Community

Honey in the News

• 09 Nov 2011
• ekim
• 2 responses

Local Raw Honey, image from freshstepsonline.com

There have been a few articles lately in the news regarding honey, mainly in response to a Food Safety News study that was published this week. To sum it up, the report found that most honey purchased in stores had been highly processed to the point that all the pollen had been removed. Aside from no longer supplying healthy benefits by containing pollen, removing all traces of pollen also makes it impossible to track the location of origin for honey if it turns out to be contaminated or otherwise harmful. (more…)

Tags: Community, Honey, Links, local, Raw

November 9th Emergency Broadcast System Test

• 09 Nov 2011
• ekim
• 1 response

If you are like me, you grew up occasionally hearing your TV issue a loud beep followed by “This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.” Followed by another loud beep.

Today, Wednesday November 9th, 2011 at noon (MST) Utah time the National Emergency Alert System will be conducting a nationwide test for the first time. The Emergency Alert system system is meant to allow governments at every level to alert their citizens to events that may affect them. The hope is that the system will be usable by local cities, counties and states as well as by the federal government to issue alerts at the national level. These alerts may cover child abuduction/Amber alert notices, sever storm warnings, tornado warnings, terrorist attacks, or pretty much any conceivable notice that a government may want to advise the public of.

As interesting and useful as this system will hopefully prove to be, I think it provides another, far more important purpose. It serves as a great reminder to check on your emergency plans and gear. Take few minutes today to check your car kit and your 72 hour kits. Are they still complete? We often “borrow” gear from our readiness kits and then forget to put them back or replace consumables. Use today as a reminder that as preppers we need to stay on top of our preps. Preps are not a one-time purchase but a commitment.

For more information on the test today, visit www.fema.gov/eastest/

Tags: alerts, Community, Education, FEMA, Government, preparedness

Keep Your Emergency Preparedness Plans Updated!

• 21 Oct 2011
• Connor
• 3 responses

For the past several months, I have been serving as the emergency preparedness specialist in my ward (for the non-Mormons: a volunteer position in my local congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). A few weeks ago, I was asked to serve in the same position at a stake level (for the non-Mormons: this means I’m overseeing the preparedness activities of 15 different congregations).

I have a lot to work on! One of the things I’m doing right out the gate is to update our stake’s emergency preparedness plan. Our stake was formed only five years ago, so when it was organized, they got the preparedness plans of a nearby stake, and basically copied and pasted the name of the new stake over the other stake’s name in the plan. Reading over that plan now, I curiously wonder how long it had been since that other stake had updated it.

Why, you may ask? Get a load of this… In a section dealing with what to do after an emergency, it says:

(more…)

Tags: Community, emergency, evacuation plan, lds, personal preparedness, preparedness, preparedness plan, ward emergency preparedness plan

Community Preparedness Fairs

• 15 Aug 2011
• Jayce
• 1 response

Local first-aid company Shield-Safety is hosting two community preparedness fairs and wanted to spread the word to different preparedness groups and companies that might be interested.  If you are looking to attend, the dates and locations are as follows:

Lehi:

Sept. 16th 5 pm to 9 pm
Sept. 17th 9 am to 7 p

Herriman:

Sept. 30th 5 pm to 9 pm
Oct. 1st 9 am to 7 pm

Both events are free for attendees, and will feature first-aid training classes, and other opportunities to learn preparedness skills.

If you are interested in hosting a booth (vendor or community) we have a copy of the information you need here for download. The hosts have stressed to me they are very eager to work with all community resources such as CERT, safety officials, and other local companies.

Tags: Community, Education, Event, meetup, preparedness

Parents – Keep your kids AWAY from the rivers!

• 09 Jun 2011
• phil801
• 2 responses

Last night was a pretty rough night, we pulled the body of an 8 year old boy out of the American Fork River here in Utah.  He was the fourth kid to die in the local rivers in the last week.

When the Utah County Sheriff got the call about him falling in, I happened to be very close to the canyon just finishing up a picnic with my family.  I immediately headed towards the canyon and was almost there when we (Utah County Search and Rescue) were paged.  I was the third person on scene and was working with the Lone Peak Fire Department and several other local police and fire departments.  We set up right across from Timp Cave and started watching the river for a body.  Over the next hour, well over 100 members of the SAR Team and local PD/FD arrived and spread out over about 10 miles working our way up and down the river.  He was finally found after I had been there almost 2 hours. (more…)

Tags: Community, Education, Flood, Rescue, Survival, Water

Provo Pioneer Crafting Fair

• 08 Jun 2011
• Jayce
• 0 responses

Looking for a chance to get the family out into our delayed summer? Provo has a great event this weekend at their pioneer village (map).  It’s a great chance to get demonstrations on some old skills such as spinning, blacksmithing and more.  Bring the family even if only just to get a feel for the local history, but even better, hang around and talk shop with people experienced in their crafts. This is probably one of the better local opportunities to get together with people that can teach these crafts.

When:

Saturday, June 11, 2011

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

And a nice video explaining things via the local newspaper, the Daily Herald

Tags: Community, Education, Event, Howto, meetup, Pioneer Skills, Pioneers, Preppers, rendezvous

What we are doing this Spring

• 31 Mar 2010
• ekim
• 3 responses

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?
(more…)

Tags: 72 Hour Kits, BOB, Community, Food Storage, Gardening, gear, Networks, Preppers, preps

Social Preppers

• 21 Jan 2010
• Jayce
• 1 response

Interested in a little more discussion with the preppers here, and elsewhere?  In our association with the American Preppers Network, you now have several ways to interact with other people that like to talk preparedness.

Forum

For people interested in forum discussions, we have two available places to talk.  The APN forums will allow you communicate with the other utahpreppers, as well as other state prepper groups.  Also available is the new LDS Preppers, a similar concept but geared for the LDS readers.  By keeping with the rest of the groups, you can participate not only in the Utah discussions, but also any other regions, or specialty topics you wish.  It’s a great resource to communicate with other preppers, without having having to come out of your well-stocked mountain retreat (ok, a little humor there).  If you need to understand a little bit more about what a forum is, check out the wikipedia description.

Chat

If you like real time discussions, you can now join us in our chat rooms.  These chats are accessible to computer novice, as well as the geeks among us.  For the novice, you can easily go HERE and join the chat rooms in your browser (no software to install).  Just click the link, and you will be prompted for a nickname to use, then it’ll log you in and you will have a page to  There are several rooms available, the most important ones being the #preppers, and the #utahpreppers rooms.  Chat rooms are an ‘always-open’ type of room where you can go in and interact in real-time.  Just clicking that link will open a page with a small bar on the top that lists which rooms you can listen in (just click on one to see the activity in that room).  On the right hand side will be a list of people currently in the room, and at the bottom, you can type in a message, and just hit enter for everyone to get it.

For the Geeks, we’re all using the rizon IRC network, and you may use any IRC client (such as XChat, WeeChat, or others) to connect.

Tags: Community, Howto, Links, Networks

Living History to Learn Skills

• 25 Oct 2009
• angela
• 6 responses

(This is a cross post from my blog: Adventures in Self Reliance)

I read a post at Preparedness Pro recently about the importance of learning skills. Acquiring useful skills is actually something I’ve thought about a lot in case you couldn’t tell by all the crazy stuff I share with you that I’ve been doing. I believe that having a quiver full of skills and things you’ve actually tried is way better than having a library of books about self sufficiency. Now don’t get me wrong, your resource books are very important. It’s just that having experience with something, even if it didn’t go so well, gives you so much more to work with. (more…)

Tags: Community, Education, Event, Family, Skills

Live Together, Die Alone

• 08 Jun 2009
• Connor
• 4 responses

(Cross posted from my blog).

photo credit: micsx032

In 1624, the English poet John Donne wrote in one of his Meditations that “no man is an island.” His poem explains how our common humanity ties us together in one common thread, and that as individuals we cannot thrive in isolation. Christians have been taught likewise, their common identity as followers of Jesus binding them together into a body focused on one purpose. Whatever the commonality that brings us together, the simple fact is that our spiritual and physical survival depends on our willingness and ability to help one another along our shared path.

This principle is especially important in terms of preparedness. When a catastrophe comes our way, each family will quickly discover a need for things they didn’t think to keep in supply, and only through bartering and buying from others will they be able to obtain those things. Isolated individuals will be easy prey for roving gangs and other desperate groups. Lack of communication will increase frustration, loneliness, and ignorance. Only by becoming part of a trusted network beforehand will we be able to more easily deal with whatever disasters may strike.

(more…)

Tags: Community, Family, Neighborhood, preparedness

Farmer’s Markets

• 15 May 2009
• ekim
• 4 responses

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.
(more…)

Tags: Canning, Community, Food, Food Storage, Links, preps

Shelf Reliance Recipe Contest

• 16 Feb 2009
• Jayce
• 0 responses

Do you have a favorite recipe for using your food storage?  Maybe a comfort food your family wouldn’t want to go without, or something that makes excellent use fo the basics?  Well here’s a good chance to show your stuff, and have a chance to win some *awesome* prizes.  Our friends at Shelf Reliance are having a recipe contest this month.

There’s some seriously nice prizes too:

• 1st Place = One (1) Harvest Food Rotation System ($459 value)
• 2nd Place = THRIVE Fruits and Veggies Essential Package ($283 value)
• 3rd Place = Three (3) Cansolidator Pantry systems ($135 value)

Entries can be emailed to contest@shelfreliance.com.  For more information, such as the rules and details, go check out their page.

Also, go ahead and send along your favorite recipe to me, and we’ll post them up on the site here.  Of course, just watch out because I’ve got a few recipes up my sleeve, and I’m gunning for that #1 prize myself :)

Tags: Community, Contest, Event, Food, Food Storage, Links, Recipe, Storing Systems