To help with this, coupon/frugality blog “Living Richly on a Budget” has a nice list that gives general timeframes that should give you ideas on when to buy. The list breaks out on each month the various holidays that have sales associated with them, as well as general harvest times, and grocery themes that most chains subscribe too. These are important as manufacturers and stores often work together to get the best deals during these sales. Combine smart use of coupons, along with planned bulk purchases and you can get that much more food into your families budget and storage.

An example of their January information:

National Oatmeal Month: Quaker
Diet Foods: Healthy Choice, South Beach, Lean Cuisine, Special K, Kashi, Smart Start, 100 Calorie Packs, Yogurt
Super Bowl Sunday: Pepsi, Coke, Chips, Dips, Cheese, Sandwich Items, Crackers, Snacks, Wings
Seasonal Produce: Oranges, Pears, Grapefruit, Tangerines, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard, Collards, Kale, Kiwi, Avocado, Cabbage, Spinach
Clearance: Christmas Decorations, Toys, Wrapping Papers,
Winter Health: Cold Medicines and Vitamins

Living Richly On A Budgets’ Grocery Sale Cycles. I’d recommend using their nice printable version to keep a list along with whatever binder/clipboard or other organizational tool you use to keep track of your preparedness supplies.

To With more than half the country being inundated by massive snow and ice storms and much of the rest of the country having below freezing temperatures, people are at a very high risk for Hypothermia.  Knowing what Hypothermia is and how to treat it not only prepares you to help yourself but most importantly, to help others.  I’ve consulted several resources to try to put together a very comprehensive overview of Hypothermia.  Those resources include the Mayo Clinic, my EMT Training Manuals, the CDC Guidelines for Hypothermia and the State of Alaska Cold Injuries Guidelines (Alaska knows more about Hypothermia than anybody, their standards are what we use here for Search and Rescue).

Hopefully you’ll find this summary easy to understand and helpful.  If you come across someone experiencing Hypothermia you really need to know ahead of time how to deal with it!

Hypothermia

Hypothermia is an emergency condition that occurs when the body is losing heat faster than it can generate or acquire it.  This results is a slow and steady decrease in core body temperature.  As the core temp drops below 95 degrees you begin to enter Hypothermia.  The body attempts to adjust to this heat loss by reducing perspiration and circulation to the skin – shutting down avenues by which the body usually gets rid of excess heat.  The body will try to compensate for heat loss by attempting to generate heat on its own by using muscular activity in the form of shivering by increasing the rate at which internal fuel (food) is burned.

Failure to get proper treatment for Hypothermia will result in death.

Signs and Symptoms of Hypothermia

• Shivering – Uncontrollable and constant.  Shivering is the body’s automatic defense against losing heat, it is how the body attempts to warm itself
• Clumsiness or loss of coordination
• Slurred speech or mumbling
• Confusion or difficulty thinking
• Poor decision making – such as removing clothes because the person thinks they’re too hot
• Drowsiness or very low energy
• Apathy towards their condition
• Progressive loss of consciousness
• Weak Pulse
• Shallow Breathing

Hypothermia comes on slowly and because it causes confusion, the victim is usually unaware of their condition.

General Principles of Hypothermia

1. The body is actually protecting itself and its vital systems by going into Hypothermia.  Without taking these protective measures, the heart would fail and the person would die much sooner.
2. Because the body has taken protective measures to protect itself, resuscitation efforts should be maintained beyond those for normothermic patients.
3. In severe Hypothermia cardiac instability is an issue.  Physical stimuli such as jostling, exercise and chest compressions can cause ventricular fibrillation (heart attack) in a cold heart that is functioning effectively.
4. In severe Hypothermia, compressions (CPR) should only be performed when functional cardiac activity is fully absent.  The pulse can be extremely difficult to feel and should be attempted for a prolonged amount of time (at least 45 seconds).
5. Cardiac tissue in severe Hypothermia is resistant to defibrillation and anti-dysrhythmia medications.  These procedures are generally withheld until core temp has been raised to at least 86 degrees.

Treatment of Hypothermia

Basic Treatment for Hypothermia

1. Prevent further heat loss
   1. Insulate from the ground
   2. Protect from the wind, eliminate evaporative heat loss by removing wet clothing
   3. Insulate the patient, including the head and neck
   4. Cover the patient with a vapor barrier (blue tarp, emergency blanket, large piece of plastic, etc)
   5. Move the patient to a warm environment
2. Call 911, request an ambulance
3. Do not give alcohol or permit patient to use tobacco

Treatment for Mild Hypothermia

1. Follow procedures for Basic Treatment
2. If there is no way to get to a medical facility, or it will be more than 30 minutes rewarm the patient with the following methods:
   1. Fuel their shivering with a very sugary drink (sugar content is more important than hot drinks)
   2. Do not allow the patient to drink liquids unless the patient is capable of swallowing
   3. Apply heat to areas of high surface heat transfer including the underarms, sides of the chest wall, the neck and groin.
   4. Place the patient in a sleeping bag and provide close skin-to-skin contact
   5. Consider a warm shower or bath for the patient
   6. Mild exercise such as walking or stepping up and down on an object will produce heat and may be helpful

Treatment for Severe Hypothermia (with signs of life)

1. Treat patient very gently, do not rub or manipulate extremities.
2. If clothes are wet, cut them off
3. Treat for Basic and Mild Hypothermia except:
   1. Do not allow the patient to sit or stand until rewarmed (do not put in a bath)
   2. Do not give the patient oral fluids or foods
   3. Do not attempt to increase heat production through exercise
   4. Take to a hospital as soon as possible

Treatment for Severe Hypothermia (with NO signs of life)

1. Treat as outlined in Severe Hypothermia WITH signs of Life
2. Check for signs of breathing (coughing, chest movement, etc) for 60 seconds.  If patient is not breathing and does not have signs of circulation give 3 minutes of ventilation.
3. Check for signs of breathing and circulation for 60 seconds.  If there are none, goto step 2
4. Use mouth to mask breathing
5. Transfer to a medical facility as soon as possible

Courtesy Marin Magazine

If my allergies are any indication, Spring has sprung. This means it is time for Daylight Saving Time, spring cleaning, starting gardens and other activities.

What are the UtahPreppers up to?

Ekim

Besides decluttering and planning a massive garage sale, we are also finalizing plans for our garden. We have the layout designed and are rotating some crops from last year. Our garden last year was our first real attempt at gardening since moving into our house a few years ago. Thanks to the classes we took from Gordon Wells, we were able to have a *very* successful garden our first attempt. You can find some great garden reference cards based on Gordon’s classes in a previous post here.

To kick off the season, we began looking through seed catalogs in anticipation of planning the garden. Then, once our plan was in place, we ordered and have started the seeds in seed pots to sprout them indoors. We’ll be moving them outdoors a bit at a time. This weekend we’ll be roto-tilling the garden area and creating the beds per the spacing and size requirements in the documents linked to above.

We are also increasing the number of chickens that we have. Due to a number of factors, we are down to two chickens at the moment from which we are getting an average of 1 egg a day. We will be adding five more chickens to our brood. This is about one more than I would like, but if our previous luck holds, we’ll have at least one rooster in the bunch that will end up in the freezer or canning jar.

Jayce

My recent exploits have leaned mostly towards doing extra contract work, keeping the bank account to a happier level.  I have been gazing longingly at my garden, but keep getting distracted from giving it the attention it really needs.  I did begin doing basic soil amendment for the year, working in compost from last year into about half of what I need ready.  I’ll be getting a late start on some of my plants, but with the way this year has gone, it seems that it might be for the better.  I’m not doing any specifically new plants this year, just hoping to implement some of the changes in locations, last year, and hopefully making good use of some saved seeds.  My biggest hope is that some of the beds that underproduced last year will see better results with some soil changes, and rotation of a few of the plants.  Also, we think we’ll have much better results from a “cleaner” planting, making it easier to get at the food, and less will go to waste.

Beyond the garden, my wife and I are really going to be working on how some of our food and equipment is organized over the next couple of months.  We have large plans in place to sort, clean, categorize, and document things far better than the haphazard manner they are in now.

Phil801

My top priority is to finish off the huge project I started last fall.  A few of us (including Jayce and Angela) started a very aggressive project to build a massive network of sites to make prepping much easier.  So far we’ve pretty much completed our community forum, LDS Preppers and we’re nearly finished with our Preparedness Store, US Preppers (we still have about 3,000 products to get listed there).  Our Preparedness Training site, Survival Training Center, is still in the early stages and has a ways to go.  We’ll be adding about 2 dozen new classes over the next month.  We have a couple other sites that we are going to be starting on soon that provide more tools for Preppers.  We’re in the process of launching our new Prepper Newsletter that will be coming out every two weeks and providing the cheapest prices possible on lots of preparedness items (look for a post about that this week).  In all, I’m hoping that by the end of summer we’ll have our entire network of sites completed and we’ll be able to provide all of you with some very valuable resources!

We moved to a new place at the first of the year and we’re going to be putting in a new garden.  I’m going to be spraying the grass in the next couple days to get that started.  I still have a big list of projects that I thought I would get done last year but got bumped.  Hopefully I’ll be able to do some of those this summer.  We’ve got several camping plans this year and hope to use the RV we got last year for some of them.  Currently I have plans to attend Sniper School this summer, we’ll see if that pans out!  I’ve been pretty heavily involved lately in developing some new survival classes that we are planning to bring to Utah County and I’ll be spending a lot of time teaching those.

We lost about half our chickens to a variety of factors and will be looking at replacing those this year as well.  And then of course, there’s the big plan to get rich and buy 1,000 acres and build the ultimate retreat.  I’m thinkin’ that probably won’t be happening this year though :)

When things get to where I’m not spending 20 hours a day building the new network, I’ll start authoring a lot more posts here again too!

Wade

My plans are short since I am moving, but have been involved with my spring garden. My garden is fertilized, tilled, de-rocked (an annual event), and raked. I started peas and lettuce inside in February but lost them all last week unfortunately when the temperature dropped extra low. So, this past Saturday I tilled them under and started over. In their place, I cheated and planted onions, broccoli, and cauliflower that I bought from the nursery.

I also tried something new this year and planted some strawberries. Other plans include saving for a portable propane oven and building out my non-food supplies.

Angela

Gardening is always big on our spring list.  I’ve got some seeds started in peat pots to plant and will also be trying some of the seeds I collected last year along with a few new varieties of veggies.  Our snow just finished melting, so we’ve got a lot of mud.  I’ll be planting the cold crops as soon as the ground is workable.  We’ll also need to expand the drip water system to the strawberry box and squash areas of the garden to make it easier to water those, and there’s always repairs and changes to be made to the water system.

On the animal front, as of yet, there are no plans for new animals this spring.  We will be putting a nest box extension on the chicken house and painting/staining it also.  Eggs are in high production already, so we’ll be looking for someone to share them with.

I’ve also got a few purchases I’ve been saving for (sun oven, water filter, not-so-dangerous food processor) that are on tap to be purchased in the next month or so, so those should lend themselves to a good deal of testing and puttering as soon as they are in hand.

Definitely looking forward to getting outside and playing in the dirt as the weather gets better!

Connor

Wait, it’s spring already? When did that happen?

My efforts will be a carry-over from last year, since I’ve been far too busy to have the time necessary to plan any new projects. As such, we’ll be planting a variety of plants in our three planter boxes (using the Mittleider Method), rotating one of our water tanks, replenishing the supplies in our bugout bags, and getting in some more target practice to refresh my skills acquired at Front Sight.

I’ll also be setting up (for the first time) the TurtleTuff Shelter I got late last summer so I’ll know how everything works should I ever need to use it in an emergency.

Joseph

I hope to get at least one plot set up for a square foot garden in the next week or two, but my main focus lately has been on hydroponics. I built a basic indoor garden a couple of weeks ago, and as of the time of this writing, 4 out of 6 plants have sprouted. Expect at least a short post soon. While I do hope for a decent harvest from both the hydroponic and the square foot gardens, most of what I’m doing is trying new techniques to see how well they work.

It’s so difficult to find fresh lemongrass in Utah. I’ve been wanting to grow it hydroponically for years, but I don’t know that my basic setup is appropriate. I’ve read articles on growing it both conventionally and hydroponically, and am trying to put it altogether. My thoughts are that since it grows via rhizomes, growing it in a little cup probably isn’t conducive to propagation. So I’m thinking about switching from lots of little baskets to one big basket. Design details to come, assuming my wife doesn’t veto it.

Neybar

Gardening looms large in my sites.  I have 3 boxes that I’m getting ready for (using the square foot gardening technique).  I’m going to mainly grow a salsa garden, with a few beans and zucchini thrown in.  I was lucky to get the lawn mowed last year, so I’m not going to grow a huge garden.

I also need to re-visit my bug out bags and vehicles.  When I originally put my bags together I was planning for Armageddon, the problem is that my kids can’t actually carry their bags… I need to scale down a bit and rethink some things.  I also want to organize how the bags are put together so that I can rapidly scale up according to both my available retreats, and the means of getting there.  For example: weather related disaster, no vehicle = light bags, and destination is the closest church/school.

With that in mind, we have discussed what else we can do in my family to increase our ability to stay warm inside (because my wife sure doesn’t want to go out).  Beyond just comfort in the dark months, my southern CA native wife is petrified of the idea of being without power/heat, and our ability to deal with that.

So among our Winter preparation (and Christmas present) plans, we’ve been looking at improving all things snuggly in the house.  We want to focus on making sure we can stay warmer during the night, especially since our home does not have any form of off-grid heating beyond our portable means.  With three children, we want to make sure they are well covered, and avoid the need to share our bed.

With that in mind, I figured it would be good to make a post about some of the factors we’ve considered in outfitting our home with more blankets.  From purchasing to fabricating, there are several things you need to look at when selecting yours.

Material

One of the first things to discuss about blankets is the material they will use.  Different materials can make a lot of difference in how well they work, how much they cost, and whether you are willing to use them.

Cotton

Most of us likely have cotton sheets on our bed, and for good reason.  It’s really comfy, and often cheaper (unless you are buying something really fancy).  You also likely have blankets that incorporate some amount of cotton exactly for those reasons.  Whether it’s the outside of a comforter, or making up a quilt, cotton is common, and very useful to have something comfortable.  There are some cons to cotton however; the main being that it does not work well if it gets wet.

Synthetic

Modern textiles such as Polyester, Acrylic, and others are attempts to reproduce many of the features of cotton, at a cheaper price.  They often avoid problems such as shrinking when washed, but are not always as nice as the real thing.  The main liabilities I’ve seen to these are often fragility because of cheap construction, or that they can melt if they get too close to flame.  This of course is more of an issue if you think about candles or lanterns being used in an emergency.

Fleece

Microfleece, Polarfleece, and related fabrics are a modern synthetic material that was developed as a synthetic alternative to wool.  While it might not surpass wool in all areas, it does very well in a lot.  It also has several advantages in it’s own right.  Fleece itself is comparatively inexpensive to wool, is Hydrophobic, very lightweight, and allows perspiration to pass through even when wet.

However, it is not perfect.  Being a petroleum-based product, it is flammable so make sure you get something to treat it for fire resistance.  It also easily generates a lot of static electricity, so be careful when wearing it and dealing with any fuel sources.  Also there are varying qualities of material, and cheaper ones can easily tear, pill, and generally fall apart.

Wool

Wool has been the king of cold-weather gear forever, for very good reasons.  Nature has created a perfect form of winter protection from each of the animals we might get wool from to protect the wearer.  Wool can keep you warm even when wet, if frozen can be the best wind protection you can get, and more.  As for cons, I know my biggest one is that most wools, especially cheap ones cause me to itch until I’m losing skin, and of course the cost for good wool is astronomical.

Making

One thing we’ve done to help our blanket situation is make some of our own.  Now we don’t have the room to set up for quilting, much less the long time to dedicate to it.  But if you do, that’s one of the amazing skills that could do your family a lot of good.  Barring the quilting lifestyle, we’ve learned some other types of blankets we can make with our lower skill level.  My wife has a favorite type of ‘no-sew’ fleece blanket that she has produced for several of us, and quite a few Christmas presents.  And seriously, there isn’t much better on a nice snowy Christmas morning that opening up a warm comfy blanket!  For the cost of whatever size and type of fleece she wants to get, she can quickly make something that our kids can each keep on their bed (and do they ever love theirs), and keeps them quite warm for just a single blanket.

Afghan

One of the more popular types of often homemade blankets that I remember from my childhood in the Afghan blanket.  These are crocheted or knitted blankets of yarn.  While they don’t score points on the windproof scale (large holes in the design), they are wonderful additions when layering on a bed, or having around on the couch.

Quilts

Mrs. Bill Stagg with state quilt, Pie Town, New Mexico (via WikiMedia Commons)

Now quilts, these scare me.  Why?  Because have you ever encountered quilters talking shop?  Listen, I’m one of those hard-core computer geeks that loves to get into the details of what he does, and I’ve got nothing on some of the quilters I’ve known.  If my wife got the quilting bug, my office would be quickly taken over to make room for the construction of quilts.

That said, this old-world craft is an amazing skill, producing some of the best blankets there are.  In my non-quilting-certified summary, a quilt is basically a sandwich of material, a shell filled with ‘batting’ (the nice stuffing inside).  They can be sewn or tied together following a couple different styles, and the work going into them tends to drive people to really invest some quality time in creating wonderful patterns and designs in the quilt itself.

And for any of you readers that are of the quilting lifestyle, hey, we’d love your article submissions about it!

Our youngest daughter has a beautiful quilt given by her grandmother, it’s an excellent example of how a blanket (quilt in this case) can be a practical gift.

Buying

While we *love* our homemade blankets, we do want more.  Just a single blanket is nice in the winter when the thermostat is still keeping things at that point where my wife just *grumbles* about the temperature.  However in a time of need we will require more.  So we’ve been shopping around for potential family Christmas presents with blankets in mind.  Here are a few types to consider.

Surplus

The armies of the world have been making various types of wool blankets for years to keep the troops warm during the ‘cold’ war.  And of course, these are now all available throughout the internet, and the various catalogs and surplus stores everywhere.  Prices have gone up over the years on these, but there are still many types around in the sub $20 range, but they can vary greatly.  Most of these will be the common twin size, perfect for an individual bed, stuffing in your sleeping bag, or similar usage.  I took one with me to college and kept it under my fitted sheet, keeping the underside a little warmer.

What you need to look for in a surplus wool blanket is first, how used is it.  Some are new, some, not so much.  And it is wool, so you have to be careful cleaning it.  After that, check out what type of blend it is.  Different countries used different amounts of wool, from 50%, to some even 100%.  What makes up the other amount?  Some are cotton, some might be synthetic.  If you are planning on taking this camping in the snow, avoid a cotton one of course.  The price of the blanket will often reflect the wool percentage, which then also effects the overall weight, form 2.5lbs, up to 4 on  a single twin sized blanket.

OD Wool Blanket -US Army Style

Fox Outdoor, Misc., $17.75

But maybe you want something a bit larger, or like me, you really want something a lot more comfortable.  The wool quality in the surplus blankets sure isn’t Cashmere or anything nice.  So while we have some of these blankets, we want a little more.  This goes doubly so when my wife explains that ‘dirty gray’ surplus colors just don’t go with the decorations she has planned.

Hudsons Bay

The king of the wool blankets is the legendary Hudsons Bay blanket.  These blankets were created by the Hudsons Bay corporation, and used by mountain men when trading with natives.  They are the ones who came up with a standard point system that is still used today.  Each blanket would have a series of bars sewn into a corner defining what size/weight the blanket was.

Nowadays the blankets are a licensed brand, made in the US by Woolrich.  You can pick from the original colors, or they of course have fancier newer designs to fit every form of chic my wife wants.  What is nice though, is that with the shockingly high price tag that I see, I can always remember that they actually use those really nice types of wool that aren’t cheap enough for the military.  As somebody who gets hive’s from wrapping in a surplus blanket, I like that I can cuddle with one of these, and actually feel comfort.  They also last forever, of a quality level that you can have with your through the years, much like good quilts can get handed down between generations.

Woolrich 72 by 90-Inch Hudson Bay 4 Point Blanket, Natural with Multi Stripes

Woolrich Home, Misc., $259.00

While Hudsons Bay brand is a well known name, there are some other manufacturers creating blankets of similar quality (but also price) out there.  Reputable manufacturers such as Pendleton have equally comfortable coverings in a variety of styles.  Before buying from a different manufacturer than one of these well-known brands I would try to find a local source to get an actual feel for the blanket.  If I’m spending that much money, I have to make sure it’s worth it, and not just slightly above surplus material, steel wool, or carpet feel.

Down Comforters

Another important addition to the blanket world is the comforter.  From the ultra-cheap, purely synthetic, to fancy down-filled these puffy bags of air are important.  Why? because they work, that air in there is holding in the heat, which is why sleeping bags have used them as a basis for years.  Down, like wool, has been used because it is what nature created for the purpose.  It was a natural resource that farmers could harvest each year to get warmer.  Modern synthetic versions can improve in certain respects, by providing less expensive alternatives for those of us with realistic budgets, as well as being able to clean them at home.

Electric Blankets

I can’t go without mentioning this.  This is one blanket that my wife considers one of the greatest gifts I ever gave her.  Every Winter night I get a nice reminder of how amazing the blanket is.  Now, is an electric blanket something we can just count on for emergency preparedness?  Of course not, if the power goes out, then it’s just a slightly thin fleece blanket.  However, the blanket is very useful for the preparedness-minded person in other ways.  First off, with the blanket on our bed we are able to lower our thermostat to a much lower level than we used to, heating only our bed itself is a far better deal than heating the whole house.  This practice is something that is very good to get used to, because it helps you conserve your resources far better in the event of a real emergency.

Sunbeam Royal Nights Heated Blanket, Twin, Mushroom

Sunbeam, Kitchen, $59.99

Usage

Of course most of our blankets wind up covering us on the bed during the winter, but remember to always have some extras.  If you are comfortable with your blankets when the heat is on, you’ll obviously need more when there is no power.  But there are also other uses you might want some for.  I keep an extra surplus blanket in my car kit during the winter, in case I get stuck.  Not only is it great to keep you warm if you are stuck in the car, but a cheap surplus blanket is a great thing to kneel down on when changing a flat tire on the side of the road.  I’ve even wound up using one for extra traction on a very stuck car, and while very hard on the blanket, it actually stood up just fine to the abuse.

The blankets are also great to help cover windows, or doorways to enclose rooms in your house to retain heat during a power outage.  This segmenting/partitioning lowers the actual area you need to heat, and the thicker the sheet (like wool), the more efficient it is.

After spending so long typing this, I think I now hear the ominous sounds of the jaws-theme, as my wife approaches with ice-clad hands and feet.  So before their more than magnetic attraction to my natural heat production causes me to shriek in pain, let me finish by encouraging you too to look into adding to your selection of warmth retaining bedding.  From surplus blankets, to ultra-high-end wool blankets, homemade fleece, to large quilt projects, there is a vast selection of blankets that you can add to your bed.  Or in this season of giving, why not consider a blanket.  An emergency preparedness item that can go well even with the most uptight person you know.

Phil’s Series on Winter Driving: [1 (Prepping Your Vehicle), 2 (Gear Supplements), 3 (Driving Tips)]

Building a Vehicle Emergency Kit – Do you have what you need in your car if you were stranded?

My top things to always remember:

• Never drive with less than half a tank of gas.  You don’t want to get stranded because traffic is stopped for hours, especially in a storm
• Make sure your tires are in good condition.  The best thing you can do to make sure your car stays in the correct direction on the road.
• Know your routes.  If you know a road isn’t safe, take some alternates that you know.
• Have your “get home bag” ready.  You never know when you might be on the wrong side of a roadblock from an accident, or plowing.  Who knows what worse could happen.  Be ready to sit it out, no matter the conditions.
• Just *having* chains won’t do you much good if you don’t know how/when to use them.

Typical Farmer's Market Offerings

Now that the weather has warmed up, I am revisiting a post I started back in the deep winter of January.

Farmer’s Markets are a great way to find locally produced fruits, vegetables, meats and other products. These markets are often the only way to find heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables that our forefathers took for granted. You will also generally find more variety if you are looking for Organic or hormone/pesticide free food.

The produce varieties in your local supermarket have been selected not for taste or nutrition, but based on what varieties ship well, resist bruising and those that finish ripening off the plant. Local food on the other hand can be picked at their peak as the time from farm to table is much shorter than those foods shipped from several states away.

Another benefit to frequenting your local farmer’s market is that you are supporting your local businesses. Each dollar you spend supports a local business rather than supporting a larger corporation whose headquarters are often in another state.

If you enjoy bargaining or bartering, you’ll likely not be able to exercise those hobbies at your local MegaMart, but most vendors at a farmer’s market readily accept other mediums of exchange than your Federal Reserve notes and are generally willing to reduce their price a bit based on how much or what you are buying. Once you develop a relationship with vendor by frequenting their booth for a few months, you’ll often find that their prices have gotten even better for you.

Another great thing about Farmers Markets is that they are very family oriented. You will often find fun entertainment from local bands or performers, usually a bluegrass band or small country group. Farmers Markets are often held at parks where kids can run and play and enjoy some fresh food for lunch. Many of the vendors will hand your kids a piece of fruit or other food to munch on while you’re visiting their booth.

Once you’ve stocked up on loads of local, fresh food, you can easily add them to your longer term food storage. Look at our Adding to your long term supply using dehydration post from January for some great ideas on adding fresh foods to your storage by dehydrating or canning them.

If you aren’t sure where your nearest Farmer’s market is, you are in luck, the following Utah.gov site lists all the Farmer’s Markets registered in Utah. Most run from May through October or November so you’ll need to plan on stocking up during that time frame.

Find the market nearest you, give it a try and let us know what you think!

Any minute now, I might become a father. My wife is (very) pregnant with our first child, and the seconds are ticking until our lives change significantly (for the better!). As the months have gone by, we have dedicated a great deal of time to readying, studying, and researching how best to do everything we’re soon going to need to do.

Preparedness has played a large role—indeed, a central role, since what we’ve been doing up until now is preparing for our son’s birth. Having an end result in mind forces us to think in the long term, and purchase things, learn skills, and become well versed in all that will be necessary. Too often we get wrapped up in the here and now, and let our long-term preps take a backseat.

Those of you who are veteran parents know all too well how quickly time passes by, and how fast kids seem to grow up. It is for this very reason that we preppers must repeatedly assess our family’s needs, and re-evaluate our storage and preparedness supplies. Kids grow out of clothes, toddlers no longer need diapers, teenagers require more food, allergies and illnesses develop, etc. As our lives progress, and as each member of our family changes in size, weight, health, and personal preferences, it is imperative that we make it a habit to constantly ensure that our supplies and skills are adapting accordingly.

As for our family, we’ve been planning our baby bugout bag—diapers, food, extra clothing, extra pacifier, etc. This bag, no doubt, will have to be repeatedly updated to include larger diapers, different food, more appropriate entertainment, etc. Where possible, it’s a good idea to include children in the planning process so that they have a say in what’s stored, and can be a contributing member in the family’s preparations. But however it’s done, what’s important is that it happen regularly (every six months or every year usually works well).

Because the last thing you want to do is having a moody teenager on your hands whose extra clothes in their bugout bag are two sizes too small. (Or, for that matter, a fussy baby who can’t stand those canned green beans you thought she liked six months ago.)

In case you aren’t familiar with the show, here is a brief description of this reality show. Michele and Jim Bob Duggar are the parents of a traditional Christian family. After 20 years of marriage, they have had 18 children with only one set of twins. They manage to afford this large family by being frugal, wisely investing the money they do have in money making properties and businesses and always paying cash for all their purchases. If they don’t have enough money to buy something, they save and buy it later or do without. All of their children are also home schooled.

What does this have to do with prepping? Tomorrow night’s episode was filmed during the ice storms that shut down large parts of the eastern United States this past Winter. Since the Duggar family lives in a rural area, they were without power and other utilities for much longer than many. Tune in tomorrow night to see how this family dealt with this real life preparedness scenario.

For those of us here in Utah, we’re more likely to see catastrophic events from a major snowstorm than an icestorm (in searching, I cannot find records of an icestorm like this hitting Utah).  Our winter storms, especially in heavy snowfall years, can leave many icey problems.  While we may not be likely to have an ice storm, there are still many lessons we can learn from those who have just experienced it.  Let’s look at some reports from the Mid-South Ice Storm of 2009.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video is a great photo documentary of the storm and much of the damage it caused.

Experience Reports

From the Indiana Preppers Network we hear:

the shelves (including generators and kerosene) were empty of the basic foods within 6 hours! Hmmm… does this pose a problem for anyone? The stores also quit taking debit/credit cards at this time. Some of the gas stations in the area wanted cash only as well. So, goes downhill rather quickly. BUT, if you are prepared, as I was, then you need not fear these events.

And from SurvivalBlog:

Within a few hours, everything became coated with a half-inch to an inch of ice: roads, cars, trees, power lines – everything. Throughout the night, we heard crashes as our neighbor’s trees lost massive limbs. We knew it was only a matter of time before trees limbs (which are not properly trimmed back by our utility company in an attempt to cut costs) collapsed on power lines and caused widespread outages. In the morning, everything had turned to crystal. About a quarter million people were without power in our county, but almost everyone in the western half of the state had lost power.

… Looking for a generator at the local big box home and garden center? Forget it, quickly sold out. Ice scrapers, gone. Gas cans, gone. Driveway salt, gone. Snow shovels, gone.

… The university asked students to leave, if possible, and those who couldn’t were sheltered in the campus auditorium. They didn’t have any cots so you had to sleep on the floor or in the auditorium chairs. She wanted me to come pick her up, so as I headed out the next morning on a full tank of gas, my plan was to stop at each significant town on the way to check their power and gas pumping status. Each stop was the same as the next – dead. As I neared the half-way point on my gas gauge, not one city on the way had electricity. It’s as if a nuclear ice bomb had been dropped on the state. I turned back.

…Lots of people I know have no alternatives to heat their homes or cook food. Fireplaces, like mine, are electrically controlled gas logs. I can’t even light it manually. I’ve learned a lesson: get what you need before you need it. Get extra. I will be buying a dependable generator once this crisis passes.

And now, from the perspective of a well prepped author on the Kentucky Preppers Network:

The brunt of the storm hit western Kentucky, where my family and myself live at, and luckily my family and I were somewhat prepared. Coincidentally, exactly a week before the storm hit I went out to China-Mart and purchased a $100 worth of prep items. Monday morning (January 26th) I went out and spent another $70 bucks on more preps to add to my Bug In Items in preparation for the storm. I was personally ready to be stuck with no electricity, no water, and no food for up to a month. My parents had just gone to the grocery store the weekend before so we had a pretty good supply of food in the house and we had purchased a 5000 watt generator about a month before. Monday evening we went out and filled all our cars up with gas, and filled our three, five gallon gas tanks up. Our generator is wired to be fed into the house breaker box so we were able to run all the lights, fridge, freezer, television, router, and my laptop. Cell phones were down most of the time, and so were the landlines, so Internet was our main source of communication.

… We did a good job conserving our fuel, ran the generator all day, and let it rest at night. We could stretch five gallons of gas to last a whole day of nearly continuous use. We were able to eat, cook, shower, and enjoy the majority of our usual luxuries. Now I said I personally was pretty prepared, but my family wasn’t as prepared. We only had a couple weeks of groceries, and not any stored water. Monday afternoon before the storm I talked my dad into purchasing a 55 gallon water drum from the local Rural King. We filled it up when water pressure was going out and had plenty of water to cook with and drink. The pressure was in and out but we never lost ours completely, others in the county did, and some still have no water.

… There are a lot of things that we could have had that would’ve made things a lot easier. We owned many flashlights, but didn’t have any batteries stored, so many of them were useless. In this situation having a stored set of batteries is important so you can power the flashlights you own. Having emergency candles is important when needing light in a room. We had a couple 72 hour candles from a few years ago, but more would have been better. Water is another thing that we did not have. I personally have been storing water in the seven gallon Reliance water containers you can get at China-Mart, but my parent’s had none (other than the fifty-five gallon barrel which was last minute). This could mean the difference in life and death in a survival situation. Getting the fifty-five gallon water drum made a huge difference when we needed to get a drink, flush the toilets, and cook a meal. Store water any way you can people; fill up old juice containers, buy the above mentioned containers from China-Mart or get a fifty-five gallon food grade barrel to store water in. Whatever you do, get a supply of stored water. Food is the next important thing. We had a decent supply of food for a couple weeks, but if this thing would’ve lasted any longer, we would’ve had to drive at least an hour to replenish our groceries. If you’re storing food you want to store food that is easily prepared, highly nutritious, and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Warmth is another important factor. Everyone in the household needs to have a set of thermal underwear, wool socks, gloves, and a toboggan. If we didn’t have the generator to run the heat on, bundling up and staying in one room would’ve been the best thing to do.

… Having storable food, water, a way to cook, heat your home and a light source, will give you a great advantage when caught in a disaster.

And finally, from some not so prepared people in an article on Yahoo:

… among those resting in every corner of a university theater. Some sprawled in aisles, propped in chairs or curled up on the stage. they, like many others, ran out of food and water at their frigid, powerless home.  “I had no idea the storm was going to last this long,” McClung said.

… Deputies trekked door-to-door in many communities to let people know where shelters were, forced to spread the word the old-fashioned way because cell phone and Internet service was spotty.

… Those who hunkered down in their homes face long lines to buy generators, firewood, groceries — even bottled water because power outages crippled local pumping stations.

… tried a half-dozen filling stations before finding one where they could buy kerosene. The two were in a line that swelled to 50 or more at the 13th Street Station, which began pumping kerosene after its owner set up a generator.

“We got food, but I’m just worried about staying warm,” said Brittan, who lives in Mayfield, adding she was frustrated by the search for supplies.

“By the time you hear about a place that’s open they’re out when you get there,” she said.

… Emergency officials feared that toll could rise if people stay in their homes without power for too long, because improper use of generators can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.

… “I’m sleeping in a car, which is just fine,” Eason, 74, said. “There’s nothing wrong with a car. Every couple of hours I turn it on, I let it run for 10 minutes and that keeps it pretty warm.”

Lessons Learned/Demonstrated

So we are given the rare (fortunately) opportunity to learn from the actual lessons learned of those who have made it through a local disaster.  On the one hand we can learn from a prepper and what they found valuable in their preps – and what they found lacking.  We can also learn from those who don’t believe at all in being prepared and rely on the government to take care of them when their TV goes out.  Here’s my summary of Lessons Learned:

1. Be Prepared!  (hehe) Make sure that you have plenty of food stored.  I personally very strongly recommend having at the very least 3 months worth of food stored.  One of the main reasons for so much is to be able to help your less prepared neighbors from starving to death.
2. Store plenty of water.  Recommendations vary, but the easiest to calculate is store 1 gallon per person per day.  Try to get at least 2 weeks worth of water stored, then double it!  In order to not waste your drinking supply, it is a good idea to also have several (I have 210) gallon or 2 liter bottles filled with water to flush toilets with.  Just in case you don’t know, dumping a gallon or 2 liters of water into a toilet will force it to completely flush.  This allows you to avoid unsanitary conditions when the water supply to your house is disrupted.
3. Have a backup power generation system.  This can be in the form of a generator, solar, wind or other alternative methods
4. Have a way to produce heat.  Whether it be a fireplace (have wood stored!) or propane or kerosene heaters.
5. MAKE SURE that you have fuel stored for your alternative heat and power generation systems.  Store enough to keep things going for at least 2 weeks, preferably for a month.
6. Have gasoline stored.  It seems that everytime there is an emergency situation in America we hear continuous stories about how there are 15 mile long lines at all the gas stations.  Get a clue people!  Store plenty of gas, at least enough to get quite a ways out of town.
7. Keep cash at home!  I recommend keeping around a thousand dollars in $20 and smaller denominations at home in a safe.  At the very least, keep $300.  With a thousand you would likely be able to buy a ride out of town and to safety if you needed to, not so much so with 300.  When the power goes out and things get bad, nobody takes credit cards or checks!  Cash on hand is an absolute must if you are going to try to buy something.  Keep $20 and smaller denominations so that you don’t have to find someone or some way to break something bigger.
8. Keep your home stocked and prepped so you don’t have to go to one of these shelters.  I’ve never read happy fun stories about a pack of 300 humans being stuffed into an emergency shelter.
9. To conserve on your fueled heating systems, keep lots of warm clothes and blankets in your house.  In a protracted emergency you may need to use your on hand fuel for a very long time.
10. Make sure you have either plenty of batteries or rechargeable batteries and a way to charge them (generator).  Flashlights and other battery powered items will likely only last a few days with constant or heavy use.
11. Make sure you have some kind of battery or hand cranked radio in your house.  This will probably be your most reliable way of getting news and updates on what is going on.

Those are probably the biggest things – do you have any other ideas or things you noticed should be on the list?  Let us know in the comments!

I told her that I wanted to see if I could make her warm on this trip.  While on the way home she reported that she was quite warm the entire trip with one exception – her feet were freezing in her boots most of the time.  She identified for herself that she really does need to wear wool socks next time.

I wanted to try a couple improvisation ideas – basically how you could use summer camping gear to successfully  keep 4 people (my 3 older kids and I) warm and protected in the winter.   What I wanted to figure out was if putting a small tent in a large tent would keep you warm.  Let me explain.

Tent-Within-A-Tent

If you notice in the picture above, the orange fly covered tent is an 8 man, double dome, summer or 3-season tent.  It is far from sealed up – without the fly on it the only roof is netting – which is great in the summer!  We took two tents, one four and another eight man, and placed the smaller inside the larger tent.  If you look closely at the next picture you’ll see the ‘tent within a tent’ concept.

It’s a little difficult to tell, but the picture is actually taken from within the 8 man tent.  What you’re seeing in the background is actually a 4 man dome tent.

The concept we’re working with is to create an insulating air buffer between the inner 4 man tent (the sleeping tent) and the outer 8 man (protective shell) tent.  By heating the air inside the sleeping tent and also heating the air within the shell tent, we should be able to be within the sleeping tent while continually heating the shell tent and maintain a warm temperature within the sleeping tent.  This proved to be true.

The temperature outside got down to -5 Fahrenheit.  The only problem we had as it got further below freezing was that our propane heater could not keep up with the colder external temps.  It got a little chilly  inside the sleeping tent around 3 in the morning – but that’s because up until then I had been sleeping with my sleeping bag unzipped.  My kids, who stayed in their sleeping bags through the night, didn’t notice that it had gotten cold through the night.  They were actually sleeping in summer bags and did not complain about the cold at all.  With a bigger propane heater, like the Big Buddy that Wade recommends (we were using the smaller Buddy model), I think the temperature would have stayed steady.

The end result of the tent test is that by using the tent-within-a-tent concept we were able to stay very warm in summer sleeping bags in -5 degree weather with a small propane heater.  A word of caution and clarification: as I mentioned above, the shell tent is a very ‘loose’ tent – there is a very high level of air exchange even with the fly on.  Be very careful using this method with a tight tent.  You could subject yourself to carbon monoxide poisoning and death.  As a safety measure, we had a carbon monoxide monitor inside the sleeping tent.

Wall to Wall Carpeting

One of the other issues with snow camping, especially in a summer tent, is the thin floor liner.  There is no insulation at all and sitting or standing barefoot in the outer room leaves only a few millimeters of material between you and the snow.  If you notice in the top picture, there is a large tarp underneath the tent.  This adds a little bit more protection from the snow but, we wanted to be able to sit comfortably in the front room of the tent (we brought 4 chairs and a table with us so we could eat and visit in the warmth of the tent).  To accommodate bare feet in the front room, we cut a piece of carpet that completely covered the floor from front to back and side to side.  You can see the brown carpet in the following picture:

With the tarp pictured below deliberately sticking out several feet in front of the snow to act as a porch, we were able to keep most of the snow from being tracked into the tent.  With several lights and a lantern inside both the shell tent and the sleeping tent we were able to spend a nice, comfortable evening in the front room visiting.  In the morning we were able to move about and get dressed to go outside in the warmth of the front room without tripping over sleeping bags, people and other stuff.

I’ve used many methods over the years for camping in the snow.  This is the first time I’ve tried using summer camping gear to stay warm in sub-zero temperatures.  I’m very happy with the results!  The next time we try this it will be with a Big Buddy heater – or we’ll just use the wall tents I’m planning on buying this year :)

Hopefully some of these techniques can be useful to you.  They demonstrate that it is possible to stay warm in the winter without the more expensive winter shelters and gear.  If it ever become necessary to survive with your family in the winter, preparing to use some of these techniques may be a life saver for you.

Do you have any other ideas or experience with using summer camping gear in the winter?  Please let us know!