Book Review: The Zombie Survival Guide

Since we haven’t had a humor post recently (and boy do I need one), I decided to do a little review of one of my favorite books.zsg-cover The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks.  Now who among us hasn’t felt some joy in responding to the question, “What are you prepping for” with a glib reply of “For the oncoming Zombie Invasion”?  If you haven’t ever used that response, you should try it sometime, and feel the joy. Continue reading “Book Review: The Zombie Survival Guide”

Self Reliance Class April 7th in Spanish Fork

Self Reliance Class “On the Road to Preparedness”

Taught by Debbie Kent who is a preparedness/food storage specialist in her stake in California. Debbie has taught numerous classes on every aspect of preparedness and has consented to share the latest up to date methods and ideas on how we can each secure what we need for the future.

Tuesday April 7th at 7:00 p.m.

Spanish Fork South Stake House
1240 South 1158 East
Spanish Fork, UT

Here is the PDF handout for the class. [download id=”4″]

TV Worth Watching

I’m not a big TV fan myself, as I expect many of the readers of this blog.  But last year I did stumble on a show I really liked, called “The Alaska Experiment“.  The show took a couple small groups (2-4 people) of “regular people”, and dropped them in backcountry Alaska, to survive into the winter.  Now, not only was this TV, but it was reality-tv, which by nature I detest.  And yet it drew me in like no other.  Why?  Because it showed just how little people knew, and just how difficult it was to survive, even with the large amount of help these people received.  They had minimal food supplies given, they had shelter, and constant checkups to make sure they weren’t in real harm.  And yet it was still *very* difficult.  Sure, at many points I would scream at people for what I saw as dumb decisions, but I have a better camping background than they.  I was also sitting in my nice chair at home, instead of in the middle of Winter in Alaska.

Well, season 2 is coming, albeit with a slightly different name.  “Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment”.  Go check out the preview on the Discovery Channel page.  This season changes things a bit by dropping folks off in the wild, and letting themselves find their way out.  I’m sure we’ll all see the dangers in that.

Rahms Gun Denial List

It’s no secret that the current administration does not approve of gun ownership by American citizens. So overall it came as no surprise when I found a video on a blog of the white house chief of staff, Rahm Emmanual, speaking to a conference for the Brady campaign about one of his ways of preventing firearm ownership.

Continue reading “Rahms Gun Denial List”

Mike Rowe and Hard Work

I personally don’t watch all that much TV.  Even shows I actually enjoy, I still am just usually too busy to feel I can arrange the time to sit and watch something.  When I do watch though, one of my favorites is Mike Rowe.  Currently he is most well known for his Discovery Channel shows Dirty Jobs, and Deadliest Catch.  His dry humor, and matter-of-fact tone seem to keep me coming back for more.  One of the best things about his Dirty Jobs show is how it focuses on what really are the average jobs in life, the ones that most people seem to look down on for various reasons. Continue reading “Mike Rowe and Hard Work”

Gardening resources (local and mail-order)

Gardening in Utah can be a wonderfully enjoyable and productive experience. Knowing how to get started however can be a major deterrent for many people. Fortunately, there are a number of local resources we can rely upon in order to help us to get started on the path to productive, self-sufficient gardening.

After doing some research myself, here’s my garden fertilized and tilled, ready for the first planting next week:

2009_garden_ready
If you are interested in getting started, keep reading for some recommendations on local resources.
Continue reading “Gardening resources (local and mail-order)”

To Bee or not to Bee?

A brief Story of the 3 B’s and the Bees

By Guest Author Bryan Esquivel

Note the Queen on the Bottom right
Note the Queen on the Bottom right

My name is Bryan. I am one of the 3 B’s. The three B’s are as follows: Bryan, Brian, and then there’s the other Bryan. I tell you that so you don’t get us confused. We are all beekeepers. If you were to tell any one of us a few years ago that we would be beekeepers, we all would have told you that you were stone cold crazy! Yet here we all are keeping honeybees…..and loving it!!! So…what happened?
Continue reading “To Bee or not to Bee?”

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.

Continue reading “10 Scenarios For Which You Should Be Prepared”

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.
Continue reading “Beginning Bee Keeping Class in Orem”

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.

Continue reading “Review: Life Caps”

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”