JIT and some thoughts on Technology

     As you can see we got a little sprinkling of snow this morning and we are in a little bit of a lull at the moment, we do have more on the way though. I ponder a few thoughts as I sit here next to a nice warm fire with a hot cup of coffee. In this day in age with our wonderful technology you would think that weather events would only be of the most minor intrusions to our lives, guess again. Case in point, Mr. Weather man comes on the information dissemination device and informs you that some type of weather event has decided to come visit your area and it might get nasty. What is one of the first things you notice happens?  it's the run on the grocery store for supplies, water, bread, milk, pretty much the basics. You also notice that the store looks pretty empty within a very short period of time depending on the severity of the coming event. We no longer have the “back room” of a grocery store, what you see on the shelves is pretty much it now.

      Most business models now follow the JIT or Just In Time delivery system. This model which is highly computerized determines what products have been sold in say a 24 to 48 hr period of time and generates a list of replacement items to be sent to the store Just before the product is completely sold out.  Now again this business model saves everyone time and money and works great when everything is normal but when things are not normal you have a big problem. If you take almost any system and push it beyond it’s means you are likely to see a failure and JIT delivery is no different. Do you really want to be one of the hordes of people dashing out to the store to pick up the basics? You shouldn’t have to.

     There is a simple and easy way to avoid this problem and that is to have a few days worth of supplies that can be easily prepared with minimal effort and no I am not talking of having any expensive freeze dried or any other high dollar food, those are for completely different situations, here we are talking about short term 2 to 3 days situations. One reason why I stress easy to make options it to take into account the possibility of power failure, water failure, gas failure or any combination of the above. It will do you no good to have foods that you can’t cook due to utility failure so keep in mind that simple is better, it may not be gourmet but you won’t go hungry either.

     Our technology can be a wonderful thing and it makes some things easier with respect to quality of life and other aspects but it can and does fail with regularity and most people are far too overly reliant on it and that’s where the problems begin.

     Now if you are feeling adventurous try this for a weekend, shut off your electricity by way of your main breaker, shut your water off, shut your phone off, that pretty much covers your utilities. Now try to live with what you have without cheating and you will see what I mean about how dependent we are on our technology.

Prepology

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The Middle East, The Economy, Oil and Food

     To say that this month has been interesting would be an understatement, World wide events have been shocking, bloody and historic and it is not yet over. Egypt seems to have been the spark that has fanned the fire to a half dozen countries through out the middle east, fighting in the middle east is nothing new, The area has been fought over for as long as anyone can remember.  Current fighting seems to revolve around the removal of long standing dictators and an eye on some form of freedom.  Now I will never begrudge anyone or any group wanting to break away from a long term repressive dictatorship but there will be consequences. The question arises, who will take over, what will be different, how will my life be better or worse and will I be trading one dictator for another?  Leadership will eventually change that's a fact and more often than not the face changes but policy stays the same, there may be a change here and there for appeasement  but for the most part real change is slow to implement and in fact many people are scared of change due to the unknown. I wish them the best of luck.

     100 years ago no one would have batted an eye if the middle east decided to tear itself apart, that changed with the discovery of oil in Persia in 1908 and Saudi Arabia in 1938. Those two events would shape how the economies of the world grew and developed and it is more vital to the world economy now then ever. Like it or not, want it or not the world economy now revolves around what happens in any one country, we are in a sense interconnected like never before. Long ago when Man and Woman lived, worked and died within the range of 20 miles very little outside of that circle was a concern or even known about for that matter, global events were not an issue, that has changed for better and worse.


     The events of the middle east are on the radar of many countries due to the fact of trade  routes and yes oil. Oil is the life blood of many developed countries and without it they shut down it's just that simple. I remember and see on occasion those that protest with their signs that read "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" well whether you agree with the concept or not we are and will be for the foreseeable future an oil driven world and for those who want to do without you need to keep in mind that Oil is a part of everything we eat, wear live in and pretty much touch, you would be hard pressed to find an item that is not tied to oil either directly or indirectly. One of the largest areas we can tie oil to is our food supply, we as a whole no longer live in a farming type community, we have gone urban and dependent upon large commercial farming techniques to supply us. Long gone are the days of mule drawn plows, they have given way to half million dollar tractor systems that yes, run on fuel. That same fuel is now also used to truck and ship the food we eat on average over a thousand miles. There is no way we can go back to the old ways and sustain the population levels we have, some say we can not sustain what we have anyway but that's another article.

    In closing is is without doubt that we live in perilous and ever changing times, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Also with our constantly shrinking and inter-connected world it seems that even far distant events have an impact upon us. Now more then ever it would be very wise to take steps in order to lessen the effects of these world wide events upon yourself and your family.

Prepology    
Please feel free to re post or quote with proper attribution.

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Looks like Food pricing will stay high (not that I expected any different)

     With world demand, floods, fire and other natural disasters taking there toll on the worlds food supply pricing and shortages will remain high. Other controversial  factors such as Ethanol lend to the problem as well as recently remarked by former President Clinton.

"We have to become energy independent but we don't want to do it at the expense of food riots," Clinton said in the keynote address.

For a further in depth article check out this one: 
U.S. crop boom not enough to rebuild thin supplies
Yahoo/Reuters

Some of my Previous articles on the subject:
http://prepology.blogspot.com/2011/01/us-farmers-are-being-called-upon-to-put.html
http://prepology.blogspot.com/2011/01/energy-food-and-chinese-economy-article.html
http://prepology.blogspot.com/2011/01/food-shortages-article.html
 http://prepology.blogspot.com/2010/12/wheat-grain-missingagain.html

Prepology

Note To Self: Buy Spares

    The phrase " Two is One and One is None" came to haunt me the other day when in my haste I broke the gas cap to the STIHL chainsaw I was using. Needless to say I was a little concerned that I might run out of wood at night all because there was no spare. I will cut myself a little slack here because the chainsaw was not mine but still it is one of those moments where an expletive comes in. Well, long and short of it and a 40 mile round trip and $6 later we have a new cap and a running chainsaw and another spare ordered.


      A good lesson to also take away here is that we are very dependent, actually we take for granted that we can usually run off too the store to buy replacement X but what if we couldn't do that for any number of reasons? Why not have a few vital spares kept at home, there really is not a bad reason not to, yes cost might be an issue but consider this, do you think it will be any cheaper in the future? And if you know you are going to be using it some time in the future why not get ahead? Granted I know you can not have a spare for every little thing but It might be worthwhile to for the important things because you just never know.


Prepology

My new Affiliate Intro

    Ladies and gentlemen I have added another Preparedness Affiliate to the site, it is always good to shop around so it you have a moment please give them a whirl, They are currently having a food storage sale so again see if then have anything to offer.






Also one thing of interest and it is free as well it their Emergency Preparedness Guide Book, This is a real basic book this a free download in PDF format or it is a free paper book with an order. This book or PDF is neutral enough to pass down to someone who might  be a little skittish on the subject of Preparedness so please check it out.





Prepology

United Stated Migration Map

     Here is a link to Forbes, they have an interesting Migration map up that goes by county, you can click on what county your in and you can see the amount of people coming and going.


http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html

Prepology

Mini Cabin update 2/21

 For those that are following the cabin update we finally have a few pictures in. This is the main inside panel that will supply the house, A standard 200 amp 30 space non main breaker. We have started to pull in some of the wiring from the third floor and I have made some temp connections so we can have some power and light as there are no windows up there yet it gets a little dark. Not shown is the emergency panel that we will run a few dedicated circuits in, Fridge, Freezer and a few lights, this will most likely be a 30 or 60 amp panel but we have not decided on what size yet.

 We have also started on some of the framing on the 1st floor as well, the room on the left will be an entertainment room with a double door for access. the other door on the left will go to the mechanical room and 1st floor half bath.










This is the view of the Mechanical room and hall to the above mentioned bathroom, progress, slowly but surely. I gotta go cut some firewood so I can stay warm tonight, I might have a chance to get more up here later.





As always if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Prepology

An interesting article on multiculturalism

      Timothy N. Baldwin, JD. over at News with Views  has an article up on how multiculturalism doesn't work. 

      The article primarily deals with Great Brittan and Europe but it does touch on the US as well. Religion, Culture and Politics bring out the best in people and the also bring out the absolute worst as well. 

     Compromise is what many people bring up as a solution to the problem but in all honesty I just do not see it as being that easy, I have morals, values and culture that I will never give up and therefore someone will disagree with me and that is their right and I respect it but we will still be at an impasse in how to deal with it. 

     I am certain of one thing, I will be long dead and buried before a solution has come to pass.

     Your thoughts?

Prepology

Cotton Shortages And Clothing Pricing Going Up

      I caught on one of the network news channels the other day that stores will be charging up to 10% more for cotton related clothing, I had an article on this early last month:

World is almost sold out of cotton, ICAC reports

 Hopefully many of you took advantage of the situation ahead of time so as to not  endure the price increases. In this economy every dollar counts. Please check out the above linked article as there is some other information available. 

Prepology

Murphy Cabin update

     For those of you following the cabin updates earlier in the week we were having a problem with the main wire pull ( Earlier Post ) We left off in the last post with digging up part of the run where I was pretty sure the problem was at, one of the 90° sweeps. Well near as I could tell we had partially melted the our pull line to the 90° sweep, something I have never had happen before, apparently my lube never made it to that 90° and the flat pull line we used didn't like it at all, I'll never use that type again that's for sure.

The camera is still MIA or I would have included a few pictures here but rest assured when we do I will get a few up for you. So with our main power feed now pulled in we terminated at both ends and turned on the main and let me tell you it is so nice to have power in here without having extensions cords every where, we even installed a few temp light switches for the temp lights, Finally something went right.

Prepology

Judge Rules Cops CANNOT Make You Stop Filming Them - BlackListed News

Judge Rules Cops CANNOT Make You Stop Filming Them - BlackListed News

Yeah we will see how long this last's, you may be temporarily allowed to film them but I bet they sure will try and intimidate them.

Prepology

NY Releases Doomsday Manual

     It seems NY has released a Doomsday Manual for Judges, Attorneys and public heath officials to go by in case of a terrorist attack. Article here.

     Granted this manual is for the above listed officials but it is very important for you in the sense that you will know how the Government will react and you can adjust accordingly, I stress never putting your life in someones hands unless you have 120% complete trust in them. Time and time again we have seen how Government can not protect you in a disaster, they are just too big to react in a timely fashion. The best person to take care of you is you.

Here is the actual manual link.
http://www.nycourts.gov/whatsnew/pdf/PublicHealthLegalManual.pdf

Prepology

Murphy Rears His Ugly Head, Cabin Update

     Well that rotten Bast^%# Murphy showed his ugly head hear for the last two days at the Cabin Build. We are in the process of running the main power feeders, (3) 2/0 and a ground. Everything started off great as we sucked in a pull string with our shop vac and made our check to see if any foreign material made it in the 180' of 2" pipe we had in the ground. Having found no problems we used the pull string to pull in our main pull line, that being a 2500# flat pull line, that went in as well. So we hooked up the 4 cables and I set up the pulley system over the panel and got everything set up for the pull. Now at this point I will say that I have been in the electrical field for some 20 years now and this type of pull is something I have done many many times and I expected no problems in the least, Well I was wrong.

     The pull started off great, better then expected actually until we had about 70' of wire in the hole and then snap, we break the pull line, That's when I knew the day was going to suck, fortunately for us the pull line broke outside of the pipe so we were able to tie right back into it. I checked over the pulley we were using and I could not find a sharp edge or any other problem so we decided to pull again and with the same results, a broken pull string. At this point I am starting to get a little hot under the collar because I installed every single stick of the pipe that is in the ground so I know it was done right. Whats even more frustrating is that I can still push the wire into the pipe as we are only into the first 90 degree sweep so I know that it is not the wire hung up but it is the pull line.

     After some considerable deliberation and a little poking and prodding I decided that some exploratory surgery was going to be necessary in the form of digging up some pipe and doing some spot checking. I had my suspicious pointing to the two remaining 90 degree sweeps as that is where that is where the most friction and tension is ( before any one asks, yes lube was used ). Now I have came across pulls where the pull line has cut through a 90 before but it is pretty rare. The digging has commenced and I will fill you in hopefully tomorrow, it's late, Thanks for stopping bye.

Prepology       

Misc Thoughts 2-13

Image via Wikipedia

     Egypt: So unless you have been in a hole for the last few weeks the people over in Egypt have decided they are done with their president H. Mubarak, well after 30 something years in office I think I would agree. From what I have seen on the sphere here is that there roughly 2 groups of people or 2 trains of thought going about.

#1 Being that everyone is so happy the people of Egypt are rid of their oppressive Government and that they can now move towards something better. Somewhat reminds me of when the Soviet Union dropped communism  and tried Democracy/ Capitalism, They are still trying to figure it out as of now.

#2 Being that many are worried about the power vacuum that now exists and who will fill it, will it be a Democratic or an Islamic form of Government? No one knows at this point but many other Governments are watching and waiting, what Government is chosen though will define the region for better or worse.

There are a few reasons why Egypt is such a strategic area, one being the Suez Canal, this is a vital trade route and if there are any disruptions ( Minor ones when the internet was shut down ) They can affect the global market and create shortages and increased prices that will hurt everyone. This is the plan and goal of the Muslim Brotherhood who is one contender to fill the power vacuum in the country. Another stated goal of the MB is the destruction of Israel as the country shares a border with the country, Currently the two countries have a peace treaty and the military is honoring it at this time but with new leadership comes new or disregarded foreign policy. Needless to say Israel is watching very closely the events that are unfolding.

USA:  Same stupidity different day it seems. The ATF is catching more heat by the day for the Project gunrunner episode where they apparently let firearms be taken into Mexico and where one was used to kill a Border Patrol Agent , Check out  http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/   Mike V. has been covering it along with David C. over at the http://waronguns.blogspot.com/ 

Unemployment dropped to what 9% but we only added around 36,000 jobs, Um I am going to call B/S on that one, we need in this country to add 120,000 to 150,000 jobs every month just to keep up with the amount of new people coming into the job market so until we see huge numbers coming in every month that 9% means nothing, It really means nothing anyway as it does not count underemployed or those who have Quit looking, it is a feel good number and a flat out LIE.

I saw here the other day where a Congressman or a Senator said that not having a budget and the result would be congress shutting down might not be to bad of a thing, well I have to agree in a way that it would be good because then they couldn't spend and waste tax payer money but alas I woke up from that wonderful dream because the system is rigged in that they have to stay in business or the people will starve and die or not get their checks. Damn.

Cabin Update: We are working on electrical so there is not much to show but I will have enough to make a post of it here soon, we are going to try and pull the 2/0 wire today so if that happens ( Weather permitting  ) I will try and get some of the highlights up.

Related articles

• Muslim Brotherhood: Suez Canal Must be Closed, Egypt Should be Ready for War with Israel (wizbangblog.com)
• Opinion: Egypt needs more aid (politico.com)
• Egypt says Suez Canal to stay open, working well (reuters.com)

Chuck Baldwin -- State Nullification: Requisite To Freedom

Chuck Baldwin -- State Nullification: Requisite To Freedom

MR. Baldwin has some info on the recent and proposed legislation set for the state of Montana, I would be happy if even half of it passed.

Also for you cabin construction followers I am heading there this week so I should be able to get some updates up.

Prepology

Thoughts On The 2 U.S. High School Students Fatally Shot in Juarez Mexico

     This past weekend we had another round of murders across the border in Ciudad Juarez just across the border from the US city of El Paso. This is almost a daily occurrence in a city that is fueled by the ongoing drug cartel violence that is plaguing the city and the entire country, This time however it involved several teenagers and two of those being US citizens, High School kids.

     These two boys,  Carlos Mario Gonzalez Bermudez, 16 and Juan Carlos Echeverri, 15 were both students of Cathedral High School in El Paso A Catholic private school. Both boys and an additional teenager were killed while looking for a used car at a dealership on Saturday under a hail of gunfire.  At this time there are no suspects in custody, the investigation continues. The chances of finding and convicting the killers is slim though considering the number of murders that happen in the city (over 3000) last year alone resources are stretched thin.

     I am starting to see  a renewed calling to look at some form of legalizing certain types of drugs in this country under the assumption that it will reduce the violence in Mexico. by  Many are trying to draw a parallel between prohibition and how when it was abolished the problem ceased, Is this a possible solution? It will see a larger debate here in the future I believe do the the worsening violence in Mexico and by a lesser extent by the violence here in the US.

Prepology   

Detroit Offers Homes to Police and Firemen for $1,000

     So whats the catch you ask? Quite simply they have to move within the city limits to claim their refurbished new to you homes. Currently just a little over 50% of police and a larger amount of firemen live outside of the city. You have to wonder why they are not living in the city, is it a high city tax or is it maybe that Detroit is a little dangerous and the Cops and Firemen don't want their families living there.

Prepology

Raising The Debt Ceiling?

     Well not if you go by what the voters want. 62%  in a recent poll at The Hill  say that we should not raise the Debt Limit past the $14.3 Trillion mark and I agree. The problem though is that if you do not raise the limit then you risk the possibility of a default or a revision of the AAA bond rating and that causes all sorts of problems that we do not want.

     With this issue coming to a head here soon the options include either raising the limit with spending cut strings involved or the debt limit not being raised and immediate spending cuts being used to forgo default.  I choose the latter due to the fact that like anything if you give an inch they take a mile and when it comes to the debt history tells all.

     I have a real issue with us having a debt in the first place, that's  $14.3 Trillion remember, can you imagine the interest on this debt?  Government like the people should live within their means and that does not mean taxing us to death or spending our money to study the mating habits worms in some unheard of country. Speaking of taxes while most people want to increase them on the rich who already pay most of the taxes we would do better to look at the 47% who pay little or no federal taxes whatsoever, but that's another debate entirely.

     For the readers here what are your opinions about the debt? If you have an idea or strategy please comment on it and we will see if a new post can be made out of it.

Prepology

Jonathan Emord -- Federal Mandates: Bankrupting States and Destroying Federalism

Jonathan Emord -- Federal Mandates: Bankrupting States and Destroying Federalism

If you get a chance check this one out, not a bad read at all.

Prepology

Sunday Thoughts 2-6-2010

     Folks my brain has been leaking out my ear this past few days and getting anything productive out lately is just beyond me, my head just seems to be in too many places at once, I blame the AADD. I did have a chance to take a whirl around the electron world and see what is going on and we are no less sick as a species then we were yesterday.

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Exclusive video of HPD beating of teen burglar

BY:  Wayne Dolcefino

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Months after four Houston police officers were indicted following the violent videotaped arrest of a teenage suspect, we alone have the tape. 13 Undercover's Wayne Dolcefino obtained it exclusively on Wednesday night. on Thursday, the reaction was overwhelming -- not just over what's on the tape, but over how the mayor is reacting to it.

And how did the Mayor react to it?

But the video created another firestorm Thursday after the mayor declared Wednesday night the person who gave us the video should be prosecuted. More here

That's right folks the mayor is mad that there is a tape of the police involved in an assault and it was made public, there is a growing  trend to make it illegal to video tape law enforcement,  gee why is that? Are you tired of having to pay out millions of dollars  when the few bad apples decide to beat the snot out of someone, granted the kid is far from perfect but does it make you feel more like a man the kick someone when they are handcuffed and on the ground, yeah I'll bet it does. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I think your just a coward with something to hide when as a public official you do not want a public servant in a public place to be under the same rules as up, whats that you always tell us civilians, IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE?  

When you make a mistake own up to it not try and cover it up, you need to air your dirty laundry no matter the cost. Most big city police forces already have a PR nightmare already and when this type of thing happens it only makes both sides distrust each other even more, I could go on but why bother, we seem to be setting a trend here and history never repeats it's self, oh look AI is on.

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Underground world hints at China's coming crisis

By Peter Foster and Zhang Wei in Beijing

There, in the city's vast network of unused air defence bunkers, as many as a million people live in small, windowless rooms that rent for £30 to £50 a month, which is as much as many of the city's army of migrant labourers can afford. In a Beijing suburb, beneath one of the thousands of faceless residential tower blocks that have carpeted the city's peripheries in a decade-long building frenzy, one of Beijing's "bomb shelter hoteliers", as they are known, agrees to show us his wares. More here

Growing pains for China?  Something like that, I do find it a good use of the existing infrastructure but a little cramped for my style but with China growing and becoming a little more Capitalistic and in a sense Western I think this is just the small spattering of whats to come in the country. China is rapidly going from rural farming community to an urban manufacturing cityscape and they will endure all the problems many first world countries have gone through but it will be interesting to see how it works out for them considering the couple of billion people they have, if it works it works but if it fails you still have that couple of billion people that will need to do something....HMMM

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SuperBowl Sunday Right?

Small bags are allowed, but will be searched, and jackets will be X-rayed.
Not allowed

Items fans can't bring into Cowboys Stadium:
Weapons, mace/pepper spray, fireworks
Camcorders, tripods, camera cases and binocular cases
Umbrellas, strollers
Grills, tents, poles, sticks
Banners, noisemakers, horns, beach balls, Frisbees, laser lights and pointers
Containers of any type, coolers of any size, backpacks
Bottles, cans, hairspray
Allowed

Items fans can bring into Cowboys Stadium:
Small cameras and binoculars, but not camera cases and binocular cases
Small bags
Items purchased in Fan Plaza on Game Day
Source: NFL

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/04/2824781/routine-items-not-allowed-at-cowboys.html#ixzz1DD1TLcNg

As one one commenter put it, it only took 19 hijackers for 330 million Americans to loose their freedom.

All I can add to that is the following quote as to me it means more now then ever: 

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

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Ronald Reagan 100 today

Related articles

• '100 on 100': Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Passes $100 Million in Funds Raised for Foundation's Endowment on President Reagan's 100th Birthday (prnewswire.com)

Prepology

 

Thoughts on an ice storm

 Guest Article

BY: SmokeEater2

In January 2009 a very large ice storm hit my area along with other states. We were talking about it at work the other day and I thought I'd share some of the lessons (most hard ones ) I learned from it.

First off we had some advance warning from the weather man that the storm was coming but I and a lot of other people didn't take it seriously enough. The freezing rain started at the beginning of my shift at work which is 24 hours,7am-7am so I wasn't able to be home to help my family any and that nagged at me the whole time. The streets very quickly became very slick and people going to work or trying to get back home after the roads got bad started sliding off roads or into each other and page outs to us and the cops and ambulance started coming in heavily. Shortly after wards the power began to fail all over the county as power lines dropped and poles snapped from the weight of the ice. People were already making runs on the stores and every generator,kerosene heater,lantern,propane heater and batteries sold completely out within hours as well as the usual bread,milk and prepared foods.

This is a retirement community so there were a lot of elderly folks who were suddenly without heat or a way to run their breathing equipment etc. This brought in more calls to 911 and the office of emergency management was scrambling trying to get enough warming shelters set up to handle all the people who had no emergency preps to fall back on (which was most). There were 3 structure fires in short order caused by people attempting to heat their homes with long unused fireplaces,stoves or trying to re-fill a kero heater in the house. All off duty firefighters and cops were recalled to duty and we were still overwhelmed by the volume of calls and the difficulty of getting through streets that were blocked by fallen trees and power poles. To get to some calls required busting out the saws and cutting a path through blocked areas which delayed responses and backlogged calls some more. The phone lines went down all over the area which made it difficult for people that needed help to contact 911. The only thing we could do at that point was split up into teams of 2 men per truck and drive through neighborhoods slowly with lights on so people could flag us down if needed,the LEO's did the same and since our radio's and dispatch was running off generator power we were able to make do during the first 24 hours of the event.

As the night went on more and more power failed and the transformers blowing all over town looked positively surreal. By the time daylight finally arrived there was probably not 10 % of the population that still had electrical power,maybe 30 % had phone service. A lot of people had spent the night in their vehicles after trees,limbs or other things had damaged their houses and were very low on gas after running the engine off and on to warm up. Unfortunately there was only one gas station in town that still had power (for awhile anyway) and long lines formed to try to get gas and kerosene until it ran out. An amazing amount of people apparently eat every meal from a restaurant or take-out and needed food and a lot of folks with wells needed water because they didn't have a generator to power the pump. Many others had little cash on hand and the stores that were open couldn't process credit/debit cards and many wouldn't accept checks.The point of this post is that emergency services may not be quickly (or even slowly) available in a widespread incident.

When I finally got off duty and headed home I found out that a lot of my preps worked great but I also found a lot of holes in my plans and some poor planning and oversight on my part. I'll continue that little adventure in another post in a couple of hours if anyone is interested. 

 END

     Ladies and gentlemen The above is an account from one professional on an act of nature that happens every season like clockwork.  Accounts such as the above are very numerous and pretty much follow a standard line "I'll wait and see" or "It won't be that bad" or even "If i get into trouble I'll call 911" There are a wide range of excuses used to not prepare ones self or family when there shouldn't be. All one needs to do is take a few hours to  read about what happens during every disaster and plan accordingly and you will find out that many times it is the little things that matter.

     One good source for such information as well as almost anything you can think of in the realm of preparedness can be found at the Frugals Squirrels preparedness forums   I strongly urge you to go and get your (free) account and take the time to look at all of the valuable resources that they have to offer,  you will be well rewarded in doing so.

Prepology

What have we learned with the recent winter weather storms?

Image via Wikipedia

       It should come as no shock that during the recent and ongoing winter weather storms here in the US that we continue to be at the mercy of mother nature's pure unadulterated power and that is not likely to change. The weather is the weather and we have no magic machine to control it or influence it, we can however do a better job of  being prepared for it so as to lessen it's effects on us and most times it costs us little to no extra, just common sense.

Image by quinn.anya via Flickr

                                                                                                 Think to yourself how many times you have witnessed just before a storm how many people scramble to the store to stock up on basic essentials? Are our cupboards and pantries that bare? Apparently so. We all too often take for granted that we can just hop in the car and run to the grocery store when ever we want to and pick up whats needed for the day, granted we all like fresh vegetables and meats but during times of environmental distress it may not be practical or safe.

      Many of you know that most stores only carry on average a two day supply on the shelves, this takes into consideration a normal environment with regular deliveries. Now if you throw some type of disruption the store shelves can be emptied out in a matter of hours and that is not a situation that you want to be involved with.

     Any type of situation can be stressful but this is one that you can avoid by just taking a little extra time and effort. You can start by by adding an item or two every time you shop and put these items in one corner of you cupboard or pantry and not count them as your regular shopping items but as you backup supply. You can add to this until you reach a comfortable level of a three or four day supply which is plenty to get you through many if not most situations. To keep the food fresh you can rotate it out with new stocks as needed, recommended items should be of the type that you eat regularly and enjoy, I would also take into consideration that many if not most of these items be of a type that require minimal preparation requirements such as the need for utilities. Take for instance if the power is out, can you cook what you have bought? Foods that can be eaten cold work well or if you have an outside grill you can plan to use that, you will need to tailor to your own needs.

I will most likely have a supplemental to this post in the future.

Prepology

Desert water thoughts Revisited

   Sorry Folks but with all the snow going on I thought a few might like to think of warmer places.   

     Throughout my travels in the desert on foot the one overriding factor in determining how long I can stay out is water. It is heavy, bulky and generally one of the first things you will run out of. Here in Arizona where temperatures can easily hit 110 plus during the summer running out can be a death sentence.

     Water weighs in at about 8.35 LBS per gallon at that rate how much do you really think you can carry? Take 3 gallons for instance that equates to just over 25LBS, you could carry it but add that in with any other supplies and you are going to be overweight and exhausted in no time.


      I  Know that for me I can easily burn through a gallon a day traipsing around the desert. When I go out I usually only stay out for a day or two but I always bring extra water and leave it with the truck I go in. Most people think that they can stop at the last 7/11 store on the way out of town and pick up a bottle of water and everything will be just fine.

     Well what happens when your vehicle decides to give up the ghost on you and you are stuck now in a hostile environment instead of your nice little day trip. Usually your phone can get you out of trouble but I remember living in Indianapolis and you can be downtown and not have signal so have a backup. One other option you might want to consider is the spot satellite messenger.

Product Description

"The SPOT Satellite Messenger, the world's first satellite messenger, uses both the GPS satellite network to determine a customer's location and the SPOT network to transmit that information to friends, family or an emergency service center. SPOT is a revolutionary product that is designed to raise the safety factor for hundreds of millions of people around the world". Please see the add for complete details and options.

     I would consider one of these devices for any serious hiker especially if they go out alone. Good common sense like telling someone you know where you are going and what time you will be back doesn't hurt either.

      Keep in mind that the above applies to normal non SHTF times. Come a major disaster or adverse social event your whole plan will have to change, different locations mean different styles of preparation but for desert locations water is king.

Image by sonofabike via Flickr  Prepology 

As a bonus funny I also saw this pic and had to add it for the fun of it.

Related articles

• The Spot GPS Transmitter is a Life-Saver! (pixiq.com)
• Equipped for survival (denverpost.com)

Special Thanks

I have to give out a special thanks today to Radio Blogger for this new header, I really hated the two previous ones I had and he sent me what you now see and it is far better then I could manage, I hardly get past stick figures. Please if you get a chance check out his site  Preparedness sub culture

Thanks Radio Blogger