A recent article in the Lifestyle section over at the Mormon Times titled “Food storage includes more than just food” includes some quotes taken from an interview conducted with me the other day. While the newspaper is targeting members of the LDS faith, the article itself is applicable to anybody. Many people get caught up in simply having a certain number of calories, and not thinking about the other aspects of preparedness. This article does a good job of addressing this and stresses adopting a well rounded approach to preparedness. Although our readers may have more of a prepper mindset than the audience of the Mormon Times, you still may find some good information there. Click the link above to read the article.
Limited Time Sale
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.
Turtle Tuff Shelter Demonstration
As a web developer who freelances in addition to my full time employment, I sometimes take advantage of bartering opportunities. Last year one such opportunity presented itself—I was on the lookout for a military surplus tent of some sort, and came across a company (based here in Utah) called Turtle Tuff Shelters who made yurt-like geodesic shelters. Their website at the time was very.. ahem.. lacking, so I suggested a barter. They agreed, and a few months later I became the owner of a 24′ Turtle Tuff Shelter.
The interesting thing about these shelters, and the reason I opted to get one of these as opposed to some other form of tent/shelter, is that the structure is a geodesic frame which helps greatly with load bearing, wind resistance, with lightweight, high-strength, tempered, aircraft aluminum alloy rods. The dome shape distributes any weight or force across a broader area, thus minimizing any impact it receives. Each of the individual hubs/joints hold over 300 lbs. because of this design. The frame is designed to withstand almost 150mph winds when staked to the ground.
Putting the shelter together has been on my to-do list since last year, but not until today have I made the time to do it. With the help of a friend of mine, I spent the morning putting the tent together—partially, anyways. We assembled the frame and covered it; due to time constraints, we weren’t able to proceed with setting up the floor. Additionally, once the shelter is assembled you determine where you want your door and window to be, and you then cut out material, apply adhesive zippers, etc. I preferred to wait until if/when I actually have to use the shelter before making any permanent alterations to the materials.
The night of the Herriman (Machine Gun) Fire
A lot of people have written up their thoughts and their experiences about going through the Herriman “Machine Gun” fire 19 September 2010. I’ve had some friends ask me to do the same. One friend asked me to specifically to highlight the preparedness aspect of our experience.
We’ve lived in the Herriman area for about seven years. During that time, we’ve seen a handful of fires on the hills south of us, usually ignited by lightning. These have usually been small fires and quickly contained by firefighters. So when we heard there was a fire burning in the hills Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t terribly shocking news.
When we came out of church after 4:00 p.m., the sky was considerably smoky to the point that the light from the sun had taken on an orange-ish hue. That was remarkable, but it still didn’t really concern any of us. We carried on with our plans just as most everyone did.
Continue reading “The night of the Herriman (Machine Gun) Fire”
HAM discussion
Are you interested in learning a little more about HAM radio—specifically, understanding the “geekier” side of things? Then check out this session at the Utah Open Source Conference: Exploring the Radio Frequency Spectrum.
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.