Davis County HAM Radio Class: March 17th 2012

Reader erixun72 sent along a link to the Davis County Amateur Radio Club‘s posting about their upcoming radio class and test. If you’ve seen our posting’s about the Utah County tests, and figured it was too far of a drive, maybe this is a bit closer to you.  There’s never been a better time to get your license, as you can quickly find a local community getting ready for the Utah Shakeout and help out.

If you know of any other classes, please send them along via our contact form, or if you want to post directly, let us know and you can post too. To attend the class, just follow the instructions below.

From the site: Continue reading “Davis County HAM Radio Class: March 17th 2012”

Dealing With Squash Bugs

The following is a guest post from Fern Miller a homeschooling Mom, wife, small business owner, internet marketer, and staff to two cats, who finally lives in a state with concealed carry. She blogs regularly at Fern’s Fronds which is her blog covering a wide swath of topics from preparedness, gardening, firearms, all from a distinctly wiccan point of view.  Enjoyably candid, she has a great practical approach to why and how somebody should be a prepper. Also available on twitter @Fernwise.

Blessings Darlings!

Lately lots of folks have been blogging about their plans for their upcoming gardens, and sighing about he bug-based problems they encountered last year.  I know that my neighbors and I had LOTS of problems with our squash from bugs, both from them simply sucking the life out of the leaves and from them turning the vines to mush.
Now, unlike my  neighbors, I DID get a really good crop before the bugs toasted the squash plants.  But my squash season ended earlier than it had to.  I don’t want a repeat of that.

This year I plan on dealing with the insect problems better than I did last year.  Which is why I’ve been researching the problems and solutions NOW. Continue reading “Dealing With Squash Bugs”

Six Months With A Berkey

A long time ago, in a country far, far away…  Ok, I won’t disclose how long ago, I was in Brasil for two years. Heading down there I was often told a familiar maxim to American travelers, “Don’t drink the water”. Everybody has heard this in relation to some foreign location.  Once in Brasil I actually heard it from the locals as well.  To deal with the various forms of bad things in their water, each home has a terra-cotta water filter that was so simple, that it was shear genius. The base was built with a simple spigot for easy water usage, and on top sat a ‘dirty’ water container that had filters mounted in it, letting gravity do all the work for you.

Fast forward several years, and I’ve started a family, and have moved from the bounteous moisture of the Pacific Northwest, to the arid, seemingly desolate land of Utah.

Continue reading “Six Months With A Berkey”

Files for Episode 1 of Animal Planet’s Meet The Preppers: My Pink Gun

Some people noticed over the last couple of months that we had a few less posts appearing on the site. Besides the normal stress of work and the holidays, one of our more prolific writers (Phil) was heads down on a project he wasn’t allowed to talk about in public. You see, he’s been filming for a new preparedness TV show that just was on Animal Planet. Now some people, like myself don’t have cable (though Animal Planet was among my favorites when I had it). There currently isn’t a way to stream the show from their site, so I searched around until I found it on YouTube, at least for now.

If you interested in meeting some of the UtahPreppers, and missed it the first time it showed, check it out here. If you are interested in the show, make sure to set your DVR or tune in, and let Animal Planet you like the show! Continue reading “Files for Episode 1 of Animal Planet’s Meet The Preppers: My Pink Gun”

Wok Like A Prepper With A Volcano or a Rocket

In my mind, I can hear the sound of an 80’s song, but I am not an egyptian. No, but I do like a Wok.  Most commonly associated with Chinese cooking, the wok actually has variants found from India to Japan.  Billions of people have relied on this simple pan as their main cooking pot for good reasons. The wok represents one of the most efficient means to utilize a fires heat and cook in a variety of ways. This is why we thought it to be a good test at our recent stove party.

In short, a woks shape allows it to provide the best surface area to connect with your heat source, and concentrate it for efficient cooking.  Depending on what food you use, you could boil, saute, stir fry, and more. So for our test, I grabbed some of the cheapest stew meat, and frozen veggies to test a stir fry.  This cooking method is good in a preparedness sense in that it allows you to take smaller pieces of whatever proteins and vegetables you can get your hands on, and quickly cook them with some flavor for a group.  This can be really important in an extended emergency when food fatigue has set in, or if you just are trying to get the most out fo your food budget today.

Continue reading “Wok Like A Prepper With A Volcano or a Rocket”

Fixing it up: Refinishing a Table

Preparing for this past holiday season gave cause to some concern in my family.  Recently moved into a new home that is larger than our old one, my wife has the itch to furnish. Add to that the fact that her extended family was coming to visit to celebrate Christmas at our house this desire became much stronger.  There was one issue, however.  The fact that we had just moved into a new house, meant that our discretionary funds are and we are unable to purchase anything new.

The largest of concerns for my wife was our dining room table. Inherited from her grandmother, it hadn’t handled the years of abuse our kids have given.  Pitted, scratched, and discolored the table had truly seen better days.  My wife was really looking into what could be done to replace this thing. Dreams of counter-height, new colors, and more seating area were frequently discussed, but the reality of the budget didn’t leave her room to get what she wanted.

This then left me in the position of being able to work a little with my hands in order to make my wife a whole lot happier. Continue reading “Fixing it up: Refinishing a Table”

Living in the Past: Iron Age Reality

Yesterday I was linked to a BBC show on youtube that I found quite interesting. The video was a follow-up, thirty years after the filming of a show called Living in the past. The show itself was in effect a reality show, but not one designed on conflict, but the actual experience of a group living as a community in an iron age setting in England.

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.
Continue reading “Living in the Past: Iron Age Reality”

Preppers in the News

Recently there has been a nice uptick in news articles referencing prepper sites like ours. In just this past week, Reuters published an article about the “Subculture of preppers” that trended, especially after it was featured on the Drudge Report. The article did include well known prepper/survival resources such as James W. Rawles, editor of the oft-linked Survival Blog.

Adding to the news, our national affiliation APN (American Preppers Network) was one of the highlighted links in a Blaze article focusing on preppers as those “Stockpiling for disaster“.
Continue reading “Preppers in the News”

When to buy: Grocery Sale Cycles

Part of being a good prepper is not just buying extra food, but the art of learning how to buy right. Purchasing foods especially can be an art form for knowing when to get the best prices, and best quality. For instance, it’s usually a bad idea to buy a vegetable who’s harvest is about to happen, as you know that means you are getting what’s left from last year. Your food won’t taste as good, and it won’t store as long as it’s already got a year down. Grocery stores know this, so many frugal shoppers have studied the common grocery sale cycles to understand how the manufacturers and stores are working together to move their product most efficiently. Continue reading “When to buy: Grocery Sale Cycles”

Homemade camping stove

Sometimes you just want a small stove for your tent. Wouldn’t that be nice to have an actual wood-burning method of heating a shelter that doesn’t cost a fortune, and is easy to carry around? Now dont’ get me wrong, I truly covet a nice stove for the wall tent I dream of owning some day, but reality hasn’t let that come into my posession yet.

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The End of the Deseret Chemical Weapons Storage

For a long time, the most dangerous thing that could happen after an earthquake in Utah was the release of chemicals stored at the Deseret Chemical Weapons Depot. Located just South of Tooele this location was the main storage location for several types of the US Army’s chemical warfare arsenal. While stored as securely as possible, the possibility of some form of leakage existed, especially if a disaster such as a large earthquake were to occur.

According to one report, over its lifetime the Deseret Chemical Depot has destroyed 1.3 million munitions and 13,617 tons of chemical agent. Today (the 18th of January, 2012) the final piece of ordinance (mustard gas shells) will be fed into the incinerator. On Saturday, the final storage tanks (contents already destroyed) of Lewisite will be destroyed as well.

Living just downwind from this location, I can say I’m very happy that this is gone.

Group Stove Test: First Thoughts

UtahPreppers stove test
UtahPreppers stove test
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. Continue reading “Group Stove Test: First Thoughts”