Month: January 2009

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Two HAM radio classes in Pleasant Grove

TWO NEW TECHNICIAN CLASSES
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The Technician license is the entry level license for getting started in HAM radio. The Amateur Radio Club of Utah Valley often presents one day courses followed by a test to obtain your Technician class license. They have just announced a three day class and another one day class in the Pleasant Grove area. I obtained my license about three years ago. It really is easy!

04-07.Feb.2009

Three-day Technician Class (Trent, N7GMT)

14.Feb.2009

One-day Technician Class & Exam Session (Steve, NV7V)

(See http://www.arcuv.org/ for more info)
Continue reading “Two HAM radio classes in Pleasant Grove”

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Everyone Prepared Convention in Springville

What

EP (Everyone Prepared) Convention

When

Saturday, February 7, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Where

The Hobble Creek West Stake Center at 555 S. 600 E. (Averett Ave.), Springville (Map Link)

Come and learn information that will help you enjoy peace, erase panic, and explore possibilities.

Workshops include:

Water Sanitation & Storage, Cooking when the lights go out, Pandemic Preparedness, Personal Safety, and Financial Preparedness.

Displays include:

Ham radio, Red Cross, CERT, Cooking Items, Heating Options, and First Aid Supplies.

Some classes will be held in the chapel. Please dress appropriately.
For more information call 494-7661

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Are You CERTified?

Too often I feel that we get into a “bug out” mentality that leads us to think we’ll be fending for ourselves in all circumstances, always looking out for number one.

I disagree. While there are a select few instances in which we must reduce our focus to our own life and our immediate family, I think that the majority of scenarios will involve neighbors (ideally and hopefully) working together to get through whatever has happened.

Enter CERT. Becoming CERT trained is an important part of your personal preparedness and a necessary tool in being of use to neighbors during a TEOTWAWKI scenario. Here’s a summary of the program:

Continue reading “Are You CERTified?”

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Preparing for a Nuclear Attack: Your Bug-Out Plan

This is the third in a series of posts that will go over preparation for a Nuclear Attack. The first can be found here. The previous post in the series is here.

As we’re previously discussed, if we are subjected to a Nuclear Attack, it is imperative that you have someplace to go, the means to get there and that your destination is well prepared.

Bugging Out

Continue reading “Preparing for a Nuclear Attack: Your Bug-Out Plan”

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New Author: Connor

Hi everybody, I’m Connor. I’ve been participating in the comments here for a while, and was finally convinced to dedicate some more time to this blog during last night’s meetup.  I’m a big fan of all things preparedness, and while I’m not the stereotypical rugged outdoor type, I try to dabble in enough things to diversify my talents and be adequately prepared for any potential TEOTWAWKI scenario.

I’m a web developer by day, news junkie and political economist by night (and those valuable lunch breaks!), and fill in the cracks with all sorts of other fun things.

Continue reading “New Author: Connor”

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American Preppers Networks

The idea of regional/state preparedness networks seems to be catching fire.  Just like what has happened with a couple friends and I, people are looking out to how they can begin to share the information they have about preparedness of all forms to their neighbors.  The early networks such as Texas and us here in Utah started as simply a couple bloggers looking to network together a little more.  Now in our amateur attempts to help ourselves and our friends, we seem to have started something, as we began to see other states such as Kentucky, Idaho, and Colorado start their own groups.   As it should be, each is independant, representing local bloggers trying to share their experiences in life with the local flavor.usa

Well, several people have been wondering how they could possibly start a group for their own state.  Some even stooping to asking us (talk about a rewarding feeling, as if this is successful :) ) how to get a group started.  I’m glad to say that somebody has stepped up to make this process even easier.  Check out American Preppers Network, which is an umbrella blog.  He’s also created blogspot blogs for each of the 50 states, and will hand them out to anybody who’s willing to step up and lead the charge.  Interested in seeing something for your state, step up and help out, it’s never been easier.

Of course, if you have the technical aptitude, feel free to use other means.  This site here just happens to have a bunch of geeks running things, so we run our own software, on our own server.  But as all things preparedness related, use your own strengths. :)

Continue reading “American Preppers Networks”

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Dinner Grouping

One of the most important factors in being able to build up a quality food storage program is to actually store the food that you will eat and find a way to rotate that stored food into your daily diet.  The problem many of us face is that while pizza is fast and convenient, and the pizza boxes stack really well, the food sure doesn’t last.  I also don’t think that if I ordered an extra meal from the local Chinese delivery place, that I could just throw it onto my food storage shelving and expect it to do any good.images1

Part of the problem is that most families, especially those of my admittedly younger age group, have grown so accustomed to having cheap, tasteful food at our fingertips that we have lost the skill of actually cooking for ourselves.  The family dinner at the table has become a thing of the past as have the requisite skills from planning meals ahead of time to storing for particular meal needs.  Fortunately, for the past couple of years my family has participated in a program with several of our neighbors that has helped combat this trend and created an excellent, yet unplanned opportunity for us all to build up our food storage supplies and skills.

How does it work?  Let’s look at the basics of our dinner group program.

Continue reading “Dinner Grouping”

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Emergency home heat

My next preparation project was obtaining an emergency heat source. This is a purchase that I have been researching and planning for a quite a while now, wanting to make sure that I had adequately weighed options and made the best choice. There are a lot of factors to consider including the size and shape of the areas you want to heat, altitude, portability, direct versus ambient heat, ease of use, safety, ventilation, and fuel source.

For me, fuel source was one of the most important factors. And, while availability, storage life, and heating power are importing things to consider, my main concern was selecting a universal fuel. Whether I am cooking, lighting, or heating, my preparations will be much more effective if I only have to store one type of fuel. I would also like a solution that I can use regularly in addition to working well in an emergency. Continue reading “Emergency home heat”

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Reminder: Utah Preppers Meetup Tomorrow Night!

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Don’t forget the meetup tomorrow night!   It will be a very informal get together, kids and spouses are welcome!

Where: Cabelas in Lehi, upstairs in the restaraunt

When: 6:00 pm, Jan 19

Come on up and grab some food and join us, we’ll be sitting around for a couple hours visiting and getting to know some of you.  We’ll talk a bit as a group about what would be fun to do at a meetup – shooting would be fun :) – it’ll be a totally open forum.

If you’re a Utah prep blogger we encourage you to come and promote your blog, this isn’t about our website, it’s about preppers in the area getting together and having fun!  Feel free to invite your readers if you like.

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Starting the New Year – Rounding out Food Storage

The New Year is a great time to do a full inventory of your Food Storage – especially your rotating day to day storage – to make sure you know what you have. By doing this you’re able to make a list of things you need to get to re-stock everything and start the year with a fully year’s supply of food. We recently finished doing this at my house and I thought I would share some of the results with you.

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Continue reading “Starting the New Year – Rounding out Food Storage”

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Carrying a Concealed Pistol in Utah

Who has the legal obligation to protect you and your family?

Given the following:

In the 2005 Castle Rock v. Gonzales case, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police protection, even in the presence of a restraining order.

it would seem that YOU are the only one who can or should be depended on to defend you and yours in a dangerous situation. Law enforcement is often minutes away when a life or death situation is over and done with (for better or worse) within seconds.
Continue reading “Carrying a Concealed Pistol in Utah”

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Prepping for and Surviving an Airplane Crash

plane-crash-2Yesterday’s incident of a crash landing on the Hudson River where there was a 100% survival rate got me thinking about airplane crash survival and prep.  Apparently several others were thinking about it too, there are several articles out in the last (less than) 24 hours about surviving a plane crash.  Hopefully I can provide a useful summary and some fresh thought on this topic.

The NTSB released a study of plane crash statistics and survivability in 2001 they analyzed data for crashes from 1983 to 2000.  I’ll be summarizing and referring to it frequently, the entire report can be found here.  I was surprised to find that, overall, plane crashes are indeed survivable.  Just as with surviving a nuclear war, I had assumed or thought I knew (without any research at all) that if a plane crashes you’re pretty much dead.  With that foregone conclusion, I had not really looked into it at all.  Here’s a quick shot of data from the NTSB study regarding crashes in a year and the number of survivors from those crashes: Continue reading “Prepping for and Surviving an Airplane Crash”