Review – Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker

A few weeks ago, several of our authors met up on a Saturday to test out some stoves we were given to review. Jayce will be posting some information and pictures on those soon. The subject of this post was an unexpected surprise to me. At our meet up were the owners of Saratoga Jacks, a local company that imports and sells high quality thermal cookers.

After the break you’ll find a complete unboxing and review of the 7 liter Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker as well as an introduction to thermal cookers and why they matter to preppers.
Continue reading “Review – Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker”

Another Water Tank Group Buy — Act Fast!

Two years ago, we organized a water tank group buy and received a good response. I’ve now organized another water tank group buy.

These are new (unused) food-grade plastic bladders housed in new/used metal cages. 285 gallons! And it stores in a lot less space than you’d think. While I’m aware of others having stacked their tanks three high, due to space constraints (and a lack of a death wish) ours are stored two high. I’ve now had mine stored in the garage for three years without any incident; I rotate one tank every six months.

Continue reading “Another Water Tank Group Buy — Act Fast!”

Volcano Stove Group Buy #2

The following is from one of our readers who has organized another group buy on Volcano Stoves. See here for my review, or here for a similar group buy we did two years ago.


I’ve contacted the Volcano Grills company and they have agreed to a group buy on the Volcano Collapsible Propane regularly $149.95 with 20 orders we can each receive a 20% discount on this amazing product. The group price will be $120.15. The deadline for this buy is April 15th (See details below). This is a great product; see the review post to make sure it’s something you want. Some of the stove’s highlights: it uses three types of fuel – propane, charcoal or wood. It is built to work with a regular 12″ dutch oven and collapses to 5″ for easy storage. The stove is also very efficient, it only needs 12 briquettes to cook one meal.

Now a bit of the background story on me and the stove. I’ve been gathering the necessary preparations for my own family and my thoughts have turned to cooking stoves and fuel. After doing a bit of research on this website I found Connor’s review of the Volcano Stove. After reading that I’m now fully convinced of the design and efficiency of this product and must have it.

I made several calls to a few local retailers and found the product to be out of stock nearly everywhere. Following Connor’s example, I decided to call Volcano Grill company and they are very friendly and willing to offer a group buy discount. The people at Volcano Grill tell me the recent popularity of this item has caused shortages everywhere. Most places are backordered 6 weeks and the places like Costco may not receive delivery even as late as this fall. I’m excited to receive a discount and share this with as many as possible.

So thank you Volcano Grill and Connor for helping out. Here are the details on the group buy.

  • Product: Volcano Collapsible Propane Grill aka Volcano II
  • Discount Price: $120.15, 20% off regular price with minimum of 20 paid orders
  • Deadline: April 15th at 5pm
  • How to Order: Send me an email at [email protected] with: full name, email address, phone number, and quantity desired. Once we have at least 20 stoves committed for purchase, I will then give you instructions on how/where to call in and place the order directly with the company.
  • Order will be ready 2nd week in May
  • Delivery Option: Pickup/Delivery Option: 1) Pickup your own order from the Springville office (preferred) 2) $12 shipping for northern Utah delivery

Please spread the word to your community and groups. Ask any questions below in the comments section. Thanks.

Beginning Bee Kepping Class in Utah County April 17th

Beginning Beekeeper’s Class

Bee Keeping is fun and relatively inexpensive.

I took this class last year and obtained my equipment through Maple Mountain bees. It has proven to be a fun and rewarding experience for my family and I. The 60lbs. of honey we got our first year wasn’t bad either!

Bryan Esquivel of Maple Mountain Bees authored a guest post for us in May of last year about how he got started in bee keeping. You can find the article here.

When:

April 17th (2pm-4pm).

Where:

1475 North 900 West Mapleton, Utah.
Continue reading “Beginning Bee Kepping Class in Utah County April 17th”

Preparedness Christmas: 25% off on Sanitation Preps

TioletBag 500x500

Coupon Code: prepxmas

How are your Sanitation Preps?  Do you have a bucket toilet lid sitting around?  Or one of those portable toilets?  That’s what I had until recently.  A few weeks ago I learned about a set of sanitation products that, when used together, provide preppers with a toilet solution that equals no mess, low smell and biodegrades all your waste for you!  Through a set of fortuitous events, I was in a position to arrange a group buy of 25% off all of their products and offer it to all preppers for Christmas.

Their system is called the GottaGo Toilet system.  It’s basically a cardboard disposable (after about 100 uses) emergency toilet that uses biodegradable bags and a microbial sand.  Once you’ve filled up a bag you can dig a hole and bury the bag – yes, bury it – within 30 – 90 days it will be completely broken down.  You can also burn your toilet once you’re done with it.  Basically you can go on a family campout and have everyone use this toilet system and not have to carry any of it home to dispose of it. Continue reading “Preparedness Christmas: 25% off on Sanitation Preps”

Country Living Mill Group Buy

country living millYou all know why you need a wheat grinder.  There’s only so much you can do with all the wheat in your long term storage if you can’t grind it into flour.  So just in time for the holidays we’ve got a special buy on the Country Living Grain Mill.  This is a hand crank grain mill that is built in the USA of industrial grade components and has a lifetime warranty.  It is relatively easy to crank as far as hand grain mills go.  My small kids can grind flour with it.  You can check out my full review, and see videos of the mill in action on my blog post here. Continue reading “Country Living Mill Group Buy”

Canned butter and cheese group buy

I am organizing a group buy on Red Feather Brand canned butter and cheese. The price is $3.00 per can for the cheese and $4.50 per can for the butter and can be ordered by the can or the case of 36. These prices are a dollar less than anywhere I have found. Orders of twenty cases or more will be shipped to your home free of charge. All other orders will be available for pick-up in South Jordan or Lehi. Orders will be accepted until midnight Monday, 26 October and should be submitted by email. Payment must be submitted by midnight Wednesday, 28 October at by cash or check.

Continue reading “Canned butter and cheese group buy”

Group buy on high-capacity water storage

This post is an update and supersedes our original Water Group Buy as we were able to add another Tank that allows participation anywhere in the U.S.!

During my church’s recent emergency preparedness drill, I discovered that while many people are doing well on their three month supply of food storage, very few had any type of water storage system. To help correct that, we have arranged for group buys on two different high-capacity water tanks, both of which store the equivalent to five 55 gallon drums! Continue reading “Group buy on high-capacity water storage”

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?”

Blue Chip Food Storage Group Demo in Salem

Blue Chip Group is a Salt Lake based manufacturer of Emergency Food Storage supplies. They will be providing a demonstration of their products on February 5th in Salem, UT at 7 pm.

Here is the info I received on this event:

The Blue Chip Group will be in Salem at the Community Center, 151 W. 300 S. on Thursday, February 5th at 7:00 p.m. Come and taste test Blue Chips food storage items. Preparedness Items will be there for demonstration also. This is a night to help you feel more confident in what you will have in your food storage in case of emergency. Recipes available and you can use these foods in your everyday cooking…they’re that GOOD! If you can’t make it on the 5th you can still group order. Pick up your food storage order form at the Salem city office building. Order forms and money will be due on the following Thursday Feb. 12th at the Salem city building. Please make your check or money orders payable to Kristy Beck and put your check and order form in a sealed envelope.

This is all the information I have at the moment. For those needing directions, please check here.