gear

Review – Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker

• 22 Nov 2011
• ekim
• 2 responses

A few weeks ago, several of our authors met up on a Saturday to test out some stoves we were given to review. Jayce will be posting some information and pictures on those soon. The subject of this post was an unexpected surprise to me. At our meet up were the owners of Saratoga Jacks, a local company that imports and sells high quality thermal cookers.

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.
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Tags: Food, gear, Group Buy, preps, Reviews

Emergency kits for young school age children

• 15 Nov 2011
• ekim
• 0 responses

Like most preppers my family has 72 hour kits for each member of our family. We try to keep the consumable items in them rotated, work to ensure that the spare clothes in them are seasonal and fit, etc. Since my children are too young to be in school right now, I haven’t spent too much time considering how I will handle a “get home”, “bug out” or 72 hour kit for each child once they are spending a significant amount of their day in a state run education center. I also need to consider the restrictive policies in place these days regarding what is “dangerous” per current school policies. This begs the question, as a prepper, how do you handle emergency kits for young school age children when they are away from the home?
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Tags: 72 Hour Kits, BOB, EDC, Evacuation Kits, G.O.O.D. Bags, gear, Links, preparedness

Review: Wrap-It-Ice Bandages

• 14 Nov 2011
• Jayce
• 1 response

Wrap-It-Ice by Shield-Safety

Today I decided to write a little review on a product that I really wish I didn’t have to do. The reason for this is not for a lack of quality in the product, but the fact that I actually needed to use it. Yes, this is a first-aid bandage that I’ve had sitting in my cabinet waiting until needed, and now it is.

Several months ago I met with Mike at Shield-Safety, and went through their sales pitch about some first-aid products they had.  While a lot of what they did was not new, they had several things that did pique my interest and stand out as something I wanted to buy. Now I’m not normally a person to give into a home sales pitch, but the Shield-Safety people approached us a little bit differently, they taught first-aid basics, and how to actually use the different items that you should have available in a home first-aid station. One of the products they had that got my attention was a sealed wrap for sprains. (more…)

Tags: Evacuation Kits, First Aid, gear, Medical, Medical Prep, Medicine, Reviews

Goal0 Guide 10 Power Kit

• 04 Nov 2011
• Jayce
• 3 responses

Recently I wrote a bit about my new toys, a varied set of Goal0 solar and battery products. One of the key pieces that I bought was their 7m folding solar panels. This well-designed kit provided 7-watts of peak solar power in a tiny kit that could easily strap on to my backpack and provide charging throughout the day for small devices. The kit I bought also included their ‘rockbox’ speaker set, a small set of speakers that that have a built in battery, but easily charge from this small panel.

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. (more…)

Tags: 72 Hour Kits, Battery, BOB, Evacuation Kits, gear, preps, Reviews, solar, solar panel

Review: Daily Bread Beef Stroganoff With Noodles

• 27 Sep 2011
• Jayce
• 3 responses

The way to a man’s heart is his stomach.  When that man is a prepper, and a blogger, nothing could be more true.  With that said, I was overjoyed recently when I was contacted by one of our local freeze-dried companies.  They were wondering if I would be interested in sampling a couple of their entrees, and writing my opinion on them.  Not exactly a difficult decision there.

What made this choice even better was the timing. I just happened to be heading up that weekend with the guys for a little man-camp time.  What a better way to test things out. (more…)

Tags: Food, Food Storage, gear, Reviews

Getting the Blues – Dealing with Corrosion

• 04 Aug 2011
• Jayce
• 1 response

My Blued Hawken

Gun ownership is a long-term investment which requires proper maintenance and cleaning in order to keep your guns working at their peak performance. A primary concern with long term storage of any gun — especially those stored in humid climates — is corrosion. Preventing corrosion is a multi-step process, starting with proper care of your firearm in the field, and followed with proper storage.  However, even if you take all the necessary precautions and care possible with your firearm, and even in the best of situations, if you use it corrosion or wearing will probably happen. How you deal with the results of such wear is the purpose of this article. (more…)

Tags: Firearms, gear, Guns, Maintenance

Goal0 Sherpa Kit

• 03 Jun 2011
• Jayce
• 0 responses

My Sherpa gear

Recently, Mike published an article introducing a local company named Goal0 (article link). They develop solar products to fit a wider variety of needs than your average solar pack, and so we were very intrigued as to their application to a prepper mindset.

Elite/Sherpa Products

In reviewing the different models, I decided to purchase some of the Sherpa series of products to try out.  One of the ideal solutions when buying gear is to get one of the pre-defined kits, in my case I specifically picked up the Sherpa 120 kit.  This kit is made up of the following items, which in the bundle came at a good discount:

• Sherpa 120 Power Pack
• Nomad 27M Solar Panel
• Sherpa Universal Inverter

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Tags: electricity, Electronic Preps, gear, power, preps, solar, solar panel

Introducing Goal 0 solar power products

• 25 Mar 2011
• ekim
• 5 responses

Here at UtahPreppers we try to keep an eye on prepping topics, trends and products from all over the country and often the world. Even though we try to keep a global focus we still like finding and supporting local businesses that fit into the prepping niche. We recently met up with a Bluffdale company to take a look at some of their innovative solar products.

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Tags: Battery, gear, lights, power, preparedness, preps, Reviews, solar, solar panel, Storing Systems

Homemade ice-claws

• 08 Mar 2011
• Jayce
• 0 responses

Image from KresimirPregernik

When I moved to college in Idaho as a teenager, I had a really quick introduction into a new world of snow and ice. While the snow I grew up with was wet and heavy, and usually melted away pretty quick in the moderate temperature. Idaho however introduced me to the bitter hard-freeze that left our campus with an amazing array of forms of ice that were completely new to me. I, as with many of my fellow students, became intimately familiar with this ice while performing the splits, or landing on my back when trying to hurry between classes.

In that time, I saw a few people that had some nifty attachments for their shoes allowing them to get traction on the ice.  Along the lines of higher end crampons used in ice-climbing, they strapped on over any shoes and allowed the user to dig into the ice a bit more.  Over on one of my favorite sites (Instructables) there are some instructions for creating a simple version of these yourself.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ice-claws/

Tags: gear, Howto, Links, preparedness, Snow, Winter

The 5-gun challenge

• 23 Feb 2011
• Jayce
• 7 responses

FPS by Zweroboi, on Flickr

A theme that is seeing increased activity on many of our friends blogs is that of the 5-gun challenge. What does that mean? Well it’s a way of answering the common question of “What gun should I buy?”  Chances are you’re one of two types of readers at this point; either you are already familiar with firearms, and you will want to read this simply to debate the opinions. Or, you are to some degree unfamiliar with firearms and will hopefully find this post very informative.

If you’ve ever been in a conversation with a firearms enthusiast, you’ll know that each person has their own strong opinions, so it’s always nice to get everybody’s input and reasoning behind their decisions.  This being a multi-author blog, this post will allow several of our authors to explain their choices for 5 guns, and give their reasoning behind each.  Please check out each page to get the full list of recommendations.

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Tags: Firearms, gear, preps

Bouncing The Bugs Away

• 10 Jan 2011
• Jayce
• 0 responses

Mosquito bloodfed by eyeweed, on Flickr

In a group camping situation, I’m “That Guy”.  You know, the one everybody is thankful is around because all the bugs seem to be biting him.  For some reason I tend to get singled out for the airborne attack, and with my allergic nature, I tend to get largest bumps you’ve ever seen.  So I’m always on the lookout for something to improve my chances in the wild, battling the vampiric forces of the bugs.

With that said, I was quite happy to see this bit of research on the Medical Today site: Scientists Prove Fabric Softener Sheets Fend Off Insect Pests

In my search for more weapons in the battle against the bite, I’d heard of people suggesting using drying sheets with some success; now there appears to be some scientific proof to this case.  According to the study:

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Tags: Education, gear

Limited Time Sale

• 18 Oct 2010
• Jayce
• 0 responses

For those looking for some discounts on your food storage, and especially on a few bigger items, this might be exactly what you need.  Our friends at Home Storage Basics are having their Harvest closeout sale.  The following is from the email they sent out.

Home Storage Basics, American Fork Utah!

Harvest Inventory sale one week only! Ends October 23, 2010

Inventory IN the store is 15 % OFF, Except Shirley J Seasoning items.

In celebration of our Store Anniversary we are selling all our used floor models of the BOSCH, BOSCH Compact, Nutrimill, and Wondermill at great prices! All items have been out for a year- some gently used other have seen a lot of cookies in their day! Come visit us for pricing!

Sale ends October 23, 2010!

Questions?  Call 801-756-7600

Please check us out at Homestoragebasics.org

If you are in Utah or Salt Lake counties, you should make sure to check this shop out.  The owner (a friend of mine) is the best resource around for all things wheat and grain related, and the bakery they have in the shop is excellent.  Please check them out and support a great local business.

Tags: gear, local, Sales, store