Get Home Bag

Recently I took some time to rotate a few items in my ‘Get Home Bag’ that I keep in my car.  The seasons were changing here, and they require different items to fill the bags purpose.  As I was changing, I realized I should take a few pictures to post on here (and satisfy the requests of a few friends wanting to know what I have).  With that in mind here’s a basic breakdown of my winter Get Home Bag.

Purpose:

I live a fair distance from my work now (oh how I long to telecommute again!).  Around 25 miles one way, around a lake, across a river, through several places that have limited road options.  How do I know this?  Well, I would say everybody should be very familiar with every alternate route between their home and most common destinations, because you never know when you will need them.  I have needed mine.  Beyond a natural curiosity and desire to optimize my commute, my neighborhood often requires it because it has a population that overwhelms the local road infrastructure on a good day.  Add in an accident, or bad weather and it becomes horrid.  Get worse weather, and you can actually shut down access to our town.  It’s happened before, it will happen again.  Throw in an earthquake, and there will be *no* cars heading home.  Whatever your locally preferred disaster, would you be able to get home to your wonderful food storage?

Continue reading “Get Home Bag”

Welcome Idaho

After some recent discussions on her blog, Marie at Food Storage…A Necessary Adventure decided to start up an Idaho Preppers Networkidaho state sealGood to see more initiative out there.  If you are an Idaho Prep blogger, get added.  If you are a prepper, join up to read.  And please add a link on your blog too.

If you know of another regional prepper blog network that we don’t know about, or maybe you are just starting one too, let us know.

Welcome Back to the Storm

Welcome back, I hope your Christmas was as good as ours.  Now it’s time to get back to the grindstone of life.  I hope the recent focus on the family will keep us all looking at how to keep them safe in what is coming to us all.  With a flailing economy, people will do anything to keep afloat.  You need to make sure you are prepared ahead of time.

stormcloudsbrewingnowmorethaneveryouvegottolivewithinyourmeans

Twas the Night Before Christmas – Storage

Twas the month before Christmas
And all through the house
The storage was low
Hardly a crumb for a mouse.

The shelves were about empty,
Oh, what a plight!
The wolf’s at the door,
And no money in sight.

All the children were nestled
To keep warm in their bed,
Hoping that before long
They surely would be fed.

The prophet had counseled
“Each one be prepared,”
We had procrastinated the day,
Why hadn’t we cared?

ALAS! “Twas only a dream”,
But that didn’t’ matter
I jumped from my bed
Making a loud awful clatter.

Away to the basement
I flew like a flash,
Stumbling over boxes and bottles,
Along with some trash.

As I surveyed my storage,
With eyes all aglow
The security of filled bottles
All straight in a row

Filled my heart with a warmth
And my eyes with a tear
To think I had food
to last us a year.

This feeling of warmth
And security too,
Is what we as your friends
Wish for you.

So put gifts of storage
Under each Christmas tree
For those on your list,
Is our warmest plea,

Give honey, give sugar,
Give flour or wheat.
Give milk, give salt,
Give something to eat.

And you’ll hear them exclaim,
When Christmas is here,
“Thank-you so much,
It will be a good year.”

Author unknown (If you know, tell me :) )

This was handed out to my wife’s Relief Society (Womens Group at Latter-day Saint Churches)

Psychology of Preparedness

Ever been called crazy for having a preparedness mindset?  Ever questioned yourself if that drive to store up a few more cans of food might be just a little too much?  A friend of mine, who is a trauma counselor, decided to start writing a bit about the psychology of preparedness.

After hearing him talk a bit about generalized difficulties he sees on a daily basis, our discussions went into what you will start to see in his posts.  To be mentally stable, you must have some security, some anchor in your life.  He starts here by establishing some of the basic needs we have for mental stability.  I’d recommend giving it a read, then keep your eyes open for the rest of the series, should prove very useful in helping yourself understand your basic reasons for preparedness, and why maybe others you know might not feel the same.

With an economy just starting a free-fall, rights being repealed left and right, job losses, and more, you need to make sure that you are prepared both physically, as well as mentally for what may come.

Dried Spud Sale

This is from an email recently received.  It’s a great opportunity to get a few more spuds in place for your food storage.  It’s also nice to support a local business focused on our preparedness.  With 40lb bags, this is a great product to use with the previously posted Mylar Bag posts, and as part of your “Cesta Básica

Good news is:  Diced potatoes were delivered late last night!
Bad news is:  They delivered twice as many as I ordered!
Please tell your friends and neighbors about these potatoes!  We need to move them out.  :-)
Some details:
  • Dehydrated diced potatoes (peas and carrots sized)
  • Ingredients:  Idaho potatoes and sodium bisulfite
  • 40 lb bags $42
  • Great for casseroles, mashed potatoes, soups and stews, etc.
  • These are seconds—have some pieces of skin mixed in
  • Report from those who have sampled “Tastes sooo fresh!”
Rumor has it that Idahoan is not making new diced potatoes this year.  Walton Feed cannot get any, our supplier in California is desperate for diced potatoes but can’t find any.
They are a great storage item, very easy to prepare, and very tasty!
Have a great day!  Hope to see you!  :-)
chirine

Alpine Food Storage
alpinefoodstorage.com
216-4588 or 361-4933
11800 No. 6000 W.
Highland, UT 84003
USA

Winter/Snow Driving Preps, Part 3 of 3, Driving Tips

This is the final post in our 3 part series, Winter and Snow Driving Preps. The first post, Prepping your Vehicle, can be found here followed by our second post, Supplementing your Gear.

To wrap this Winter Prep series up, let’s go over a few winter driving tips. I’m not trying to teach you how to drive, but just some good techniques to use while driving in snow and ice conditions. Continue reading “Winter/Snow Driving Preps, Part 3 of 3, Driving Tips”

Winter/Snow Driving Preps, Part 2 of 3, Gear Supplements

This is the second post in this series, the first – Prepping your Vehicle – can be found here.

Winter vehicle emergencies can be pretty harsh. If you breakdown, wreck or slide off the freeway that’s one thing, help should be there soon.

But, if you’re on the road less traveled and it’s late at night and something happens, you could be stuck there for a while. If for some reason you can’t start your vehicle in that situation, you have about 20 minutes before it starts getting cold in your car. You already have an emergency kit in your vehicle, right? Just in case you don’t, we’ll be covering that in a later post. But, from here we’ll assume you’ve got a basic 72 hour survival kit in your vehicle. These are some things you should add to it for the winter:

  1. Continue reading “Winter/Snow Driving Preps, Part 2 of 3, Gear Supplements”

Mylar Bag Wrapup – Issues with Mylar Bags

This will wrap up our series on Mylar Bag Food Storage. You can catch the previous posts here: a How-To Pictorial on Storing Food in Mylar Bags and Alternative Ideas for Mylar Bags.

This post will talk about some of the experiences, techniques and tips that readers and others have provided us.

MaKettle10 provides us with this info:

In a study done with mylar bags and mice, it took the mice about 15 seconds to sense the food was there, and get into the bag to start eating it. Good idea you have to put the mylar bags into the big plastic storage bins. I’d never store them in cardboard boxes for extended, long-term storage.

Continue reading “Mylar Bag Wrapup – Issues with Mylar Bags”

Winter/Snow Driving Preps, Part 1 of 3, Prepping Your Vehicle

Here in Utah, Winter is finally upon us! This generally means we get to share the road with a bunch of inexperienced snow drivers who think it’s safer, not more dangerous, to drive 15 miles an hour on the freeway. Hopefully, all those people will read this post and we’ll fix the I15 problem right here and now! Yeah right. But for you, dear reader, I offer some advice on how to prep your vehicle for winter, what to stash in your vehicle and some driving tips. Hopefully you’ll have some sage advice to add to this in the comments. This is the first of 3 posts in this series.

Continue reading “Winter/Snow Driving Preps, Part 1 of 3, Prepping Your Vehicle”

Burning The Midnight Oil

No literally, I’m writing this late at night, and wondering just how many people have really given thought to how they will see at night.  Whether you are preparing for a couple days of power outages due to an event such as an ice-storm, or some longer-term emergency, it’s not feasible to expect that you can run a generator 24/7 in order to still be able to flick the lights.

Ancient Oil Lamp
Ancient Oil Lamp

While our ancestors did keep better time with the sun, there was still a need for light outside of what the sun provided, and we all know you can’t store *enough* batteries for every need.  In this situation, many people will immediately fall back to the use of candles as a primary source of light.  While candles are useful, there is a better answer.  Candles tend to release a lot of smoke which will leave soot over time, they are an open flame, which is dangerous, and are very subject to drafts. The better answer for indoor lighting of course is the lamp, which from ancient time, in many cultures has provided simple, clean, and efficient lighting to humanity. Continue reading “Burning The Midnight Oil”