ALERT! Peanut Butter Prices about to nearly double!

If you regularly eat peanut butter – or anything with peanuts – get stocked up on it now because the price of Peanut Butter is about to dramatically increase!

U.S. farmers are expected to produce roughly 1.8 million tons of peanuts this year, down nearly 13 percent from last year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Department of Agriculture. Assuming that estimate holds, it would be smallest harvest recorded since 2006. Continue reading “ALERT! Peanut Butter Prices about to nearly double!”

FREE HAM Radio Class at BYU!

Having a HAM radio is essential to communicate in any kind of a disaster scenario!  But, having one and not being able to legally practice because you aren’t licensed is pretty useless because you’ll have no idea how to use it.  If you haven’t got your license yet, it’s time to get off the couch and get going!  It’s very easy to pass the test, if you pay attention in the class you’re pretty much guaranteed to pass.  With the class being free, all you’ve got to do is go spend a morning at BYU to get it.  The license itself is $14.00 and you’ll still have to pay that.

As for your first radio, I’ll be posting this week about the Wouxun radios that are hands down the best cheap radio on the market (they only cost $120).  Once you get your license and radio, there are several nets that do weekly check-ins that keep you in practice with your radio.

If you want to go, you MUST sign up ASAP!  He can only have 40 students and you can’t just show up.

Here are the details for the class (as sent by the instructor):

Continue reading “FREE HAM Radio Class at BYU!”

Suture Follow Up – Suture Kits and Instructions!

This is a follow up to my previous post on Suturing a Scalp.  At the Self Reliance Expo today, I spent the day with Dr. Bones of the Doom and Bloom Show and he just happened to be selling suture kits for a great price!  I showed him my post on suturing a scalp and he loved it, then he agreed to let us offer all of you his suture kits for his show price of $20.00!  Click the image on the right to see a much larger picture of it.

The kits come with a Needle Driver, forceps and a pair of scissors along with a sterile field, gloves and 2 sutures.  They also come with the step by step pictorial guide that you can see in the picture.  These are very nice kits and the price is fantastic!  If you would like to order them, send an email to [email protected] and let them know what you would like to order.  There will be shipping on top of the cost, of course.

Continue reading “Suture Follow Up – Suture Kits and Instructions!”

Utah Self Reliance Expo

Jayce and I (Phil801) are running a booth for Utah Preppers and the American Preppers Network this weekend (Oct 7 & 8, 2011) at the Self Reliance Expo at the Expo Center in Sandy!  We spent the day there today (Friday) and met a ton of new people and had a really great time.  There are lots of vendors, several of them have some very unique and cool products – Jayce, Neybar and I all ended up buying a couple cool things that we suddenly realized we really needed! :)  We worked on getting group buys and deals set up for all of you with some of these cool products – look for those soon!  They also have several classes and speakers throughout the day – check the schedule on their website for details.

Continue reading “Utah Self Reliance Expo”

Suturing a scalp

Suturing is an important skill to have.  Knowing how to properly sew somebody shut isn’t something you need every day, but when you need it – you need it!  Sure, right now we can just run to the doctor, but what if you’re way in the outback or things have collapsed and good medical care isn’t easily available.  Suturing allows you to quickly close up a wound to help stop bleeding, help prevent infection and to lower the risk of damaging a wound while trying to get to better care – if needed.  There are plenty of ways and places to get training in suturing without going through medical school.  It’s easy to do once you learn, you just need to look around and find a class you can take.

Continue reading “Suturing a scalp”

Quick Skinning, Cleaning and Butchering a Deer

These days, most of us drop our game off at the butcher on the way home and go back a few days later and pick it up in nice white butcher paper. That’s all fine and good for now, but what are we going to do if we have to hunt for survival and can’t just drop the animal off to let somebody else do all the work? I’ve done it myself before and I’m sure I could do it again without any real problems, but if you’re hunting for survival the last thing you want to do is ruin your meat by doing something stupid!

Continue reading “Quick Skinning, Cleaning and Butchering a Deer”

Review: Daily Bread Beef Stroganoff With Noodles

The way to a man’s heart is his stomach.  When that man is a prepper, and a blogger, nothing could be more true.  With that said, I was overjoyed recently when I was contacted by one of our local freeze-dried companies.  They were wondering if I would be interested in sampling a couple of their entrees, and writing my opinion on them.  Not exactly a difficult decision there.

What made this choice even better was the timing. I just happened to be heading up that weekend with the guys for a little man-camp time.  What a better way to test things out. Continue reading “Review: Daily Bread Beef Stroganoff With Noodles”

Backyard Chickens

Over the past year, I have noticed an increased interest in raising chickens arising all over the nation. Locally, KSL has published several articles recently about this phenomenon (see below) as has the Wall Street Journal (also below) and most prepper blogs. My family started keeping backyard chickens about four years ago and have had some good success. In this article we’ll summarize some of the benefits to raising chickens, what you’ll need to get started and some links to resources to help you out once you’ve got your flock.

Continue reading “Backyard Chickens”

Gold Prospecting Course in Utah Valley

I was recently perusing Utah Valley University’s web site and found an interesting course on Gold Prospecting offered through the Community Continuing Education program. Given the current high price of gold and the fact that here in Utah we really don’t need to travel far to try finding it, this seems like a great course for a Utah Prepper.

Course Information

GOLD PROSPECTING FOR FUN OR PROFIT

Only 5 percent of the world’s gold has been discovered. With gold currently trading at over $1500 an ounce, panning for gold has made a real comeback. Learn new methods of panning gold that you can use 12 months of the year. Fee includes prospecting equipment you take home with you. No early registration discount. CEUs: 0.15 Hours: 1.50

At $39 this seems like a bargain for an evening of instruction on what could be a fun and profitable hobby. Here is a Link to the course. I hope to see you there!

Saved by Preps – Flat Tire

Yesterday I was driving in my truck to pick up my son from school.  I heard a strange noise outside the truck and rolled down the window to investigate.  I could hear a hissing that rhythmically got quiet as I drove – then I realized, my left rear tire was punctured and deflating FAST!  I pulled over to the shoulder as far as I could and got out to investigate.  Sure enough, there was what looked like a nail hole right through my nice new tire.

That’s when my car Preps came to the rescue!

Continue reading “Saved by Preps – Flat Tire”

Review: The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers

Walking along the book aisle in Costco the other day, I came to a rather sudden stop as a specific book caught my eye. With a name like The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers, can you blame me?  This was obviously a book stocked for a local audience, so I hope our non-Utah readers can find a copy.  Author Caleb Warnock is a local (Alpine, Utah) writer, year-round gardener, and teacher of “Forgotten Skills” classes.  It also helped when I noticed one of the people listed in the special thanks section is a friend of mine, and local sci-fi author (how’s that for a tight-knit Utah Valley). Also at only $11 or so, any tidbit that might help will likely pay dividends well over the purchase price of the book.

This book also stood out to me, because I often wonder *how* my family managed to get enough food to live.  My mom’s side of the family was that oft-discussed “hearty pioneer stock”.  However I have noticed that while many farmed to live, I have a long history of blacksmiths and military.  There is no hiding that this must be because I inherited a really lousy black-thumb, they took up other trades because of this family curse. I’m one of those people who has to work really hard to make part of his garden succeed.  I enjoy blaming my heritage on this, as it cannot be some failing of my own, right?  So I felt driven to read this book, and find out how they managed to live, despite my inability to grow enough of the right foods in the wasteland of Utah.

Continue reading “Review: The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers”

Community Preparedness Fairs

Local first-aid company Shield-Safety is hosting two community preparedness fairs and wanted to spread the word to different preparedness groups and companies that might be interested.  If you are looking to attend, the dates and locations are as follows:

Lehi:

Sept. 16th 5 pm to 9 pm
Sept. 17th 9 am to 7 p

Herriman:

Sept. 30th 5 pm to 9 pm
Oct. 1st 9 am to 7 pm

Both events are free for attendees, and will feature first-aid training classes, and other opportunities to learn preparedness skills.

If you are interested in hosting a booth (vendor or community) we have a copy of the information you need here for download. The hosts have stressed to me they are very eager to work with all community resources such as CERT, safety officials, and other local companies.

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