It took a few more months than I hoped, but at least I made it before the coldest part of the winter. As you will recall in my previous posts on home heating, I have been saving and planning for a wood burning stove. As promised, here are photos to document the installation and thoughts on additional things I have learned. Continue reading “Wood stove installation”
When to buy: Grocery Sale Cycles
Part of being a good prepper is not just buying extra food, but the art of learning how to buy right. Purchasing foods especially can be an art form for knowing when to get the best prices, and best quality. For instance, it’s usually a bad idea to buy a vegetable who’s harvest is about to happen, as you know that means you are getting what’s left from last year. Your food won’t taste as good, and it won’t store as long as it’s already got a year down. Grocery stores know this, so many frugal shoppers have studied the common grocery sale cycles to understand how the manufacturers and stores are working together to move their product most efficiently. Continue reading “When to buy: Grocery Sale Cycles”
Hypothermia – Signs and Symptoms and Treatment
More about Winter Vehicle Preparedness Info.
To With more than half the country being inundated by massive snow and ice storms and much of the rest of the country having below freezing temperatures, people are at a very high risk for Hypothermia. Knowing what Hypothermia is and how to treat it not only prepares you to help yourself but most importantly, to help others. I’ve consulted several resources to try to put together a very comprehensive overview of Hypothermia. Those resources include the Mayo Clinic, my EMT Training Manuals, the CDC Guidelines for Hypothermia and the State of Alaska Cold Injuries Guidelines (Alaska knows more about Hypothermia than anybody, their standards are what we use here for Search and Rescue). Continue reading “Hypothermia – Signs and Symptoms and Treatment”
What we are doing this Spring
If my allergies are any indication, Spring has sprung. This means it is time for Daylight Saving Time, spring cleaning, starting gardens and other activities.
What are the UtahPreppers up to?
Continue reading “What we are doing this Spring”
Wrapping Up, With Blankets
As snowflakes begin to frequently drift down, my wife begins her odd seasonal transformation from warm, to cold-blooded being. I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with this process, but it is the true mark of seasonal change around my home. Appendages seem to have ice permanently on them, and thus have an odd habit of always finding their way to me, which is cause to no small amount of distress.
With that in mind, we have discussed what else we can do in my family to increase our ability to stay warm inside (because my wife sure doesn’t want to go out). Beyond just comfort in the dark months, my southern CA native wife is petrified of the idea of being without power/heat, and our ability to deal with that. Continue reading “Wrapping Up, With Blankets”
Reminder: Driving in Snow
With the recent storms, and onset of Winter conditions here in Utah, I felt it appropriate to send out a little reminder of things people should do to prepare for winter driving. Please prepare before the storms come, so that you can be ready for the enjoyable experience that is Utah roads in the Winter. Continue reading “Reminder: Driving in Snow”
Farmer’s Markets
Now that the weather has warmed up, I am revisiting a post I started back in the deep winter of January.
Farmer’s Markets are a great way to find locally produced fruits, vegetables, meats and other products. These markets are often the only way to find heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables that our forefathers took for granted. You will also generally find more variety if you are looking for Organic or hormone/pesticide free food.
Continue reading “Farmer’s Markets”
Family Dynamics and Perpetual Preparedness
Any minute now, I might become a father. My wife is (very) pregnant with our first child, and the seconds are ticking until our lives change significantly (for the better!). As the months have gone by, we have dedicated a great deal of time to readying, studying, and researching how best to do everything we’re soon going to need to do.
Preparedness has played a large role—indeed, a central role, since what we’ve been doing up until now is preparing for our son’s birth. Having an end result in mind forces us to think in the long term, and purchase things, learn skills, and become well versed in all that will be necessary. Too often we get wrapped up in the here and now, and let our long-term preps take a backseat.
Continue reading “Family Dynamics and Perpetual Preparedness”
Prepping example on 18 Kids and Counting 4/7 on TLC
Tomorrow night, April 7th TLC will be showing a new episode of 18 Kids and Counting.
In case you aren’t familiar with the show, here is a brief description of this reality show. Michele and Jim Bob Duggar are the parents of a traditional Christian family. After 20 years of marriage, they have had 18 children with only one set of twins. They manage to afford this large family by being frugal, wisely investing the money they do have in money making properties and businesses and always paying cash for all their purchases. If they don’t have enough money to buy something, they save and buy it later or do without. All of their children are also home schooled.
What does this have to do with prepping? Continue reading “Prepping example on 18 Kids and Counting 4/7 on TLC”
Ice Storm Stories and Preparedness
As most everyone should be aware, the last week has provided a harrowing survival experience for Kentucky and surrounding states with a major Ice Storm cutting off power to over 1.5 million homes and killing 55 people.
For those of us here in Utah, we’re more likely to see catastrophic events from a major snowstorm than an icestorm (in searching, I cannot find records of an icestorm like this hitting Utah). Our winter storms, especially in heavy snowfall years, can leave many icey problems. While we may not be likely to have an ice storm, there are still many lessons we can learn from those who have just experienced it. Let’s look at some reports from the Mid-South Ice Storm of 2009.
Winter/Snow Camping Ideas and Tips
This past weekend several friends and I got together for some fun in the snow. About 50 of us (including kids) converged on the West Desert area of Utah for a couple days. I had some new winter camping ideas that I wanted to try out, I’ll go over those results here. I took a “barometer” of success with me for my experiments (being somewhat of a Polar Bear myself, I needed a better judge of my success). I have an 18 year old daughter that HATES the cold – she sleeps on a heater vent at home as often as she can, she wears heavy snow clothes when there’s an old inch of snow on the ground and it’s sunny.
Adding to your long term supply using dehydration
Someone sent me these great videos on dehydrating food and using it in your food storage. The woman in the presentation is very knowledgeable about the subject and shows the correct way to dehydrate, store and use your food while helping to avoid some of the common pitfalls along the way.
These videos have changed the way I think about dehydrating food at home. Many of the tips about using oxygen absorbers, buying buckets, etc. are useful for other types of food storage as well.
Give them a thorough watching, take notes and let us know what you think.
Continue reading “Adding to your long term supply using dehydration”