Clever design

http://megaconvention.com/

     Our family attends the ultimate fun convention.  We do Megacon, a convention for sci-fi, comics, anime and all around fun alternative living and cosplay.   When we go, we see some pretty creative uses for ordinary items.  It isn't exactly prep, but I will be using it as a stepping stone tonight!  

www.strazor.com 

     This year, the costumes we will wear will be a mix of gaming heroes and steampunk ladies.  I have been looking for a few ideas for gadgets for the ladies, not too heavy, not too complicated when I came across a butane lighter "gun" instruct able.  It is made with a complicated cutting, bending and shaping of a brass plate into a holder with a coat hanger as a pistol grip.  Cute.  Also, very clever, but you know I am not going to all that trouble when I know I can use a lipstick holder or vintage lighter holder from a thrift store as the base piece!

     It just got me thinking that almost anywhere you go, you can find some clever person designing new uses for everyday objects.  These inspirational designs can get you started on a road of your own.  So, we went from Megacon, to steampunk butane ladies 'plasma' gun to isn't that a clever little personal defense weapon that looks harmless and fashionable?  

www.etsy.com

    Speaking of harmless and fashionable.  I am teaching my grand daughters to have some jewelry about their person, not too flashy, but of precious metal, should cash become futile.  I used to have a collection of "poison" rings when I was a teen.  Now I only have two.  I know they were originally for secreting poison to do away with the king.  They are great to tuck away an aspirin in.  If you need to carry a glycerin tab with you, this is real handy.  It is also fashionable and they are not hard to find in men's styles, too.  

www.easyscrollpatterns.com 

     

www.vat19.com 

     This was a fun road to go down.  It also got me thinking about things and how you can use a few simple items to go from a harmless clothespin to a good and proper stinging clothespin rifle.  You could keep it simple like my sons did, just make it as a toy for a gift or an afternoon of stinging fun target practice!  Or, you could learn the basics of handgun technology.

     Looking around your life and learning how things go together is good for you.  The mind needs exercise.  The spirit needs a break from the fear factor of preparing for the of end of days.  Look how things are made.  Learn how to make them when there is no one else to produce goods.  Redesign them for fun or for better use in self defense.  Take a break and create something of your own. 



     

Last Minute Winter Prep

     The definition of preparing for hard times is to prepare ahead of time.  But life often gets in the way.  Sometimes, we believe we have an extra day or so.  Then, suddenly the cold front washes over and we are a day late and always short of a dollar.  So, let's explore some of the things we can do when the weather slips up on us.  

http://www.wikihow.com

     If you have to travel for work, pack the car properly.  In the trunk, store a bag of cat litter, the cheap clay kind, water (yes, you can dehydrate surrounded by snow), food, shelter and first aid. 

     Pack an emergency get home bag that caters to the needs of winter.  This pack should include hand warmers, thermal natural fiber blankets as well as the mylar emergency kind that pack so well.  With extra blankets, you can use the mylar blanket as a signal for help.  

     This is the time to raid the pantry for MREs, meals ready-to-eat.  In the package, you will find more than food.  There you will have warmers for heating the food that could keep you alive if you slide into a snow bank and have to spend the night waiting for rescue.  

     You can use some of the insulating techniques you would use at home if you are trapped in or near your car.  Trash bags are easy to pack in your car.  If you have to sleep in your car, put down a plastic barrier.  Better one down than two over!  You can cut a slit in the bottom and put the bag over your head to add a wet weather barrier to your clothes if you have to walk out.   

      And, just because I believe it needs saying, pack black bags to contrast against the white snow.

     Pack a roll of duct tape.  You can build a small city with a roll of duct tape and a roll of trash bags!  Cut squares of duct tape and join barriers at the corners and the occasional point in between.  If you use a whole roll of tape to cover a single seat, you will eventually have to scrape off the adhesive.  

    At home, you will have a bit more time and security to prepare for a snowed in survival prep.  Practice what you have been preaching to the family.  

     Duct tape and plastic over interior of windows, roll plastic bags into a tube and tape them to the bottom of doors against drafts, create curtains to keep heat in central rooms.  

     Separate foods that require heavy consumption of fuel to prepare from your more 'instant' prep foods.  For common sense, cook the hearty stews or roasts first.  Should power go off, then fall back on the easily reheated or easily warmed foods.  For these foods, you will need an alternate source of heat such as a small propane or butane burner or a sterno stove.  

www.instructables.com 

     A candle burning chafing dish will heat some thin soups or water given enough time.  But, in dire straights you can make a stove from a tin can and use your sterno for heat.  I have also posted some other how-tos in the post CAMP STOVES AND GRILLS  in the Make it Yourself tag.  So, click over if you need a substitute for your electric stove this winter.  

     In the Warming up your Wardrobe post, you can get some suggestions for dressing warmer.  Inside or outside, you must keep heat from escaping your body.  Wear socks in home and keep shoes or boots nearby if you must leave suddenly.  Stack all your blankets for sleep in the corners of your winter retreat room.  It's best to sleep in a group in a single room that you can keep warm than to try to spread out.  If the power goes out in the night the cold children will be wandering the cold house looking to you to to find the warm cuddly blankets in the middle of the night.  

Get ready, it's going to be a long cold winter.  Grab your gear and get ready.  

Home Security

     The first steps in home security is not to think about a zombie apocalypse or the heavy arms response to a horde of marauders looking to steal your supplies.  The first steps to home security will be to secure the home you are in now.  

www.amazon.com 

     Start with the simple steps we sometimes overlook because we are in a rush.  Lock the doors.  Honestly, I have come home to find my own front door open because I left out of the back door and forgot to check.  Don't rely on others, like the kids or spouse to check the locks.  If you care about the stuff in your house and the supplies you store there, lock the doors yourself.  

www.slydelock.com 

     I saw this clever idea while looking for reputable lock photos.  It asks the question, who has your key?  And it offers a solution, a lock for your deadbolt.

     Make sure your locks are of good quality, in good repair and that they work.  If you have to jiggle the handle, or you haven't oiled (with OIL, not WD40) your lock isn't good enough.  Get a new one.  You don't have to go cheap, but if you don't save the receipts and mail in the warranty card, why by the one with a lifetime warranty?  Mail the card, save the receipt with your mortgage papers or in the fire safe with your passport and birth records.  Then, lock the door before you leave.

http://www.diylife.com/
2007/10/29/window-pins
-keep-burglars-at-bay/

     Check those windows.  Most people rely on the little latch that comes on the window to secure them.  On a cold day, you can just rattle those latches right open, you don't need to break it or use a 'jimmy', and most criminals are looking for easy access, like an unlocked window.  If you haven't looked at your windows lately, you should.  A broken latch can be replaced.  Here's a DIY instruction for you.  Add window pins by drilling a hole through your wooden window frame to the sash.  

     This door jammer is available at Walmart and other locations.  You could purchase this and adjust it to the length of the channel your sliding glass door sits in to jam it.   You could also cut a piece of wood to fit the same channel in sliding doors or sliding windows. 

    The Winfield catalog offers patterns for wood projects.  This is three steps above the old two by four in the door channel.  They could be made as a decorative addition to a window that slides, too. http://www.thewinfieldcollection.com

     Home
Security starts with a secure home.  I got to thinking about the issue today as I drove out of the neighborhood to work.  It is trash day, the first trash day after Black Friday.  Without looking for the signs of who wants to robbed this season, it was easy to see.  Anyone who puts a brand new 42" LED TV box on top of their trash can, wants the world to know they have a new TV.  Not smart!  First, you are supposed to keep the box in case it needs to be returned, but that's just me.  Second, for security, cut the box open and turn it inside out and stuff it in the can.  Don't tell your neighbors or strangers passing through how much good stuff you have to steal.  A low profile is as good as a lock.  

     But low profile or flashy, lock your car.  Lock your House.  Lock your doors and windows.

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu dissected for PREP

     Thanksgiving dinner, an event held nationwide, was once for time to thank God for all the good things we have experienced during the year, and to be ever mindful the food on our table was a gift from God, not a birthright, but a blessing.   

Congressional Record, September 25, 1789
Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God....
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-origin-of-thanksgiving-

The Well-Traveled Salad

resources.iom.edu 

     Somewhere it became other things as we forgot where food comes from and how close we are to having none.  As long as the wheels of this economy churn, with growers growing, truckers trucking and vendors vending there are several generations of people at dinner who believe food comes from stores.  One good fuel crisis and they will learn, food comes from far away at great cost and effort to get it to you.  

     The fuel crisis of the seventies had beef providers slaughtering their herds early due to the rising  cost of keeping them alive and fed.  Baby beef was born.  My mother was offended that she couldn't get what she wanted at the store when she wanted it at any price.  It just wasn't there.  My grandmother, having survived the Great Depression as an adult with a family, looked at the bright side.  Suddenly there was an abundance of baby beef that she called veal, and at an affordable price....if you had been in the market for veal....baby beef was cheaper!  How's that for turning things around?  

     So, Turkey and Thanksgiving dinner with the trimmings!

get them while they are young and raise them for food

     Turkey comes from turkeys.  It's like the chicken and the egg.  If TSHTF, you need to trap wild turkey and domesticate them until you have eggs and turkey for dinner.  It's the only reasonable response.  Having food in the prep pantry to get you through until you can produce your own, is the smart alternative to attempting to hunt a wild turkey for a meal.  Consider there are only about 7 million turkeys in the wild, they will not feed the famished for long.  Easily, in a TEOTWAWKI era, they could become extinct in a flurry of unregulated slaughter.  

Big Stick versus...Turkey? | Big Stick Combat

bigstickcombat.com 

     A side note about turkey.  Sure, you can treat them like a big chicken and they will, after a time just stay on the property.  Turkeys are very territorial and will attack a stranger.  If that is what you want, well good.  BUT!  We know for a fact, when a male takes offense and doesn't want you hanging clothes in his backyard, you technically can kick it, but you will break a toe!  No kidding!  She kicked it!  I almost laughed in her face!  They are very hard and covered with hollow feathers that will achieve limited flight.  It was about as smart as drop kicking a frozen turkey!  Really I felt bad for her, but seriously!  She didn't even make it mad.  She just broke her toe for nothing!  

     Sweet potato pie and sweet potato with the marshmallow topping (called yams but are not yams) come from the soil.  They are easily grown from vine cuttings and from parting the tubers and returning them to the soil where you found them.  THey grow wild, but should have a pride of place in the prepper's garden.  They dislike frost and too much water.  They grow in poor soil conditions on their own without need of fertilizer.  The vines can shade out weeds and they can be turned and sent growing wherever you want them, in the garden or in a wild area on their own.  

candy.about.com 

     If you HAVE to have marshmallow, here is the recipe.  Store these items!
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 1/4 cups water, divided
4 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
But, if you have to have marshmallow, you need to pack and store the spice for the pie.  Store cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg (whole or ground) and plenty of sugar! 

     Vegetables loaded with butter and/or cream sauces.  Prep many cans of said vegetables and stock many seeds of several varieties of each non-GMO type vegetables.  Growing heritage veg from heritage seed is a bit harder than the seeds that have been genetically altered to resist disease, but you will get the hang of it and find the type that grows best for you and will provide you the seeds for the next season as well.  

     Now, it is my heartfelt personal opinion that anyone who needs that green bean casserole sludge is just not right and does not need to survive long post TEOTWAWKI.  That stuff is gross.  I mean why would you take a perfectly delicious bean and slime it all up with canned: Water, Mushrooms, Modified Food Starch, Wheat Flour, Contains Less Than 2% of: Salt, Cream, Dried Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Soy Protein Concentrate, Yeast Extract, Spice Extract, Dehydrated Garlic, Vegetable Oil: Corn, Cottonseed, Canola and, or Soybean.  

Homemade Cream Of Mushroom Soup Recipe - Food.com - 264191

www.food.com 

     It ain't Kosher and it ain't real mushroom soup!  If y'gotta slick up beans...make your own cream of mushroom soup.  Just make sure you're hungry and eat it all, I have beans in a pot with some salt and pepper, thanks.

    So, taken apart, the Thanksgiving dinner would be tough to pull off without grocery stores, but a time to stop and be grateful can happen over a can of beans.  Ask any soldier, sailor or Marine.  

Enjoy an Authentic Colonial Thanksgiving Dinner in Old ...

www.connecticutmag.com 

    And while I'm given to this rant tonight and you are in your fully electric, electronic kitchen complaining about the heat and the people tramping through your house, at least you are not making your meal over an open fire.

     Enjoy your dinner.  Get to know where your food comes from and what you need to eat when TSHTF.  Be prepared.  Be thankful.