Tag: Education

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Two HAM radio classes in Pleasant Grove

TWO NEW TECHNICIAN CLASSES
ham_antenna
The Technician license is the entry level license for getting started in HAM radio. The Amateur Radio Club of Utah Valley often presents one day courses followed by a test to obtain your Technician class license. They have just announced a three day class and another one day class in the Pleasant Grove area. I obtained my license about three years ago. It really is easy!

04-07.Feb.2009

Three-day Technician Class (Trent, N7GMT)

14.Feb.2009

One-day Technician Class & Exam Session (Steve, NV7V)

(See http://www.arcuv.org/ for more info)
Continue reading “Two HAM radio classes in Pleasant Grove”

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Everyone Prepared Convention in Springville

What

EP (Everyone Prepared) Convention

When

Saturday, February 7, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Where

The Hobble Creek West Stake Center at 555 S. 600 E. (Averett Ave.), Springville (Map Link)

Come and learn information that will help you enjoy peace, erase panic, and explore possibilities.

Workshops include:

Water Sanitation & Storage, Cooking when the lights go out, Pandemic Preparedness, Personal Safety, and Financial Preparedness.

Displays include:

Ham radio, Red Cross, CERT, Cooking Items, Heating Options, and First Aid Supplies.

Some classes will be held in the chapel. Please dress appropriately.
For more information call 494-7661

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Are You CERTified?

Too often I feel that we get into a “bug out” mentality that leads us to think we’ll be fending for ourselves in all circumstances, always looking out for number one.

I disagree. While there are a select few instances in which we must reduce our focus to our own life and our immediate family, I think that the majority of scenarios will involve neighbors (ideally and hopefully) working together to get through whatever has happened.

Enter CERT. Becoming CERT trained is an important part of your personal preparedness and a necessary tool in being of use to neighbors during a TEOTWAWKI scenario. Here’s a summary of the program:

Continue reading “Are You CERTified?”

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Carrying a Concealed Pistol in Utah

Who has the legal obligation to protect you and your family?

Given the following:

In the 2005 Castle Rock v. Gonzales case, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police protection, even in the presence of a restraining order.

it would seem that YOU are the only one who can or should be depended on to defend you and yours in a dangerous situation. Law enforcement is often minutes away when a life or death situation is over and done with (for better or worse) within seconds.
Continue reading “Carrying a Concealed Pistol in Utah”

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Keeping your data safe

This post is a followup to the recent post on backing up your data on flash drives.  As stated, keeping your important data safe is extremely important.  imagesKeeping a copy with you, and in a remote location is required practice for me.  But keeping your data safe is much more than just keeping a copy of your data around in case of hardware failure, fire, or evacuation.  You need to actually protect the data itself.

Nowadays, people should be familiar with the concept of Identity Theft, and the threat it poses in your everyday life.  With even basic information about you, a fraudster can cause huge problems to you, now imagine if they picked up a nice little flash drive that had copies of everything from birth certificates to bank statements?  Of course you should be very careful with your nice little key fob, but you’re probably careful with keys and wallet too, and how many people lose those? Continue reading “Keeping your data safe”

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Twas the Night Before Christmas – Storage

Twas the month before Christmas
And all through the house
The storage was low
Hardly a crumb for a mouse.

The shelves were about empty,
Oh, what a plight!
The wolf’s at the door,
And no money in sight.

All the children were nestled
To keep warm in their bed,
Hoping that before long
They surely would be fed.

The prophet had counseled
“Each one be prepared,”
We had procrastinated the day,
Why hadn’t we cared?

ALAS! “Twas only a dream”,
But that didn’t’ matter
I jumped from my bed
Making a loud awful clatter.

Away to the basement
I flew like a flash,
Stumbling over boxes and bottles,
Along with some trash.

As I surveyed my storage,
With eyes all aglow
The security of filled bottles
All straight in a row

Filled my heart with a warmth
And my eyes with a tear
To think I had food
to last us a year.

This feeling of warmth
And security too,
Is what we as your friends
Wish for you.

So put gifts of storage
Under each Christmas tree
For those on your list,
Is our warmest plea,

Give honey, give sugar,
Give flour or wheat.
Give milk, give salt,
Give something to eat.

And you’ll hear them exclaim,
When Christmas is here,
“Thank-you so much,
It will be a good year.”

Author unknown (If you know, tell me :) )

This was handed out to my wife’s Relief Society (Womens Group at Latter-day Saint Churches)

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Mylar Bag Wrapup – Issues with Mylar Bags

This will wrap up our series on Mylar Bag Food Storage. You can catch the previous posts here: a How-To Pictorial on Storing Food in Mylar Bags and Alternative Ideas for Mylar Bags.

This post will talk about some of the experiences, techniques and tips that readers and others have provided us.

MaKettle10 provides us with this info:

In a study done with mylar bags and mice, it took the mice about 15 seconds to sense the food was there, and get into the bag to start eating it. Good idea you have to put the mylar bags into the big plastic storage bins. I’d never store them in cardboard boxes for extended, long-term storage.

Continue reading “Mylar Bag Wrapup – Issues with Mylar Bags”

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one-quarter cup

Over on “Food Storage… A Necessary Adventure”, there is a recent post called Have you seen a 1/4 cup lately.

One Number by 427 on flickr
One Number by 427 on flickr

It put a few things into perspective for me. Of course you should go read the post, but the basic rundown for me was that the minimum amount of food for longer term survival comes in the form of 1/4 cup of rice, and another 1/4 cup of beans, in dried form. How much is a quarter cup, really? We all have measuring cups that size, go check it out. It is really little.

This should give us all some hope for the possibility of storing enough for ourselves. A 25lb bag each of beans and rice gives just over 300 days of *minimal* sustenance! Not only does that show us how easy it can be to get started, but as the poster notes, that also gives us a great understanding of how we can provide some charity in the worst of situations. I know I plan the food for my family, and in the worst of cases, I would need to focus on keeping those resources for my family. But inside we all want to help others. Even if we’re not giving much, just a quarter-cup of dried beans and rice can keep a person alive. Understanding that from our side makes it easier to share.

Now you need to learn how to make the best use *of* that little amount.

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The British called, they want their guns back.

Real world modern and historic data have shown that government efforts to suppress gun ownership negatively affects law abiding citizens while having little to no affect on criminals or the criminal use of firearms.  Citizens of England and Australia have come to that realization, perhaps too late.

Listening to these people talk about the incremental way that their rights were first infringed upon, then completely taken away reminds me of a famous quote by Martin Niemöller:

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.”

As liberty loving Americans we need to stand up for not only our Rights but the Rights of others.

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Marine Cold Weather Medicine Course

The first in what will be many resources we hope to make available for download to you.  The Marine Cold Weather Medicine Course manual seemed a natural fit to make available to people in the mountain west region right now.  As we finally are starting to get our delayed Winter weather, it’s important that we make sure our Winter preparations are also readied.  Your car-kit needs to be reviewed, food rotated, clothing changed, etc.  This manual gives a great number of insights as to what you should do.

The manual targets a marine unit, which can translate well into what you might need to think about in a family situation.  The manual attempts to teach everything somebody would need in order to effectively move themselves during harsh Winter conditions.  They provide good lists of items to keep in an emergency kit for personal use, as well as spreading larger group items around.

Beyond gearing up, the book provides some great information for traveling across difficult terrain, and then focuses heavily with the titular matter, dealing with health issues in the winter.  The manual focuses on several of the winter specific health hazards, and how to deal with them effectively both in terms of immediate medical attention, and in how to handle it as a group.

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Got a Kindle? You can get it here:
COLD WEATHER MEDICINE COURSE, Survival

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Jordy’s Food Storage Christmas

I’d like to link today to a great post by a friend of mine, Jordan Gunderson. I’ve known Jordy for a few years now through our local geek community, and was ever so proud when recently he had told me about how his family had been dedicating themselves to getting their three-month, then year’s supply of food in place. He had obviously put in some good thought and research into things, much like any geek will do when dedicating themselves to solving a problem.

Continue reading “Jordy’s Food Storage Christmas”