget will be smaller. You will spend 25 percent less on your groceries. Second, having the mindset, the strategies, and the tools to avoid food waste in good times will leave you better prepared in lean times or times of emergency. Every member of your household should know the importance of being a good steward of your food.

Put the following practices in place in your home, to help you avoid food waste.

Do Regular Pantry Checks

Every few months, take items out of your pantry and check their expiration or best by dates. It is a good idea to rotate food, but let’s face it, during busy days, we don’t always do this. Depending on your stockpile, pantry checks should take you less than 15 minutes. Put regular pantry checks on your calendar, or knock out this chore during a long phone call or while dinner is cooking.

Get Creative with Ingredients

After your pantry check, you will probably have a group of items that are getting a little “long in the tooth.” Place these items up front in your pantry or even on the countertop to remind you to use them. Then get creative and find ways of using them up. Many vegetables or beans can be thrown into soup or casseroles, for example. A half-eaten peach can be cut up, mixed with a little sugar and butter and microwaved for a desert treat. A half-cup of apple sauce can be used as a substitute for oil in muffins.

Purchase Extended-Life Food

One way to avoid food waste is to purchase meals and ingredients with a long shelf life. It is easy to not waste food when it will stay fresh and ready for consuming even after fifteen or twenty years. Just make sure that whatever you choose to buy is both sealed well and high in nutrition.

Practice Meal Planning and Portion Control

Whenever you buy food (or grow it), make sure that you have a plan in mind for using the food before it can go bad. For example, if you see some nice heads of broccoli, ask yourself how will you prepare them? Will they be a side dish, a broccoli cheese soup, or part of a casserole that week? Having a plan means it is less likely for food to go to waste.

At the same time, practice good portion control. This is especially important when you have children. Only serve them what they can eat at one time. This way, any unused food can be saved for another meal or snack instead of being scraped off of the dinner plate and into the trash.

Challenge your family to waste no food this month. Use your family calendar to mark off the days when there has been no food waste. See how far you can get and award a prize, such as a fun family outing when you hit a certain number of days. Pretty soon, avoiding food waste will be second nature.

Other articles you might like:

Food Security or Designer Table?

KiP 4: TEOTWAWKI

Knowledge is Power (KiP)  TEOTWAWKI is an acronym that stands for “The End Of The World As We Know It”.  It basically means life as we know it right now will change forever, but life will not end.

While there are numerous scenarios that can change life as we know it forever, the majority of folks will not be able to adjust to a totally new lifestyle without their technology.  These people will die.  However, for the folks that can adjust and adapt to life without technology will be the survivors in a very different future than we know today.  Some of the scenarios that will create a TEOTWAWKI situation include the following:

CME – A massive Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun directly towards Earth will take down the World wide power grid such as the Carrington Event of 1859.  The majority of people that cannot live without their technology and will die off within the first few months.  Depending on your geographical location, 75% to 95% of the world population will be dead within the first year.

EMP Attack – An Electric Magnetic Pulse going off over North America will take down the majority of the North American power grid.  Again, the majority of people cannot live without their technology and will die off within the first few months.  The author William F. Forstchen has written an excellent novel call “One Second After”.  It covers what would happen within a year of an EMP attack upon the U.S.

Foreign Invasion – With foreign troops on our southern border in Mexico and within our borders and the U.N. positioning thousands of U.N. vehicles all across the U.S., it’s only a matter of time until life would change forever under foreign occupation and martial law.

Islamic Shariah Law – Radical Islamic Extremists want very much to replace our Constitution and Bill of Rights with Shariah Law.  All females become second class citizens (slaves) with public beatings (humiliation) and mutilations and loss of all freedom.

New World Order that includes the One World Government – This is a secret group of men that want to control the world by controlling and enslaving the world population by controlling all food, gas and oil production.  These men belong to one or more of the following groups:  The Bilderberg Group, the Council for Excellence in Government, Council on Foreign Relations, Group of Thirty, Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Trilateral Commission.

Nibiru / Planet X / Wormwood – There is a tenth planet orbiting a second sun in our binary star system that orbits our sun every 3657 years.  Throughout history, roughly every 3600 years there are major earth changes that drastically change our world when the magnetic forces of these passing space bodies cause devastating disasters all over our planet.  Massive earthquakes in excess of 10.0, tidal waves in excess of 1000 feet and mega volcanic eruptions will kill a very large portion of the world population changing life as we know it.

Physical Pole Shift – Within the first few hours of a major physical pole shift, 70% of the world population will die because the majority of the world populations live in coastal regions.  Massive tidal waves in excess of 1000 feet will wipe out the majority of all coastal cities and towns.  Another 20% will die off within the first year because the lack of food.  The only survivors will be the folks who live in higher elevations and have the knowledge and skills to live without technology and can live off the land like our ancestors did over 100 years ago.

Worldwide Pandemic – There are numerous new deadly diseases that most humans have absolutely no immunity to.  The History Channel’s “After Armageddon” documentary is an excellent program that will give you a very good idea of what life will be like after a worldwide pandemic that kills billions worldwide.  You can watch it here on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnbq4GV6uqo

While there are several other scenarios, this upper list is a very good list of the majority of TEOTWAWKI scenarios.  If you’re not prepared, you will suffer untold hardships.  Your worse case scenario will be death.

Time To Change That Water!

Last year I posted a seven part series which contained (I hope) everything you need to know about storing water, and in the simplest way possible. One of the things I pointed out was the necessity of changing your water every six months or so in order to keep it fresh.  But nobody is that diligent, not even me, so with summer over and winter on the way, the ideal time to be taking care of that little chore is right now.

You don’t really have to change out your stored water, but if it comes down to the time when you have to depend on water that has been sitting for two, three years or more, you’ll wish you had. It may taste quite stale, and after a while there could even be algae or other tiny unwanted critters swimming around in, because the antiseptic qualities of the small amount of bleach in there will have lost its ability to stave them off.

So, right now ’tis the season. It’s not too hot to be outside, and not too cold to be running the backyard faucet.  If you wait much longer,  you’ll probably find a million reasons not to get to it at all, and you know that’s true.  Especially if you are storing your water in a crawlspace under your house, you’ll want to do it before it gets much colder.

I hadn’t mentioned this earlier, but if you happen to live in a mobile home, there is a lot of space underneath where those 7 gallon jugs I recommend will fit real nice. Just remove a section of the skirt at the base of the house and crawl right under. You can store all kinds of stuff there as long as you make certain it’s in tight containers to guard against bugs, varmints, and the elements.

Taking care of your water supply is something you really shouldn’t put off again, especially if it has been a year or more since you first filled those containers.  Get it done this month, before the weather gets any colder. By November you will have talked yourself out of it again.

And if you haven’t yet gotten around to storing at least some water, this is the time to get to it. With the current drought, and every indication that drought conditions could continue for some time, having a sufficient supply of water on hand is something you can’t afford to procrastinate about.

Just be sure to review the series, because there are some important do’s and don’ts that are essential to remember.

Watch Genetic Roulette for FREE until October 17th!

My husband and I bought Jeffrey Smith’s book “Genetic Roulette” a couple years ago, and it was really interesting, so I’m excited that they’ve come out with a movie with the same title.  The movie tells about what GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are, how they came to be in our food, and it describes the terrible toll that they are taking on our health as a society.

The movie is about an hour and a half long, and it is a very well-made documentary.

Click here to watch the movie on YouTube: Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives

As you are planning your food storage, it is so important to be aware of GMOs, and to avoid them.

I used to live in California, and I wish I still did because this year they are voting on whether to label GMOs.  Honestly, I think the outcome of Prop 37 will affect our lives much, much more than the outcome of our presidential election.  In some ways it is just sneaking by, but it is vitally important–and what California does will make a difference for the rest of the country.  If you live in California, it is extremely important that you vote YES on Prop 37–you have a right to know what you’re eating.  According to the Sierra Club in California, “Out-of-state pesticide and food companies have contributed $36 million to blanket the airwaves with deceptive commercials trying to persuade us that labeling is too costly, scary or confusing.”  And of course they have–they are the ones who profit by taking shortcuts that only shortchange our health.

If you don’t live in California, talk to anyone you know that does live in California!

Maybe you feel like I used to–I used to think that GMOs didn’t really matter much.  If so, it is even more important that you watch this movie!  I used to not care much about the issue, but as I’ve read more about it, I’m totally convinced that this is a very big deal, and it really matters and affects us.

Whether or not California votes in favor of labeling GMOs, some companies already take the initiative to select only GMO-free ingredients, and it’s important to note that eFoods Direct is one of those companies.  It would be really terrible to buy a bunch of long term food storage and later discover that it is something that you don’t feel comfortable eating.  This week I saw the results of a study that showed that rats fed GM corn for their lifetime develop really huge, disgusting tumors…the pictures are pretty bad.  It would not feel very good to have to decide between throwing away our food storage investment or actually eating food that I knew was dangerous.  Thankfully I don’t have to worry about GMOs in eFoods Direct’s food.

Readers–have you seen the Genetic Roulette movie?  What did you think of it?

Food Security or Designer Table?

I remember how excited I was when I received my first shipment from efoodsdirect. The large boxes arrived with all of the fanfare that could be provided by myself and my three young children. The neighbor asked if it was “Christmas in July.” Knowing that my family was a little closer to food security, having delicious and nutritious meals on hand, really did feel like getting holiday gifts.  I almost kissed the mail carrier, but then I would have to explain that to the kids and to the neighbor.

I have to admit, the excitement did eventually wear off a bit, right around the time the mail carrier left and I had to figure out where in our by-no-means-large home we would store all of this good food. My husband’s solution for storage of things-without-a-place has always been the garage, or as I like to call it, “Grand Central Station,” since everything that goes in it seems to be on its way somewhere else, just waiting to catch the next train, so to speak.

The garage isn’t usually a good place to store food, since it isn’t climate controlled, but fortunately, the efoodsdirect items were so well packaged and prepared that I knew I could store them there for a while if I absolutely had to do it.

A few weeks later, I had some time to really clear out and rearrange our office-slash-guest room-slash-den. Multi-purpose rooms really need to be as clutter-free as possible, with enough space and function to make it all work. I was lamenting the fact that we didn’t have a tall table for a perfect little space near the back door, when the proverbial lightbulb popped on atop my head, scaring the cats. (Well, okay, it was probably the loud squeal I uttered that was the real reason the cats boogied out of the room.)

I placed the first bin Back To School: Make it a Great Year for Your Little One

KiP 3: Recognizing CME Hits and EMP Attacks

Knowledge is Power (KiP)  Knowing how recognize the affects of a CME or an EMP and what to do afterwards could save your life.  A brief review on what a CME and an EMP is:  CME stands for a “Coronal Mass Ejection” which is a natural occurrence that comes from the Sun producing a Geo Magnetic Storm (GMS).  EMP stands for an “Electro Magnetic Pulse” which is man-made from nuclear explosions above the atmosphere.

For a very excellent and informative view on CME’s and EMP’s, I strongly recommend folks watch the National Geographic “Electronic Armageddon” to get a really good working knowledge of what will happen during and after a CME or EMP.  You can watch the video on YouTube.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3r_rWi2ww0

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxDWeljrvSY

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Y_5qDG4l0

To recognize the affects of CME’s and EMP’s, you would have to know and understand their symptoms.  You would also need to know the differences between them and a regular blackout.

At some point in our daily lives, everyone has experienced a blackout.  You’re sitting down for supper after sunset one evening and all of a sudden the lights go out.  You look out the window and see lights off in the far distance and vehicles driving up and down the highway, “Blackout”.  You look at your cell phone; it is on but no bars or signal.  The lights will be back on anywhere from a few minutes to several days depending on where you live and the situation that caused the blackout.

But for a CME or EMP…  One morning you’re at the local grocery store shopping when all the lights go out.  You’re thinking just another blackout.  When you go outside, the first thing you notice is that there no vehicles are moving on the roads, they are all stopped with some that have crashed into one another.  People are standing all around on the roads around their vehicles looking over on a hillside where a plane has crashed and on fire.  Other folks are looking and shaking their cell phones.  You look at yours and it is totally dead and will not turn on.  You walk to your car, get in and try to start it, it will do nothing.  You get out and look all around.  Folks over at the gas station are arguing because the pumps don’t work.  Another person is banging on an ATM machine.  Luckily you live just down the street so you walk home.  Everywhere you look people are just standing around wondering what the heck is going on.

From your house on the hillside, you can see for at least twenty miles.  You see smoke off in the distance.  When night comes, you go outside and the only lights you see are a couple of neighbors using flashlights along with some fires off in the far distance.  It is totally pitch black, a first.  Then you notice how bright the stars are overhead, you have never seen so many stars because of the light pollution.  If it was a CME, you will notice the northern lights to overhead for the first time ever, especially in the southern states.

It is extremely important to know and recognize the effects of a CME or EMP because within 72 hours, all hell will be breaking loose.  When you see this, you need to put your emergency disaster plan into action.

In the aftermath of either a CME or EMP, the death toll will be staggering.  Depending on your geographical location here in the U.S., between 70% to 95% of the people will have died off mainly from starvation within the first year.  That would be at a minimum of 230 million dead American men, women and children.  Within one year of a CME, the worldwide death toll to would be around 5 billion.

The top five countries/groups that could use an EMP against the United States would be Al Qaeda, China, Iran, North Korea or Russia.

I would also strongly recommend folks read William R. Forstchen’s book “One Second After”.  It is an excellent novel of what would happen in the aftermath of an EMP attack upon the United States.

Faking The Good Life

I was watching a news reporter on the scene last month on the morning Apple was making available the new iPhone 5, the latest version of its popular cell phone. The reporter introduced us to a line of twelve people excitedly waiting for the Apple store to open so they could get their hands on one of these phones.

Most of those present were already iPhone users, and when the reporter did the hand-off back to the studio, the anchors wondered aloud if all this willingness to spend big bucks on the latest must-have toy might be a sign that the economic recovery was upon us.

I can tell you it isn’t. It’s almost amusing how anxious the media is to grasp at any possible straw as a sign that what they have been calling a “recession” is coming to an end.

It is not coming to an end. It has just barely started. With a deficit now in the trillions, there is no possible outcome than that the dollar will continue to decline, prices will continue to rise, and unemployment will reach massive proportions.  We might as well face those facts and start getting ready to withstand that tsunami when it hits full force.

This excitement some people exhibit for owning the Latest and Greatest is a sign of something quite different from an economic recovery. For one thing, twelve people in line waiting for a store to open is not that big a deal.

And even though this giddy scene may have been repeated in cities all across the country, the fact that these people want this item doesn’t necessarily mean they can actually afford it.

Maybe some of them can, but it’s more likely most of them just want this phone so bad they’re willing to go into more credit card debt to get it.

No, this is not a sign of nascent affluence.  This is a sign of something else at work, something that points to the opposite of affluence.

What It Really Means

Some years ago when most of my generation -the baby boomers- were coming into their thirties, I read an article citing some social behaviorists regarding a phenomenon then being observed about us. I don’t remember the name they gave to this phenomenon, but what it came down to was our generation was becoming resigned to the fact that the American Dream that had defined our parent’s generation was slipping beyond the reach of many of us.

That dream -The nice house in the suburbs, two cars, yearly vacations with the kids, all paid for with a salary earned by one parent- that was no longer the reality for a lot of us.  For many Baby Boomers, home ownership was not in the cards, especially not a house paid for within three to ten years as had once been the norm.

Those who were able to buy their own homes found themselves saddled with heavy mortgages that would weigh them down well into retirement. And both husband and wife would have to hold down full-time jobs to pay for them.  Long, leisurely vacations? Not the lavish ones they dreamed of.

And so, with little money left over to indulge in real luxuries, Baby Boomers began to compensate by investing in smaller, more realistic luxuries for themselves, such as gourmet coffee machines in the kitchen and 1200 thread-count sheets on the bed.  Maybe a home exercise machine, or a chair to sit in that provides a rolling massage.   Anything to help us feel pampered in some small way.  Lots of little, smaller evidences of affluence to make up for the fact that true affluence is not really feasible. Instead of vacations to Europe, we took frequent trips to the mall, bringing back cool souvenirs from Brookstone and Sharper Image.

That opulent mansion we once dreamed of might never become a reality, but we could at least fill our hovels with some of the trappings of comfort.  According to the social scientists who were tracking this trend, pampering ourselves in these little ways was how we kept from having to admit the dream was dying.  Who says we aren’t doing well? Look at all this neat stuff!

This trend of providing ourselves with some of the finer things has trickled down to the current generation, those sometimes called “Millenials” now graduating from college and finding nothing awaiting them but minimum wage jobs. These Millenials may be forced by circumstances to live in cheap apartments, or even move back home with us, but they also manage to find ways to keep it together by indulging their dreams on a smaller scale.

My son has a friend who could barely afford to eat because he was saving to buy a top-of-the-line guitar he had always wanted. That’s what validates him.  It is what gives him worth.  If not for that guitar, he knows he would feel poor.  And by every measurement, he is poor. But not as long as he owns an expensive guitar.

I can hardly be critical of him. Many of his generation will put all their energy into obtaining that one expensive item that validates them, that proves they own something of value in times where they see and feel desperation all around.  There’s a joke that goes like this:

How do you know you’re in the presence of a Millenial?

He has a $5,000 bike strapped to his $500 car.

iPhones, iPads, Kindles, and the like represent something important to their owners, in the way previous generations wore expensive watches to make a statement about themselves. And frankly, if I had the money I’d get one of those things myself. There’s no denying these gadgets are useful; far more useful than the comic books and silly pop culture collectables I blew thousands of dollars on when I was in my twenties. An object you can hold in your hand that brings the entire world to you any time you want it -I can think of worse things to own.

Some people may think it’s silly for others to wait in line to pay hundreds of dollars for a phone that represents only a slight improvement over the phone they just bought last year.  I say to each his own.

But let’s not read into all this something that isn’t there. This curious need for most of a generation to own the best and the latest gear is indicative of something, alright. But it’s not a sign of good times right around the corner.

I think it’s a sign of something else; a sign that as proud owners of the latest Big New Thing, they can dull the reality that the quality of life and security once taken for granted by previous generations is already slipping away from them.

(Previously by Rock: “The New Soup Lines.”)

Protecting your Preparations: Defense options – Tasers and Pepper Spray

Often, Tasers and pepper spray are suggested as alternatives to guns.  So, if you are uncomfortable with the idea of owning a gun, could you use a Taser or pepper spray to defend your preparations?  Not really.  But you may want a Taser or pepper spray anyway.  Today I’ll explain the role of Tasers and pepper spray as means of defending yourself in an emergency.

What are Tasers and Pepper Spray?

Tasers are small, non-lethal electroshock weapons that use electric current to incapacitate people by disrupting their muscle function.  Basically, you shoot a couple electrodes at someone that is near you (within 35 feet if you have a law enforcement Taser, or within 15 feet if you don’t have a law enforcement Taser), and then electricity blocks the person’s ability to control their muscles.  So, the idea is that sometimes police (or citizens) can use a Taser to stop someone when otherwise they would have needed a gun.

Pepper spray is also called OC gas, and it is a chemical that affects peoples’ eyes—it causes tears, pain, and sometimes it even causes temporary blindness.  Pepper spray is often used for crowd or riot control, but individuals also use it for self-defense, because temporarily blinding your assailant gives you a chance to escape.

Tasers and Pepper Spray Won’t Protect Your Preparations.

If someone approaches your home, and threatens you or violently tries to take your preparations, Tasers and pepper spray will not be very useful.

Tasers and pepper spray will give you a chance to get away, but if you’re trying to stand your ground, you may not want to get away.  You may want your uninvited guest to “get away”, but they’ll have a tough time fleeing if they’re incapacitated.  So, although Tasers and pepper spray do have valuable uses, this isn’t one of them.

Tasers have another disadvantage—each shot of electricity requires a cartridge, and replacement cartridges are about $30 each.  That’s quite a bit more expensive than bullets. A Taser itself costs about $300.  Pepper spray is much more economical; a typical canister costs $10 or less and can be used 20-30 times.  Pepper spray is also available in very small containers, so it is easy to carry around on a keychain, whereas Tasers are more comparable to the size of a gun.

Tasers and pepper spray are legal in most states, but not all of them, so if these options are interesting to you, please check your state’s laws.

Why You May Want One Anyway

Even though a Taser or pepper spray will probably not help you protect your preparations, it may be worth having one of them anyway.  If you don’t feel comfortable with a gun, a Taser or pepper spray may be good for carrying while you’re out and about, particularly after an emergency.  Pepper spray can also be used if you are ever attacked by a dog.  The primary advantage, though, is that both of these weapons may give you an opportunity to flee from attack, and that is still an advantage that may be important sometimes after an emergency.

This concludes my series of articles on protecting your preparations.  I hope you came across some good ideas that will help you maintain your preparations, before and after any emergency you may face.

[Note: I considered discussing martial arts as another option; if you really want to consider everything, you can look into MMA or Krav Maga for training that may be useful in an emergency situation.  I don’t really feel like I have enough to say about those, and again, typically you’ll be looking at methods for protecting yourself (often by enabling yourself to escape), so they may fairly ineffective options for protecting your preparations.  But, I don’t actually know that, and others may disagree.]
Do any of our readers have a taser or pepper spray?  Are there other thoughts about this that I’ve overlooked?  Or, more generally, how are you planning to protect your preparations?

What Have You Done With National Preparedness Month?

As Hard times are not a matter of “if” for us, but a matter of when. If you find yourself in circumstances where you are able to save a little for a rainy day, you need to do so. Period. Once you have lost your job, it is too late. Once you find that your grocery budget does not buy as much as it once did, it is too late. Once the government has taken away your liberties, it is too late.

National Preparedness Month will soon be over. However, the threats and circumstances that necessitate our need to be prepared will remain. If you have chosen to do nothing to prepare for hardship, I implore you to do something now, before it truly is too late.

Cooking for a Vegetarian and a Beef Ambassador

Since my college experience began, I have met people from all over the nation and from many different backgrounds. Along with this, I have experienced plenty of the awkward moments that are bound to happen when people with different backgrounds meet. This was the case just a few weeks ago when two of my closest friends − who happen to hold quite opposite ideas of what constitutes a good meal − had dinner at my apartment.

One of the first friends I made when I moved away to college also happened to be my first roommate, *Dee. Our friendship grew slowly at first, but once we realized that we both watch foreign films, have more books than clothes, and listen to the same Chelsea Nunez

Birthday Comfort Food

I’ve been saving my Lindsey Larson