10 Scenarios For Which You Should Be Prepared


photo credit: rodrick.reidsma

Preparedness. There is perhaps no other word that conveys so much, yet so little. What does it mean? To what areas of life does it apply (or not apply)? Being adequately and generally prepared of a necessity requires that we ask ourselves all sorts of questions, plan for various scenarios, and abstract our preparations enough such that they can apply to various circumstances, if possible.

For example, having a lot of food stored will help you if there’s an earthquake, fire, flood, unemployment, famine, etc. So, this preparedness item is quite versatile in its applicability and usefulness. Other, more specific items, such as a portable toilet or potassium iodide tablets, fill a much smaller niche and can’t be used for too many situations other than the ones they’re intended for.

Yet, they’re all important. Preparedness in this context means acquiring the knowledge, skills, and physical possessions that would enable you to comfortably survive whatever may come our way. In most cases, external circumstances outside of your control dictate what you must go through, and thus you cannot reliably foresee what will happen. So, preparing for the unknown can be daunting, but it is by no means impossible.

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Beginning Bee Keeping Class in Orem

Beginning Beekeeper’s Class

When:

March 20th (6pm-10pm) and March 21st (10am-4pm). Friday’s class is all instruction, Saturday’s class is instruction plus the possibility of an in apiary portion.

Where:

1206 South 1680 West, Orem, UT.

Cost:

$20 per person; $30 for couples.

Description of Class:

This class is aimed towards the first year beekeeper who is looking gain basic knowledge about bees, the problems, swarming, honey harvests etc.
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Review: Life Caps

Life Caps are a new and fairly recent product on the market in the emergency preparedness category. I’ve heard of them on a few websites, and then I attended an emergency preparedness fair last weekend where several women were recommending them.

The product is promoted as an “emergency preparedness pill”—you take one capsule three times daily, along with drinking plenty of water, in order to provide your body the nutrients it needs throughout the day. The creators claim that these pills satisfy your body’s needs such that you aren’t hungry for food, which is ideal in an emergency scenario if you don’t have access to your normal daily amount of food.

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The Surveillance Self-Defense Site

As an admitted geek, I have often tried to help people in understanding ssd-1the importance of information security, especially when it comes to data storage and transmission.  From what kind of software you run, to how you communicate with others your data can be vulnerable.  From employers to government agencies, neighbors to hackers, what you say and keep can be taken and used in ways that you don’t want.  But teaching everything people should know to keep themselves safe is often a long process, and something I often have to revisit to remind people. Continue reading “The Surveillance Self-Defense Site”

Starts for the Spring garden

Ten days and counting. Boy do I have spring-fever. We planted lettuce, broccoli, carrots and two kinds of peas Monday night in our starter trays and by this morning they had already sprouted and pushed their heads up through the soil. I will be moving them outside on the fourteenth. I tried two approaches to see which would perform better. Half the seeds went in a 72 cup Jiffy Greenhouse Kit and the other half went in biodegradable peat pots filled with seed-starting potting soil and covered with cellophane.

I found the Jiffy Greenhouse Kit cumbersome, but it does appear to be performing better than the pots I filled with soil by hand. The peat pellets in the kit are compressed and dehydrated and come as small wafers. Before use, you must rehydrate them with an eighth a cup of water and slice open the top of the fabric that holds them together so that you can get the seed inside. The raised plastic lid also appears to be regulating the humidity better than the cellophane on the others. The cellophane is also going to have to be removed once shoots get much higher than the edge of the peat pots.

The only real obstacle that I foresee is distinguishing between each of the plants while they are young as my toddler has removed my markers.

My EDC (EveryDay Carry)

edc-bagI realized the other day that I hadn’t done an EDC post yet, so here it is!  I do split EDC, meaning that some stuff I carry on my person but most of it I carry in my bag.  There are two reasons for this, one I sit at a computer all day and do not like to have my pockets filled with stuff.  I only wear cargo style pants so I always have plenty of pockets to drop things into as needed, but I don’t like to sit at my desk with anything in them.  Secondly, as a geek I carry my computer EVERYWHERE I go and I carry it in my EDC bag.  If you ever see the bag pictured on the right, it is probably following me like a monkey on my back.

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Some First-Aid Kit Examples

firstaidkitsFirst-Aid Kits are kind of a funny prepper item – there are SO many that you can just go buy that it doesn’t seem like a big deal.  Yet, countless people I know barely have a box of band-aids in their home.  Those who do go purchase a pre-made First-Aid Kit don’t typically pay much attention to it – it’s crossed of their ‘list’.  But day to day use of the only medical supplies in the house means that after a year or so the First-Aid Kit is severely depleted and nobody notices until there’s a need for it.

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Taking Stock

One of my secret, very un-prepper-like joys is getting the call from my wife on the way home, stating that I need to pick something up.

Making some stock
Making some stock

Who knows the reason, but usually that means I’m going to stop by Costco to pick up one of their roasted chickens.  Then again, we tend to pick up one of these pretty often.  Getting a whole chicken works out well, giving us several meals already largely prepared.

But whether you are like us, and just addicted to that rotisserie chicken, or you like to cook your own.  There lies the question of what do you do with the *rest* of the chicken that you don’t eat?

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Glenn Beck on the Worst Case

Glenn Beck had a show on Friday that is making quite the rounds among the preparedness blogs (among other places) for very good reasons.  He started out by bringing on several “experts” on various topics, after giving each one a potential “doomsday” type of scenario.  As he states, at time we need to think about what we are preparing for.  What is the worst that we think *could* happen, and what can we do to avoid it, or be prepared for it in our own lives.

These three videos give some of the highlights of the discussion (wish the whole show was up there).

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Building a Vehicle Emergency Kit

fa121807eYour Car Emergency Kit should be designed to accommodate a wide variety of potential Emergency Situations that may occur while you are in or near your vehicle. There are several categories that you should carefully consider when you are assembling your kit. The most important thing to remember is to not forget about it – an Emergency Kit is never something you just throw in the back and never think about again. You’ll want to maintain it and adapt it regularly for the season.

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Review: Front Sight Four Day Defensive Handgun Course

Gentlemen (and some of you ladies), prepare to drool. I’m still drooling.

Last night I returned from a four day defensive handgun training course at the Front Sight Training Institute near Pahrump, Nevada (read: the boonies of the Nevada desert). I’ve been waiting for this weekend for a few months now, and it was worth every penny (stay tuned for how you can attend a course with fewer pennies than you might think!).

The following is a review of my experience and some of my thoughts on Front Sight’s training in general.

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Shelf Reliance Recipe Contest

Do you have a favorite recipe for using your food storage?  Maybe a comfort food your family wouldn’t want to go without, or something that makes excellent use fo the basics?  Well here’s a good chance to show your stuff, and have a chance to win some *awesome* prizes.  Our friends at Shelf Reliance are having a recipe contest this month.

shelf_reliance_contest

There’s some seriously nice prizes too:

Entries can be emailed to [email protected].  For more information, such as the rules and details, go check out their page.

Also, go ahead and send along your favorite recipe to me, and we’ll post them up on the site here.  Of course, just watch out because I’ve got a few recipes up my sleeve, and I’m gunning for that #1 prize myself :)