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.

To help with this, coupon/frugality blog “Living Richly on a Budget” has a nice list that gives general timeframes that should give you ideas on when to buy. The list breaks out on each month the various holidays that have sales associated with them, as well as general harvest times, and grocery themes that most chains subscribe too. These are important as manufacturers and stores often work together to get the best deals during these sales. Combine smart use of coupons, along with planned bulk purchases and you can get that much more food into your families budget and storage.

An example of their January information:

National Oatmeal Month: Quaker
Diet Foods: Healthy Choice, South Beach, Lean Cuisine, Special K, Kashi, Smart Start, 100 Calorie Packs, Yogurt
Super Bowl Sunday: Pepsi, Coke, Chips, Dips, Cheese, Sandwich Items, Crackers, Snacks, Wings
Seasonal Produce: Oranges, Pears, Grapefruit, Tangerines, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard, Collards, Kale, Kiwi, Avocado, Cabbage, Spinach
Clearance: Christmas Decorations, Toys, Wrapping Papers,
Winter Health: Cold Medicines and Vitamins

Living Richly On A Budgets’ Grocery Sale Cycles. I’d recommend using their nice printable version to keep a list along with whatever binder/clipboard or other organizational tool you use to keep track of your preparedness supplies.

The first day we did a lot of book work. John and Brent at DOA Tactical explained a lot about ballistics, how long range shooting works, shot books and so on. We also did a lot of shooting that day. We put about a hundred rounds of .308 downrange at 100 yards. The second day we did a lot of cool exercises. One of the most useful skills I learned during this class was how to range somebody with my scope. Using the mil dots in the scope, I became proficient at being able to determine if someone was 1500 yards away all the way down to 300 yards. This knowledge lets me instantly determine the rough distance I’m shooting at just as quickly as I get someone in my scope.

At the "Infinite Range"

We also received our shot books on the second day. These are incredibly detailed books that are customized to YOUR rifle and scope with all the distance calculations already figured out and printed for you! The book also has lots of room to log your shots so that you know what scope adjustments you need given different weather and climatic situations. We also learned what it was like to be shot at. We stood safely behind a berm about 150 yards out while the DOA Tactical Instructors shot over our heads, to the right and left of us and into the berm. It was AMAZING to hear what the bullets sound like as the wiz by you! This kind of experience is important so that if you are being shot at, you have the experience to be able to gauge what direction and distance the enemy is based on the snap of the bullet.

These are the kinds of things that you get from Instructors who are actually combat veterans and are trained and certified by the Military to teach this stuff! Brent and John are more than willing to show you their actual military credentials – they showed me. These guys are the real deal – not one of these chair-warrior wanna-be seals that are all over the place trying to teach firearms.

My 500 Yard Target

On the third day of class we started pushing out hard to gain distance. We shot all day long. We put hundreds of rounds down range and moved from 300 to 500 to 800 to 1000 to 1100 and finally to 1200 yards out. It was a crazy day and pulling triggers that long made EVERYBODY sore! Bottom line though is that by the end of that day, I was hitting 1200 yards -with some difficulty – but the beauty was that I was hitting 1,000 yards with no problems!

If you want to learn long range shooting, DOA Tactical is by far the best shooting school I’ve found around Utah County. I highly recommend them and can promise that every class you take with them (I’ve taken several now) you will walk away a much better shooter! I’ve looked at their schedule for 2012 and they have long range classes every month this year. You can call John Luthy, one of the owners, at (801) 661-6304 anytime or email him at doatactical@gmail.com and ask when classes are coming up. Feel free to mention that I sent you – he has told me that he’ll work to make sure anyone I recommend will be able to get a slot in the class they’re looking for.

Here are the details from the instructor:

I must limit the size to 40 people so sign up early to reserve a spot. If you must cancel please let me know immediately so I can free up a slot for someone else. If you must cancel please do it as soon as you know you will not be coming to make room for someone else!!

-. …- –… …-

One Day Ham Radio Class for the Technician (entry level) license.

Saturday, Nov 19th, 2011 7:30am to 5pm

Room 276 in the Howard W. Hunter Law library in the J Reuben Clarke law building (JRCB) on BYU campus. If you get lost ask someone on campus. We start before the library opens so be on time so you can be let in. Park in the lot immediately east of the law building. Don’t park in the restricted areas like Dean’s spot, delivery etc….Enter through the right set of the east facing doors just left of the service entrance and go halfway down the hall and turn right. You are now facing 3 doors with the elevator on your left. go through the door on the right that has the large round sign “caution automatic door”. Go through the detectors by the main entrance and past the circulation desk. Room 276 has a green blinking light right next to the door to your left about 100 feet in. I have an interior map I will send if you want.

An interactive map of campus is here: http://byu.edu
Click on “Campus Map” in the lower left.
It is building #16 on the map; the J. Reuben Clark building JRCB.
Another map is here: http://map.byu.edu/campusmap.pdf It is building
#16 in this map also.
GPS N 40 14.977′ W 111 38.718′

From 7:30am to noon is classroom instruction and then a break for lunch between noon and 1pm. Bring a lunch or you can buy lunch at several places close by on and off campus. Between 1pm and 5pm is self study using a computer program. When you are ready, in the afternoon, you may take the exam. You don’t have to take the test that day if you are not ready and would like to study more. There are plenty of opportunities to test later.

Each student needs a laptop computer for self-study in the afternoon. The laptop needs to run MikeRowesoft Windows with an optical drive to run a program from CD. Borrow a laptop if you don’t have one. Bring an extra laptop if you don’t mind loaning it. The room we will be using has power at every seat for a laptop. I also have a CD for Linux and Mactel (The newer Mac that has an Intel microprocessor) laptops if you can boot off the CD drive. If you have access to a laptop but don’t want to install the program The Mac/Linux CD also allows you to run the program without installing it (this is great if the laptop is not yours or if it was borrowed from work).

I have a handful of laptops to loan during the class. There are not enough of them to cover all who attend so everyone who can needs to bring a laptop. If you have an old laptop gathering dust you no longer use that runs any form of Windows I am looking for donations to use with the class.

There is no charge to take the class but the cost of taking the test is $14.00. You need to bring two forms of ID, one preferably with a picture. The electronic form you fill out requires your Social Security number (thanks to congress….). We do not put your SSN on any forms. The most common mistake is forgetting ID and a Social Security number…… Don’t forget!! This is especially a problem with those under 18 who have not memorized their SSN.

No programmable calculators…..The test is given on computer and graded immediately. Specific instructions how to use the exam program will be given. It is similar to practice exams available on the Internet.

E-mail nv7v@ucares.org (preferred) or call Steve or Susan N7QZU (801-465-3983) to let me know if you are coming and bringing a laptop (please bring one… beg, beg….bring extra laptops if you can).

Don’t forget:

•  $14 check or cash
•  Laptop if possible

Sorry to have to include this section but I continue to have candidates come to the test session without proper ID.

You want to take the test not run home to get your ID!!!

ID requirements for the test session are rather liberal. The preference is for ID with a picture on it issued by a government entity. It is often difficult to find ID for children and many people only have a driver’s license with them so be sure to remember to bring two forms of ID.

The following qualify:

• Social Security card
• Birth Certificate
• Passport
• Driver’s license
• State ID card
• Concealed Weapons permit
• Medicaid card
• Military ID
• Library card
• Student ID (Government run school)
• Faculty ID (Government run school)
• Your automobile registration that has your name and address
• If you can’t find anything else a canceled letter addressed to the test candidate will work for one of the two IDs.

The following don’t qualify:

• Credit Cards (even those with a picture)
• Warehouse club card
• Temple recommend
• Work ID (unless you work for the government)

Notice the pattern…. ID issued by a government entity works. ID issued by a private entity does not.

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)

I’m not a doctor and I don’t consider myself skilled enough to teach someone else how to do this.  This post is not intended to teach you how to suture or to make you think you learned here.  You need to get real training from a real doctor.  Once you’ve learned how to suture, this post takes you through the process, as I understand it, of suturing a scalp.

My brother recently had a piece of construction equipment fall on his head and asked my friend, Kelly, and I to sew it up for him.  Always anxious for something besides pig feet and chicken to practice on, we excitedly told him to get over to my house!  Here’s what he looked like when he showed up:

The first thing we needed to do was to get rid of all that hair.  So, I got a hair trimmer and shaved his head, being very careful to keep hair out of the wound, without any attachments on the trimmer.  Next, I took a razor and very carefully shaved every hair within about an inch of the wound site, again being very careful to not get any hair in the wound.

Once that was completed, I carefully but rigorously cleaned out the wound with alcohol using cotton swabs and gauze.  I also irrigated the wound to make sure nothing was hiding down inside it.

Once the wound was clean, it was time to numb it.  We shot him with several small injections of lidocaine to numb it, testing for numbness after a few minutes by gently poking inside the wound with the needle.

Once it was numb, we were ready to start stitching.  Using a needle puller, we sewed 3 stitches into his head.

We used a “simple surgeon’s knot” (that’s what I remember it being called) to tie each stitch off.

Once we were done, we trimmed the excess thread and cleaned up.  My brother later had a doctor friend look at it and he commented that he couldn’t/wouldn’t have done any better!  It has since healed up and the stitches have been removed.  The scarring is extremely minimal – especially compared to what it otherwise would have been.

For a simple procedure, to do it right (as Kelly and I have been taught) requires a fair amount of equipment and materials.  All this gear came straight out of my medical prep kits.

Are You Ready?

To help with this, I have a couple books that are very detailed and show step by step how to process multiple types of game. My favorite one is Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game by John Mettler.  I also really like Deerskins Into Buckskins by Matt Richards, this book has excellent instructions on brain, soap and egg tanning.

To help me make sure I’m up to speed with processing animals, I’ve decided to do it from home for a while.  We just did a pig in our garage a few weeks ago and we’ve got two elk tags for this season.  I plan to process both of those here in the garage.  To get ready for that, I’ve been reading both these books.  I’ve also been watching instructional videos on Youtube.

The biggest issue I hear people mention about home processing is the amount of time and energy it takes to process.  I totally agree!  While watching videos on processing deer and elk, I came across these three videos which show the entire process being done VERY quickly and was quite impressed by them!

If you are squeamish at all about blood and guts – don’t watch these videos!  They show people skinning, gutting and cutting up deer – extremely quickly.  I wish I had this kind of skill!

Skinning and Gutting:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Skinning (a different method):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Deboning:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Course Information

GOLD PROSPECTING FOR FUN OR PROFIT

Only 5 percent of the world’s gold has been discovered. With gold currently trading at over $1500 an ounce, panning for gold has made a real comeback. Learn new methods of panning gold that you can use 12 months of the year. Fee includes prospecting equipment you take home with you. No early registration discount. CEUs: 0.15 Hours: 1.50

At $39 this seems like a bargain for an evening of instruction on what could be a fun and profitable hobby. Here is a Link to the course. I hope to see you there!

The host, Marjory Wildcraft is also not shy about referring the viewer to the books that they consulted when learning and direct you to them for more in depth information. This is in contrast to many other “experts” I have seen over the years who keep their information close to the vest. Marjory appears to genuinely want to provide information to help others get on the path to self sufficiency by sharing everything they can fit in to the 2 hours of video on the DVD.

DVD Section Summary

The DVD is broken down into a number of chapters that cover the 2 hours of content. I’ll include some brief information on each section.

Section 1: Overview about 4 minutes in length

Just like it says, this a basic introduction, describing the makers, their property and philosophies.

Section 2: Water about 10 minutes in length

An old saying is that without water you are nothing. Water is king, especially here in the high desert of Utah. This section explains the main sources for getting water and which ones are best for food production. Marjory and her family have tried several different ways to collect and store water, some of which worked better for them than others.

Section 3: Garden about 20 minutes in length

This is one of the longer sections of the DVD. While there is plenty of good general gardening information here but I would recommend that for anyone outside of their area of Texas you look into getting information focused on your specific are. Many of the techniques demonstrated can be used in most climates, but the plants and specific processes needed, fertilizers, local pests, etc. will need a local perspective. Your local Universities Extension program likely has an Agricultural department with this information publicly available. Here in Utah, the Utah State University Extension office is a great source.

Section 4: Rabbits about 9 minutes in length

One of the primary meat sources for the family are rabbits. This is a relatively short section explaining why the family chose rabbits, how to house them, what breeds they chose and why and mistakes that you can avoid.

Section 5: Home Butchering about 18 minutes in length

This section is not for the squeamish. It centers around in depth video instructions on killing and butchering a rabbit. Hide tanning is also mentioned, but is not well covered. After this there are still pictures of the process to butcher chickens with a brief mention of other animals like raccoons, deer, elk, etc. that could all be sources of meat.

Section 6: Poultry about 8 minutes in length

This section provides a decent introduction to chickens, their predators, and some problems to look out for. Marjory outlines what breeds they use and why. Some Polyface Farms influence can be seen here as well as they rotate the chickens through different areas to help improve and maintain soil quality and to cut down on weeds and insects.

Section 7: Dogs about 5 minutes in length

The creators of this DVD are clearly sold on the benefits of having dogs in your life, mainly to fend off unwanted animals. They make some pretty convincing arguments. A short section is included on training, but as with most topics covered here, if you want to really get started in using working dogs, further research will be required, but this touches on some of the basics so you know what you are working towards.

Section 8: Perennials: Orchards, Food Forests, and Edible Landscaping about 18 minutes in length

This section has some really useful information, but again your best bet is to consult with your local University’s extension program to apply what you see in the DVD to your area. The types of edible foods that you can grow in your climate can vary greatly from those presented in this DVD or in books on the subject so do your homework on what works where you live.

Section 9: Other Essentials about 11 minutes in length

The second to last section contains information that the DVD creators think is important but doesn’t fit well in a previous section. There is plenty of good information here and is too varied to give a brief accounting of.

Section 10: Thanks about 4 minutes in length

As you might expect, this is the section where the creators thank those who helped in producing the DVD.

Bonus Material

Throughout the DVD Marjory references different books and documents for those seeking more detailed information on a particular subject. Included with the DVD is a CD-ROM loaded with many of the referenced documents in PDF format. My copy had 65 PDF documents included ranging in subject from Solar Food Dehydration to Insecticides to Hide Tanning. While I haven’t spent a tremendous amount of time reviewing the documents, they seem to have been compiled with care to supplement the information provided in the videos for those wanting more information. Often during the course of explaining what the document covers, Marjory will give a location to download the document. This is a good resource in case the information on the CD bonus disc were to become out of date.

Closing Thoughts

This DVD provides a quick introduction into many aspects of self sufficiency. As with any brief introduction, further research will be required. Having this documented example of an integrated home/small farm food production system has the potential to save you time and money by following proven, working examples.

The information in the DVD is optimized for southern climates, particularly the makers specific region of Texas. Viewers from other regions should also find it educational and useful, that being said, this is of course an introduction into many varied concepts that relate to self sufficiency. I don’t think it can be said enough, integrating all these ideas and concepts into your life will take some hard work, research and trial and error. The results should be well worth it however.

Giveaway Information

The producers of this DVD have kindly provided us a copy of this DVD to giveaway to one of our lucky readers. To enter, post a comment about this article letting us know what you would like to learn from watching the DVD. We will select one winner at random from all the comments on Friday June 17th and send them their own copy of this preparedness DVD.

When:

Saturday, June 11, 2011

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

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

Click here to view the embedded video.