Posts

Posted on

Amazing deal on shelving

Need a way to store all your preps? Ready to get your food storage off the floor? I’ve been dreaming of shelves for a long time but have always had it on the some-day list. Well, today’s your day. I just got back from Lowe’s and if you hurry, there are still some left. They have 48′ x 24′ x 72′ steel shelving units on sale for $49. These are the same style as the famous Gorilla Rack shelves. These shelves are normally $100, but you also have to pay $50 to ship them. Amazon has them for $132 with free shipping. Sam’s Club currently has them for $72, but you have to have a membership and happen to live near one of their warehouses.

Anyway, today, Lowe’s is selling the shelves for $49 and there isn’t a limit on quantity. Don’t be confused by the website saying the brand is Edsal while the packaging says Muscle Rack. Muscle Rack is simply a trade name. You can find Edsal’s products packaged under several names, including Maxi Rack. I spent a lot of time researching and reading reviews about these shelving units yesterday and I’m of the opinion that they are all the same as the Gorilla Rack. Time to get organized!

Posted on

Utah Preppers Quoted in Mormon Times Article

A recent article in the Lifestyle section over at the Mormon Times titled “Food storage includes more than just food” includes some quotes taken from an interview conducted with me the other day.  While the newspaper is targeting members of the LDS faith, the article itself is applicable to anybody.  Many people get caught up in simply having a certain number of calories, and not thinking about the other aspects of preparedness. This article does a good job of addressing this and stresses adopting a well rounded approach to preparedness. Although our readers may have more of a prepper mindset than the audience of the Mormon Times, you still may find some good information there. Click the link above to read the article.

Posted on

Limited Time Sale

For those looking for some discounts on your food storage, and especially on a few bigger items, this might be exactly what you need.  Our friends at Home Storage Basics are having their Harvest closeout sale.  The following is from the email they sent out.

Home Storage Basics, American Fork Utah!

Harvest Inventory sale one week only! Ends October 23, 2010

Inventory IN the store is 15 % OFF, Except Shirley J Seasoning items.

In celebration of our Store Anniversary we are selling all our used floor models of the BOSCH, BOSCH Compact, Nutrimill, and Wondermill at great prices! All items have been out for a year- some gently used other have seen a lot of cookies in their day! Come visit us for pricing!

Sale ends October 23, 2010!

Questions?  Call 801-756-7600

Please check us out at Homestoragebasics.org

If you are in Utah or Salt Lake counties, you should make sure to check this shop out.  The owner (a friend of mine) is the best resource around for all things wheat and grain related, and the bakery they have in the shop is excellent.  Please check them out and support a great local business.

Posted on

Turtle Tuff Shelter Demonstration

As a web developer who freelances in addition to my full time employment, I sometimes take advantage of bartering opportunities. Last year one such opportunity presented itself—I was on the lookout for a military surplus tent of some sort, and came across a company (based here in Utah) called Turtle Tuff Shelters who made yurt-like geodesic shelters. Their website at the time was very.. ahem.. lacking, so I suggested a barter. They agreed, and a few months later I became the owner of a 24′ Turtle Tuff Shelter.

The interesting thing about these shelters, and the reason I opted to get one of these as opposed to some other form of tent/shelter, is that the structure is a geodesic frame which helps greatly with load bearing, wind resistance, with lightweight, high-strength, tempered, aircraft aluminum alloy rods. The dome shape distributes any weight or force across a broader area, thus minimizing any impact it receives. Each of the individual hubs/joints hold over 300 lbs. because of this design. The frame is designed to withstand almost 150mph winds when staked to the ground.

Putting the shelter together has been on my to-do list since last year, but not until today have I made the time to do it. With the help of a friend of mine, I spent the morning putting the tent together—partially, anyways. We assembled the frame and covered it; due to time constraints, we weren’t able to proceed with setting up the floor. Additionally, once the shelter is assembled you determine where you want your door and window to be, and you then cut out material, apply adhesive zippers, etc. I preferred to wait until if/when I actually have to use the shelter before making any permanent alterations to the materials.

Continue reading “Turtle Tuff Shelter Demonstration”

Posted on

The night of the Herriman (Machine Gun) Fire

A lot of people have written up their thoughts and their experiences about going through the Herriman “Machine Gun” fire 19 September 2010. I’ve had some friends ask me to do the same. One friend asked me to specifically to highlight the preparedness aspect of our experience.

We’ve lived in the Herriman area for about seven years. During that time, we’ve seen a handful of fires on the hills south of us, usually ignited by lightning. These have usually been small fires and quickly contained by firefighters. So when we heard there was a fire burning in the hills Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t terribly shocking news.

When we came out of church after 4:00 p.m., the sky was considerably smoky to the point that the light from the sun had taken on an orange-ish hue. That was remarkable, but it still didn’t really concern any of us. We carried on with our plans just as most everyone did.

Continue reading “The night of the Herriman (Machine Gun) Fire”

Posted on

HAM discussion

Are you interested in learning a little more about HAM radio—specifically, understanding the “geekier” side of things?  Then check out this session at the Utah Open Source Conference: Exploring the Radio Frequency Spectrum.

From the abstract:

An in depth look at amateur radio’s effect on today’s technology. Topics to be covered will include the history of amateur radio, requirements for becoming an amateur radio operator, exploration of the technologies amateur radio uses, and open source tools that can be used in conjunction with amateur radio. Technology enthusiast familiar with the Linux Journal January 2010 issue will find this presentation a compliment to the amateur radio articles covered. This presentation is suited for technology beginners to experts, and those that would like to learn more about amateur radio.

Date/time: Oct 08, 3:00 p.m.

Continue reading “HAM discussion”

Posted on

National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month.

Make a difference this month by sharing what you know, encouraging others to do something more to be prepared and do more yourself to become better prepared.

National Preparedness Month

Spread the news.  This is a great month for preppers, as you will see a lot of companies with sales on their preparedness items, as well as harvests coming in with plenty of fresh foods to lay in store for another time.  Get ready for the upcoming winter.

More info on the history of National Preparedness Month »

Posted on

A New Toy

I will never hide the fact that I am a geek, a gadget geek in the scope of this post.  I love playing with various “toys” and trying to find the perfect tools for whatever need I have.

Image Taken Straight From ThinkGeek

So this week, one of the shiny things to catch my attention is found over on the ThinkGeek Gadgets site, It’s a key-sized multi-tool, for a decent price.  Now I’ve checked out lots of ‘key’ tools the past few years.From constantly watching for a chance at picking up an Atwood Ti, to usually crappy quality key-tools that are way too clunky to want to carry on my limited keychain.  Previously I was leaning towards the Gerber Artifact (via ThinkGeek:
Gerber Artifact Pocket Keychain Tool) (Which I still wouldn’t mind, for sure).  It’s a nice tool, but still isn’t quite the same idea of this.  While the artifact tries to be another knife, this tool attempts to be all the various non-blade tools from your swiss-army knife.

This however beats out those crappy ones (not the atwoods though, of course).  It’s thin, not wider than a normal key.  Nor is it bulky, sticking out wrong.  It has several helpful functions which are actually labeled to help jog the memory.  It’s the perfect choice when I don’t want to carry my swiss army style knife, but would rather keep a single blade on me.  I don’t lose access to the common tools this way.  Hey, it’s probably safe to take on a plane too!.

Also well thought out, is that it actually wraps onto your existing keys, so it covers the sharper edges, and doesn’t rip up your pocket so much.

Link: Keychain Multi-Tool

Alternatives:
Utili-Key 6-in-1 ToolThese keys always seem like they would open up in my pocket at the wrong time :(

Gerber Artifact Pocket Keychain ToolThe artifact, cool, but not sure about that blade.  Like the pry-bar aspect.

Posted on

Bug out/Camping/Utility Trailer

I’ve been wanting to get out camping more often, but I suspect like many have had trouble convincing my wife to give camping a try. For some reason, sleeping on the hard, cold ground doesn’t appeal to her.

Buying a dedicated camper, pop-up tent, RV would be nice, but they are generally more than I want to spend, are single purpose and often require separate registration here in Utah. I often find a need for a small utility trailer for hauling mulch, compost, etc. and here in Utah, smaller trailers under a certain weight and size don’t need to be registered. When I obtained an old home built utility trailer recently, I decided to jump head first into a home built adventure trailer build.

Continue reading “Bug out/Camping/Utility Trailer”

Posted on

Do it now (refilling water storage)

Moving into a new house recently required me to empty my water storage. I promised myself that refilling it would be priority number one once we were in and had the beds set up. That was three weeks ago. Reading about residents of Iowa City lined up for bottled water this week made me realize how much time had gotten away from me.

Do you have empty water containers that need to be filled? Has it been a while since you rotated your water? Don’t delay another day. Do it now.

The large, blue tank pictured above is a SureWater tank that holds 275 gallons. The green ones are Reliance Jumbo-Tainers that hold seven gallons each.

Posted on

Great story of prepping and survival on Investors.com

Believe it or not, the investing web site investors.com has a great article about prepping and survival.

Read the article here.

This Navy flier can be a good example for all of us. He knew that there was always the possibility that he would be shot down and that he would need to survive. Rather than bury his head in the sand and ignore the issue, he reviewed the survival kit he was issued as a Navy aviator and supplemented it to meet his personal needs. When other pilots saw him doing this, they took a second look at their own kits and began doing the same thing.

This brings up another good lesson. Without sacrificing OPSEC we can be an example of preparedness to those around us. If someone is new to prepping and seems interested, try to foster that interest and get them on their way to self sufficiency.

What have YOU done to prepare you and your family today?