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.

But how about a nice way to build a simple, portable stove? Because we all know that when winter really hits around here, simple ways to heat and good are of utmost importance. And I wanted something that was an actual stove (with chimney) that was nicer than the truly survival ones you make from #10 cans. Behold, the ammo-can stove:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

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!

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.

Jayson was pinned in what is called a strainer.  Several logs were across the river and there was a lot of debris under the logs.  Swift moving water applies an enormous amount of force – it took several minutes and several men to work his body off of the strainer and out of the river.  My assignment was about 30 feet downstream as safety – half a dozen team members and I were positioned such that if one of our people working with Jayson’s body fell in the river we would be able to pull them out.  Once his body was freed from the river he was carefully passed amongst about 20 people to the shore and placed onto a stokes (stretcher).  Once everyone was clear of the river, the safety team moved to the stokes and he was carried to an ambulance.

I am attempting to convey a lot of imagery here, details you probably don’t always hear.  I’m doing that for a reason.  I DO NOT want to pull your kid out of the river – or YOU!  Four families in the last week have for some reason thought it would be ok to have their kids near the river – and they were WRONG.

In this case, and the details are not entirely clear, the mother either fell in with Jayson or jumped in after him.  She was fortunately pulled back out by two bystanders who risked their lives to grab her.  She was unconscious, hypothermic and immediately transported to the hospital.  She was extremely lucky that they were able to get her out of the water, as the ones who pulled her out were extremely lucky that they did not become victims themselves.

Those of us who live and play here know that you can often ford the Provo and American Fork river without too much danger.  Such is NOT the case right now and will not be for the next month and a half at least.  The rivers are extremely high and extremely fast – which equals EXTREMELY DEADLY.  With the current conditions of the water right now, if an adult went in I would say they have about a 90% chance of dying.  That goes for the Search and Rescue Team as well – our training, gear and preparation allows us to lower those odds as well as working as a team and controlling situations – but it’s still a huge risk.

If you’re taking your children in the mountains – which I highly recommend you do – just be cautious, aware and alert.  Do NOT let your children near the river!  The banks are water logged and getting hammered by water much higher than they’re used to.  Collapse of the bank into the river is a huge potential problem.  Just because you’re standing on dry ground at the edge of the river does not mean you are safe, that bank could collapse from your added weight with no warning.

Tell the story I just shared with your kids if you’re going to be in an area where the rivers are running.  Let them know that other kids like them are dying from falling in.  Show them a line 20 ft away from the bank and forbid them not to cross it.  Keep your eye on them – getting distracted for 30 seconds could easily mean you look back and your kid is gone – and 30 feet down the river – and they’re not coming back alive.

Whatever you do, don’t think “that won’t happen to me”.  There is nothing special to the river about you or your kids – it will devour you violently if you end up in it.  My kids have a lot of experience with the local rivers and I won’t let them anywhere near it.

Please, heed the warnings of the media, the authorities, of me – Do Not Let Your Kids Near the River for the next month.  There are plenty of places to play and have fun in the mountains without risking the river.  Pulling kids out sucks, I really don’t want to pull yours.

Email edited for screen readability only (spacing), and redacting names.

——-

This was sent to a friend of ours March 13, and I’ve edited out names,they felt we could learn from this experience about a ‘real’ emergency. Hope it helps someone here.

Hi Everyone, We’re doing “fine” here. Considering what is going on around us. When the first big quake hit, around 2:45 in the afternoon on Friday, I ran to ***** room and grabbed him out of his crib. We’ve had plenty of earthquakes in the 2.5 years we’ve been here, but this one was huge. ***** started crying and calling for me –I got him too and we huddled on the stairs away from windows and light fixtures. The two boys were walking home from school and came in while the house was still shaking. They thought it was exciting. I yelled at them to “GET BACK OUTSIDE!” because I’d just been told if you’re outside, you’re supposed to stay outside! I sat on the stairs praying: “Please protect my kids, please protect my kids, please protect my kids…” It seemed to last forever (around 5 minutes I’ve heard) and then the aftershocks just kept coming and coming. They’re still coming.

They evacuated the hospital and **** was able to come home around 4. [I can't tell you what a relief it was to have my whole entire family safe and together. And how upsetting it was/is to think of people all over Japan who have family unaccounted for. It's really hard for me whenever one of the husbands has to leave.]

Since then, the power has been out and we haven’t had any heat or access to phones (to the states) or Internet (except ***** getting one e-mail out from the hospital.) Friday evening we moved our friends in with us (**** and **** and three kids) since they just shipped   their stuff to the states in preparation for their move in two weeks. It’s been nice to have them around because everyone is on edge and extremely stressed.

Yesterday (Saturday) they opened the commissary (No lights, cash only) and we grabbed some extra food, water and diapers. Since we have the standard Mormon “food storage” I wasn’t too worried about running out of food or water, but I didn’t have any spare diapers so was happy to buy three big boxes yesterday for *****. (And yes,I bought two big cans of hot chocolate. Priorities, people!)

We went to church for a shortened meeting to take the sacrament and get the news today. All members of the branch have been accounted for and we’ve heard that all the missionaries in Japan are accounted for also. (Big relief.)
The power is now back on off-base which is how I have Internet access right now. We’re at ***** house. Hopefully it stays on.

We were asked at church to see what extra coats, blankets, food and water we can round up to donate to the Japanese people nearby. I feel heart sick thinking of those who’ve lost homes and loved ones. Although you probably know much more than me, I hear the devastation is extremely great. We were lucky to be so safe on base and grateful our off-base friends and neighbors were okay.

The earthquakes (aftershocks) haven’t stopped and I spent all night last night having nightmares about running from collapsing and buckling buildings. The kids are on edge and tantrums are at an all time high. They keep busy playing during the day, but when it gets dark and we have to ration flashlights and candles it gets extra hard to keep the peace.
A few things I’ve been wanting to tell people and note for the future:

• Get an old school, corded phone. If the power goes out, your cordless won’t work. We were lucky to have a corded phone upstairs which helped ***** coordinate with the Branch President to get accountability of church members. (The phones have worked on-base off and on, but we were never able to get a call through to the states.)
• Speaking of accountability, in an emergency, if you’re going to leave your house–leave a note on the door saying where you are going so when guys from church or work coming looking, they’ll know where you are.
• When the power went out, people off base couldn’t get their cars out of their garage. Turns out there is a special crank to use but most of our friends didn’t have it or know what it was. Luckily ***** had parked outside and was able to get her kids to our house Friday.
• We’ve been cooking with our camping equipment. Note to self: Buy a 20 pack of small propane tanks. We’ve also used our outdoor BBQ (in the cold) and I’m wishing I had a spare tank of Propane for that.(We still don’t have power and don’t know when it will come back on On Base. Estimates have said 24 hours (we’re way past that) to 1 week, to indefinite.)
• Do you have an extra refill of your prescriptions in your 72 hour kit? It’s terrifying to imagine running out of the things you take every day. Also, the thought of my kids getting sick and not having enough Children’s Advil and/or Tylenol made me pretty nervous until I verified we had some of each.
• For ONCE I was glad to be doing Dave Ramsey yesterday when we had plenty of cash on hand to shop at the commissary. But we also have a cash and yen emergency fund hidden in the house for back-up which was very comforting.
• While I’m making notes to myself: Buy a hand crank wheat grinder and blender! (We have a freezer full of frozen fruit to make smoothies but no way to blend anything.)
• Flashlights are a pain in my butt. All of our stupid Rayovac crappy-**** batteries that I had stored for an emergency, LEAKED! So the flashlights are all slowly dying, being over used by the children, and being misplaced. The best source of light the last two nights has been the pillar candles I’ve had in the cupboard for fancy table settings. They seem to burn pretty slow and shed a lot of light. I’ve gone through 3 and have 1 left. Wish I had a 20 pack of those in my 72 hour pack. It would be nice not to worry about running out. Small, light weight, energy efficient lanterns would be nice too.
• Also, my next house will have a wood burning fire place. This all would have been much easier if we could have been warm.
• Also, I’m buying all my kids a down comforter. We have one on our bed and we’ve been fine at night, but the kids need 20 blankets piled up to stay warm. (Actually, the older boys each have a two layer fleece blanket which is pretty warm, but unfortunately, they’re not very big.)

(Poor little ***** had to spend yesterday in his snow suit to stay warm. The poor little guy must be sensing the stress because he’s been quite out of sorts. He’s always shivering (even when bundled) and very clingy. The kids are all confused and upset but mostly hanging in there. Like I said, it’s been nice to have friends to keep us company.)

Sorry, I’m rambling on and on but I’ve had all this stress for the last two days and my main way to process is by writing my thoughts down. So I’ve been going a little nuts feeling so disconnected.

A few more random thoughts: The last two days this thought kept running through my head “All are safely gathered in.” I can’t express enough how glad I was/am to have my family around me. Please say a prayer for our many many friends with deployed spouses. This is a very stressful time here and it’s really sucky for them to be apart. Also, please pray forall the Japanese people who are missing or displaced. So sad.

We were very blessed on base to have running (freezing cold) water. Off base, sewer lines broke and contaminated the water supply they weren’t even supposed to touch it.

Today we sang “I Need Thee Every Hour” at church. Has a lot of meaning right now.

Okay, there are other people who need to use this computer. Everyone on base is coming off base to try to contact family.

***** husband (Pilot) is at work trying to coordinate rescue efforts so I should go down and help her take care of the multitude of children and get everyone some lunch.

Please pray for us (us being everyone in Japan) and if you feel so inclined, find a way to send some warm blankets to people who’ve lost their homes. Don’t know when I’ll be back on-line again, but hopefully soon.

Thanks to everyone for your concern. I knew (figured) there were people praying for us back in the states and it helped to think about.

While these young men made an initial mistake that got them lost, they managed to remain calm and focused on survival. Creating a snow cave, starting a fire, etc. are all useful skills and as this example clearly shows can help to keep you alive.

Another aspect of preparedness is learning from our mistakes and other’s examples. In this case, if they had their avalanche beacon and some other gear, (perhaps some EDC items, or an emergency kit)  they would have been located much sooner or not been lost in the first place, and been more comfortable while waiting for rescue.

Read the article and absorb any information you can so you can use that information if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

To With more than half the country being inundated by massive snow and ice storms and much of the rest of the country having below freezing temperatures, people are at a very high risk for Hypothermia.  Knowing what Hypothermia is and how to treat it not only prepares you to help yourself but most importantly, to help others.  I’ve consulted several resources to try to put together a very comprehensive overview of Hypothermia.  Those resources include the Mayo Clinic, my EMT Training Manuals, the CDC Guidelines for Hypothermia and the State of Alaska Cold Injuries Guidelines (Alaska knows more about Hypothermia than anybody, their standards are what we use here for Search and Rescue).

Hopefully you’ll find this summary easy to understand and helpful.  If you come across someone experiencing Hypothermia you really need to know ahead of time how to deal with it!

Hypothermia

Hypothermia is an emergency condition that occurs when the body is losing heat faster than it can generate or acquire it.  This results is a slow and steady decrease in core body temperature.  As the core temp drops below 95 degrees you begin to enter Hypothermia.  The body attempts to adjust to this heat loss by reducing perspiration and circulation to the skin – shutting down avenues by which the body usually gets rid of excess heat.  The body will try to compensate for heat loss by attempting to generate heat on its own by using muscular activity in the form of shivering by increasing the rate at which internal fuel (food) is burned.

Failure to get proper treatment for Hypothermia will result in death.

Signs and Symptoms of Hypothermia

• Shivering – Uncontrollable and constant.  Shivering is the body’s automatic defense against losing heat, it is how the body attempts to warm itself
• Clumsiness or loss of coordination
• Slurred speech or mumbling
• Confusion or difficulty thinking
• Poor decision making – such as removing clothes because the person thinks they’re too hot
• Drowsiness or very low energy
• Apathy towards their condition
• Progressive loss of consciousness
• Weak Pulse
• Shallow Breathing

Hypothermia comes on slowly and because it causes confusion, the victim is usually unaware of their condition.

General Principles of Hypothermia

1. The body is actually protecting itself and its vital systems by going into Hypothermia.  Without taking these protective measures, the heart would fail and the person would die much sooner.
2. Because the body has taken protective measures to protect itself, resuscitation efforts should be maintained beyond those for normothermic patients.
3. In severe Hypothermia cardiac instability is an issue.  Physical stimuli such as jostling, exercise and chest compressions can cause ventricular fibrillation (heart attack) in a cold heart that is functioning effectively.
4. In severe Hypothermia, compressions (CPR) should only be performed when functional cardiac activity is fully absent.  The pulse can be extremely difficult to feel and should be attempted for a prolonged amount of time (at least 45 seconds).
5. Cardiac tissue in severe Hypothermia is resistant to defibrillation and anti-dysrhythmia medications.  These procedures are generally withheld until core temp has been raised to at least 86 degrees.

Treatment of Hypothermia

Basic Treatment for Hypothermia

1. Prevent further heat loss
   1. Insulate from the ground
   2. Protect from the wind, eliminate evaporative heat loss by removing wet clothing
   3. Insulate the patient, including the head and neck
   4. Cover the patient with a vapor barrier (blue tarp, emergency blanket, large piece of plastic, etc)
   5. Move the patient to a warm environment
2. Call 911, request an ambulance
3. Do not give alcohol or permit patient to use tobacco

Treatment for Mild Hypothermia

1. Follow procedures for Basic Treatment
2. If there is no way to get to a medical facility, or it will be more than 30 minutes rewarm the patient with the following methods:
   1. Fuel their shivering with a very sugary drink (sugar content is more important than hot drinks)
   2. Do not allow the patient to drink liquids unless the patient is capable of swallowing
   3. Apply heat to areas of high surface heat transfer including the underarms, sides of the chest wall, the neck and groin.
   4. Place the patient in a sleeping bag and provide close skin-to-skin contact
   5. Consider a warm shower or bath for the patient
   6. Mild exercise such as walking or stepping up and down on an object will produce heat and may be helpful

Treatment for Severe Hypothermia (with signs of life)

1. Treat patient very gently, do not rub or manipulate extremities.
2. If clothes are wet, cut them off
3. Treat for Basic and Mild Hypothermia except:
   1. Do not allow the patient to sit or stand until rewarmed (do not put in a bath)
   2. Do not give the patient oral fluids or foods
   3. Do not attempt to increase heat production through exercise
   4. Take to a hospital as soon as possible

Treatment for Severe Hypothermia (with NO signs of life)

1. Treat as outlined in Severe Hypothermia WITH signs of Life
2. Check for signs of breathing (coughing, chest movement, etc) for 60 seconds.  If patient is not breathing and does not have signs of circulation give 3 minutes of ventilation.
3. Check for signs of breathing and circulation for 60 seconds.  If there are none, goto step 2
4. Use mouth to mask breathing
5. Transfer to a medical facility as soon as possible

Being able to start a fire is absolutely critical in many potential situations.  It can literally mean the difference between life and death.  Knowing many ways to be able to start a fire is an essential survival skill, practicing and maintaining those skills is just as essential.  One of the most difficult situations to start a fire in is when it is very wet.  These situations can be made much easier by having a fire starter that will work whether it is wet or dry and that will burn reliably for a very long time.  By using a paraffin wax “candle” you essentially waterproof your fire starter and can easily start a fire in a wet environment.  Also, because it will burn for a very long time, it is much easier to get tinder started with damp or wet materials since the candle is able to dry out your fire starting material and then start it burning.

To make the simple Fire Starting Candles we’re working on in this video, we follow a few simple steps.  The first is to melt your wax.  This must be done in a double boiler however, the wax will make a mess of any container you melt it in.  To make clean up easy, and so you don’t upset anyone else who might be using your kitchen, we use a can – in the case of this video a pear can – to melt the wax in.  You simply place the can with a couple bars of wax in it,  into the boiling water and let the wax melt.

To prepare your candles, fill each egg slot in the egg carton with cotton balls, dryer lint, wood chips, pecan shells or any other small and burnable substance.  You then pour the wax over your flammable material, making sure the material is completely saturated and then let it dry.

Now you can cut out each egg slot and you have a dozen (depending on your egg carton size) Fire Starting Candles.

This video goes over the entire process in detail:

Most recently, this happened when I wanted to know how to make candles.  Pretty much everything I could find told me to get paraffin wax.  So, I researched paraffin wax to see if I could make it from scratch.  Nope, it’s  petroleum based.  Other options included making them from beeswax, but it doesn’t quite meet my requirements since I doubt I’ll be finding much beeswax in a TEOTWAWKI situation unless I become a beekeeper.  Soy candles sounded like a possible option but again, I don’t think I’ll have a supply of soybeans or be able to extract the oil with hexane.  There was one option however that met my requirements; rendered animal fat, also known as Tallow.

Making a candle out of animal fat is a perfect solution for what I was looking to do.  I fully expect to be hunting animals in a TEOTWAWKI situation for meat and I would not want anything to go to waste from the animals I take.  Being able to use the fat from those animals to make candles is just a huge added bonus!  I couldn’t find any definitive references for making tallow candles though so I cobbled together my own process from several web sites and youtube videos.  One of the key points I was looking for in this process was utter simplicity.  I found a couple sites that showed making tallow with water, salt and other ingredients in a huge pot.  But I also found other sites that talked about making it just by cooking the meat for a long period of time in a pan in the oven.  That sounded much simpler and less involved so that is the process I chose.

For a fat source, I used the fat cuts from a fairly fatty pot roast we had for Sunday dinner.  I knew at the time I was going to be doing this so I saved all the trimmings for this project.  I started off with a full 13×9 pan of very fatty and already cooked beef.  Here are the directions I followed next (there is a video at the end of this article showing the entire process):

1. Put meat in the oven at 370 degrees for 4 hours (the temperature came from averaging out different temps I had seen around the internet.  There might be a better temp to use).
2. After 4 hours, strain the liquid fat from the meat through a cheesecloth (I used a strainer for this step but it could be done without one)
3. Build a mold to pour the fat into (I used a peaches can and filled it with wet dirt then hollowed out a pouring hole with my fingers)
4. Make a wick and secure it to stay in the center of the candle, touching the bottom (I cut a small strip out of an old T-Shirt but you could use any kind of cordage for this)
5. Pour the fat into the mold making sure the wick stays in the center
6. Let it sit for several hours (overnight would be good) until completely hardened
7. Dig it out and trim it up
8. Place the candle in some kind of container to hold it (I used part of an egg carton)
9. Ready to burn

This was a fairly time consuming but very easy process to complete.  I lit my candle and it worked perfectly!  It does smell pretty nasty though so I keep it outside.  I’m pretty sure my wife will find a trash can for it.

During my research on old world candle making, I learned several things about candles.  Primarily, beeswax candles really are the way to go.  Tallow candles really don’t smell good, give off a lot of soot when they burn and are quite soft at room temperature.  During the middle ages, the wealthy used beeswax candles while the paupers used tallow.  This was because beeswax candles were more much more expensive but preferred because of their pleasant smell and lack of giving off soot.  All this tells me that in a TEOTWAWKI situation, beeswax candles will be the premium over tallow candles.  This is all the more reason to get into beekeeping and to have several hives when things collapse.  If you’re interested in being able to make beeswax candles now, or in the future, be sure to check out the excellent article we have on beekeeping!

This video shows the entire process in detail but opens with a series introduction into light and heat.  The candle making starts about 2 minutes in.