Every once in a while, we hear a bunch of rumbling on the news about a possible pandemic outbreak or a chemical attack like sarin gas or anthrax.  Sometimes the news talks about nuclear reactors having problems – like yesterday in San Diego.  These are real threats that could happen because of accidents, terrorism or simply an attack on us by another country.  What are you doing to be prepared for this possibility?   Most importantly, do you even know what you should be doing?

If you’ve already looked into prepping for these threats, you’ve likely discovered that there’s not a lot of straight forward and clear answers to questions.

Want to get some REAL information on Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Preps?  Have you tried to decide which gas mask you should be purchasing for your family?  Or wondered if you need to get other protective gear for potential quarantine and survival of a serious pandemic outbreak?

So have we!

We think we know a lot of the answers to these questions – but we decided to get it RIGHT!  So, we’ve arranged for Robert Goepp, a career Hazmat expert and instructor, to join us on the show.  Robert has done Hazmat work in the Military, for the Fire Dept, and for DHS and probably a few other places he can’t tell us about.   You can read a lot more about him here.

Come join us LIVE TONIGHT and ask him any and all questions you may have regarding Hazmat and NBC Preps!

During the PLC show, you can follow this link and participate in the live chat – and ask questions during the show.  You can also call us live and talk directly to Robert.

You won’t want to miss this one!  It’s not always easy to get a true expert in this area to talk to you.

Friday, February 3rd 2012, at 6 pm MST (tonight) the Preparedness Learning Center Podcast/Radio Show broadcasting LIVE with Robert Goepp of Midwest Safety Associates.

It’s quite interesting seeing a nice summary of their experiences, and how living a truly primitive lifestyle for 13 months changed the way they think.

Would you have the skills necessary to live in this manner? Even with whatever supplies you might have on hand? What can you do to make life a little bit in this type of situation, even if it’s for only a week or two after a major earthquake? I can bet that no matter how well prepared you might be, it wouldn’t take too long for some areas to live in a near iron age state when it comes to their reliance on pre-packaged supplies from a store.

Audience Warning: some National Geographic style nudity in a couple of scenes

Click here to view the embedded video.

But how about a nice way to build a simple, portable stove? Because we all know that when winter really hits around here, simple ways to heat and good are of utmost importance. And I wanted something that was an actual stove (with chimney) that was nicer than the truly survival ones you make from #10 cans. Behold, the ammo-can stove:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since then, I have moved, built a new home, and done even more research. While my conclusions have not changed generally, my overall plan has. For the most part, I no longer see the need for two solutions. In my mind, there is now a single, universal solution that is the most efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable.

Remember that the specific task was to identify a solution for heating one’s home. I still believe that propane is the best fuel for portability and convenience. I still have my Little Buddy heater and several backup tanks. I even plan on getting a few more tanks. This is a great solution for working in the garage, shed, or greenhouse in the winter. I don’t however, plan on using this to heat my home—even part of my home.

Being prepared isn’t something you do; it’s something you are. It should be a way of life. Those that are best prepared are those that will be able to continue their usual routine with little inconvenience or challenge.This is the reason the concept of emergency food storage makes me cringe. Freeze-dried meals with a thirty-year shelve life is better than having nothing at all and I applaud those that have at least put something like this away, but what happens when the crap hits the fan and you dig these boxes out of the dark, dusty corner they have been sitting in? How are you going to prepare it? What are you going to cook it on? What about appetite fatigue? What happens when it runs out?

The same applies to heat. What happens when you run out of fuel? What happens if your heater breaks? This happened to me. Last time I pulled my Little Buddy out, it wouldn’t light. What happens when you loose your job and simply can’t pay your utility bill? What if you could heat a few thousand square feet instead of only a few hundred? What if you could do it for less money? How would you like to wake up the morning after a night the power went out and not know it until you tried to turn a light on?

The answer is wood. The application is important though; a fireplace won’t work. The appliance you want is a wood burning stove. It’s nothing new; this is how homes have been heated for centuries. You’ll remember in my original article that I mentioned wood was a good, long-term, sustainable solution, but moved past it rather quickly. This was short-sided due to a desire to find a solution that would allow me to continue to run all my modern appliances and ignorance to the performance and cleanliness of modern stoves. I have since decided that a self-sustainable full source is more important that maintaining modern appliances. While a wood stove won’t fuel a water heater, oven, or kitchen range, it will heat my entire home and the model I’m purchasing has a step-top cook-top for radiant and convection cooking. Old wood burning stoves were inefficient, dangerous, and bad on the environment but a lot has changed in the past several years. The EPA limited smoke emissions in the late 1980′s to 7.5 grams per hour, but modern, certified stoves emit as little as 1.9 grams of particulates per hour. They even use substantially less wood.

I plan on purchasing the Liberty Stove by Lopi. It puts out 74,000 BTUs per hour and can heat up to 2,500 square feet radiantly and by means of it’s built in convection air-flow alone. I’m going to install it in my basement next to a canning kitchen. This will allow me to heat my home and use it for cooking, today, tomorrow, during the next storm, or one second after. Another thing that I am going to do as I finish my basement is install a cold-air return above the stove in the ceiling. This will allow me (at least when the power is on) to run just my furnace’s blower and distribute the heat throughout my house via the ductwork, efficiently heating the entire structure (4,000 square feet). It’s not as convenient as a gas fireplace, but without a blower, gas fireplaces are only artwork; they don’t heat. Wood stoves are a little more work, but at least they work under any condition.

I plan on documenting the construction of my chimney and installation of the stove and including that in a follow-up article this summer.

Also, it might be a good time to refer to articles we’ve done about emergency kits, off-grid power, lighting, and heat.

Take a few minutes to read through it.

What Is It (and what’s in the box):

This Work Sharp basically amounts to a hand held belt sander.  For the Alton Brown fans among us, this device is definitely a Multi-Tasker.  The package comes with several angle guides and some different grits of sanding belts.  The coarsest grit is for sharpening tools like shovels, axes or lawn mower blades.  The medium grit is for fixing up damaged or really dull blades.  The fine grit is for putting on a razor sharp polish.

Also included in the package are some angle guides.  There is a 40 degree guide mainly used for kitchen knives.  There is an outdoor guide that puts on a 50 degree edge.  The outdoor guide also includes a slot for sharpening serrated edges and for scissors/shears.

The kit also comes with an instruction guide and DVD.  I haven’t watched the DVD yet.  (So far the operation has been fairly straight forward)

How To Use It:

In the 10 months or so that I’ve had the Work Sharp I’ve sharpened probably 30-40 knives as well as a shovel, axe and lawn mower blade.  The basic operation for any of these surfaces is this:

1. Pick the desired grit of sanding belt.  The belt is put on the Work Sharp by locking one of the guide pulleys out of the way and sliding on/off the belt, then resetting the pulley.
2. Pick the desired sharpening angle.  Picking the correct angle is probably an entire article itself.  The basics are this:  The narrower the angle, the sharper you can get, but you loose strength (think razor blade.  It’s super sharp, but can’t take much abuse).  The wider the angle the less potential sharpness, but the blade will be more durable (think axe).  The 40 degree guide will be good for kitchen knives.  You want them to be sharper, but you are often pretty careful what you are cutting with them.  The 50 degree angle is better for pocket knives where you will face a variety of cutting tasks, and you want the blade to last as long as possible.  If what you are trying to sharpen has a common angle, then you can just use on of the preset guides.  Or if you have a steady hand you can skip the guide.  If using one of the preset guides then slide it over the belt.
3. Using smooth even pulls, drag the blade through the guide.  You don’t want to go to slowly because you can burn the blade or cause uneven spots.
4. The number of passes over the belt will just depend on the condition of your blade.  The manual gives some good guidelines for how many times you’ll need to run the blade through the sharpener.
5. Wipe the silly grin off your face when you realize how sharp your tool is and how fast it was.

Observations:

After sharpening quite a few blades I’ve noticed a few things.  First of all the edge that is created with the Work Sharp is very durable.  I used to have to sharpen my kitchen knives on a fairly regular basis.  Now I just use my honing steel, and the edges will keep for months and months.  Also the edges that are produced with the Work Sharp are extremely sharp.

When I made my initial purchase I got an extra set of sanding belts.  I’m still on my original set of belts, and they aren’t really even showing any signs of needing to be replaced.  I imagine, depending on your usage, you could go for several years just on the set of belts that are included in the box.  Throw in some backups and you’ll be set for quite a while.

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.

Unboxing

First things first, here are some pictures documenting the unboxing process.

This is what is shipped to you, a fairly plain cardboard box with the shipping label, etc. attached.

Opening the box reveals a well packaged inner box cushioned by some foam peanuts.

Here is the inner box removed. It has a handle built into the box to facilitate removing the box from the packaging. It also makes a nice storage box for the cooker later on.

Saratoga Jacks has done a nice job in branding the box.

The full logo is on the side of the box.

Once the box is opened, there is an instruction sheet with some bad English translations. We’ve been told that a new set of instructions and a recipe book will be included in any cookers purchased in time for Christmas. The cooker is cradled by an upper and lower piece of Styrofoam to protect it while in the box.

Further protecting the finish on the cooker is a plastic bag.

Finally, the cooker is revealed. What you can’t see in these pictures is a sturdy fold down handle for carrying the cooker.

With the lid open, there is an pot lid and some foldable handles in evidence.

Removing the lid reveals a small pot inside a larger pot.

The small pot has been removed.

The thermal cooker with all the internal pots and lids removed.

What is a Thermal Cooker?

So, if you are like me you are wondering what a thermal cooker is and how does this fit into being a prepper? A thermal cooker is essentially a crock pot that does not use any electricty or fuel source to cook food. Given that cryptic explanation you might be asking yourself how this works. To illustrate this, let me explain how we recently cooked a nice dinner in our cooker. You might also want to review a post Jayce did several years ago on cooking oatmeal and cereals in a Thermos.

We started off by putting some rice in the small pot with some water. Next we put some chicken, chopped vegetables, potatoes and some stock and spices into the larger pot. Both pots were put on our gas stove and brought to a hard boil. After boiling for about 4 solid minutes we pulled both pots off the stove and placed them in the thermal cooker, sealing the lid.

Six hours later we opened up the cooker and had a nice, piping hot meal from straight from the cooker. The cooker is a highly insulated container which due to its insulation efficiency loses very little heat over time. When you place a partially cooked but hot meal into the cooker then seal it, the heat is contained in the cooker and the contents continue to cook due using the thermal mass of the meal itself.

Prepper Usage

From a prepper perspective this allows for a very efficient use of fuel. Rather than simmer something on the stove for hours you can instead minimize the amount of fuel consumed by putting the pots into the thermal cooker after a few minutes of heating. Your camping stove for example would be on for 5 minutes rather than for 40 minutes. We’ve also found that this is a great way to prepare food in advance to take along with us.

If we know we will be traveling for several hours we can prepare a meal in the thermal cooker and bring it along with us. After several hours, when it is time to eat, the meal has fully cooked without the need for continuous fuel use. This also removes the worry of leaving a crock pot on during the day while you are away. I don’t like to do this as it presents a possible fire hazard. A thermal cooker eliminates this concern for my family.

I don’t have direct experience with some other competing thermal cookers, but I do know that this product is made well from quality components. There are currently two sizes available, a 5.5 liter and a 7 liter model. In order to reduce heat loss to the air, you want to be sure to use the correct sized model for your needs. A partially filled cooker will not maintain heat with the same efficiency as a full cooker due to heat loss into the air gap above a partially full cooker.

The Thermal Cooker also makes for a nice cooler. In the same way that the cooker’s insulation seals in the heat, it can be used as a cooler to keep things cold for reasonably long periods of time. This provides a secondary usage for this tool and helps us to limit uni-tasker devices in our preps.

Critiques

The 5.5 liter model will cook a meal for 3-5 people while a 7 liter will hold a meal for 6-10 people. You’ll want to use the model that fits the size of the meal you are cooking. Sometimes it isn’t convenient to cook a larger meal just to fill a cooker, and I don’t want to have to buy two cookers to handle both small and large meals. To that end I hope that Saratoga Jacks comes up with an add on to the 7 liter model perhaps consisting of an insulated sleeve and a small pot that would allow you to efficiently cook a smaller meal in the larger cooker without needing to purchase a complete cooker.

Word of Caution

One additional note that perhaps doesn’t need to be said. The thermal cooker is NOT meant to be heated directly. You heat the inner pots OUTSIDE the cooker, then place the hot pots into the cooker. The cooker has plastic components which will melt should you attempt to put the cooker over a flame or other heat source. Heat the pots, not the cooker! :)

Conclusion

Overall my wife and I have both enjoyed using this new tool. It has the potential to save us money on gas and electric bills and can reduce fuel consumption in an emergency. If you are interested in this, give them a call. If there is enough interest we may try running a group buy as well to save our readers some cash on these cookers.. Please post a comment below and we can answer any questions you might have about this review.

Several of the stoves getting setup

Last weekend several of the UtahPreppers got together with some friends to begin doing some hands on tests to start preparing for winter. Recently several of us have acquired new stoves and we wanted to give a conduct some tests to compare how well they worked. For our first meet up we wanted to test a few stoves and other devices with the group. While we learned a lot we realized that we’ve got some more comprehensive tests to run through before we can highlight each of them adequately. But before we move along with the individual tests, we wanted to thank some of the people that helped make this first stove test so much fun and informative.

Volcano Grills

In terms of stoves, Volcano Grills is nothing new to longtime readers here. We’re all big fans of this product and it keeps getting better. Mark with Volcano Grills showed us a few changes that they’ve made to the stoves to improve them and gave us a few new ideas about things to try. We’ll be reporting some of the results and showing off a few things you will want to have for your stove.

EcoZoom Rocket Stoves

The principle of a rocket stove has become quite popular recently with various build it yourself plans and kits available online. While you can make various types yourself you may want a more well-made product to depend on for long term usage. EcoZoom Stoves let us use one of theirs and we’ll be letting you know how that worked.

FireBox Folding Stove

A local newcomer, we first met the creator of the FireBox Folding Stove at the self-reliance expo in Salt Lake City. It was great to see a local with a well-made product. We knew we’d have to put this thing through some tough tests to see if it lived up to the demo.

QuickStove

Another local the QuickStove is a Stove-in-a-Can concept that seemed right up our alley. It is a self-contained kit that allows for emergency cooking and storage in your 72-hour kit

Saratoga Jacks

One town over from our test site, the Saratoga Jacks folks didn’t have far to travel. They came with their thermal cookers that we’d been researching and let us have a little hands-on time.

They also provided us with a unit to run through its paces and conduct some longer term tests. For more info see Mike’s review of Saratoga Jack’s Thermal Cookers

Eden Valley Foods

Newcomers to the food storage market, Eden Valley Foods brought over a few samples and some great information regarding various food manufacturing and storage methods as well as information on how freeze fried food are manufactured, shipped and stored.

FoodStorageMadeEasy

Along with the UtahPreppers authors that made it to our event we also had Jodi from FoodStorageMadeEasy.net, some of our best local friends. Their site is a great resource for people overwhelmed with the idea of food storage and looking on how to get an easy entry into our world.

Coming Soon:

As we get review posts about each of these products ready we’ll update this page with links. You can also follow our RSS feed to get updates when they come out.

We’ll hopefully be having more group events soon, so don’t forget to let us know (contact us, or here in the comments) if you’re interested in coming out, or if you have something you’d like to see tested!

Last fall I tried some Tattler reusable canning lids. I canned jam, tomatoes, and salsa with them. The Tattler company has been making these lids since 1976. They are two pieces–a plastic lid and a rubber gasket. You’ll need the metal rings that came with your jars or you can buy some extras on the Tattler site if you’re short on rings. The lids are BPA free and made in the USA. Tattler has them available for wide mouth and regular jars. The upfront cost of $7.00-$8.00 per dozen is, of course, more than the metal lids, but with regular re-use they pay for themselves pretty quickly.

Canning with the reusable lids is similar to using regular metal lids with the exception of having to loosen the ring just a bit before canning to allow the jar to vent and then tighten it after your jars are done processing. (For a full tutorial on using them, you can check my review of the lids on my blog.)

By the time this fall had rolled around, I had a number of lids from jars we had opened, and more canning to do, so all the reusable lids got used again without any problems with seal fails. Also, all the jars from last fall that used the reusable lids that we hadn’t opened are still sealed up fine. Sweet. Needless to say, I’ve stocked up on a bunch of these lids.

Last year's tomatoes canned with Tattler Reusable Canning Lids

Now, if you’re canning something to go into your county or state fair, or if you are planning on giving your canned goods away as gifts, use regular lids. When I did the salsa this year, I used some regular lids and some reusable lids thinking I would be sharing some for Christmas. However, sweet husband has since informed me he’s not parting with his salsa, so I guess I could have used all reusable lids!

Salsa--the white lids are the reusable ones

If you do a lot of canning and want to continue in a grid down situation without stocking a crazy amount of metal lids, the Tattler reusable lids are the lids for you. If you don’t do a lot of canning, these lids could also make a great barter item or even a great Christmas gift for that canner or preparedness nut on your list. After my year of testing, I’d say these are definitely a product worth checking out.

The kits come with a Needle Driver, forceps and a pair of scissors along with a sterile field, gloves and 2 sutures.  They also come with the step by step pictorial guide that you can see in the picture.  These are very nice kits and the price is fantastic!  If you would like to order them, send an email to DrBonesClass@aol.com and let them know what you would like to order.  There will be shipping on top of the cost, of course.

Dr. Bones also showed me that he had a full instructional video on suturing – for entertainment purposes of course – that covers how to establish a sterile field, how to suture and how to tie suture knots.  It’s a very well done video, so if you’re wanting to learn check out the video below and then go get some pig feet to practice on (you can get them at most grocery stores in the gross meat section)!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Finally, my brother sent me a picture of what his scalp currently looks like.  You can see that it healed up very nicely and has a very minimal scar.

(click on the picture for a larger image)