Several of the stoves getting setup

Last weekend several of the UtahPreppers got together with some friends to begin doing some hands on tests to start preparing for winter. Recently several of us have acquired new stoves and we wanted to give a conduct some tests to compare how well they worked. For our first meet up we wanted to test a few stoves and other devices with the group. While we learned a lot we realized that we’ve got some more comprehensive tests to run through before we can highlight each of them adequately. But before we move along with the individual tests, we wanted to thank some of the people that helped make this first stove test so much fun and informative.

Volcano Grills

In terms of stoves, Volcano Grills is nothing new to longtime readers here. We’re all big fans of this product and it keeps getting better. Mark with Volcano Grills showed us a few changes that they’ve made to the stoves to improve them and gave us a few new ideas about things to try. We’ll be reporting some of the results and showing off a few things you will want to have for your stove.

EcoZoom Rocket Stoves

The principle of a rocket stove has become quite popular recently with various build it yourself plans and kits available online. While you can make various types yourself you may want a more well-made product to depend on for long term usage. EcoZoom Stoves let us use one of theirs and we’ll be letting you know how that worked.

FireBox Folding Stove

A local newcomer, we first met the creator of the FireBox Folding Stove at the self-reliance expo in Salt Lake City. It was great to see a local with a well-made product. We knew we’d have to put this thing through some tough tests to see if it lived up to the demo.

QuickStove

Another local the QuickStove is a Stove-in-a-Can concept that seemed right up our alley. It is a self-contained kit that allows for emergency cooking and storage in your 72-hour kit

Saratoga Jacks

One town over from our test site, the Saratoga Jacks folks didn’t have far to travel. They came with their thermal cookers that we’d been researching and let us have a little hands-on time.

They also provided us with a unit to run through its paces and conduct some longer term tests. For more info see Mike’s review of Saratoga Jack’s Thermal Cookers

Eden Valley Foods

Newcomers to the food storage market, Eden Valley Foods brought over a few samples and some great information regarding various food manufacturing and storage methods as well as information on how freeze fried food are manufactured, shipped and stored.

FoodStorageMadeEasy

Along with the UtahPreppers authors that made it to our event we also had Jodi from FoodStorageMadeEasy.net, some of our best local friends. Their site is a great resource for people overwhelmed with the idea of food storage and looking on how to get an easy entry into our world.

Coming Soon:

As we get review posts about each of these products ready we’ll update this page with links. You can also follow our RSS feed to get updates when they come out.

We’ll hopefully be having more group events soon, so don’t forget to let us know (contact us, or here in the comments) if you’re interested in coming out, or if you have something you’d like to see tested!

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.

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.

KNOW YOUR LIBERTY
STEPHEN PRATT
Will be in Highland, Utah!
January 7-8, 2011

Explore the story of AMERICAN LIBERTY by examining the evidence.
7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday & 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday

Highland City Hall
5400 West Civic Center Drive

Jan. 7 – The Empire Has No Clothes: The Bare Naked Truth v. the Official Literature

Jan. 8 –
Original Intent: The True Nature and Character of Our Federal Government
The Unknown American Republic of Republics
State Sovereignty: The Original Concept

No Charge: Seating is limited / Arrive early and RSVP

For more information contact: Dan or Jenni Campbell

dan@infogenix.com
jenni@infogenix.com
Or phone 801 768-7336

Stephen Pratt’s lectures are widely regarded as informative and entertaining. Help us spread the word by sharing this link on Facebook/Twitter, and bring a friend!

From the abstract:

An in depth look at amateur radio’s effect on today’s technology. Topics to be covered will include the history of amateur radio, requirements for becoming an amateur radio operator, exploration of the technologies amateur radio uses, and open source tools that can be used in conjunction with amateur radio. Technology enthusiast familiar with the Linux Journal January 2010 issue will find this presentation a compliment to the amateur radio articles covered. This presentation is suited for technology beginners to experts, and those that would like to learn more about amateur radio.

Date/time: Oct 08, 3:00 p.m.

If you are a interested in finding out if amateur radio is right for you, or what other uses it can have in the modern digital lifestyle, this is a great class to attend.  It will not be teaching what you need to specifically pass a test, however, but will definitely get you started on that path.

Check out the conference website for location and other information.  Also on Saturday there will be a general get-together of HAMs.

Disclaimer: I (Jayce^) am one of the people running the Utah Open Source Conference.  It’s a collection of the different “Geek” groups in the intermountain area.

Debbie Kent lives in the Southern California. She has been married for 30 years. She and her husband are the proud parents of 6 beautiful children, and grandparents of 3. She has been an advocate of food storage and emergency preparedness since her early teen age years. She enjoys giving emergency preparedness lessons each month at her church. Much of the resources found on this website are the culmination of hours of preparation for these lessons. She sincerely hopes that in sharing this information, other’s may benefit from her efforts. http://peaceofpreparedness.com/

Spanish Fork, April 15th, 2 classes by Debbie Kent

Hi Everyone,
I am up in Utah visiting my family and will be teaching to classes in Spanish Fork on April 15th at 7 pm. The address is 300 East and Center in Spanish Fork. MAP

The Classes are Food Storage…Use it or Lose It
and
No Power No Problem…Cooking When the Power is Out.

Come and Join us

I don’t have any information on how to RSVP so I recommend that you show up early to be sure you get a good seat.

Feel free to post up your own plans, and meet a few of the folks that frequent the blog.

My first thought is to have the indoor meet-up at 10am near the entrance of the show, this lets us all browse around, and hit the things we need to first.  After that, I’m all for meeting somewhere (I’d say the nice crown burger across the street for a Pastrami-burger with fries) at maybe noon.  Please Comment if you will come, and what times (or any differences in preferences).

I’ll try to make sure and have something noticeable so you can tell our group apart :)

Now, I can’t wait to go back, this time with some firearms! Some of the Utah Preppers authors are heading up again on October 24th to watch some Cowboy Action Shooting and to do some shooting of our own. Read on to learn about this shooting sports venue, see some pictures and find out when some of us will be heading out.

The North Springs Shooting Range was created by and is entirely owned and operated by Carbon County. It’s construction was financed by the gas, oil and mineral rights of the area where the range resides. I have been to a number of shooting ranges throughout the western United States and this in my opinion is one of the nicest ranges I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

Ranges

The range accommodates several different types of shooting sports.
Range Layout Map
This map is a little out dated, but shows the primary areas and their relation to each other.

High Power Rifle Range

This range has long line of well made concrete shooting benches under a roofed area. A section of this range even includes propane heaters in the ceiling for shooting on colder days or during the Winter.
The rifle range is divided into three sections from left to right as you face the range.
Section 1 has metal targets beginning at 600 yards at 100 yard intervals out to 1000 yards.
Section 2 has targets starting at 100 yards and going out to 600 yards.
Section 3 has some targets at varying distances up to 100 yards.
My only complaint about the rifle ranges is a lack of trenches at 600 and 1000 yards for raising and scoring targets. If the range had these, sanctioned competitions could be held there. A section of the rifle range is 3/4 enclosed for colder days. Use of the rifle range is included in your $5 user fee.

Shotgun area

The shotgun area is fairly basic right now. It consists of a picnic table, a few concrete pads to shoot from and an electric trap/skeet thrower. Using this facility costs an extra $2.50. You can purchase clay pigeons at the main cabin or bring your own from Wally World. Plans are in the works to expand this area by adding a few more throwers and some concrete lanes as you see in competitive trap and skeet. My wife loves shooting clays so I imagine I’ll be spending a decent amount of time in this area.

Archery Range

I didn’t get a good look at this area. I only saw a few archery targets from my vantage point on the road. I admit to not being much of an archer, but I should have paid more attention to this area. I watched a video online (sorry, I can’t seem to find it again) that showed a number of neat 3D targets like deer and even the Utah Raptor dinosaur. 3D archery is an extra $10 a day.

Law Enforcement Range

This is a mostly covered and heated area for law enforcement and tactical training. There are computer controlled reactive steel targets that are used in training law enforcement personnel. Due to limited numbers of range officers, this area is not open every day as an employee must operate the computer. The use of this facility is an extra $5 a day.

Castle Gate Cowboy Action Shooting Town

Cowboy Action Shooting is a very fast growing shooting sport. The Single Action Shooting Society is the group that organizes this sport. It involves dressing up in period clothes, adopting a period persona and shooting period weapons at steel targets.

I’ve been to a few of these events and they are always a lot of fun. Although some might discount this kind of shooting as impractical, I would beg to differ. If you can shoot a single action revolver quickly and accurately at ‘tactical engagement range’ you can do the same with a semi-auto. Maybe cowboy action shooting will become the new tactical training regimen du jour :)

The Caste Gate town also has a club house that is available for rent. It includes a kitchen, bathrooms and conference area. The club house is open during Cowboy shooting events and is available for 1/2 day and full day rental as well.

Basic use of the Castle Gate Town area in included in the basic $5 admission price.

Other features

The range also has 115 camp sites for those looking to camp in the area. Camping is $5 for Day camping and $8 for over night camping.

There are a number of 3/4 enclosed shooting areas with Propane heaters. The heaters cost $2 an hour to operate.

Utah Preppers Meetup

Since a couple of this site’s authors will be heading up to this range we thought we would invite our readers to come as well. Firearms are an important part of a well rounded preparedness strategy. So is knowing how to use the tools that you have. This will be a great opportunity to meet some fellow preppers from your state and have some fun.

The Castle Gate Posse will be holding their Cowboy Action Shoot on October 24th. Those who are interested in watching or learning more about this sport will be able to head up to the Castle Gate town to check it out. We also plan on shooting some rifles on the 1000 yard range. There may even be a .50 BMG or two in attendance. If you ask very nicely you will probably be able to shoot one as well.

Where

North Springs Shooting Range
MAP

When

Saturday, October 24th – 10 am
The range opens at 9 am but it is a 2 or more hour drive for many of us.

Below are some pictures we took last Saturday. In rough order, the pictures show the Rifle range, the Shotgun range, one of an archery target, the Law Enforcement range, the Castle Gate town and the camping areas.

I look forward to meeting more of our readers. Hope you can make it!

Dave Acosta is a former police officer who has moved on to become recognized as an international security expert specializing in counter kidnap, personal protection and high risk protective services details. He has conducted operations all over the world. He is the founder of Key Group Security Professionals and is currently involved in security projects in Latin America and both West and East Africa. He has trained S.W.A.T. members in Las Vegas and has helped train foreign military units around the world.

When

Saturday, October 10th, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon

Where

The Salem Community Center, 151 West 300 South, in Salem Utah.
Map

Please call Salem City Offices at 801-423-2770 ext 0 and sign up for the class. Thanks and hope to see you there. If you would like to receive class announcements, emails emergencypreparednessclasses *AT* gmail.com and ask to be added to the list.

Have you been dying to learn how to utilize your pressure cooker to the fullest? Join Kellene as she teaches an Easy Gourmet Pressure Cooking workshop at the Orem, Utah Macey’s.

* Macey’s Food & Drug @ 880 N State St, Orem, Utah
* Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 from 7:00 – 8:30pm
* Call (801) 225-6010 to register
* Cost: FREE (Priceless)