Author: Jayce

I’m a Software Engineer that grew in the Pacific Northwest. I moved to Utah for a job in 98 and have stuck around ever since. I’ve always been preparedness-minded, since my family always had that as a focus. I love the great outdoors, enjoying the dichotomy of the split from regular gadget driven life to back country minimalist experiences. An avid scouter, and camper. No farm now, but grew up running an aviary, and logging to earn money.
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Marine Cold Weather Medicine Course

The first in what will be many resources we hope to make available for download to you.  The Marine Cold Weather Medicine Course manual seemed a natural fit to make available to people in the mountain west region right now.  As we finally are starting to get our delayed Winter weather, it’s important that we make sure our Winter preparations are also readied.  Your car-kit needs to be reviewed, food rotated, clothing changed, etc.  This manual gives a great number of insights as to what you should do.

The manual targets a marine unit, which can translate well into what you might need to think about in a family situation.  The manual attempts to teach everything somebody would need in order to effectively move themselves during harsh Winter conditions.  They provide good lists of items to keep in an emergency kit for personal use, as well as spreading larger group items around.

Beyond gearing up, the book provides some great information for traveling across difficult terrain, and then focuses heavily with the titular matter, dealing with health issues in the winter.  The manual focuses on several of the winter specific health hazards, and how to deal with them effectively both in terms of immediate medical attention, and in how to handle it as a group.

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Got a Kindle? You can get it here:
COLD WEATHER MEDICINE COURSE, Survival

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Cesta Básica

For several years I lived in the amazing country of Brasil (yes, that’s how to spell it right :) ).

Stack of Cesta Básica's ready be sold
Stack of Cesta Básica's ready to be sold

One of the many things I learned while living there was about a product called the Cesta Básica (Basket of Basics).  This product is the lifeblood of many Brasilian families, making up the core of their grocery shopping.  What it is, is simple.  It is a package containing an assortment of basic food items, designed to meet the basic needs for a given amount of time.  Which products it contains, and how much would vary by store, but largely were the same.  This was an extremely common item for several reasons.  The first of which is the basic brasileiro’s diet, which starts with beans and rice, and almost anything else is extra.  Which type of beans was largely a regional choice as the default, but alternative ‘versions’ of the packages could easily be found if you preferred another regions flavor.

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Crossroads Co-op: December Deadline

Just a reminder to folks, that the December deadline for orders to the Crossroads co-op is Friday the 5th. What’s the co-op you might ask? Well, in their own words:

IT’S A SIMPLE IDEA, REALLY – provide quality, healthy food at a substantial savings through cooperative purchasing; and build a sense of community by bringing people together and promoting volunteer service.

The Community Food Co-op is for EVERYONE. Whether you are struggling to meet your basic food needs or are just looking for a way to share in community, you can be part of this simple exchange: giving and receiving.

groceriesSo the Co-op is just individuals, and community groups working together to buy the best quality food, directly, at the best price for the group. Costs are kept as low as possible by buying only a select set of items, at the best negotiated price point, then distributed via donated resources of the co-op members.

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Making it Yourself: Cheese

One of my favorite comfort foods to have around is cheese. While I do not consider myself any kind of cheese-snob by any means, I do have several varieties 180px-emmentalerthat I like to have on hand (Cheddar, Jack, Gouda, to name a few), and really care about the flavor and texture of those cheeses. These cheeses make up a very important part of my regular diet, and having to go without them would not only cause me and mine to feel the lack of something, but our bodies would probably quickly notice it, and our digestion would likely suffer.

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Make some noise

Average Pea whistle
Average Pea whistle

An important piece of any Bug out Kit is a way to make a whole lot of noise. You need some way to create some attention-getting noise that can really travel the distance. This tool is a way to get the attention of a search party if you are lost or injured, as well as a way of helping find somebody who is lost. But all whistles are not created equal. Some are bulky, some are tiny, some have Pea’s, some don’t. How do you know which you should get? Well, I was recently pointed to a site via edcforums to an excellent PSK whistle review (PSK). Go check it out before you buy your whistle, it’ll help in selecting.

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Jordy’s Food Storage Christmas

I’d like to link today to a great post by a friend of mine, Jordan Gunderson. I’ve known Jordy for a few years now through our local geek community, and was ever so proud when recently he had told me about how his family had been dedicating themselves to getting their three-month, then year’s supply of food in place. He had obviously put in some good thought and research into things, much like any geek will do when dedicating themselves to solving a problem.

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Family BOB Example: The Lances

A local friend of mine recently posted his notes about creating a set of emergency bags (BOB – 72 Hour Kit) for his family. It’s great to see a friend getting his family so ready, and even better when they can share such excellent information. In his example, I think he does a great job of presenting how he will get his young sons to carry a small part of their own gear, without overtaxing them. I know all younger families like myself worry about how to ‘carry enough’ for the younger children, and this example shows great thought in dealing with that concern. Check out the Lances BOB setup. Several pictures showing all the included gear, in and out of the bags.

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Blogger Highlight: Riverwalker

In an effort to help recognize some of the great preparedness bloggers out there, and help people find some of the other great resources on the web, I’d love to introduce folks to a blogger I’ve been reading for a while now. Riverwalker maintains a couple of blogs himself, the Stealth Survival, and Riverwalker’s Survival Gear.

Riverwalker has a great way of presenting very useful information in an appealing, direct manner.  He’s also been great at helping other preparedness bloggers get their start, and get connected to other folks.  Please take some time and read up on what he’s already published.  A lot of nice, simple, to the point posts that will go far in helping anyone be ready for any kind of emergency.

A few recent topics of interest from his blogs:

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Review: Costco Emergency Supply Kit Deal

Kit as advertised
Kit as advertised

In the recent Costco mailer, some friends and I all noticed that a “72-hour” kit that Costco carries had a limited time online discount available.  The $60 kit was/is available for a limited time for $40 with shipping (Costco 72 hour kit sale), so I decided to check it out. One more 72 hour kit could be good for my family, and if it was nice, would make a great gift to give to some family members and friends.

The kit is all self-contained in a 2.5 gallon bucket, that has a nice airtight seal (gasket lined-lid), but has the one-time use strip around the edge, so you know if it’s been opened.  The bucket of course will still reseal, but

The Bucket
The Bucket

with the thinner lip that’s left after the protective strip is removed.  So you don’t need a bucket tool to open this thing, but you will need some kind of knife or tool to release the first seal.  I had to cut that part open.  The bucket itself contains a listing of contents, as well as basic nutritional information for the food inside, which is nice to have available.  However for this review I wanted to actually get my hands on what was inside, to see the quality, etc.

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