While we’ve considered and support home schooling we are not sure if that will be a good fit for our family. Several of our friends (as well as some fellow authors) have or do home school. In fact, my youngest sister is being home schooled now. This of course would eliminate this as a problem from a school perspective, but what about other situations? Whether it is out at a friend’s house, playing sports or in a church sponsored activity, my children are not going to be near our preps all the time. I personally have by get home bag, but I want my children to be trained and to feel prepared and confident in the case of an emergency.

Valerie over at Prepared LDS Family posted on this topic today and explains what she has done for her school age children. There is some good information in her post and it gave me something to think about. My children will likely find a little note with pictures of our family comforting. I also can’t build a small kit that contains everything my child might need, especially in a size a child will be able to keep in their backpack everyday. However, a few juice boxes and granola bars and a space blanket could make all the diferrence.

I know Phil has invested significant time in preparing his children for an emergency. What have you done? How much is too much? I look forward to hearing the conversation on this in our comments section.

As handy as the device is, there were some shortcomings.  First off, the device I most wanted to use on it is extremely finicky with what it allows to charge (yeah, it’s an iPhone), and the variability of solar electricity meant that the iPhone didn’t like accepting the charge.  Secondly, some of my devices simply take AA or AAA batteries, and I didn’t have a good charger that would run off the USB adaptor that the 7m provides.

Thankfully there is a relatively new product that addresses these shortcomings, their Goal0 Guide 10.  In short, it’s a battery charger, that doubles as a combined power pack for those devices you would most likely charge from the panel.

Key Features

The Guide 10 is a very simple device, that makes lightweight solar usage possible for a backpacker. It starts as a simple AA or AAA charger. It just plugs in to your 7m (or other panel) through their simple adaptor, and you can lay it out in the sun. If you are hiking, the 7m already has loops to tie on to your pack, and the Guide 10 has a nice metal cable so you can attach with a carabiner. The Guide 10 is operated via simple three way switch. On allows you to charge devices from the rechargeable batteries, Off allows you to stop providing power to external devices to stop phantom power drains and recharge the batteries at a faster rate through your solar panel. The third position turns on an integrated LED light. Simple and handy, this proved quite functional when using my kit. Charging may also come via a standard USB Mini-B adaptor, which plugs into a standard usb in case you wanted to charge from a computer or other device.  Using the device means simply either taking out the batteries to use them, or plugging into the full-size USB port and flipping the switch to run in ‘power pack’ mode.

Inline Charging

For devices like my phone that don’t like the variables associated with solar charging, the Guide 10 really helps provide a clean power source.  If I simply plug in the phone to the pack, and the pack to the panel, I get the correct amount of power to my phone even if a cloud decides to get in the way. Even if your electronics are too finicky, it’s a lot easier on them to be treated this way!

Storing For Later

Sure, a power pack of four AA batteries isn’t going to power my laptop, but I have a lot of devices that work quite well on that much electricity. While I could provide a lot of light with one of Goal0′s Light-a-Life’s, they are rather large and too bright for backpacking.

Using a small USB powered light stick though works extremely well.  During my last campout I would plug in one of the Luna Lights into a battery pack, and have just an amazing flood of light for our group. Best of all it barely sipped the power even from these AA batteries.  Using the light for several hours during the night, I still only needed a small charge during the day to get back to full power. I could have easily still gone to charge a phone or other devices along with my lights, which I think is the critical test I needed to prove this was the right size for my needs.

According to the product site, the 7m panel takes approximately 3 hours to charge the Guide 10 while a 3.5 watt panel takes approximately 6 hours.

What’s Missing

When looking online, I noticed them using AA and AAA batteries. However in the package, it doesn’t have the plastic insert you need if you want to charge the AAA batteries, unless you buy that specific model.  This was my one strike against the product.  You get the insert supposedly by purchasing a pack of their Goal0 branded rechargeable batteries (you can use any NiMH rechargeable though). Personally I’d suggest just getting the one pack of their batteries for the adaptor, and then using your preferred brand. Nothing wrong with theirs, which are a nice modern battery, but there are plenty of options in that space.

Apparently though, James bought the full Adventure kit, and that did come with the AAA piece. It seems it doesn’t come with just the standalone Guide 10 (in the two that I purchased).

 Conclusion

To me, the Guide 10 pack is what really makes the Adventure Kit worthwhile. While the set with the speakers and panel is nifty, the real usefulness exists only when you add this into the mix. If you haven’t already bought one, they now sell it with the batteries and charger instead of the speaker as the Goal0 Guide 10 Adventure Kit.  If you are building any kind of Get Home Bag, BOB, or similar emergency kit where you want to be able to maintain a charge on some small communications or light devices, this is the best product on the market for lightweight solar charging. It’s extremely simple to use, doesn’t have unnecessary pieces, and will easily attach to your pack.

Email edited for screen readability only (spacing), and redacting names.

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This was sent to a friend of ours March 13, and I’ve edited out names,they felt we could learn from this experience about a ‘real’ emergency. Hope it helps someone here.

Hi Everyone, We’re doing “fine” here. Considering what is going on around us. When the first big quake hit, around 2:45 in the afternoon on Friday, I ran to ***** room and grabbed him out of his crib. We’ve had plenty of earthquakes in the 2.5 years we’ve been here, but this one was huge. ***** started crying and calling for me –I got him too and we huddled on the stairs away from windows and light fixtures. The two boys were walking home from school and came in while the house was still shaking. They thought it was exciting. I yelled at them to “GET BACK OUTSIDE!” because I’d just been told if you’re outside, you’re supposed to stay outside! I sat on the stairs praying: “Please protect my kids, please protect my kids, please protect my kids…” It seemed to last forever (around 5 minutes I’ve heard) and then the aftershocks just kept coming and coming. They’re still coming.

They evacuated the hospital and **** was able to come home around 4. [I can't tell you what a relief it was to have my whole entire family safe and together. And how upsetting it was/is to think of people all over Japan who have family unaccounted for. It's really hard for me whenever one of the husbands has to leave.]

Since then, the power has been out and we haven’t had any heat or access to phones (to the states) or Internet (except ***** getting one e-mail out from the hospital.) Friday evening we moved our friends in with us (**** and **** and three kids) since they just shipped   their stuff to the states in preparation for their move in two weeks. It’s been nice to have them around because everyone is on edge and extremely stressed.

Yesterday (Saturday) they opened the commissary (No lights, cash only) and we grabbed some extra food, water and diapers. Since we have the standard Mormon “food storage” I wasn’t too worried about running out of food or water, but I didn’t have any spare diapers so was happy to buy three big boxes yesterday for *****. (And yes,I bought two big cans of hot chocolate. Priorities, people!)

We went to church for a shortened meeting to take the sacrament and get the news today. All members of the branch have been accounted for and we’ve heard that all the missionaries in Japan are accounted for also. (Big relief.)
The power is now back on off-base which is how I have Internet access right now. We’re at ***** house. Hopefully it stays on.

We were asked at church to see what extra coats, blankets, food and water we can round up to donate to the Japanese people nearby. I feel heart sick thinking of those who’ve lost homes and loved ones. Although you probably know much more than me, I hear the devastation is extremely great. We were lucky to be so safe on base and grateful our off-base friends and neighbors were okay.

The earthquakes (aftershocks) haven’t stopped and I spent all night last night having nightmares about running from collapsing and buckling buildings. The kids are on edge and tantrums are at an all time high. They keep busy playing during the day, but when it gets dark and we have to ration flashlights and candles it gets extra hard to keep the peace.
A few things I’ve been wanting to tell people and note for the future:

• Get an old school, corded phone. If the power goes out, your cordless won’t work. We were lucky to have a corded phone upstairs which helped ***** coordinate with the Branch President to get accountability of church members. (The phones have worked on-base off and on, but we were never able to get a call through to the states.)
• Speaking of accountability, in an emergency, if you’re going to leave your house–leave a note on the door saying where you are going so when guys from church or work coming looking, they’ll know where you are.
• When the power went out, people off base couldn’t get their cars out of their garage. Turns out there is a special crank to use but most of our friends didn’t have it or know what it was. Luckily ***** had parked outside and was able to get her kids to our house Friday.
• We’ve been cooking with our camping equipment. Note to self: Buy a 20 pack of small propane tanks. We’ve also used our outdoor BBQ (in the cold) and I’m wishing I had a spare tank of Propane for that.(We still don’t have power and don’t know when it will come back on On Base. Estimates have said 24 hours (we’re way past that) to 1 week, to indefinite.)
• Do you have an extra refill of your prescriptions in your 72 hour kit? It’s terrifying to imagine running out of the things you take every day. Also, the thought of my kids getting sick and not having enough Children’s Advil and/or Tylenol made me pretty nervous until I verified we had some of each.
• For ONCE I was glad to be doing Dave Ramsey yesterday when we had plenty of cash on hand to shop at the commissary. But we also have a cash and yen emergency fund hidden in the house for back-up which was very comforting.
• While I’m making notes to myself: Buy a hand crank wheat grinder and blender! (We have a freezer full of frozen fruit to make smoothies but no way to blend anything.)
• Flashlights are a pain in my butt. All of our stupid Rayovac crappy-**** batteries that I had stored for an emergency, LEAKED! So the flashlights are all slowly dying, being over used by the children, and being misplaced. The best source of light the last two nights has been the pillar candles I’ve had in the cupboard for fancy table settings. They seem to burn pretty slow and shed a lot of light. I’ve gone through 3 and have 1 left. Wish I had a 20 pack of those in my 72 hour pack. It would be nice not to worry about running out. Small, light weight, energy efficient lanterns would be nice too.
• Also, my next house will have a wood burning fire place. This all would have been much easier if we could have been warm.
• Also, I’m buying all my kids a down comforter. We have one on our bed and we’ve been fine at night, but the kids need 20 blankets piled up to stay warm. (Actually, the older boys each have a two layer fleece blanket which is pretty warm, but unfortunately, they’re not very big.)

(Poor little ***** had to spend yesterday in his snow suit to stay warm. The poor little guy must be sensing the stress because he’s been quite out of sorts. He’s always shivering (even when bundled) and very clingy. The kids are all confused and upset but mostly hanging in there. Like I said, it’s been nice to have friends to keep us company.)

Sorry, I’m rambling on and on but I’ve had all this stress for the last two days and my main way to process is by writing my thoughts down. So I’ve been going a little nuts feeling so disconnected.

A few more random thoughts: The last two days this thought kept running through my head “All are safely gathered in.” I can’t express enough how glad I was/am to have my family around me. Please say a prayer for our many many friends with deployed spouses. This is a very stressful time here and it’s really sucky for them to be apart. Also, please pray forall the Japanese people who are missing or displaced. So sad.

We were very blessed on base to have running (freezing cold) water. Off base, sewer lines broke and contaminated the water supply they weren’t even supposed to touch it.

Today we sang “I Need Thee Every Hour” at church. Has a lot of meaning right now.

Okay, there are other people who need to use this computer. Everyone on base is coming off base to try to contact family.

***** husband (Pilot) is at work trying to coordinate rescue efforts so I should go down and help her take care of the multitude of children and get everyone some lunch.

Please pray for us (us being everyone in Japan) and if you feel so inclined, find a way to send some warm blankets to people who’ve lost their homes. Don’t know when I’ll be back on-line again, but hopefully soon.

Thanks to everyone for your concern. I knew (figured) there were people praying for us back in the states and it helped to think about.

Potassium Iodide or KI is a salt of iodine and is what the body uses to make thyroid hormones.  If you are exposed to radioactive iodine through fallout , your thyroid will quickly absorb it into your thyroid and cause serious problems.  By super loading your thyroid with safe iodine via Potassium Iodide you can minimize your bodies absorption of radioactive iodine.  It should be noted that Potassium Iodide is NOT a cure for radiation sickness nor will it prevent other problems that will occur from fallout or radioactive exposure.

Potassium Iodide should be taken when exposure to radioactive iodine is imminent.  Local Government and Health Officials will notify the public if this precaution becomes necessary.

Taking Potassium Iodide does not provide 100% protection against radioactive iodine.  Factors include how soon prior to being exposed that Potassium Iodide was ingested, how fast it can absorb into your blood and the total amount of radioactive iodine the person is exposed to.  In other words, it’s critical to take as soon as notification is issued, that you take it in a liquid form and that you take the proper dose.  And, of course, that you limit your exposure to any kind of fallout as much as possible.

There are two typical forms of Potassium Iodide, liquid and tablet.  The liquid form typically comes as a crystalline powder that you mix with water.  Tablets come in 130 and 65 mg, the 130 mg are typically scored for easy cutting.  The dosages are as follows:

• Adults – 130 mg
• Breastfeeding Women – 130 mg
• Children 3-18 – 65 mg
• Children over 150 lbs – 130 mg
• Infants & Children 0-3 yrs – 32 mg
• Newborn – 16mg

Taking a higher dose of Potassium Iodide or taking more than is recommended does not offer more protection and may cause severe illness or death!

These doses of Potassium Iodide are sufficient for 24 hours.  Typical expectations of exposure risks are that if dosing is needed it will likely only be needed for 24 hours.  However, it is possible that exposure risks will continue for several days.  Local Government, Health Officials and Emergency Managers will notify you as to how long you should be taking it.

Potassium Iodide may be harmful to you if you are allergic to iodine or with certain skin disorders.  There is minimal risk to taking Potassium Iodide unless it is taken for several days, you take more than the recommended dosage or you have a pre-existing thyroid disease.

Summing it up:

In my opinion, the easiest way to figure out how much Potassium Iodide to store is to calculate the maximum adult dosage (not the lower children’s dosage) for each member of your family and multiply it by 7 (1 week).  This is designed to give you an excess to allow for spillage, etc.  So, for my family of 10, I calculate 130 mg X 7 X 10 = 9100 mg or 9.1 grams.  I purchase Potassium Iodide in 40 gram bottles (typically for $10 – $15) and have enough for pretty much my whole neighborhood.

Very fine Steel Wool will act as a conductor and will carry the current from the positive to the negative end of a battery.  It ignites because it isn’t designed to hold and carry that current.  It doesn’t actually ‘burn’ in much of a usable capacity.  Rather, it incinerates and provides a flame for a short time giving you an opportunity to put a flame to your tinder.  Before you  get your Steel Wool going, you need to make sure your tinder is ready (I suggest using a Vaseline soaked cotton ball) to put the flame to.

There are several ways to do this, including rubbing a 9 volt battery on the Steel Wool itself – which works fine but burns up more Steel Wool than you really need to.  What I prefer to do is take a small amount of Steel Wool and roll it basically into a thick wire that is long enough to connect the positive and negative ends of your batteries.  Once you have your igniter rolled, hold the battery and one end of the igniter on the positive (or negative, doesn’t matter) terminal of the battery and with your other hand, connect the other side of the igniter to the other terminal on the battery.  You will almost immediately get a spark and flame from the Steel Wool.  As soon as you have an actual flame, touch the Steel Wool to your tinder and blow lightly if you need to.  Your fire should be started!

There are a couple small caveats here.  1) You need to use fine Steel Wool – that means buying 0000 or quadruple-ought Steel Wool.  Other types will work, but this works best.  2) You can use a 9-volt, 2 AA’s or combinations of other batteries.

Finally, the intent of this article is to show/remind you of an alternative method of starting a fire and some other cheap ideas of things you can store for fire making.  I’m not advocating carrying around Steel Wool – I’m advocating having as many possibilities to start a fire as you can.  I carry a couple lighters with me everywhere I go, but I’ve never carried Steel Wool.  One way to look at it is, in a TEOTWAWKI situation you may have friends and/or loved ones that didn’t prep as well as you.  They probably have a flashlight though – if you give them some Steel Wool out of your storage, you can gift them the ability to start a fire.

The following video shows the entire process from start to finish:

The beauty of these fire starters is not only their simplicity and their common household ingredients – but also that they are very waterproof and very wind-resistant once they have fully ignited.  By fully ignited, I mean that the flame has gotten a good start around the top of the candles (as you can see in the picture above).  You will have to protect the flame until it gets to that point but it only takes a minute or two.  Once they are fully ignited wind and water will both have a difficult time putting it out.  In fact, if you aren’t actually starting a fire (like in my demos) it’s a bit challenging to get the candles to completely go out.  Fully burying them in snow has been working for me.  As you can see in the following picture, they can take a mighty strong gust of wind and not go out (note that the flame in the following picture is almost completely horizontal from the wind).

To make these Fire Starting beauties, follow the following easy steps.

1. Gather the following materials: Empty Toilet Paper Roll, Dryer Lint (or cotton balls or other burnable material), Wax from any source
2. Melt the wax in a double boiler
3. Fill the Toilet Paper roll half way with compressed Dryer Lint
4. Pour the wax into one side of the Toilet Paper Roll allowing it to saturate the Dryer Lint as much as possible (this will take a few pours)
5. Let it sit for a few minutes so the wax will start to set
6. Turn over the Toilet Paper Roll and Repeat Steps 4 & 5
7. Fill the rest of the Toilet Paper Roll with Dryer Lint and goto step 4 (You’ll only be able to do it from one side this time)
8. Let it stand for several hours until the center is hard when you try to squeeze it (putting it somewhere cold helps)
9. Cut the Toilet Paper Roll into about 3/4 inch wafers

Your Wafers are now ready to burn.  They light faster if you snap them in half and light the exposed lint.  You can also try to peel out some of the Toilet Paper Roll and light that.  Protect the growing flame from the wind until it has achieved a full burn.  Now you can add kindling directly on top of the Wafer.

This video shows the entire process from start to burning:

Being able to start a fire is absolutely critical in many potential situations.  It can literally mean the difference between life and death.  Knowing many ways to be able to start a fire is an essential survival skill, practicing and maintaining those skills is just as essential.  One of the most difficult situations to start a fire in is when it is very wet.  These situations can be made much easier by having a fire starter that will work whether it is wet or dry and that will burn reliably for a very long time.  By using a paraffin wax “candle” you essentially waterproof your fire starter and can easily start a fire in a wet environment.  Also, because it will burn for a very long time, it is much easier to get tinder started with damp or wet materials since the candle is able to dry out your fire starting material and then start it burning.

To make the simple Fire Starting Candles we’re working on in this video, we follow a few simple steps.  The first is to melt your wax.  This must be done in a double boiler however, the wax will make a mess of any container you melt it in.  To make clean up easy, and so you don’t upset anyone else who might be using your kitchen, we use a can – in the case of this video a pear can – to melt the wax in.  You simply place the can with a couple bars of wax in it,  into the boiling water and let the wax melt.

To prepare your candles, fill each egg slot in the egg carton with cotton balls, dryer lint, wood chips, pecan shells or any other small and burnable substance.  You then pour the wax over your flammable material, making sure the material is completely saturated and then let it dry.

Now you can cut out each egg slot and you have a dozen (depending on your egg carton size) Fire Starting Candles.

This video goes over the entire process in detail:

Buying a dedicated camper, pop-up tent, RV would be nice, but they are generally more than I want to spend, are single purpose and often require separate registration here in Utah. I often find a need for a small utility trailer for hauling mulch, compost, etc. and here in Utah, smaller trailers under a certain weight and size don’t need to be registered. When I obtained an old home built utility trailer recently, I decided to jump head first into a home built adventure trailer build.

The trailer I started with appears to be completely home built using a ’50′s Chevy truck axle and springs with thick angle iron completing the frame. The sides were made of weathered wood and close inspection showed that the wood sides was only attached to the frame with four bolts. I quickly removed these four bolts and the floors to get the frame down to bare essentials.

Once to this state, I sandblasted the frame to ensure that the rust present was only surface rust. Once this was confirmed, the trailer was off to my friendly neighborhood welding specialist at Horvath Hot Rods just down the road in Spanish Fork. Joe and I worked together to determine the side height, tail gate configuration and rack design.

I also ordered my ARB Roof Top Tent and Annex from Cruiser Outfitters around this time. While Roof Top Tents are generally meant to mount to the roof of a 4×4 vehicle, they work well mounted to trailers too. An added bonus with mounting it on a trailer is that you can also unhook the trailer to drive around without needing to pack up the tent. Roof Top Tents contain a thick foam padded mattress and get you up off the ground away from dirt and critters. They set up by unfolding and take about 10 minutes to get completely set up. Putting them away is about the same. The rack system we designed for the trailer allows the tent to deployed at about about 4 1/2 feet tall with the rack lowered or at 6′ 2″ with it raised. Raising the tent also allow the Annex to be attached which provides a large area for changing, getting things out of the weather or extra sleeping space.

After about a week, the trailer was nearly ready, just in time for a camping trip over Independence Day weekend. The trailer at this point lacked a few features before I could call it complete, but was ready to be used for a simple camp ground camping trip.

The trailer worked great on the trip, hauling everything we needed for the long weekend and providing a comfortable sleeping area.

Once back home, I was finally able to find some fenders which had proven hard to source. I took the trailer back in to Joe Horvath and he mounted the fenders, built in some steps for the fenders, moved the spare tire to one side, built a Cooler rack and moved the propane carrier. I also added an ARB awning to add some shade.

Then we were off to Montana for a week of camping. Again, the trailer proved to be a great place to sleep. I’ve added some LED lights from Ikea that provide a ton of light in the tent and as soon as I solve some issues with the switch will get the wiring affixed more permanently. Once I have that and a few more things buttoned up, we’ll store the trailer in the garage, loaded up with our camping gear, some food, water, etc. so we can be off and camping in minutes, providing a larger scale 96 hour + kit for the whole family.

Below are some pictures of the build process. Please let me know what you think.

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.

Photo Via Flickr User un_photo

Recently we had a reader ‘Lonnie’ write in with the following excellent question, that I’ve heard asked in other forms too;

Was thinking about the earthquake in Haiti, and if that happened along the wasatch front. I live in Utah county in a 2 story home with a basement. My food storage is in my basement. What if the earthquake totally destroys my house and my food storage is buried under the rubble of what was my house? It won’t do me any good when I can’t GET TO IT! Any suggestions on mitigating that problem?

Well Lonnie, it looks like I’m finally going to get around to addressing your question, and hopefully in a helpful manner. I think your question itself gives the necessary questions you will need to ask yourself in order to solve your concerns.  Today of course, you are worrying because of the recent disaster in Haiti, but similar questions ocurr after hurricanes, flooding, and most any other form of disaster. The more news coverage devoted to the disaster, the more people begin to question their own security. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all solution to any complicated, personal issue. Each individual must consider what disasters they are most likely to encounter, then which of those to begin preparing for. No one can cover every scenario so don’t waste your time trying. Stick with those issues you believe are germane to your situation, research your options and begin preparing. Not only does this guide you in what food and supplies you will need, but how you store them.

As you have mentioned, here on the Wasatch Front, we are surrounded by fault lines that could cause any number of problems, and thus are a condition we should prudently prepare for. Lonnie, like most of us along the Wasatch Front stores her food in the basement. This makes sense, there is usually more space; stable, cooler temperatures, and it’s not ‘in your face’ all the time or competing with your decorations for attention. However, that’s a lot of house sitting on top of everything should it all come down due to a geologic event. To me this brings a couple of things to mind:

1. Should you put all your food storage in a single location?  If possible, spread things around a little.  Maybe that means doing something like having an attached cellar if you somehow have the space and time, but I know many of us don’t.  I have a part of my garage that is well insulated so I can put certain canned goods out there.  A lot less house will land on it in that case.
2. Support and Protections. In the case of an earthquake or other event, houses rarely completely collapse. Based on their position in the house and proximity to supporting structures, furniture, etc. your preps may be well protected. You can keep that in mind when you situate your food storage area. And if you don’t have enough support already, you can add some protective devices either to your house, or just around your storage locations (better containers, shelving, etc).
3. Accessibility.  Even in a really bad earthquake, and if your house really does fall down, that doesn’t mean all your food is lost.  You will actually have more concern about food damage from fires, or from any water damage than from the collapse itself.  Sure some cans, and definitely glass jars will break, but many will still be good, just hard to get to.  But I’m sure it will be possible to do so with some work.  If you’re hungry, and you know you’ve got a years supply (mostly) of food under a floor or two worth of scrap lumber, you just know you’ve got some great seasoned firewood to cut before the BBQ, and that’s the *worst* case.

Now, the best thing to know before it happens is how to prevent losing your food storage, or other supplies in the case of a disaster (in this case an earthquake, adapt to floods or any other region’s favorite flavor of doom). Remember that if everything you have is in a single location, then Murphy will cause that to be the epicenter of whatever disaster you have. We all know that’s how he likes to work. Find out ways to possibly take advantage of more than one place in your house. If you are just extra lucky, maybe you have close family that you can trade storage space with, or maybe you have a storage unit, or somebody with property might have a cellar, barn, or shed.

Second, remember that some storage items shouldn’t be kept together. Maybe you have a nicer generator, or camp stove. Well of course you don’t want to keep that fuel near your food. Even without a natural disaster, that is a potential disaster on its own. But also think about what other things won’t mix well if shaken (or stirred). Are your liquid filled glass jars located above cardboard cake mix boxes or are those sealed mylar bags protecting your dried mixes?

The worst case in an earthquake means you don’t have *any* need for that food you’ve been storing.  As our friend the Preparedness Pro says, “Wouldn’t it be ironic if I was crushed under my wheat in a disaster?”.  Let’s step back one level though and say you were lucky enough not be killed during a major earthquake.  The time immediately after that earthquake is really important.  We should all know that it’s not safe to just go back into a building right away, and after ensuring the safety of our family you should of course make sure the gas, electric, and water to your house are turned off.  You have a much larger chance of losing everything you have to something going wrong with those than you do to the direct effects of the earthquake itself.  This is something you will likely need some basic tools for, and must learn how to do ahead of time.  Now, if you are standing outside your house, people are physically safe, and utilities are off, then this is the time that your ’72-hour kit’ was designed for.  During that time you can use the resources in that kit to make sure your family has what it needs, and you can begin to assess the situation.  Aftershocks are likely in the few days following an earthquake, so you don’t want to be poking around in a house that is now more likely to collapse, but you can begin to assess the situation. Maybe your house really wasn’t that damaged, and you can move important resources outside. Maybe everything looks just fine, and you can begin to look closer for any harder-to-find damage points.

There are some disasters we can never be truly ready for, and others where you might just get the short end of the stick and lose everything.  But in giving honest thought to the problem, you’ll see that we can take basic steps to improve our chances for even large disasters.